Dear dear me ,

[jonny jeez]

It appears your perception is not matched by the risk you face. Not a criticism but something you could look into? Have a healthy fear of real and present risk and don't sweat the imaginary. Life will be easier.

your right, I know you are ...and I'm not usually a doomonger.

but right now (perhaps because I travel a lot and already feel a little at risk because of that) I am feeling a little too sorry for myself. I just cant remember ever feeling this way about day to day life in the UK (especially London)

I shall cheer up tomorrow

 

[jonny jeez]

Just keep an eye on the Welsh...

and the dolphins

 

[raleighnut]

and the dolphins

What about the Sperm Whale.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THSY7-CxKnQ&feature=player_detailpage

 

[colly]

A bit of perspective :
http://www.bombsight.org/#13/51.5050/-0.0900

While not wishing to minimise the recent spate of bombings and terrorist attacks, just 70 odd years ago half the cities across Europe were being attacked by one bunch or another. Some like Hamburg, Coventry and Dresden were almost literally flattened. For the people living then it really must have seemed like the 'end of times'
What we have now is dreadful, vicious and seemingly unstoppable but eventually it will pass. Only for some other threat to raise itself up.

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Upside of a hijacking: getting a photo with the hijacker...

 

[shouldbeinbed]

There's a graph doing the rounds somewhere right now that showed how much more 'violent' a society UK was during the NI troubles

Also last year in America there were exponentially more american shot by fellow Americans than all of the atrocities in the OP. I imagine those that remember life in Beirut in the 70s & 80s or Sytia et al now might wonder why we're so het up about what amounts to a routine days warzone.

The world isn't more violent, just closer and with more means of formal or gonzo reportage

 

[classic33]

Watched a programme t'other night about the Brontes.

Charlotte, Emily & Anne sat around the table and wrote, basically because they needed money to live on, there being no safety net of any description. Fortunately they had talent to fall back on, and within a couple of years all three had become successful authors (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre + a couple of others). Unfortunately in the meantime, their brother died - their only surviving sibling, two older sisters having died previously - and within two years, both Emily & Anne had died of TB. Still, they'd almost reached 30, at a time when the life-expectancy in the Yorkshire milltown where they lived was 25. Ah, the good old days...

There's a lesser known side to the Brontes.
They worked in a local casino, exact capicity unknown.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Regarding the original post: wars still pale by comparison with some of these leading causes of death (and no doubt some of these numbers have increased in the last 15 years): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventable_causes_of_death#2001_figures

 

[ozboz]

could be as many as 14m deaths of those figures in the stats are self inflicted ,ie smoking etc ,

 

[slowmotion]

Just give up watching and reading the news. It does wonders for morale.

 

[ozboz]

Mmmmm , prob the way

 

[ufkacbln]

That certainly fits with the nordic influence that I have met during my time there. I've spent months (overall) working out there and find the folk, the politics, The attitude and the landscape quite inspiring and very refreshing. They don't even have any military...don't need it. All of that will change as the country becomes more populated, most of the frankness and openness is down to the simple fact that everyone knows ...or is related to...one another, so there is little point in using any bullsh1t.

Having said all that, there is a lot wrong with Iceland, aside from its financial restrictions. There is a lack of culture and art, beyond local or folk. There is no real sense of identity, are they Vikings or Icelanders? And many of those who chose to move there, seem to also be escaping something, rather than adding something.(from my own personal experience)

I also find Iceland refreshing, and try and visit at least once a year. IT is a briliant mixture of modern and traditional culture due to the fact they have been forced to develop so quickly

When I was talking to a group at one of the bars, they introduced me to a "Happy hour" app they were using on the phone to navigate the bars - so you can tell which Reykjavik bars are offering reduced prices

They also showed me another app which shows family relationships. Apparently if you just meet someone of the opposite sex, there is a possibility you are related, and the app will show this

Bump

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I grew up, as I suspect many on here did, during the Cold War, in an era when the ever present threat of nuclear incineration, or worse, surviving to die via starvation during the nuclear winter, hung heavy on our minds. "Protect and Survive" shoved through the door. "If the Russians love their children too" droning from the radio. And "The Troubles" marred my early career with bomb blasts far too near where I worked, for comfort.

Give me the teen years of the 21st C, complete with "psychopathic" murdering, suicide-bombing, gun-totting "So called Islamic State" mofo's, any day.

Our @srw knows his actuarial numbers and can probably give the top ten likeliest causes of any untimely demise I might undergo off the top of his head. Terrorism won't be one. Would it make it into the top 100? The top 1000?

The point of terrorism is to terrify us into changing the way we behave. F u c k 'em. I'm living my life to the full, and metaphorically spitting in their sad misguided faces.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Drifting off topic...I read (probably on Teh Intarwebs, so it must be true, that when the Vikings (or whomever) discovered Iceland, they thought it was quite a nice place to live, but didn't want everyone coming there. A bright spark decided, therefore, to call it Iceland, as "the clue is in the name". Greenland was named such for the opposite reason - it's barren, cold and unwelcoming, so we'll persuade people we don't want here to go there.

Close but not much of a cigar

http://icelandreview.com/stuff/ask-ir/2013/04/20/how-did-iceland-get-its-name

It is the sort of everyday conversation we have in the office.