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That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

nytimes.com

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Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#101

Post by Echo117 »

sukuriant wrote: post #96
gojomo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a similarly great passage in 'The Great Gatsby': It was on that same house party that we had a curious conversation about driving a car. It started because she passed so close to some workmen that our fender flicked a button on one man's coat. "You're a rotten driver," I protested. "Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all." "I am careful." "No, you're not." "Well, other people are,…

Is that from the original? There's a lot of 'e's in that passage.

Are you thinking of Gadsby? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby_%28novel%29

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#102

Post by msellout »

yk wrote: post #76
jessedhillon wrote: post #7

Strangely not mentioned at all, so I'll put it here: Jared Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs and Steel , his most famous work. It addresses the question of how and why European societies were able to advance themselves so much farther ahead of all other civilizations. There is also an excellent four-part series streaming on Netflix.

I think Collapse is better than Guns, Germs and Steel . It is about the end of isolated settlements, and the path which lead them to their demise. And I think it should be mentioned that Guns, Germs and Steel is rather extreme in suggesting an 'geological determinism.' [1] While his arguments are generally quite good, there is simply quite a bit more happening. A nice book to balance this is Ian Morris, Why the West…

I thought Diamond's comparison of Europe and China was especially weak. He wrote it off as that China had an emperor, and thus a single point of failure. He didn't do enough to explain why Europe did not become an empire, or to explain why China's immense bureaucracy did not avoid such a single point of failure.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#103

Post by vickytnz »

This stuff particularly applies to machinery: the horror stories about people getting hair and clothing caught in machinery or looking away for a second when using a bandsaw are always a reminder to be careful no matter how many times you've used the machine before.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#104

Post by sopooneo »

nathan_long wrote: post #18

Yep. This is why every dollar spent on the TSA would be better spent on preventing car accidents, heart attacks, and falls in the shower. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/the_comparativ... But I like the OP's more practical point: personal attention to normal activities that are actually risky, based on a realistic view of those risks.

I am a little skeptical of this idea. We should spend no money fighting one threat until all greater threats (as measure by deaths/year) have been eliminated? I think rather we should spend money proportionally.

And I do not think that we should completely ignore the fears of irrational people. If our citizens are unhappy because they fear something, it is worth some expense to set them at ease. Though perhaps a careful placebo would be most fitting

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#105

Post by teach »

larrys wrote: post #59

The NYT headline is clearly link bait. If it had simply said "Some thoughts on everyday risks we underestimate" if would go nowhere. That said there is a clear benefit and need to take a shower for many people as opposed to sleeping under a tree or crossing the street in the middle for which there is a work around.

A good headline is pretty much 'link bait' by definition. If a feature writer mistakenly wrote a terrible headline like yours, I would expect the newspaper editor to fix it before going to press.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#106

Post by protomyth »

roc wrote: post #81
protomyth wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply look at one line of data on anything isn't enough, but it isn't a bad place to start looking at what our actual risks are to see what the numbers on that risk are. Using that as a guide for the first things you should be concerned with helps quite a lot. Looking at the auto stats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in... I am not sure I would say massive. But today, we are surrounded by "…

From 25 per 100,000 to 10 per 100,000 is not a massive change? Or, using the more appropriate rate -- fatalities per hundred million vehicle miles traveled -- dropping from ~7 in the 1950s to ~1 today? Again, the stack rank isn't a bad place to start if you have no other context. But we do. We're well past that point. We all know the NTSB, Auto Companies, Insurance Companies, et al have been hammering on car safety f…

I was looking at fatalities per miles traveled (given that is the measure of how much we use cars). It seems the trend line was dropping pretty nicely before the 70's, so I am not sure how much all the safety requirements have actually changed things. Seat belts and air bags might account for the delta from the 70's, but I am not sure it isn't the same reasons we see a reduction from the 30s. Looking at what happened after a change is good, but it needs to be in the context of what was happening before.

> What remains notable about the gun debate in the US, is that we're not arguing about "what to do" so much as arguing about whether to study the problem.

You must be watching some other debate, I consider new legislation being introduced "what to do".

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#107

Post by kejadlen »

phil wrote: post #66
mauvehaus wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the climbing example as presented, you should be at least three mistakes away from injury. The belayer should check the climber's harness and knots before allowing the climber to climb. Naturally the climber should check that the belayer's harness is fastened securely and that the belay device is rigged properly before climbing too. Realistically, there are still several single points of failure in the system: 1)…

I'm pretty sure it's climber error and mis-rigging by at least 10x. Gear failures of all kinds are extremely rare. Edit: objective hazard is significant, too: rockfall, afternoon thunderstorms, etc.

That would be pretty accurate, according to ANAM[1]. It's almost never due to equipment failure.

[1]http://www.amazon.com/Accidents-North-American-Mountaineerin...

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#108

Post by atdrummond »

kyberias wrote: post #52
tomjen3 wrote: post #32

Solution: a bathtub. I have some combination bathtub + shower so I sit down and wash myself -- it doesn't take longer and I can fall (since I am already at floor height.

I can easily think that climbing in and out of a bathtub is way more risky (wrt. falling) than merely stepping under a shower. I believe people don't fall when they stand in the shower. They fall when they step out of it on moist surface. Sorry if I ruined your day. :)

They actually make such tubs that allow one to walk in: http://www.luxuryhousingtrends.com/walk-in-tub-with-massage-...

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#109

Post by casca »

For a more detailed description of Jared Diamond's experience with the dead tree in New Guinea:

http://www.edge.org/conversation/tales-from-the-world-before...

And if you're in London, consider adding yourself to the waiting list: http://www.thersa.org/events/our-events/the-world-until-yest...

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#110

Post by neotek »

loceng wrote: post #92
daeken wrote: post #71

This is a bit of an aside, but I have to say this: even as a young person, take falls very seriously . I was 22 or so when I slipped in the shower. I was falling to the side and was going to hit my head, so I decided to twist so that I'd fall flat on my back, figuring I'd be fine. Well, I was, until a few hours later, when I started having chest pain and my left arm went numb and started getting shooting pains. Think…

I will assume you tried chiropractor, acupuncture, and perhaps even yoga?

And pixie dust and sugar pills and wishes.
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