Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

GDB2222

Does anybody know which caused more deaths during the twentieth century, war or mosquitoes?

GDB2222

I came across an article on Quora that suggests total deaths from infectious diseases in mankind's history are 52bn. Total deaths from wars are 1.6bn. And then the article ends:

And even if a full-scale nuclear war between the major nuclear powers were to break out and cause a nuclear winter that, according the most pessimistic (and perhaps realistic) predictions (see Consequences of a large nuclear war), leads to the extinction of the world’s current population approaching 7.5 billion, the relation would still be at least 52.2 billion vs. 9.1 billion (without considering that a large part of nuclear famine deaths would be from infectious diseases), or about 5.7:1. Of course in that case there would be no one left to keep score.


I thought you would all be cheered by that!

zagubov

I've read over the years that only a few per cent of the human population are currently alive, as we've existed for hundreds of thousands of years (with no contraception) and a colossal infant death rate, probably due to infections. There's still parts of the world where they say "never count your children till after the measles".

Supposedly every second person that ever died was killed by malaria.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

Does anybody know which caused more deaths during the twentieth century, war or mosquitoes?

One source stated that between 150 and 300 million died in the 20th Century from malaria. (Seems a very wide range!)

A couple of sources re. man-made conflicts estimates 203-226 million.

So you could say that Man is more or less on a par with the Plasmodium protozoan (malaria).

Sounds about right!

ivyleaf

Pyxis wrote: »

The awful waste of that made me wonder.......will the 20C go down in history as the century in which we slaughtered the most people?

I would think so.





http://necrometrics.com/all20c.htm

Check out this link........I just learnt a new word...necrometrics.....analysis of the numbers of dead by various causes.


And another word....atrocitologist.

Pyxis The awful waste of what made you wonder? i think I've missed something somewhere, unless there was a post that was deleted?

PasturesNew

ivyleaf wrote: »

unless there was a post that was deleted?

*looks a bit shifty*

The waste of WW1 and WW2 - all the conscription of everybody to go and die in a War nobody asked for or chose...

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

*looks a bit shifty*

The waste of WW1 and WW2 - all the conscription of everybody to go and die in a War nobody asked for or chose...

At least it is generally accepted that WW2 was a triumph of good over evil. All the lives lost in battles that shouldn't have been fought....

ivyleaf

Ah, thank you, PN

vivatifosi

Went to have a look at a new bousing estate near us today. We wanted to see what's on the market rather than looking to move.

Astonished to hear that they don't do drop ins, by appointment only and the new phases sell out in twenty minutes with five people listing for every house.

Is this the price of living in the south east and in an area where there has been minimal house building?

GDB2222

Tomorrow is Pi Day, and I thought the NP might like these two short puzzles.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/13/can-you-solve-it-pi-day-puzzles-that-will-leave-you-pie-eyed?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other