Talk:Death by coconut

This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Alexis Kleinman, Maxwell Strachan (14 January 2015). "The 49 Most Entertaining Wikipedia Entries Ever Created". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 8 March 2015.

A fact from Death by coconut appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 July 2013 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that according to an urban legend, coconuts kill more people than sharks each year?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2013/July. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Death by coconuts.

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Unreasonable?

Is the figure of 150 coconut caused deaths per year so unreasonable? The article on Papua New Guinea says it had a population of about 5 million in 2000. 150 times 5 million is 750 million. I can easily believe that 750 million people live in the neighborhood of coconut trees, if you consider all the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, the coasts of India and Southeast Asia, and North America and the Caribbean islands where coconut trees have been introduced often in public beaches and parks making the groovy. Kitfoxxe (talk) 16:53, 6 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Of course it is possible but such a claim is left unverified. ☯ Bonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 10:16, 7 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Quite true. But I also don't think it's just an urban myth. Kitfoxxe (talk) 18:15, 7 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Incidently, the range is even larger than I thought, after checking out coconut. Kitfoxxe (talk) 18:27, 7 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Variations section

If you like the "variations" section I will leave it alone. As for me, I think it distracts readers from the central concept of the article: coconut + gravity + human head = possible death. :-) (Actually not funny when it really happens, as the doctor pointed out.) -Kitfoxxe (talk) 18:48, 7 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I see you do like the section. No problem. It is on-topic to the title of the article, even if not to the main theme. And it certainly does no harm to give the readers some extra material. Kitfoxxe (talk) 15:18, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's better to loosen our criteria as to what is "Death by coconut". ☯ Bonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 15:25, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I, too, like the variations section. One possible area for modification is the instance of death by falling coconut palm tree. My research shows that deaths from falling coconut palm trees are fairly common. I would favor either eliminating the one instance of death by falling coconut palm or making note of the fact that there have been multiple instances of such deaths (with citation to several such reports). Cbl62 (talk) 17:18, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just trying to curry favour here: [1] Martinevans123 (talk) 17:02, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Revise or Delete

"When Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones underwent surgery and hospitalization for a brain injury in April 2006, some press reports erroneously blamed the injury on Richards' having been "conked by coconuts".[65] Falling coconuts had not caused the injury as Richards had climbed a coconut tree to collect the fruits and had then fallen from the tree.[66]"

This is trying to hard to "convince" the reader that these are false allegations; it's like the person who wrote it is in his fan-club or something...
We cannot use footnote [66] and the source it references... I'm about to delete it in a moment... The very last sentence of it says that "the spokeswoman said she did not know how it happened"... If the spokeswoman didn't know at that time, even if Keith Richards just hadn't told her yet, you cannot use such a brief, unsubstantial article because their information would be coming from her... and the "media reports" that they do reference are not named or cited...UsernameTBD (talk) 16:11, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"But asked what he had been doing up the tree, he admitted that it was not a coconut tree at all": [2]. Martinevans123 (talk) 16:43, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, so let's reword this and add "However Keith Richards denies it was even a coconut tree." Can you change the source? UsernameTBD (talk) 17:37, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Classifying Article

This article should Not be a B-Class Article... It Should be C-Class at best... UsernameTBD (talk) 16:36, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Well, C is for Coconut, after all. Martinevans123 (talk) 16:48, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like one more person to voice an opinion before I make a change UsernameTBD (talk) 17:34, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

... or even someone sensible. Martinevans123 (talk) 17:37, 7 January 2015 (UTC) [reply]

What contribution does that comment make? UsernameTBD (talk) 22:03, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It suggests that my contribution might lack the degree of sense you'd need to make an informed decision. Or did you mean the previous one? Martinevans123 (talk) 22:44, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I thought you were responding as if I insulted you... I took your initial comment as more of a "I don't really disagree; so I'll just make a joke"UsernameTBD (talk) 00:34, 9 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As if I'd ever joke about something so deadly serious. I'm just too shy. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:45, 9 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Height

In the background section, it would be relevant to add at what average height in the tree coconuts grow. That measure has a direct impact on lethality. Thanks! Syced (talk) 06:46, 21 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Fiction

David Del Monté (11 February 2013). Coconuts Kill More People Than Sharks. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4772-1553-1. is fiction:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coconuts-Kill-More-People-Sharks/dp/1438951280 classified as Books > Fiction > Short Stories
87.102.44.18 (talk) 11:55, 9 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You are supposes to discuss things on the talk page not just delete them. How do you justify using a work of fiction as a reference? 87.102.44.18 (talk) 19:05, 9 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

From the paper

I suspect most people haven't had access to the full text. The abstract however is very misleading. It ends with:

"Two others died instantly in the village after being struck by dropping nuts."

...but in the paper itself we find:

"As our clerk and I were weighing coconuts he recalled that as a boy he had seen another man killed by a falling coconut in his home village..."
"The health worker who referred Patient 1 for craniotomy informed us about another person in the same village who had died instantly a few years earlier when struck on the head by a falling coconut."

So, two anecdotal examples, both from several years before. - Snori (talk) 04:39, 5 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Just for reference

I might get this to GA status in the future. Okmrman (talk) 04:43, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]