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Carpal Tunnel
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What does "immortal" mean in this passage from New Scientist?
"Whereas alcohol promotes risk taking like fast speeds and close following, cannabis promotes conservative driving, but may cause attention problems and misperceptions of time," says Nicholas Ward, technical advisor to the Immortal project -- a three year European Union trial designed to quantify the crash risk drivers face after taking various drugs and medicine.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Could it be a black-humor reference to the fate of the test drivers? [only half joking e]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Jackie: when I first came to it, I thought perhaps it meant that the plan was to continue the study indefinitely. But the very next sentence says it is to run three years. I guess we have to wait for Rhuby or mav to tell us.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I would think it refers to the drivers.
People who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol don't think that they might die. "Nothing'll happen to me" "I'll be fine"
It is the same psycological effect kids have in extreme sports. They don't believe they will die - without actually saying the words to themselves - they know they are immortal.
Do we have any psychologists on board. I'm sure they could explain it better than me.
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addict
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addict
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Can it not be just the name of the project?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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name of the project
I don't think so - I tried a google on "immortal project EC" and variants and came up more or less as uninformed as I went in. But from a google on "immortal project" there does seem to be a strain of this phrase in use out there... it means nothing to me, I'm afraid Bill, but see if you can draw some linkage from the various references maybe?
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veteran
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they don't believe they will die Bullseye, BelMarduk.
The belief that they are "immortal" (i.e 'it won't happen to me') is the psycho-social demographic which explains why insurance rates for male drivers under the age of 25 are stratospheric.
It is, of course, a great irony of human nature that testosterone-driven males, who have the most to gain from life, are the most eager to wager it for absolutely nothing.
The "immortal bard" understood this, wwh, as he understood most everything else about the human psyche. In the "7 stages" of life, he gives us the boy-warrior "seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bullseye… that they are "immortal" (EA) I’m still not convinced by that interpretation. When you see this kind of remark - the first complete series of county maps did not appear until Saxton's immortal project in the 1570's. – it clearly suggests the usage means something like “a piece of research so definitive as designed to last for ages, or to be immortal.”From the same site, btw, a lovely mention of an old shire name in the UK: SNOTINGAHAMSCIR, Snotinghamscire, Nottinghamshire: what's in a name? The answer can be a great deal of history. The earliest spelling dates from 1016, but records show that the town after which the shire was named existed as Snotengaham "the village of Snot's people" a century and a half earlier. Exactly who Snot was, we shall alas never know…I shall struggle to keep a straight face next time I talk to my Nottingham friends http://www.gwp.enta.net/nottarticle.htm
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bullseye… that they are "immortal" (EA)
I think it may be alluding to the expression:
"When you're young (or drunk) you think you're bulletproof."
The Only WO'N!
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young or drunk = bulletproof Write-On, W'ON
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