Trivia Quiz #1: States
Trivia Quiz #1: States
1. What state is the fraud capital of America?
1. What state is the fraud capital of America?
2. Which state has the highest number of lawyers per
capita?
2. Which state has the highest number of lawyers per
capita?
3. What state has the most bankruptcies per capita?
3. What state has the most bankruptcies per capita?
4. Likewise for divorce?
4. Likewise for divorce?
5. How much has the rate of violent crime in the United
States increased in the last 30 years?
5. How much has the rate of violent crime in the United
States increased in the last 30 years?
6. What state has the highest rate of all types of crime
per capita?
6. What state has the highest rate of all types of crime
per capita?
7. Overall in the United States, how much has the rate
of adolescent sexuality increased since the early
1990s?
7. Overall in the United States, how much has the rate
of adolescent sexuality increased since the early
1990s?
8. What percentage of Utahns are “active” or practicing
Mormons?
8. What percentage of Utahns are “active” or practicing
Mormons?
Trivia Quiz #2: Disasters
Trivia Quiz #2: Disasters
1. What war in earth’s history had the highest death
toll, after the time of the Bible?
1. What war in earth’s history had the highest death
toll, after the time of the Bible?
2. What war was second highest?
2. What war was second highest?
3. Regarding causes of death currently, where would
war rank in a list of the top ten?
3. Regarding causes of death currently, where would
war rank in a list of the top ten?
4. What disaster, natural or manmade, has had the
highest death toll in post-Biblical history?
4. What disaster, natural or manmade, has had the
highest death toll in post-Biblical history?
5. What is the number one cause of death in developing
countries?
5. What is the number one cause of death in developing
countries?
6. What will be the biggest killer in the world by 2030?
6. What will be the biggest killer in the world by 2030?
7. How many people died in the 9-11 tragedy?
7. How many people died in the 9-11 tragedy?
8. How many people die each year by drunk driving in
the U.S.?
8. How many people die each year by drunk driving in
the U.S.?
9. What was the deadliest famine in recorded history?
9. What was the deadliest famine in recorded history?
10. Where does Katrina fall in the list of top ten deadliest
cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons?
10. Where does Katrina fall in the list of top ten deadliest
cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons?
11. Put the following in order from highest cause of
deaths to the lowest, each year in the USA: drugs,
cigarettes, alcohol, car crashes.
11. Put the following in order from highest cause of
deaths to the lowest, each year in the USA: drugs,
cigarettes, alcohol, car crashes.
Worst of Times?
Answers to Quiz #1: States
1. Fraud capital. The first ten results of an internet search
on the phrase "fraud capital of the united states"
includes Utah (using conjectures and opinions only as
recent as the 1980s), Orange County, New York,
southern Florida (healthcare), Los Angeles, Los Angeles
(auto), southern Florida (mortgage), St. Louis, Las Vegas,
Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1974 the Wall Street
Journal labeled Utah the fraud capital, without, as far as
we are aware, much documented research, and that is
still being quoted nowadays in various places.
From Digital Transaction News, 15 Feb. 2007 – “The
five riskiest states, based on data drawn from 2003
through June of last year (2007), are New York,
California, Nevada, Michigan, and Arizona. The five
safest are New Hampshire, Vermont, Montana, Ohio,
and Idaho.
“At the other end of the spectrum, the most dangerous
five-digit zip codes, besides the ones mentioned above,
include three more New York City-area zips, with a
Chicago zip coming in sixth. New York City, Chicago,
Detroit, Memphis, Tenn., and Los Angeles zips dominate
the risky list. Still, this list also features such
unexpected towns as Grand Marais, Mich. (No. 8),
Merlin, Ore. (No. 10), and Benezett, Pa. (No. 12). Even
Yellowstone National Park shows up with a high fraud
rate in the ranking of three-digit zip code areas.”
(http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=1250)
2. Highest number of lawyers. The top ten are District of
Columbia, New York, Delaware, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Illinois, Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania,
Florida. Utah is 22nd.
(http://www.averyindex.com/lawyers_per_capita.php)
3. Most bankruptcies. The top ten are Tennessee,
Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Arkansas, Indiana,
Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio. Utah is 14th.
(http://www.lawyerucla.com/articles/bankruptcy-rates-by-state-percapita.html. A less recent source is the U.S. Dept. of Justice,
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/public_affairs/articles/docs/abi_0304.html)
4. Highest divorce. The top ten are Nevada, Arkansas,
Alaska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, West Virginia, Alabama,
Idaho, Florida, New Mexico. Utah is 17th.
(http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923080.html. Note: This data was as of
2005 and did not contain data for 6 states including California.)
5. Highest rate of violent crime. “The year 2005 was
overall the safest year in the past thirty years. The
recent overall decrease has reflected upon all significant
types of crime, with all violent and property crimes
having decreased and reached an all-time low. The
homicide rate in particular has decreased over 42%
between its record high point in 1991 and 2005.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States)
6. Highest rate of all types of crime. Using 2006 data, for
total crime, the top ten are: DC (over two times that of
#2), S.C., Tenn., Nev., Fla., La., Alaska, Del., Md., N.M..
Utah is 46th. For just murder Utah is 45th;; for rape, 21st;
for robbery, 41st; for property crime, 22nd.
(http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html)
7. Rate of adolescent sexuality. “According to the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the year
2007, 35% of US high school students were currently
sexually active and 47.8% of US high school students
reported having had sexual intercourse. This
percentage has decreased slightly since 1991.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescent_sexuality_in_the_United_States)
8. Mormon activity rate in Utah. This is hard to define.
What is an active Mormon? Where do you draw the
line? Secondly hard statistics are not kept by the
Church. (Total attendance at Sacrament Meeting is
tracked but does not differentiate between visitors and
ward members, and does not track ward members
attending other wards.) According to an article in the
Salt Lake Tribune  About 60% of Utah’s population is Mormon.
 Roughly 50% of Utah’s Mormons are church-going or
practicing. (From “Mormon Portion Of Utah Population Steadily
Shrinking”, Salt Lake Tribune, 26 July 2005)
Assuming the report is accurate (however they came up
with it), here is the breakdown of Utah’s population –
40% non-Mormon, 30% non-practicing Mormons, and
30% practicing Mormons.
Answers to Quiz #2: Disasters
1. Deadliest war. World War II with 40-72 million deaths.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_disasters_by_death_toll)
2. Second deadliest war. An Shi Rebellion in 756 AD at 3336 million deaths, as ranked by the low side of the
range, or the Mongol Conquests begun in 1207 at 30-60
million deaths by the high side of the range.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_disasters_by_death_toll)
3. War’s ranking in top ten current causes of death. It
doesn’t. It is at #15 and is combined with suicides and
murders. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_death)
4. Deadliest disaster. Black Death (Bubonic plague) - The
total number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 75
million people, approximately 25–50 million of which
occurred in Europe. … It may have reduced the world's
population from an estimated 450 million to between
350 and 375 million in 1400.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death)
5. Top cause of death in developing countries. HIV/AIDS.
Interestingly most of the list varies considerably from
that of the rest of the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_death)
6. Biggest killer in 2030. According to the World Health
Organization, … if figures continue to rise at current
levels, tobacco – and a range of smoking-related
diseases – will become the world’s biggest killer by 2030
… (The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson, 2006,
p. 209.) If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause
some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half the
people that smoke today -that is about 650 million
people- will eventually be killed by tobacco.
(http://www.who.int/tobacco/health_priority/en/index.html) For more
see our document, “Word of Wisdom.doc”.
7. Deaths in 9-11. 2,749 death certificates were filed
relating to the 9/11 attacks.
[By comparison
World War II averaged 33,000 deaths per day, over ten
times that number – and lasted 2,193 days (6 years).
American lives lost averaged 303 per day.]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_trade_center)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties)
8. Drunk driving fatalities. In the United States the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
estimates that 17,941 people died in 2006 in "alcoholrelated" collisions, representing 41 percent of total
traffic deaths in the US. Over 500,000 people were
injured in alcohol-related accidents in the US in 2003.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_driving_(United_States))
9. Deadliest famine. China, 1958-61, 20-43 million dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll)
10. Katrina. It doesn’t. Katrina had 1,836 fatalities
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina) whereas the tenth
on the list had 60,000 and the first had 500,000
(Bangladesh, 1970)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll).
11. Selected causes in order. Cigarettes (440,000), alcohol
(75,766), motor vehicle (41,000), drugs (17,000).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_trade_center,
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5337a2.htm,
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm,
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx)
Is Now the Worst of Times,
or at Least Getting Close to It?
Compare our current times to Ether 14:1-2 and Mormon
9:18-19 for example.
The Forecast
Gordon B. Hinckley [at the National Press Club
Newsmakers Luncheon, March 8, 2000] Question by the press: “When you watch television and see
what is portrayed there, and in films, do you feel you are
losing the crusade or the war?”
His response: “No. I don't watch television very much
(laughter). But no, I don't think we are losing the war. I
think we are winning the war. I am an optimist. I believe
the future looks good. We have a lot of problems to deal
with, very serious problems. The American family is in
trouble. I think no one could doubt that. We have many
troublesome things — gangs, drugs and everything else of
that kind — but, in spite of all that, there are so many good
people in this land, so many people who want to do the
right thing that I'm totally optimistic about the future. I
don't think we are going down to ruin and trouble. I think
we're making a little headway and we ought to be grateful
for the opportunity and work a little harder at it.”
(www.npr.org/programs/npc/2000/000308.ghinckley.html)
Appreciation
Gordon B. Hinckley - When I was a boy living in Salt Lake
City, most homes were heated with coal stoves. Black
smoke belched forth from almost every chimney. As
winter came to a close, black soot and grime were
everywhere, both inside and outside of the house.
There was a ritual through which we passed each year—
not a very pleasant one, as we viewed it. It involved every
member of the family. It was known as spring cleaning.
When the weather warmed after the long winter, a week
or so was [declared to be] cleanup time. It was usually
when there was a holiday and included two Saturdays.
My mother ran the show. All of the curtains were taken
down and laundered. Then they were carefully ironed.
The windows were washed inside and out, and oh, what a
job that was in that big two-story house.
Wallpaper was on all of the walls, and Father would bring
home numerous cans of wallpaper cleaner. It was like
bread dough, but it was a pretty pink in color when the
container was opened. It had an interesting smell, a
pleasant, refreshing kind of smell. We all pitched in. We
would knead some of the cleaning dough in our hands,
climb a ladder, and begin on the high ceiling, and then
work down the walls. The dough was soon black from the
dirt it lifted from the paper. It was a terrible task, very
tiring, but the results were like magic. We would stand
back and compare the dirty surface with the clean surface.
It was amazing to us how much better the clean walls
looked.
All of the carpets were taken up and dragged out to the
backyard, where they were hung over the clothesline, one
by one. Each of us boys would have what we called a
carpet beater, a device made of light steel rods with a
wooden handle. As we beat the carpet, the dust would fly,
and we would have to keep going until there was no dust
left.
We detested that work. But when all of it was done, and
everything was back in place, the result was wonderful.
The house was clean, our spirits renewed. The whole
world looked better. (Friend, Mar 2004, p. 2)
James E. Faust - In the closing moments of this conference,
I come to this pulpit to speak about gratitude as an
expression of faith and as a saving principle. The Lord has
said, “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against
none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his
hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.” (D&C
59:21) It is clear to me from this scripture that to “thank the
Lord thy God in all things” (D&C 59:7) is more than a social
courtesy; it is a binding commandment.
One of the advantages of having lived a long time is that
you can often remember when you had it worse. I am
grateful to have lived long enough to have known some of
the blessings of adversity. My memory goes back to the
Great Depression, when we had certain values burned into
our souls. One of these values was gratitude for that which
we had because we had so little. The Great Depression in
the United States in the early thirties was a terrible
schoolmaster. We had to learn provident living in order to
survive. Rather than create in us a spirit of envy or anger
for what we did not have, it developed in many a spirit of
gratitude for the meager, simple things with which we
were blessed, like hot, homemade bread and oatmeal
cereal and many other things.
As another example, I remember my beloved grandmother,
Mary Caroline Roper Finlinson, making homemade soap on
the farm. Her recipe for homemade soap included
rendered animal fat, a small portion of lye as a cleansing
agent, and wood ashes as an abrasive. The soap had a very
pungent aroma and was almost as hard as a brick. There
was no money to buy soft, sweet-smelling soap. On the
farm, there were many dusty, sweat-laden clothes to be
washed and many bodies that needed desperately a
Saturday night bath. If you had to bathe with that
homemade soap, you could become wonderfully clean, but
you smelled worse after bathing than before. Since I use
soap more now than I did as a child, I have developed a
daily appreciation for mild, sweet-scented soap.
One of the evils of our time is taking for granted so many of
the things we enjoy. This was spoken of by the Lord: “For
what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him,
and he receive not the gift?” (D&C 88:33) The Apostle Paul
described our day to Timothy when he wrote that in the
last days “men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy.” (2 Tim. 3:2) These sins are
fellow travelers, and ingratitude makes one susceptible to
all of them.
… Without question, we need to be informed of the
happenings of the world. But modern communication
brings into our homes a drowning cascade of the violence
and misery of the worldwide human race. There comes a
time when we need to find some peaceful spiritual
renewal.
… As with all commandments, gratitude is a description of
a successful mode of living. The thankful heart opens our
eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround
us. President J. Reuben Clark said, “Hold fast to the
blessings which God has provided for you. Yours is not the
task to gain them, they are here; yours is the part of
cherishing them.” (Church News, 14 June 1969, p. 2) (“Gratitude As a
Saving Principle,” Ensign, May 1990, p. 85. For more see “Appreciation.doc”.)
Conclusion
Gordon B. Hinckley - There never was a greater time in the
history of the world to live upon the earth than this. How
grateful every one of us ought to feel for being alive in this
wonderful time with all the marvelous blessings we have.
… And on top of all that is the Restoration of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ with all of the keys and authority,
with all the gifts and blessings, with all the organization
and doctrine of all previous dispensations all brought into
one. And you and I are partakers of that marvelous
restoration.
I see so many good people everywhere—and there’s so
much of good in them. And the world is good. Wonderful
things are happening in this world. This is the greatest age
in the history of the earth. (“Words of the Prophet: The Spirit of
Optimism,” New Era, Jul 2001, 4. The first paragraph is also in Church News, Aug.
14, 1999, 7)
Spencer W. Kimball - There never has been a land, from
the days of Adam until now that has been blessed more
than this land has been blessed by our Father in Heaven;
and it will still be blessed more and more, if we are faithful
and humble, and thankful to God … (Faith Precedes the Miracle, p.
29)
Gordon B. Hinckley - I am asking that we stop seeking out
the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am
suggesting that as we go through life we “accentuate the
positive.” … I am not asking that all criticism be silenced.
Growth comes of correction. Strength comes of
repentance. Wise is the man who can acknowledge
mistakes pointed out by others and change his course.
… Keep the faith. Nurture your testimonies. Walk in
righteousness, and the Lord will bless you and prosper you,
and you will be a happy and wonderful people. (“Words of the
Prophet: The Spirit of Optimism,” New Era, Jul 2001, p. 4.)
Thomas S. Monson - Accounts of violence, theft, drug
abuse, and pornography blare forth from the television
screen and appear constantly in most daily newspapers.
Such examples blur our vision and fault our thinking. Soon
assumptions become generally accepted opinions, and all
youth everywhere are categorized as “not so good as
yesteryear” or “the worst generation yet.” How wrong are
such opinions! How incorrect are such statements!
of Faith,” Ensign, Feb 1997, 2)
(“Profiles
(by Zan and Misty Larsen, http://lessons.elarsen.net)
Presentation Notes
Print out or be prepared to show these web pages on the
projector –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_disasters_by_death_toll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_death
Ask the class to point which of the items happened in the
USA.
Extra Material
Howard W. Hunter – What a privilege! What an honor!
What a responsibility! And what joy! We have every reason
in time and eternity to rejoice and give thanks for the
quality of our lives and the promises we have been given.
(Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Howard W. Hunter, ch. 3.)
Dust Bowl - During the drought of the 1930s, with the
grasses destroyed, the soil dried, turned to dust, and blew
away eastwards and southwards in large dark clouds. At
times the clouds blackened the sky, reaching all the way to
East Coast cities such as New York and Washington, D.C.
Much of the soil ended up deposited in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres … The storms of
the Dust Bowl were given names such as Black Blizzard and
Black Roller because visibility was reduced to a few feet
(around a meter). The Dust Bowl was an ecological and
human disaster … Hundreds of thousands of families from
the Dust Bowl … traveled to California and other states,
where they found conditions little better than those they
had left. Owning no land, many traveled from farm to farm
picking fruit and other crops at starvation wages.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_bowl) Those caught in the middle
of dust storms were left with either damaged lungs or
death due to inhalation of dust in the air they were
breathing.
(http://wolves.dsc.k12.ar.us/jrhigh/media/%20ACE/the%20Chad/the_dust_bowl.htm)
M. Russell Ballard - Help members lighten up when
interacting with non-members and less-actives. Research
shows that often members are far more uptight and
uncomfortable than non-members in gospel-related
interactions. Show [members] how to relax and enjoy
those wonderful experiences and how to emanate the joy
they have had and the love they feel for their Heavenly
Father. When guided by the Spirit they can create many
opportunities for modeling informal teaching and
integrating in natural, comfortable and even spontaneous
ways. (“Fostering ‘Real Growth in Your Ward and Stake” in the video
“Missionary Work and Retention” of the satellite broadcast, 29 Aug. 1999)
Saddam Hussein – Yours is a society that cannot accept
10,000 dead in one battle. (Told to Ambassador April Glaspie,
three days after he moved his armored unit toward Kuwait’s border.
Storm Over Iraq by Richard P. Hallion, p. 133)
Cigarette Deaths - Each year in the United States,
approximately 440,000 persons die of a cigarette smokingattributable illness … - Center for Disease Control (CDC)
(http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5235a4.htm. That
averages 1,205 per day. By comparison 2,749 death certificates were filed
relating to the 9/11 attacks. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_trade_center)
So any three days of cigarette fatalities beats 9-11.)
Alcohol Deaths - … Approximately 75,766 AADs [alcoholattributable deaths] … were attributable to excessive
alcohol use in 2001. - Center for Disease Control (CDC)
(http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5337a2.htm. That
averages of 208 per day.)
Drugs – Interestingly in the USA adverse reactions to
prescription drugs kills more people per year than does all
illicit drug use (32,000 to 17,000). (“Annual Causes of Death in the
United States, Direct and Indirect”, http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm)
Motor Vehicle Fatalities – Yearly about 41,000 people die
in the United States. – FARS (http://wwwfars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx. That averages 112 per day.)
Doom-saying and Sensationalizing
It’s sensational to quote some statistic such as “over 4,000
people in Davis and Weber Counties are in treatment” for
social ills. The problem with that it is not put in context of
percentage of total population, nor is it compared to the
problem from decades ago. A specific example of
sensationalism and sometimes abusing statistics is drug
abuse. For some reason people don’t see drug abuse only
as a modern problem – and do include alcohol as a drug,
nor attempt to gage extent of alcohol-related problem in
the golden times of years past. To some extent unchastity
is similar; being more open about it now does not make
hushed up adultery of decades ago less prevalent.
Reader’s Digest
Wars and terrorist attacks will always make headlines, but
it’s remarkable how many of the world’s 6.7 billion people
now live in peace. In recent decades, despite the growth in
population, the number of war casualties around the world
had declined, according to the Human Security Report
Project from Canada’s Simon Fraser University. And
despite a new fear of terrorism following 9/11, terrorist
casualties have been declining in recent years …
In 1950 the typical new American house had one floor with
1,000 square feet, two bedrooms, and one bathroom – and
even that bungalow was beyond many people’s means …
More than a third of homes lacked complete plumbing
facilities …
Food is so plentiful that in many countries, the old
concerns about hunger have been replaced by worries
about obesity …
During the Cold War, the United States and the former
Soviet Union had about 50,000 nuclear warheads aimed at
each other. Since then, they’ve agreed to get rid of 90
percent of them, and tens of thousands of those weapons
have already been eliminated. As Greg Easterbrook
observes in his book The Progress Paradox, “Historians will
view nuclear arms reduction as such an incredible
accomplishment that it will seem bizarre in retrospect so
little attention was paid while it was happening.” (“It’s a
foreclosure rate in 2008 ... The four states with the highest
foreclosure rates last year — Nevada, Florida, Arizona and
California — accounted for almost half the national total,
the report said. (“Utah 13th in nation for '08 foreclosures,” by Jasen Lee,
Deseret News, 01/14/2009.)
Wonderful Life,” Readers Digest, Feb. 2009, p. 122-125.)
What state is the least physically fit?
Additional Questions
How much less religious has the U.S. become
since it was founded?
Ted Lyon - Indeed, Roger Finke and Rodney Stark have
convincingly demonstrated that from its inception 230
years ago, the United States has become more "churched,"
more religiously active, and not less participative. As North
America has prospered, so has religion. Jenkins confirms
this analysis. He charts the largest Christian communities
over a period of fifty years (numbers are in millions):
Nation
2000 2025
United States 225 270
Brazil
164 190
Mexico
95 127
Philippines
77 116
Nigeria
50
83
2050
330
195
145
145
123
By every measure the United States seems destined to
continue as the largest single Christian country in the
world. (Review of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity by
Philip Jenkins, FARMS Review, v. 19, no. 2 [2007], p. 91)
Dallin H. Oaks (quoting philosopher Mortimer J. Adler) With regard to the apparent increase of secularism or
irreligion in our Western society, I suggest that the men
and women who have given up religion because of the
impact on their minds of modern science and philosophy
were never truly religious in the first place, but only
superstitious. The prevalence and predominance of
science in our culture has cured a great many of the
superstitious beliefs that constituted their false religiosity…
The increase of secularism and irreligion in our society does
not reflect a decrease in the number of persons who are
truly religious, but a decrease in the number of those who
are falsely religious; that is, merely superstitious. (Lord’s Way,
p. 74)
Which state has the most home foreclosures?
The data from RealtyTrac, an online market researcher
based in Irvine, Calif., showed that Utah ranked 13th in the
nation for its 2008 foreclosure rate, which was 1.65
percent, just below the national average of 1.84 percent …
St. George registered as the Utah city with the highest
From Mens Fitness Magazine about Utah: Now that's an
impressive debut. A newcomer to MF's annual list, the
Utah capital jumped (or shall we say, slalomed) to the top
of the survey because of its abundance of park space,
athletically motivated residents, and below- average
obesity rates. (“2009 Fittest Cities: #1 Salt Lake City, UT - An impressive
debut for this newcomer to MF's annual list,” Men’s Fitness Magazine,
http://www.mensfitness.com/lifestyle/193, accessed 01/16/09.)
[Tried to do one on divorce. There certainly are more in
recent years due to the legal allowance for “no-fault”
divorces. The issue is too complicated for a single number
or fact, due to separations and variations worldwide.]
[Tried to do one on genocides but could not find a basic
list.]
[Tried to do one on teenage pregnancies, but it becomes
difficult based on culture, e.g. is a 19-year-old too young to
be a mother?]
How many people are killed in Mexico by cartels?
More than 15,000 people have been killed in Mexico in the
past three years in cartel-related violence. (“13 young
students killed at party in Mexico border”, By MARTHA MENDOZA,
Associated Press Writer Martha Mendoza, Associated Press Writer, Jan
31, 2010)
How many people died in the 5-day
smog of 1952 in London?
About 12,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog
What percent of the world’s
population died in World War II?
About 3.7%.
(http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percent_of_the_world_population_died_in_World_War_2)
That percentage of today’s population is 259 million.
'Everything is amazing right
now and nobody's happy …'
Conan O’Brien recently hosted Emmy-award winning
comedian Louis CK on his show. CK minced few words in
explaining how so much is wasted on generations that
don’t appreciate how far we’ve come.
In a treatise on simpler times, CK recalls, “In my lifetime,
the changes have been incredible. We had a rotary dial
phone. We had to stand next to the phone and dial the
number. Do you realize how primitive that was? And you
hated people who had zeroes in their phone numbers
because it made you work harder for the dial to go all the
way around.” He adds, “If they called and you weren’t
there, the phone would just ring – lonely, by itself.”
If you wanted money, you had to go to the bank and go
inside when it was open for three hours. You’d stand in
line, write yourself a check (like an idiot) and then when
you ran out of money you’d say to yourself, ‘Well, I can’t
do any more things now.’”
CK goes on to point out that even if you had a credit card,
the cashier would heave a big sigh and haul out a huge
contraption, place your card in it, and he’d crank the device
back and forth to read the imprint.
When asked if he thinks that we now take technology for
granted, the comedian merely describes a scene of what he
observes anywhere and everywhere. He says people get
on their cell phones, stare down at them and you see them
shifting their weight from foot to foot, complaining ‘Ugh –
it won’t … !!’
“GIVE IT A SECOND!! IT’S GOING INTO SPACE!! CAN YOU
GIVE IT A MINUTE TO GET BACK FROM SPACE???”
His description of the phenomenon of today’s air travel
had me on the floor:
“I was on an airplane and there was high-speed Internet –
the newest thing that I know exists,” he says. “So I’m
sitting on a plane and they announce, ‘Go ahead and open
up your laptop, you can now use the Internet.’ It’s fast and
I’m watching YouTube. I mean, I’m on an airplane!
“Then it breaks down and they apologize for it. And the
guy sitting next to me goes, ‘This is [nonsense]!’
“Like, how quickly the world owes him something he knew
existed only ten seconds ago, right?
“Flying is the worst, because people come back from flights
and they tell you their horror stories. They act like their
flight was like a cattle car in the ‘40s in Germany. This is
how they make it sound: ‘It was the worst day of my life.
First of all, we didn’t board for twenty minutes. And then
we get on the plane and they made us wait on the runway
for forty minutes.’
“Oh really,” says CK. “And what happened next? Did you
FLY THROUGH THE AIR – INCREDIBLY – LIKE A BIRD?? Did
you partake in the miracle of human flight, you noncontributing zero?
“Everybody on the plane should just constantly be going,
‘Oh my [heavens]!! Wow!!.’
“You’re sitting in a CHAIR in the SKY!”
Then he asks, “Delays? New York to California in five
hours!! That used to take 30 years! People would die
along the way or babies would be born. You’d be a whole
new group of people by the time you got there! Now you
watch a movie, [go to the bathroom] and you’re home.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-2563-Lady-BoomerExaminer~y2009m2d23-Everything-is-amazing-right-now-and-nobodyshappy---
A classic line from dads around the world to
their upset children is:
“Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”
Might Heavenly Father ever think that way?
Q. But isn’t okay to use these scare tactics to some degree
to waken people to the important things of life?
A. There are two disadvantages to doing so:
1. When really bad things fail to happen, people can
inwardly think, “Well, the prophets weren’t right
after all.”
2. Some people can think that religion as a whole has
to have these scare tactics. The less threatening
religious truths apparently aren’t interesting and
stirring enough to stand on their own.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/5scientific-breakthroughs-we-couldnt-live-without3.htm
Water Purification
As many of us who've traveled in the developing world can
testify, drinking water that's contaminated with pathogens
can lead to a miserable bout of stomach pain and loose
bowels, and a hasty trip to a local medical clinic. But waterrelated illnesses do more than just ruin vacations. As the
World Health Organization reported in 2005, such diseases
are the world's leading cause of death, claiming 3.4 million
lives annually -- more than war, terrorism and weapons of
mass destruction combined. Children in impoverished
countries, whose immune systems already are weakened
by malnutrition and other stresses, are particularly at risk;
about 4,000 of them die each day from drinking filthy
water [source: VOA].
But it used to be even worse. For centuries, even in
developed countries, mysterious periodic outbreaks of
water-borne cholera regularly killed many thousands of
people [source: Britannica]. Then in 1854, British scientist
John Snow determined that the disease was caused by
microorganisms in sewage that contaminated the water
supply. He came up with the idea to apply chlorine to the
water to kill the microorganisms, and the illness rate
plummeted. Since then, additional chemical and filtration
technologies have been developed to make our drinking
water safe [source: Lenntech].
Antibiotics
For most of human history, virtually everyone on the
planet faced the risk of dying in epidemics of bacterial
diseases that sometimes ravaged multiple continents. One
such disease, Bubonic plague -- the "Black Death" -- killed
an estimated 200 million people in the 14th century alone
[source: BBC].
Then, in the late 1920s, a London physician named Dr.
Alexander Fleming, who was trying to develop an
antibacterial agent, noticed mold that had contaminated a
Petri dish inhibited the growth of a pathogen he was
studying. Fleming published a scientific article on his
discovery in 1929, and one of his students, Dr. Cecil Paine,
eventually became the first clinician to demonstrate the
effectiveness of penicillin, a drug derived from the mold,
against bacterial disease in human patients [source:
Wong]. Since then, the use of penicillin and other
antibiotics has led to dramatic reductions in the death rate
from certain once-common diseases. In Sweden, for
example, the death rate from one type of genital tract
infection in infants dropped from one in 1,000 in 1911 to
one in 100,000 births in 1970 [source: Hemminki].
Food Preservation
The cans of beans or corn in your pantry might seem like a
humble advance in civilization, but there's a reason civil
defense officials advise everyone to keep a supply. The
ability to preserve foodstuffs for long periods without
refrigeration enables people to survive natural and manmade disasters that disrupt our electrical supply and make
it difficult to obtain supplies of fresh food.
Canning was invented in the late 18th century out of
military necessity. Napoleon's troops were suffering more
casualties from hunger and scurvy, a nutritional deficiency,
than they were from combat with the enemy, and the
French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs to
anyone who could develop a method of preserving
soldiers' provisions in the field. A Parisian named Nicholas
Appert, who had worked variously as a candy maker, chef
and beer brewer, came up with the idea of partially
cooking food, sealing it in bottles with cork stoppers and
then immersing the bottles in boiling water to expel the air
inside. He believed the air caused it to spoil. (It would be
another half century before Louis Pasteur would discover
that heat actually killed the microorganisms that spoiled
food and caused illness.)
French soldiers took Appert's samples of poultry,
vegetables, gravy and other items along with them when
they were sent on an overseas voyage, and they reported
that after four months, it remained edible. In 1810, English
inventor Peter Durand received a patent for an improved
food container, which had a soldered lid instead of a cork.
Two years later, two of Durand's countrymen, Bryan
Donkin and John Hall, opened a factory that put food into
metal cans instead of bottles [source: Cancentral.com].
Norman Ernest Borlaug … was an American agronomist. …
He developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant
wheat varieties. During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led
the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined
with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico,
Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net
exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970,
wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly
improving the food security in those nations. These
collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green
Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a
billion people worldwide from starvation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug)
Hyperchondria / Cybercondria
Cyberchondria is a colloquial term for hypochondria in
individuals who have researched medical conditions on the
Internet. The media and the Internet often contribute to
hypochondria, as articles, TV shows and advertisements
regarding serious illnesses such as cancer and multiple
sclerosis (some of the diseases hypochondriacs commonly
think they have) often portray these diseases as being
random, obscure and somewhat inevitable. Inaccurate
portrayal of risk and the identification of non-specific
symptoms as signs of serious illness contribute to
exacerbating the hypochondriac’s fear that they actually
have that illness.
Major disease outbreaks or predicted pandemics can also
contribute to hypochondria. Statistics regarding certain
illnesses, such as cancer, will give hypochondriacs the
illusion that they are more likely to develop the disease. A
simple suggestion of mental illness can often trigger one
with hypochondria to obsess over the possibility.
It is common for serious illnesses or deaths of family
members or friends to trigger hypochondria in certain
individuals. Similarly, when approaching the age of a
parent's premature death from disease, many otherwise
healthy, happy individuals fall prey to hypochondria. These
individuals believe they are suffering from the same
disease that caused their parent's death, sometimes
causing panic attacks with corresponding symptoms.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis, 9/13/11)
Stuart Prebble – … We’re all a lot better off materially than
we once were, even grumpy old [guys] can see that. Most
people in the UK are better off financially and most of us
are healthier – apart from the obesity that is. There are
fewer of us doing filthy and dangerous manual jobs. Most
of the poor seem to have about the same number of
possessions – house, car, colour TV, video – as the well-todo had when we were kids. If you’d told our ancestors 200
years ago that the poorest people in society would also be
the fattest, they would have been unable to work out how.
Crime isn’t actually rising, even though fear of crime is.
Most of our biggest rivers, which were open sewers when
we were kids, now have fish in them. (Grumpy Old Men, BBC
Books, p. 208-209.)
- An estimated 768 million people were using drinking
water sources that weren't adequately protected from
outside contamination, particularly from fecal matter, and
185 million used surface water (from lakes, rivers, streams
or oceans) for daily drinking.
especially for children. (Quite Interesting TV program, series F,
episode 1.)
Stephen Fry - The horses of New York City killed 20,000
people in 1900 because of their manure. While it was used
as a fertiliser, they were so many horses in the city that
there was too much manure (2.5 million tonnes a day) and
so it helped to spread diseases like typhus, typhoid and
cholera. Horses were used in transportation; pulling most
vehicles (London had 50,000 of them just in the public
transport system). In New York, 41 horses died a day. The
people preferred to leave the bodies to putrefy because
the bodies were easier to carve up. ... Other than manure,
the horses themselves were dangerous because they can
bolt, drag people off with them, trample people, and make
a lot of noise. Interestingly, the thing which helped stop
this environmental disaster was cars, because they made
traffic safer, quieter and faster. Having horses in a city is
seven times more dangerous than cars. While people say
that traffic today is at the same speed as the horse, it
should be pointed out that there is a lot more traffic. (Quite
Interesting TV program, series H, episode 12.)
- 2.5 billion people, or about 36 percent of the world's
population, did not have access to a bathroom that
hygienically separated human waste from human contact,
say by flushing. Of those, 761 million used public facilities
and 693 million used facilities that didn't meet minimum
hygiene standards.
Institute Manual – [Regarding Thessalonica.] In Paul’s day,
sexual relations outside of marriage were tolerated and
accepted by many Gentiles. (Commentary on 1 Thessalonians
- Diarrhea was the leading cause of illness and death in the
world, and the majority of diarrhea-related deaths resulted
from a lack of access to bathrooms, as well as unsafe
drinking water and insufficient access to clean water for
hygiene.
Bible Dictionary – [Regarding Corinth.] – ... [Paul’s]
converts were mainly Greeks, gifted with a keen sense of
the joys of physical existence, a passion for freedom, and a
genius for rhetoric and logic, but reared in the midst of the
grossest moral corruption, undisciplined and selfconceited. (“Corinthians.”)
- There were 45 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa
and south Asia, where fewer than 50 percent of the people
have access to bathrooms equipped to hygienically
separate human waste from human contact. (“Many
Worldwide Don't Have Access To Clean Water”, Associated Press, Jan 13,
2013.)
Stephen Fry – [The 1700s was] an age in which 75% of all
children died before the age of five in London. 90% of all
children who were born in workhouses died before they
were five. … And there were so many at the foundling
[abandoned child] hospital that they had to have a lottery.
They literally had a lottery, and there was a ball taken out
of a bag. If it's a white ball, the child goes straight in; if it's a
red one, they're on the waiting list; if it's a black one,
"Sorry, we can't take your child." … But what is in a sense
phenomenal is that we have lived – and our parents have
lived, probably, and for most of our grandparents even –
have lived in an age in which such a thing is inconceivable,
but we are a minority of the human race. Most of the
human race has lived with unspeakable suffering,
More Wicked Now than Ever Before?
4:3–5, “The Law of Chastity.”)
Reynolds and Sjodahl – [Regarding Babylon.] Money
dissolved every tie. Greatly given to wine. No modesty.
Alexander The Great, the Greek conqueror, was shocked by
their lack of morals. (Commentary on the Book of Mormon, v. 1, p.
293.)
Keith Meservy – [Regarding Babylon.] In scriptural
imagery, Babylon is the enemy of God and the antithesis of
Zion, the friend of God. Zion is the chaste, heavenly bride,
while Babylon is the wicked, worldly prostitute, the one
who entices men away from their love and loyalty to God
by promising them all the seductive advantages that the
world offers—materialism, power, glory, and sensualism—
all of which appeal to one's pride.” (From his chapter in Studies
in Scripture, Vol. 4: 1 Kings to Malachi, p. 105.)
Richard B. Frank – For each of the hundred months from
mid-1937 to the end of the World War II, and average
150,000 Asians died due to the brutality of the Imperial
Japanese Empire. Toward the end the rate was 250,000 –
per month. (See Downfall, the End of the Imperial Japanese Empire,
p. 163. The Book of Mormon records that 230,000 Nephite soldiers died
in the final battle in the war of extermination.)
Dear and Foot – [Regarding Japan.] Korea became, against
the wishes of its population, a Japanese protectorate in
1905 and was annexed by Japan in 1910 … As the [second
world] war progressed Japanese exploitation of Korea
increased. The country was stripped of its rice production,
cattle were confiscated, and metal objects of all kinds were
seized for the war effort. This exploitation caused unrest,
forcing the Japanese to increase their military presence in
the country, from 46,000 troops in 1941 to 300,000 by
1945. By the end of the war 2.6 million Koreans were
engaged in forced labour in Korea and thousands of
sociopathic Koreans were recruited to serve in the ranks of
the repressive police. Korea became a slave-labour camp
under armed guard.’ Some 723,000 Koreans were also
sent overseas as were tens of thousands of women who
were forced to act as comfort women for Japanese troops.
Many Koreans were sent to work in Japan and by January
1945 made up 32% of the labour force there. Perhaps as
much as a quarter of the total casualties at Hiroshima were
Koreans. (The Oxford Companion to World War II, p. 516.)
to entire regions, particularly Ukraine. (“Robert Conquest,
Wikipedia, “Occupation of Japan” – With the acceptance
of the Allied occupation authorities, the Japanese
organized a brothel system for the benefit of the more
than 300,000 occupation troops. "The strategy was,
through the special work of experienced women, to create
a breakwater to protect regular women and girls."
5. The Goths in a single battle entirely exterminated the
Sciri as the Huns did the Scythians and Alans, and as
the Mongols did the Tartars.
In December 1945, a senior officer with the Public Health
and Welfare Division of the occupation's General
Headquarters wrote regarding the typical prostitute: "The
girl is impressed into contracting by the desperate financial
straits of her parents and their urging, occasionally
supplemented by her willingness to make such a sacrifice
to help her family", he wrote. "It is the belief of our
informants, however, that in urban districts the practice of
enslaving girls, while much less prevalent than in the past,
still exists. The worst victims ... were the women who, with
no previous experience, answered the ads calling for
'Women of the New Japan'."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan)
(Didn’t include anything about the Nazis because their
brutality is already well known.)
Soviet Union – … The Kremlin, which routinely ordered
regional quotas for thousands of arbitrary arrests and
shootings at burial pits and execution cellars. The latest
data show that during a 16-month stretch in 1937 and
1938, more than 800,000 people were shot by the Soviet
secret police.
These executions came on top of millions of earlier deaths
amid the forced famines and collectivization of Soviet
agriculture, which Mr. [Robert] Conquest detailed in a later
book, “The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and
the Terror-Famine.” Mr. Conquest wrote that Stalin
summarily executed millions of people by cutting off food
Seminal Historian of Soviet Misrule, Dies at 98,” Wall Street Journal, Aug.
4, 2015.)
Hugh Nibley – [Regarding various annihilations.] To cite a
few examples –
1. When Jenghiz Khan overcame the great Merkit nation
he left only one man alive – the brother of his favorite
wife.
2. The Assyrian kings would systematically annihilate
every living thing in the lands they conquered, sowing
fields with salt, like the Romans, and flooding the sites
of cities they destroyed to convert them into
uninhabitable wastelands.
3. In cities of a million inhabitants the Mongols left not a
dog or a cat alive, and they converted vast provinces
into complete deserts.
4. The great island of Cyprus was an uninhabited waste
for seven years after the Turkomans took it.
6. The Mongols themselves met retribution in 1732 when
their own kinsmen, the Manchus, wiped out ninetenths of the Oret Mongols in a Chinese-inspired
project aimed at the complete obliteration of both
sides.
7. Such mutual suicides of nations were not uncommon:
the Kin and the Hsia Hsia, the two greatest empires of
their day and as closely related in blood as were the
people of Shiz and Coriantumr, engaged in fifteen years
of warfare that wiped out eighteen million people – a
figure that makes Ether's two million (Ether 15:2) look
rather paltry.
8. Incidentally, the wars of Jenghiz Khan cost China alone
forty million lives!
9. The Hunnish Jao Dynasty of the North and the Dsin
Empire of the South almost achieved mutual quietus
during a civil war in which "neither side was willing to
make peace until the other was completely crushed."
In the first century B.C. the Huns divided to follow two
brothers, Jiji and Huhansie. Twenty years of war
followed, and the deadlock was only broken when in
43 B.C. Jiji's people in despair finally fled west in the
best Jaredite manner, leaving "vast stretches of land
bare and deserted" behind them. (Lehi in the Desert, p.
224.)
The Wild West
Pioche, Nevada - The town had a reputation for being one
of the roughest towns in the Old West. Local lore says 75
men were killed in gunfights before the first natural death
occurred in the camp.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioche)
Frisco, Utah - The town of Frisco [near Milford] quickly
became a center of vice and crime. Like many a boomtown
in the West its streets were lined with saloons (21
according to one count), gambling dens, and houses of
prostitution. During her heyday, her population grew to
about 6000. One writer called it "Dodge City, Tombstone,
Sodom and Gomorrah all rolled into one," noting that
murders occurred so often that city officials contracted to
have a wagon pick up the bodies and take them to boothill
for burial. Eventually Frisco's reputation had become so
tarnished that Marshal James Pearson from Pioche,
Nevada, was hired to clean up the town and told he had a
free hand in doing what had to be done to bring law to the
town. He allegedly told the lawless elements that he did
not intend to make arrests and build no jail. There would
be no bail or appeal from his order. Outlaws had two
choices ... get out or get shot, he planned to shoot on sight
anyone he saw breaking the law. Apparently some did not
take him seriously, he supposedly killed six outlaws on his
first night in town. He still had to convince a few, but most
got the idea and left for easier pickings. (http://www.jcsgroup.com/oldwest/towns/utah.html.)
Corinne, Utah – In its heyday, Corinne had about 1,000
permanent residents, not one of whom was a Mormon,
according to the boast of the local newspaper. As an endof-the-trail town, Corinne reflected a very different
atmosphere and culture from the staid and quiet Mormon
settlements of Utah, nurturing not only a number of
commission and supply houses but also fifteen saloons and
sixteen liquor stores, with a gun-fighting town marshal to
keep order in this "Dodge City" of Utah.
(http://www.onlineutah.com/corinnehistory.shtml)
So How Bad Is Really Bad?
Sometime copy in some extracts from these sources –
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Ether 14:1-2
Mormon 9:18-19
D&C 29
D&C 45
Revelations 8 & 9
Ether 14:1-2 - And now there began to be a great curse
upon all the land because of the iniquity of the people, in
which, if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon his
shelf, or upon the place whither he would keep it, behold,
upon the morrow, he could not find it, so great was the
curse upon the land.
Wherefore every man did cleave unto that which was his
own, with his hands, and would not borrow neither would
he lend; and every man kept the hilt of his sword in his
right hand, in the defense of his property and his own life
and of his wives and children.
Mormon 9:18-19 – O the depravity of my people! They are
without order and without mercy ... And they have become
strong in their perversion; and they are alike brutal, sparing
none, neither old nor young; and they delight in everything
save that which is good; and the suffering of our women
and our children upon all the face of this land doth exceed
everything; yea, tongue cannot tell, neither can it be
written.
Stuart Prebble [from his recollection of working in a
newsroom in England] – The (unwritten) rule of news
interest went something like: “One dead in Putney equals
ten dead in Paris, equals 100 dead in Turkey, equals 1,000
dead in India, equals 10,000 dead in China.” Or something
like that. If you took a story with only 9,000 dead in China
to the editor of the day, he … would look at the copy, look
at you as though you were the village idiot, turn his nose
up and spike it. (Grumpy Old Men, p. 70.)
BBC – At the front [in World War I] you were five times
more likely to catch an STD than you were to have trench
foot. Most soldiers tried to catch an STD [to get out of the
war for a few months], but the illness at the time could be
treated. You could however still get a few months off. Paris
had 75,000 prostitutes, less than 10% of which were
licensed. One contemporary report said that 171,000
British troops visited brothels in a single street in Le Havre
in one year. During the German occupation it was an
offence for a prostitute to give a German soldier venereal
disease, and the offending women could be imprisoned to
keep other men safe, but as soon as the Germans started
retreating they freed all the prostitutes in the hope that
the Allies would catch their STDs. Robert Graves, author of
Goodbye to All That, wrote: "These boys had money to
spend and knew that they stood a good chance of being
killed within a few weeks anyhow. They did not want to die
virgins." (https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/qi/episodes/13/2/)
Sensationalism in Perspective
Shana Gadarian – Terrorism is newsworthy because it is
inherently dramatic and threatening. Media competition
means that journalists and editors have incentives to use
emotionally powerful visuals and story lines to gain and
maintain ever-shrinking news audiences. (The Washington
Post, Oct. 9, 2014.)
Bob Franklin – Entertainment has superseded the
provision of information; human interest has supplanted
the public interest; measured judgement has succumbed to
sensationalism.” (Newszak and News Media, 1997, 4.)
Total Deaths and Causes
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33 – Terrorism in the USA in 2015.
7,100 – Terrorism worldwide in 2015.
2,749 – Terrorism, in the 9-11 attacks in 2001.
12,000 – Smog in 5-day period in London in 1952.
17,000 – Drunk driving, one year in the USA.
20,000 – Horse manure in New York City in 1900 – 2.5
million tons, which spread diseases like typhus, typhoid
and cholera.
69,000 – King David’s army’s Syrian victims in two
battles.
230,000 – Lamanites’ victims in the final battle.
500,000 – Cyclone in Bangladesh in 1970. 1,833 died in
hurricane Katrina in 2005.
600,000 – Americans per year from cancer.
800,000 – Soviet secret police, during a 16-month
stretch in 1937 and 1938.
900,000 – US Civil War.
2,000,000 – Jaredite civil war.
150,000 – Japanese Empire’s brutality against Asians in
each of the hundred months from mid-1937 to the end
of the World War II. Toward the end the rate was
250,000 per month.
6,000,000 – Nazi holocaust against the Jews.
7,000,000 – Stalin’s forced famine on Ukrainians in
1932-1933.
10,000,000 – Tobacco, estimated per year by 2020.
17,000,000 – World War I.
18,000,000 – Wars between Qin and Xia states in
ancient China.
43,000,000 – Famine in China from 1958 to 1961, due
to drought and the policies of the Communist Party.
40,000,000 – Terrorism and war, Genghis Khan.
70,000,000 – World War II, only .6% were Americans.
(70 years ago).
Joseph Stalin – A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths
is a statistic. (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin)
catastrophize – to view or talk about (an event or
situation) as worse than it actually is, or as if it were a
catastrophe. (dictionary.reference.com/browse/catastrophize)
Graham C. L. Davey – [A] study investigated the effect of
the emotional content of television news programmes on
mood state and the catastrophizing of personal worries.
Three groups were shown 14-minute TV news bulletins
that were edited to display either positive-, neutral- or
negative-valenced [slanted] material. Participants who
watched the negatively valenced bulletin showed increases
in both anxious and sad mood, and also showed a
significant increase in the tendency to catastrophize a
personal worry.
We would intuitively expect that news items reflecting war,
famine and poverty might induce viewers to ruminate on
such topics. But the effect of negatively valenced news is
much broader than that – it can potentially exacerbate a
range of personal concerns not specifically relevant to the
content of the program itself.
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/why-we-worry/201206/thepsychological-effects-tv-news)
Bill Gates – Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you
because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement
is not. (www.brainyquotes.com)
diversion – an attack or feint that draws the attention and
force of an enemy from the point of the principal
operation. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diversion)
[A good remedy for sensationalism is to study history.]
D&C 88:77-80 – And I give unto you a commandment that
you shall teach one another … the wars and the
perplexities of the nations … That ye may be prepared in all
things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling …
Thomas S. Monson – Accounts of violence, theft, drug
abuse, and pornography blare forth from the television
screen and appear constantly in most daily newspapers.
Such examples blur our vision and fault our thinking. Soon
assumptions become generally accepted opinions …
(“Profiles of Faith,” Ensign, Feb 1997, p. 2.)
Gordon B. Hinckley – … There are so many good people in
this land, so many people who want to do the right thing
that I'm totally optimistic about the future. I don't think
we are going down to ruin and trouble.
(www.npr.org/programs/npc/2000/000308.ghinckley.html)
There never was a greater time in the history of the world
to live upon the earth than this. How grateful every one of
us ought to feel for being alive in this wonderful time with
all the marvelous blessings we have … I see so many good
people everywhere—and there’s so much of good in them.
And the world is good. Wonderful things are happening in
this world. This is the greatest age in the history of the
earth.
… I am asking that we stop seeking out the storms and
enjoy more fully the sunlight. (New Era, Jul 2001, p. 4.)
(By Zan Larsen, www.elarsen.net/lessons)
Stuart Prebble – Everything has to be hyped up make it
seem unusual so that every day when a tragedy happens it
is “that fateful day,” every insight is “profound,” no
investigation can be anything less than “special,” every fire
is an “inferno,” every rescue “heroic,” every death from
cancer follows a “brave fight,” and every crisis is “serious.”
(The BBC’s “Grumpy Old Men,” series 2, episode 3. To that we could
add that all records are “shattered.”)
Wikipedia – During the [Nazi] occupation, over 100,000
Dutch Jews were rounded up and transported to Nazi
extermination camps of whom only a few survived.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands)
WSJ – But given that 600,000 Americans die of cancer
every year … (3/17/2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/watch-thehype-cancer-treatment-still-has-far-to-go-1458231884)