Love Hurts!

LOVE HURTS!

What are the odds? LINK to article

Here are current odds, according to the Insurance Information Institute, of Americans in 2002 dying from the following causes over a lifetime:

Car crash: one in 82
Motorcycle crash: one in 1,159
Falling from stairs or steps: one in 2,331
Airplane accident: one in 5,704
Hit by lightning: one in 56,439
Earthquake: one in 120,161
Dog bite: 206,944

This is from an article over at MSN real estate section. I had always heard that you are more likely to die/be injured in a car crash than a plane crash--this being the thing to say to someone with a fear of flying...as you DRIVE to the airport.

But is this really true or are these numbers based on the fact that you are more likely to die/be injured in a car crash rather than a plane crash because we find ourselves IN cars more than planes?

Maybe our esteemed reader and occasional poster, Fitzu, can enlighten us given his forays into the field of selling that which both parties involved hope you never use.

Speaking of odds, there is a book by Barry Glassner called "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things" (2000) (this author was also quoted in Moores's film "Bowling for Columbine" (2002)--that's a whole other can of worms, but if you've seen it I'd love to hear your take--some say that it is less an anti-gun message than an anti-fear message or pro-fear message).

In his book Glasner says that the youth homicide rate has actually dropped by as much as 30 percent in recent years and up to three times as many people are struck dead by lightening than die by violence in schools.

I assure you that it is not due to violent videogames that kids are struck by lightening--cough-cough-ha-ha.

This factoid came to mind as I read this article on another school shooting--my question: Is there more violence in schools or are we just hearing about the incidences more often and in more detail? Is this also the same phenomenon that affects plane crashes or any other news topic dejour--there really aren't that many occurrences, but excessive news coverage 24/7 makes it seems so?

DrPsych2b