Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by jacquesm on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @03:17PM
(#694465)
You'd be surprised how many jobs can lead to injuries, including blindness.
I met a piano tuner with only one eye one day. He was tuning a grand piano, overstressed the string, it broke and the little loop at the end of it was shot off straight into his eye...
I'll bet you he never thought that piano tuning can lead to blindness either.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by jrockway on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @03:41PM
(#694522)
I'm beginning to take the notes that say "always wear safety glasses" on nearly every tool more seriously.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by handelaar on Thursday July 09, 2009 @01:35AM
(#695285)
That jarred for me, having grown up in the UK where -- famously -- almost all piano tuners are blind. It's almost a cliche, and even schools for the blind were of the opinion that this was historically the best chance its students had of a 'normal job'.
I hope that this is no longer the case, but it certainly still was when I was at school in the 80s.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by rjurney on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @05:07PM
(#694701)
One of the most dangerous jobs is... farming. Tons of guys get arms torn off on tractors, etc.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by MaysonL on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @11:27PM
(#695163)
Just read on Doc Searls's blog of the death of a friend of his who fell off his tractor...
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/07/07/a-good-man-is-ha...
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by sho on Thursday July 09, 2009 @05:50AM
(#695534)
Oh, gross. What a way to go. You know it wasn't a pleasant death when the police take a day to identify someone killed on their own property.
Sigh, I really hate the pointless deaths of good people.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by jacquesm on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @05:35PM
(#694755)
that and salmon fishing.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by jrockway on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @03:44PM
(#694531)
Conversely, people can stop working jobs that value economy over safety. I guess they must make enough money to not worry about the risk, which is somewhat sad.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by cellis on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @04:15PM
(#694583)
Its called a danger premium. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't object to being paid 400k as a programmer in the Green Zone in Iraq. Or maybe you would, depending on your appetite for risk.
Re:Blind man sees wife for first time after having a tooth i...
by abossy on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @04:52PM
(#694658)
In case anybody is interested, the position might still be available: http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-web-developer-240k-per-year...
I agree. Yet in our society, where efficiency must often be balanced against safety, risk cannot be fully eliminated.
Council workers would surely be safer if the roads they repaired were closed for the duration, but we cannot stomach the roads being fully closed. Furniture movers would certainly suffer less chance of back injury if there were four men lifting that dresser instead of two, yet no-one would hire them if their prices doubled. And the aluminium smelter might well be able to significantly reduce its injury rate by investing billions in a new process, but the product would no longer be viable and the factory would close, simply moving the risk to a less caring jurisdiction.
One can continue like this all day. There's always a compromise, and most developed countries have settled upon a sweet spot. Workplace injury declines with advancing technology, and we should certainly do our best to minimise it, but while society values economic competitiveness over absolute personal safety, you can never eliminate risk, and maybe not even then.