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  • Yellow Sideways Banana Banality Report Logo small square with gray text

    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 —

    Image Source:  
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard#/media/File:Train_stuck_in_snow.jpg
    File:Train stuck in snow.jpg  | Created: 28 March 1881

    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.


    Learn more from the sources used for this article:
    • https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Minnesota/Places/minneapolis-snowfall-totals-snow-accumulation-averages.php
    • http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-snowstorm-was-lighter-than-expected-but-still-dangerous/567108562/
    • https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-weather/heres-how-much-snow-fell-in-minnesota-blame-the-dry-slot-for-less
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard
    • https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-ten-deadliest-blizzards-in-history.html
    • https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/snow-and-ice/rsi/overview

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

  • Yellow Sideways Banana Banality Report Logo small square with gray text

    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.

  • Green Banality Report Logo with text

    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

    Learn more from the sources used for this article:
    • https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty
    • https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/05/World-Poverty-Since-1820.png
    • https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty
    • https://www.humanprogress.org/article.php?p=1779
    • https://humanprogress.org/article.php?p=462
    • http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/

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

  • Yellow Sideways Banana Banality Report Logo small square with gray text

    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).
    Learn more from the sources used for this article:
    • http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr09.htm
    • https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-what-everyone-should-know-about-civil-war
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House
    • https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_Census
    • https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-civil-war-affect-its-people-575093
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_Census
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War#CITEREFHuddleston2002
    • https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/death-numbers/
    • https://civilwartalk.com/threads/civilian-deaths-civil-war.23466/

    Updates made to tool tip popup styles only. No content was altered.

  • Yellow Sideways Banana Banality Report Logo small square with gray text

    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!

    — This has been your very banal report —

    Learn more from the sources used for this article:
    • https://www.history.com/news/a-brief-history-of-bread
    • https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/science/q-a-teeth-and-millstones.html
    • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290251601_Unlocking_the_past_The_role_of_dental_analysis_in_archaeology
    • https://www.fournosveneti.gr/en/the-company/the-history-of-bread
    • https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/24/490120509/bread-grains-the-last-frontier-in-the-locavore-movement
    • https://www.jstor.org/stable/30001637?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
    • http://cdalebrittain.blogspot.com/2014/05/medieval-teeth.html

    Updates made to tool tip popup styles only. No content was altered.

  • Yellow Sideways Banana Banality Report Logo small square with gray text

    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 20th 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.

    Children, Polio patients gathered in a room.

    (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.

    Learn more about The Banality Report by reading our Mission Statement.


    Learn more about Polio, how it is treated, and about the heroes who eradicated it in the sources used in this article listed below:

    • https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/poliomyelitis
    • https://www.cdc.gov/polio/us/index.html
    • https://vaccines.procon.org/view.additional-resource.php?resourceID=005964
    • https://www.cdc.gov/polio/us/pps.html
    • https://amhistory.si.edu/polio/howpolio/scimed2.htm
    • https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2012/11/sister-kenny-institute-revolutionized-treatment-polio-patients/
    • https://amhistory.si.edu/polio/howpolio/medworld2.htm
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung
    • https://amhistory.si.edu/polio/howpolio/ironlung.htm
    • https://www.cdc.gov/acute-flaccid-myelitis/afm-surveillance.html

    Updates made to tool tip popup styles only. No content was altered.

What is The Banality Report?

Yellow Sideways Banana Banality Report Logo small square with gray textMost news bums us out and lacks perspective. The Banality Report covers the truth of human progress in a different way. We write the news that isn’t news but should be. There is so much banality in our world and its wonderful.

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More Banal Articles

  • Jan 18, 2020 Underwhelming Blizzard Passes Through Minnesota!
  • Jun 04, 2019 Tiananmen Square 30 Years Later
  • May 23, 2019 Congratulations! You Can Read!
  • May 01, 2019 Person Age 70 Years Old Probably Not Dead!
  • Apr 19, 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral Fire Does Not Claim Entire City!

Our very first report!

Local Child Not Infected with Polio!

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PersephoneK is the overlord of The Banality Report. You may have seen her around the webs writing on various topics. You can follow her on Twitter @persephonek

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