I was walking to a meeting, wearing a suit, in downtown DC on Monday morning, when (dripping in sweat) I formulated a theory of what really caused the impending collapse of the Republic: the invention of air conditioning. Today, Dan Miller has similar thoughts. On the other hand, perhaps power seekers aren’t hedonistic enough to mind. On the gripping hand, you wouldn’t know it from their salaries and perks.
11 thoughts on “Let Them Sweat”
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Thank you for introducing me to the phrase “on the gripping hand”!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_gripping_hand_%28idiom%29
Hey, I’ve said for years that the worst mistake in US history was letting Congress have air conditioning.
That’s a pretty unfortunate way to be introduced to the phrase; instead of reading one of the best SF novels ever, you got to read a wiki page with spoilers for that novel.
OTOH, don’t forget that having the government gone in August allowed such questionable adventures as the Spanish-American War to get started (by then Assistant Sec of Navy Theodore Roosevelt), who was left (like a teenager with the house, the car keys and a credit card ‘for emergencies’ with the Dept of the Navy…
I didn’t read any spoilers apart from the fact that the gripping hand is a major plot element. Is this as bad as “Darth Vader = …’s father”?
Effective suppression of malaria along with air conditioning. Employment in the District used to come with a complimentary case of malaria.
No, MPM, sounds like you’re fine then. The plot element you paraphrased isn’t a spoiler, and applies to the relatively-mediocre sequel anyway. The spoilers for both books were stuck in a footnote where you might have missed them… and they’re not obviously spoilers out-of-context, so even if you read them you might forget them before getting around to reading the book.
Rev. Sensing had a short piece on this last month, complete with graphs: http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2010/07/stop-using-air-conditioning-washington.html
What keeps us malaria-dengue-yellow fever-(mostly) West Nile free?
We have mosquitos like no one’s business here in Wisconsin (the Official State Bird). Is it the species of mosquito? Are we resting on the laurels of having used DDT to get rid of the malaria mosquito, and it could come back?
Having grown up in the South, I was always aware of what a crucial role air conditioning played in its ascendancy.
> What keeps us malaria-dengue-yellow fever-(mostly) West Nile free?
Malaria needs three things: lots of the right kind of mosquitoes; lots of humans; and high transmission rates.
The mosquitoes that spread malaria feed at night, so screened windows or bed nets really cut down the transmission rate, no matter how much you get bitten during the day. Also, healthy well-fed people fight off the initial infection better, which also reduces the transmission rate. Identifying infected people and taking extra anti-mosquito precautions with them is another step.
Malaria was eliminated in Northern states like Wisconsin before DDT, so you don’t have to worry about that. Just maintain the screens on your windows and don’t starve yourself.