[r9etb]

"U.S. scientists" could have read the National Geographic article that surmises the EXACT same thing...15 yrs. ago.

I'm quite sure these scientists already knew more than NG or your Nan, even when they started. What's different from NG's "surmise," or your long-dead Nan's story, is that these scientists actually identified which fungus was responsible -- not a useless venture at all.

[ishabibble]

True. However, I don't think starving people split hairs. It is all very interesting in hindsight, but the Irish of the long ago past only knew genocide and famine. The name was "Irish Famine", but in truth, it was genocide.

Science will be invaluable if they can collect all the data and all the progress, and the result is that it never happens to any culture ever again.

To my dear old Nan, hunger, deprivation, starvation, famine, genocide only had one name...The British. That is why I ask Our Lord God to bless the United States every day, Nan was a grand old dame but she carried such a hatred inside of her that frightened me, even as a young girl. War is one thing, the methodical starvation of an entire population is quite another...