Hi All I just read this on Mail and
- Thread starter camstaude
- Start date
zulu-X-treme
Sealiner
On this exact topic here's a an excerpt from a book I'm busy reading...
'Cast an eye back for a moment to the summer months of 2001, which in the United States came to be known as the Summer of the Shark. The media brought us chilling tales of rampant shark carnage. The prime example was the story of Jessie Arbogast, an eight-year-old boy who was playing in the warm, shallow Gulf waves of Pensacola, Florida, when a bull shark ripped off his right arm and gorged a big piece of his thigh as well. Time magazine ran a cover package about shark attacks. Here is the lead of the main article: Sharks come silently, without warning. There are three ways the strike: the hit-and-run is the most common. The shark may see the sole of a swimmer's foot, think it's a fish and take a bite before realizing this isn't its usual prey.
Scared yet?
A reasonable person might never go near the ocean again. But how many shark attacks do you think actually happened that year? Take a guess-and then cut your guess in half, and now cut it in half a few more times. During the entire year of 2001, around the world there were just 68 shark attacks, of which only 4 were fatal.
Not only are these numbers far lower than the media hysteria implied; they were also no higher than in earlier years or in the years to follow. Between 1995 and 2005, there were on average 60.3 worlwide shark attacks each year, with a high of 79 and a low of 46. There were on average 5.9 fatalities per year, with a high of 11 and a low of 3. In other words, the headlines during the summer of 2001 might just as easily have read "Shark Attacks About Average This Year." But that probably wouldn't have sold many magazines.
So for a moment, instead of thinking about poor Jessie Arobgast and the tradegy he and his family faced, think of this: in a world with more than 6 billion people, only 4 of them died in 2001 from shark attacks. More people are probably run over each year by TV news vans.
Elephants, meanwhile, kill at least 200 people every year. So why aren't we petrified of them?'
- Super Freakonomics Steven.D.Levitt & Stephen.J.Dubner
'Cast an eye back for a moment to the summer months of 2001, which in the United States came to be known as the Summer of the Shark. The media brought us chilling tales of rampant shark carnage. The prime example was the story of Jessie Arbogast, an eight-year-old boy who was playing in the warm, shallow Gulf waves of Pensacola, Florida, when a bull shark ripped off his right arm and gorged a big piece of his thigh as well. Time magazine ran a cover package about shark attacks. Here is the lead of the main article: Sharks come silently, without warning. There are three ways the strike: the hit-and-run is the most common. The shark may see the sole of a swimmer's foot, think it's a fish and take a bite before realizing this isn't its usual prey.
Scared yet?
A reasonable person might never go near the ocean again. But how many shark attacks do you think actually happened that year? Take a guess-and then cut your guess in half, and now cut it in half a few more times. During the entire year of 2001, around the world there were just 68 shark attacks, of which only 4 were fatal.
Not only are these numbers far lower than the media hysteria implied; they were also no higher than in earlier years or in the years to follow. Between 1995 and 2005, there were on average 60.3 worlwide shark attacks each year, with a high of 79 and a low of 46. There were on average 5.9 fatalities per year, with a high of 11 and a low of 3. In other words, the headlines during the summer of 2001 might just as easily have read "Shark Attacks About Average This Year." But that probably wouldn't have sold many magazines.
So for a moment, instead of thinking about poor Jessie Arobgast and the tradegy he and his family faced, think of this: in a world with more than 6 billion people, only 4 of them died in 2001 from shark attacks. More people are probably run over each year by TV news vans.
Elephants, meanwhile, kill at least 200 people every year. So why aren't we petrified of them?'
- Super Freakonomics Steven.D.Levitt & Stephen.J.Dubner
Dean Slater
Senior Member
please mail me the pics too
dean-slater@hotmail.com.
dean-slater@hotmail.com.
I rate people are scared off sharks because , when we are in the water we are in their territory and we cant see them so our minds begin to play tricks on us.
for example if you are sucked out to see by a rip i for one would sh!t myself worrying about all the sharks that may or may not be swimming around you! I think its called fear of the unknown or something?
we not scared of elephants because we can see them from miles away and they are avoidable!
P.s you guys are sadists looking at pics like these!!!
for example if you are sucked out to see by a rip i for one would sh!t myself worrying about all the sharks that may or may not be swimming around you! I think its called fear of the unknown or something?
we not scared of elephants because we can see them from miles away and they are avoidable!
P.s you guys are sadists looking at pics like these!!!
