Comments on: Who’s Afraid of the Terrorists?

By: douglas.nerad » Answering the Challenge

douglas.nerad » Answering the Challenge — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 06:15:09 +0000

[...] “Political” Posts: 1: Open Source Voting Machines. Here I rant and rave about the ludicrous state of electronic voting and defend the proposition that open source voting machines are our best bet for fair and incorruptible electronic voting system. 2: Devising Four Pillars for the Future. This is quite a long entry dealing with establishing a simple message for the masses from the liberal POV. It’s a job that has yet to be completed to satisfaction. 3: Once Upon a Time in America. This article is an introduction to a series I started and haven’t touched in a long time. They are all about values as they should be, not as people too often think they are today. I feel it’s time we took back our values instead of letting some politicians and religious wingnuts dictate what they should be to us. 4: Who’s Afraid of the Terrorists and Newspaper Statistics. Two articles that are very closely related concerning statistics and their usage in main stream media. 5: Who’s Afraid of the Dominionist? In this post I point out who is, for me, the scariest group in modern politics. Read it; I’m sure you’ll agree. [...]

By: douglas.nerad » Newspaper Statistics

douglas.nerad » Newspaper Statistics — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 03:26:31 +0000

[...] Thinking about my last post on the odds of dying in a terrorist attack, I started thinking about how the media harps on and on about things like shark attacks or school shootings than they do about people contracting diabetes or dying from alcohol and/or drug abuse. I know that things like this are not good stories. “Man diagnosed with cancer, news at 10.” Yet this is what is news: information that gives you a clear idea of what is going on in the world. Yet the media needs drama to drive sales. The more outlandish the story, the greater the human interest, the better the income. OK, who am I to deny that? [...]

By: douglas

douglas — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 08:18:34 +0000

A year after the fact there’s now a book about this very topic of your chances of dying from a terrorist attack as opposed to other means. I know I won’t get any credit for this, so it’s at least nice to see it’s getting some more attention. Not that it will change many people’s views on terrorism… but I can hope.

By: douglas.nerad » Terrorism and Statistics

douglas.nerad » Terrorism and Statistics — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:51:48 +0000

[...] Being on vacation and all I failed until today to hear about a foiled terrorist attempt to blow up several planes using liquified explosives and an iPod. I’m happy they caught people who would do these terrible things but it still reminds me of an article I wrote over a year ago that shows you have a significantly better chance of dying in your bathtub or by lightning than you do by the hands of a terrorist. You can find that article here (reprinted here). [...]