The World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research have just published a major report on the risk of cancer and what we can do about it. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that most of the risk of cancer is due to lifestyle factors that we can change. The bad news is that we don't want to change our lifestyle, or at least have difficulty doing so! » read more »

On 16 October, Baroness Masham of Ilton put a question to the Government in the House of Lords about the risk to health and safety of being stung by a hornet. Her question was prompted by the death in July this year of her friend's son-in-law after he had stepped on a hornet on the bathroom floor. The man died from anaphylactic shock caused by a severe reaction to the hornet venom.

The death of a man with 3 young children is a terrible tragedy and there is always a feeling that something must be done to prevent it happening in future. I guess if you're a Peer of the Realm, you feel that you're in a position to ensure that something is done. But of course, Peers of the Realm are just as susceptible as the rest of us to having their clarity of risk perception clouded by personal involvement in a rare event. » read more »

Tabloid newspapers are fond of headlines like Maniac Kills Mum^[1,2], occasionally replacing maniac by psycho or fiend for variety. Such stories play on people's fear of mental disorder and the common perception of a high risk of violence at the hands of the mentally ill. Today being World Mental Health Day^[3] seems a good opportunity to look at the risk perception issues surrounding mental illness. » read more »

I did promise myself, when I started the Cool Risk project, that I would steer clear of financial risk. I don't know enough about it and there's too much specialist jargon involved. But the run on the Northern Rock bank this week is just too tempting a story for a risk commentator. And promises are there to be broken, aren't they? Let's talk about risk and trust. » read more »

Vladimir Lenin: 'A lie told often enough becomes the truth.'
The Quotations Page

George W. Bush: 'See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.'
White House Press Release (May 24, 2005)

Who do you believe? The very word believe has a lie at its heart. » read more »