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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1126 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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You're triggering fond memories of my Scottish vacation.

I completely agree on Glasgow. I'm not sure what their problem is, but I'm glad we didn't spend the night there. It felt somehow post-apocalyptic, but with all the technology working fine. If that makes sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_effect

The Glasgow effect is a socially constructed theory that describes the unexplained lower life expectancy of residents of Glasgow, specifically when compared to other municipalities across the United Kingdom.[1] Although lower income levels are generally associated with poor health and a shorter lifespan, epidemiologists have argued that poverty alone does not appear to account for the disparity found in Glasgow.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Equally deprived areas of the UK such as Liverpool and Manchester have higher life expectancies, and the wealthiest ten per cent of the Glasgow population have a lower life expectancy than the same group in other cities.[7] One in four men in Glasgow will die before their sixty-fifth birthday.[8]

I blame aliens. We've ruled out everything else.

One in four men in Glasgow will die before their sixty-fifth birthday.[8]

25% dead by 65 isn't exactly disastrous. I thought I heard at some point that 1/3 of us will be dead by 67 or so. Maybe that information was outdated or applied to a worldwide basis and not just WEIRD countries.

Why could it not be some kind of pollen, or breathable but slightly poisonous molecule in the air? Something in very low concentration, and only sporadically released into the air? Something not yet detectable by modern instruments because we are unaware of it?

I have no idea, my best bet was background radiation, but I think I looked it up and the levels were fine. Even talked to a nuclear engineer in the family.

The reason we don't know is because we don't know, and people have tried pretty hard to figure out what's going on.

Huh. So the inverse of the Roseto Effect?

Later studies failed to find evidence supporting this thesis and raised numerous methodological flaws with it, noting that Roseto's rate of deaths from heart attacks is comparable to Framingham, Massachusetts, the only other town from the era for which comparable data exists. A study also attributed any difference in heart disease to the town's diet, particularly moderate wine consumption

Apparently that one doesn't hold up, while Glasgow's does.

The first claim is unsourced, and the second is from Oeno One, "a peer-reviewed Open Access journal in the field of vine, grape and wine sciences", which may be slightly less than unbiased about positive effects of drinking wine.

The source for the second claim also doesn't say what the Wikipedia entry says: it certainly does not attribute "any difference to the town's diet." I think there's some of the usual Wikipedia shenanigans going on, but damfino why this page of all of them

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