{"id":2266,"date":"2010-09-10T16:01:39","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T20:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/?p=2266"},"modified":"2010-09-10T16:01:39","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T20:01:39","slug":"lets-see-ill-take-death-by-asteroid-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/lets-see-ill-take-death-by-asteroid-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s see, I’ll take death by asteroid impact."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m loving this short post <\/a>about the common worries that parents have with regards to their kids, and contrasted against the real dangers that exist.\u00c2\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on surveys Barnes collected, the top five worries of parents are, in order:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Kidnapping<\/li>\n
  2. School snipers<\/li>\n
  3. Terrorists<\/li>\n
  4. Dangerous strangers<\/li>\n
  5. Drugs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But how do children really get hurt or killed?<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Car accidents<\/li>\n
    2. Homicide (usually committed by a person who knows the child, not a stranger)<\/li>\n
    3. Abuse<\/li>\n
    4. Suicide<\/li>\n
    5. Drowning<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      I will readily admit that I have personally had some of these worries from time to time, but the rational part of my brain shouts out and says that’s really stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually I listen, because I like to think I’m a rational person.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a difficult voice to ignore, there must be some sort of wiring in my head that makes it so.\u00c2\u00a0 One commenter on this post pretty much nails it:<\/p>\n

      If we were any good at assessing risk, then we would kiss the ground when the taxi dropped us off at the airport instead of clutching the armrest at takeoff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      It’s amazing that we even have these worries, because really how many direct experiences have I had that even come close to any of these?\u00c2\u00a0 None.\u00c2\u00a0 We are so good at projecting other’s fears onto ourselves that just a news story is enough to chill our souls and instill fear even when the odds are long, long, long of any such thing happening to us.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, I thought it might be fun to look up the odds of death<\/a> of some regularly occurring nightmares (for some folk).<\/p>\n

      Heart Disease
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-5
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nCancer
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-7
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nStroke
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-23
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nAccidental Injury
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-36
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nMotor Vehicle Accident*
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-100
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nIntentional Self-harm (suicide)
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-121
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nFalling Down
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-246
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nAssault by Firearm
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-325
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nFire or Smoke
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-1,116
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nNatural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.)
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-3,357
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nElectrocution*
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-5,000
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nDrowning
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-8,942
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nAir Travel Accident*
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-20,000
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nFlood* (included also in Natural Forces above)
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-30,000
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nLegal Execution
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-58,618
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nTornado* (included also in Natural Forces above)
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-60,000
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nLightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above)
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-83,930
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nSnake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting*
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-100,000
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nEarthquake (included also in Natural Forces above)
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-131,890
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nDog Attack
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-147,717
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nAsteroid Impact*
      \n\u00c2\u00a01-in-200,000**
      \n\u00c2\u00a0
      \nTsunami*
      \n1-in-500,000<\/p>\n

      Fireworks Discharge
      \n1-in-615,488<\/p>\n

      \u00c2\u00a0
      \nFinally, just to really quench the good vibes and optimism you had about the odds being that nothing really horrendous will happen to you, the odds of winning the jackpot in Lotto 6\/49?<\/p>\n

      1 in 13,983,816<\/a><\/p>\n

      Crap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I’m loving this short post about the common worries that parents have with regards to their kids, and contrasted against the real dangers that exist.\u00c2\u00a0 Based on surveys Barnes collected, the top five worries of parents are, in order: Kidnapping … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,230],"tags":[271],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-news","category-scientifica","tag-death-by-fireworks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piGNU-Ay","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2272,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions\/2272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}