| Tango01 | 20 Aug 2014 12:04 p.m. PST |
"If you're a millennial like me, you remember the Nickelodeon show Are You Afraid of the Dark?, in which kids sit around a campfire (or flickering stage lights or whatever), taking turns giving each other anxiety disorders with scary stories. The title is a bit of a silly question, though. Everyone is to some degree afraid of the dark, because we're evolutionarily programmed to be. During our tribal days, in the blackness—where our dull senses were essentially useless—we were easy prey for hunters of the night. Safety was with our people in a fire-lit camp. When civilization progressed and we settled into homes, that fear stuck with us. And then it gave rise to one of the stranger and more little-known theories of Western society: Night air is poisonous. Not only was venturing into the darkness and breathing in the evening ether terrible for your health, but so too was simply leaving a window open at night. It was such a powerful and pervasive myth that all the way into the early 1900s, many anxious Americans were taking every possible measure to seal their homes against the poisons of the evening, according to Peter Baldwin in his essay "How Night Air Became Good Air."…"
Full article here
link Amicalement
Armand |
| zippyfusenet | 20 Aug 2014 12:57 p.m. PST |
Hey Tango, wasn't Buenos Aires so named because people who lived there didn't get malaria? |
| Tango01 | 20 Aug 2014 1:10 p.m. PST |
Not really my friend.
It became when the first Spanish "Conqueror" said. "Ahh!. Those are very good airs…" After so many days on a ship when nobody take a bath…! (smile) We have yellow fever here. Amicalement
Armand |
| John the Greater | 20 Aug 2014 1:29 p.m. PST |
Until the end of the 19th Century one of the jobs of the regimental surgeon was to check out the proposed campsite each day to make sure it was not located where "miasmas" might cause disease. By amazing coincidence, miasmas are found the same places where mosquitos gather. |
 javelin98  | 20 Aug 2014 3:50 p.m. PST |
I would think that the coal pollution inversions of Victorian times would have something to do with it. |
| Zephyr1 | 20 Aug 2014 7:55 p.m. PST |
I know that when a neighborhood septic tank goes bad I have to close up the windows. If it was a city-sized stench, they'd never even get opened…. |
| zippyfusenet | 22 Aug 2014 6:00 a.m. PST |
Zephyr, any *real* city smells like urine, from the rats and the drunks whizzing in the alleys. But that's not a major stink. Coal smog was the least of it, javelin: link |
| OSchmidt | 22 Aug 2014 12:18 p.m. PST |
Dear Zippyfusenet Ya know!!! Thanks! I never realized what that stench was in new York that seemed to pervade everywhere in the city. I supposed it was just the smell of sweat and dirt. now you've identified it. Not that I go there any more. Once they closed Polks hobbies the place lost all charm for me. Otto |
| tkdguy | 22 Aug 2014 3:21 p.m. PST |
The night air is somewhat poisonous where I am because the skunks keep coming into my backyard. |
 etotheipi  | 23 Aug 2014 5:10 a.m. PST |
After so many days on a ship when nobody take a bath Are you trying to imply that sailors are a bunch of unhygienic, misbegotten, socaill… er … um … yeah, right. Carry on. |
weighs the pros and cons of using a power drill on the minis workbench.
