Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less

A new drug reduces the risk of heart attacks by 40%.
Shark attacks are up by a factor of two.Drinking a liter of soda per day doubles your chance of developing cancer.These are all examples of relative risk,a common way risk is presented in news articles.Risk evaluation is a complicated tangle
of statistical thinking and personal preference.One common stumbling block is the difference between relative risks like these and what are called absolute risks.