A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
I'm just coming off a severe staph infection that could have cost me my right leg below the knee, so can relate to devastating bacteria. Was hospitalized for a couple days to rehydrate and get iv antibiotics that appear to have knocked it out now. If you develop a skin infection that seems to be spreading fast, don't jack around and have it checked
Once you learn microbiology you basically go through the process of cleaning the wound ASAP. There are opportunistic pathogens that are just waiting to be pathogens because they moved and that scares me.
The Irish potato famine wasn't exclusive to Ireland. It actually first appeared in the US and spread to Europe.
The issue was, unlike other nations, the Irish ONLY had potatoes as all other crops were cash crops for tax.
The British government could have 100% minimized the damage. But they didn't.
Good Job PM Peel. You fucked up.
The Brits actively shipped beef out of Ireland while people starved. The Brits also forced the Irish to labor in pointless workhouses to "earn" their food. For instance the Brits would force the Irish to build roads that led to nowhere. Apparently those pathways to nothing are still littered around Ireland.
My understanding is the Tories actually tried to provide relief by importing food which was discontinued by the liberals. So more PM Russell who fucked up.
Iirc they imported Corn from the US since it was cheap. But corn is a odd crop, it's difficult to digest especially for the Irish who weren't accustomed to the crop. So it provided minimal nutrition for the Irish.
This was framed as "Look, we give them food and they're still starving! We're wasting money, giving it to the Yanks, all for nothing! This is clearly god punishing the Irish for their sin!"
I don't remember the exact responses by different groups in Parliament, infect Peel was probably wasn't ass harmful as the others.
Although, I think it's funny to know that the British PM at the time was named Peel.
I'm assuming "ass harmful" is a typo but prefer to believe it's an historian term applied to British ideological aims
It was a typo but honesty, I think it fits perfectly so amma keep it.
This constitutes a period of British policy which we now know as "Ass Harm", harm perpetuated by asses
- some fake historian
Random observation, I had no idea how many languages are spoken in the British isles...
LanguagesEnglish, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, French, Guernésiais, Jèrriais, Sercquiais, Shelta, Ulster-Scots, Angloromani, British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language
We've stopped calling it the famine here and now it's "the great hunger".
Ireland was producing more than enough to feed itself but the British landlords were forcing the export of non-potatoes and leaving us to die.
The queen at the time politically shamed the Turks into reducing their aid to us because it was higher than hers.
What's up, Turkey? We haven't forgotten your generosity.
Massive, massive shout out to our Choctaw brothers and sisters in America who gave what they didn't have after the trail of tears.
For those not familiar, we have never, ever forgotten that one.
Sculpture in Cork called "kindred spirits":
A large contributor to Irish suffering were the British corn laws, a tariff that kept the price of barley, wheat, and oats artificially high. So when potato crops failed, the poor Irish couldn't afford substitutes. Ironically, American maze was exempt from the corn laws, so much of that was imported to Ireland.
Tariffs: never any externalities or unintended consequences; you will certainly not regret imposing tariffs.