An Overview of the Irish Holocaust

Between 1845 and 1855 Ireland lost a third of its population—1 million people died from starvation and disease and 2 million emigrated. The decimation of the potato crop in the 1840s brought on the danger of mass starvation, but it was Britain's calculated response that perpetuated the tragedy.

Contrary to popular opinion, the conditions of a famine did not truly exist in Ireland during this time. During the ten year period, researchers have estimated that the island produced enough food to feed 18 million people, more than double its population at the time.  English protestant landowners had access to a varied diet and the Irish economy as a whole remained a profitable exporter of grain, pork, beef and fish.

The problem for the Irish people was that they had limited access to these native food resources. British penal law, first instituted in 1695, made it illegal for Irish Catholics to own land, apply for fishing or hunting licenses or to enter trades or professions. This forced the Irish to remain as sharecropping farmers subsisting on small rented farms owned by English Protestants. They relied almost exclusively on the sale of potatoes to pay rent to their landlords and buy food.

When a devastating water mold (phytophthora infestans) struck the potato harvest in 1845, the Irish were deprived of their only cash-crop. Many tried to eat the rotten potatoes and fell ill to cholera and typhus. Landlords evicted the starving tenants, or sent them to workhouses where overcrowding and poor conditions led to more starvation, sickness, and ultimately death. More sympathetic landlords paid the passage for their tenants to emigrate to America, Canada, and Australia. Ship owners took advantage of the situation and wedged hundreds of diseased and desperate Irish into ships that were hardly sea-worthy. These ships became known as "coffin ships" as more than one-third of the passengers died on the voyage.

The belief that the famine was God’s intention guided much of Britain’s policy in their management of the crisis. They viewed the crop failures as “a Visitation of Providence, an expression of divine displeasure” with Ireland and its mostly Catholic peasant population.

The British government in Ireland, led by Sir Charles Trevelyan, was far more concerned with modernizing the Irish economy and reforming its people’s “aboriginal” nature than with saving lives. Trevelyn described the famine as an "effective mechanism for reducing surplus population" and that "the real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people".

Trevelyan and other leading British officials had a direct hand in filling newspapers with the idea that the famine was the result of a flaw in the Irish character. Punch, a satirical magazine, regularly portrayed 'Paddy’ as a simian in a tailcoat and a derby, engaged in plotting murder, battening on the labour of the English workingman, and generally living a life of indolent treason. The result of such dehumanizing propaganda was to make unreasonable policy seem more reasonable and just.

Trevelyan never expressed remorse for his policies even after the full scope (approximately 1 million lives) of the Irish famine became known. 

Sources: John Kelly's 'The Graves are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People' and Tim Pat Coogan's 'The Famine Plot: England’s Role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy'

Alaska and Hawaii are the Least Hot States

There are many different ways to measure weather. One of the most curious methods is by measuring the highest temperature recorded and ignoring averages. If you use this method to rank US states from hottest to coldest California is number one with a recorded high of 135°F (58.8°C). Arizona and Nevada follow close behind with records of 128°F and 125°F respectively. After the top three, things get much less predictable. North Dakota (5th) has been hotter than Texas (7th) and Minnesota (21st) has been hotter than Florida (40th). So what state is at the bottom? Amazingly, Alaska and Hawaii are tied for the lowest recorded high, as neither state has ever been warmer than 100°F. 

Could You Buy All the Silver in the World?

In the early seventies, amidst political upheaval, inflationary pressures and stagnant economic growth, the richest family in America (at the time), the Hunt family of Texas, tried to corner the market on precious metals. As a way to hedge themselves from the rampart printing of dollars the US government was doing, the Hunts decided to accumulate large amounts of hard asset investments. Since gold could not be held by private citizens back then, the Hunt brothers focused on silver.

In 1979, the Hunt brothers, along with a group of wealthy Arabs, formed a pool buying silver and silver futures. The Hunt brothers used their positions in silver futures to acquire more of the physical metal. As cash was continually losing value due to inflation, the Hunts decided to settle their long silver futures contracts with delivery of silver, instead of cash settlement. Before too long, they had amassed over 200 million ounces of silver which was about half of the world’s supply.

Prices soon started to appreciate. When they started, the price of silver was below $5/oz. By late 1979  prices had increased tenfold and were trading near $55/oz.  As prices went higher and new buyers got into the market, the exchanges became increasingly fearful of defaulting. As the Hunts owned 77% of the world’s silver, either in physical form or futures contracts, the market had been cornered. The Hunts’ $1 billion investment was now worth around $4.5 billion. 

The U.S. government became concerned over what it saw as a clear attempt at manipulating the nation’s silver reserves.  Federal commodities regulators introduced special rules to prevent any more long position contracts from being written or sold for silver futures. This stopped the Hunts from increasing their positions by temporarily suspending the fundamental rules of the commodities market. 

The Hunt name, however, kept them afloat with easy terms on more short-term capital. The Federal Reserve then took an unusual step: it strongly encouraged banks to stop making loans for speculative activity. When it became clear that the government was after the Hunts’ scalps, their credit dried up. Concerns that the Hunts might not be able to meet margins with new loans and would go under (pulling several brokerages and banks with them), put further downward pressure on the price of silver. On March 27, 1980, the Hunt brothers finally missed a margin call and the market plunged; silver led the way, dropping to under $11 from its high of $48.70. 

Government officials considered a bailout to prevent systemic chaos. The action was vetoed, however, because the government agencies didn’t want to be seen as underwriting dangerous financial speculation. In the end, the Hunt name held true, and the brothers arranged a private bailout from a consortium of banks and companies. The Hunts were dragged in front of Congress, scolded, charged with manipulation, fined, fined again and forced into bankruptcy. It took nearly a decade for them to unwind all their silver holdings and satisfy creditors, and the final bill left them billions poorer.

Contributed by Taylor Cook

The Oldest Living Thing

Bristlecone pines are a species of pine tree renowned for their resilience to harsh conditions and their unrivaled longevity. The world's oldest bristlecone pine is more than 5,000 years old, making it the most ancient living organism on earth. 

The World's Largest Church

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro is a Roman Catholic church located in the West African country of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The basilica was constructed between 1985 and 1989 at a cost of $600 million (adjusted for inflation). Upon its completion it was declared as the largest church in the world, surpassing the previous record holder, St. Peter’s Basilica. It has an area of 322,917 square feet and is 518 feet high (roughly the height of a 40 story skyscraper). 

The basilica is constructed with marble imported from Italy and is furnished with 75,000 square feet of contemporary stained glass from France. Columns are plentiful throughout the basilica but are not uniform in style; the smaller columns are there for structural reasons, while the bigger ones are decoration and contain elevators and pipes for rainwater. There is enough space to seat 7,000 people inside the dome, with standing room for an additional 11,000 people. Apart from the basilica there are two identical buildings, serving as a rectory and private papal villa, respectively. The villa is reserved for papal visits, of which only one has occurred: when the basilica was consecrated  by Pope John Paul II on September 10, 1990.

Rather than place the monument in the country’s metropolitan center, Abidijan, Côte d'Ivoire President Félix Houphouët-Boigny chose his birthplace of Yamoussoukro to be the site of the church. As construction was nearly completed, the president commissioned a stained glass window of his image to be placed beside a gallery of stained glass of Jesus and the apostles. This image depicts him as one of the three Biblical Magi, kneeling as he offers a gift to Jesus.

The basilica has been met with global controversy since its conception. The lavishly built basilica sits in the middle of the African bush in an impoverished town where only a small number of homes have running water and adequate sanitation. The cost of the basilica doubled the national debt of Côte d'Ivoire, which overtime, would lead the country down a path toward political violence and social unrest.