Author Topic: Anyone been to Italy?  (Read 70757 times)

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #70 on: November 01, 2011, 12:21:29 am »
I used to be terrified of flying, but as I got older, I became more philosophical about risking my life in a plane.  That helps.  That, and Xanax.  :)

A LOT Of Xanax.  :P

Offline Kelda

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #71 on: November 01, 2011, 09:37:56 am »
hypnotherapy?
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #72 on: November 01, 2011, 10:24:26 am »
:laugh:  Actually no.  I'm so incredibly terrified of flying, I always feel like I've signed my own death warrant when I book a flight for myself.  If I change seats, I'm instantly worried that I might have gone from a plane crash survivor seat to a dead one.  I've been unable to sleep well for days making these plans.



I'm also afraid of flying, but only since I've first been to Denver (very first Brokie gathering in the US).
Yeah, I also think about which seat to choose. ::)
But for me, the anxiety only comes the evening before leaving. Upon booking, I'm always ridicously happy.

*handing some virtual Xanax over to Della* :-*

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #73 on: November 01, 2011, 11:59:01 am »
I used to be terrified of flying, but as I got older, I became more philosophical about risking my life in a plane.  That helps.  That, and Xanax.  :)

I guess I've gotten more philosophical about it. I just tell myself there's usually no help for it: In most cases, if I'm going to go most places that I want to go in the time I have available, there is no other alternative but flying. The possibility of disaster is always in the back of my mind, but I just try not to dwell on it. I'm fatalistic about it: If there is a disaster I will die, and there's no point worrying about it because nothing can be done about it. And if there isn't a disaster, I'll get to be somewhere I want to be and/or with people I want to be with.  :)

I'm not especially claustrophobic, but it's the idea of being crammed for hours in a cramped little seat inside a giant tin can where you can't see anything that bothers me more than the possibility of disaster.

And I actually like flying in small planes, where you can actually see the world spread out like a map beneath you.  :)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #74 on: November 01, 2011, 05:28:05 pm »
I guess I've gotten more philosophical about it. I just tell myself there's usually no help for it: In most cases, if I'm going to go most places that I want to go in the time I have available, there is no other alternative but flying. The possibility of disaster is always in the back of my mind, but I just try not to dwell on it. I'm fatalistic about it: If there is a disaster I will die, and there's no point worrying about it because nothing can be done about it. And if there isn't a disaster, I'll get to be somewhere I want to be and/or with people I want to be with.  :)

I'm not especially claustrophobic, but it's the idea of being crammed for hours in a cramped little seat inside a giant tin can where you can't see anything that bothers me more than the possibility of disaster.

And I actually like flying in small planes, where you can actually see the world spread out like a map beneath you.  :)

I'm not big on flying, but that's because of the inconveniences and discomfort, not fear. I'm like you -- I figure I'll just leave my fate to Fate.

But also, if I started worrying about plane crashes whenever I flew, I'd have to start worrying about car crashes whenever I drove or rode in a car. Statistically speaking, I believe the latter are more likely. Even if you argue that, per mile flying or driving, flying is more dangerous (the statistics are somewhat unclear), it's not MUCH more dangerous.

I would have flown somewhere on Sept. 12, 2001, without a second thought.




Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #75 on: November 01, 2011, 07:10:24 pm »
But also, if I started worrying about plane crashes whenever I flew, I'd have to start worrying about car crashes whenever I drove or rode in a car. Statistically speaking, I believe the latter are more likely.

I think about that, too.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #76 on: November 01, 2011, 09:19:37 pm »
I'm not big on flying, but that's because of the inconveniences and discomfort, not fear. I'm like you -- I figure I'll just leave my fate to Fate.

But also, if I started worrying about plane crashes whenever I flew, I'd have to start worrying about car crashes whenever I drove or rode in a car. Statistically speaking, I believe the latter are more likely. Even if you argue that, per mile flying or driving, flying is more dangerous (the statistics are somewhat unclear), it's not MUCH more dangerous.

The stats are 1 in 100 of being in an automobile accident. 

But that includes fender benders.

I don't believe there is the airline equivalent of a fender bender.

I'm more concerned about the stats on SURVIVING.  In that case, I'd say the car has it above the airplane in safety if something goes wrong.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #77 on: November 02, 2011, 05:39:01 pm »
The stats are 1 in 100 of being in an automobile accident. 

But that includes fender benders.

Yes, and the vast majority of airplane accidents involve small private planes, which you're not flying in.

Look, the statistics are complex. Here's another take, found in about five seconds of googling:

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99845.htm

Quote
In the US, each year there are about 40,000 deaths per year in automobile accidents vs. about 200 in air transport. To put this in perspective, the chance of dying in an automobile accident is about 1000 times more than winning a typical state lottery in a year.

If we ignore property and bodily damage and focus on fatalities only, we should look at fatality rates per passenger mile traveled. This require some research. You can go to the National Transportation Safety board website (http://www.itsasafety.org) to do some research or look at a summary table here (http://hazmat.dot.gov/riskcompare.htm). According to the latter, each year in the US 1 out of 6800 drivers dies in an auto accident. The rate for airline passengers is 1 in 1.6 million. The same table shows that per passenger mile, air travel is safer by more than a factor of two. I doubt this last figure; I think it should be about 100x safer, because I guess we drive and fly the same number of miles (give or take a factor or 2-5) per year, yet fatalities are 200 times higher for autos than for airlines.

 

There may be counterarguments. I'm not going to take the time to google extensively to try to get to the bottom of it.

Because either way -- even if car travel is marginally safer -- it's all relative. If you're terrified of flying, for fear of dying in a crash, you should be at least pretty scared of driving. for the same reason.




Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #78 on: November 02, 2011, 06:35:29 pm »
Because either way -- even if car travel is marginally safer -- it's all relative. If you're terrified of flying, for fear of dying in a crash, you should be at least pretty scared of driving. for the same reason.

I have to admit that one of the things that does scare me is the idea of my dad and me both being killed at once in a crash when we're, say, driving to or from a holiday dinner with the cousins.  :-\
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Anyone been to Italy?
« Reply #79 on: November 02, 2011, 07:35:21 pm »
Yes, and the vast majority of airplane accidents involve small private planes, which you're not flying in.

Look, the statistics are complex. Here's another take, found in about five seconds of googling:

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99845.htm

There may be counterarguments. I'm not going to take the time to google extensively to try to get to the bottom of it.

Because either way -- even if car travel is marginally safer -- it's all relative. If you're terrified of flying, for fear of dying in a crash, you should be at least pretty scared of driving. for the same reason.

Yeah, I've read those numbers before, but the numbers are already skewed if they're comparing airplanes to cars.  They'd have to compare 80+ cars to one airplane to get comparable numbers.  e.g. 68,000 killed in traffic fatalities...were they all in one car?  A bus?

But again, let's talk survivability.  How many cars simply crashed and people walked away, versus how many planes crashed and people walked away?  That's what I'm interested in.