Steve Irwin is well-loved, an enthusiastic guy who plays with dangerous animals. So it's truly sad that he died after getting stung by a sting ray. What I found amusing, however, was this note:

Stingrays have a serrated, toxin-loaded barb, or spine, on the top of their tail. The barb, which can be up to 10 inches long, flexes if a ray is frightened. Stings usually occur to people when they step on or swim too close to a ray and can be excruciatingly painful but are rarely fatal, said University of Queensland marine neuroscientist Shaun Collin.

Collin said he suspected Irwin died because the barb pierced under his ribcage and directly into his heart.

"It was extraordinarily bad luck. It's not easy to get spined by a stingray and to be killed by one is very rare," Collin said.

The New York Times notes that deaths from ray attacks average only one or two fatalities a year worldwide. Bad luck? Irwin was diving at the reef to film segments for a television show, “The Ocean’s Deadliest.” He was known for getting right next to all sorts of dangerous animals and flouting danger. Sort of like when Long Term Capital Management blew up on a one-in-a-million event. Getting decimated by a catastrophe is a rare event. Get decimated by a catastrophe when you sell catastrophe insurance is not. I think the public was right to be concerned by his antics feeding a large crocodile while holding a baby. He didn't think there was much risk, but he was probably overconfident.