Great post Stephanie! I believe we share a love of Michael Lewis and his analysis. Not sure of the book but the simple takeaway is human beings are PROFOUNDLY BAD at assessing risk. I figure we just have this imperfectly evolved spongy blog kinda good at pattern recognition to a point. Unfortunately all of our progress as a species as front-loaded to the last 150 years or so. Will probably take nature another million years to ditch the appendix. We are flying blind (haha) when it comes to hopping on an airplane for example. My favorite example of our crazy risk profiling was the mandating of those glow in the dark release cables in trunks. Probably from people watching Liam Neeson movies or police procedurals and assuming we might actually end up in a trunk. I would imagine the worldwide car market has sunk about 15B$ into those cables by now. I feel better.
Time to come clean about my own anxieties. Mine is related to flying also. I spent a lot of time flying in the past. Living where I do means long winters and lots of freezing conditions. Time for some fun. Propylene Glycol is AKA deicing fluid. If you fly in Minnesota they are liberally spraying it on the wings before takeoff a lot of the time. The fundamental weakness of a plane is they build them and ASSUME the shape of the wing will never change. All of its lift predictions are based on the shape of the wing. Changing the shape is a BAD PLAN. Sucks when ice chunks build up and change the shape. I am terrified when I see the ground crew spraying the wings. Ugh. Now for the funny part. Another use of propylene glycol is the sense of slipperiness and feel it gives to all of those folks out there who love Mountain Dew. Who knew? My small and hopefully sensible solution is I don't drink deicing fluid :) [I DON'T DO THE DEW]
Ah, the de-icer! That robotic thing reminds of a 1950s sci-fi movie. I encountered it only once and, yes, it was disconcerting.
On the Mountain Dew front, I used to make bad risk decisions. I LOVED it. In my early to mid 20s I often drank several cans a day. Ugh, I know. My dentist told me I had to stop since I was getting a lot of cavities. In retrospect, I'm super-grateful to him.
Good morning Stephanie! I worked for a startup around Y2K. We were eventually bought by 3M. Lots of mid-range manufacturers. One was Pepsi-Cola bottling. Our consultant came back from Puerto Rico with the most absurd of photos. They made concentrated syrup INCLUDING Mountain Dew. Big tax advantages to manufacture in Puerto Rico. Crossbones on the container with the warning. My job was evaluating our installations for improvement. We ended up talking about propylene glycol :) -- it is probably why Mountain Dew shines so much and is slippery. Near as I can tell, only Mountain Dew uses it as an ingredient. The concentrate has the same impact on birds as engine coolant (hence the photos he took). They cannot resist and it is quite toxic. As I understand it Pepsi only puts it in the concentrate and not the individual cans.
From time to time, I live in a state of irrational fear, and I despise it. I have been an amputee since late 2021 and what I fear is because I am overweight, one thing scares me to no end. Falling and not being able to get back up. Chances are, and I have not tried this, I could be on the ground and use my arms and one leg to lift me back into bed...but I have yet to try it alone because I don't have "that extra engine" to help me out in case one fails. In this case the extra engine would be a team of two that are strong enough to help a 350 lb guy into bed.
This fear is irrational because I lift myself out of my wheelchair and transfer all the time. And what is the risk? The risk is I will be seen as being helpless on the floor. I have had this happen by the way, fell in my walker early on before my amputation and I had diabetic cellulitis, could not move and get back into bed...so the fire department were called to help me out.
Because of my irrational fear, I also recognize when it is being improperly imposed upon me. Sorry but being a diabetic, I have a unique perspective of seeing what is actually dangerous versus what is perceived as dangerous. I also can fully empathize with those who have irrational fears.
For the longest time, I'd have some caution about foods that had been left out too long, but do you know how many people die of food poisoning each year? Sure we shouldn't be eating congealed crap from the inside of a dumpster, but a sandwich left out in the sun for thirty minutes...maybe live a little?
Thanks, Jimmy, for this thoughtful comment and for sharing your experiences. I hate my irrational fear, too (it's bees). I wonder if you could book a remote physical therapy session with a therapist who's nearby, and practice the maneuver you have in mind while the therapist coaches/monitors via video? Setting it up so they could come help or send help if needed, but with the knowledge that you probably won't need help. No idea if that's feasible or holds any appeal, just a thought.
And I agree with you (mostly!) about food poisoning and will eat sandwiches in the sun with little worry. The exception is that I'm picky about mushrooms, since I got bad food poisoning from one (in a jar of freshly opened, unexpired pasta sauce, go figure....). Quick edit: I do still eat mushrooms, primarily because what happened to me is so extremely rare. If I taste an "off" one, though, I spit it out.
What I really want is just people who could help me back in bed and who would give me encouragment and ideas of watching me get from the floor back into my wheelchair or bed. I could probably send out a call on a neighborhood app and get help for the adventure.
Great post Stephanie! I believe we share a love of Michael Lewis and his analysis. Not sure of the book but the simple takeaway is human beings are PROFOUNDLY BAD at assessing risk. I figure we just have this imperfectly evolved spongy blog kinda good at pattern recognition to a point. Unfortunately all of our progress as a species as front-loaded to the last 150 years or so. Will probably take nature another million years to ditch the appendix. We are flying blind (haha) when it comes to hopping on an airplane for example. My favorite example of our crazy risk profiling was the mandating of those glow in the dark release cables in trunks. Probably from people watching Liam Neeson movies or police procedurals and assuming we might actually end up in a trunk. I would imagine the worldwide car market has sunk about 15B$ into those cables by now. I feel better.
Time to come clean about my own anxieties. Mine is related to flying also. I spent a lot of time flying in the past. Living where I do means long winters and lots of freezing conditions. Time for some fun. Propylene Glycol is AKA deicing fluid. If you fly in Minnesota they are liberally spraying it on the wings before takeoff a lot of the time. The fundamental weakness of a plane is they build them and ASSUME the shape of the wing will never change. All of its lift predictions are based on the shape of the wing. Changing the shape is a BAD PLAN. Sucks when ice chunks build up and change the shape. I am terrified when I see the ground crew spraying the wings. Ugh. Now for the funny part. Another use of propylene glycol is the sense of slipperiness and feel it gives to all of those folks out there who love Mountain Dew. Who knew? My small and hopefully sensible solution is I don't drink deicing fluid :) [I DON'T DO THE DEW]
Ah, the de-icer! That robotic thing reminds of a 1950s sci-fi movie. I encountered it only once and, yes, it was disconcerting.
On the Mountain Dew front, I used to make bad risk decisions. I LOVED it. In my early to mid 20s I often drank several cans a day. Ugh, I know. My dentist told me I had to stop since I was getting a lot of cavities. In retrospect, I'm super-grateful to him.
Good morning Stephanie! I worked for a startup around Y2K. We were eventually bought by 3M. Lots of mid-range manufacturers. One was Pepsi-Cola bottling. Our consultant came back from Puerto Rico with the most absurd of photos. They made concentrated syrup INCLUDING Mountain Dew. Big tax advantages to manufacture in Puerto Rico. Crossbones on the container with the warning. My job was evaluating our installations for improvement. We ended up talking about propylene glycol :) -- it is probably why Mountain Dew shines so much and is slippery. Near as I can tell, only Mountain Dew uses it as an ingredient. The concentrate has the same impact on birds as engine coolant (hence the photos he took). They cannot resist and it is quite toxic. As I understand it Pepsi only puts it in the concentrate and not the individual cans.
The bird strike example is a great one.
From time to time, I live in a state of irrational fear, and I despise it. I have been an amputee since late 2021 and what I fear is because I am overweight, one thing scares me to no end. Falling and not being able to get back up. Chances are, and I have not tried this, I could be on the ground and use my arms and one leg to lift me back into bed...but I have yet to try it alone because I don't have "that extra engine" to help me out in case one fails. In this case the extra engine would be a team of two that are strong enough to help a 350 lb guy into bed.
This fear is irrational because I lift myself out of my wheelchair and transfer all the time. And what is the risk? The risk is I will be seen as being helpless on the floor. I have had this happen by the way, fell in my walker early on before my amputation and I had diabetic cellulitis, could not move and get back into bed...so the fire department were called to help me out.
Because of my irrational fear, I also recognize when it is being improperly imposed upon me. Sorry but being a diabetic, I have a unique perspective of seeing what is actually dangerous versus what is perceived as dangerous. I also can fully empathize with those who have irrational fears.
For the longest time, I'd have some caution about foods that had been left out too long, but do you know how many people die of food poisoning each year? Sure we shouldn't be eating congealed crap from the inside of a dumpster, but a sandwich left out in the sun for thirty minutes...maybe live a little?
Thanks, Jimmy, for this thoughtful comment and for sharing your experiences. I hate my irrational fear, too (it's bees). I wonder if you could book a remote physical therapy session with a therapist who's nearby, and practice the maneuver you have in mind while the therapist coaches/monitors via video? Setting it up so they could come help or send help if needed, but with the knowledge that you probably won't need help. No idea if that's feasible or holds any appeal, just a thought.
And I agree with you (mostly!) about food poisoning and will eat sandwiches in the sun with little worry. The exception is that I'm picky about mushrooms, since I got bad food poisoning from one (in a jar of freshly opened, unexpired pasta sauce, go figure....). Quick edit: I do still eat mushrooms, primarily because what happened to me is so extremely rare. If I taste an "off" one, though, I spit it out.
What I really want is just people who could help me back in bed and who would give me encouragment and ideas of watching me get from the floor back into my wheelchair or bed. I could probably send out a call on a neighborhood app and get help for the adventure.