Start writing the jokes:
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Bird Poop Imperialism: The Guano Islands Act
On 1856-08-18, U.S. president Franklin Pierce signed into law the Guano Islands Act, which remains in effect today, codified as 48 U.S. Code § 1411–1419 - Guano districts; claim by United States. The first section (§ 1411) provides:
Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States.
- 1856: Guano Islands Act becomes law
- 1903: 66 islands claimed under the Act have become U.S. territories
- 1997: Most recent claim under the Act, Navassa Island (denied because court decided the island, disputed with Haiti, was already under U.S. control)
- 2022: Ten islands claimed under the Act remain U.S. territories, including Johnston Atoll and Midway Atoll
- 2036: Elon Musk sets foot on Mars. His first words are, “Hey look, there’s bird poop all over the ground here!”
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This was all pre-Haber/Bosch. Until its invention, guano was extremely valuable for fertilizer production.
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Guano (particularly bat guano, harvested from caves) was also a principal source of potassium nitrate (KNO₃, saltpetre) one of the ingredients in gunpowder, and hence was a strategic material in the age of black powder weapons.
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Bat guano can also be farmed:
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This story is batty.
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Vicious circles. Sometimes the best thing is to double down on them to flush out the nonsense and get to a new beginning.
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“[R]eal money”… heh.
The cent’s composition was changed in 1982 because the value of the copper in the coin started to rise above one cent. Some 1982 cents used the 97.5% zinc composition, while others used the 95% copper composition. With the exception of 2009 bicentennial cents minted specifically for collectors, United States cents minted after 1982 have been zinc with copper plating. The bronze and copper cents can be distinguished from the newer zinc cents by dropping the coins on a solid surface, or by flipping them in the air with your thumb. The predominantly zinc coins make a lower-pitched “clunk” when hitting the surface, and make no sound when flipped in the air; while the copper coins produce a higher-pitched ringing sound. In addition, a full 50-cent roll of pre-1982/3 coins weighs 5.4 oz (150 g) compared to a post-1982–83 roll which weighs 4.4 oz (120 g).
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When I cleaned out the coins from my car, several of the zinc pennies had had their entire copper coating corrode off.
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Rolling Stone decides political protest songs are bad.
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The New York Times story is behind a paywall. Here is the story from the BBC.
A little after midnight on 27 June, Roman Ebimene Friday gathered up the food he had been collecting for a few months and set out in the dark for the large commercial port in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. Earlier that day, Friday had spotted a 620-foot (190m) tanker docked at the port and decided that it would be the ship to deliver him to Europe.
Friday was aiming for the tanker’s rudder - the only accessible point on its massive hull for a person who isn’t supposed to be aboard. There was no way to bridge the gap from the dock to the rudder, other than convince a fisherman to ferry him across. “He was a holy man, that fisherman,” Friday recalled. “He did not ask for money. He could see that I wanted to leave.”
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Perched next to Friday on the rudder of the tanker was Thankgod Opemipo Matthew Yeye, a Pentecostal minister, businessman and father of two whose peanut and palm oil farm had washed away in the devastating floods that hit Nigeria last year. There had been no fallback or insurance to cover the loss.
“My business was destroyed and my family became homeless. And that was the genesis of my decision to leave,” he said.
Yeye’s decision became final after the recent presidential election, which was marred by anomalies and allegations of vote rigging. “The election had been our hope,” he said. “But we know Nigeria well, we know the system is corrupt.” So, without telling his family, he left his sister’s home at night and set out for the port, where he knew the [ship] Ken Wave was waiting to depart.
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