Ok, why the cunnilingus joke?
The guy is a diplomat, not a translator. Seems gratuitously irrelevant to the context IMO. Didn't come across as funny, just odd - "Why say that then? *puzzled shrug*". Did I just not get it?
A Russian diplomat was an epic 15 times over the drink-driving limit when he was collared by Polish cops on Sunday. The unnamed cunning linguist drove erratically until he was stopped by cops in the Pomerania region, the Moscow Times reports. Cops felt the foreign service operative was behaving in a "strange" manner, the …
There should be a proper standard for blood alcohol levels (suggestions anyone?), this article switches from one 'standard' to another and back again, making it a bit confusing.
If I understand correctly, the diplomat had 3 g/l or 0.3%, the limit in Poland is 0.2 g/l or 0.02% and the limit in the UK is 0.8 g/l or 0.08%. In other words, in the UK he would've been 'only' 3.75 times over the limit. Is that really newsworthy or is it just because he's a diplomat?
1 unit is 10ml of pure alcohol.
Therefore a pint (568ml) at 3.5%alcohol by volume (abv) is 1.98 units, 4%abv is 2.27 units, and at 5% is 2.84 units.
Sadly there is no direct correlation between blood alcohol content and units consumed - it varies on the metabolism, timing, medication, food, gender, and weather.
The only SAFE driving limit is therefore 0 units
If you have 0.3% blood alcohol content after 5 pints of strong lager, you either have the body mass of a flee, or a disturbing definition of what "lager" is.
Keep in mind that that's over halfway to what is commonly defined as fatal BAC (0.5%).
Of course, that usually doesn't apply to Poles. I think the last guy that made headlines in Poland had something around 1.2%, and that's STILL not the national record.
For a sense of perspective: the really-red nosed Russian was less than 4x the UK limit. Of course that doesn't make it any more acceptable, but this event is hardly worthy of "epic". I'm sure many an El Reg reader has been drunker than that!
What is more interesting/disturbing is how Poland's DD limit is only 25% of that of the UK.
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I'm making Thanksgiving dinner over here this week for 6 adults + 4 ravenous children. I'd like to borrow this guy's liver afterward to clean the pans.
(Choosing a pint, of course. Tho' a pic of Graham Chapman from 'Meaning of Life' would be more appropriate, but, what can ya do..)
Are you sure you're not getting all Daily Mail with your numeric reporting?
If he was 0.3% blood alcohol and the UK limit is 0.08% then he was just under 4 times the UK limit - 7 pints(ish). Hardly a fatal or particulary extraordinary amount of booze, just more than you should drive after. The Polish must have very low limits.
The reason for the limits generally have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with politics.
Set the limit at 0.8 = 1 drink and the opposition accuses you of being soft on drunk driving, so they propose 0.4, you counter that you are tougher on drink-driving and make it 0.2, .....
Then somebody who has no idea how science (or possibly counting) works decides to make it 0.
Pretty impressive technology though - to pick up a single O-H bond in 250 moles of blood volume (say 10E26 molecules) just by blowing into a bag.
"If I understand correctly, the diplomat had 3 g/l or 0.3%, the limit in Poland is 0.2 g/l or 0.02% and the limit in the UK is 0.8 g/l or 0.08%. In other words, in the UK he would've been 'only' 3.75 times over the limit. "
Yes, I was going to say the same. But this assumes that the density of alcohol is unity, which it certainly isn't. The specific gravity of blood is around 1.06 whereas ethyl alcohol is 0.785. 0.2g of alcohol occupies 0.255ml which is 0.0255% of a litre, not 0.02%. By mass, a litre of blood has a mass of 1.06kg, so 0.2g is 0.019% (roughly).
You can't express g/l which has dimensions of m/l³ as a percentage which is dimensionless.
The limit in Canada is still 0.08, but when the police stop people, at first over 0.05, but now with any detectable alcohol, they still impose penalties such as a 24 hour license suspension.
So, while the criminal limit of impaired driving has not been reduced more, from a level at which a driver is not an accident waiting to happen, but his reflexes are simply a bit off, so that a near-accident caused by other factors would become more serious, provincial driving regulations have gone beyond that.
Thus, 0.2 or 0.24 or thereabouts is simply garden-variety drunk driving, where the driver is an accident waiting to happen. That should result in significantly worse penalties than merely impaired drivers, but somehow getting tougher on drivers that are just barely impaired (if they really are impaired) is more important than having harsher penalties for those who really do put others at significant risk.
Originated from a series of letters in UK's The Guardian discussing the correct plural form of clitoris. Someone claimed to know it in several languages. He was acclaimed, by another writer, as a cunning linguist.
The joke was so perfect, that it instantly took wings and flew to heaven --- and should only be remembered reverently, not ever, /ever/ used again.
Pfft, lightweight.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/12/24/drunkest-driver-in-sa-arrested
1.6g/100ml - that's 1.6%, or about 3 times what would kill most people. That's some serious built-up tolerance right there.
Mind you even at "only" 0.3% our Russian buddy still needs a damn good shoeing by the local plod for being an idiot.
Data from http://www.safetravel.co.uk/europedrinkdrivinglimits.html
The Blood Alcohol Levels
0.0 mg per ml– Estonia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary
0.2 mg per ml– Norway, Poland, Sweden
0.4 mg per ml- Lithuania
0.5 mg per ml- Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany (Germany is 0.3 if you’re in an accident), Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus (North)
0.8 mg per ml– UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Switzerland
0.9 mg per mlCyprus (South)
You've got Malta twice - on one hand you say they're 0.0 and on the other you say they're at 0.8. So, can you drive with alcohol in your blood there or not?
I ask because I was considering Malta as one of several possible future homes once Australia has completed its final descent into the police-state pit. Perhaps Malta is following the same path. Is there *any* country left whose politicos actually support freedom and human rights?
I propose that each unit of alcohol (A unit being 1 shot of vodka) be named a Yeltsin, and that various units multiplied are combined thusly -
10 Yeltsin's = 1 Borris
20 Yeltsin's = A Johnson.
30 Yeltsin's = Beer goggles.
40 Yeltsin's = Handcuffed.
50 Yeltsin's 1 Supper Borris.