The Banality Report | Our stories never lead and rarely bleed

Underwhelming Blizzard Passes Through Minnesota!

January 18, 2020 /
The National Weather Service (NWS) had forecasted 7-9 inches for the Twin Cities on Friday 1/17/2020 into Saturday, predicting doom and despair for the region. Actual totals varied across the region, with the Minneapolis airport officially getting less than 5 inches. Some places in northern Minnesota saw totals as high as 16 inches, but let’s face it, not many people live there, and they are used to it. Other areas in the Twin Cities saw totals as low as 3 inches, but some got nearly a whopping 6 inches. The storm wrapped up earlier than expected, and the heaviest bands dropped less per hour than expected.

The storm was not without danger. High winds, freezing rain, and cold temperatures combined to create white-out conditions and slippery roads, resulting in more than 200 car crashes, including 26 injuries, at least one serious, and another 200 plus minor car accidents like spinouts and semi-jackknifes, lower than average totals for winter storms in the state. Overall, this was a relatively below average medium-sized storm for a state that expects snowstorms in Winter.

Compared to the “Long Winter” of 1880/81 (the same one captured accurately by Laura Ingalls Wilder), this 2020 storm was a piece of cake, or if you prefer, a nice cup of hot cocoa. The Long Winter saw regular blizzards beginning in October through March, and so much snow fell that the railroad shut down by January until the Spring thaw, isolating entire towns and regions. One blizzard in February 1881 lasted for 9 days. While there have been very deadly blizzards in the modern era, including the deadliest on record, occurring in Iran in 1972, which killed 4000 people, and 1993 and 1996 in the United States which killed 318 and 154 each respectively, the fact is that while blizzards are still dangerous natural events, we are far better able to prepare for them in advance, and ensure we can endure them in comfortable homes, without the fear of being isolated for an entire season. And if we are stuck at home, we have Netflix, Kindles, Gore-Tex, and Keurig Coffee makers to keep us happy and warm.

— This has been your very banal report —
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File:Train stuck in snow.jpg  | Created: 28 March 1881
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Footnote: The Banality Report is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, so today’s report covers this region only. The blizzard crossed into other states. We encourage similarly banal reports for other areas impacted by this average storm.

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Tiananmen Square 30 Years Later

June 4, 2019 /
The Price of Freedom; Remembering Tiananmen Square 30 Years Later

If you live outside of China today, chances are you are free to speak about what happened on this day, June 4 1989, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing without fear of reprisal, including jail, exile, or severe social and economic penalties to you or your family. You probably haven’t been gaslighted into believing that merely having the knowledge about what happened on that day could be dangerous to your country’s social fabric. You probably haven’t been cajoled into thinking that the economic tradeoffs your government has made have been worth the cost of crushing your freedom of speech, political freedom, and your right to criticize your rulers.

If you live in China today you may not even know that on this day 30 years ago hundreds to thousands (exact numbers are still disputed) were killed by the Chinese authorities during protests where mostly college students called for a more open and democratic government. You may not know that your government drove tanks over your countrymen and women in a public square that is now one of the most surveilled places on earth, and where evidence of what happened was quietly dissolved and scrubbed. You may not know that your country declared martial law and deposited 250,000 troops into your own city to quell what started as a peaceful protest for basic human rights that those in the “West” often take for granted, and even have begun to intentionally give up.

If you live outside of China, and do not know what happened on June 4, 1989 in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square (the “Gate of Heavenly Peace”), please change that today, so that those who died that day will not have died in vain.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”
American Abolitionist and liberal activist Wendell Phillips on January 28, 1852.

“Tank Man” at Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989.
Jeff Widener/AP, FILE

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Hover over any * to see some Extra Facts for Nerds within the article text.

Learn more from the other sources (in addition to the above chart) used for this article:
On a personal note, since today is also my mother’s birthday, I wanted to relink to the very first Banality Report which was inspired by, and dedicated to, her: Local Child Not Infected With Polio!
Congratulations! You Can Read!

May 23, 2019 /
So can most humans, but this is fairly modern.

In the world today, approximately 86% of adults can read*, that is, they are literate. Writing, and the capacity to read that writing is undoubtedly one of the human species’ greatest achievements, and it’s difficult for those who can read to imagine a time when there was no such thing as writing a note to remind yourself to pick up milk at the grocery store*. Some might say it is a travesty that 14% of the world’s adults still cannot read. Perhaps it is, but it’s important to know how far we have come to get to this point.

Despite being able to speak language for at least 35,000 years, and possibly as long as 100,000 to 200,000 years, the written word is a fairly modern invention. For most of human existence, most of us were illiterate. Starting around 3500 B.C. people invented writing, probably in Sumeria. Cuneiform was primarily used to manage public accounts and records as cities and civilization grew, and power became more bureaucratic. Only a few elite people learned how to read or write.

Cuneiform relief from the Museum of London.

The first evidence of books, that is bound parchment between “covers” instead of scrolls that had been used for thousands of years prior, comes from the Roman Empire, and scholars have estimated that between 5-10% of those in the Roman world were literate*. After Rome fell, literacy plummeted, and it was not until the 1400’s with the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press that literacy rates started to significantly increase again.

In 1475 in Britain, literacy was approximately 5%, while in Italy it was approximately 15%, one of the highest known at that time in the world. By 1820, the world adult literacy rate had increased to only 12%. By 1900, it was still fairly low at 21%, but in the United States and parts of Europe, the rates were between 70% and 80% or higher. The rest of the world began to catch up in the 20th Century. Literacy for the world’s adults jumped to 68% in 1976 and continued to increase until our present levels of 86%.

There are many reasons why literacy is important. Written language allows us to share knowledge across time and space more accurately. It increases the capacity for human invention by granting significantly more people access to learn, hone new ideas, and share those ideas with the world, which are then further refined by other people. When more people are thinking, reading, writing, and inventing ideas and tools, the better our all our lives become. Reading literature has also been shown to increase empathy for others. When we read a novel, and get to see the world through the perspective of a character who seems very different from ourselves, we learn they are very much like us after all.

Importantly, writing has allowed me to share this very banal report with you, Dear Reader.

— This has been your very banal report —

Hover over any * to see some Extra Facts for Nerds within the article text.

Check out this amazing interactive chart fromhttps://ourworldindata.org showing literacy rates by country from 1475!

Learn more from the other sources (in addition to the above chart) used for this article:
- https://ourworldindata.org/literacy
- https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life/education-since-1820_9789264214262-9-en
- https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life/literacy-by-years-of-schooling-completed-in-the-united-states-1947_9789264214262-table25-en#page1
- https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/se.adt.litr.zs
- https://www.hbs.edu/businesshistory/courses/resources/historical-data-visualization/Pages/details.aspx?data_id=31
- https://academicpartnerships.uta.edu/articles/education/brief-history-of-literacy.aspx
- https://www.ancient.eu/writing/
- https://brewminate.com/books-brief-history-development-trends-and-current-technology/
- https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-fiction-improves-empathy/?redirect=1
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/23/literary-fiction-readers-understand-others-emotions-better-study-finds
- Kaestle, Carl F. “The History of Literacy and the History of Readers.” Review of Research in Education 12 (1985): 11-53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167145
- Curchin, Leonard A. “Literacy in the Roman Provinces: Qualitative and Quantitative Data from Central Spain.” The American Journal of Philology, vol. 116, no. 3, 1995, pp. 461–476. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/295333
Person Age 70 Years Old Probably Not Dead!

May 1, 2019 /
An average person, aged 70 years old living somewhere in the world, was discovered to be not dead last Monday and living a normal life in his or her home. Some discrepancies in this story say that a local man in the same town was found alive at the age of 69, while a woman from the same city was found alive at the age of 74. Another average person, this one living in the United States*, was found alive and kicking at the age of nearly 79 years!*
Life expectancies at birth data for previous years show this was not always the case. From 1800 to about 1900 the average age hovered around 20 years.* In the early 20th Century, that average began to rise, and by 1960, had risen to approximately 50 years, and continued to rise sharply to today’s averages.

There is still room for improvement in finding a man or a woman alive, having survived childhood, in the world older than 70 years old (on average). For example, in countries such as the Central African Republic and Kingdom of Lesotho,* the average lifespan is still only comparable to the worldwide average in 1960. But it’s fair to say, that human health has increased significantly worldwide so that you, if you’re an average man or woman, will probably be able to enjoy what life is like at the age of 70.

— This has been your very banal report —

Check out this amazing interactive map from
https://ourworldindata.org showing life expectancy by year and country going back to the 16th Century!

Learn more from the sources used for this article:
- https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sp.dyn.le00.in
- https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
- https://www.gapminder.org/data/documentation/gd004/ ¹Gapminder data is aggregate data from several leading sources of data, including ILO, World Bank, OECD, WHO, and others.
Hover over any * to see some Extra Facts for Nerds within the article text.
Notre Dame Cathedral Fire Does Not Claim Entire City!

April 19, 2019 /
If you haven’t heard, last Monday, a fire that started in the famed spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral raged for most of the day and nearly claimed the entire 800-year-old world treasure. Many believed it would be a devastating total loss, but miraculously, most of the damage was limited to the roof, and the spire itself which collapsed. The main structure of the Cathedral, its storied bell towers, pipe organ, and most of the treasures kept inside survived (thanks to a human chain to remove them). But was it miraculous?

Short answer is no. But if a similar fire had started in any year, in any world city, prior to the 20th century, chances are the devastation would have gone far beyond the loss of a priceless architectural wonder of the world. Fires have devastated dense populations since humans have been building them. The fact that Notre Dame survived this fire is, like the building itself, a testament to human ingenuity. Better building materials, building procedures and codes, huamns learning from past mistakes. And of course, we cannot omit the bravery and skills of the more than 400 firefighters who spent over 9 hours risking their lives to save the building using state of the art technology created by nameless creative and hardworking people who have improved fire prevention and fighting through the ages with past fire events as their guide.

Some of the worst fires in history have claimed thousands of lives, devastated acres of property, and destroyed irreplaceable treasures. Many of them were started when a ubiquitous home or business’s fire got out of hand (though don’t blame Mrs. O’Leary and her cow, that one was made up by a newspaperman looking to get eyeballs on his story), and quickly spread via the tinderbox materials cities have been built with until relatively recently. For instance, in 1212, 3,000 people were killed in London in the Great Fire of Southwark (the more deadly, but less famous London Fire). Last year, the city with the most (recorded) fire deaths was Moscow with 153 for the entire year. We’ve come a long way.

— This has been your very banal report–

For more facts about devastating fires in history, check out the great list of Top Most Famous Fires in History in the sources list, and the 2018 report by the International Association of Fire and Rescue Services for more stats about worldwide fires and fire-related deaths, along with the many other great sources we used for this report.

1666 Fire of London Monument Closeup: Copyright The Banality Report 2018, photo taken by the Banana Prima on her trip to London last year.

1666 Fire of London Monument: Copyright The Banality Report 2018, photo taken by the Banana Prima on her trip to London last year.

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Poverty on the Edge of Extinction!

April 12, 2019 /
Extreme poverty has declined substantially in the world, according to most experts. In 1820, between 84% and 94% of all people lived in extreme poverty, or the equivalent of less than $2.00 per day* adjusted for inflation. This means, if you’re an average person without an aristocratic background, had you lived in 1820 you would have almost certainly lived in poverty regardless of where in the world you were born. Today,* those numbers have been essentially flipped and only 10% of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty. Since 1980 alone, there has been a 33% drop in extreme poverty rates.

The main cause of the reduction of extreme poverty has been economic liberalization and globalization beginning in the late 1970s, with acceleration happening in the 1980s, and continuing to today. People are freer to start businesses, even in the most remote parts of the world, and connectivity to mobile technology has revolutionized access to capital and customers, while reducing power of even repressive regimes to limit opportunity.

While the total number of humans living in extreme poverty is still far too high,* the fact is the chances of a newborn child today being born into those circumstances today has dropped significantly. The trend appears to be continuing in that direction to the point where some experts believe extreme poverty could be eliminated in this century. The reduction in the extreme poverty rate is already a significant human achievement because each human lifted out of poverty means less suffering, and more opportunities for that person to contribute to human progress.

— This has been your very banal report —

Source:
https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/05/World-Poverty-Since-1820.png

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Farm in VA War-Free for 154 Years

April 9, 2019 /
On this day in 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, ending the US Civil War.

From April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865, the United States was embroiled in a devastating, and bloody civil war that claimed the lives of 620,000 American soldiers* representing approximately 2%* of the total US population in a country with a population of 31 million.* The next highest military deaths to population ratio happened in World War II where 0.30% of the population, or 405,399, died. The Civil War caused more than 500 deaths per day, the highest daily death toll for an American involved war.*
Across the Union, nearly every American knew someone impacted by war, or was directly impacted themselves, including civilians and slaves. Many people had family members fighting in one or both armies.* Many civilians lived in the physical path of the two great armies, and either were caught in the cross-fire, or their homes and property were involuntarily used by one side or the other to replace vital resources, or for basic amusements. Travel was often unsafe, mail service was disrupted, and everyday supplies for life ran devastatingly low, especially in the South. As with most war, innocent people were often brutalized, including raped, tortured, mutilated, and killed along the way.*
Most Americans would agree that ending the amoral and ancient practice of slavery was vital to the future of the American Republic, and should never have existed at all, but this result came at the price of four years of death and daily tragedy for countless people, many of them just like you living regular lives. For 154 years, America has not endured the destruction caused by war on its own home turf, nor between its own people. Many people across the world cannot say the same thing.* Our current relatively peaceful and prosperous lives came at a cost most of us have never truly comprehended, or have largely forgotten.

— This has been your very banal report —

General Lee (right) Surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse, VA to General Grant (left).

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Your Bread Is Rock Free!

April 5, 2019 /
On this day in the 14th Century, your bread was baked with sand and then your teeth turned into nubs.

Humans have been making some form of “bread” for probably at least 30,000 years. Until modern times making bread meant spending hours, sometimes most of the day, grinding grains either by hand or using grindstones into some version of flour in order to create a “dough” for baking (“the daily grind”).* Bread has been a major factor in the human diet, and therefore human flourishing, for millennia.

Tiny grains of sand or rock from the grindstones were worn off and eventually baked into the bread that people ate.* Consuming bread created in this manner over the course of a lifetime made people’s teeth wear away, regardless of status in society. While modern dentistry, the introduction of fluoride into water, and other dental hygienic behaviors, have dramatically improved the quality of people’s teeth in the western world, the change in how we make our daily bread has been an overlooked part of those improvements for most of us.

Oddly, the use of millstones to make flour for bread has made a comeback in recent years as it becomes part of a specialty bread-making process in artesian bakeries primarily in western countries.* The best thing about living today, especially in the west, is you can decide for yourself if delicious bread is worth some extra grit!

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Local Child Not Infected with Polio!

April 2, 2019 /
Only 33 people contracted Paralytic Poliomyelitis, the deadly and paralysis-causing disease most commonly known as polio last year worldwide. Just 30 years ago there were 350,000 cases of polio in the world, a 99% reduction from 1988 to 2018. This means that today, this week, or this year, you or your child did not contract polio, and you probably didn’t even think about it whereas for people in the 1940’s and ‘50’s it was one of their biggest domestic worries.

In the 1950s, polio was one of the most feared diseases as it swept across the United States and the world from the late 1800s into the first half of the 20^th century. The disease usually targets children under the age of five and often results in debilitating lifelong paralysis, or even death. In fact, 1 in 200 infections lead to lifelong paralysis, and among those infected, 5% to 10% will die as a result. In the 1950s in the United States, the number of polio cases peaked at nearly 60,000, and more than 3,000 people died. Others would become paralyzed for life, some would be forced to use an iron lung in order to keep breathing.*

In 1951, Dr. Jonas Salk created the first polio vaccine, and by the 1970s the disease was considered eradicated in the United States. While it is still considered endemic in 125 countries worldwide, in less than a century thanks to modern science and human ingenuity, this deadly disease has been virtually eliminated and is no longer a cause of great fear and human suffering.*
— This has been your very banal report —

Special Author’s Note: This article, the first ever at The Banality Report, is dedicated to my mother. She contracted polio at the age of two years. She luckily recovered with minimal overall damage. She can still remember the smell of the hot woolen compresses used to treat her (The Kenny Method), and the disease still affects her to this day (post-polio syndrome), more than 70 years later.

(Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) Young polio patients read letters from home while gathered around mailroom desk during mail call at FDR’s Georgia Warm Springs Foundation while receiving intensive treatment.

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Learn more about Polio, how it is treated, and about the heroes who eradicated it in the sources used in this article listed below:
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The Price of Freedom; Remembering Tiananmen Square 30 Years Later

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So can most humans, but this is fairly modern.

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On this day in 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, ending the US Civil War.

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On this day in the 14th Century, your bread was baked with sand and then your teeth turned into nubs.

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