Reply #16: Nice. The Internets and human beings being what we are, though, I would discreetly

[tom_paine]

e-mail the admins at some point after he has said he made the donation to see if he actually made it.

Not that I would suggest making a public beef about it or anything (some things it's just better to let them slide) if it turns out he didn't pay. But just so you KNOW.

That way, you'll know if it is worthwhile to make another bet with him if the occasion should arise in the future and further, if you should happen to lose said bet, unlikely as it is when one of us who can see (the One-Eyed, as it were) bets with the Kingdom of the Blind, you will know that payment is "optional".

Sorry if that Kingdom of the Blind remark sounds elitist or contemptuous of others, but the reality is the reality, at least in this regard. It doesn't necessarily mean we are better than anyone lese, it means this is our strong field. I have no doubt, Paul, that each of us has areas where we are as ignorant, shortsighted, or misled, as anyone in my self-described Kingdom of the Blind. That, too, is what it is to be human.

But as is confirmed daily and "faster than expected", those mental weak points sure as hell don't seem to be in the area of integrating, analyzing and understanding long-term ecological and environmental trends based on current and recent data.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I don't know Nederland from Adam, so I certainly don't mean this to be a slander against him/her. I would suggest the same course of action when making any bet with someone you don't know who makes an offer to pay the bet off to a third party.