Tuesday, 11/24

 11 am, huh?

I have no idea why this fact interests me so, but it does. For some strange reason, someone did a survey on death; specifically, someone did a survey on the typical times and dates people die. For instance, according to this study in the Annals of Neurology, the older you get, the more likely you are to die on your birthday (which means I should be REALLY careful next week). You're also a little more likely to die after getting a paycheck, as well (probably from the shock of seeing how underpaid you are). And, more people die in the late morning than at any other time. In fact, a few minutes either side of 11 am seems to be the deadliest time of the day for humans.

For whatever reason.

I used it as my “Weird Fact of the Day” yesterday, and for whatever reason it's been stuck in my head ever since. Why 11 am? You always hear about people dying in their sleep, so shouldn't it be 3 in the morning? And you know how many drunk drivers are out there, so why not 11 pm? Nope; the most likely time for a human to die is around 11 am.

And that's exactly how it was worded—”for a human”. I don't know if that's because they were writing in, you know, the Annuals of Neurology and wanted to be specific, or if they included chipmunks or brown bears or squid in the study, but if you're a human—and I'm guessing that's, oh, 60% or so of you reading this—you're more likely to die at 11 am than any other time.

Yikes.

I'm hoping I'm safe; after all, most days at 11 am I've been awake a couple of hours, I've quaffed a cup or two of (green) tea, and I've had my morning dark chocolate. All those are things that are good for your health. I'm usually at work by then, which means that I've successfully navigated crossing a bunch of streets without getting hit by a car. And it's usually early enough so that all the little things that might cause one's blood pressure to shoot out of control haven't happened yet.

11 am seems safe for me. I hope it is for you, too. However, I will stick in this addendum--if you're reading this within a couple of minutes of 11 am today, be careful out there. After all, I'd like you to come back tomorrow (at 11 am or any time) and read this again.

The more you know, after all...

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)