Wednesday, March 2, 2011

xkcd's accidents

Everybody knows or should know xkcd. I consider him probably the funniest guy on the internet (actually, by that I mean his jokes... don't know the man personally), and like him even more because he clearly states that he allows bloggers and other non or low profit pages to place his comics without asking, while many others deny it and want money.

Anyway, I was looking through his older works I have saved and found his accidents chart:

I've decided to re-do his research to see how things have developed. Here's what I got today (i kept the original order):

"died in a skydiving accident"....................4 700
"died in a elevator accident"......................200
"died in an elevator accident"....................8 900
"died in a surfing accident"........................2880
"died in a skateboarding accident".............6270
"died in a camping accident"......................874
"died in a gardening accident"....................214
"died in a ice skating accident"...................41
"died in a knitting accident"........................3970
"died in a blogging accident"......................4540

and for comparison, the generals:
"died in a accident"...................................240 000
"died in an accident"..................................5 170 000

Conclusions:
1. Every number is increased so much it suggests rapid growth of internet or difference in methods.
2. The increase in knitting and blogging accident results must be caused by the chart's popularity.
3. The increase in skateboarding accidents is so big, it may mean that
         a) skateboarders don't know how to skate anymore.
         b) they're being ridiculed by the whole internet now.
         c) there's just an awful nuber of skateboarders.
4. Correct articles can mean the world.
5. Due to global warming, ice skating is losing popularity (or people finally got good at it).



EDIT: Valid points made in the comments made me try some more possibilities, just for fun (yeah, I do find odd things funny):
"died in a car accident".........1,860,000
"died in a diving accident".....69,600
"died in a sexual accident"....7
"died in a music accident".....2
"died in a musical accident"..1
"died in a reading accident"..1 (only result related to xkcd, so reading's pretty safe)
"died in a drinking accident"..600
"died in an eating accident"...2

Also, if you don't believe that people can die out of a blogging accident, here's a completely made up proof:
"Thomas Harrison, age 34, has been found dead in his house. The direct cause of death was cardiac arrest, believed to be induced by massive rage attack Harrison has suffered while reading comments on his blog. He is believed to be the fourth victim of the blogging wave America's been struggling with lately"

13 comments:

  1. Ha! Nobody can die from a blogging accide

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  2. People should be aware of the dangers of knitting.

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  3. Has anyone noticed there's not an obvious "Died in a car accident"? lol. Interesting article though.

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  4. Killed by E-rage, that gives a new meaning to boiling your blood lol

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  5. now i'm scared, how the heck do you die from a blogging accident? do you have to invoke the wrath of some gangsters or something?

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  6. Death by blogging....sounds like an episode of CSI to me...great stuff btw

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  7. "died in a sexual accident"....7
    thats awkward.. xD

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  8. Blogging accident... *shiver*.
    Oh if you seriously ask me what way I'd rather go, it'd be skydiving accident all the way. Better than death by drowning or *snicker* blogging.

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  9. nice work. How can someone die because of the comments on his blog? were they so annoying?

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  10. Ha I saw this a while ago. And yes, I bet part of the increase is due to the popularity of this chart.

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