The Japanese are great at inventing complex systems of rules, and not so great at explaining those rules to foreign visitors. Charles C. Mann More Quotes by Charles C. Mann More Quotes From Charles C. Mann In 1491 the Inka ruled the greatest empire on earth. Bigger than Ming Dynasty China, bigger than Ivan the Great’s expanding Russia, bigger than Songhay in the Sahel or powerful Great Zimbabwe in the West Africa tablelands, bigger than the cresting Ottoman Empire, bigger than the Triple Alliance (as the Aztec empire is more precisely known), bigger by far than any European state, the Inka dominion extended over a staggering thirty-two degrees of latitude—as if a single power held sway from St. Petersburg to Cairo. Charles C. Mann aztec russia powerful A world with a sudden limit on air travel would be tremendously different from the one we live in now. Charles C. Mann different would-be air The embrace of a new technology by ordinary people leads inevitably to its embrace by people of malign intent. Charles C. Mann technology ordinary people Major power and telephone grids have long been controlled by computer networks, but now similar systems are embedded in such mundane objects as electric meters, alarm clocks, home refrigerators and thermostats, video cameras, bathroom scales, and Christmas-tree lights - all of which are, or soon will be, accessible remotely. Charles C. Mann light home long The human propensity is to believe that flukes of good fortune will never come to an end. Charles C. Mann flukes ends believe Compared with U.S. cities, Japanese cities bend over backward to help foreigners. The countryside is another matter. Charles C. Mann cities matter helping The way I think of it, economics and ecology occupy two intellectual silos, isolated from each other. Even when they do take each other into consideration, it's not uncommon for ecologists to spout absolute nonsense about economics, and vice versa. Charles C. Mann intellectual two thinking Scientists have established huge numbers of links between particular diseases and snippets of DNA, but in the great majority of cases, this has not yet been translated into treatments that can help cure patients. These treatments will come - tomorrow, or the day after. Charles C. Mann dna links numbers Historically, large-scale global trade has served two functions: 1) the exchange of goods between willing sellers and buyers described in Econ 101 textbooks; 2) as a tool of state aggrandizement, in which the private parties are stand-ins for governmental interests. Charles C. Mann textbooks party two A whole bunch of big technological shocks occurred when Asian innovations - paper, gunpowder, the stirrup, the moldboard plow and so on - came to Europe via the Silk Road. Charles C. Mann innovation paper europe The Japanese drive on the left side of the road. Most streets literally do not have names. Charles C. Mann streets names sides Smartphones can relay patients' data to hospital computers in a continuous stream. Doctors can alter treatment regimens remotely, instead of making patients come in for a visit. Charles C. Mann smartphones doctors data Japanese maps tend to come in two varieties: small, schematic, and bewildering; and large, fantastically detailed, and bewildering. Charles C. Mann maps variety two A smartphone links patients' bodies and doctors' computers, which in turn are connected to the Internet, which in turn is connected to any smartphone anywhere. The new devices could put the management of an individual's internal organs in the hands of every hacker, online scammer, and digital vandal on Earth. Charles C. Mann smartphones doctors hands Seoul and Shanghai, Jaipur and Jakarta; shining skyscrapers, pricey hotels, traffic-jammed streets ablaze with neon - all were built atop a foundation of laboratory-bred rice. Charles C. Mann skyscrapers rice streets foundation The legal fight over climate change begins in the United States with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977. Under the Act, the E.P.A. is required to publish a list of 'stationary sources' of air pollution, of which the most important are power plants. Charles C. Mann fight climate-change change power Farmers can't plant much more land because almost every accessible acre of arable soil is already in use. Nor can the use of fertilizer be increased: it is already being overused everywhere except some parts of Africa, and the runoff is polluting rivers, lakes, and oceans. Charles C. Mann africa being farmers plant There are several types of greenhouse gasses, but carbon dioxide is the most important. Charles C. Mann the-most-important carbon important Cash-strapped cities in nations from Argentina to Albania have begun to turn over their municipal water systems to Big Water, often under lease arrangements that can continue in force for decades. Charles C. Mann turn big force water So many wells have been dug in Changzhou that its groundwater has been over-exploited, and the local ground level has sunk by two feet. The city has officially banned new wells and mandated the installation of pollution controls, but China's endemic corruption ensures that neither measure has much meaning. Charles C. Mann city pollution corruption feet
