Slashdot Mirror
Salmonella Probably Killed the Aztecs (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: In 1545 disaster struck Mexico's Aztec nation when people started coming down with high fevers, headaches and bleeding from the eyes, mouth and nose. Death generally followed in three or four days. Within five years as many as 15 million people -- an estimated 80% of the population -- were wiped out in an epidemic the locals named "cocoliztli." The word means pestilence in the Aztec Nahuatl language. Its cause, however, has been questioned for nearly 500 years. On Monday scientists swept aside smallpox, measles, mumps, and influenza as likely suspects, identifying a typhoid-like "enteric fever" for which they found DNA evidence on the teeth of long-dead victims.
Scientists now say they have probably unmasked the culprit. Analysing DNA extracted from 29 skeletons buried in a cocoliztli cemetery, they found traces of the salmonella enterica bacterium, of the Paratyphi C variety. It is known to cause enteric fever, of which typhoid is an example. The Mexican subtype rarely causes human infection today. Many salmonella strains spread via infected food or water, and may have travelled to Mexico with domesticated animals brought by the Spanish, the research team said. The study has been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Scientists now say they have probably unmasked the culprit. Analysing DNA extracted from 29 skeletons buried in a cocoliztli cemetery, they found traces of the salmonella enterica bacterium, of the Paratyphi C variety. It is known to cause enteric fever, of which typhoid is an example. The Mexican subtype rarely causes human infection today. Many salmonella strains spread via infected food or water, and may have travelled to Mexico with domesticated animals brought by the Spanish, the research team said. The study has been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
You can wax philosophical about it all you want. The simple fact is that women are the gatekeepers. They have this role and this responsibility. On the upside for women, men get to die defending them and providing for them.
'veto' power over a consensual sexual encounter. That has absolutely nothing to do with them being 'loose' or 'dirty'.
Women who sleep around are dirty. They are not desirable mates and they spread disease. Men default to dirty and disease spreaders. That is why the gay community is so plagued by STDs. Having veto power means taking responsibility. That's just the way things have always been.
Could you get a little more red pill? I can't quite hear your sad, angry little ego coming through in your post.
There's nothing sad or angry in my post. I provide for my retired parents, my sister and any girl I happen to be seeing. I do this happily. If there is an intruder in the house or on the farm I am the one expected to take care of it. This goes back to the old saw that "there are not atheists in fox holes". I truly doubt you would send your wife to check on a strange noise in your stead and I doubt that if attacked it would be she stepping between you and the danger. Women by and large do not protect themselves or build concrete things. They have jobs today participating in the service economy or as "middle men". Women are essential to a good life. They participate in the economy that sits atop the real economy -electricians, plumbers, engineers etc.
I'm not sure what you mean about police protecting you. If that is what you are relying on keeping you safe you're in trouble. Police will be happy to arrest the person that assaults you and collect evidence. They won't be there for the actual assault.