Jul 25, 2006 19:56
I picked up a copy of the latest National Geographic while at Raleys this evening, the cover had caught my eye. "Killer Hurricanes" spanned the bottom half of the magazine in bold white letters, and an inside feature on Army ants took the top corner. Well, any self-respecting science geek (especially one with an interest in Ecology) couldn't pass that up, so I snatched it from the rack and threw it in the basket on top of the hamburger buns. After it had been rung up, I started paging through it while waiting to swipe my card and be told to hit the "Green button, please". A few pages into the issue I came across this under the "Health" headline: "Ways to Go". A statistical analysis on the most frequent, like heart diseases, and the not so frequent, like Fireworks Discharge (makes me feel a bit safer for the next Fourth of July) causes of death in the United States.
So, statistically speaking, here are the possible ways you could meet your untimely demise...in order from Greatest and Least likely
Heart Disease - 1:5
Cancer - 1:7
Stroke - 1:24
Motor vehicle accident - 1:84
Suicide - 1:119
Falling - 1:218
Firearm Assault - 1:314
Pedistrian accident - 1:626
Drowning - 1:1,008
Motorcycle accident - 1:1,020
Fire or smoke - 1:1,113
Bicycling accident - 1:4,919
Air/space accident - 1:5,051
Accidental firearm discharge - 1:5,134
Accidental electrocution - 1:9,968
Alcohol Poisoning - 1:10,048
Hot Weather - 1:13,729
Hornet,wasp, or bee sting - 1:56,789
Legal execution - 1:62,468
Lighting - 1:79,746
Earthquake - 1:117,127
Flood - 1:144,156
Fireworks Discharge - 1:340,733