[mortality stats] always a good read

Here's a good one: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That should be a real barrel of laughs. And while we're on death statistics, here are some good ones pertaining to the U.S.:

# The odds of being killed during a scheduled airline flight are about one per million -- nearly four times greater than the odds of being killed in an automobile ride.

# Per passenger mile, an automobile ride is 10 times more likely to result in fatality than an airplane journey. (Airplane fatalities occur most frequently during takeoff & landing -- especially takeoff.)

# Buses are safer -- per passenger mile an automobile is 25 times more likely to lead to death than a bus.

# Motorcycles are 35 times per passenger mile more likely to cause death than automobiles.

# Boat travel is hard to compare per passenger mile, but the risk of death during a boat trip is far more dangerous than one in a car. Most boating deaths are due to drowning -- with 80% of those dying not wearing life jackets.

# 44% of non-motor vehicle accidents occurred in the home.

Odds summarized in the journal NATURE give the following lifetime odds of dying of the following causes:

1:90 for motor vehicle accident
1:9,000 for drowning
1:30,000 for airplane crash (not just scheduled airlines)
1:130,000 for earthquake
1:600,000 for fireworks accident
1:720,000 for asteroid impact
1:8,000,000 for shark attack
1:300,000,000 for food poisoning by botulism

[NATURE; Harris,A; Volume 453; page 1178; 26 June 2008].

Don't think I like that asteroid impact stat.