Posted by Chad Orzel on November 30, 2006 Over at the World’s Fair, David has a post with pictures showing a week’s worth of food for families in various countries. It’s pretty eye-opening– the total volume of food (less packaging) for a family of four in the US or England exceeds that eaten by fifteen people in Mali.
Damn, but we’re gluttons.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has a baseline minimum diet which they use for things like post-nuclear war planning. It’s the minimum to keep an average sedentary person alive and more-or-less functional for a year. It’s something like 120 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of corn, 60 pounds of soybeans, a pound of salt and a handful of vitamin C. The farmer’s cut for the wheat, corn and soybeans is around $24.00.
Now think how much you spend on food in a year. That’s how far you live above subsistence.
You've read the blog, now try the books:
How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is published by Basic Books. "“Unlike quantum physics, which remains bizarre even to experts, much of relativity makes sense. Thus, Einstein’s special relativity merely states that the laws of physics and the speed of light are identical for all observers in smooth motion. This sounds trivial but leads to weird if delightfully comprehensible phenomena, provided someone like Orzel delivers a clear explanation of why.” --Kirkus Reviews "Bravo to both man and dog." The New York Times.
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is published by Scribner. "It's hard to imagine a better way for the mathematically and scientifically challenged, in particular, to grasp basic quantum physics." -- Booklist "Chad Orzel's How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is an absolutely delightful book on many axes: first, its subject matter, quantum physics, is arguably the most mind-bending scientific subject we have; second, the device of the book -- a quantum physicist, Orzel, explains quantum physics to Emmy, his cheeky German shepherd -- is a hoot, and has the singular advantage of making the mind-bending a little less traumatic when the going gets tough (quantum physics has a certain irreducible complexity that precludes an easy understanding of its implications); finally, third, it is extremely well-written, combining a scientist's rigor and accuracy with a natural raconteur's storytelling skill." -- BoingBoing
November 30, 2006
