Death by Coconut?

[mishalak]

It is commonly quoted that more people die each year due to falling coconuts (~150 / year) than in shark attacks (10 or less / year). Unfortunately the information on coconuts comes from an estimate based upon a paper that won the author an IgNoble. However since 322 people died by drowning in a bathtub in the US alone in 2001 it is probably safe to say that death, or even injury (averaging about 60 per year) from sharks isn't a significant danger.

These useless facts brought to you by a guy wasting cleaning time before work.

Comments

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

Of course... most bathtubs don't have sharks, eh?

[elemirion]

Maybe in your house they don't have sharks....

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well now I'm torn. Do I leave the sentance funny or make it clear?

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

I was just being snarky; it's perfectly clear, really.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I suspect you're right. Not many bathtubs have sharks.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

150 people a year dying from falling coconuts... that seems like a lot, considering the limited habitat of the coconut palm. You'd think that people who live in places where they do grow would have learned not to sit underneath them.

With shark attacks vs. drowning in the bathtub, I'm thinking that in order to get an accurate statistical correlation, one would have to only count deaths that occur in places where there are both sharks and bathtubs. Obviously, no one is dying of shark attacks in Kansas, and there's places in the world where people don't have bathtubs, so must bathe in the sea, which clearly increases their chances of encountering sharks.

I expect there's an age-factor as well. All those retirees down in Florida, for instance; even though they live where there are sharks, they probably don't spend a lot of time out surfing or water-skiing or whatever, but their bathtubs may be getting more dangerous to them every year.

(*grins* As you can see, I'm in no hurry to accomplish anything useful before work either.)

I've always had to wonder about people who worry about sharks. When I lived in Ohio, I knew people who were all freaked out over Jaws, and I was, like, WTF?!?! There are no sharks in the Olentangy River, absolutely guaranteed, and if there were, it wouldn't matter because nobody in their right mind would swim in that nasty water anyhow. They might as well have gone shivering to bed fretting over the possibility of being brained by a falling coconut.

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

"150 people a year dying from falling coconuts... that seems like a lot, considering the limited habitat of the coconut palm."

Perhaps they were all coconut pickers?

I agree, the measurements don't add up. Amusing re-miss-use of statistics though. =)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

It was an estimate extrapolating from a very small sample on one island to how much territory coconut palms cover. SO yes, probably totally boooogus. It would be cool to know how many people they do kill, but unfortunately most coconut palms grow in countries that don't keep good statistics.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the statistics indicating that the City of Industry (a few miles from where I live) had the highest per-capita murder rate (one per 36 people) in the County (or maybe state or country) a decade or so ago. And the following year it doubled. Of course, the City of Industry had a resident population, at the time, of ... errr... 36 people (with factories & businesses that employed several thousand, and a few bars (presumably disreputable -- must check on that RSN) that attracted hundreds of patrons in the evenings). Ummm... I might suggest that many shark attacks could occur in (well... just off the shores of) countries that don't keep or report good statistics either.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Sharks are like Spiders. Only about 6 people a year die of spider bite (in the US, I'll bet it's higher in Australia), yet people are terrified of the little buggers. It's a predatory thing, I think. Even though they are small they're little predatory things unlike, say, trees or choking to death on food. Both of which are more common ways to die.