Death In Threes

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> I was wondering if anyone had any
> theories or ideas on why people seem to die in groups
> of three.

My theory: perception as affected by predefined notions.

This same perception is the same reasons that emergency room nurses
will swear that they're busier when the moon is full.  If the moon is
full and nothing happens, they don't notice anything; but if the moon
is full and it's a very busy night, they'll make a connection and note
that it's because the moon is full.

Here's a way to test your observation: get a 79 cent spiral notebook
from Wal-Mart.  Record the date and time of each death in the facility
you work in for a specific period of time (1 month, 1 year, however
long it takes to get a "meaningful" amount of data -- more than three
deaths should occur during this time period :-) -- the science of
determining what amount of data is meaningful is called statistics &
probability).

After you've collected the data, make a linear calender type chart like
this:

      JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

..except make it long enough to have the days, or at least weeks, in
there too.  Put a dot on the date of each death.

Now, my research shows that overlaying this graph over any page of the
King James Version of the Bible will land on letters.  If you take
these letters and combine them, they can reveal the text "ILLBAY
ATESGAY SBAY ETHAY ANTICHRISTAY" if you move your graph around
on the page enough.

  No wait, wrong (old) thread.  The Bible Code book is an excellent
  example of finding things you expect if you look long and hard
  enough.

Anyway, there are computer statistical packages that can look for
patterns in your data.  If you chart the data out on a big chart, you
can look visually for patterns.  My hunch is that you'll focus in on --
and find -- groups of three since that's what you're expecting to
find.  That's why scientific experiments are often conducted as
double-blind studies, and why they're peer reviewed: it helps to take
the observational expectations out.  Bias is a very powerful factor,
even in professional scientists.  Bias plays an especially large part
in theology and religion.

That's also why engineers have design reviews -- having other people
look at your design is a sure way to have your flaws pointed out.

Incidentally, somebody has done the statistical work of looking at how
busy emergency rooms are, and found no correlation between that and the
phase of the moon.  My suspicion is that deaths also do not occur in
groups of three.  If deaths do occur in groups of three, somebody will
need to hypothesize on the reason, and test this hypothesis with
experiments.

Richard Masoner
Champaign Illinois USA