Interesting Facts - Page 72

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356

Freshwater snails are one of the deadliest creatures on the planet. They spread a parasitic flatworm that infects tens of millions of people every year and kills about 10,000.

357

The percentage of Americans who die due to lightning strikes has declined by over 98% since 1900.

358

Flying is extremely safe. In the entire world, just 44 people died from commercial aviation accidents in the year 2017. The fatality rate per passenger is more than 99% lower than it was in the 1970s.

359

In many ancient hunter-gatherer societies a significant percentage of people who died were murdered or killed in battle. But violence has fallen steadily over time. Today, about 1% of deaths are due to violence.

360

In 1783, the volcano Laki started erupting on the island of Iceland. For eight months, it spewed huge quantities of sulfuric gasses into the atmosphere. These gasses killed crops and poisoned the grass, killing the livestock who ate it. About 25% of the population of Iceland died in the resulting famine.

31 Comments

Level ∞

Nov 13, 2019

If you're curious about #357, you can read more about it here or see the raw data here. There are several reasons for the decline. Better medical care is a big part of it. Also, increasing urbanization. (You're much more likely to get hit by lightning in an open field than in a city). But the biggest reason is probably that people just don't spend a lot of time outside anymore. The death rate has declined by 75% even since 1990.

Level 70

Apr 23, 2020

Fewer and fewer farmers and outdoor workers. Machinery and electric tools have taken the labour out of much outdoor work, ploughing, seeding, reaping, watering etc. and lumberjacks now cut down trees in seconds so very few needed in the job and woodworking generally.

Level 68

Mar 4, 2021

At first I thought that #360 talked about an Icelandic volcano called Loki, and I was like "wow!" Loki is named after a volcano! Nope, it's Mt Laki instead.

Level 64

Mar 19, 2024

have we gotten better at dodging?

Level ∞

Nov 13, 2019

And if you are interested in #359, you can see detailed statistics here. There were tribes where more than 1/3rd of people died violently.

Level 67

Nov 13, 2019

Shoot. When I first read this fact I thought it was talking about 5000 year old civilizations and I was really impressed, then I read the article and I was slightly less impressed

Level 68

Jul 1, 2020

Unfortunately, the idea that fewer than 0.04% of world deaths are violent is simply nonsense. There are around 58 million deaths per year globally, and 0.04% of that is around 23,000. There are more murders than that in Mexico alone each year, and more still in India and Brazil. Around 40,000 people are dying annually in the Afghan civil war, and tens of thousands in Yemen and Syria.

Most sources put the annual worldwide number of homicides at around 420,000, with a further 140,000 violent deaths from international or intranational conflict which is pretty close to 1% of all deaths, without even starting the debate on whether to count, for example, firearm suicides, or killings in self-defense.

This is not a bad overview from 2016, but the 0.04% stat is so far from reality than any source for homicides, deaths from conflict and terrorism, or violent death will refute it instantly.

Level ∞

Jul 1, 2020

Thanks @JohnK. This was an embarrassing error on my part. I'm not sure how it happened. This is now fixed.

Level 68

Jul 1, 2020

Well, not really on your part, just the source. Some modern micronations get there, and even Singapore, Japan and few others (as long as suicide is excluded), so it's definitely possible as a "best" rate, rather than an average.

The rest of the developed world isn't far away with many countries in Europe, Australia and NZ all comfortably under 0.10%, but Russia, Africa and the Americas (regardless of levels of development) let the side down. Topically for 2020, 0.04% of US deaths are at the hands of the police.

Level 68

Nov 16, 2019

Btw, 17 U.S presidents have had some time in their term without a vice president, I think that would make a interesting fact!

Level 68

Nov 16, 2019

4 presidents have never had a vice president at all.

Level 80

Nov 24, 2019

James Buchanan was never married, Gerald Ford is the only president to have never been elected president or vice-president, Grover Cleveland was the only president to get married while in office, Woodrow Wilson was the only president with a Ph.D., Virginia is the state with the most presidents buried in it, and Woodrow Wilson is the only one buried in D.C.

Level 68

Dec 1, 2020

Don't forget Polk as the only President without any known children of the biological, adopted, or step variety. Buchanan and Jackson adopted. George W. had step. And Warren Harding had out-of-wedlock. I believe the rest had at least one biological/in-wedlock.

Level 69

Jul 12, 2022

Yeah, but can you name the presidents that haven't been buried in the United States?

+11

Level 73

Dec 2, 2019

356 seems to be giving the snails a lot of credit which should be given to the worms

Level 39

Jan 27, 2020

It seems just like mosquitoes

Level 77

Feb 12, 2020

kinda like how rats get all the credit for spreading the plague, but it was likely the fleas that lived on them.

Level 70

Apr 23, 2020

True the fleas carried the plague, but it was the rats that carried the fleas around the world. Rats are very mobile and sneak into every corner, house, boat etc.

Level ∞

Sep 13, 2020

The fleas didn't kill people either. It was the Yersinia pestis they carried.

These arguments are always somewhat silly. It's kind of like saying that a murderer didn't kill his victim, the bullet did. Or that the bullet didn't kill him, it was the loss of blood. Etc..

Level 66

Dec 17, 2021

Yeah but in this case the worm is an animal, just like the snail. And it is the worm that kills, not the snail

Level 26

Jan 31, 2025

Worms are trash tho

Level 62

Apr 13, 2021

I really don't believe that just 1% die violently. Personally, I believe that the world has become even more violent than pre-historic times.

Level 70

Oct 27, 2021

Imagine the USA and take away all laws, take away the police force, take away the army etc. Now the strong, violent, greedy, will rule. None of this 'The meek shall inherit the earth' nonsense, it would soon become 'The law of the jungle' and you would have to fight for everything, food, wife, a home etc. and the forming of strong, violent gangs would become the only way to succeed, indeed just like prehistoric days.

Level 40

May 3, 2023

This is a cycle, like the

"Five stages of the HOA".

Level 26

Jan 31, 2025

Bro with the jesus quotes

Obviously the meek people would be killed by all of the violent people without Jesus's intervention

Level 81

Dec 10, 2021

Flying by airplanes is certainly extremely safe while flying by helicopters is not that safe. It will be interesting to know the statistics for helicopters. The crash probability of a helicopter vis-a-vis an airplane will be much higher mainly due to the fact that helicopters do not fly in controlled environment as an airplane.

Despite that, lives saved to lives taken ratio must be one of the highest for helicopters among all modes of transport.

Level 65

Jan 20, 2022

Does 358 include occurrences of hijackings?

Level 61

Nov 22, 2022

yes

Level 68

Jun 25, 2023

360: So, 3 people?

Level 82

Mar 6, 2024

I know this is a joke but it didn't just affect Iceland. It created a poisonous cloud that killed people in mainland Europe, and potentially seriously affected weather conditions halfway across the world.

Level 50

Mar 3, 2025

The 1783 Laki eruption probably modified the weather not only in Iceland, but also in continental Europe, reducing the crops for several years and seriously worsening the living conditions. This would have caused widespread discontentment, which some historians believe may have led to the French Revolution in 1789.