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Selfies Kill More People Than Shark Attacks
HughPickens.com writes: The Independent reports that so far this year more people have died while trying to take a 'selfie' than from shark attacks. So far, 12 people have lost their life while trying to take a photo of themselves but the number of people who have died as a result of a shark attack was only eight. Some recent selfie-fatalities: A 66-year-old tourist from Japan recently died after falling down some stairs while trying to take a photo at the Taj Mahal in India, a Mississippi woman was gored to death by a bison while visiting Yellowstone National Park, and in August a man trying to take a selfie was gored to death during a running of the bulls in Villaseca de la Sagra, Spain. Some groups have been trying to get on top of the wave. In June Disney banned selfie sticks in its amusement parks. And foreseeing the selfie crisis in a very specific way, New York State passed a bill in June 2014 to prohibit people from having their photo taken (or taking it themselves) while "hugging, patting or otherwise touching tigers."
... and selfie is just the causal action. Same way as surfing/swimming is the causal action in death by shark. Apples to Oranges.
I'm so glad I now know that taking a selfie while swimming with sharks is not a good idea.
Next month on the Discovery Channel!
A deadly epidemic reaches around the globe and across cultures:
See it all on...
Selfie Week!
If you get attacked by a shark take a selfie. That way your chance of death will be lower.
The less narcissistic pricks the better.
Seriously, while a couple of the accidents listed are acts of God and could have happened anyway, many of them, from the human gene pool perspective, deserved to die.
Putting a gun to your head while taking a picture? Turning your back on bulls and or bisons? Having to be told to NOT touch or hug tigers? I do agree with Disney on their policy however, as a selfie-stick on a ride is most likely to hurt somebody behind the person taking the shot.
Sorry, for the sake of the human species, these people should be allowed to remove themselves from the reproductive population.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
The guy who posted this never bothered checking out his own links. If you read the story about the guy gored to death by a bull, he was filming two bulls fighting, not actually taking a selfie. Also, the bison death seems unrelated to selfies... so that would mean shark attacks come out ahead, yeh! The sharks win!
Selfies don't kill people.
People taking selfies kill people.
For journalists, a "selfie" is any photograph, apparently. Logic and semantics be damned, they're desperate to use the trendy new word.
There were more deaths via selfies than deaths on the moon this year.
that selfies have Jumped the Shark?
...I'll be here all week.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
A shark attack is a direct mechanism of death — a thing that produces actual, physical harm. A selfie, on the other hand, is what health statisticians might classify as an “underlying mechanism” or an “intermediate mechanism,” depending on the exact circumstances: a thing that’s involved in, and maybe precipitates, an accident, but doesn’t actually cause any physical harm. (Unless your phone electrocutes you or something, but that’s a different situation.)
That may seem like a small distinction, but it’s actually pretty huge. Let’s turn to the World Health Organization to see how it breaks down the issue. WHO gives the example of a woman tripping over something on the floor and hitting her head on the counter; you’d never say that the thing on the floor killed her — that’s just the underlying mechanism. (Also, stupid.) The direct mechanism was hitting her head, just as in most “selfie deaths,” the direct mechanism is being struck by a car, falling down, what have you.
We could, for the sake of argument, compare the number of deaths from falling down the stairs to the number of deaths from shark attacks. Or we could compare the number of deaths while taking selfies to the number of deaths while swimming in the ocean.
But if we did that, we’d come to the boring conclusion that selfie-related deaths are total anomalies: a microscopic sliver of the big ole Death pie chart, scarcely even worth mentioning.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Is this what we used to call DARWIN AWARD WINNERS!
Even before the Web, Usenet distributed texts yearly of the Darwin Awards, wonderful stories of people who took themselves out of the gene pool.
Selfies killing people?
Sound like a public service was performed.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I don't need a multi million dollar study to determine that if you have factory ships taking out all of the fish from the local region then you are going to get more shark attacks as they look closer to shore for food.
Want less shark attacks, have less factory ships.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Shoot they did a PSA sheet on it after some deaths:
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
The little images are classic, my favorite is the person who appears to be jumping in front of a train while taking a selfie.
BlameBillCosby.com
Since we don't have large-scale wars, we need something else to cull the population of such imbeciles. Every little bit helps.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Think of it as evolution in action.
So taking a picture while hugging a lion or jaguar is still ok? What about Ligers? This seems like way too specific of a law.
Just because we are able to cure many diseases that used to kill us doesn't mean evolution is halted. Yes, having a weak immune system is no longer lethal. But thankfully being too stupid to survive still is.
Don't try to mess with it. It can only improve the gene pool.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'd be tempted to watch it, but then again, I'm not really in comedies.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What about California? Do selfie sticks come with a warning that they may cause cancer?
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
The statistic at hand - 12 people dead with phone in hand - doesn't take into account deaths that were caused by the sheer intention to take a selfie afterwards. The guy that recently fell from a 25m tall statue in Paris comes to mind... It's not just the act of having using a phone with a dangerous background that kills - sometimes the problem comes from getting to the place with that background. Problem, obviously, is the dead aren't here to talk about it anymore.
I think I've seen this headline as clickbait before.
This seems disingenuous, if I were at risk of shark attack, I would much rather be armed with a large, expandable metal stick than with only my bare hands.
-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
A shark attack is a direct mechanism of death â" a thing that produces actual, physical harm. A selfie, on the other hand, is what health statisticians might classify as an âoeunderlying mechanismâ or an âoeintermediate mechanism,â depending on the exact circumstances: a thing thatâ(TM)s involved in, and maybe precipitates, an accident, but doesnâ(TM)t actually cause any physical harm. (Unless your phone electrocutes you or something, but thatâ(TM)s a different situation.)
The headline reads "Selfies Kill" but the summary clearly states that the story is about people who died while taking selfies. Just Another Old Guy indeed! ;-P
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Despite the hysteria, shark attacks are exceedingly rare. Enough so that entire years go by without a death. More people win the lottery than die from shark attacks. Lots more.
And also, the article is wrong. Nobody has ever died from taking a selfie. They died from a related or unrelated accident while taking or as a result from a selfie.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
OMG! Is this worse than NASCAR driving?
If someone falls into the ocean while taking a selfie, and gets eaten by a shark, does that count as a selfie death or a shark death?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Yawn.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
In related news, the government of India passed a law to prohibit people from having their photo taken (or taking it themselves) while "hugging, patting or otherwise touching the Statue of Liberty."
A new study shows that more people died while sleeping than from drunk driving. This proves that sleeping is more dangerous than drunk driving.
These sorts of articles that compare unrelated statistics are meaningless. It is relevant how many people die of selfies vs how many die of sharks vs how many die of lightning.
Guy with the bull up on him, horn sticking out his chest, it's a shoo-in for selfie of the year.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Where I can take all the tiger-selfies I want!
The example from the summary of the law passed in New York is a perfect example of lawmaking run amok. That lawmakers seriously spend their time working on laws like this whole leaving tons of others in committee is ridiculous.
One issue with that law is the bizarrely specific nature of it. But the other is the very existence of laws that are intended to prevent people from making stupid decisions that only affect them (nanny laws).
I think the law is there to protect the tigers, which are an endangered species.
When people are killed by zoo animals, they generally have the animal put down don't they?
The law allows zoos to pre-empt idiots getting themselves and valuable tigers killed.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it