Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Apple Talk => Topic started by: AFK on September 06, 2012, 12:37:49 PM

Title: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: AFK on September 06, 2012, 12:37:49 PM
and how it almost killed this little girl

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13697324-fortunate-to-be-alive-girl-7-contracts-bubonic-plague-at-colorado-campground?lite


There's some Horror for you this Thursday morning.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Luna on September 06, 2012, 12:41:34 PM
Fuck.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: East Coast Hustle on September 06, 2012, 01:55:35 PM
It's not really that uncommon in parts of the west. Getting the plague is something of a pastime for the tweekers in eastern Oregon.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: The Dark Monk on September 06, 2012, 04:33:11 PM
Squirrels carry it in Sacramento and people STILL feed them.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 06, 2012, 06:43:46 PM
There are a few cases every year, almost always during the summer... the first case this year was in New Mexico, in May. Most reported cases survive because it's easily treated with antibiotics.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026077.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm55d825a1.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6007a4.htm

RWHN, weren't you supposed to be grieviously offended that I didn't believe you had a Masters degree in Public Health? This isn't helping, bro. This shit is the FIRST thing anyone going into public health learns about. I believe you have a degree of some kind, just not an MPH as you tried to lead on.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 07:38:51 PM
Yersinia Pestis is a different variety OF the Bubonic which caused the Black Death. Bubonic Plague itself is NOT the Black Death. That epidemic was caused because everyone in Europe north of the Alps had walking pneumonia during the Mini Ice Age. My preemptive master's thesis is on the correlation between climate change, the Black Death, and clothing styles from the 14th to 16th centuries.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Chaser on September 06, 2012, 07:40:41 PM
So why isn't the Black Death still a thing?
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 07:44:14 PM
Because the warming period in the 16th century stopped people from being pneumatic, in addition to changes in fashion to accommodate climate more effectively. It's always been "around," but changes in hygienic habits and the advent of antibiotics stopped that mutation from being a significant threat.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 07:48:09 PM
Also, she doesn't have roseys, nor did they say that she had roseys or any form of a rash. Thus: NOT Black Death, just Bubonic Plague.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 06, 2012, 07:52:47 PM
Quote from: Suu on September 06, 2012, 07:38:51 PM
Yersinia Pestis is a different variety OF the Bubonic which caused the Black Death. Bubonic Plague itself is NOT the Black Death. That epidemic was caused because everyone in Europe north of the Alps had walking pneumonia during the Mini Ice Age. My preemptive master's thesis is on the correlation between climate change, the Black Death, and clothing styles from the 14th to 16th centuries.

Wait wat really?

(http://www.submariner.org/thepno95/Pictures/not_sure_if_srs.jpg)

Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 07:59:05 PM
Well, think about it...

In the 1300s, Europeans were wearing tighter fitting garments of thicker wools that locked in moisture and vermin. In more northern climates, they would LAYER it. (South of the Alps in Italy and Byzantium, they wore linen and less layers, and they were not impacted as much by the disease as France and Germany.)

By the time the 1500s came around, cotton was being introduced SLOWLY (it was fucking expensive,) linen and silk were becoming more affordable in the northern lands due to the movement of cultivation to Italy via Byzantium following the sack of Constantinople in 1453, as well as a HUGE style change which resulted in less clothing actually worn against the body. Detachable sleeves, farthingales to open skirts rather than layers of fabric, etc.

There is a documented massive change in climate between 1350 and 1550. Like...temps hitting 100*F+  in London during the reign of Henry VIII. They can also tell by vegetation and soil and such.

Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Cain on September 06, 2012, 07:59:33 PM
There's also the Mongols reopening the Silk Road traderoute, allowing Central Asian diseases to break out of their natural habitat and run rampant through the Middle East and Europe, where there was little in the way of natural immunity.  While a previously unknown ancestral variant of Bubonic Plague is conclusively responsible for a large amount of deaths, it seems more likely that Europeans were attacked by a variety of dieases from that region during the same period, which allows for the wide amount symptoms and abnormally large death toll.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: AFK on September 06, 2012, 08:00:48 PM
Meh, sorry, a horrid awful disease almost killed a little girl.  Black Death, Yffing Persidis, whatever. 


Are we all happy now?
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 08:02:31 PM
Quote from: Cain on September 06, 2012, 07:59:33 PM
There's also the Mongols reopening the Silk Road traderoute, allowing Central Asian diseases to break out of their natural habitat and run rampant through the Middle East and Europe, where there was little in the way of natural immunity.  While a previously unknown ancestral variant of Bubonic Plague is conclusively responsible for a large amount of deaths, it seems more likely that Europeans were attacked by a variety of dieases from that region during the same period, which allows for the wide amount symptoms and abnormally large death toll.

Indeed. Most plagues moved East. The Antonine Plague is the first documented event of such an epidemic. It appears to be the first time smallpox was introduced to western society.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Cain on September 06, 2012, 08:04:00 PM
The Mongols using it as biological warfare against the Genoese didn't exactly help matters, either.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 08:06:41 PM
Quote from: Cain on September 06, 2012, 08:04:00 PM
The Mongols using it as biological warfare against the Genoese didn't exactly help matters, either.

The Middle Ages were diiiiiiiiiiiiirty. Venice got slammed a lot too. Most seaports did.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 06, 2012, 08:07:51 PM
Quote from: Suu on September 06, 2012, 07:59:05 PM
Well, think about it...

In the 1300s, Europeans were wearing tighter fitting garments of thicker wools that locked in moisture and vermin. In more northern climates, they would LAYER it. (South of the Alps in Italy and Byzantium, they wore linen and less layers, and they were not impacted as much by the disease as France and Germany.)

By the time the 1500s came around, cotton was being introduced SLOWLY (it was fucking expensive,) linen and silk were becoming more affordable in the northern lands due to the movement of cultivation to Italy via Byzantium following the sack of Constantinople in 1453, as well as a HUGE style change which resulted in less clothing actually worn against the body. Detachable sleeves, farthingales to open skirts rather than layers of fabric, etc.

There is a documented massive change in climate between 1350 and 1550. Like...temps hitting 100*F+  in London during the reign of Henry VIII. They can also tell by vegetation and soil and such.

EEEENTERESTING

I might want to read your thesis when you're done.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: The Dark Monk on September 06, 2012, 08:52:48 PM
Seems China is still hit randomly with Pneumonic Plague, which is simply a form of Bubonic Plague but targeted in different areas of the body.
Bubonic is an infection in the lymphatic system, pneumonic is respiratory, and septicemic through the blood stream. (simple trivia)

Those that support the hypothesis that the two plagues are separate argue that they have separate symptoms, claiming that the bubonic plague causes the bubo glands(in your armpits, neck, and groin area to swell forming buboes, while the black death can also cause necrosis of the fingertips and toes.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_the_Black_Death_the_plague_and_the_bubonic_plague#ixzz25iksGAbF

So there is a large argument going on whether they're the same. It seems the general idea that the Black Death and Bubonic Plague are the same thing whether buboes are present or not, though I didn't put a whole lot of effort into researching it honestly, I had a general idea for a paper in HS.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: Suu on September 06, 2012, 10:41:11 PM
The necroses of the extremities may have been caused by ergotism. It's highly possible they were trying to treat the symptoms of the disease with ergot infected wheat as a method to get the patient to hallucinate as a pain killer, but they aren't sure. There's also the new belief that the Yersinia Pestis bacteria that may have caused the pandemic, at least what we call as the Second Pandemic (the first was Justinian's Plague, most likely smallpox.) was a mutated version that set in with the victim already having pneumonia, thus weakening the immune system.

It's absolutely wild what they're finding out now.
Title: Re: A thread about the Black Death...
Post by: East Coast Hustle on September 07, 2012, 04:54:20 AM
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on September 06, 2012, 08:00:48 PM
Meh, sorry, a horrid awful disease almost killed a little girl.  Black Death, Yffing Persidis, whatever. 


Are we all happy now?

I know. Ain't it just awful?