Things I Learned: rinderpest is gone, eradicated, as of 2011.
Not as famous as smallpox, it was a disease of animals, largely livestock but also related wild animals. About a thousand years ago it made the jump to humans and measles came into existence.
The point is: we *can* get rid of these scourges, we've done it twice now. We're on our way with polio, dracunculiasis, yaws, and even malaria.
