Choking deaths on food in the USNear-Earth asteroids discovered per year
A nation choking on its food in proportion to how many asteroids it discovers is the kind of headline that no editor would let through, and yet here are the numbers. The astronomers are vigilant. The diners are not.
Both lines climb steadily through the 2000s and 2010s for entirely unrelated reasons. Asteroid discovery has accelerated as new sky surveys come online and software pipelines improve, while choking deaths have crept up alongside an aging US population — older Americans are simply more prone to fatal aspiration events than younger ones. Demographics on the ground, optics in the sky.
So the correlation is the slow grind of two unrelated curves crossing the same year. Neither is anyone's fault. The sky watches; the dinner plate doesn't.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Choking deaths on food in the US” vs “Near-Earth asteroids discovered per year” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
