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Cause of Death

A Perfect Little Guide to What Kills Us

About The Book

FACE IT. WE CAN GO ANYTIME.
BUT IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS!

Death becomes you, and it's just another fact of life explored in Cause of Death, a revealing abundance of startling data, false perceptions, bizarre fallacies, and some totally unexpected statistics about how, why, when, and where we all bite the dust, check out, buy the farm, kick the bucket, and all those other euphemisms for perishing after falling out of bed (roughly 1,800 fitful sleepers a year). It also answers questions most people never even consider (but should):

Do crocodiles kill more people than alligators?
Are we more prone to commit suicide or murder?
How many still die from leprosy?
Does salmonella have anything to do with salmon?
Can the condition of your toenails predict your mortality?
What's the connection between kitty litter and brain damage?
Has irony ever killed anyone?*

Disease, accidents, occupational hazards, poisons, plagues, infections, murder, fauna and fungi, insect bites, war, and even bison. What's the most popular killer of the decade? The rarest? How many deaths per year by age? Gender? Location? Time of day? Stupidity? All this and more in a book you really shouldn't be living without.

* Yes! While experimenting with the safe preservation of food in snow, Sir Francis Bacon caught a cold and died.

About The Authors

Jack Mingo is the author of fifteen books including How the Cadillac Got Its Fins, The Whole Pop Catalog, and The Couch Potato Handbook. He has written for countless publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Phoenix, Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. Together with Erin Barrett, they are the cofounders of the popular Ask Jeeves series and authors of the series' first book, Just Curious, Jeeves.

Erin Barrett is the author of a kids' trivia book from Klutz Press; she has written for magazines and newspapers, such as Icon and the San Jose Mercury News, and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series. She and Jack Mingo have also designed numerous electronic and online games. They live in Alameda, California, with their family.

Lucy Autrey Wilson began her career with Lucasfilm in 1974, typing the script to the first Star Wars movie on an IBM Selectric typewriter. Over the years, she developed her accounting skills in areas as diverse as construction, gas and oil exploration, special effects, film, and licensing. In the late 1980s, she established a completely new Star Wars publishing program and worked on more than 1,500 titles, including sixty-three New York Times bestsellers, before moving on to new challenges in nonfiction publishing. With a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Finance, she has recently been able to combine her love of words and numbers doing the editorial and research required to translate George Lucas's intellectual curiosity into books.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Pocket Books (December 15, 2009)
  • Length: 464 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781416592334

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