Generali's ANZAC Day Quiz

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

And there was Generali sounding all contented that "Most people got at least one answer right" and you have to go and spoil it all and get a big fat zero.:)

You were one of the few that didn't get one answer right as you got alll three right! Congratulations.

80% of kids get a measles vaccination: the UN and various charities do amazing work in getting vaccines to very poor, very remote places. The number living in absolute poverty has halved due to the 'evils' of globalisation and there are roughly the same nunber of kids in the world as 20 years ago as women in Europe and Asia (and increasingly Africa) have fewer children.

ging84

i think i am stuck in the 80/90s with my ideas on population growth

Generali

ging84 wrote: »

i think i am stuck in the 80/90s with my ideas on population growth

That was exactly the point the good professor made.

We'd expect people to get about a third of the questions right if they were simply guessing. Given that if you ask a bunch of people, some will guess but others will be educated on the matter you'd expect a success rate of better than a third.

However, if you ask a bunch of people these questions then they tend to do a lot worse than average. The reason? They give the answer they were taught at school but times have changed, very much for the better. That half of people have been lifted out of poverty is tremendous news.

Regarding population, remember any population control is a 70 year program unless you are going to introduce forced euthanasia. Population growth is now at about 2.4 children per couple. That is about replacement rate and the rate is still falling.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

You were one of the few that didn't get one answer right as you got alll three right! Congratulations.

...

I'd already worked that out having subsequently found the CNN piece, Are you ignorant about the world? - http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/07/opinions/rosling-global-knowledge/ - which gives you the answers.:)

I must admit though, that I was not previously aware of Mr Rosling, who does seem rather an interesting fellow. There can't be that many qualified doctors about who are also accomplished sword swallowers.

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

Are you ignorant about the world?

Of course I am! There is a vast amount of knowledge that I don't even know I don't know about.

I'd hope that you realise that you are ignorant too.:)

tincans6

Generali wrote: »

Regarding population, remember any population control is a 70 year program unless you are going to introduce forced euthanasia. Population growth is now at about 2.4 children per couple. That is about replacement rate and the rate is still falling.

Some other factoids

According to the the UN we have now reached "peak children".

70-75% of the reduction in poverty is accounted by China.

Sub Saharan Africa not so great on the poverty front.

It took 179 years from discovery of smallpox vaccine (1798) to its eradication (1977).

The worst country by far for Polio is Pakistan - as the Taliban and similar have murdered dozens of nurses doing vaccination programs. The CIA scheme to discover Bin Laden's whereabouts using the cover of a vaccine program didn't really help.

Guinea Worm (3 million cases 30 years ago) is pretty close to being eradicated. For this alone Jimmy Carter can lay claim to being the best ex-USA president, regardless of his 4 years in office.

Generali

tincans6 wrote: »

According to the the UN we have now reached "peak children".

70-75% of the reduction in poverty is accounted by China.

Sub Saharan Africa not so great on the poverty front.

It took 179 years from discovery of smallpox vaccine (1798) to its eradication (1977).

The worst country by far for Polio is Pakistan - as the Taliban and similar have murdered dozens of nurses doing vaccination programs. The CIA scheme to discover Bin Laden's whereabouts using the cover of a vaccine program didn't really help.

Guinea Worm (3 million cases 30 years ago) is pretty close to being eradicated. For this alone Jimmy Carter can lay claim to being the best ex-USA president, regardless of his 4 years in office.

Thanks tincans, some brilliant thoughts and facts there.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

Of course I am! There is a vast amount of knowledge that I don't even know I don't know about.

I'd hope that you realise that you are ignorant too.:)

Oh, absolutely.

Every time I watch QI, I discover that there are more things that I don't know, than there are things that I do know.

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

Oh, absolutely.

Every time I watch QI, I discover that there are more things that I don't know, than there are things that I do know.

For me, the worst thing is that the more I learn the more stupid I realise I am.

Rotor

There's nothing wrong with being ignorant - it's being proud of it that is the flaw ; then there is no attempt at improvement.