For everyone who follows the news.

Struck by Lightning by Jeffrey S. Rosenthal.

In a review in The Sydney Morning Herald, David Messer writes:

Tear up your lottery tickets. Scrap that plan to visit the casino. This easy-to-read guide to probability by Canadian mathematician Jeffrey Rosenthal quickly illuminates the folly of such activities. But it’s not all bad: as he explains, an understanding of probability will also allow us to stop worrying about plane crashes, crime rates, opinion polls, disease and maybe even spam.

The sad fact is that the media tends to feed a state of constant, low-grade anxiety. And when we’re in a state of constant, low-grade anxiety, we are less likely to get a clear read on actual threats when we encounter them.

Fear is supposed to be a gift, as per Gavin De Becker. We need to use that gift wisely, not squander it on abstractions.