I took a motorcycle safety class last year. I passed the riding and written tests, and received a license to ride. But I'm not likely to ride a bike for another 15 years. My family depends on me, too much for me to put myself at that much risk. I have friends who have been riding for 20 years, and they've never dropped a bike. But I know that when I'm new to something, I'm not very good at it, no matter how well prepared I think I am.

So I'll wait. If I kill myself on a bike when the Sysmidgets are grown, that'll be a bit more palatable then leaving them while they're young.

In the meantime, I have a little Vespa that I tool around the neighborhood on. It goes 25-30 m.p.h. And, yes, I wear a helmet. Still a bit of a risk, but much more acceptable level than high-speed riding.

I watched this video the other day.



I'm no heartless bastard. It made me tear up. But it made me think, why do people with young children enter the service, or other high-risk professions?

I'm hip to probabilities. I know that through cognitive bias, we dramatically over-estimate the likelihood of extremely unlikely things happening, and conversely under-estimate the likelihood of extremely likely things happening.

P.S. In recent posts, I thought I was being too hard on Christians. Turns out, some of them would prefer it that way.

Labels: Helmets, Sir Francis Bacon, The Undead