I didn't know THAT

post single most interesting fact learned lately

[jsinger]

According to business best-seller Freakenomics, murder occurs vastly less often nowadays than in past CENTURIES.

We see a lot of stats on recent crime rates. But how do modern murder rates compare with earlier centuries when God-fearing people, untainted by TV and video games, spent their days toiling wholesomely in fields, attending church and basking in the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment?

Seems some crime stats going back 500 years survive. Murder rates were tens of times higher than today in London and major European cities.

I didn't know THAT

[httpwebwitch]

yeah, people killed each other a lot back then.

remember at one time, "Duelling" was a real way to resolve conflict.

and if their neighbours didn't off'em, there was also Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Leprosy, Malaria, Bubonic etc.

makes you think - imagine all the people who ever died young, were murdered, went to war, got sick. Every one of your ancestors going back to the primeval ocean were survivors of all that. There isn't a single organism that contributed to your life today that didn't overcome all odds and reach maturity to reproduce, producing *you*.

In that light, murder rates were high, but hey - at least your ancestors never got killed as virgins.

[tenerifejim]

Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Leprosy, Malaria, Bubonic

That's the kind of thing I mention to my Granma when she mentions the Good 'ole days.

That and the War(s). And the constant threat of nuclear anihilation.

Yep, the good old days was great.

[pmkpmk]

I always imagine the vast armies of our predecessors meticulously making food experiments: eating stuff, preparing stuff in interesting ways - and seeing who survives.

Just think of cheese, which is basically milk gone bad by bacteries out of sheeps bowels. Not to mention that swiss cheese which is cut in half, dipped into herb ashes and reassembled again...

[jsinger]

Yep, I've always figured the first caveman to eat a lobster had to be REALLY hungry. I think I'd try a rock and my own arm first.

[jsinger]

Along the same lines, I always thought it was hilarious that Jenner's smallpox vaccine was first tested on prisoners AND THEN ORPHANS before it was given to English royalty for the first time

[lawman]

I always thought it was hilarious that Jenner's smallpox vaccine was first tested on prisoners AND THEN ORPHANS before it was given to English royalty for the first time

I thought I had a warped and perverted sense of humor. However I step aside and defer to you.

Hilarious indeed.

[Essex_boy]

Going back a bit.

When I was teenager I always assumed that adults knew everything, subconsiously that is.

Then when I started work at 16 it came as a real shock to hear a group of adults discussing what they should do with a wayward child.

I mean I thought they knew as if it was genetic, really shock me at the time.