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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace<br><b>…</b></span><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222'>Then too there is the media effect: mostly bad news gets reported, as we all know. </span><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>…</span><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222'>bill w</span><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Here’s one for you: consider how many murders happen per year. If you like to think of your own country, that is OK too. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>As a thought experiment, estimate the number of murders per year in your own country. Americans, try that before you read on please, but don’t Google, estimate first. Your estimate and reasoning is educational in itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>OK being a Yank, I kinda have a vague idea of our murder rate. I live in a town of about 60k. It is a relatively peaceful place I think, so if I estimate the murder rate here at about one a year, I would be OK with doubling that for a national average, so an American average would be about 2 per 60k? Sound about right? So there are about 330M yanks (we include Mexicans for this thought experiment) so that comes out to around 10k murders per year or a little higher, ja? That feels way high to me, about 30 to 35 proles slain per day? Are there really that many? Sheesh.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>OK then, now we Google. Google says about 16k homicides per year. Oy vey, I underestimated!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>All right then, about 50 proles are slain per day. Last Sunday in Orlando, 50 were slain in one day, so the murder rate was double on that day, and it durn sure did make the news, and still is.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>So… we know that once in a while on a really bad day, the murder rate is double the normal rate. How often is the murder rate half the background? Would that make the news? What day in 2010s so far had the fewest slayings? And do we count drunk driving accidents as murders? If we do, that would perhaps throw out what might ordinarily be low murder rate days, such as Christmas or Thanksgiving days, both of which might have higher drunk driving deaths. How low would the murder rate need to be for it to become a headline? What if we decided to try for record low murder rates on a particular day? Advertise it: National No-Homicide Day. Go for a record: don’t slay that prole until after midnight, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>