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Holidays as a risk factor: how dangerous is Christmas? Very!

2021-12-24T09:08:28.342Z


Whether drugs in gingerbread or swallowed Christmas tree balls: Christmas remains a risk factor, year after year. Even Santa Claus is not spared.


How dangerous is Christmas?

I asked that back in 2005 and after reviewing the medical literature I delivered the answer right away: very much!

Here are the timeless highlights of the research:

Even the preparation for the festival offers every chance of reporting damage.

"Pre-Christmas trauma: the mailbox guillotine" is the title of a case study by British doctors who report how a 59-year-old amputated her fingertip at the mailbox slot while throwing Christmas cards.

The disaster takes its course for the menu. Turkeys that explode in the microwave have long been a part of folklore across the Atlantic. Can gingerbread provide consolation? No doubt. But parents watch out! The fine pastries have it all. Pharmacologists from Prague claim to have identified drugs in the treat. Christmas spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and anise contained precursors of the addictive substance amphetamine. It's also found in designer drugs like speed.

Oh, you happy mess!

What the little ones can't swallow.

Whole Christmas tree balls were already in the stomachs of the rascals.

The top spots on the Christmas unlucky list, however, are taken by those who are entitled to the infamous "Darwin Award", the prize that is given to those who "improve the gene pool by removing themselves from it."

There are to be mourned:

  • The would-be Santa who tied his waist to his parked car with a rope to lower himself down the chimney of the family home with presents.

    Unfortunately, the man failed to inform his wife.

    She got in the car and drove away.

  • The 35-year-old clerk from South Westphalia, who wanted to lead a Christmas polonaise through a window onto a flat roof at a company party.

    The man danced through the wrong window.

    He hit concrete five meters below.

  • Santa Claus himself: Everyone can work out his fate.

    Rod Morgan of the US State Department did it on the Internet.

In order to give presents to all 378 million Christian children on earth within one day, a sleigh is necessary, pulled by 214,200 reindeer, loaded with 321,300 tons of gifts.

The vehicle has to rush through the air at 3000 times the speed of sound for on-time delivery.

The resulting air resistance heats the reindeer until they go up in flames.

"The whole reindeer team will be vaporized in 4.26 thousandths of a second," reports Morgan, including Santa.

Merry Christmas!

Yours Philip Bethge

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Volcanic eruption on La Palma:

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The desert is growing:

a UN convention against desertification came into force 25 years ago.

That didn't help: More than ever, arid regions on earth are increasing - and threaten the livelihoods of people on all continents.

Troy discoverer Schliemann:

 He was an adventurer, businessman and braggart: Troy discoverer Heinrich Schliemann was born 200 years ago - a large exhibition now shows a largely unknown side of the millionaire.

He found the legendary city by accident and almost destroyed it.

Psychology:

loneliness is one of the greatest health threats.

It increases the risk of death by 45 percent, explains a study by British psychologists - and provides the most effective antidote.

Corona fate:

 The student Julius Hege actually only wanted to help when he signed up for a vaccine study.

Now he is not allowed to go to university or the cinema, on paper he is considered unvaccinated.

Why isn't he angry?

Social network of Stone Age people:

In Africa, researchers found elaborately designed pearls made from ostrich eggs.

Your analysis shows how humanity communicated over great distances - more than 40,000 years ago.

Gigantic millipede:

It was up to 2.60 meters long and about 50 kilograms.

A giant fossilized centipede from the Carboniferous Period was discovered in England - by chance by a graduate of Cambridge University.

quiz

  • How many needles does a Nordmann fir have?

    Around 18,000, 180,000 or 1.8 million?

  • How many Christmas trees do Germans buy each year?

    18, 24 or 30 million?

  • How many Christmas carols are there?

  • * You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.

    Picture of the week

    "And, behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them to the place where the child was,"

    says the Bible.

    "There he stopped." Was the star of Bethlehem a meteor?

    Perhaps.

    The author or authors of the Gospel of Matthew probably experienced the comet Halley in 66 AD, which was rushing past the earth at that time.

    The meteor in this photo is one of the Geminids that originated in the constellation Gemini.

    Every year they can be seen in the night sky around December 14th.

    (Feedback & suggestions?)

    * Quiz answers: 1. The "Sendung mit der Maus" counted all the needles of an average Nordmann fir in one attempt and came to 178,333.

    / 2. According to an estimate by the German Forest Protection Association, Germans bought between 23 and 25 million Christmas trees in 2021.

    With 80 percent of all trees sold, the Nordmann fir is the most popular tree species in this country.

    / 3. Nobody knows that, of course.

    But the Steirisches Volksliedwerk from Graz has created an archive.

    There are currently 5731 different titles listed.

    Source: spiegel

    All tech articles on 2021-12-24

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