Economist, Sept 7, 2013 (I)

choi

(1) Lexington | Farming as Rocket Science; Why American agriculture is different from the European variety
http://www.economist.com/news/un ... ming-rocket-science
  
Note:
(a) Economist "newspaper"--that is what Economist identifies itsel--names the column of each section after a person or a thing noted in that category. So,
"Lexinton" (as in Cord and Lexington in American Revolution) for "United States,"
"Banyan" for "Asia,"
"Schumpeter" for "Business," "
"buttonwood" for "Finance,"
and so on.
(b) "For many, the name [4-H] conjures up a single image: a farmer’s child at a country fair, clad in best blue jeans and cowboy boots, gravely leading livestock round a show-ring."
(i) 4-H
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-H
(a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); Headquarters Washington DC; Formation  circa 1902: AB Graham started one of the youth programs in Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, which is also considered one of the births of the 4-H program in the United States)
(ii) Kathleen O'Keefe, 2008 Hokkaido Holstein National Show--Heifer Class Result. Holsteinworld, Sept 27, 2008
www.allbreedsblog.com/2008/09/27 ... ifer-class-results/
(photo 2 displayed "show ring")

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Kennel_Club_Dog_Show
also uses "show ring" format.

(c) Nebraska State Fair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_State_Fair
("The first state fair was a territorial fair held Sept 21–23 in 1859 in Nebraska City. The next fair was held in Nebraska City on Oct 7–9, 1868; this was the first fair held after Nebraska became a state")
(i) Nebraska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska
(Its state capital is Lincoln. Its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River;"  "Ethnically, the largest group of Nebraskans are German-American. The state also has the largest per capita population of Czech-Americans among US states;" section 1 Etymology)
(ii) Grand Island, Nebraska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Island,_Nebraska

There was an island called Grand Island. Union Pacific Railroad built a town "located slightly inland from the island" (US government gave railroad companies land along the tracks as an incensitive to build rail). The town of Grand Island became City of that name.
(iii) Nebraska City, Nebraska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_City,_Nebraska
(the oldest incorporated city in the state (in 1855))
"your columnist frankly coveted a Perspex-fronted squirrel-feeding maze"

(d) "Becca Laub, 16, outlined her plans for a tomato- and fish-farming enterprise and her ambitions to study engineering."

Becca is short for Rebecca.
(e) "Rivals in other lands have sniffy theories about why America, a rich country, is so good at producing cheap food. They paint American farmers as pawns of giant agri-corporations, bullied by market forces to produce genetically modified Frankenfoods. Lexington has not forgotten the face pulled by a French agriculture minister"
(i) sniffy (adj; First Known Use 1871):
"having or expressing a haughty attitude : DISTAINFUL; SUPERCILIOUS"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sniffy
(ii) pull (vt): "PUT ON, ASSUME <pull a grin>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pull

(f) "Luxemburgish pioneers"

Luxembourg
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Luxembourg
(section 1.3 Alternative form: Luxemburg; section 1.4.1 Derived terms: Luxembourger; Luxembourgian; Luxembourgish)

Each "derived term" can be spelled alternatively, by dropping the "o."
(g) University of Nebraska-Lincoln
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni ... ska%E2%80%93Lincoln
(Established 1869)

choi

(2) China at the liberation | The Road to Serfdom; A new history lays bare the violent heart of Mao’s revolution.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... lution-road-serfdom
(book review on Frank Dikotter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-57. Bloomsbury, 2013)

Quote:

"Frank Dikotter, a Dutch-born historian at the University of Hong Kong, destroys this illusion in his new book, 'The Tragedy of Liberation.' With a mixture of passion and ruthlessness, he marshals the facts, many of them recently unearthed in party archives. Out of these, Mr Dikotter constructs a devastating case for how extreme violence, not a moral mandate, was at the heart of how the party got to power, and of how it then governed.

"So when Mao’s peasant-soldiers marched into Beijing and Shanghai, fear and resignation as much as hope were the predominant emotions. There was also mutual bewilderment. Townsfolk stared at these tough bumpkins, most of whom had never seen sophistication before.

"Children were not spared. By the end of 1952 up to 2m Chinese had been murdered. * * * The total number of deaths will never be known.

"The population in the 'reform through labour' camps quickly reached about 2m.

Note:
(a) "the junker class which the Communists attacked happened not to exist"

(i) German-English dictionary:
(A) junker (noun masculine): "(historical) (country) squire"
(B) jung (adj): "young"
(C) herr (noun masculine): "lord; gentleman"

The "j" in German is pronounced like "y" in English.
(ii) junker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junker
(Junker is derived from Middle High German Juncherre, meaning "young nobleman" or otherwise "young lord" (derivation of jung and Herr))
(b) Frank Dikotter, Mao’s Great Famine; The history of China's most devasting catastrophe 1958-1962. Bloomsbury, 2011.