The most badass person in the world? I submit: Alex Honnold

[MadImmortalMan]

There are just so many factors out of his control that if they go wrong - he's dead.

Sorry - I just can't call "stupid" being a badass.

   (BB, apparently, on the right)

Yosemite rules. And Spock has been known to be wrong on at least a couple very important occasions.

[alfred russel]

Are you seriously suggesting that now, in 2014, the entirety of research on the Aztec Empire has been the reading of Spanish accounts?

I'm guessing that when Jacob contested that "As awful as the Spanish may have been, they're saints compared to the Aztecs", he wasn't contesting that the Aztecs were good guys, but that the Spanish were saints even in comparison.

[alfred russel]

Same thing here - if you are climbing up something, and you know that that next hold is a tough grab, and you have a 20% chance of missing it, you might take that chance with safety equipment...and then the safety equipment might just fail.

If you know that you have no safety equipment, there is a 0% chance of you taking the risk. Or rather, anyone dumb enough to take the risk will only do so about 5 times at best before they are an ex-solo climber.

It's possible to do it more than 5 times.

DGuller is always here to tell us the odds 

He is probably reading this thread in the horror that Honnold may have gotten a life insurance policy. Though I can't imagine the application process went well.

Agent: "What is your address?"
Honnold: "I don't have one."
Agent: "...."
Honnold: "I live in my van."
Agent: "What is your occupation?"
Honnold: "I'm a professional rock climber."
Agent: "These days professional rock climbing is fairly safe, with harnesses and ropes right?"
Honnold: "It is, but I don't use those."

[alfred russel]

Yosemite rules. And Spock has been known to be wrong on at least a couple very important occasions.

Making this video was the worst of all his mistakes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGF5ROpjRAU

[Ideologue]

There are just so many factors out of his control that if they go wrong - he's dead.

Sorry - I just can't call "stupid" being a badass.

   (BB, apparently, on the right)

AR: doesn't get it.   I know, I made the reference like three times.

[alfred russel]

AR: doesn't get it.   I know, I made the reference like three times.

When I saw the picture, I was like "ah so that is what Ide was talking about." 

[Jacob]

Are you seriously suggesting that now, in 2014, the entirety of research on the Aztec Empire has been the reading of Spanish accounts?

Nope, not seriously.

[Jacob]

I'm guessing that when Jacob contested that "As awful as the Spanish may have been, they're saints compared to the Aztecs", he wasn't contesting that the Aztecs were good guys, but that the Spanish were saints even in comparison.

You give me too much credit. I know little about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, and even less of the Aztecs; so it was more of a fishing expedition, hoping for someone to post something interesting.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm guessing that when Jacob contested that "As awful as the Spanish may have been, they're saints compared to the Aztecs", he wasn't contesting that the Aztecs were good guys, but that the Spanish were saints even in comparison.

You give me too much credit. I know little about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, and even less of the Aztecs; so it was more of a fishing expedition, hoping for someone to post something interesting.

Well, you got your monkey shit fight at the zoo instead.

[Ideologue]

AR: doesn't get it.   I know, I made the reference like three times.

When I saw the picture, I was like "ah so that is what Ide was talking about." 

The classical education is truly dead.

[alfred russel]

I'm guessing that when Jacob contested that "As awful as the Spanish may have been, they're saints compared to the Aztecs", he wasn't contesting that the Aztecs were good guys, but that the Spanish were saints even in comparison.

You give me too much credit. I know little about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, and even less of the Aztecs; so it was more of a fishing expedition, hoping for someone to post something interesting.

In Mexico, there is a lot of "Aztec Pride" in recent years: official identification with the indigenous Aztecs vs. the Spanish colonizers. I've been told that there is some resistance to this from some of the indigenous groups who have oral traditions dating back to Aztec times and have preserved a severely negative point of view toward the Aztecs.

[Razgovory]

The argument posed reminds me of the argument made by Raz in the CW thread - how can rifles be more deadly than muskets if the actual casualty rate doesn't increase when everyone is armed with rifles as opposed to muskets?

The answer is the same - because the increase in deadliness is so profound it fundamentally changes the behavior of the humans involved.

If your company has to get from point A to point B across an open field and you know there are men in the woods with muskets about 80 yards away, you might take the chance (assuming the mission is important enough or you commander is stupid enough) to accept that you will lose 10% of your men getting across.

If you know there are men with rifles, and you will lose 80% of your men, you simply don't even try.

Same thing here - if you are climbing up something, and you know that that next hold is a tough grab, and you have a 20% chance of missing it, you might take that chance with safety equipment...and then the safety equipment might just fail.

If you know that you have no safety equipment, there is a 0% chance of you taking the risk. Or rather, anyone dumb enough to take the risk will only do so about 5 times at best before they are an ex-solo climber.

You can't just say "Hey, do the same thing, but use safety equipment!" If you use safety equipment, it isn't the same thing anymore, and the very process is certainly radically different.

The guy, by my standards, if fucking nuts. But he isn't stupid.

I remember that was well.  I asked you to back up your assertions with facts and you ran away.  Didn't think you'd want to bring that back up.