roland comments on Rationality Quotes: February 2010 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: wedrifid 01 February 2010 06:39AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (322)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: roland 01 February 2010 10:20:25PM 0 points [-]

I googled for it but didn't find any evidence for pigs killing people.

Comment author: gregconen 01 February 2010 11:36:57PM 3 points [-]

I find 3 pig related occupational fatalities in the US from 1992-1997, and total US deaths at 4 from all marine animals, 2 of which were venomous from 1991 to 2001. So it looks like pigs have it, though it's not like the difference is statistically significant.

Comment author: byrnema 02 February 2010 12:08:00AM *  6 points [-]

I heard recently that when The Wizard of Oz came out, more people would have realized how dangerous it was when Dorothy fell in the pig pen. Today, we watch that movie and think it was just about her losing her balance, and maybe wonder why the farmer who saved her was so visibly upset about it. (I contacted my source and he said it was 'just common knowledge', and that pigs have since been domesticated from the wild boars they were, and that I should google, "pigs aggression".)

Comment author: Morendil 02 February 2010 07:15:29AM 2 points [-]

Googled it too. You need to expand "pigs" to include "wild boar".

Still this "six times as many death from pigs as from sharks" sounds suspiciously like an urban legend, the precise multiplier implies that there should be a well known source and not finding it is a hint. The numbers are small enough that the ratio should be all over the map.

Comment author: LucasSloan 02 February 2010 07:29:02AM *  4 points [-]

Average Number of Deaths per Year in the U.S

  • Bee/Wasp 53

  • Dogs 31

  • Spider 6.5

  • Rattlesnake 5.5

  • Mountain lion 1

  • Shark 1

  • Alligator 0.3

  • Bear 0.5

  • Scorpion 0.5

  • Centipede 0.5

  • Elephant 0.25

  • Wolf 0.1

  • Horse 20

  • Bull 3

Here

Not entirely sure of the accuracy of these, but still. I think 31x as many killed by dogs as by sharks is a much more important figure than deaths from pigs.

Comment author: Kevin 02 February 2010 07:37:22AM 1 point [-]