If we stick with your 1/44 assumption, we can then assume 50% chance that the following day will also be a record setting day (probably too low still but the math is easier). Your one week estimate would be (1/44)*(1/2)^6.

Not to be too pedantic but your back of the envelope probabilities are based on inaccurate assumptions and probably several orders of magnitude off. Specifically, your not just assuming uniform but also independent from one day to the next. A more accurate treatment would be to assume conditional dependence from one day to the next (the Markov property). Once you have a record hot day, you are significantly more likely to have another record hot day following it.

That said, it’s still low probability, just not as low as what you’re saying.

Huh, I hadn’t considered that some of the stories would have pharmacological explanations like that. Some of the stories would make more sense if the person were blasted on opium or something like that.

Congrats on getting out, I hope it wasn’t too awful to extract yourself. Also, lol @ the ephedra thing, I haven’t heard that before so it made me chuckle and gave me a new perspective on how some of those unbelievable stories can be explained.

It’s certainly possible but in my Catholic upbringing, virtually every martyr has some badass story that implied they were above pain and suffering of their execution (due to their absolute faith, of course). Some stories might be true but my money is on most being heavily embellished. This one in particular seems implausible because I would imagine that being grilled would send your body into shock pretty quickly. Plus the heat would likely damage your lungs when you breathed so I doubt someone could talk for very much of the process.

I’m certainly not saying it’s impossible but I think it’s more likely false (or embellished beyond recognition) than true.

sick burn

Solid pun.

Yeah, this looks like artwork of saint Lawrence, who was basically grilled to death. I remember being told that partway through the execution, he reported told the executioners, “You should probably flip me over, I think I’m done on this side.” I strongly doubt this actually happened since the mythology around martyrs is typically heavily embellished to make them look like badasses.

But not Reddit gold.