But the least we can do, 100 years on from the conflict's outbreak, is to try to imagine what it was like.
Move along, Michael Gove and Blackadder: the latest first world war battle is raging over the Royal Mint's decision to commemorate the centenary of the conflict's outbreak with a £2 coin engraved with Lord Kitchener's pointy finger and famous "Your country needs YOU" call.
Of particular interest are predictive capabilities for social diffusion, for instance to enable early warning concerning the emergence of a violent conflict or outbreak of an epidemic.
Effects of conflict Sporadic outbreaks of conflict and the displacement of tens of thousands of people from Dongo have had a debilitating effect.
These movements are often affected by impacts such as violent conflicts, diseases outbreaks, and recurrent drought.
On a larger scale, one could envision detecting distruptions to travel patterns caused by disasters, violent conflicts, or outbreaks.
Drought was considered by the respondents as one of the most frequent hazards in Turkana, in addition to other hazards such as conflicts, disease outbreaks and flooding.
In the study area just like the rest of northern Kenya, pastoralist households largely bear the brunt of negative impacts of extreme climate events like drought, which include increased poverty, water scarcity, resource-based conflicts, disease outbreaks and food insecurity.
All post-conflict measles outbreaks occurred in conditions characterized by poor or no vaccination of the displaced populations prior to their arrival in the refugee camps.
The R0 value increased via these processes over several years (resulting in a time lag between the peak in civil conflict and the outbreak peak) before exceeding the threshold required for an outbreak.
