Troll is hosting his Meme-Overrated/Underrated. It takes place twice a month. Today's choice is Overrated. Let me preface by saying I had a mental block and couldn't come up with much today for overrated, though on any other day I am sure I could draw a list.
Here is my idea of overrated:
Bungee Jumping.
Most often it cost money (be it you are paying someone to let you jump off a cliff-how bizarre is that- or you have spent money on equipment to jump off a cliff).
It is over to quickly.
It can kill you. I don't understand the fascination with tempting fate/cheating certain death. Why do people want to do this for a cheap thrill? I can think of a hundred other cheap thrills I would rather do than this. I just don't get it. Next time I want to tell someone to jump off a cliff, instead I will just buy them a gift certificate for bungee jumping, "because I was thinking of you..."
This from Wikepedia regarding injury:
There is a wide spectrum of possible injuries during a jump. One can be injured during a jump if the safety harness fails, the cord elasticity is miscalculated, or the cord is not properly connected to the jump platform. In most cases this is a result of human error in the form of mishandled harness preparation. Another major injury is if the jumper experiences cord entanglement with his/her own body. Other injuries include eye trauma, rope burn, uterine prolapse, dislocations, bruises, pinched fingers and back injury.
Age, equipment, experience, location and weight are some of the factors, and nervousness can exacerbate eye traumas
In 1997, Laura Patterson, one of a 16-member professional bungee jumping team, died of massive cranial trauma when she jumped from the top level of the Louisiana Superdome with improperly handled bungee cords and smashed head-first into the concrete-based playing field. She was practicing for an exhibition intended to be performed during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXI. The bungee jumping portion of the show was removed from the program and a commemoration of Patterson was added.
In August 1998, Jerome Charron, died in a bungee ride accident at the Ottawa Exhibition in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada when he was hurled 40 meters into the air before plummeting to his death as his harness had detached. In February 2000, the firm responsible for the ride, Anderson Ventures, was fined $145,000 for this incident. Provincial inspectors had inspected the ride just 4 days before the incident and approved it, but did not see the strap because it was in a nearby box.
Age, equipment, experience, location and weight are some of the factors, and nervousness can exacerbate eye traumas
In 1997, Laura Patterson, one of a 16-member professional bungee jumping team, died of massive cranial trauma when she jumped from the top level of the Louisiana Superdome with improperly handled bungee cords and smashed head-first into the concrete-based playing field. She was practicing for an exhibition intended to be performed during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXI. The bungee jumping portion of the show was removed from the program and a commemoration of Patterson was added.
In August 1998, Jerome Charron, died in a bungee ride accident at the Ottawa Exhibition in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada when he was hurled 40 meters into the air before plummeting to his death as his harness had detached. In February 2000, the firm responsible for the ride, Anderson Ventures, was fined $145,000 for this incident. Provincial inspectors had inspected the ride just 4 days before the incident and approved it, but did not see the strap because it was in a nearby box.
Bungee Jumping, completely overrated.
Posts
4 comments:
Grrherhahahahaha. Great choice. Always seemed more dumb than thrilling to me. Pretty sure the fad has faded. At least around here.
A very miniscule part of me would like to attempt this but after reading this, maybe it's not such a great idea after all. You would think in this day and age of law suits that no-one would be game to risk it (as a business venture I mean). By it's very nature I realised it would be a risky thing to do but the magnitude of the risks was an unknown entity. I am now crossing off bungee jumping as something I would like to do before I die. Cheers Leigh and Happy Friday!
Bungee jumping really is overrated. When I was still living in Illinois, several people died in Chicago when they went bungee jumping and while the papers played up the tragedy of what happened, I always wondered why, if people had young children and families, they would put themselves at that great a risk. *shrugs* However, that's just me. Some people I know would see no problem with going off and doing something dangerous, even with a family.
I remember hearing of some bungee jump operators who shouted one, two, three and then as the guy had left the ledge 'STOP'. Then they would wait a second and throw a disconnected length of rope after the jumper.
I have never been an adrenalin junkie in terms of heights and jumping. It scares me to death. There is a new craze over here called tombstoning where young people jump off cliffs and piers into the sea without knowing the depth of the water into which they are going. There have been lots of spinal injuries as a result.
Good post. Totally over-rated!
Post a Comment