The Off Topic Topic

[garbon]

Yeah, if you like a car focused life then the country is the place, not the city.

I always just paid for a parking spot when I had a car in the city.

[Admiral Yi]

@Tamas, if you had just expressed annoyance I wouldn't have said anything.  But you personalized it.  They shat on you while driving obnoxious cars.

[DGuller]

It's actually an impressive feat to shit on someone while driving a car.  Unless you're sitting on their lap, of course, that's just cheating.

[crazy canuck]

So the Brit one was one of my favourite recent polls - and I'm very happy YouGov have now compared with poll for Americans too for comparison


I'm really intrigued by the ones with huge gaps. I think Americans are far too confident about beating a goose - they can break your arm!

I suspect 2% of Brits and 6% of Americans don't know what a grizzly is, or did not read to the end of question to notice they would be unarmed.

[PDH]

It never said the grizzly bear was alive though.

[Josquius]

It's a bit redundant and more a question of how quickly you die but surely there's less chance against the elephant?
With the grizzly just maybe if it stands still and you punch hard enough you can annoy it. Not happening with the elephant.

[alfred russel]

I get the feeling that some people actually think they can beat a chimp.

I was walking down a trail in Uganda 2.5 months ago and an alpha male chimp stepped out of the bushes about 6 feet from my wife (I was right behind her). He assumed an aggressive posture and I would put our chances of fighting him off at 0% even if both of us fought together with maximum efficiency. [the park ranger with us said he got into an aggressive posture just to scare us out of his way]

[alfred russel]

So the Brit one was one of my favourite recent polls - and I'm very happy YouGov have now compared with poll for Americans too for comparison


I'm really intrigued by the ones with huge gaps. I think Americans are far too confident about beating a goose - they can break your arm!

A fight with an animal is a fight to the death. You can survive a broken arm, no goose can survive being crush.

If this is a "who would win a fight to the death" I'd say "yes" to a rat, cat, goose, and medium sized dog. I'd say "inconclusive" on an eagle -- I think I could protect myself but not sure how I could kill him. Not sure the answer on a large dog--maybe I'd have a chance depending on the breed? I'd lose to everything else.

[The Brain]

I get the feeling that some people actually think they can beat a chimp.

I was walking down a trail in Uganda 2.5 months ago and an alpha male chimp stepped out of the bushes about 6 feet from my wife (I was right behind her). He assumed an aggressive posture and I would put our chances of fighting him off at 0% even if both of us fought together with maximum efficiency. [the park ranger with us said he got into an aggressive posture just to scare us out of his way]

Humans together weak.

[Maladict]

If this is a "who would win a fight to the death" I'd say "yes" to a rat, cat, goose, and medium sized dog. I'd say "inconclusive" on an eagle -- I think I could protect myself but not sure how I could kill him. Not sure the answer on a large dog--maybe I'd have a chance depending on the breed? I'd lose to everything else.

Rat, cat, goose, maybe the medium sized dog.
If you get to surprise the animal (say it's asleep), I think I'd have a chance against the cobra and maybe the eagle.
Everything else, not a chance.

[alfred russel]

The cobra is hard. It isn't hard to kill a snake with a shovel, and I think most bites will be survived. It is probably easier to kill a venomous snake with an instinct to try to stand its ground if you simply don't give a f and take the bite. But I think using something like a shovel will count as "armed" and I'm not sure how to kill a snake with just your bare hands.

You might have an edge with a good pair of bite resistant boots and just walk in stomping away. But snakes don't stay still to get stomped.

[Admiral Yi]

Professional snake hunters, like in India do pretty well grabbing them by the tail.

[alfred russel]

Professional snake hunters, like in India do pretty well grabbing them by the tail.

My grandfather, who wasn't bothered at all by snakes and would pick them up out of trees or off the ground to play with them, assigned me the job of removing them from his back porch as a kid (a once a week job in Florida). Because I am terrified of snakes. "Come over here and get the snake off the porch" he'd say and then go inside to watch through a window, and roll over laughing as I tried to get it to slither off by tentatively poking it with a really long stick.

[Josquius]

How quick would the snake's venom work?
It seems it might be possible to technically 'win' there, even if you die afterwards.
Terrain matters too. Is there a handy cliff to throw it off- potentially possible with survival there, or do you need to try and tear it/squash it?

[crazy canuck]

How quick would the snake's venom work?
It seems it might be possible to technically 'win' there, even if you die afterwards.
Terrain matters too. Is there a handy cliff to throw it off- potentially possible with survival there, or do you need to try and tear it/squash it?

You have teeth, use them.