40 
When I hear that someone died in some freak accident that involves fireworks or pavements or parked cars or wild animals, I wonder to myself, what the hell are the odds of that freaking happening? The good thing? They’re pretty high! The bad thing? It really, really sucks for that poor soul who’s 1 in 50,729,141 to die from fireworks or 1 in 25,364,571 to die from a bee sting.
The Economist put together this nifty infographic showing the odds of death in certain circumstances (usually a little off the wall). It spurred from the fact that an asteroid was going to pass by Earth and how death by asteroid compares to death by everything else. Here’s the full infographic below. I still think death by asteroid is the best and probably most fun way to go out.
[The Economist via Laughing Squid]
Resilient Gifts For the Accident-Prone
Watch LG Use IPS Displays to Trick Elevator Passengers Into Thinking They're About to Die
Nokia's New Portable Charger Is Oddly Irresistible
“The good thing? They’re pretty high!” No, a large denominator means that the odds are low, i.e. odds at 1/1000 are lower than odds of 1/100!
Interesting statistics though; if you add them up it means that the chance of an individual dying in a given year is around (for the specific circumstances listed) is around 0.3%. Apparently there were around 800 deaths per 100000 population is the US in 2008, there for there is around 0.5% unaccounted for. Are these all natural causes?
As a scruffy looking nerf herder once said, never tell me the odds!