Mythopoeika
I am a meat popsicle
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2001
- Messages
- 51,778
- Location
- Inside a starship, watching puny humans from afar
Dunno.What's below it that looks like it's been shot at?
Dunno.What's below it that looks like it's been shot at?
Well, it is Los Angeles after all.Dunno.
If any of us goes Silent, I'm sure the rest of the forum will kick down the door to see if everything is okay.Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?
GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.
Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.
Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.
The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.
In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.
https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw
maximus otter
This has happened twice in the town I live in the last ten years. The first man lived in a flat at the ground floor, he was slightly disabled in that he used a shopping trolley as a zimmer frame. Now and then I'd pop round to visit because he was good company. I remember one Christmas knocking on his door a few times with a mince pie and a sherry. I didn't know at the time but he was lying dead just on the other side of his front door and decomposing. His Sister had called the police because she hadn't heard from him in months. Another unpleasant factor of this was ...Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?
GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.
Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.
Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.
The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.
In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.
https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw
maximus otter
I wonder if there's also a been a change to the way benefits are paid, which means that rent etc are just continually paid into and out of an account. This would mean that someone not 'signing on' or having to attend interviews or appear in public in any other way means that their tenancy is secured and there is no need for, eg, a landlord to go round knocking on the door because of unpaid bills.Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?
GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.
Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.
Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.
The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.
In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.
https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw
maximus otter
One better idea is to actually keep an eye out for each other, before the flies turn up! You don't have to be living in everyone's pockets, but just be on "Hello" terms with them....I live in a tower block where the majority of tenants are single and over 60. For the last few years every 6 months the council send everyone a letter urging tenants to get in contact with them if an unusual number of flies start appearing in anyones flat.
I took it as a sign that more people are dying alone and their deaths are going unnoticed.
That's how things work in the block I was briefly living in last year. Almost everyone looks out for each other although a bit of living in everyone's pockets is a factor there. We know the tradesmen's code to unlock the outside door until 5pm when you need a key. It's a secured building so locksmiths aren't allowed to cut spare copies. My flatmate showed me how to pop the latch using a nail file instead after 5pm.One better idea is to actually keep an eye out for each other, before the flies turn up! You don't have to be living in everyone's pockets, but just be on "Hello" terms with them....
It's quite hard to do that as there's 80 flats here on 15 floors and there's a lot who never seem to leave their flats. On our floor we all get on really well but sometimes I don't see my neighbours for weeks on end. Sometimes I can go out and come back and not see a soul.One better idea is to actually keep an eye out for each other, before the flies turn up! You don't have to be living in everyone's pockets, but just be on "Hello" terms with them....
It's certainly mine! I see very few people and although I regularly phone my son and my sister it would still be several days before alarm bells rang.I think it must be a fear of everyone who lives alone.
Your's is a common problem with older people. But it appears that single younger people are suffering similarly where friends are married, and have children. If it wasn't for Ms PeteS I would be in exactly the same boat since friends have either died or moved to the other end of the country to retire. I suspect that there will be an increase in frequency of people dying alone and unnoticed. Sad.It's certainly mine! I see very few people and although I regularly phone my son and my sister it would still be several days before alarm bells rang.
In fact something happened at the beggining of the year which really showed up my isolation. I'd been going to a friendship group that someone had started up nearby. It takes referals from the GPs so it's all registered and what not.
Anyway I'd not gone for at least four weeks and I had expected that I'd get a phone call although only two people had my number one of them was the leader. Then I did get a call from the leader ... turned out she'd been nominated for an award and she was canvassing members to write supporting letters! Needless to say she did not get one from me!! When I did go back I discovered she'd got everyones back up and didn't get any from anybody else either.
The thing is it's a weird kind of set up and although I did think some of the others were nice enough after a year of going I didn't feel close to any of them really. In fact somedays I dreaded going so decided to stop altogether.
I've never had trouble making friends before at any other time of my life. I tried various things when I first moved here not much luck I even joined my preferred political party ... nope no joy. They knew where I was when they wanted leaflets delivering but not one of them contacted me during Covid even though they knew I lived on my own. One of the others at the friendship group who favours the other main party said the same had happened to her so that lot weren't any better either!!
I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm really unhappy with my own company just rather sad thinking how things used to be for me in my younger life and even how they were for my mother, grandmothers and other elderly relatives as they went through old age. Strange times we are living in!
I live on the end of a terrace and there's 30 on this side of the street and mainly semi's on the other, with the odd detached thrown in.It's quite hard to do that as there's 80 flats here on 15 floors and there's a lot who never seem to leave their flats. On our floor we all get on really well but sometimes I don't see my neighbours for weeks on end. Sometimes I can go out and come back and not see a soul.
I'm not that old, not say, compared to Gordon obviously, but this last year or so I have realised that my body is starting to wear out - which of course you never think will happen when you're younger- it seems one thing after another lately.I don't know how I will feel when I retire and don't have that option any more. Loneliness is a real problem, whatever the age group, it's just that younger people tend to be physically able to get out and about and the elderly often can't.
It creeps up on you gradually*. I was congratulating myself five years ago on being so fit and active and not the least tired and being full of energy. But year by year I find I'm just a bit more tired, a bit more reluctant to do lots of stuff and I need more time to recover. I am very lucky in that I am fit and well and out running every day and all that, but after a really busy day I need a day off to get my energy levels back up. I can't do action packed weeks any more without taking quite a while to get back to normal.I'm not that old, not say, compared to Gordon obviously, but this last year or so I have realised that my body is starting to wear out - which of course you never think will happen when you're younger- it seems one thing after another lately.
Very true.It creeps up on you gradually*. I was congratulating myself five years ago on being so fit and active and not the least tired and being full of energy. But year by year I find I'm just a bit more tired, a bit more reluctant to do lots of stuff and I need more time to recover.
*not unlike Gordon.
I do know what you mean. If ever I feel lonely I just have to ring my sister who shares her living space with her husband and son and realise I'm not so badly off after all. I don't know why she hasn't kicked them out LOL!The older I get, the more I prefer my own company.
@Floyd I know what you mean. All the household jobs seem so much more difficult and as for bending down to cupboards I really have to steal myself and then when I'm down there regret not having brought a book to read while I recover enough to get up! It's not so much aches and pains but just that the strength seems to have gone.but this last year or so I have realised that my body is starting to wear out - which of course you never think will happen when you're younger- it seems one thing after another lately.
Yes this is so true and is very concerning. It's all part of a wider problem of how we live these days. Modern technology can be isolating and the decline of neighbourhood pubs. It's not just company in general but that lack of a special someone even if that special someone is also driving you crazy in some respects lolbut it appears that single younger people are suffering similarly where friends are married, and have children.
Tell them you’ve won the lottery and ask them to respect you’ve gone anonymous and are still working out what to do with the money. (I’m not a financial advisor or an advisor of any sort).I'm one my own. I do have siblings and nieces and nephews and my mom, but they rarely call me. I call my mom, but only once or twice a week. If I don't call her, she doesn't call anyway. So, other than work, no one is really expecting me.
I do go to my coffee shop daily and have good friends/neighbours who I speak to. Though, again, there might be questions raised only after several days, particularly in the winter when no one is outside chatting on porches.
I am not one to socialize like some. I have a few things I do, but I don't enjoy joining social groups for activities.
I like being on my own, but do feel left out sometimes when even my extended family might get together for their family things and they forget to invite me. The kids (20-35 year olds) forget that I don't do social media and often think I know about something forgetting that I'm not online. I do text though and they can text me but nowadays everyone uses social media to post everything about their lives.
Tell them you’ve won the lottery and ask them to respect you’ve gone anonymous and are still working out what to do with the money. (I’m not a financial advisor or an advisor of any sort).
Sadly many families don't do this. It must have been very comforting for mum and her sister.My mum used to phone my auntie every morning and every evening. If a phone call was not made or received the other would know that there was trouble.
It would annoy the hell out of me to know that I 'had to' phone someone night and morning. As, no doubt, it would annoy the person having to be available to receive the calls. Maybe this works best if both parties are very elderly?Sadly many families don't do this. It must have been very comforting for mum and her sister.