Agricultural Digest
The most important and undersung word in the English language today and maybe for the rest of the year is going to be, fertilizer. Fertilizer, fertilizer, fertilizer…
In a meta-analysis conducted in 2022 by the journal Global Food Security, researcher Guopeng Liang of Utah State University concluded that fertilizer, especially nitrogen-based fertilizer, is responsible for a 62-percent increase in cereal yields. He also found that the long-term use of fertilizers contributed to the stability of yields, not just increases; meaning that in order to protect global cereal supplies, long-term use is advisable. As such, we may be in for a rough go in the coming months and years because fertilizer prices are climbing — and are likely to go vertical as the world reacts to the crisis in Iran.
As of the last week of March, many of the major fertilizer groups were up in price month …
No More Fun
Six Flags America became a relic of an all-too-recent age when we all rode rollercoasters while being indoctrinated into a Disney-like version of a common past.
The DC suburbs are now home to an astounding share of our national wealth, thanks in part to Osama bin Laden and the taxpayer-funded paranoia industry he helped to create.
A pestilence of lanternflies.
The decay of the Six Flags America theme park outside Washington, DC, is a painful reminder that America itself may only be a passing moment on the billion-year scale of geologic time. Superman: Ride of Steel is now in danger of being melted into industrial sludge, perhaps to be repurposed as the siding of an Amazon fulfilment center. While the statue of Daffy Duck in a tricorner hat that crowned the fake Independence Hall next to the fake Liberty Bell — discordantly Philly-located landmarks — will be lucky to decorate the lawn of some wealthy Americana enthusiast, to me it’s a no-brainer that The Wild One, until recently the oldest operating rollercoaster in the United States, should be relocated to the National Mall. But this is the dream of a child. The Wild One will be sawdust soon; there is no fantasy that can rescue it, and probably us, from the junkyard.
In the spring of 2025, the …
America by the Numbers
15,400,000,000 — American spending on sports tickets in 2023 (in USD)
16,400,000,000 — American spending on Ticketmaster fees in 2025 (in USD)
109,000,000,000 — American spending last year on lottery tickets in 2025 (in USD)
9.4 — Percentage decrease of visitors to Las Vegas since 2019
1300 — Percentage increase in online sports betting in the US since 2019
12,500,000,000 — Disposable face masks sold globally in 2019
124,000,000,000 — Disposable face masks sold globally in 2025
170,000,000 — Value of a “monster jade rock” discovered in Myanmar during 2016 (in USD)
71,200,000 — Price of the CTF Pink Star, the most …
