Neatorama

Posted: 27 Apr 2009 01:32 AM PDT

The outbreak of swine flu, first in Mexico then cases all over the world, has gotten a lot of people worried. And for a very good reason: despite the existence of scarier diseases caused by exotic viruses like Hantavirus and Ebola, influenza still reigns as the number one infectious killer in modern times.

Unlike regular seasonal epidemics of the flu, there are also rare but deadly pandemics, i.e. cases of influenza that spread on a worldwide scale and infect a large proportion of the human population.

While it's important not to panic (the swine flu appears to be highly treatable with conventional antiviral drugs), a review of past pandemics will elucidate why authorities are responding quickly to this outbreak. Here's a quick summary of the 5 deadliest pandemics in history:

1. The Peloponnesian War Pestilence

The very first pandemic in recorded history was described by Thucydides. In 430 BC, during the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta, the Greek historian told of a great pestilence that wiped out over 30,000 of the citizens of Athens (roughly one to two thirds of all Athenians died).

Thucydides described the disease as such "People in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath." Next came coughing, diarrhea, spasms, and skin ulcers. A handful survived, but often without their fingers, sights, and even genitals (Source)

Until today, the disease that decimated ancient Athens has yet to be identified.

2. The Antonine Plague

In 165 AD, Greek physician Galen described an ancient pandemic, now thought to be smallpox, that was brought to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia. The disease was named after Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, one of two Roman emperors who died from it.

At its height, the disease killed some 5,000 people a day in Rome. By the time the disease ran its course some 15 years later, a total of 5 million people were dead.

3. The Plague of Justinian

In 541-542 AD, there was an outbreak of a deadly disease in the Byzantine Empire. At the height of the infection, the disease, named the Plague of Justinian after the reigning emperor Justinian I, killed 10,000 people in Constantinople every day. With no room nor time to bury them, bodies were left stacked in the open.

By the end of the outbreak, nearly half of the inhabitants of the city were dead. Historians believe that this outbreak decimated up to a quarter of human population in the eastern Mediterranean. (source)

What was the culprit? It was the bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. This outbreak, the first known bubonic plague pandemic in recorded human history, marked the first of many outbreaks of plague - a disease that claimed as many as 200 million lives throughout history.

4. The Black Death

After the Plague of Justinian, there were many sporadic oubreaks of the plague, but none as severe as the Black Death of the 14th century.

While no one knows for certain where the disease came from (it was thought that merchants and soldiers carried it over caravan trading routes), the Black Death took a heavy toll on Europe. The fatality was recorded at over 25 million people or one-fourth of the entire population. (source)

It's interesting to note that the Black Death actually came in three forms: the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plague. The first, the bubonic plague, was the most common: people with this disease have buboes or enlarged lymphatic glands that turn black (caused by decaying of the skin while the person is still alive). Without treatment, bubonic plague kills about half of those infected within 3 to 7 days.

In pneumonic plague, droplets of aerosolized Y. pestis bacteria are transmitted from human to human by coughing. Unless treated with antibiotics in the first 24 hours, almost 100% of people with this form of infection die in 2 to 4 days.

The last form, septicemic plague, happens when the bacteria enter the blood from the lymphatic or respiratory system. Patients with septicemic plague develop gangrenes in their fingers and toes, which turn the skin black (which gives the disease its moniker) Though rare, this form of the disease is almost always fatal - often killing its victims the same day the symptoms appear. (Photo and Source: Insecta-Inspecta)

We haven't heard the last of the bubonic plague. In 1855, another bubonic plague epidemic (named the Third Epidemic) hit the world - this time, the initial outbreak was in Yunnan Province, China. Human migration, trade and wars helped the disease spread from China to India, Africa, and the Americas.

All in all, this pandemic lasted about 100 years (it officially ended in 1959) and claimed over 12 million people in India and China alone.

5. The Spanish Flu

Emergency military hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas (Image: National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington D.C.) via PLoS Biology

In March 1918, in the last months of World War I, an unusually virulent and deadly flu virus was identified in a US military camp in Kansas. Just 6 months later, the flu had become a worldwide pandemic in all continents.

When the Spanish Flu pandemic was over, about 1 billion people or half the world's population had contracted it. It is perhaps the most lethal pandemic in the history of humankind: between 20 and 100 million people were killed, more the number killed in the war itself (Source)

The Spanish Flu actually didn't originate in Spain - it got its name because at the time, Spain wasn't involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship, thus it received great press attention there.

Recently, scientists were able to "resurrect" the virus from a well-preserved corpse buried in the permafrost of Alaska.

A Monument of Post-Apocalyptic Instructions

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 06:37 PM PDT

In 1979, an anonymous group erected a massive stone structure in Elbert County, Georgia. This modern-day stonehenge is more than twenty feet tall and arranged to serve as a calendar and a clock. Its slabs have instructions in eight languages for reconstructing society after the collapse of civilization. The instructions are more philosophical than technological, but perhaps nonetheless prudent:

PROTECT PEOPLE AND NATIONS WITH FAIR LAWS AND JUST COURTS. LET ALL NATIONS RULE INTERNALLY RESOLVING EXTERNAL DISPUTES IN A WORLD COURT. AVOID PETTY LAWS AND USELESS OFFICIALS. BALANCE PERSONAL RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL DUTIES. PRIZE TRUTH—BEAUTY—LOVE—SEEKING HARMONY WITH THE INFINITE. BE NOT A CANCER ON THE EARTH—LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE—LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE.

If you were composing brief instructions for survivors of the collapse of civilization, what would you write?

Link via Instapundit

Video Game Covers as Artsy Films

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 06:22 PM PDT

Photos: cossix and daphny [Flickr]

Selectbutton forum user Daphaknee reworked videogame covers as if they were vintage art films. The result is fantastic - here’s the entire list: Link - via Wonderland

Night Owls vs. Early Birds: Who Can Work Longer?

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 06:20 PM PDT

I’m a night owl, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I was told that I could be much more productive if only I switched my sleeping pattern to match that of early risers (I tried, by the way, and all I got was being tired all day long).

Thanks to science, night owls now have the perfect retort to the productivity myth: it turns out that they can actually work longer and focus more than early birds!

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor the brain activity of early birds and night owls who spent two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory and periodically performed a task that required sustained attention.

The results, reported in the journal Science, suggest that night owls generally outlast early birds in the length of time they can be awake before becoming mentally fatigued.

After 10 hours of being awake, the early birds showed reduced activity in brain areas linked to attention, compared to the night owls. They also felt sleepier and tended to perform more slowly on the task.

Link

On a related note, I’m curious:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

A Shrek Wedding

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 12:48 PM PDT

When Christine England married Keith Green of Barnstaple, Devon, England, she took her new name as Mrs. Green seriously -they took their vows dressed as Shrek and Fiona from the Dreamworks movie Shrek! Their 100 wedding guests were also in fantasy costumes.

‘It was funny because when we said our vows Keith had these green ears sprouting from the top of his head.’

She tried to get her 18-year-old son to dress up as Donkey, another character from the offbeat cartoon fairytale, but said ‘he wasn’t having any of it’.

Mr Green, a builder - who doesn’t seem to mind being likened to an ogre - added: ‘It was a very strange experience to say the least, but a thoroughly enjoyable one. We love the films and my wife tells me I bear a resemblance to Shrek.’

The couple hired a make-up artist to make them look like the characters - voiced by Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz - in the hit films.

Christine’s mother Annette England, 66, said: ‘It’s not necessarily how you imagine seeing your daughter get married but it was great fun.’

Link -via Unique Daily

Crocheted Dynamite

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 12:45 PM PDT

Howie Woo crochets “creations inspired by life’s fun oddities”. Like this bundle of dynamite. Then he made a photo essay of the process of blowing it up! Link -via Everlasting Blort

VideoSift Clips of the Week

Posted: 26 Apr 2009 12:25 PM PDT

(Links open in a new browser window/tab)

	When Squirrel Attacks This short video clip confirmed my worst nightmare: that squirrels are highly trained in military maneuvers. Watch as one distracts and another one attacks ... Link
	Auto-Tune the News How do you make the news more interesting to the rest of us? Set it to music! Here's a clip from Sarah Fullen Gregory (excellent singer, actually) and The Gregory Brothers making the nightly news much, much more interesting. Link \| If you like that, here's the second one in the Auto-Tune series \| The Gay Marriage Debate, Auto-Tuned \| more from YouTube schmoyoho
	Smoochie Girl Y'all know that Paris Hilton has the same facial expression in every photo, but she isn't the only woman in the world that does this. Behold the smoochie girl - and yes, she made the exact same smoochie face in every photo: Link
	The Weirdest Japanese Commercial Ever I have to say, I agree with the VideoSift title. It is indeed the weirdest Japanese commercial ever. Not going to describe it: you have to see it for yourself. Link
	Magnet Falling Down a Copper Tube All right, let's end this on a scientific note. Here's what happened when you drop a magnet down a copper tube. The video is not slowed down, the movement of the falling magnet creates an eddy current that exerts a damping force on the magnet. Link