Fourteen Oddball Reasons You’re Not Dead Yet.......

[Little Star]

Lifespan has doubled in the United States in the past 150 years. This ridiculously wonderful change in the nature of life and death is something we tend to take for granted. When we do think about why we’re still alive, some of the big, fairly obvious reasons that come to mind are vaccines, antibiotics, clean water, or drugs for heart disease and cancer. But the world is full of underappreciated people, innovations, and ideas that also save lives. A round of applause, please, for some of the oddball reasons, in no particular order, why people are living longer and healthier lives than ever before.

Cotton. One of the major killers of human history was typhus, a bacterial disease spread by lice. It defeated Napoleon’s army; if Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture were historically accurate, it would feature less cannon fire and more munching arthropods. Wool was the clothing material of choice before cotton displaced it. Cotton is easier to clean than wool and less hospitable to body lice.

Satellites. In 1900, a hurricane devastated Galveston, Texas. It killed 8,000 people, making it the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history. In 2008, Hurricane Ike hit Galveston. Its winds were less powerful at landfall than those of the 1900 storm, but its storm surge was higher, and that’s usually what kills people. This time we saw it coming, thanks to a network of Earth-monitoring satellites and decades of ever-improving storm forecasting. More than 100 people died, but more than 1 million evacuated low-lying coastal areas and survived.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science_of_longevity/2013/09/life_saving_inventions_people_and_ideas_cotton_shoes_fluoride_the_clean.html

[William769]

1. Kick & recommended.

[KT2000]

2. here are some more

during the 1800s and early 1900s the task of housecleaning was pretty dangerous:

to clean woolen clothes, soak in gasoline (kerosene was used before gasoline) and hang outside to dry
to keep bedbugs away, sprinkle the joints of the bed and around the edges of the room with gasoline or kerosene
clean silverware with kerosene and chalk
clean gloves in gasoline, wear them until half dry and then hang them outside
cleaning supplies included several acids, chloroform, ether, gasoline, turpentine, kerosene, sulphur

[Little Star]

3. Yes! The kerosene lamps that I can remember being used by my family.....

were pretty dangerous too.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. For thousands of years people used olive oil for lamps....

It's renewable, organic and puts out very little odor. It's what I used on the ranch in "kerosine" lamps and it worked great.

[hunter]

4. I remember carbon tetrachloride used as a nonflammable "safe" alternative to gasoline.

My grandparent always had it in their cleaning supplies.

I was banned for consumer use in 1970.

[KT2000]

5. I remember that well!

I worked in a drapery factory and had to use it to clean spots on the drapes. I didn't know it was banned at the time but I did ask for gloves. They said no so I brought my own - that melted when I used it. I recall several times I had to put my head out the window because I was so dizzy.
They were having me use up their stock even though it was banned at the time.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. It's not that people are living longer, it's that they aren't dying younger....

There was a time when a small group were known as "The Town Elders".

Now those types watch Bill O'Reilly.

[KT2000]

8. tell me about it!

I live in a community that has lots of retirees - cranky old guys are everywhere, spewing the latest talking point from faux. They also learn a lot of them from their churches too.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Forget mace or pepper spray. You need this by the case...

[KT2000]

14. thank you! thank you!

this will save me having to respond to my idiot neighbor's emails!! Snopes has not even slowed him down.

[Nevernose]

10. I would really LIKE to blame cranky old people

But I see it a lot in the high school I teach in. Mostly the white kids, but members of all races have approached me with ridiculous right wing bullshit, and it it gets worse every year. With them, though, the medium is the Internet and their parents.

The common factor is a lack of critical thinking skills and a lack of basic world-knowledge. In the kids it's understandable and forgivable -- correcting that is literally my job -- but in older people it just leaves me shaking my head.

A good example is my aunt. She gets a newsletter from the Barksdale Air Force base semi-regularly and of course it's filled with ridiculous tea party bullshit culled from chain emails and Faux News, but it's from the AF base...therefore, it must be official and true, because military.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Every base pamphlet I've ever seen is family activity oriented.

[Nevernose]

16. The ones she gets from Barksdale are largely like that

They do, however contain helpful "tips" about Obamacare, presidential elections, and other assorted garbage.

The one from Nellis, for instance, seems rather normal.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. When Bush ran he claimed to care about the families of service members...

When he started paying attention to all their goodies it was cut, cut, cut.

One was to close schools on bases so parents had to send their kids off base. Then he went after base housing. He couldn't see how a spouse could live free on a base just because their wife/husband was off fighting for their country. And free VA medical for life just because you were wounded in Nam? In his opinion that's WAY too much "free stuff" for a bunch of pot smokers who lost the war.

[KT2000]

15. It scares me that

the retirees have had responsible positions in their careers but something over-rides their intellect.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. There is an anger that life isn't as good as it once was and FOX "News" tells them who to blame.

[JaneyVee]

11. ANTISEPTICS!

[Warren DeMontague]

12. modern dentistry.

[1-Old-Man]

19. When looking up my families's genealogy I noticed that most lived to old ages

I was much surprised to find that even in the 1700's and 1800's my ancestors often lived into their 80's, at least the men did. But then I took note of all the infant deaths and deaths of wives the picture became clear. In the race for life children died like flies, women came in a close second. So on average the lifespans were considerably shorter than today, but if a person was male and made it to breeding age they tended to last a good long while.