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there is a theoretical doomsday risk attached to letting off a fart... yet millions of uncaring creatures do it every day on this planet.

Indeed, flipping on LHC has somewhat higher risk. Yet it remains very, very marginal. And Peak Oil + Credit Crunch have us doomed anyway, so don't worry, be happy.

Pierre

by Pierre on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 05:56:48 AM EST
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Pierre, I am sitting very tight until you tell us what that fart risk is.

A butterfly's wingbeat's-worth of GHG that tips the Global Warming balance and precipitates us all into burning hell? The sudden opening of a human-race-inhaling wormhole to the back end of the Galaxy Where No One Wants To Live? Or just the standard complaints about people who eat beans?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 02:18:45 PM EST
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We can not tolerate any kind of increased risks created by man, no matter if they pale compared to the risks in nature!

</snark>

Yes, I know I'm that predictable.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 05:10:33 PM EST
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Natural risks are part of the situation we are born to, to which we should react as appropriately as possible. Man-made risks are taken on our responsibility, and decisions regarding them should be carefully weighed.

That is, if you really want to make a moral separation of the two.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 22nd, 2008 at 02:39:54 AM EST
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That's funny, but then it's not actually true, is it. The ultimate cause of farting is a microbiological process that mainly involves methanogens, I think. No one ever claims that by farting they are going to be able to create new subatomic particles or examine conditions close to those that existed at the start of the universe . So no, I don't see how there is even a theoretical risk of Doomsday associated with that particular sort of Big Bang (pardon the pun).

Just to clear things up, I didn't ask because I am fretting about it, but because I wanted to know whether or not the theoretical risk existed, or whether it was just urban myth. By 'theoretical', I mean a non-zero risk consistent with current theoretical understanding.

And you say yes, there is. So that clears that up, I think.

by wing26 on Thu Feb 21st, 2008 at 07:59:48 PM EST
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