« NY Times Gushes Over Soda Tax | Main | Another Adventure in Socialized Medicine »
December 19, 2008
The Envious Condom
Via Roto-Reuters, here we see a giant condom harassing newlyweds to "raise awareness" about how we should all slip on the latex before indulging in indiscriminate debauchery:

As DANEgerous points out, it's the newlyweds who have the right idea when it comes to avoiding horrific diseases:
Your best defense against a behavior-spread disease like AIDS is monogamy and your best chance at monogamy is traditional marriage.
In contrast condoms break, or slip, up to 12% of the time. That may not sound like a big number but if you have sex more then once, each event is cumulative and the probability of unsafe sex quickly exceeds 100%. Given the average single person 'hooks up' with a few partners a year, a few times each, multiply those dozen "trials" by a failure rate that high and the average single person exceeds 100% every year.
Condoms or no condoms, there are basic rules to civilized behavior. A society that breaks them will have a price to pay.
Posted by Van Helsing at December 19, 2008 7:54 AM
Comments
No matter how you slice it, no probability can ever exceed 100%.
Posted by: wagnert from Atlanta at December 19, 2008 8:29 AM
I was wondering about that, too. If taking action A is means result B has an 85% chance of happening, then doing A twice doesn't mean result B has a 170% chance of happening. I don't remember how the calculation actually works for probability of repeated actions, but probability can never exceed 100%.
Posted by: CoderInCrisis at December 19, 2008 10:27 AM
Liberal do all sorts of stupid things to get attention for some stupid liberal cuase if its not those jerks from PETA running around dressed as chickens,cows,pigs,stalks of celery,ears of corn,carrots, Or soome stupid eco-freaks dressed as trees,spotted owls or parading around in their sunshine clothes. I mean if aliens ever laned on earth they would think of earthlings as the most crazy and rediculous ceatures in the universe
Posted by: Spurwing Plover at December 19, 2008 3:09 PM
Yeah, the statement "each event is cumulative and the probability of unsafe sex quickly exceeds 100%" is mathematically false. Each time carries a 12% chance. The next time has the same 12% chance, ad infinitum.
Aside from that, am I the only one who would punch a guy in the face if he showed up anywhere near my wedding dressed in a condom suit?
Posted by: NB at December 19, 2008 7:26 PM
As the WEIRD AL YANKLOVICT song was DARE TO BE STUPID
Posted by: Spurwing Plover at December 20, 2008 9:15 AM
Way to ruin a beautiful picture. I hope someone chased him away.
Posted by: avalon at December 20, 2008 3:44 PM
If somebody like that showed up at my wedding, I'd knock him flat on his ass.
Posted by: conservativeteen at December 20, 2008 4:20 PM
Whoever wrote that original quote unfortunately kind of shoots himself in the foot with his lack of understanding even high school level statistics. Each condom is an independent event. Take its complement (.88), and the probability that you will experience a condom break over N trials is 1 - (.88^N). For instance, 10 trials would mean that overall, there would be a 72.2% chance that you experience a condom break.
Posted by: I'm A Lasagna Hog at December 21, 2008 1:15 PM
I have a btter isea conservativeteen A PHASER SET ON DISINIGRATE
Posted by: Spurwing Plover at December 21, 2008 2:15 PM
Did the giant condom not think it might be better served plying its trade at a bar or club.. Or perhaps outside the downtown film distributors that sells bareback gay pr0n?
Posted by: mandible claw at December 21, 2008 11:24 PM

