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Old 05-11-2015, 03:55 PM   #7
Civicsman
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Freedonia!
Posts: 1,703
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Quote:
It is exceedingly rare to be struck by lightning...
True, but the cattle obviously didn't know that.

When one quotes statistics, it's important to understand the context on which the given statistic is based.

It is exceedingly rare to be struck by lightning, if one calculates it as a percentage of the number of individuals struck (worldwide) per year, over the entire world population.

However it is much LESS rare when one calculates the statistic based on the number of those struck per year, over the number of people per year who were in dangerous lightning-prone conditions. If one glides one's Seg through a lightning storm, while cresting a hill with nothing higher than yourself..... then "exceedingly rare" clearly doesn't apply. One might still get away with it, but one's chances of being clobbered go way up when one participates in risky behavior.

Take the documented case of Roy Williams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan
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