Occasional Observations » risk

The True Odds of Airborne Terror

jd — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:18:19 +0000

From Jesus Diaz @ Gizmodo:

After the crotchbomb there has been a lot of noise about airplane security again—you can see how stupid the leaked new flight rules are here. But what’s the actual risk of an airplane attack? Here’s the definitive chart: http://gizmodo.com/5435954/the-true-odds-of-airborne-terror-chart

The stats are from Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com

If you haven’t failed, you haven’t lived.

jd — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:25:15 +0000

From the Upliftin web site:

Risk and the Human Brain

jd — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:14:54 +0000

Assessing and reacting to risk is one of the most important things a living creature has to deal with, and there’s a very primitive part of the brain that has that job. It’s the amygdala, and it sits right above the brainstem, in what’s called the medial temporal lobe. The amygdala is responsible for processing base emotions that come from sensory inputs, like anger, avoidance, defensiveness and fear. It’s an old part of the brain, and seems to have originated in early fishes.

Read the entire article here. (Schneier.com)