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.
Could it be a black-humor reference to the fate of the test drivers? [only half joking e]
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.
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.
Can it not be just the name of the project?
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?
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".
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
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!
young or drunk = bulletproof
Write-On, W'ON
immortal maps
The delusion of immortality, which finds expression in sky-high insurance rates for male drivers on both sides of the Atlantic, is a commonplace reference in the automobile industry in North America. Significantly, the EU study is a "crash risk" study.
It's unlikely insurance folk in North America would know much about county maps drawn in England in the 1570's, Maverick. History on this side of the Atlantic is decidedly Ameri-centric. We still think the Wright brothers were the first to fly.
We still think the Wright brothers were the first to fly.
Do illuminate, plutarch? Thanks.
(I mean, obviously they were preceded by insects, and among humans, were preceded in the air by balloonists, gliders, etc. But I suspect you're talking about something beyond that.)
It's unlikely insurance folk in North America would know much about county maps drawn in England in the 1570's, Maverick
d'oh! who cares? This was a quote from a UK magazine dealing with a European Community study. The point I am making is a linguistic one (it's a word board, remember?), and nothing to do with the detailed subject of the article, still less your assumptions about it.
must ... restain ... myself
In reply to:
In the "7 stages" of life, he [Shakespeare] gives us the boy-warrior "seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth".
What were the 7 stages of life? I didn't know this was something the Bard hashed out directly. I thought there was a psychologist, either Erikson or ______ [can't recall!], who cam eup with the theory on different stage sof life or life crises. Anybody out there care to educate me on this?
As You Like It Act 2, Scene 7
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I57750CBNice thing about this site. It comments on the language and offers a link to a sound file reciting the passage in Elizabethan pronunciation. I found the comment on
puke to be particularly interesting. Strictly from a linguistic point of view, of course.
What did you think I meant?