Luck. Some people swear by it, some people think it’s all choices and logical outcomes. This week’s stories make you wonder if there is some larger underlying order to keep equilibrium in our lives. You decide if it’s just blind luck.
Playing Russian Roulette
Our journey begins with Jacinto Reid, a Toledo man who defies the odds not through feats of heroism or discovery, but through a remarkable and unfortunate series of events that sees him facing the wrong end of a gun for the third time in just 12 months; once in February and last year in September. Not many people have been shot three times on three occasions and survived.
Odds are different for Mr. Reid as he has a violent history involving guns and shooting other people. He has shot people and people have shot at him, usually in front of nightclubs.
However, it seems he hasn’t learned his lessons as he is once again admitted into hospital with yet another non-life-threatening gunshot wound. One wonders if he gets a card stamp with each visit.
International Problems on the International Space Station
Once again, we visit Florida, to run of the mill house in Naples, where something not so run of the mill crashed into a roof. A piece of space debris from the International Space Station becomes an uninvited guest, tearing through the tranquility of Alejandro Otero’s house and leaving us to marvel at the sheer improbability of such an event. His son was at home in the next room and thankfully was not hurt.
The object is a part of a pallet carrying batteries for an upgrade at the ISS. The legal issue of who pays for the damages is more complicated as the batteries belong to NASA, but the pallet belongs to the Japanese space agency, Jaxa. Currently NASA is analyzing the object as “as soon as possible to determine its origin.”
The European Space Agency, ESA said “while some parts may reach the ground, the casualty risk, the likelihood of a person being hit, is very low.” Odds of your house being hit is higher I suppose. One wonders if Mr. Otero will need to sue in Space Court to determine who should pay for the damage.
Thank goodness they were right.
If iPads could talk…
Finally, we traverse the globe to Cape Town, where time and distance conspire to reunite Frits Bruter, with a possession he thought he would never see again. His iPad was stolen a decade ago, when he was robbed on vacation in Paris. The digital device in question made its way back to the rightful owner after wandering around Europe. A woman had bought his stolen iPad and found his phone number and address on the device. When she initially reached out to Frits, he thought it was an obvious scam. After repeated phone calls, she finally got him to answer and let her explain about the vacation photos she had found on the iPad. He remembered about his unfortunate encounter in Paris and quickly confirmed the woman’s story. The most amazing part of this reunion was that she worked in Bloubergstrand, a suburb that was one kilometre from where he lived. I guess he never had “Find My Device” turned on.