Hello,

Just read this blog:
http://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Mo...Week2014_MostLethalAnimal_fb&WT.tsrc=Facebook

Bertus

 

Maybe Bill's software guys could help; they seem to be good at making "buggy" code.

 

Note the world's second most deadly animal: humans.

We'll see who wins the race: mosquitoes vs humans

 

Note the world's second most deadly animal: humans.

We'll see who wins the race: mosquitoes vs humans

Yeah! Where are the stats on how many mosquitoes have been killed by humans?

And what will all the purple martins and bats and dragonflies do if we eradicate the mosquitoes? Live and let live, I say.

 

Live and let live...

I just wish they live somewhere else. There are times when they’re big enough that you can feel them hit you when they land.

 

+1 Minnesota

 

Many funny stories about mosquitoes in Florida.

We have the "normal" ones; small, quiet, and make really itchy bites.
The salt marsh mosquitoes are so heavy that you can feel the thump when they land.
There is one with spotted wings that some people call a leopard mosquito.
Then there are the little single engine jobs that whine like a dive bomber and bob about like they are ducking gun fire.
I haven't met the Everglades mosquitoes, but I hear they carry their prey into the mangroves in order to eat them at their leisure.

 

Note the world's second most deadly animal: humans.

It would seem that is part of our evolutionary process.
In the short period of the 20th century, it is estimated that between 100 & 200 million people died at the hands of other humans, not on an individual basis, but in an organized manner in tribal groups.
I'll take a swarm of Mosquito's any day.
Max.

 

Human beings are animals.

We do what we are programmed to do.

 

Human beings are animals.

We do what we are programmed to do.

Who programmed us?

 

Who programmed us?

The evolutionary process at work.
Our closest relatives, chimps in particular which share over 96% of our DNA act in exactly the same tribal or group fashion.
Max.

 

The evolutionary process at work.
Max.

Maybe you, but I have free will - no programming required.

 

Maybe you, but I have free will - no programming required.

It was not me that mentioned programming, you need to look at a species as a whole and the evolutionary process.
I am assuming that you were part of one of the 20th century tribal groups I alluded to?
I do not claim to be an expert in anthropology or natural science, I prefer to draw my own conclusions from past scientific events and the rest of the natural world.
Max.

 

What is our DNA? A long code, a program.

Instead of 1's and 0's, you have A's, T's, C's, and G's.

Science.

 

DNA does not dictate my actions or decisions. If it did, then identical siblings would live identical lives.

 

But isn't natural behaviour all about preserving and spreading our genetic make up?

Proof of free will would make waves in the philosophical world.

 

It would seem that is part of our evolutionary process.
In the short period of the 20th century, it is estimated that between 100 & 200 million people died at the hands of other humans, not on an individual basis, but in an organized manner in tribal groups.
I'll take a swarm of Mosquito's any day.
Max.

Let's look at that number a bit. Let's take the 200 million. That works out to an average of 2 million a year over the course of the century. At the beginning of the 20th century there were about 1.7 billion and at the end there were about 6 billion. So let's call it 3 billion on average. That means that each year about one person in 1500 died as you said. At the same time, about 40 million people died on average each year from all causes. So death "in an organized manner in tribal groups" isn't very high on the list. For comparison, the Spanish flu epidemic alone in 1918-1919 is estimated to have killed between 50 and 100 million people.

 

DNA does not dictate my actions or decisions. If it did, then identical siblings would live identical lives.

A couple of writings by Richard Dawkins 'The Blind Watchmaker' and 'The Selfish Gene' makes some interesting reading, among a couple of his best.

So death "in an organized manner in tribal groups" isn't very high on the list.

Regardless of other reasons, Human tribalism cannot be ignored.
Max.

 

I have considered the theory of evolution as promoted by Dawkins, and I choose not to be a member of his tribe.

And just for fun, let me say this. Sharing genes with monkeys doesn't prove evolution any more than sharing genes with cabbage and zebra fish make me an entree at Long John Silver's.

 

Late nineties ,early 2000 there was N.E. out break of skeeters. There was debate on

how it happen ,they decided that the skeeters was the cause. They also found that

birds was carriers of disease ,debate...how. I has people tell me that birds could not

carry disease that far. They said that birds would be clean from crossing the ocean.

It would be easy to carry disease between there claws and in there blood. I was doing

an event in Miami ,there was a federal officer there that quarantined all birds being

shipped. I asked him what they did for free flying birds ,knowing the answer (nothing).

Birds have ships,floating weeds and mangroves ,world travelers. An Indiana doctor

that working in the Middle East on cure for Mers ,contracted the disease and carried

it home.They are asking ever one near this Doctor to contact Health Officials. If you

have traveled the middle East recently check it out.