davidgagne.net

This month’s issue of Discover Magazine featured an article on The Math of . . . Changing Lanes. It was the usual drek on reasons why I shouldn’t drive like a maniac. It’s the sort of thing my mom would clip and mail to me with an “I told you so”-type note attached. Sneaking its way into the first column is this almost-too-crazy-to-believe fact:

… drivers are about 35 percent less likely than usual to die in an accident in the month after receiving a traffic ticket, and that driving fatalities increase immediately following the Super Bowl — 68 percent in the losing team’s state but only 6 percent in the winning team’s state.

So they’re saying that February (or, lately, with the longer post-season, March) *always* has more traffic fatalities than January (or February)?! That’s hard to believe. That’s very hard to believe.