June 23, 2007: Menace At The Beach

Holes in the sand. Really. The big hole that you dug for fun may kill you . . . or somebody else.

What's Illuminated about this? It's a great example of the way we (mis)perceive dangers. Sharks are exciting. The media loves sharks. Blood! Screaming! Blurry videos with the theme from Jaws dubbed in! My baby was eaten by a fish, aieeeee! But your kids are more likely to die because some energetic twit dug a hole and the walls collapsed.

Read the interesting story on CNN and think about real dangers versus exciting ones. For extra credit, which is more dangerous – Jaws or Bambi? Google and find out how many people a year are killed by DEER . . .
-- Steve Jackson