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From: andres@ut-sally.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Dinosaurs killed by DAIDS?
Message-ID: <9178@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Dec-69 18:59:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.9178
Posted: Wed Dec 31 18:59:59 1969
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Oct-87 01:43:05 EDT
References: <1057@mipos3.intel.com> <9114@ut-sally.UUCP> <3913@ecsvax.UUCP> <1987Sep27.223915.8232@sq.uucp> <9152@ut-sally.UUCP> <1598@rayssd.RAY.COM>
Reply-To: andres@ut-sally.UUCP (Bennett Andres)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 14
Keywords: AIDS, life expectancy

In article <1598@rayssd.RAY.COM> m1b@rayssd.RAY.COM (M. Joseph Barone) writes:
>Now, to refute the premise that the average lifespan
>during the Middle Ages was 30, people are exempting just about every
>condition that brought that average down!  So I suppose that if you
>discount infant mortality, wars, pestilence, famine, and plagues, then
>the average lifespan is indeed much higher!  Somehow, though, I don't
>think this is sound statistical analysis.

We're getting into a matter of definitions here - what is "life span" vs.
"life expectancy"? Let's put it this way - if half the people die by age 5
(which they did, and still do in much of the world), but the "average life
span" is 30-35, most of the rest must last a while. My own understanding of
the meaning of "life span" is something like the biblical three score and ten-
how long can a person with the luck to survive these scourges expect to live.