Human News

Hurricane Katrina killed about 1500 people, causing loss of about 40,000 life-years. In addition, about 1 million people lost their homes, equivalent to loss of about 1 life-year each, for a loss of 1 million life-years. The cost may be about $200 billion, and assuming that the value of 1 life-year in the US is somewhat more than the average annual salary--say about $50,000, the loss is about 4 million life-years. At 40,000 life-years/character, that allows 125 characters for this article.


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