Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/07/07/study-finds-that-hurricanes-wi.html
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I should hope they’re not ready to change the naming convention based on the study!
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Perhaps we should name them after bad-ass movie villains?
Would you take cover for:
- Hurricane Dorthy
- Hurricane Darth Maul
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“In other news, the NOAA’s recent plan to have private companies sponsor the naming of hurricanes has taken a unforeseen tragic twist. The recently named hurricane, Princess Twilight Sparkle, a character from the My Little Pony cartoon, has already cut a path of destruction across Florida leaving hundreds dead. No one believing something with such a cute name could be dangerous, tens of thousands were left completely unprepared, some even welcoming the hurricane with open arms. One of the victims was quoted before being blown away by a 100 mph guest, ‘Friendship is magiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiic!’”
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Let’s change all hurricane names to female names. We get this gift of culling the population of sexists (and, lets face it, dumbasses)? Lets use it!
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Study finds that hurricanes with female names kill more because they aren’t taken seriously
My dear wife says she knew this all along, she’s usually right about these things.
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An interesting angle. There’s some poetic justice in the thought that male chauvinist piggery self-destructs.
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They should name one after my aunt. No one doesn’t take her seriously.
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I knew it. Katrina deaths had nothing to do with FEMA sucking ass, it was because “ha, Katrina!? Sounds like a pansy storm to me! I’m stayin!”
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Strangely enough, the year that Mild Afternoon Thundershower Hillary was identified, all these same idiots who normally scoff at female storms spent 3 weeks in their homemade bomb shelters rocking and foaming at the mouth.
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50 deaths in the past 66 years isn’t exactly culling.
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Darth Maul, was that pretty little ballet dancer doing the pole vault, wasn’t it?
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Perhaps the wrong female names. If a hurricane named ‘Chas chunk a’ or ‘Megedagik’ is raging towards me, I’m out!
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Naming storms has always been a daft idea.
But ironically, people only take death seriously because they are programmed to.
the problem with this conclusion is that they only started using male names for hurricanes in 1979. You can’t say that people took female names less seriously before 1979 because there was nothing to compare it to.
Also, hurricanes have killed tens of thousands since 1950, not 73. Katrina alone claimed 1836 lives.
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No isn’t. 1) You have to be able to tell them apart, and 2) branding, marketing, and merchandising!
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Part of the problem is that The Weather Channel has started naming every thunderstorm that rolls by as a storm character. It plays into their media blitz and freakout strategy to keep folks glued to their TV sets while being subjected to an ad campaign. With every tropical disturbance being named there is no wonder that some are oblivious to the danger and are ignoring warnings. Whether male or female, names make no difference when folks think “Well, it’s just another storm. Carry on.”
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Came here to point out the male-naming thing starting in 1979. I remember the first male-named hurricane. IIRC, it was named David.
Speaking of naming conventions, the link takes you to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, whose acronym is PNAS. Someone must have been having a laff when they settled on that. Try saying it out loud. Heh.
(Edit: the first male-named storm was Bob. I guess David sticks in my mind because it was the first destructive hurricane with a male name?)
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Exactly. I can remember when all storms had female names and the change wasn’t 60 years ago.
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As always, I take the federal/state/local response by Katrina to be a baseline the best possible response I can expect to a major Bay Area earthquake and plan accordingly. I’ve got 7 days of food and 14 days of water. Just three days of scotch, however.
