How YouTube is Like a Potato
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Potatoes are native to the Americas. In fact, there are over 3000 varieties in the SouthAmerican Andes alone. Now in the 1600s and 1700s, European explorerstook potatoes back to Europe where they were cultivated and they quickly became a dietarystaple, especially in Ireland. There the farmers found that on their small plots of land, potatoesgave larger and more reliable yields than grains. And pretty soon the average Irishpeasant was eating between eight and 14 pounds of potatoes per day, from which they derivedabout 80 percent of their daily caloric intake. These nutritious potatoes helped reduce infantmortality and led to a population explosion in Ireland. The population actually doubledfrom four million to eight million between 1780 and 1840.So potatoes supported a w...
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Potatoes are native to the Americas. In fact, there are over 3000 varieties in the SouthAmerican Andes alone. Now in the 1600s and 1700s, European explorerstook potatoes back to Europe where they were cultivated and they quickly became a dietarystaple, especially in Ireland. There the farmers found that on their small plots of land, potatoesgave larger and more reliable yields than grains. And pretty soon the average Irishpeasant was eating between eight and 14 pounds of potatoes per day, from which they derivedabout 80 percent of their daily caloric intake. These nutritious potatoes helped reduce infantmortality and led to a population explosion in Ireland. The population actually doubledfrom four million to eight million between 1780 and 1840.So potatoes supported a w...
