Very many
As well as many of the "normal" phobias (Spiders, the dark) i also have a couple of strange ones.....

1. Donkeys: This stems from being chased up a mountain by one when i was 13. Since then i've realised that they all have an evil glint in their eye. Also more people are killed annually by donkeys than by plane crashes.... Scary stuff.

2. Touching other peoples feet: I've seen some horrendous feet in my training, mainly with bits hanging off.

3. Butterflies: No story behind this. Just thought of being fluttered on makes me gag. This phobia was aptly demonstrated when i was taken to a butterfly farm in malaysia. They were massive and all of them wanted to flutter on me. Thus, some poor muslim family left the park that day with video footage of a tiny british girl goinf apeshit in the middle of a cloud of the rarest butterflies in the world. I bet its on youtube some where, i haven't dared look.
(minsh, Sun 13 Apr 2008, 21:37, 5 replies)

Bollocks!
It always amuses me what some people will believe. They seem to think that just 'cos they read it on the Internet or in the newspaper it must be true.

Now think about what you've just written.

"More people are killed every year by donkeys than die in plane crashes."

Now read it again. Do you *honestly* think this could be true. Are there hordes of killer donkeys out there charging into third-world villages and savaging the inhabitants?

And how do these killer-donkeys actually manage to kill so many people. They haven't go razor sharp teeth or fangs for tearing, they can't actually hold you down (lack of opposable thumbs) and strangle you. I suppose they might, with a million to one shot, be able to give you a nasty kick, but, to be honest, even a starving third world teenager could take a donkey. They're not very big.

www.snopes.com/science/stats/donkey.asp

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Mon 14 Apr 2008, 1:27, closed)

hmmmmm.....
I very rarely believe what i read.....But the definition of a phobia is an irrational fear. SO as i already have a fear of donkeys (which wasn't based on the idea they could kill me) to then find out that a donkey could kill me just compounded my fear.
Also if you think about it logically it could be true.... Plane crashes with casualties aren't exactly common place, so maybe once possibly twice a year? Whereas donkeys are common place and as we have learnt from this story like to chase teenagers up mountains. Therefore, surely, on a statistical basis alone, more people are likely to die from the direct actions of a donkey ( and therefore killed by the donkey) then from a plane crash. Also those fuckers have massive teeth, and will eat anything, including people.
(minsh, Mon 14 Apr 2008, 9:20, closed)

Err
There might only be one or two *big* plane crashes a year but there's a hell of a lot of little ones every month.

A quick trawl through Google news archives and I can find only two documented cases of people being killed by donkeys(2006 & 2004). Both kicked in the head. But then again, I'm not counting the "donkey bombs" that went off in Iraq (donkeys pulling haywains that were filled with explosives).

If I then do a search floor "plane crash" in just the last month there have been dozens of the bloody things. Dropping out of the skies like bricks they are.

news.google.com.au/news?hl=en&um=1&q=plane+crash&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=m&as_mind=15&as_minm=3&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=4&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&start=10

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Mon 14 Apr 2008, 12:46, closed)

Dammit...
Now i'm scared of planes!!
(minsh, Mon 14 Apr 2008, 22:21, closed)

Questionable statistics
I'm sure that donkey/plane statistic comes from an episode of Father Ted...
(Ovaltina, Tue 15 Apr 2008, 0:46, closed)