1870s Horse Flu Epidemic Brought US Economy To Its Knees 118
Nemo the Magnificent writes with this excerpt from the University of Arizona: "A new study (paywalled) published in the journal Nature provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the evolutionary relationships of influenza virus across different host species over time... In the 1870s, an immense horse flu outbreak swept across North America. City by city and town by town, horses got sick and perhaps five percent of them died. Half of Boston burned down during the outbreak, because there were no horses to pull the pump wagons. In the West, the U.S. Cavalry was fighting the Apaches on foot because all the horses were sick... The horse flu outbreak pulled the rug out from under the economy.""
Sure, blame the flu (Score:4, Insightful)
But I bet a little war during the previous decade had a bit more to do with the economic issues of the time.
Poor US Calvalry (Score:5, Insightful)
Committing genocide on foot is tiring work.
Re:./ sinks to a new low (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the thing; nerds are interested in darn near everything.
The ability for a non-human disease to cause such a negative impact is interesting. The impact of loss of transportation on the economy, even an ancient one, is also interesting.
Don't use technical terms unless you know their me (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't use technical terms unless you know their meaning. Peak oil looks like it happened in 2008 because it's the maximum point on the graph of crude oil extraction over time. Gas from shale, coal, whatever is something else.
The term "peak oil" acquired a lot of baggage from people who liked to oversimplify things and pretend that crude oil was the only form of energy. The post above is a good example of being influenced by that baggage.