Just another reason to be sober! 
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I wasn’t able to find a database on Casualty Actuarial Scoring, but I did find this fun tidbit.
The 2013 Oxford-Martin study “The Future of Employment” estimated a 21% probability of actuarial jobs being automated within “the next decade or two.” A more recent study from “Will Robots Take My Job,” which utilizes similar methodology, increases the estimate to 52%.
Here’s a fun website for you to type in your profession into: https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/
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Last check in before the Christmas Holiday break. Going skiing with my boys in a couple hours, then Christmas celebrations through the weekend.
Little historical fact for you that seems appropriate for this season. The date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth is not stated in the gospels or in any historical sources, but most biblical scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 BC and 4 BC, around the time in which King Herod died.
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Contrary to popular belief, Antarctica is not completely a barren frozen wasteland, and parts can be even temperate during summer months. However, about 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, a sheet of ice averaging at least 1.6 km thick. The continent has about 90% of the world’s ice (and therefore about 70% of the world’s fresh water). If all this ice were melted, sea levels would rise about 60 m.
As for the arguments about the melting of the ice caps caused by CO2 emissions. Most of those have very little evidence to back them up. 8 billion people is a lot, but it’s a big world, and we’re sadly still ants in comparison. The short of the matter is that we just don’t know why global warming is happening or what the melting of the polar ice caps will do to the globe long term. The rising of ocean levels may cause an Ice Age, but no one can be certain. The last time an Ice Age occurred there was a rapid melting, which desalinated the oceans. However, this single event cannot be attributed towards being the catalyst that brought on the Ice Age.
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This one’s for you @TrustyBird.
Starlings are the only species of bird known to fly in Murmurations. This flight pattern looks like a giant, shifting blob through the sky. You’ve possibly seen them before. They’re pretty spectacular to watch. But, in case you haven’t, here’s a video on it:
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@DungeonMaster, I was looking at this same video a couple of days ago and posted about it!
https://talkingsober.com/t/the-special-world-of-a-a/176274/8?u=sinceiawoke
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Thank you! I have seen these in person and they are mesmerizing. I can only wonder, how do they manage to not run into each other. 
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No way! I haven’t seen that thread. It’s super cool.
@TrustyBird Great question! One that I didn’t have an answer to, but now I do. Murmurations occur in order to provide protection, warmth and information between groups of Starlings. Falcons have difficulty targeting a single bird in a large flock. Birds also share info on feeding grounds this way. The way that they fly in these patterns comes down to each individual bird keeping track of the 7 fellow birds around them. Each bird follows three simple rules:
(1) move to the center
(2) follow your neighbor
(3) don’t collide
The rules enable each bird to act independently while ensuring the group acts cohesively.
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I am (or have been it has been many years) a scuba diver and these do remind me of schools of fish. I get the protection aspect and now I have to wonder if this “how do they not collide” thought is how birds feel seeing us on the freeway in cars. 
I love this thread and I very much appreciate the mindset of looking more deeply in nature at the tiny things to appreciate all the big things.
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I’m just blown away by the fact that someone noticed it and thought to themselves, “why do they do that? I’m going to figure it out and how they do it!”. Nature is magnificent.
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The Pulpí Geode is widely recognized as the world’s largest Crystal Cave. It was discovered in 1999 in the small town of Pulpí in Spain by the Minerologist Javier Garcia-Guinea. The crystal formations occupy a space of 10.7 cubic metres (380 cu ft), measuring 8 by 1.8 metres (26.2 by 5.9 ft) with an average height of 1.7 metres (5 ft 7 in), and is located at a depth of 50 metres (160 ft) in the Pilar de Jaravía mine.
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Here’s another worthy contender for Largest Crystal Cave, The Crystal Cave of Mexico. I believe it fall short of the title, because of the sheer volume of crystals in the Spanish cave and not the size of the actual cave system.
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Ancient civilizations of the Americas were highly civilized societies. Ignore the fact that several of them practiced ritual human sacrifice (Aztecs, Mayans). After all, we often see the Roman empire as one of the greatest in the history of the world, yet they practiced blood sport. Human sacrifice was often performed to appease their culture’s Gods to do certain things (Aztecs: Keep the sun moving across the sky). These sacrifices were usually high ranking prisoners of war or similar. The Mayans would also throw their sacrifices into sacred Cenotes, thought to be portals of a sort to the underworld.
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The Heart Attack Grill, located in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA, of course) is widely known to be the unhealthiest restaurant in the world. Waiters/Waitresses dress as Doctors and Nurses and give patrons (referred to as Patients) the option to be paddled if they don’t finish their food. The menu is generally themed around items that are exceptionally high in calories and fat. It includes “Single”, “Double”, “Triple”, “Quadruple”, “Quintuple”, “Sextuple”, “Septuple”, and “Octuple Bypass” hamburgers, ranging from 8 to 64 ounces (230 to 1,810 g) of beef with the “Octuple Bypass” burger containing approximately 19,900 kilocalories. The bottomless french fries are made with pure lard and the milkshakes are made with rich butterfat.
Customers over 350 lb (160 kg) in weight eat for free. One of the restaurant’s promotions is a reward for customers who finish a Triple or Quadruple Bypass Burger, after which they are placed in a wheelchair and wheeled out to their vehicle by their “personal nurse”.
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Stuff like this is why the rest of the world hates us 
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Well… You Muricans have great entertainment value. The stuff you come up with makes the rest of sigh “only in America” 
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Beautiful!
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The venom of the deathstalker scorpion costs $39 million dollars a gallon, making it the most expensive liquid on Earth.
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Why would i want to buy the deathstalker scorpions venom???
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You wouldn’t per say. But, one component of Death Stalker Scorpion venom is used in the treatment of some brain tumors. It’s difficult to obtain, and a hazardous substance to handle. That’s why it’s so expensive.
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