[John H K]

i dunno, but it seems to me weve had lots of derailed trains around lately. sounds suspicious to me

People thought the same thing late last year but some intrepid FReepers found that the derailments hadn't increased at all, statistically.

Impressions are worthless...statistics are everything. For whatever reason, people became more inclined to post derailment stories on FR, people became more inclined to read them, leading to a snowball effect where as people noticed more derailments, they noticed more derailments.

[Tennessee_Bob]

leading to a snowball effect where as people noticed more derailments, they noticed more derailments.

For the same reason as when you're thinking about buying a particular car, you start seeing more of that particular car on the road.

[Nataku X]

Yep, same thing is going on with Freepers and earthquakes. Fact is, we're not experiencing more earthquakes (in fact, we're experiencing fewer) historically, but a lot of Freepers are keeping track of earthquake news because of biblical prophecy.

[TomB]

People thought the same thing late last year but some intrepid FReepers found that the derailments hadn't increased at all, statistically.

***Bow***

Actually, as of last July, the rate was actually lower.