22 January 2007

Satisfying the entropy law

A serious deviation from the Second Law of thermodynamics occurred in the fair city of Minneapolis.

Joshua Hanson landed on his feet after crashing through a window at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis and falling onto a roof overhang almost 200ft (60 metres) below. He suffered multiple broken bones and internal injuries and was in a critical condition in the city's Hennepin County Medical Centre last night.
A partial explanation comes from a police report:
According to Lt Barsness, Mr Hanson, of Blair, Wisconsin, was in Minneapolis with his friends to attend a darts convention and returned to the hotel at about 1.30am.
If you let your brain to use its power of free association, the following chain will become clear and inevitable: darts - beer - intoxication - inebriation - horsing around - accidents.

However, the last step of the chain, namely the accident, ended in a giant fluctuation from the law of entropy and must be settled to prevent undue disturbances in space/time continuum (whatever it means). So let's start fixing.
"This guy must have had a guardian angel on his shoulder," said Dale Barsness of the Minneapolis police department. Lt Barsness said that Mr Hanson, 29, had been drinking and was fooling around with friends in a corridor when he lost his balance and fell through the double glazed, floor-to-ceiling window.
Let's check first why that angel did not prevent Mr Hanson from the collision with the window in the first place, Mr Hanson. And let's leave theology to the experts.
Dr Steve Smith, who works in the emergency room, said it was rare for anybody to survive a fall from such a distance.
Everything is in your capable hands, Mr Smith. After all, Mr Hanson is still in the hospital, if you get the drift. Mind the space/time continuum...
Tom Mason, the Hyatt Regency's general manager, said the hotel would look at why the reinforced window, which was also protected by a metal bar, was not strong enough to hold Mr Hanson in.
One word only, Mr Mason: contractors. You better check all these windows. You can have a lot of volunteers from that darts convention, but do it on the ground: the angels come at a price these days.

OK, now that it's all settled, let's go back to that Middle East mess...

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