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New Ways To Die

MorningAngel

MorningAngel

Justified & Ancient
Joined
May 14, 2015
Messages
3,231
After the horrible events in Manchester on Monday I was trying to think back to a time when innocent people weren't in danger. But I had to think quiet far back passed ISIS (so called), passed the IRA, passed the Second World War and the First. Then you end up back in the Victorian era, but that was far from safe. High child mortality, good chance of dying in childbirth, so many diseases, lead everywhere, poisonous baby bottles, a good chance of going up in flames...

So does it not matter where you are in time? We think we've got it all sorted but the world is and always will be dangerous.

Edit- Morality to mortality.
 
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Yes, living is risky. We should still try to eliminate those risks.
 
High child morality is the product of a good upbringing. Don't knock it. :D
 
MorningAngel said:
The trouble is we think we have everything controlled but we really don't. Even your body can turn against you.
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Yep! My knees have gone, my bowels are getting too irregular, I think I have diabetes (but I'm not sure how it kills you), etc, etc,

But if I want a new way to die, I'll have to invent it myself.
 
Xanatic* said:
I don't think we do. However in the 1st world we are reaching the stage where everybody gets to live long enough to die from cancer.
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Maybe this stuff is because the world is a computer program and the evil murders are a virus.
 
Few cancers are caused by viruses.
 
The cemetery where I work has rows of children's graves from the 1890's to the 1920's, but after 4 years working here I have only attended one childs funeral (thankfully,it was terrible just seeing the family) .

We are incredibly lucky in the time and place we live in, we will all die of something at some point, but most of us get 90 minutes and some extra time.
 
MorningAngel said:
The trouble is we think we have everything controlled but we really don't. Even your body can turn against you.
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I read a good quote the other day, I think it was someone talking about imprisonment and how it didn't really matter as ultimately we are trapped and imprisoned in our own bodies. Oh God, now I'm thinking about it I think it was Ian Brady...
 
rynner2 said:
Yep! My knees have gone, my bowels are getting too irregular, I think I have diabetes (but I'm not sure how it kills you), etc, etc,

But if I want a new way to die, I'll have to invent it myself.
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Very slowly using your own will power and vices against you until you go out due to the ominous sounding "diabetic complications" :(
 
Child mortality is thankfully low in our cosseted First World. Elsewhere, they're not so lucky. :(

When I had very young children there was a public campaign about child accident prevention, fronted by that national treasure Jimmy Savile.

We were told that 'Accidents are the commonest killers of children!' or words to that effect. Falls, drowning, electrocution, fires, car crashes, mistaking pills for sweeties and bleach for pop and so on.

Alarming as it was, one couldn't help but be glad that the infectious childhood illnesses of old were no longer rampaging.
Measles, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, various forms of diarrhoea and lung disease, even chicken pox, all under control through a combination of public health works, vaccination and antibiotics. What a fantastic achievement.

All my kids were vaccinated to within an inch of their lives, as was I as a child. My two older sisters missed out on some that came in too late for them. They had their children vaccinated though and I am proud that all my nieces and nephews have done the same.

So it seemed that all we had to do was keep the sprogs from dropping themselves in/off it and, barring very bad luck, they'd be good to go for the full three score years and ten. What a lovely thought.
 
henry said:
new ways to die ... selfie-related deaths are on the up and up, not that ive ever taken one
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Out of curiosity I searched for them. Tragic overall. What a waste of human life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_selfie-related_injuries_and_deaths

Example:
48 people were injured when standing too close to a burning bakery in Chennai, India to take selfies. They repeatedly ignored warnings advising them to move away from the blaze.

A 66-year-old Italian tourist visiting Kenya was having breakfast with his wife in a tent at the Swara Camp in Kulalu ranch. He saw wild elephants and approached them closely. While taking a selfie he was charged by an elephant, sustained serious injuries to his leg and died at the camp.
 
uair01 said:
Out of curiosity I searched for them. Tragic overall. What a waste of human life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_selfie-related_injuries_and_deaths

Example:
48 people were injured when standing too close to a burning bakery in Chennai, India to take selfies. They repeatedly ignored warnings advising them to move away from the blaze.

A 66-year-old Italian tourist visiting Kenya was having breakfast with his wife in a tent at the Swara Camp in Kulalu ranch. He saw wild elephants and approached them closely. While taking a selfie he was charged by an elephant, sustained serious injuries to his leg and died at the camp.
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Shouldn't this be under 'Darwin Awards'? The 66 year old has probably already produced a couple of generations - maybe they can learn from example.
 
Mythopoeika said:
His poor wife! :eek:
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He had two wives (no, not at the same time). But still... :)

Me, I'm thinking of him trying to compose one masterpiece after the other in a house filled with a bazillion children, in between attending one funeral after the other, and I think "the poor Johann Sebastian!"

There are all manner of exciting new ways to die nowadays, but at least the western world is actually safer than it has ever been. At least for the moment. You never know when the next big asteroid will hit, or Donald starts a nuclear war or something. :)
 
RyoHazuki said:
I do wonder how many people in the 18th and 19th centuries were killed by carriages whose drivers were trying to read/write letters from/to their acquaintances.
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Carriage drivers then couldn't read or write.
 
MetroGnome said:
I'm thinking of him trying to compose one masterpiece after the other
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He did not have the consolation of believing that his works would be immortal, despite the contingencies of his domestic life.

JSB, like WS became an icon some years after his death. There are horrid tales of Bach's "outdated" works being sold as waste-paper. Mendelssohn is credited as a key figure in the creation of Bach, the Father of Music.
 
GNC said:
Not true, literacy was a lot more widespread than is commonly believed. Reading chapbooks on the toilet was very popular, for example.
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Were they actually reading them...? ;)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
He did not have the consolation of believing that his works would be immortal, despite the contingencies of his domestic life.
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I don't think it bothered him much either. He threw out his predecessor's work, and expected the same to happen to his. At the time, people were not as sentimental about music as we are. :)

JSB, like WS became an icon some years after his death. There are horrid tales of Bach's "outdated" works being sold as waste-paper. Mendelssohn is credited as a key figure in the creation of Bach, the Father of Music.
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As I understand it, Bach was very thoroughly respected among musicians and composers. But not so much the general public. Don't know who you mean with WS.
 
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