The 640 percent increase in the cost of scrap metal since 2001 had led to a nationwide epidemic of manhole-cover thefts, and the United Nations, responding to food riots in 30 countries, said that the number of chronically hungry people in the world was expected to rise 100 million to 950 million. Japan released 20,000 tons of its 1.5-million-ton rice stockpile for sale to Africa. Fertilizer-company representatives, flush from last year's 300 percent increase in the price of potash, gathered in Vienna at the orangery of a Hapsburg palace, where they were heralded by trumpeters in green robes. “For the last 35 years, nobody noticed,” said one fertilizer executive. “I've waited my whole career for this.”
Paul Ford stitches together the week's events plus news-of-the-weird in a regular Harper's feature. The juxtaposition of newsbites often manages to tell us more about our world than we want to know. Like the above excerpt. And like this:
New Hampshire banned resomation, a process that liquefies bodies, and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, concerned about the risk of terrorist activity at the upcoming Twin Cities Republican National Convention, was recruiting spies to infiltrate vegan potluck dinners.
Having a little trouble believing that last piece of news? Here's the story.
