The Rule of Three

No, not The Rule of Four. Although that is also a fantastic rule related topic.

I was thinking more along the lines of survival. I started thinking of this initially when I read an article about detainees participating in a hunger strike being 'tortured' by being force-fed. I'm not sure yet how I feel about this issue. On the one hand, suicide is illegal, so I suppose they're committing a(nother?) crime by starving themselves to prove a point; their captors are only saving the detainee’s lives and preventing them from self-inflicted malnourishment. On the other hand, shouldn't a protest, even if vouched in the form of a hunger strike, be considered free speech? And I'm a big proponent of free speech. (Except when my sister tells me something I don't want to hear - then I think free speech is a little too free)

But that's not exactly the point. The point is much more vapid and egotistical.

So, hunger strike going on since December. I read the article on March 2nd. That's somewhere between 3 and 4 months of hunger striking. I may be a spoiled upper-middle class snob, but I'm pretty sure a person can't live 4 months with nothing to eat. But again, this isn't about hunger strike logistics.

The Rule of Three. Three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without air.

Three minutes without air. I'll buy that. When I was in peak form (and had hyperventilated a bit) I could be known to swim under water for close to two minutes. I'd come up to not pass out. Another one of those selfish habits of mine. Breathing.

Three days without water. Possibly. That would probably amount to torture for me, since I can kill a liter without a breath - which means I drink a liter in considerably less than 3 minutes. But in severe situations, I think I could endure the hardship.

Three weeks without food. Again, I'll take this one under advisement. I personally have never been know to go even three days without food - my longest fasts occur when I've got flu coming out of my ears; flu rarely lasts two days, let alone three.

Which now comes to my whole point. Having seriously though over the things I can't do without, I think I have a rule to fit into the durations of three seconds. (Which is, by the way, a full two seconds less than the ever so helpful and exciting, as well as deviant, five second rule for dropped food)
It would be torture if I, for a full three seconds, had to live without...
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