Researchers from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, have mapped mortality from natural hazards in the United States; using data from 1970 to 2004, their research showed that “chronic” natural hazards like severe seasonal weather and heat waves were far more likely to kill people than more dramatic events like hurricanes and earthquakes. (Disease and accidents are even more likely to kill you, by an order of magnitude or two.) Coverage: LiveScience, New Scientist. Via Andrew Sullivan, Huffington Post.