A joke from the Nobel prize acceptance speech by Paulingy

Subject:	Re: Pauling's joke
Date:	Thu, 13 Nov 1997 15:29:33 -0500
From:	Alexander Bogomolny

Dear Michael:

Thanks for writing. If you do not mind I'll append your message to the Pauling's page. Note, however, that your assertion that chances of being "blown up are astronomically reduced" is inaccurate. They are reduced by the factor which is the inverse of the probability you called "pretty small" just a sentence before. I assume that inverse of a "pretty small" is a "pretty big" and in order to get something "astronomically big" you have to invert an "astronomically small."

The reduced probability may, I presume, be characterized as "astronomically small."

Best regards,
Alexander Bogomolny

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