@dabeaz

More sharks! And they attacked! https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sydney-beaches-close-after-three-shark-attacks-two-days-2026-01-19/

@shriramk

@dabeaz @shriramk
And last year there were an all-time high of shark "incidents" in California (10)
https://www.surfer.com/news/shark-attacks-record-breaking-high-california
But I don't know how that translates into deaths per billion surfer kilometers.

@dabeaz @shriramk In my neighborhood, coyotes barely get a mention, Even though the occasional dog or cat goes missing.

Besides the commonness of car crashes, I think people have a misplaced sense of control when driving, whereas sharks are completely out of people's control.

@dabeaz @shriramk To my surprise, in the US, cars are only 20x more dangerous than trains. Although the US has 3rd world rates of car deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

@dabeaz @shriramk
Because they're everyday, car crashes aren't news. Train and airplane crashes are news because they're so rare. For trains, 1 passenger death per 5-50 billion passenger-kms (China and Japan best, India and US worst) https://pedestrianobservations.com/2011/06/02/comparative-rail-safety/

Also, mist people don't understand statistics.