Taken from #7.

The soldier is coming out of me on this one. When you make your break and run, ensure you run in a untrackable line. To track and hit a straight moving target is just as easy to compare with a sitting duck. Think uncontrolled weave.
__ _ __ __
~ -~_ -_~- ~_.

In a pea-pod, learn to live with situational awarness, it will prevent you from becoming a statistic.

That one's definitely a hyped urban legend. It's easy to believe something that sounds so close to the truth that it must be truth. I'm a cynic who checks every "OMG you must read this now!!!" email that falls into my inbox at snopes.com to see if it's real. And you know what? Most of the ones I get are urban legends.

That's very decent of you, Pirengle... I'm not that kind.
I delete them.
Or I'll read it, pick it apart myself (Really? Started by nuns in 1902? Then how is this emailed?
Tracking device? Why would Bill Gates use this to test it when he could start a normal chain letter?
Oh, yes this IS a chain letter! Don't lie to me!)
... and send it back to whomever had the poor sense to send it my way.
I don't get much of those any more, suffice to say.

Yeah, but I get these sort of things from friends and family members. My loved one know (or should know by now) either to check Snopes or take me off their mailing lists for that kind of stuff.

Chain letters aren't that bad. I posted at some LiveJournal community about choosing tampons over other alternatives, and got about a dozen "tampons contain asbestos" letter in my inbox. Of course, Snopes debunks it. Beware of bleach and additives, yes, but not asbestos. My high school was closed for a week to scrape asbestos out of the walls. What makes people think it's being used nowadays?! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I live in a country with a reputation for bad crime - South Africa. Many people complain and apparently live in fear of their lives, or move to other countries to escape the problem.

Yet I've never been a victim of crime in the 24 years I've been alive.

As for running away, that isn't a smart move here, because you'll pi$$ them off and they'll shoot you. Even if you zigzag...2 guys = 2 guns = 20 bullets = 4*20 = 80% chance of getting shot.

Actualy the math is 0.96^20 chance of not being shot, which is a 44 percent chance of not getting shot. Thats assuming both of them have a 4% chance per shot, which I suspect isn't accurate at closer ranges when you are running directly away from them and are a relatively large target. Once you get away a bit you should be OK.

Its not particularly good odds on survival, but a lot better than the odds of surviving a direct shot to the back of the head after they relieve you of all your posessions.

Thanks for the heads up Hark... [img]smile.gif[/img]

One of the reasons I have never encountered such a thing is because I am street-smart. Simply put I have common-sense. We all just have to "blend in" actually and that's it. If we all live high-profile lives then well... you should be indeed paranoid. ;)