h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(runs upstairs to fetch copy ... runs downstairs, after having remembered to do first excercise thrash)

clink

OK, I'm coming towards the end of the Monkey Die section. This, you'll recall, is the section which opens by referring to the wallet experiment discussed in the previous section; I otoh end up wondering what the results would be if, say, the same experiment had been undertaken in a European city, an African city, an Asian city and so on.

But I digress. Monkey Die is largely concerned with 'For example, it has been shown (Phillips, 1979) that immediately following certain kinds of highly publicized suicide stories, the number of people who die in commercial airline crashes increases by 1,000%!' and then goes on to discuss the Werther effect. The argument is that the copy cat effect is activated by a tragic event given the oxygen of publicity.

The theory seems to work quite well for suicide bombings (based purely on personal recollection of what I've seen or heard in the media), but I then went on to think of what other highly publicised suicides I could recall, and David Kelly came to mind. In principle, a spate of suicides by others who were his peers or contemporaries might have followed but, if this happened at all, it wasn't widely reported. There must, after all, be a fair number of scientists, civil servants and/or politicians who are, at any time, stressed almost to the point of breaking.

I do note, however, that Cialdini only mentions 'certain kinds' of suicide stories. Yet I don't recall there having even been reported a spate of tragic accidents affecting individuals, who might have been the collateral damage of an intentional accident, in accordance with Phillips findings.

Please bear in mind that my queries may yet be answered in the remainder of the chapter (bookmark sits on Monkey Island page).



I confess that until I read this book, I don't recall ever encountering 'haze' as a verb before - I was somewhat dismayed (to say the least) at some of these fraternity/sorority rituals. Tell me this doesn't happen, to the same barbaric extent, in universities here.

I think you'd have to look closely at the stats to see if the Kelly suicide provoked an effect, since unless it is really obvious as in the Welsh case, I doubt it would be reported.

I don't think most of our universities have the kind of fraternity/sorority structure as seen in the States. The closest we come is the collegiate system and I'm not aware of much of that going on even then.

Hmm, David Kelly died in 2003 and the Wales crisis was in 2008 - so almost certainly unconnected, and for other reasons apart from the timing.

My point is that the Kelly suicide /must/ have provoked an effect, if Phillips is correct, and it should be possible to demonstrate that there were a number of intentional deaths in the aftermath of his death, as well as some kind of increase in accidental deaths. Whether or not it was reported is another matter entirely; and what a researcher might attribute the change in pattern to, is also unclear.

It'd be a good project for someone, wouldn't it ... but not for me

I didn't mean to imply that Kelly was connected to the Wales incident, rather, I was making the point that a statistically significant effect is unlikely to be reported unless it is really really obvious, as in the Wales case.

Yes, somebody might have already had a look, but it's not one for me either.

G'night!

Nor did you imply any connection between Kelly and Wales. I inadvertently lumped the two together, as UK examples, but had altogether forgotten the lapsed years in between.

Of course, for either incidence, the data may have been collected but not analysed. Equally, if the topic wasn't brought to the attention of the media, the public would still be in ignorance of any significant change in the pattern (and I think that this is often the case btw, that what could be news remains as an incident of apparently no public incidence).

I wasn't suggesting that you took this on as a project

G'nite!



PS Finally caught up with this week's Jazz Junctions and rather enjoyed it

Indeed, stats has never really been my thing.

A couple of great quotes, on iPM Your News, that made I larf again when I LA'd just now to pick up the wording. Preceding the smiles came the poignant:

My 57-year old wife can no longer remember who I am

then:

I'm playing jazz at a wedding and, for the first time, I've been asked to provide a risk assessment

and later:

I'm long term vegetarian but, thanks to a brief trip to Holland, I'm reconnecting with sausages

Quite why I was awake so early this morning, I don't know - but it was worth it

G'nite!

How To Be Ignored, Part XCIII ... to be continued

Who's been ignoring you? Shame on them.

Dunno ... must have been a bad dream or my mind playing tricks on me

As a distraction, I've been making soup for freezing, from my supermarket bargains. There is now a goodly supply of vegetable soup, curried parsnip soup, and the carrot and coriander is cooling prior being liquidised.

I'm running out of containers, and freezer space. And I suspect I'm going to be sick to the back teeth with soup, after this winter is done - so far, there's nearly 10 litres and all of it is thick enough to double its' volume using vegetable stock ... and still be soup rather than dishwater. Also, how'm I going to stuff the freezer with bread to accompany the soup, if the freezer is already stuffed with frozen soup?

(trots off to reorganise freezer)

Forgot to say, I got very badly earwormed by a tune whose name I knew I did not know, and whose lyrics I - ahem - couldn't remember. Got quite badly sidetracked by Astrud Gilberto and finally remembered Sergio Mendes - it must have been that version that had infected me, although it doesn't sound how I remembered it.

Then I found a much better version, albeit in furrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3oNSFQVzNM

Like this version too (same artistes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHEQ-m4KSaQ

Yes, nice track that.



I'm still thinking of the various ways the wedding guests might be harmed by jazz...

clink

Not to mention, surely, the potential for self harm?

There's more of a risk of that with Trad I think..

clink

But surely to the risk assessors ... jazz is jazz

Now, before you slope off for the evening, I really must insist that you attend to this:

http://www.treeworld.info/attachments/f9/6090d1212318595-lets-build-hazard-risk-assessment-form-hazpacaone.png

...bebop might be a 3 I think...

G'night!

You're looking horribly ignored ... I went to watch Downton Abbey and woke up to Woman's Hour.

Bebop a 3? That means 'Do something, soon'?