April 08, 2009
Terrorism won't kill you. You will kill you.
Excellent summary of death statistics:
The single greatest killer of Americans is the so-called “lifestyle disease”. Somewhere between half a million and a million of us get a short ride in a long hearse every year because of smoking, lousy diets, parking our bodies in front of the TV instead of operating them, and downing yet another six pack and / or tequila popper.According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, between 310,000 and 580,000 of us will commit suicide by cigarette this year. Another 260,000 to 470,000 will go in the ground due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And some 85,000 of us will drink to our own departure.
After the person in the mirror, the next most dangerous individual we’re ever likely to encounter is one in a white coat. Something like 200,000 of us will experience “cessation of life” due to medical errors – botched procedures, mis-prescribed drugs and “nosocomial infections”. (The really nasty ones you get from treatment in a hospital or healthcare service unit.)
The next most dangerous encounter the average American is likely to have is with a co-worker with an infection. Or a doorknob, stair railing or restaurant utensil touched by someone with the crud. “Microbial Agents” (read bugs like flu and pneumonia) will send 75,000 of us to meet the Reaper this year.
If we live through those social encounters, the next greatest danger is “Toxic Agents” – asbestos in our ceiling, lead in our pipes, the stuff we spray on our lawns or pour down our clogged drains. Annual body count from these handy consumer products is around 55,000.
After that, the most dangerous person in our lives is the one behind the wheel. About 42,000 of us will cash our chips in our rides this year. More than half will do so because we didn’t wear a seat belt. (Lest it wrinkle our suit.)
Some 31,000 of us will commit suicide by intention this year. (As opposed to not fastening our seat belts or smoking, by which we didn’t really mean to kill ourselves.)
...
Deaths of Americans due to terrorist activities, according to the US State Department, have averaged less than 15 per year since 2002. And all of those occurred abroad. The majority were in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. (Civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were not counted due to the fact those occurred in war zones.)
February 13, 2009
Facebook Privacy
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.
A must-read for any Facebook user. MySpace users...well, there's no help for you, is there?
-blaine
January 31, 2009
Google accuses itself of malware
My google search results are all being flagged as malware, including google itself (see the "This site may harm your computer" after each link):
Probably a localized problem, and hopefully very temporary.
October 17, 2008
Working in Sin
Today marks my last day at Intralot. It's an international company that specializes in gambling. You know, gambling: one of those sins, like sex, drugs, and rock & roll.
I'll be joining Five Nines Technology Group soon. Look for me in Lincoln! (you know, that please that I've rarely been the last several years...)
Hilton chain, Delta, American Airlines...I bid you farewell for a while.
My phone number has changed. Hopefully you got a note from me by email or text message. If not, someone you know surely did, so ask around for it.
