And all the utilities

"SOMETIMES PEOPLE CHALLENGE ME TO A GAME. FOR THEIR LIVES, YOU KNOW."
"Do they ever win?"
"NO. LAST YEAR SOMEONE GOT THREE STREETS AND ALL THE UTILITIES."

Terry Pratchett. 2013 (reissue). Reaper Man. New York: Harper, p. 171.

---

Taxonomy: the practice and science of classification.

I am not a neat person. By nature, I tend to leave things lying around. As long as they're not likely to start decomposing, I rarely feel a great need to tidy. Which is probably why I love the idea of taxonomy.

Taxonomy lets you assemble things in such a way that you can see relationships.

Let me illustrate:

Cocker Spaniel puppy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocker_Spaniel

This is a dog (and a darned cute one, too). Scientifically, this is an example of Canis familiaris¹. By knowing the genus (Canis) we can see that there are other critters out there that are closely related to dogs, including the Gray wolf (Canis lupus), the African golden wolf (Canis anthus), the Coyote (Canis latrans), and the nearly extinct Red wolf (Canis rufus).

But this is just scratching the surface. The full taxonomy of the dog is:

Animalia; Chordata; Synapsida; Mammalia; Carnivora; Caniformia; Canidae; Canis; familiaris

By diving deeper into the taxonomy you can see the deeper connections -- in the Canidae are things like foxes (Vulpes species) and raccoon dogs (Nycteruetes procyonoides). Take the next step, into the Caniformia, and you find bears (Ursidae) and skunks (Mephitidae) and weasels (Mustelidae) and seals (Pinnipedia). Take another step, and you're in the Carnivora, and you see cats (Felidae) and mongooses (Herpestidae) and hyenas (Hyaenidae).

Enough for now. I trust the point is clear. Taxonomy lets us understand how closely (or distantly) things are related. It clears up clutter.

Which brings me, at last, to the subject I actually want to talk about: games².

Games are universal. No group of people anywhere has ever been found that didn't play games. What's long fascinated me is the fact that many games are very obviously related. It doesn't take much analysis to see that American football and rugby are close cousins. It doesn't require a lot of thought to see that baseball, stickball, and rounders are closely related, and that cricket and kickball are cousins. But there are deeper relationships.

The area I want to talk about right now is board games³. Board games are currently quite popular, and every year there are lists published of "hot new games" (see, for example this list from Popular Mechanics of "The 35 Best New Board Games" for 2016: http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/g18/15-best-new-board-games-of-the-year/).

Board games are ancient. The oldest known board game is Senet, from Egypt (the earliest evidence comes from about 3500 BCE). The Senet board is a 3x10 grid, and each player has at least five pieces.

A modern recreation of a senet game.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Senet_anagoria.JPG

Recently discovered at Başur Höyük in Turkey is a set of 49 game pieces depicting " pigs, dogs, and pyramids, others feature round and bullet shapes" as well as "dice" and circular tokens "which were painted in ... black, blue, green, red, and white." The game pieces have been dated to about 3000 BCE⁴ Slightly younger, the Royal Game of Ur (also known as The Game of 20 Squares) dates back to about 2600 BCE. The board is divided into two parts, one a 3x4 grid, the other a 3x2 grid, the parts connected by a two square "bridge." The game was played with two sets of seven pieces and three pyramid-shaped dice. Other games -- checkers, go, backgammon -- have similarly ancient pedigrees.

I've played a number of board games. I'm not fond of chess or checkers; I like backgammon; I'm bewildered by go. And of course I've played a lot of more modern games, too -- Monopoly, Parcheesi, Risk, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, TwixT, Boggle, Mancala, Life, etc.⁵ What I've been wondering for some time is how you would go about classifying board games? How can you group them so that the coomon characteristics become clear?

Or, to put it more precisely: Is there a taxonomy of board games?

After doing some research, I think I can definitely say maybe.

In David Parlett's Oxford History of Board Games, he discusses and -- more importantly -- classifies about 500 different games. He breaks them down into four categories:

• Race Games
• Space Games
• Chase Games
• Displace Games

Maryann Westfall summarized and produced a useful table illustrating the concepts, which I have adapted:

Type	Field of Play	Placement	Interaction	Objective	Examples
Race	Linear	Equal	Ousting	First to goal	Snakes and Ladders, Backgammon
Space	Areal	Equal	Block, capture	Make patterns, overwhelm, occupy territory	Nine Men's Morris, Chinese Checkers
Chase	Complex	Asymmetrical	Capture	Overwhelm	Fox and Geese
Displace	Any	Equal	Capture	Overwhelm	Risk, Stratego

I have to admit, I was extremely pleased to have found this! Now all the relations are clear! Now everything is ...

Um, no. No, everything isn't clear.

For one thing, where do mancala (wari, oware) games fit? If you're not familiar, these are "sowing" or "pit and pebble" or "count and capture" games:

Mancala game board.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_22.239_Mancala_Game_Board.jpg

In mancala games pebbles (seeds, beads) are "sown," removed, re-sown, or captured based on a specified numerical pattern. Where does this fit?

As it turns out, there are other schemes for classifying board games. In 1952 H.J.R. Murray used a five-fold classification approach:

• Race
• Alignment
• Hunt
• War
• Mancala

In addition, there are other possible interactions that game pieces can have:

• Capturing (permanent removal)
• Ousting (sending backwards)
• Blockading (preventing movement)
• Demoting (reducing strength)
• Promoting (increasing strength)
• Converting (changing who owns a particular piece)

Games can also be classified in lots of other ways -- on how the game space is laid out (linear, areal and "reticular" [meaning that there are complex relationships among spaces]), or by movement, by skill (or chance), by capture method (surrounding enemies, displacing them, etc.), and by piece differentiation (all pieces identical, each piece has defined powers, etc.).

And there's more. What about games in which there are no "sides"? Where players cooperate to achieve a goal. There are even noncompetitive games, where there is no "victory."

Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman in Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals summarized works by a number of scholars who have tried to understand and classify games (not just board games). They tabulated the results:

Source: Salen and Zimmerman 2004, p. 91

In other words -- it's complicated.

I have to confess, I'm a little disappointed. I'm also a little surprised that I don't see any focus on the geography of games -- places of origin, patterns of diffusion, that sort of thing. Stewart Cullin called mancala "The National Game of Africa" (Cullin 1894); "race" games (senet, backgammon, etc.) seem to have originated in the Middle East; go apparently comes from China. But beyond that, there doesn't seem to be much information. I'm not sure if it's a lack of data or a lack of perspective. It would certainly seem to me that something that is obviously fundamental to being human should receive a bit more attention.

---

Notes

¹ If you like you can say "Canis lupus familiaris," to indicate that you're onboard with Opinion 2027 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature issued in 2003.

² I'm using the word "game" in a broad sense -- everything from "I spy with my little eye" to NHL hockey, from hopscotch to Monopoly.

³ Board games are a subdivision of tabletop games, which can include board games, card games, dice games, miniatures wargames, tile-based games or other games that are normally played on a flat surface.

⁴ Jacob Kastrenakes. Archaeologists puzzled over immaculate, 5,000-year-old board game pieces. The Verge, August 14, 2013. Online: http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4622122/oldest-board-game-tokens-found-turkey

⁵ No I've never played Dungeons and Dragons. And though I did buy Settlers of Cataan, my friends vanished as soon as I said, "hey, this might be fun."

---

References

Cullin, Stewart. 1894. Mancala: The National Game of Africa. Report of the National Museum, 1894, pp. 597-611. Online: http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Culin/Mancla1894/

Owen Duffy. Board games' golden age: sociable, brilliant and driven by the internet. The Guardian November 25, 2014. Online: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/25/board-games-internet-playstation-xbox

Jak Hutchcraft. It's Official, Everyone: Board Games Are Cool Now. Vice March 1, 2016. Online: http://www.vice.com/read/rise-of-board-games

Jacob Kastrenakes. Archaeologists puzzled over immaculate, 5,000-year-old board game pieces. The Verge, August 14, 2013. Online: http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4622122/oldest-board-game-tokens-found-turkey

Michael Lynch. 2012. Classifying Board Games. Online: http://www.sts.rpi.edu/public_html/lynchm2/Courses/GM_S/GM-2012-09.pdf

H.J.R. Murray. 1952, History of Board Games Other Than Chess. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Not twilight, but sunrise: Table-top games are booming in the video-game age. The Economist October 3, 2015. Online: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21669930-table-top-games-are-booming-video-game-age-not-twilight-sunrise

David Parlett. 1999. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

John R. Platt. Scientfic American blog, May 9, 2013. Online:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/ost-endangered-canine-species/

Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. 2004. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge MA and London: MIT Press.

Maryann Westfall. 2002. Game Design as Cultural Practice: The Oxford History of Board Games (in-class report). Online: http://www.jumpingweasel.com/Edu/pdfs/gameoverview.pdf

The screams all sound the same

Don't listen to a word I say
The screams all sound the same

Of Monsters and Men, "Little Talks," by Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson, from the album My Head is an Animal,  2011.

---

Vanguard rocket test failure, December 6, 1957

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/191250main_Vanguard_Explosion.jpg

When I went to upload my latest blog post -- which featured a table, numerous quotations, witty commentary, piercing insights, and a bibliography -- it vanished.

All of it. Completely. Gone.

There is literally nothing left but the title ("All the utilities" -- intriguing, isn't it).

I am not happy.

I am going to reconstruct it. But I am a bit busy at the moment, so it might not get done until next week.

Don't worry. I always roll with the punches. Like a granodiorite batholith.

We know who we are

“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.” 

Neil Gaiman. 2012. Coraline. New York: HarperCollins, p. 35.

---

There is a remarkable passage in John McPhee's amazing Annals of the Former World¹ that caught my eye some time ago:

"... Yuba city is the county seat of Sutter County, Marysville is the county seat of Yuba County, Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, Placerville is the county seat of El Dorado County, and Eldorado is the county seat of nowhere."
(McPhee 2000, pp. 506-507)

It's worth pointing out that Sutterville no longer exists, but it was in Sacramento County, not Sutter County.

Recently, while doing some research for my Geography of the US class, I found an article on Louisiana geography by a Mr. Tomas Aswell. It was ... amazing. To summarize:

Franklinton is not in Franklin Parish, it's in Washington Parish.
The town of Franklin is not in Franklin Parish either, but in St. Mary Parish.
Washington is in St. Landry Parish.
The town of St. Landry is in Evangeline Parish.
Evangeline is in Acadia Parish.
Arcadia (not Acadia, but nearly) is in Bienville Parish.
Vernon is not in Vernon Parish, it's in Jackson Parish.
The town of Jackson is in East Feliciana Parish.
Winnsboro is not in Winn Parish, but in Franklin Parish.
Richland is not in Richland Parish, but in St. Mary Parish.
Madisonville is not in Madison Parish, but in St. Tammany Parish.
Plaquemine is not in Plaquemine Parish, but in Iberville Parish.
Union is not in Union Parish, but in St. James Parish (and Union Hill is in Rapides Parish).
Allen is not in Allen Parish, but in Natchitoches Parish (and Port Allen is in West Baton Rouge Parish).
Calcasieu is in Rapides Parish, not Calcasieu Parish.
Claiborne is not in Claiborne Parish, but in Ouachita Parish.
(Aswell 2010)²

Just in case you didn't know, Louisiana has "parishes" where the rest of the country has "counties." Because they're different.

I don't really have a name for this phenomenon -- shifted or miscast or "non-congruent" county and county seat names. I've never read anything about it. It's kind of intriguing.

Now Louisiana has a total of 64 parishes. By my count, there are at least 15 non-congruent county names, or 23%.

Is this pattern common?

To find out for sure I'd have to look at all the counties in the country. Which would not be quick. There are over 3,000 counties (or county-equivalents) in the US, and that's a bit daunting. So I instead I did some sampling.

California has 58 counties. In only 18 cases (31%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Colusa County: Colusa
• Fresno County: Fresno
• Lake County: Lakeport
• Los Angeles County: Los Angeles
• Madera County: Madera
• Mariposa County: Mariposa
• Merced County: Merced
• Napa County: Napa
• Nevada County: Nevada City
• Riverside County: Riverside
• Sacramento County: Sacramento
• San Bernardino County: San Bernardino
• San Diego County: San Diego
• San Francisco County: San Francisco
• San Luis Obispo County: San Luis Obispo
• Santa Barbara County: Santa Barbara
• Santa Cruz County: Santa Cruz
• Ventura County: Ventura

Colorado has 64 counties. In only 13 cases (20%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Alamosa County: Alamosa
• Boulder County: Boulder
• Broomfield County: Broomfield
• Cheyenne County: Cheyenne Wells
• Conejos County: Conejos
• Delta County: Delta
• Denver County: Denver
• Eagle County: Eagle
• Gunnison County: Gunnison
• Montrose County: Montrose
• Ouray County: Ouray
• Pueblo County: Pueblo
• Saguache County: Saguache

Florida has 67 counties. In only 3 cases (4%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Madison County: Madison
• Palm Beach County: West Palm Beach
• Sarasota County: Sarasota

Oregon has 36 counties. In only 5 cases (14%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Baker County: Baker City
• Hood River County: Hood River
• Klamath County: Klamath Falls
• Lake County: Lakeview
• Tillamook County: Tillamook

Pennsylvania has 67 counties. In only 16 cases (24%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Beaver County: Beaver
• Bedford County: Bedford
• Butler County: Butler
• Chester County: West Chester
• Clarion County: Clarion
• Clearfield County: Clearfield
• Erie County: Erie
• Huntingdon County: Huntingdon
• Indiana County: Indiana
• Lancaster County: Lancaster
• Lebanon County: Lebanon
• Mercer County: Mercer
• Philadelphia County: Philadelphia
• York County: York

Having gone through this I have to say -- I don't really see any patterns.

I'd thought there might be a tendency for there to be more name correspondence in the Western states, but if there is I can't see it. I had wondered if there might be a pattern where rural areas were more likely to have congruent county and county seat names, but that's certainly not obvious.

It goes against the scientific grain to think there's no pattern here. But it's possible that this is just a matter of historical contingency -- sometimes things happen for good reasons, or for bad reasons, or for no reasons.

I think I'm supposed to feel uneasy about patternless data. Oddly enough I don't. I think sometimes things just happen.

And that makes this an interesting world.

---

Notes

¹John McPhee. 2000. Annals of the Former World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

²Tomas Aswell. Louisiana Voice. Online: https://louisianavoice.com/2010/09/15/a-quick-louisiana-geography-lesson/

I Contain Multitudes

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Walt Whitman. 1855. "A Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass.

---

English, in case you haven't noticed is a really weird language. Take a nice lump of Germanic, add some Scandinavian, frost with Romance, and be sure to include some nice bits of Celtic, Slavic and every other language you can think of. Then stand back and wait for compliments.

English spelling is a nightmare. Irregular verbs are caltrops (look it up). Idiomatic expressions are less transparent than Chinese characters. And there are weird historical remnants -- the past tense of go is went, because we used to use wend (and still do occasionally), and apparently everybody decided goed was horrible.

But for all its hostile weirdness, English is a joy to people who love wordplay. And one aspect of that is nyms.

You're probably familiar with some of our nyms, like "acronyms" (e.g. NATO, NASA, etc.) and "synonyms" (words with the same meaning, like "near" and "close"). But there are more nyms out there than you can possibly have dreamed. Wikipedia lists no fewer than sixty-seven different nyms (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-onym):

1. acronym
2. allonym
3. anacronym
4. andronym
5. anonym
6. anepronym
7. anthroponym
8. antonym
9. apronym
10. aptronym
11. astronym
12. autonym
13. backronym
14. basionym
15. caconym
16. capitonym
17. charactonym
18. chrematonym
19. chresonym
20. consonym
21. contronym
22. cryptonym
23. demonym
24. endonym
25. eponym
26. ergonym
27. ethnonym
28. exonym
29. geonym
30. glossonym or glottonym
31. heterochresonym
32. heteronym
33. hodonym
34. holonym
35. homonym
36. hydronym
37. hypernym
38. hypocoronym or hypocoristic
39. hyponym
40. isonym
41. meronym
42. metonym
43. matronym or matronymic
44. mononym
45. microtoponym
46. necronym
47. numeronym
48. odonym
49. oikonym 
50. oronym 
51. orthochresonym 
52. paedonymic 
53. paronym 
54. patronym 
55. phytonym 
56. plesionym 
57. pseudonym 
58. retronym 
59. synonym 
60. tautonym  
61. taxonym 
62. textonym 
63. theonym 
64. theronym 
65. toponym 
66. troponym 
67. zoonym 

Some of these are pretty familiar ("pseudonym," "antonym"). Some are technical ("phytonym" just means "plant name"). Some are distinctly weird (a "holonym" is defined as "a word for the whole of which other words are part, in the way house contains roof, door and window; or car contains steering-wheel and engine," and while I get the concept, I can't imagine an occasion when it would be the best term to communicate that concept).

But some of these are just kind of fun. Like contronyms.¹

Contronyms are words that are their own opposites. The classic example is "cleave." Cleave can mean "to divide," but it can also mean "to adhere." Why? Because it comes from two different Old English roots. Most people can think of a few other examples.

And then there are the kind of obsessives who create vast and terrifying lists of the things.

I've gone through a few sources, and these are fifteen I think are worth contemplating:

1. Bolt: "Bolt the door before he tries to bolt!"
2. Bound: "I was bound for China, but I found myself bound hand and foot."
3. Cleave: "Cleave to your wife, before cleave you that chicken with your cleaver."
4. Clip: "Clip those pages together, and then we can clip out all the pictures."
5. Dust: "Dust the kitchen, I need to dust the top of that cake with powdered sugar."
6. Fast: "Stand fast, men! The enemy is moving fast!"
7. Fine: "They said we were going to a a display of fine china, and I said I that was fine with me."
8. Left: "The gentlemen left, and the ladies were left."
9. Out: "The flashlight went out, but we could still see because the moon was out."
10. Sanction: "I cannot sanction the imposition of a sanction!"
11. Screen: "We wanted to screen a racy film, but we had to screen it from the children."
12. Seed: "I seeded the grapes, and then went out and seeded the lawn."
13. Strike: "I wanted to strike that ball, but I missed -- it was a strike."
14. Temper: "We have tempered our response; they have been tempered by adversity."
15. With: "He fought with the British during the war."

Don't love these? Don't worry, there are dozens and dozens more that you might like better (check the references). Here's hoping you found this perfectly egregious.²

---

Notes

¹ "Contronyms" are also known as "contranyms," "auto-antonyms," "antagonyms," "Janus words," "enantiodromes," "self-antonyms," "antilogies," and "addads." Because otherwise things would get stale, I guess.
² Egregious usually means very bad, but it originally meant very good.

---

References

http://mentalfloss.com/article/57032/25-words-are-their-own-opposites

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

http://www.rinkworks.com/words/contronyms.shtml

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marv-rubinstein/14-wacky-words-with-two-o_b_6213568.html

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)

---

The tongue is a lie.

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

---

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.

---

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

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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

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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?