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#31708 06/11/01 09:36 AM
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Each year the UK Department of Trade and Industry produces its Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System report, listing the numbers of accidents from various causes in the home. And each year it is summarised in New Scientist's Feedback column, http://www.newscientist.com/feedback/ as it is hilarious (well to those of us fortunate not to suffer such an incident.
For example, 37 accidents caused by tea-cosies (the wooly covers for a tea pot for you coffe drinking nations); hospitalisations caused by socks and tights are up to 10,773. And if you thought putting the socks and tights in the laundry basket and closing the lid would keep you safe, 3421 people were attacked, sorry - injured, by clothes baskets, no doubt egged on by all those malicious socks and tights!

Well worth a visit to the site, just try to imagine how some of the accidents could have happened

Rod



#31709 06/11/01 12:22 PM
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Thanks for the link, Rod. It seems that the Monty Python crew had it right when they wrote about torture by stuffed pillows and comfy chairs.


#31710 06/11/01 12:31 PM
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wwh Offline
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Dear Rod: The list of accidents fail to mention the most dangerous item in the house - the bed. Do you realise how many people die in a bed?


#31711 06/11/01 12:57 PM
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rodward Offline OP
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Do you realise how many people die in a bed

But that's because the socks, trousers, bean bags, laundry baskets, etc. sneak up on them while they're asleep!
Rod


#31712 06/11/01 01:05 PM
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old hand
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There is a mobile phone ad shown in the theatre here that also advises one should avoid staying at home too long, because most accidents happen there (35%?). In the animated commercial a man drills through what turns out to be a VERY thin dividing wall with a long drill bit. A man happens to be reading in his rocking-chair on the side and gets it straight through the head. Based on a real occurance?


#31713 06/11/01 03:19 PM
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Well, I did read that most car accidents occurred within a few miles of home. As a result I did the only rational thing possible: I moved.


#31714 06/11/01 03:25 PM
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well- one of my favorite sites is the "darwin awards" http://www.darwinawards.com/ where awards are always award postumously-- since winner are those members of the human race that have been kind enough to remove themselves from the gene pool.

some of the winner have done some very stange things-- ("amuzed" themselves by using a trash shute as a ride-- and gone head first down a shute-- only to land head first into a metal dumpster (skip)!)-- I also like the "honorable mention" group --(HM goes to people who survived their "ideas" --Like the one about the man who 1st cut a wasps nest in half with a chain saw (about 150 wasp stings) and later--ie, after he came back from hospital emergency room-- decided to burn the nest-- so he doused it with gas (petrol) and then went to get a match-- the gas vaporized-- and he blew up the nest- and made a fire ball that burned off his eyebrows-- and gave him 1st degree burns on his face and hands..(this man started out to prune a hedge)

I can see how, in some peoples hands, even a tea cosy could be dangerous.


#31715 06/11/01 06:10 PM
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So much for statistics...

These aren't the real numbers, but they are close and *prove the 'point'.

80% of all auto accidents happen within 3 miles of the home.

- but

90% of all trips stay within 3 miles of the home.

It's like saying 98% of all accidents happen to people.


#31716 06/11/01 07:46 PM
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>>So much for statistics...

There was an add on the radio for the Phonics Game (a game to teach children how to read) and they stated the shocking fact that in the LA County school district almost half of the children scored below average on a reading test. These are the kinds of statistics that make it into most adverts and news items because they seem so clear.



#31717 06/11/01 07:50 PM
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Well what can we say? LA is clearly not Lake Woebegone-- where all the men are good looking, all the woman are strong, and all the children are above average.

I am reminded of the riddle-- what do you call the person who graduated at the very botton of the class from medical school?
Doctor



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