The thread of learning something new every day
-
Given the Titanic mention above, and today being the anniversary of the sinking itself:
"Dead men tell no tales" is an overlooked part of the Titanic story. Of the crew, the survivors tend to be portrayed as the energetic ones. Sometimes the dead get unironically painted as curiously quiet (see: the Chief Officer, also James Cameron throwing Captain Smith under the bus during his portrayal of the sinking itself). When mainly it's that their stories were much harder to reconstruct....
-
@Godder said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@Godder said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@Paekakboyz said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@MajorRage have we seen the nz govt say it's an eradication goal? I haven't caught that anywhere as yet.
I think the NZ goal is elimination, not eradication, as people will still travel here with it from time to time (and be quarantined on arrival).
Those 2 words are synonyms, I even went to the dictionary to check.
Your post sounds like govt PR spin. Swap elimination with eradication in your sentence and vice versa and nothing changes.In epidemiology, eliminate means to have no cases in a region, and eradicate means to have no cases anywhere in the world.
An example of a disease which NZ has eliminated is rabies - can't get it here other than from overseas sources, but obviously it's still around in other parts of the world.
Smallpox is the only disease to be eradicated under the epidemiological definition.
No spin, just science.
-
haha
Rosie Ruiz, age 26, finishes first in the women’s division of the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:31:56 on April 21, 1980. She was rewarded with a medal, a laurel wreath and a silver bowl; however, eight days later Ruiz is stripped of her victory after race officials learned she jumped into the race about a mile before the finish line.
The Cuban-born Ruiz, an administrative assistant from New York City, qualified for the 84th Boston Marathon by submitting her time for running the 1979 New York City Marathon. Although Ruiz never explained why she cheated, it has been suggested her boss was so impressed she qualified for the prestigious Boston race that he offered to pay her way. It’s believed that Ruiz intended to jump into the middle of the pack of runners but miscalculated when she joined the marathon one mile from the end, not realizing she was ahead of the other 448 female competitors.
Ruiz was unknown in the running world and her victory raised suspicions because it was a 25-minute improvement over her New York City Marathon time. Additionally, her winning time was then the third-fastest marathon time in history for a woman. After studying race photographs–Ruiz didn’t appear in any of them until the very end–and conducting interviews, Boston Marathon officials stripped Ruiz of her title on April 29, 1980, and named Jacqueline Gareau of Canada the women’s division champion with a time of 2:34:28. Ruiz’s New York time was later invalidated when officials discovered she had taken the subway during part of the race.
The controversy surrounding Ruiz overshadowed Bill Rogers, who won the men’s division of the 1980 Boston Marathon for a record fourth year in a row. At the 2005 Boston Marathon, Jacqueline Gareau served as grand marshal and re-enacted her 1980 marathon performance by breaking the tape. After her cheating was revealed, Ruiz, who maintained she had won the Boston Marathon fairly, lost her job in New York. She encountered further trouble in 1982 when she was accused of stealing money from an employer. The following year, she was caught selling drugs to undercover officers in Florida. In both cases, Ruiz served brief stints in jail. Ruiz died in 2019 in Florida.
The first Boston Marathon was run on April 19, 1897. Women were officially allowed to compete in the race starting in 1972. Following the Ruiz incident, race officials instituted tighter security measures to prevent future episodes of cheating.
-
Ruiz’s New York time was later invalidated when officials discovered she had taken the subway during part of the race.
Balls of steel.
-
@taniwharugby There was a documentary (Free to run) on Māori TV last night that covered the start of women running in the Boston marathon. The picture below is of race director Jock Semple trying to remove Katherine Switzer from the race in 1967. The dude in race #390 is her boyfriend. Puts in a decent shoulder to remove Jock.
Documentary was pretty sh*t overall. Not even a mention of Lydiard.
-
Just found this tread.
See it's more daily facts but interested to know what others have been learning that's been on the to do list that was for when you had some spare time and now by a sock twist of fate you now have time to do it.
-
@Toddy said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@taniwharugby There was a documentary (Free to run) on Māori TV last night that covered the start of women running in the Boston marathon. The picture below is of race director Jock Semple trying to remove Katherine Switzer from the race in 1967. The dude in race #390 is her boyfriend. Puts in a decent shoulder to remove Jock.
"Tom Miller, a 235-pound ex-football player and nationally ranked hammer thrower" according to wiki so, he was probably going easy on him!
-
Crap picture but the hit is about 4 seconds in.
Apparently Kathrine now lives in Wellington for half the year with her kiwi husband Roger Robinson (works at Vic Uni). Hope for their sake they're in Wellington and not New York at the moment.
-
@nzzp said in The thread of learning something new every day:
Thought this was amazing. Remember, malaria kills 450k/year; C19 250k or so (to date). This could be massive
Fucking yeah. I was reading some statistics and is estimated that up until (around 1800 when the world's pop started to explore, I can't remember) that 50% of ALL human deaths were caused by malaria. All human deaths in the history of mankind.
-
@nzzp said in The thread of learning something new every day:
Thought this was amazing. Remember, malaria kills 450k/year; C19 250k or so (to date). This could be massive
Imagine the demand for resources...
-
QI thing about Malaria that I was reminded of in the Covid / Planes threads because of the slightly airborne nature of covid. Mal air (as in malady / sick) is the origin of the word, before we learned that it was mosquito driven and therefore completely incorrectly named.
-
@nzzp Well I've learned something else too - Carrier air con is named after a bloke.
Mal air was actually blamed for heaps of things for quite some time. I think the London cholera outbreak was attributed to it because the Thames was so polluted that it stank. It is now known to be water or food borne. Air gets a rough time when it comes to diseases.
-
@Snowy said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@nzzp Well I've learned something else too - Carrier air con is named after a bloke.
Mal air was actually blamed for heaps of things for quite some time. I think the London cholera outbreak was attributed to it because the Thames was so polluted that it stank. It is now known to be water or food borne. Air gets a rough time when it comes to diseases.
yep, which leads to John Snow and modern epidemiology...
-
@nzzp Knew about Mr Snow and "Bad air" Did not know about his connection to anaesthesia and chloroform (nice to know the history of some handy "household" products).
I have just also been informed that he was a vegan and teetotaler, so everything he said was bullshit, but then:
"his health deteriorated and he suffered a renal disorder which he attributed to his vegan diet so he took up meat-eating and drinking wine."and he became credible again.
-
AI for KOi Carp...
Amusingly, was the No Such THing as Fish podcast I learned about this wonderful process.