From Jenna Orkin
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Saturday, September 16, 2017
From Jenna Orkin
"It’s not that cereal grains were humankind’s only staples; it’s just that they were the only ones that encouraged the formation of states. “History records no cassava states, no sago, yam, taro, plantain, breadfruit or sweet potato states,” he writes. What was so special about grains? The answer will make sense to anyone who has ever filled out a Form 1040: grain, unlike other crops, is easy to tax. Some crops (potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava) are buried and so can be hidden from the tax collector, and, even if discovered, they must be dug up individually and laboriously. Other crops (notably, legumes) ripen at different intervals, or yield harvests throughout a growing season rather than along a fixed trajectory of unripe to ripe—in other words, the taxman can’t come once and get his proper due. Only grains are, in Scott’s words, “visible, divisible, assessable, storable, transportable, and ‘rationable.’ ”
Friday, September 15, 2017
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
From Jenna Orkin
- "Irma is the strongest Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
- It spent three days as a Category 5 hurricane, the longest Category 5 hurricane since satellite storm-tracking began.
- No storm on record has maintained winds 185 mph or above for as long as Irma (total of 37 hours).
- It prompted the largest evacuation in the history of the Bahamas — and potentially the largest in the US."
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