by meep
Memorial Day started out as Decoration Day after the Civil War:
May 1868
By proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, the first major Memorial Day observance is held to honor those who died “in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” Known to...
by meep
And right in time for the most deadly weekend for traffic accidents:
THE DEADLIEST HOLIDAY FOR CAR ACCIDENTS
Drivers and passengers, beware: You are four times as likely to die in a traffic accident over the Memorial Day weekend as over a regular weekend, according...
by meep
One of my friends posted the following item on facebook, publicly.:
People I love you and I know just about all of you work very hard (in many ways harder than me) to make the world a better place.
HERE’S WHAT’S REALLY BOTHERING ME: Many of us...
by meep
This is not for public pensions, by the way. But I’ll use a life expectancy calculator I wrote over a decade ago… so there’s that!
Two recent items:
Updated mortality tables are raising concerns:
Contribution increases, higher liabilities likely; delay attempt underway
Updated mortality tables expected this year from the IRS...
by meep
So I have some depressing mortality stories I’ve had in draft for a while, waiting for sunnier days before I pushed go. Well it’s very sunny outside now, so here we go with the doom and gloom.
I had this one in draft for over a month, and it’s a good...
by meep
Back in February, I did a quick calculation estimating that Trump had an approximately 50% chance of replacing at least one of the 5 non-conservative Justices on the Supreme Court before we ran into trouble in 2020.
Today, Gorsuch was sworn in, and along with the Gorsuch confirmation came a...
by meep
I have a couple of depressing Mortality Monday posts in draft, so let’s pass those over for something more fun: fictional deaths.
If you search on Sean Bean dying, you will get many results, many of which debunking that he’s the dying-est actor ever.
by meep
Some amazing news came out relatively recently: Chicago had a week without a fatal shooting.
Chicago passed a milestone Sunday morning [March 5] when a full week went by without a fatal shooting.
The city has not gone seven days without a fatal shooting since Homicide Watch Chicago began keeping records...
by meep
Here is my news hook for this one: Unexpected deaths of six Russian diplomats in four months triggers conspiracy theories
When Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations died suddenly in New York last week, he became the sixth Russian diplomat to die unexpectedly since November, leaving internet conspiracy theorists trying...
by meep
Recently there were a couple of notable deaths, with different reactions.
Bill Paxton died at age 61, and many said “how young”.
But back when Sir Walter Scott died of typhus at age 61, I don’t think many were saying “how young”. (Heh, Scott wrote a book called...
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