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Jim's Quote of the Day:
"The technologies which have had the most profound effects on
human life are usually simple. A good example of a simple technology
with profound historical consequences is hay. Nobody knows who invented
hay, the idea of cutting grass in the autumn and storing it in large
enough quantities to keep horses and cows alive through the winter.
All we know is that the technology of hay was unknown to the Roman
Empire but was known to every village of medieval Europe. Like many
other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during
the so-called Dark Ages. According to the Hay Theory of History, the
invention of hay was the decisive event which moved the center of gravity
of urban civilization from the Mediterranean basin to Northern and
Western Europe. The Roman Empire did not need hay because in a Mediterranean
climate the grass grows well enough in winter for animals to graze.
North of the Alps, great cities dependent on horses and oxen for motive
power could not exist without hay. So it was hay that allowed populations
to grow and civilizations to flourish among the forests of Northern
Europe. Hay moved the greatness of Rome to Paris and London, and later
to Berlin and Moscow and New York." - Freeman
Dyson, Infinite in All Directions (1988)
