Re: Hazards of Coal Burning was RE: Hydrogen as SCAM?

From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Wed Feb 05 2003 - 17:45:25 MST

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    > (Lee Corbin <lcorbin@tsoft.com>):
    >
    > I've always thought that figures such as these---three million---
    > do need to be adjusted for "expected number of years of life lost".
    > That is, although it's still a tragedy, the loss of an eighty-five
    > year old ought not to be regarded with the sense of loss as a
    > fifteen year old. Their deaths (on the first reading) cannot
    > be equated because the eighty-five year old is nearly certain
    > to die anyway shortly.

    Can I nominate this for the most un-extropian statement of the
    month? Perhaps the year?

    Death--all deaths, for any reason--are bad. But if I am forced
    to compare the loss of an 85-year-old to a 15-year-old, I would
    think the former more tragic because more has been lost: more
    knowledge, experience, wisdom; more friends and family and
    working relationships. The fact that the 85-year-old is likely
    to die soon is not a premise to be reasoned from, it is the very
    battle we are trying to fight. 

    -- 
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC

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