Today’s Birthday Advice: Celebrate Responsibly

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Here’s a fascinating new factlet. University of Chicago economics researcher Pablo Pena, who is apparently dedicated to putting the dismal back in the dismal science, tells us that we’re more likely to die on our birthdays. If you’re in your 20s, you’re 25 percent more likely to die on your birthday than on any other day. On weekends this rises to 48 percent.

Now, your chance of dying on any day is pretty small if you’re in your 20s, so a 25 percent increase isn’t actually much. Still! Watch out for those drunken birthday bashes! If you’re under ten, watch out for the sugar highs from too much cake and punch. If you’re in your 50s, watch out for….something. I’m not sure what. Above 60, apparently we all give up on birthday Saturnalias and our risk of dying isn’t much higher than average.

This comes via Wonkblog’s Jason Millman, who provides this sage advice: “celebrate responsibly.” I always do.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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