[extropy-chat] ray gun

[Herb Martin]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Robert Bradbury
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 9:54 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] ray gun




On 2/2/06, Dirk Bruere < <mailto:dirk.bruere at gmail.com>
dirk.bruere at gmail.com> wrote: 


The biggest one-day slaughter in Human history was done with swords and
spears, not guns or nukes.


>Can you give us a hint?

> I'd also like to see some comparisons with the death rates 
> by influenza in the early 1900's or perhaps the plague at 
> various points in time in the middle ages.  I suspect that 
> in some cases they swept through large populations, esp. 
> in cities, quite quickly. 

Robert

The following is not a complete answer but it does have (a lot)
on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll
 
Most of the above doesn't have specific "one day totals" -- some
battles or other disasters go on for days, week, even years.
 
[Battle of Stalingrad was over six months long:  1,109,000 deaths]
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=46252

Three Years of Natural Disasters (China 1959-1961)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Years_of_Natural_Disasters

This is a candidate, since estimates range from 10-100 Million.
Using 10 Million over 1000 days (3 years) we get an AVERAGE
of 10,000 per day (these are estimates of "abnormal deaths" not
just the normal human attrition.)  

Obviously there were good days and worse days, and if the high
estimates are used then this is an AVERAGE of 100,000 per day.
(over three years!!!)
 
In July of 1959 the Yellow River flooded and "directly killed through
starvation ...or drowning" 3 million people.  If we use the whole
30 days, this averages to 100,000 per day -- likely some days were
MUCH worse than others.
 


Also

 <http://www.geocities.com/dtmcbride/hist/disasters-war.html>
http://www.geocities.com/dtmcbride/hist/disasters-war.html
 
List of Roman battles (not organized by butchery but many
of the items contain the death toll):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_battles
 
Picking through quickly I found (knowing generally that several of
the Battles of Hannibal in Italy had large death tolls):

The Battle of Cannae (Hannibal over the Roman) was NOT the largest
but quite a massacre:
 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae

--
Herb Martin

 




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