Tragic story.
The judge said their nine-month-old daughter Gloria had suffered helplessly and unnecessarily from a treatable condition and sentenced the pair to a total of 10 years behind bars.
Thomas Sam got the longer sentence of at least six years because, as a homeopath, he had a double duty of care.http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...28/2698762.htmBoth parents were well educated and the judge found they should have known better.
They repeatedly rejected conventional medical treatment and instead opted for homeopathic remedies.
Then, against doctors' orders, they took the baby girl to India where her condition deteriorated.
<late night rant>
A minor whinge ... but I hate it when journalists say something like "jailed for a total of 10 years". Years in jail for different people don't add up like that. Is it one person jailed for 9 years and one person for 1? Is it 10 people jailed for 1 year each? 120 people jailed for a month each? It's meaningless. I can only assume the journalists do it so that they can print the biggest number possible.
Richard Feynman has a similar complaint in one of his essays about the (poor) state of education, where the student is told something like "one star has a temperature of 4000K, a second star has a temperature of 5000K and a third 6000K" and is asked "what is their total temperature?". The answer is of course supposed to be 15000K, but it's meaningless. There is no sense in which the combination of those three stars produces anything with a temperature of 15000K!
</late night rant>
(OK, back on topic ...)
Have you tried Wincarnis? I'm told it is very good - relaxing and stuff.
P.S. We've never met, but I've heard just a bit about you from Bob and Polo.
Would be nice to meet, but I can't cope with SiTP any more.
Awful stuff. I have some bottles of beer in the fridge though but it's a bit late to start on them now. They have a combined temperature of about 12C or 1104K.Originally Posted by bindeweede
Have you tried Wincarnis? I'm told it is very good - relaxing and stuff.
(Exercise: Deduce from this how many bottles of beer I have and the temperature of the fridge.)
Nothing good, I trust.P.S. We've never met, but I've heard just a bit about you from Bob and Polo.
We did meet very briefly at SitP -- possibly your only visit?Would be nice to meet, but I can't cope with SiTP any more.
I missed meeting you on the night of Dalriada's talk in Kensington -- you'd left the pub before I got there.
Could be 12 bottles at 1C each, it totally depends on what temperature you have set your thermostat to. How cold is your fridge? There are too many unknown variables here for a full answer
You're not using the second piece of information I gave you. Try again!Could be 12 bottles at 1C each, it totally depends on what temperature you have set your thermostat to. How cold is your fridge? There are too many unknown variables here for a full answer
Well I assumed you'd made a mistake because 1104k (Kelvin) is 830.85 C.
There is no fridge I know of that can reach this temperature, because that is almost 3X the melting point of Lead.
Assuming they are all the same temperature
The are 4 bottles each at 3C (total 12) or 276.15K (total 1104.6)
I remember now - yes we met, but just said hello.
The person you missed meeting at the pub wasn't me, as I didn't go, so you must have missed meeting someone else.
You're both wrong.The person you missed meeting at the pub wasn't me, as I didn't go, so you must have missed meeting someone else.
You were at the picnic but left before anyone even got to the pub, so Trinoc did miss you that day, but not 'cos you'd left the pub, you'd left London already. I think...
Polomint got it. The problem was supposed to be an example of the sort of fallacy pointed out by Feynman, which I described in the original post. Clearly I had the irony temperature set too low.
(Oh, yes, and I was expecting someone to put in the .15 degree correction, which of course messes up the exactness of the calculation.)
OK, got it!
The main thing I remember about that evening was getting to the home tube station, bursting for a pee with the only (disabled) toilets at the station out of order and with a 3/4 mile walk ahead in a downpour that turned the street into a river (and I was wearing canvas shoes).
Oh, and meeting Dalriada and Chillzero of course, which made up for getting home soaked.
(I should have known it was a mistake to post off-topic. Back to the homeopath story now?)
Last edited by Trinoc; 29th September 2009 at 10:00 AM.
Very good point. So on that logic I will get a speeding ticket because the total speed of the traffic on the road this morning as I drove to work was 35,000 mph.
I have also seen advertisements for companies "with a total of 100 years experience in ...." The same thought occurred to me. If that was one person with 100 years experience then I would not go there on the grounds he/she was probably senile. Or is it 100 people with 1 year's experience each?
Anyway, as you say, very much off-topic even though an interesting area on the misuse of numbers.
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