That Which is Unsavoury

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

Job 6:6 (King James Bible)

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The tongue is a lie.

(Source: http://www.yalescientific.org/2012/11/on-the-road-to-sweetness-a-clear-cut-destination/)

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Back when I went to school there were four tastes: bitter, salty, sour and sweet. And the taste buds were distributed around the tongue, with sweet at the front, bitter at the back, and salty and sweet along the sides.

It was a lie.

In 1901 a scientist by the name of  D.P. Hanig published a study of how people taste. He relied on volunteers, and asked them where on their tongues they thought they tasted various flavors. On the basis of this deeply subjective research, he produced a "map" of flavor sensitivity. Mind you, Hanig never said these were the only places where you could taste various flavors, but that kind of nuance got lost. In popular culture, the tongue map and the four tastes were THE TRUTH.

It wasn't until the 1970s that scientists in Europe and the US became aware of research published in 1908 by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda that focused on a different flavor which he called "umami," from the words "umai" (delicious) and "mi" (taste). It's been referred to as "savory," and is usually associated with things like meat, mushrooms, miso, and monosodium glutamate.

For many years there was a pronounced distaste (pun intended) toward the idea of a fifth flavor. Even the transcendant Alton Brown was dubious:

'Why do we need another word for it? ... Maybe I've just been exposed to too much marketing in my time. But as far as I'm concerned, umami, you're all smoke and mirrors.' ("Pantry Raid XII: Turing Japanese." Transcript: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/season13/miso_soup/turning_jap_tran.htm)

In 2002 it was proven that there are umami taste receptors. And apparently Mr. Brown now (as of 2016) has a signature hamburger available from the Umami Burger chain (see: https://www.umamiburger.com/blog/umami-burger-presents-the-alton-burger-by-alton-brown/). However reluctantly, Alton's on board the umami express.

So now we're up to five flavors. Is that it?

Maybe not. There are at least two additional tastes cresting the horizon: carbonation and fat.

A confession: I LOVE carbonation. Seltzer is my passion. Club soda is my joy. But how can that be? I mean it's just water with bubbles, right? How can it taste good?

It's been known for some time that mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide. And in 2012 a study published in Nature showed that fruit flies are attracted to the taste of carbon dioxide. So the idea that critters might be able to taste carbon dioxide isn't completely far-fetched.

Now it's been proven.

In 2009 Scientific American stated it unequivocally:

"... scientists have discovered that carbonation actually has a flavor." (Scientific American, October 16, 2009. Carbonation Has a Taste. Online: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/carbonation-has-a-taste-09-10-16/)

So do we have taste buds that respond to carbonation? Not exactly. It turns out that our sour receptors do double duty:

"Jayaram Chandrashekar of the University of California, San Diego, Charles S. Zuker, formerly of U.C.S.D. and now at Columbia, and colleagues used mice in their studies, implanting electrodes in a nerve leading from taste receptor cells in the tongue. When the tongue was exposed to club soda or even just to gaseous CO2, there was a measurable response in the nerve.

"This suggested that taste receptors were responsible. But there are receptors for five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (sometimes termed savory). They repeated the experiment using mice that had been genetically engineered without one type of receptor. Those without sour receptors showed no response to the carbonation, indicating that those receptors were responsible." (Fountain, Henry. 2009. How Tongues Taste the Carbonation in a Fizzy Beverage. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20obfizz.html?_r=1)

No, carbonation doesn't taste sour. Exactly what's going on is still being debated. But yes, carbonation has a flavor. We just don't have a word for it.

And fat has a flavor, too:

"In 2010 ... researchers at Deakin University in Australia found that people were able to detect the taste of fatty acids. [In 2012] researchers at the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said they had discovered that some people may be more sensitive to the presence of fat in foods than others." (Wan, Julie. 2012. Fat might be the sixth basic taste. Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fat-might-be-the-sixth-basic-taste/2012/06/04/gJQAt218DV_story.html)

So what does fat taste like?

"The taste of fat, which researchers call "oleogustus" (a combination of the Latin terms for oil and taste), is a distinct flavor and, as a new study in the journal Chemical Senses reports, quite unpleasant." (Kraft, Ann. 2015. Scientists discover the taste of fat, and it's not what you think. Online: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scientists-discover-the-taste-of-fat-and-its-disgusting/)

Apparently it's "bitter and unpalatable." Which may explain why I've never  seen much point in unsalted butter.

So, here we are. From four flavors (bitter, salty, sour and sweet) to five (umami) and now seven (carbonation and fat).  Is that it?

Probably not:

"molecular biologists have theorized that humans may have as many as 20 distinct receptors for such tastes as calcium ... starch and even water." (Wan, Julie. 2012. Fat might be the sixth basic taste. Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fat-might-be-the-sixth-basic-taste/2012/06/04/gJQAt218DV_story.html)

So what does all this mean?

Well, for a start, it may help us find better ways to deal with obesity (it might explain why some people consume more fat than others -- it literally tastes good to them). For another, it helps us expand our knowledge of how our bodies function.

And it also helps us in other, less obvious ways. We don't really have a word for "taste of carbonation." Until quite recently, nobody thought we needed one. We don't have words for the taste of fat, or calcium, or metal, or any of the various things that biologists and chemists now suspect are part of what we call "taste."

But we do know that for literally thousands of years people have been desperate to find new tastes, new flavors. The Romans traded with India for pepper. The Dutch and the English fought wars over control of mace and nutmeg. We spend billions of dollars every year coming up with new "flavor additives."

Taste is about more than biochemistry. Taste is something very fundamental to being human. The more we understand taste, the more we understand ourselves.

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References

American Mosquito Control Association. 2014. Traps. Online: http://www.mosquito.org/traps

Brown, Alton. Pantry Raid XII: Turning Japanese. First broadcast November 9, 2009. Transcript online: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/season13/miso_soup/turning_jap_tran.htm

Does Carbonation Have Flavor? 2012. Online: http://www.livescience.com/32255-does-carbonation-have-flavor.html

Fountain, Henry. 2009. How Tongues Taste the Carbonation in a Fizzy Beverage. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20obfizz.html?_r=1

Kraft, Ann. 2015. Scientists discover the taste of fat, and it's not what you think. Online: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scientists-discover-the-taste-of-fat-and-its-disgusting/

McLafferty, Clair. 2014. Why Does Carbonation Make Drinks Taste Good? Online: http://mentalfloss.com/article/56540/why-does-carbonation-make-drinks-taste-good

Midura, Margaretta. 2012. On the Road to Sweetness: A Clear-Cut Destination? Online: http://www.yalescientific.org/2012/11/on-the-road-to-sweetness-a-clear-cut-destination/

O'Callaghan, Jonathan. 2014. The tongue taste map is WRONG: Flavours are actually perceived by neurons in the brain, scientists reveal. Online:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2828561/The-tongue-taste-map-WRONG-Flavours-actually-perceived-neurons-brain-scientists-reveal.html

Wan, Julie. 2012. Fat might be the sixth basic taste. Online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fat-might-be-the-sixth-basic-taste/2012/06/04/gJQAt218DV_story.html

Wanjek, Christopher. 2006. The Tongue Map: Tasteless Myth Debunked. Online: http://www.livescience.com/7113-tongue-map-tasteless-myth-debunked.html

Us, You and I

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

President Theodore Roosevelt, from a speech given at Asheville, North Carolina, September 9, 1896.

Robert Cornelius V. Meyers, Theodore Roosevelt, Patriot and statesman: The true story of an ideal American. P.W. Ziegler and Company, Philadelphia 1902 [this date is impossible, but that's what's printed in the book], p. 521. Online: https://archive.org/stream/theodoreroosevel01lcmeye#page/n0/mode/2up

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The word "politics" comes from the Greek: πολιτικός or "politikos," meaning "of, for, or relating to citizens"; it's basically how people live in a polis, a city. For better or worse, we live in a political world.

Every country on earth has a government of some kind (I admit it's a bit theoretical in places like Somalia). The question is: What kind of government?

The CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/) has information on virtually every country on earth, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, as well as other entities like the British territory of Akrotiri, Antarctica, the Arctic Ocean, and the Australian Ashmore and Cartier Islands, to name a few (and we're not even out of the "A's").

In the middle of the mountain of data available on each country/territory/stretch of ocean is information on the government of the region.

It's more complicated than you might think.

At the most simplistic level, we could divide all the world's governments into democracies and non-democracies. This is useful, in a way. But it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface (for example, compare American democracy [constitution, President, legislature divided into two parts, judiciary, etc.] to Danish democracy [constitution, Monarch, parliament with proportional representation determined by party vote]).

In fact, the CIA has 31 ways (see: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html?fieldkey=2128&term=Government%20type) of describing or categorizing the world's governments:

1. Absolute monarchy - a form of government where the monarch rules unhindered, i.e., without any laws, constitution, or legally organized opposition. 
2. Anarchy - a condition of lawlessness or political disorder brought about by the absence of governmental authority. 
3. Authoritarian - a form of government in which state authority is imposed onto many aspects of citizens' lives. 
4. Commonwealth - a nation, state, or other political entity founded on law and united by a compact of the people for the common good. 
5. Communist - a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single - often authoritarian - party holds power; state controls are imposed with the elimination of private ownership of property or capital while claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people (i.e., a classless society). 
6. Confederacy (Confederation) - a union by compact or treaty between states, provinces, or territories, that creates a central government with limited powers; the constituent entities retain supreme authority over all matters except those delegated to the central government. 
7. Constitutional - a government by or operating under an authoritative document (constitution) that sets forth the system of fundamental laws and principles that determines the nature, functions, and limits of that government. 
8. Constitutional democracy - a form of government in which the sovereign power of the people is spelled out in a governing constitution. 
9. Constitutional monarchy - a system of government in which a monarch is guided by a constitution whereby his/her rights, duties, and responsibilities are spelled out in written law or by custom. 
10. Democracy - a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but which is usually exercised indirectly through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed. 
11. Democratic republic - a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them. 
12. Dictatorship - a form of government in which a ruler or small clique wield absolute power (not restricted by a constitution or laws). 
13. Ecclesiastical - a government administrated by a church. 
14. Emirate - similar to a monarchy or sultanate, but a government in which the supreme power is in the hands of an emir (the ruler of a Muslim state); the emir may be an absolute overlord or a sovereign with constitutionally limited authority. 
15. Federal (Federation) - a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided - usually by means of a constitution - between a central authority and a number of constituent regions (states, colonies, or provinces) so that each region retains some management of its internal affairs; differs from a confederacy in that the central government exerts influence directly upon both individuals as well as upon the regional units. 
16. Federal republic - a state in which the powers of the central government are restricted and in which the component parts (states, colonies, or provinces) retain a degree of self-government; ultimate sovereign power rests with the voters who chose their governmental representatives. 
17. Islamic republic - a particular form of government adopted by some Muslim states; although such a state is, in theory, a theocracy, it remains a republic, but its laws are required to be compatible with the laws of Islam. 
18. Maoism - the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism developed in China by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), which states that a continuous revolution is necessary if the leaders of a communist state are to keep in touch with the people. 
19. Marxism - the political, economic, and social principles espoused by 19th century economist Karl Marx; he viewed the struggle of workers as a progression of historical forces that would proceed from a class struggle of the proletariat (workers) exploited by capitalists (business owners), to a socialist "dictatorship of the proletariat," to, finally, a classless society - Communism. 
20. Marxism-Leninism - an expanded form of communism developed by Lenin from doctrines of Karl Marx; Lenin saw imperialism as the final stage of capitalism and shifted the focus of workers' struggle from developed to underdeveloped countries. 
21. Monarchy - a government in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of a monarch who reigns over a state or territory, usually for life and by hereditary right; the monarch may be either a sole absolute ruler or a sovereign - such as a king, queen, or prince - with constitutionally limited authority. 
22. Oligarchy - a government in which control is exercised by a small group of individuals whose authority generally is based on wealth or power. 
23. Parliamentary democracy - a political system in which the legislature (parliament) selects the government - a prime minister, premier, or chancellor along with the cabinet ministers - according to party strength as expressed in elections; by this system, the government acquires a dual responsibility: to the people as well as to the parliament. 
24. Parliamentary government (Cabinet-Parliamentary government) - a government in which members of an executive branch (the cabinet and its leader - a prime minister, premier, or chancellor) are nominated to their positions by a legislature or parliament, and are directly responsible to it; this type of government can be dissolved at will by the parliament (legislature) by means of a no confidence vote or the leader of the cabinet may dissolve the parliament if it can no longer function. 
25. Parliamentary monarchy - a state headed by a monarch who is not actively involved in policy formation or implementation (i.e., the exercise of sovereign powers by a monarch in a ceremonial capacity); true governmental leadership is carried out by a cabinet and its head - a prime minister, premier, or chancellor - who are drawn from a legislature (parliament). 
26. Presidential - a system of government where the executive branch exists separately from a legislature (to which it is generally not accountable). 
27. Republic - a representative democracy in which the people's elected deputies (representatives), not the people themselves, vote on legislation. 
28. Socialism - a government in which the means of planning, producing, and distributing goods is controlled by a central government that theoretically seeks a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor; in actuality, most socialist governments have ended up being no more than dictatorships over workers by a ruling elite. 
29. Sultanate - similar to a monarchy, but a government in which the supreme power is in the hands of a sultan (the head of a Muslim state); the sultan may be an absolute ruler or a sovereign with constitutionally limited authority. 
30. Theocracy - a form of government in which a Deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, but the Deity's laws are interpreted by ecclesiastical authorities (bishops, mullahs, etc.); a government subject to religious authority. 
31. Totalitarian - a government that seeks to subordinate the individual to the state by controlling not only all political and economic matters, but also the attitudes, values, and beliefs of its population.

There's quite a bit of overlap here, as the CIA acknowledges: "for some countries more than one definition applies." For example, Communist states (5) are usually Totalitarian (31) and might be Marxist (19), Marxist-Leninist (20) or even Maoist (18). I'm a little surprised we don't see "Stalinist," but perhaps that's become passé.

And let's not even consider the creative use of language involved in the designations some states employ -- the conventional long form name of North Korea, for example, is "Democratic People's Republic of Korea." This is five words in English, and at least three of them are wrong (if you're curious, the official name of the country in Korean is "Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk"), or better

I'd originally thought about creating a world map using these different categories, but 31 is way too many colors for a map. And in any case, with the problems of overlapping categories, I decided it was unlikely to be particularly helpful.

Here's how Wikipedia maps this mess:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forms_of_government

So, that takes care of things right?

HA!

Let's take a quick look at the forms of government (historical, theoretical, fictional) from whence we just got that nifty map (if you want to see it, go here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forms_of_government) :

1. Absolute Monarchy
2. Adhocracy
3. Alliance
4. Anarchy
5. Androcracy
6. Anocracy
7. Associated State
8. Asymmetrical Federalism
9. Authoritarian
10. Autocracy
11. Banana Republic
12. Band Society
13. Bankocracy
14. Bureaucracy
15. Capitalism
16. Chartered Company
17. Chiefdom
18. Colony
19. Commonwealth
20. Communism
21. Confederation
22. Constitutional Monarchy
23. Constitutional Republic
24. Constitutionalism
25. Corporate Republic
26. Corporatocracy
27. Crown Colony
28. Crowned Republic
29. Cybersynacy
30. Demarchy
31. Democracy
32. Democratic Republic
33. Dependent Territory
34. Direct Democracy
35. Distributism
36. Electocracy
37. Empire
38. Ergatocracy
39. Exclusive Mandate
40. Federacy
41. Federal Monarchy
42. Federal Republic
43. Federal Republic
44. Federalism
45. Feudalism
46. Geniocracy
47. Government in Exile
48. Gynarchy
49. Hegemony
50. Islamic Republic
51. Kakistocracy
52. Kleptocracy
53. Kratocracy
54. Kritarchy
55. League
56. Liberal Democracy
57. Libertarianism
58. Magocracy
59. Mandate
60. Maoism
61. Meritocracy
62. Nepotocracy
63. Netocracy
64. Neutral Zone
65. Nomocracy
66. Occupied Territory
67. Ochlocracy
68. Oligarchy
69. Parliamentary Republic
70. Parliamentary System
71. Plutocracy
72. Police State
73. Presidential System
74. Protectorate
75. Provisional Government
76. Representative Democracy
77. Republic
78. Social Democracy
79. Socialism
80. Socialist Republic
81. Statism
82. Stratocracy
83. Talassocracy
84. Technocracy
85. Theocracy
86. Timocracy
87. Totalitarian
88. Totalitarian Democracy
89. Uniocracy
90. Unitary Stte
91. Welfare State

Yes, that's 91 different ways of characterizing and distinguishing governments (and yes, there's a Wikipedia page for every single one of those).

This is an election year, and government is certainly a topic which occupies a fair amount of public conversation today. One whine I have heard on several occasions is that "we need to move beyond two parties!"

Okay. Here are a bunch of different ways of arranging how we live together. Choose.

But choose wisely. Some of these are not very pleasant.

There is nothing lost

For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.

Edmund Spenser, 1596, The Faerie Queen, Book 5, Canto II. Online: http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/fqintro.html

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This is sort of a follow-up to two previous posts on urban landscapes (May 4, 2016 and May 11, 2016).

Back then I linked to a total of 36 articles that were published by The Guardian on "The Story of Cities." The topics ranged from the hallucinatory mirage that was Arcosanti to the tragedy (not yet over) of Johannesburg and apartheid.

They didn't stop. There are now more than 50 articles in their series on cities.

And that's not all.

They've also started a new series: Lost Cities. As of today (August 17, 2016) they have seven.

I'm going to do two things: 1) Give the complete list of The story of cities articles; 2) List the seven (so far) articles in the Lost cities series.

I'm not going to even attempt to summarize these articles. They're all good.

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The Story of Cities

1. How Alexandria laid foundations for the modern world http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/14/story-cities-day-1-alexandria-egypt-history-urbanisation-foundations-modern-world
2. Rome wasn't planned in a day … in fact it wasn't planned at all http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/15/story-cities-part-2-secret-ancient-rome
3. The birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisation http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/16/story-cities-day-3-baghdad-iraq-world-civilisation 
4. Beijing and the earliest planning document in history http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/17/story-cities-beijing-earliest-planning-document-history 
5. Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace 
6. How silver turned Potosí into 'the first city of capitalism' http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/21/story-of-cities-6-potosi-bolivia-peru-inca-first-city-capitalism 
7. Philadelphia grid marks birth of America's urban dream   http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/22/story-of-cities-7-philadelphia-grid-pennsylvania-william-penn-america-urban-dream 
8. St Petersburg – is the 'city built on bones' starting to crumble? http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/23/story-of-cities-8-st-petersburg-city-built-on-bones-starting-to-crumble 
9. Kingston, Jamaica – a city born of 'wickedness' and disaster http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/24/story-cities-9-kingston-jamaica-richest-wickedest-city-world 
10. How the dirty Old Town became enlightened Edinburgh http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/29/story-of-cities-10-edinburgh-new-town-old-town-scottish-enlightenment-james-craig 
11. The reclamation of Mumbai – from the sea, and its people? http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/30/story-cities-11-reclamation-mumbai-bombay-megacity-population-density-flood-risk 
12. Haussmann rips up Paris – and divides France to this day http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/31/story-cities-12-paris-baron-haussmann-france-urban-planner-napoleon 
13. Barcelona's unloved planner invents science of 'urbanisation' http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/01/story-cities-13-eixample-barcelona-ildefons-cerda-planner-urbanisation 
14. London's Great Stink heralds a wonder of the industrial world http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/04/story-cities-14-london-great-stink-river-thames-joseph-bazalgette-sewage-system 
15. The rise and ruin of Rio de Janeiro's first favela http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/05/story-cities-15-rio-de-janeiro-first-favela-providencia-2016-olympic-games 
16. How the US-run Canal Zone divided Panama for a century http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/06/story-cities-16-panama-canal-zone-history-us-run-divided-city
17. Canberra's vision of the ideal city gets mired in 'mediocrity' http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/07/story-cities-17-canberra-capital-australia-walter-griffin-ideal-city
18. Vienna's 'wild settlers' kickstart a social housing revolution http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/08/story-cities-18-vienna-austria-cooperative-self-build-settlers-social-housing-revolution
19. Johannesburg's apartheid purge of vibrant Sophiatown http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/11/story-cities-19-johannesburg-south-africa-apartheid-purge-sophiatown
20. The secret history of Magnitogorsk, Russia's steel city http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/12/story-of-cities-20-the-secret-history-of-magnitogorsk-russias-steel-city
21. Olivetti tries to build the ideal 'human city' for its workers http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/13/story-cities-21-adriano-olivetti-ivrea-italy-typewriter-factory-human-city
22. How Hitler's plans for Germania would have torn Berlin apart http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/14/story-of-cities-hitler-germania-berlin-nazis
23. How disaster sparked Napier's art deco renaissance http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/15/story-of-cities-napier-disaster-art-deco-renaissance
24. How Hiroshima rose from the ashes of nuclear destruction http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/18/story-of-cities-hiroshima-japan-nuclear-destruction
25. Shannon – a tiny Irish town inspires China’s economic boom http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/19/story-of-cities-25-shannon-ireland-china-economic-boom
26. Delhi's modernist dream proves a far-fetched fantasy http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/20/story-cities-23-delhi-india-modernist-fantasy
27. Singapore – the most meticulously planned city in the world http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/21/story-cities-singapore-carefully-planned-lee-kuan-yew
28. How postwar Warsaw was rebuilt using 18th century paintings http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/22/story-cities-warsaw-rebuilt-18th-century-paintings
29. Los Angeles and the 'great American streetcar scandal' http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/25/story-cities-los-angeles-great-american-streetcar-scandal
30. How this Amsterdam inventor gave bike-sharing to the world http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/26/story-cities-amsterdam-bike-share-scheme
31. Skopje plans for the future by fixating on its ancient past http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/27/story-cities-skopje-plans-future-ancient-past
32. Jane Jacobs v Robert Moses, battle of New York's urban titans http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/28/story-cities-32-new-york-jane-jacobs-robert-moses
33. How Santiago tackled its housing crisis with 'Operation Chalk' http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/29/story-cities-33-santiago-chile-housing-crisis-operacion-sitio-operation-chalk
34. The struggle for the soul of Milton Keynes http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/03/struggle-for-the-soul-of-milton-keynes
35. Arcosanti – the unfinished answer to suburban sprawl http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/04/story-cities-35-arcosanti-paolo-soleri-desert
36. How Copenhagen rejected 1960s modernist 'utopia' http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/05/story-cities-copenhagen-denmark-modernist-utopia
37. How radical ideas turned Curitiba into Brazil's 'green capital'
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/06/story-of-cities-37-mayor-jaime-lerner-curitiba-brazil-green-capital-global-icon
38. Vancouver dumps its freeway plan for a more beautiful future
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/09/story-cities-38-vancouver-canada-freeway-protest-liveable-city
39. Shenzhen – from rural village to the world's largest megalopolis
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/10/story-of-cities-39-shenzhen-from-rural-village-to-the-worlds-largest-megalopolis
40. How a village had to die so Hamburg's port could survive
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/11/story-cities-altenwerder-hamburg-germany-port
41. Soul City's failed bid to build a black-run suburbia for America
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/12/story-cities-soul-city-floyd-mckissick-north-carolina-black-run-suburbia
42. Medellín escapes grip of drug lord to embrace radical urbanism
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/13/story-cities-pablo-escobar-inclusive-urbanism-medellin-colombia
43. How Dubai's World Trade Centre sold the city to the world
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/16/story-of-cities-43-dubai-world-trade-centre-turned-sand-gold-uae
44. Will Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, really close?
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/story-of-cities-44-dadaab-kenya-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-closed
45. The death of Richard Nickel, guardian of Chicago's heritage
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/18/story-cities-death-richard-nickel-guardian-chicago-heritage-architecture
46. The gated Buenos Aires community which left its poor neighbours under water
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/19/story-cities-46-buenos-aires-gated-community-nordelta-flood
47. Myanmar rising – how democracy is changing Yangon's skyline
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/20/myanmar-democracy-yangon-changing-skyline
48. Cybercity, Mauritius – a vision of Africa's 'smart' future?
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/23/story-cities-48-ebene-cybercity-mauritius-vision-africa-smart-future
49. The long road to Rawabi, Palestine's first planned city
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/24/story-cities-rawabi-planned-city-palestine
50. The reclaimed stream bringing life to the heart of Seoul
    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/25/story-cities-reclaimed-stream-heart-seoul-cheonggyecheon

There are also two "bonus" entries:

1. What will our growing megacities really look like?https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/26/story-cities-future-growing-megacities-waste-floating-smart
2. The story of cities: the tales we missed
   https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/27/the-story-of-cities-the-tales-we-missed

---

Lost Cities

1. Babylon – how war almost erased ‘mankind’s greatest heritage site’ https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/08/lost-cities-1-babylon-iraq-war-history-mankind-greatest-heritage-site
2. The search for the real Troy – 'not just one city but at least 10' https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/09/lost-cities-2-search-real-troy-hisarlik-turkey-mythology-homer-iliad
3. Muziris: did black pepper cause the demise of India's ancient port?https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/10/lost-cities-3-muziris-india-kerala-ancient-port-black-pepper
4. Pompeii was preserved by disaster. Now it risks ruin all over again https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/11/lost-cities-4-pompeii-roman-preserved-disaster-vesuvius-volcano-second-extinction
5. How the magnificent city of Merv was razed – and never recovered https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/12/lost-cities-merv-worlds-biggest-city-razed-turkmenistan
6. How Thonis-Heracleion resurfaced after 1,000 years under water https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/15/lost-cities-6-thonis-heracleion-egypt-sunken-sea
7. How NASA technology uncovered the 'megacity' of Angkor https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/16/lost-cities-6-angkor-wat-nasa-technology-khmer-megacity

---

Well, that ought to keep you busy for a while! And I'm certain there are more "lost city" entries coming. Exciting, isn't it?

No Ending

A good book has no ending.

Robert Dalziel Cumming. "Through the Microscope," in Skookum Chuck Fables Bits of History, Through the Microscope. Qontro Classic Books, 2010, p. 81.

---

This is an update to my July 27, 2016 post on geography books for children.

For everybody who hasn't read the previous post (which would be everybody, probably), the results of my initial search were ... disappointing. Amazon produced a mountain of results, many (most?) of very dubious relevance. Goodreads was surprisingly unhelpful, too.

But I did find an interesting site that does have some reasonable recommendations. It's called Booknixie. The interesting thing about Booknixie is that it only lists award-winning books. It actually sorts books by the number of awards they've received. This is from the "About" page:

I'm Meg Solley, a software developer living in Seattle with my husband and two young kids.

We all love books and reading. My older daughter is really into chapter books and just starting along the path towards reading to herself; my son is crazy for anything with detailed, beautiful pictures. And, all right, I myself am not above a little Young Adult Fiction in my spare time. So I created BookNixie for us, so we can all find the best of what we like.

I launched the site in December of 2012 and I'm working to make it better all the time. Check back often for new books, new authors, new awards, and all kinds of exciting new features.

Also, please send lots of comments/suggestions/corrections to meg@booknixie.com!

The Booknixie search function seems broken, but by using Google I was able to find a very nice collection of geography books for children.

Award-winning Children's Fiction Books about Geography

FICTION

• Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
• The Fire-Eaters by David Almond
• Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• The Boy of the Three-Year Nap by Dianne Snyder
• War Boy: a Country Childhood by Michael Foreman
• The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
• The Long Road to Gettysburg by Jim Murphy
• Shadow by Marcia Brown
• An Indian Winter by Russell Freedman
• Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson
• Sea of the Dead by Julia Durango
• Dona Flor by Pat Mora
• The Shoe Tree of Chagrin by J. Patrick Lewis and Chris Sheban
• The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• Scooter by Vera B. Williams
• Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds by Cynthia Rylant
• Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
• The Little Ships : The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Louise Lewin Borden [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• The Pirate's Son (Point Signature) by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Shipwrecked! by Rhoda Blumberg
• Fame and Glory In Freedom, Georgia by Barbara O'Connor
• City Walks: Paris by Christina Henry de Tessan [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• Kamishibai Man by Allen Say
• Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen by Cari Best
• How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
• The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor
• Umbrella by Taro Yashima
• Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling
• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky
• The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell
• Adele & Simon by Barbara McClintock
• The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein
• Ties That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka
• Listening For Lions by Gloria Whelan

NON-FICTION

• The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose
• Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis
• The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis
• 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
• Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross
• The Desert Is Theirs by Byrd Baylor
• Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter
• Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers
• Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman
• The Long Road to Gettysburg by Jim Murphy [This is misclassified -- it's fiction]
• An Indian Winter by Russell Freedman
• Children of the Wild West by Russell Freedman
• Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930s by Michael L. Cooper
• The Longitude Prize by Joan Dash
• The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins
• You Asked? Over 300 Great Questions and Astounding Answers by Katherine Farris [Questionable -- only somewhat related to geography]
• Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Anabel Kindersley and Barnabas Kindersley
• Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang
• National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers by National Geographic Society
• The Amazing Pop-Up Geography Book by Jennie Maizels and Kate Petty
• Shipwrecked! by Rhoda Blumberg [May be misclassified -- it's on both the fiction and non-fiction lists]
• The Train of States by Peter Sis
• 10,000 Days of Thunder: A History of the Vietnam War by Philip Caputo
• The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and her Students by Suzanne Jurmain
• The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Dennis Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin
• Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog by Pamela S. Turner
• The Mount Rushmore Story by Judith St. George
• Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa by Don Brown
• How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz [This is misclassified -- it's fiction]
• Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling [This is misclassified -- it's fiction]
• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky
• Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling

I find it interesting that a website created and operated by a single person does such a much better job than behemoths like Amazon -- but I think it may be another indication that a skilled pilot is sometimes better at flying than an autopilot.

The Moon is a Madness

The Moon is a Madness,
A Madness of mine.
I made her of mustard
And mulberry wine.

Walt Kelly, "Lines Upon a Lunar Tune Arune." Songs of the Pogo, 1956. Online: https://curmudgeonlylibrarian.wordpress.com/tag/walt-kelly/

---

Are you afraid of the dark?

Most children are, at some point. It's considered harmless (even rational).  People usually grow out of it. If it becomes pathological -- if it interferes with your daily (or nightly) activities, it's considered a phobia. And like most fearful things, it has lots of different names: achluophobia, scotophobia, lygophobia, and most commonly nyctophobia. Even if you're not a nyctophobe, darkness can be inconvenient. Sometimes you need to be able to see.

How can you see in the the dark? Easy: You turn on the lights. Something people have been doing, one way or another, for a very long time.

The earliest known artificial lighting was in the form of oil lamps, perhaps as early as 70,000 BCE.¹

Stone age oil lamp from Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Source: https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/historyculture/brooks-camp-cultural-history.htm

Lamps have enormous religious and cultural significance, from the Menorah that is at the core of Hanukkah celebrations to the eternal flame kept burning at the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame in Arlington National Cemetery. But lighting is usually more a practical than a symbolic matter. And it's especially important for people who live in cities.

The earliest street lighting was probably in the ancient cities of Mesopotamia.² The ancient Egyptians used floating wicks for their lamps,³ and the Chinese,⁴ Greeks and Romans certainly used lighting in their cities.⁵ According to Rossotti, "The first compulsory street-lighting seems to have been in 1367 in Paris," and "in 1415 every London householder was required to show one lighted window during the winter months."⁶ It is possible that London may have had some kind of street illumination as early as 1429.⁷

For centuries torches, oil lamps, and even open fires were used to light streets. The first gas lighting was introduced in the 18th century.⁸ The first electric street lighting was the "Yablochkov candle," named for its inventor, Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov (1847-1894). It was a kind of enclosed arc lamp (in an arc lamp two pieces of carbon are electrified and an electric arc is formed between them; the arc lamp was invented by Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) sometime between 1802 and 1809). Incandescent bulbs were first used for street lighting in 1879 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK,⁹ and of course incandescents remained the international standard for many years. Common street lighting systems in use today include high-intensity discharge lamps, induction lights, and LEDs.

But there are places where gas lighting is still used (visit New Orleans some time), and incandescents have some uses, too (especially in extremely cold climates -- see http://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/cut-your-heating-bill-half-heat-person-not-house-video.html).

And then there are arc lights.

Electric Arc Light over San Diego Barracks in 1886

Source: http://apps.sandiego.gov/gallery/digitalarchives/index.php?find=electric+arc+light&searching=yes&search=Search+Photo+Gallery

The arc light was the first practical electric light. It wasn't pleasant (the light is blinding), but for industrial uses (factories, docks) it was considered a tremendous improvement. Arc lights are still used today in certain niche applications (carbon arc lights are still used to test colorfastness in fabrics).¹⁰ But arc lights were once used for street lights -- and a lot more often than you might expect.

I'm talking about Moonlight Towers.

Moonlight tower near Victory Grill, Austin Texas, c. 1946. https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/28200/28224v.jpg

These structures (which look amazingly like radio towers or oil derricks) were up to 300 feet (90 meters) tall, and could carry up to half a dozen arc lamps. The light was described as "about the same that would be expected from a half moon."¹¹

The first city to put up a Tower seems to have been Paris in 1877.¹² Wabash, Indiana, was apparently the first city in the United States to erect a Tower, in 1880.¹³ In 1881 San Jose, California erected a 237 foot (72 meters) Tower, which produced 24,000 candlepower (or about 300,000 lumens -- roughly the output of 200 old-style 100 watt incandescent light bulbs). By 1890 there were 235,000 arc lamps being used for street lighting in the US; by 1905 there were around 700,000.¹⁴

At first they were regarded as miraculous, and cities invested heavily. At its peak, Detroit had 122 Towers, illuminating 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of the city.  But there were problems. Towers:

"... it turned out, were neither entirely brilliant nor entirely successful. The problem with a singular light source is the singularity: The light comes, inevitably, at an angle. The powerful illumination ... could be easily blocked by anything that got in its way, be it a tree or a building or a human body. People complained about the disorienting shadows cast by the arc lights ... Some found the towers to be eyesores, each structure braced with a chaotic network of wires and posts... Animals ... were unaccustomed to the newly extended daytime. Chickens and geese, unable to sleep in this new state of omnipresent light, began to die of exhaustion. ... Humans, too, found the high-slung orbs to be as disorienting as they were ethereal.... Foggy evenings, combined with the air pollution of a newly industrialized America, could thrust all of [a city] into effective darkness ..." (Garber 2013).

Maintenance costs were high, the area illuminated (except in ideal urban conditions -- flat, lower density towns without multistory buildings) inadequate. By the 1920s in most places the Moonlight Towers were being dismantled (or falling down, which they seem to have done a lot). But there was one noteworthy exception: Austin, Texas.

Austin bought 31 of Detroit's Towers in 1894. Seventeen of them survive, and they are going to be around for quite some time. In 1993 Austin restored the Towers at a cost of $1.3 million and celebrated in 1995 with a festival. They're listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Austin loves its Towers.

There is supposed to be a historical marker at the base of the Tower at the corner of West 9th and Guadalupe Street in Austin, but the most recent Google Streetview (May 2016) only shows where a plaque might have been mounted. I haven't found any photographs, Apparently it said:

This is one of 17 that remain out of 31 towers erected 1894-95 and in continuous use since. Their carbon arc lights then illuminated the entire city. Now mercury vapor lamps provide beacons for many miles on roads and airway, from dusk to dawn. Austin is said to be unique in this dramatic method of lighting.

The site of the missing plaque? Note the two short concrete "legs" that apparently once supported a historical marker. The pole to the left is the base of the Tower. Source: https://www.google.com/maps/place/30%C2%B016'18.5%22N+97%C2%B044'42.8%22W/@30.2717621,-97.7452816,3a,15y,117.8h,82.71t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1srejfmFvU59ATowxEzUSgpA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DrejfmFvU59ATowxEzUSgpA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D57.807529%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d30.2718!4d-97.7452333

This whole topic leaves me with so many questions. What usage, traffic, and housing patterns did the Moonlight Towers create? Are they still visible? Were there changes -- pre-Tower, Tower, post-Tower -- in how people interacted with their environment? And were those chickens really dying of artificial moonlight?

Technology changes, and that's to be expected. But it's disturbing to realize that whole areas, whole urban geographies were modified by a technology that is now almost completely obsolete -- and hardly anybody knows about it.

---

¹ http://www.epalladioartworkshop.com/OILLAMPS/HISTORY/index.htm

² George, A.R. April 2015. The Isum and Hendursanga: Night Watchmen and Street-lighting in Babylonia. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 74(1): 1-8. Online: http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19705/1/JNES74_1_8.pdf

³ https://mandoxegypt.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/the-menorah-its-origins-in-ancient-egyptian-temple-lamps/. See also Rossotti, Hazel. Fire: Servant, Scourge, and Enigma. Mineola NY: Dover Publications, p. 59.

⁴ Needham, Joseph and Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin. 1985. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1, Paper and Printing. Cambridge University Press.

⁵ It's often said that Roman cities had no street lights. However, there were certainly night-time processions, and there are architectural features (niches built into walls, in particular) that would have provided at least some light in urban areas. The Romans even had a special term, "lanternarius" for the slave whose job it was to keep oil lamps lit in front of a villa. See Rossotti, Hazel. Fire: Servant, Scourge, and Enigma. Mineola NY: Dover Publications, p. 59.

⁶ Rossotti, Hazel. Fire: Servant, Scourge, and Enigma. Mineola NY: Dover Publications, p. 59.

⁷ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/barton-henry-1435

⁸ Thomson, Janet. 2003. The Scot Who Lit the World: The Story of William Murdoch, Inventor of Gas Lighting. Janet Thomson (self published).

⁹ http://www.nhsn.ncl.ac.uk/resources/archive/naturalists-of-the-north-east/john-hancock/correspondance/letter-802/

¹⁰ http://www.edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html

¹¹ Moonlight towers: light pollution in the 1800s. Online: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/01/moonlight-towers-light-pollution-in-the-1800s.html

¹² Ibid.

¹³ http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/archives/wabashplaindealer/wabash-lighted-the-way-years-ago/article_58063626-6584-579d-986c-16582a93175d.html

¹⁴ Moonlight towers: light pollution in the 1800s. Online: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/01/moonlight-towers-light-pollution-in-the-1800s.html; see also Garber, Megan. Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon. The Atlantic (March 6, 2013). Online: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/tower-of-light-when-electricity-was-new-people-used-it-to-mimic-the-moon/273445/