Day 9 – Today’s Total: 21, Overall Total: 428

You will all be arising early looking forward to those easter eggs tomorrow, but take a moment to think about the Death of Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson. Passing away after a two-year battle with cancer is terrible, but is this news really reportable? I am not undermining Mr. Arneson’s value in life in the slightest. All I am saying is that I don’t know why such a story is reported. This is one of the issues I want to figure out during this experiment. Does unnecessary Death news still get reported just because the issue of Death is brought up?

More killings in Iraq, this time a bomber in the Sunni area of Iskandariya, killing nine people. It’s got to the stage now, I think, that bombings in Iraq mean nothing to those who live so far away and have no direct relation to those suffering. It’s just another report on another horrific event which will be repeated tomorrow as it was today, as it was yesterday, and as it has been since the invasion in 2003.

Sky News added this to their ‘News in Brief’ section: a man opened fire in a busy café in Holland whilst a talent contest in a Rotterdam café.

I have to say the strangest stories have come from the USA. This time, a teacher under arrest after kidnapping and killing a Sunday school student and keeping her in a suitcase. It’s just disgusting.

Whilst this was happening in California, five people have been killed in tornadoes in Tennessee and Arkansas. It amazes me how people choose to live in areas where the local weather can be so unpredictable and dangerous. They call the route down through the middle of the US ‘Tornado Valley’, and you can see why.

Current Italian earthquake Death toll: 293. However, it has now gone from the front page of the BBC News website; clearly just another story now.

Day 8 – Today’s Total: 50, Overall Total: 407

I couldn’t complete Day 7 as I was on a trip to Grantham for a G-town piss-up!

I finally get home and log onto the BBC News website. Straight away I see a block of ‘More Top Stories’, all three of which include Deaths of some kind. We had some local news as some poor guy died in a pie factory explosion in Huddersfield. What an utterly random way to go!

Five soldiers have died in Mosul, Iraq, whilst another light aircraft has gone down, killing two people in Hampshire. Light aircrafts seem to drop out of the sky every other week. I don’t understand the reasoning behind the activity, with the potential risk being so tragic.

Heard on the Radio 5Live of a Frenchman being killed by Somalian pirates whilst two of the pirates died themselves. How on earth do we still have pirates scowering the open seas in this age? Surely pirates were wiped out years ago?

Italian earthquake update on BBC News website: 289.

Day 6 – Today’s Total: 54, Overall Total: 357

Well it’s good to know we are clearly appalled by killings… I have just logged onto the Sky News website and found a report on someone being shot in ‘a religious retreat’ in the US. Now, I’ve never heard of a Korean Christian Centre, but I assume they don’t want shootings to be happening in their building. What struck me was not the news on the killing, but the sidebar Sky News had on the left hand side of the article, simply headlined ‘US Shootings Videos’. Great, so we can watch Death and violence all day now.

Update on the Italian earthquake now at 260 fatalities, 53 more than yesterday.

Day 5 - Today’s Total: 60, Overall Total: 303

BBC News quickly dished out the breaking news of people being shot in a German court in Bavaria. How on earth do you sneak a gun into a courtroom? A police spokesman said two had been killed. It still amazes me how you can smuggle a gun into a courtroom.

Later I found a report on BBC News website of police shooting a Palestinian man who tried to run them over. Idiocy springs to mind.

Adding to the terrible news of yesterday’s Italian earthquake, the Death toll has reached 207.

Day 4 – Today’s Total: 188, Overall Total: 243

You wake up. You then whack on the computer and head for your emails. However, before you get to Yahoo Mail, you are told of an earthquake in Italy. Now I’ve studied hazards in Geography, but I’m fairly sure no amount of education can prepare you for the shock of an earthquake at 3:30 in the morning. The current Death toll at the end of this day was at least 150.

Oh and before I forget, was told late last night of the terrible Death of Morgan Tsvangirai’s grandson in a swimming pool. There are very few who can fully emphasise with this man. The other month he lost his wife in a car crash, and now his grandson. How can a man striving to achieve such good have such terrible fate imposed upon him?

Another report from BBC News of a cave roof collapsing on a teenager, who was apparently lighting a fire a 02:15 this morning. It was part of a camping trip in Shropshire. To be fair BBC News are treating the story with respect.

And of course we can’t go a day without a Middle-Eastern tragedy. This time, Sky News reported that 34 people have been killed in car bombs across Baghdad. It’s horrible to think that a city can be subject to such carnage on a daily basis.

Finally, situated glaringly next to the Baghdad report, was a headline on two German’s being killed in Turkey after their drinks had been spiked with methanol.

Day 3 – Today’s Total: 23, Overall Total: 55

Well, I managed to avoid any Death news until 11:25, where Sky News urgently told me of a bomb blast in Islamabad causing 22 fatalities. I had a look on the internet and found that 22 Deaths mustered a worthy 13 sentences in the report.

Just found a short statement on the local BBC News website on a boy passing away in a house fire. I have to say this report is much more objective than they Sky News bulletin I read and watched.