A book about what we eat with a global history of food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Via interlibrary loan from the Twin Falls Public Library I got a 344-page 2025 book by Pierre Singaravelou and Sylvain Venayre (editors) titled What We Eat: A global history of food. There are 88 brief un-numbered chapters with the following titles, which I have been skimming:

 

Acheke, Bagels, Baguette, Banh Mi, Barbecue, Beer, Beet Sugar, Cassoulet, Caviar, Ceviche, Champagne, Charcuterie, Chicory, Chile con Carne, Chili Pepper, Chorba, Christmas Pudding, Coca-Cola, Coffee, Condensed Milk (Sweetened), Cornflakes, Couscous, Curry, Dafina, Dim Sum, Dogmeat, Doner Kebab, Feijoada, Fish and Chips, Fish Sauce (Nuoc Mam), Food Coloring and Preservatives, Freeze-Dried Foods, French Fries, Gin, Guacamole, Hamburger, Harissa, Hedgehog Stew, Hot Dogs, Hummus, Ice Cubes, Indomie, Injera, Ketchup, Lato, Maki, Margarine, Mate, Matzah, Mayonnaise, Naan, Noodles and Macaroni, Olive Oil, Orangina, Oyster, Palm Oil, Parmesan Cheese, Pepper, Pet Food and Treats, Pho, Pizza, Poke, Port Wine, Raki, Ramen, Rooibos, Roquefort, Rum, Sake, Salt, Sandwich, Sardines (Canned), Singapore Noodles, Soy Sauce, Spam. Sparkling Water, Suhi, Tapioca, Tea and Chai, Tikka, Tofu, Turkish Delight, Vanilla and Vanillan, Vodka, Whiskey, Wine, Yak Butter, and Yogurt.

 

It really should have been subtitled A Global History of Food and Drink, since there are 18 chapters about beverages.

 

This book is a good starting point for doing a speech about a food or foods, possibly including a demonstration. But not all the information in it is correct. The chapter on ramen has a paragraph on page 253 which claims that:

 

“A few years after the end of the American occupation, an invention enabled the dish to conquer households: freeze-dried ramen, launched by entrepreneur Ando Momofuku in 1958, who based his marketing on the official recommendations of the Ministry of Health. The Japanese were not eating enough wheat or meat, they argued. Momofuku’s first freeze-dried noodles, Nisshin Chikin Ramen, with their chicken broth, effectively compensated for all these shortcomings at a reasonable price.”

 

Noodle blocks in that ramen really were deep-fried, not freeze-dried. See the Wikipedia pages on Instant noodles and Ramen.

 

The food cartoon came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

A pie cartogram is less useful than a pie chart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am not a fan of pie charts. But there is an even less useful one called a pie cartogram, as shown above. For a pie chart each wedge has a cut beginning at the center of the circle and extending to the rim. The cartogram removes that requirement so comparisons cannot be easily made via angles. All we have is areas.

 

Pie cartograms are described by eric at Stories & Stats on August 18, 2023 in an article titled Pie cartograms. An article at TYWKIWDBI on August 10, 2024 titled How do you slice a pie… chart? has another example.

 

 

I think that a bar chart, as shown above, is better for comparisons than a pie chart.

An xkcd cartoon shows a hilariously overloaded flag design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Randall Munroe’s xkcd comic for May 25, 2026 (which I colorized to yellow) has an awful flag design. Apparently all dozen ideas from the flag design committee were included. The worst is the bottom fringes that remind me of a for sale notice thumbtacked to an office bulletin board. The flag is analyzed at Explain xkcd. 

 

On May 14, 2016 I blogged about how Looking at flag design will change how you make PowerPoint slides. And on September 23, 2017 I posted about an example - A new, simpler, better flag for the city of Pocatello, Idaho. On June 30, 2020 I blogged about how Mississippi is going to change its state flag.

 

 

Images generated by artificial intelligence tools may be inaccurate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a post by Dan Russell on his SearchReSearch blog for April 22, 2026 titled SearchResearch (4/23/26): AI image gen tools are great, as long as you don’t ask for accuracy. One of his examples is an electric kettle. Two images are shown, one from ChatGPT and another from Gemini. Both are missing the important bimetallic thermostat that cuts off the current when the water boils.

 

An 11-minute explanatory YouTube video by Quasar-Ed from November 4, 2024 is titled The Engineering behind Electric Kettles.

 

An image of a boiling kettle came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

How to write a five-star commencement speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 26, 2026 I blogged about how On May 2nd actor Hugh Jackman gave the commencement speech at Ball State University. When I was looking up the YouTube video for his speech to put in that post, I found a five-minute video from the Obama Foundation on May 21, 2026 titled How to write the perfect commencement speech. It has seven top tips from his presidential speechwriters:

 

Match the energy of the day!

Know your audience

Say something only you can say

Pick one big idea

Honor your audience’s accomplishment

Tell the truth

And (no surprise!) End With Hope

 

But I believe a perfect speech is an asymptote – a limit that can be approached but not quite reached. On February 20, 2011 I blogged about Effort and an asymptote.

 

The cartoon was assembled from a podium and star at OpenClipArt, and a speaker modified from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

On May 2nd actor Hugh Jackman gave the commencement speech at Ball State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Katherine Hill in the Ball State Daily News on May 2, 2026 titled ‘You are living your own life; no one can take that away from you’: Hugh Jackman addresses Ball State graduates. Another article by Ella Chakarian in Fast Company on May 4, 2026 is titled Hugh Jackman tells new grads the most ‘painful lesson’ he’s learned. She presented some quotes:

 

“ ‘My life has not gone the way I thought it would,’ Jackman said. ‘A lot of the best things that have ever happened to me have been mistakes or failures or random classes I joined to get me across the finish line.’

 At the end of his speech, Jackman told the graduating class to ‘throw away perfect’ and to ‘embrace that even the mistakes may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us.’

 ‘Our minds, our brains, they want a plan,’ he said. ‘They have all sorts of good reasons to follow a path because it makes sense. But if we’re listening, if we open our hearts, that voice inside is trying to show us something a little more magical, a little more mysterious [and] surprising.’ “ 

You can watch the entire 19-minute speech posted at C-SPAN on May 3, 2026 and titled Hugh Jackman Commencement Address.

 

A cartoon of Mr. Jackman as The Wolverine came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

The Spanish Agency for Medicine and Medicine Products issued a report on Homeopathy and Homeopathic Products which said homeopathy was ineffective

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Homeopathy has been touted for treating fear of public speaking or stage fright. On April 13, 2024 I blogged about An extremely peculiar homeopathic remedy for stage fright.

 

There is an article by Edzard Ernst on April 22, 2026 titled “Homeopathy and Homeopathic Products: Evaluation of Evidence on Their Efficacy and Safety” by the Spanish Agency for Medicine and Medicine Products. He described the Spanish language content of that report as follows:

 

“The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Medical Products (AEMPS) has just published a comprehensive technical report entitled “Homeopathy and Homeopathic Products: Evaluation of Evidence on Their Efficacy and Safety,” which categorically concludes that there is no scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of homeopathy as a therapeutic tool. After a systematic review of scientific literature and evaluations by state agencies internationally, the report states that the observed effects are comparable to placebo.

The report, which analyzed 64 systematic reviews published since 2009, highlights that most studies suggesting benefits from homeopathy have low methodological quality, often invalidated by small samples, short follow-up periods, or biases in randomization. Furthermore, it notes that as the quality and rigor of clinical trials increase, the supposed effect of homeopathy diminishes until it disappears entirely.”

That conclusion of ineffectiveness is not new. On January 6, 2016 I blogged about how According to Consumer Reports, homeopathy is an emperor with no clothes.

The sugar pills were cropped and flipped from this image at Wikimedia Commons.