Hurricanes and gender issues (seriously)

[BobblyDrink]

Always thought hurricanes should just be named Small, Medium or Big, keep it away from being humanized in any form. Or if it's something bigger than what's been seen before name it Godzilla or something. Will help give a general mental image of how big the thing is.

 

[WolfThomas]

Give them supervillain styled names, then everyone will take them seriously.

Hurricane Deathdealer is about to strike the west coast.

 

[Dismal purple]

I'm torn. Should we start giving hurricanes male names so more people will "take them seriously", or should we let them perish for their stupidity?

People are stupid by nature, it's not their fault. We all have inherent biases that just won't go away. Better to work around it.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Give them supervillain styled names, then everyone will take them seriously.

Hurricane Deathdealer is about to strike the west coast.

Yes.

Hurricane Doomsday will be upon us shortly, followed swiftly by Hurricane Runaway.

It would send a pretty clear message.

Then if the storm is going to be fairly mild, we can have Hurricane Fluffykins.

 

[Zhukov]

Oh look, another example of how literally anything can be twisted into a sexism controversy. "Most deaths at sea happen because the ocean doesn't take sea vessels with female names seriously". Har har har.

Funny thing is, you're the only one treating it as a sexism controversy.

Everyone else is responding with, "Huh, how 'bout that" or "Jeez, that's silly".

Does your shoulder ever get sore, y'know, with that big ol' chip sitting on it all the time?

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

At least in my general area of Florida, we look at the category over the name, but people tend to be lax over even that.

-Category 1-2: is a bad rainy day, sucks if it's a work/school day, no boards on windows.

-Category 3: is a really bad rainy day, school might be canceled provided you're in the cone of death, you'll still have to go to work, no boards on windows except for a few people who just decide to live in caves all hurricane season, might want to clear the junk out of your yard.

-Category 4: okay fair enough school is canceled, work is at your boss's discretion, tend to be more worried about the tornadoes spinning off them.

-Category 5: batten down the hatches, board the windows, hide in the hallway, work is canceled.

 

[Basement Cat]

At least in my general area of Florida, we look at the category over the name, but people tend to be lax over even that.

-Category 1-2: is a bad rainy day, sucks if it's a work/school day, no boards on windows.

-Category 3: is a really bad rainy day, school might be canceled provided you're in the cone of death, you'll still have to go to work, no boards on windows except for a few people who just decide to live in caves all hurricane season, might want to clear the junk out of your yard.

-Category 4: okay fair enough school is canceled, work is at your bosses discretion, tend to be more worried about the tornadoes spinning off them.

-Category 5: batten down the hatches, board the windows, hide in the hallway, work is canceled.

This.

I grew up between Galveston and Houston and I remember how blase' we were about "wimpy" hurricanes. We only ran from one hurricane and that was...hurricane...Alvin? Whatever it was named it was a class 5 and filled THE ENTIRE GULF OF MEXICO!!!!

Fortunately, it hung off the coast and weakened before coming ashore.

Our attitude changed when Hurricane Elisha came to call. She dropped a tornado on our detached garage and left us without power (in 95 degree weather and near 100% humidity) for well over a week.

In summary: People who live on the coasts are so inured to hurricane warnings that the names of such things are totally irrelevant to their thinking.

Kinda like how South Koreans are the least impressed people in the world to North Korea's blustering about war and such. Except hurricanes, generally speaking, are a lot more dangerous than North Korea--nukes and all.

 

[HardkorSB]

If you have to name them, I dunno, name them after the geographical location and the date of where and when they formed, and maybe their level or something. I can't see any practical application for hurricane-naming aside from keeping records and statistics.

I think the that people who actually study these things give them a letter and a number for cataloguing purposes and that's it.
The human names are given by some assholes in the media as a form of marketing.
"Hurricane Katrina" sounds better on the news than "F4 type A1 56".

 

[Thaluikhain]

Heh, that's...actually, yeah, I can see that.

Firstly, well, easy to say "stupid people dying", but lots of otherwise intelligent people can be stupid on certain issues.

Secondly, the usual "this is reflective of an underlying issue" thing.

As to what can be (feasibly) done about it, dunno.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Oh look, another example of how literally anything can be twisted into a sexism controversy. "Most deaths at sea happen because the ocean doesn't take sea vessels with female names seriously". Har har har.

Funny thing is, you're the only one treating it as a sexism controversy.

Everyone else is responding with, "Huh, how 'bout that" or "Jeez, that's silly".

Does your shoulder ever get sore, y'know, with that big ol' chip sitting on it all the time?

It's a good idea to read the article before responding, otherwise you simply come across as silly - especially when you start making incorrect assumptions about my mindset/bias, then you look REALLY silly. I got straight to the point of the article at the heart of this "discussion", I'm not too concerned with how people responding to it. Hint: read the article.

 

[gargantual]

You could say things are going to hell in a handbasket when I of all people decide to open a gender thread, but...yaknow what, sod it, this is so bizarre.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/06/02/female-named-hurricanes-kill-more-than-male-because-people-dont-respect-them-study-finds/

The (paywalled, naturally) study in question: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/29/1402786111

I'm not actually sure what I want to discuss about this, but for the last few minutes I have been wondering if there's a negative space wedgie causing this crazy stuff somewhere.

I will note, however, I never understood the need to "name" hurricanes, in the first place. It's not exactly you can take one home and call it George and pet it and squeeze it and hug it...

So I suppose there's a little discussion value there, at least: What do people think about hurricane naming conventions and what to do about it?

Maybe it does have an impact. Forgetting that some people are too entrenched, might have physical condition aint able to hit the road the way some others are.

Pablo apparently thinks so. LOL

 

[gargantual]

Give them supervillain styled names, then everyone will take them seriously.

Hurricane Deathdealer is about to strike the west coast.

Yes.

Hurricane Doomsday will be upon us shortly, followed swiftly by Hurricane Runaway.

It would send a pretty clear message.

Then if the storm is going to be fairly mild, we can have Hurricane Fluffykins.

True that, but people can't even name some planets sensibly. I think we should've have had a larger committee on Uranus or maybe its that doggone American stupidity of mines limiting my perspective again. Oh well

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Have none gendered names, every bodies happy and breathing loudly through their slack jaws! Hurricane Alex, Hurricane Sam, Hurricane Justin Bieber... etc

 

[Zhukov]

Oh look, another example of how literally anything can be twisted into a sexism controversy. "Most deaths at sea happen because the ocean doesn't take sea vessels with female names seriously". Har har har.

Funny thing is, you're the only one treating it as a sexism controversy.

Everyone else is responding with, "Huh, how 'bout that" or "Jeez, that's silly".

Does your shoulder ever get sore, y'know, with that big ol' chip sitting on it all the time?

It's a good idea to read the article before responding, otherwise you simply come across as silly - especially when you start making incorrect assumptions about my mindset/bias, then you look REALLY silly. I got straight to the point of the article at the heart of this "discussion", I'm not too concerned with how people responding to it. Hint: read the article.

Oh, I did read the article. It wasn't making a sexism controversy of it either. In fact, the only mention of such was the opposite, a note that this isn't necessarily indicative of hostility toward women or things female.

The article was being all chill about it. Everyone here was responding with humour or a shake of the head.

Then you come rumbling in, "OH LOOK, FEMINAZIS MAKING IT ALL ABOUT SEXISM AS USUAL!"

I find that funny.

 

[White Lightning]

Hurricanes are given names to keep track of them if there's more then one. That's it. Seems like people are over thinking things.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Oh, I did read the article. It wasn't making a sexism controversy of it either. In fact, the only mention of such was the opposite, a note that this isn't necessarily indicative of hostility toward women or things female.

The article was being all chill about it. Everyone here was responding with humour or a shake of the head.

Then you come rumbling in, "OH LOOK, FEMINAZIS MAKING IT ALL ABOUT SEXISM AS USUAL!"

I find that funny.

I tried to point this out before in a similar situation and all I got in response was "No, you have a chip on your shoulder.

We should probably take some time out for self-reflection.

 

[Pinkamena]

Seriously though, naming is important.
I swear if meteorologists started giving them names like MurderDeath 6000 people would stay away from those things.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Seriously though, naming is important.
I swear if meteorologists started giving them names like MurderDeath 6000 people would stay away from those things.

Unfortunately, that'd only work for a time.

Over in Australia, we have a fire danger condition called "Catastrophic", between nobody is frightened of "Extreme" anymore.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

So hurricanes are like mosquitoes? Who knew, prior to this article?

I'm in favor of referring to them as Blood-Suckers, Swarm Storms, Flying West Nile, etc. from now on, whether it changes how people react to a well-known destructive force or not.