Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/09/chinese-have-lost-control-of-s.html
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Hmmm Trump being taken out by a falling space station… winning powerball… I think I would be happier with the former.
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the “average American citizen is around ten times more likely to win the Powerball lottery than they are to be struck by a piece of the Tiangong-1 as it plummets back to earth.”
So, not impossible then? Room for hope?
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Too bad the SDI program never really took off as advertised.
(Video is cued.)
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If only Trump can be convinced (should be easy) to shoot down the satellite upon re-entry, we will have the opportunity to live out one of the greatest films ever made:
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The European Space Agency (ESA) says the “average American citizen is around ten times more likely to win the Powerball lottery than they are to be struck by a piece of the Tiangong-1 as it plummets back to earth.”
But that’s just it, like the Powerball, it’s not always won every week, but eventually someone wins. Try telling all this to the family of the person that ends up getting hit and killed. Sure, it probably won’t happen, but it could. And if it does, your statistics can suck a fat D as far as that family is concerned. It’s all just an easy way for those responsible to make excuses and not have to do anything. Just like car manufactures and recalls. Only until enough people die will they do something.
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Indeed one web page says there have been 364 powerball winners. So 36 Americans hit seems significant.
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Makes for some intruiging fanfic on how this presidency shakes out.
The president is going senile, and starts playing powerball all the time. He eventually wins 400 million dollars (at the cost of 200 million dollars to Taxpayers), calls a press conference and flicks off the American people, announcing his retirement to Florida.
Mic drops.
America stunned, relieved.
Mike Pence looks horrified, but is also visibly erect.
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Running some numbers that means there’s an 11% chance at least one person in the US will get hit. That seems a little high to me.
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Am I reading this wrong, or is the European Space Agency recommending I buy Powerball tickets?
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In future news: Statisticians unsurprised as ten-time Powerball winner struck by piece of Tiangong-1 as it plummeted back to Earth…
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Is it weird that I think that those clips which were over the to dark humor when they were made 30 years ago are not over the top anymore compared to the batshit crazyness of our reality today?
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I saw that film once.
I’ve played the album more times than I can count.
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Well I’m praying that Tiangong excavates a new bunker on the Mar El Lago golf course just as you-know-who tees off.
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I thought they were spot on back then.
Still funny, though.
So… I should blow my paycheck on powerball tickets?
don’t tell the late trevor bayliss that he didn’t invent the wind-down torch
I guess this will teach ESA to explain statistical concepts in terms of something specifically designed to exploit people’s tenuous grasp of statistical concepts.
I’m also a little confused as to why ESA is weighing in on this in the first place. I don’t pay my taxes for someone to waste time caring about bloated American lives!
No, no! That would increase your chances of being hit by the space station!
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Indeed, also recalled that film, what a strange, and interesting vision of a future/present that seems more relevant than ever in more ways than one.
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