I thought that there was supposedly something about the altered shape of the cells themselves that offered a degree of protection from malaria? IDK, I don’t live in an area where malaria is endemic, so it’s mostly not a concern, just something we covered in biology and genetics in high school.

Imagine a ceiling made of concrete falling on you versus a wood one.

That’s… Unlikely. How many high rises have come down during hurricanes? It you’re building a home with reinforced concrete walls that are tied to a solid foundation, it’s not going to come down on you in a hurricane. A tornado might take the house down, but you’re pretty fucked if a tornado hits your home regardless. As far as fires go, well, a wood-framed house burns down around you, so is that really any better than being baked in an oven? (Depending on how fast a fire moves, you may not lose a concrete or stone building.)

The biggest issue in a hurricane isn’t the wind damage, it’s the storm surge. A house made with reinforced concrete panels is going to be able to recover from that more easily than one that has a wooden frame and gypsum board or plaster; you don’t have to replace concrete that gets wet.

Cost is very nearly the only driver for constructing houses out of stone, brick, or reinforced concrete. Ever priced out a stacked stone construction? I did, for a retaining wall; it was something like 100x more expensive than a pressure-treated wooden retaining wall. The retaining wall would have cost more than my house, in materials alone, never mind labor.

Lots of insurers have left the Florida markets entirely, because they’re spending more paying out claims than they can take in for premiums. The ones that remain have sky-high premiums, thousands of dollars each month in some cases, because they’re pretty sure that they will have to pay out claims. The result is that many homeowners in Florida can no longer afford insurance. Since you need to have insurance on a home in order to get a mortgage, that makes buying a home in Florida really expensive, unless you can pay cash up front.

You DON’T GET the CO2 concentration in proper nitrogen suffocation. Most people that are in oxygen-free environments don’t even realize that it’s happened; they get lightheaded, short of breathe, then black out and die. Any gas that’s heavier than air and isn’t CO2 can cause that kind of suffocation in an enclosed space, which is why SCBA equipment gets used in a lot of industrial applications. For instance, welding in enclosed spaces? The argon or nitrogen can easily kill you before you realize you’re in any danger.

If you, for instance, connected your CPAP mask to 50# nitrogen tank, and cracked it open, you’d be breathing in straight nitrogen, and exhaling CO2. There would be zero CO2 buildup. As a result, zero panic. The problem is when you try to displace oxygen, but not CO2; you need to be displacing both so that you’re not rebreathing your own CO2.

Knowledge is something that can be prov

No Tails?

I believe that it offers a degree of protection against malaria. Or, enough protection that you live long enough to reproduce before dying a terrible, agonizing death.