The subtitle for this book should be "How Science Works" & this is the perfect topic since there are conflicting reports on what is good & bad for me.The subtitle for this book should be "How Science Works" & this is the perfect topic since there are conflicting reports on what is good & bad for me. Often they're the same thing, such as coffee. How can this be? It's complicated, but Zaidan makes sense of it & explains the scientific process behind the headlines including what many of the numbers mean. He does so with a common sense approach in modern, common language that is often somewhat vulgar & comedic. It was refreshing & completely understandable.
Nutritional epidemiology or food science generates a lot of headlines & they're as accurate as most; that is to say 'not very'. Headlines are written to sell copy & expose us to advertisers, bloggers, & pundits who try to sell us more stuff, often snake oil. Fad diets abound & human studies are usually inherently flawed simply because controlling all factors by locking people up for decades isn't allowed. The numbers generated are given as absolutes when they should be a range & are stated for the greatest shock value. For example, a 14% difference in life expectancy probably equates to about a year in the average life span not a decade. How the heck does that work? Zaidan explains simply & clearly.
I found the arguments over the accuracy of studies of particular interest. As he says, it is a deep rabbit hole full of confusing twists & turns. He hits the high points of one & shows the beauty of the scientific method at the same time. He shows how it takes a number of studies to make one brick in the Bridge of Truth. This evens out the bumps formed by all the studies over the years that 'prove' coffee is good/bad for me. No, we still don't know. It's complicated. He's listed all of his sources on his web site here: https://www.ingredientsthebook.com/so...
Very well narrated. While he often references the PDF, I didn't find in necessary, just nice occasionally. Highly recommended for all, especially if you're one of those people that gets excited by food headlines.
The table of contents probably isn't too helpful since it's tongue-in-cheek, but I'll include it anyway. If nothing else, it mentions some of the topics which might be of interest.
Table of Contents PART I: WHY DOES THIS STUFF EVEN EXIST? Chapter One: Processed Food Is Bad for You, Right? Chapter Two: Plants Are Trying to Kill You Chapter Three: Microbes Are Trying to Eat Your Food PART II: HOW BAD IS BAD? Chapter Four: The Smoking Gun, or What Certainty Looks Like Chapter Five: Sunburnt to a Crisp, or What Less Certainty Looks Like PART III: SHOULD YOU EAT THAT CHEETO OR NOT? Chapter Six: Is Coffee the Elixir of Life or the Blood of the Devil? Chapter Seven: Associations, or the Grapes of Math Chapter Eight: What’s That Public Pool Smell Made Of? Chapter Nine: You’re Late for a Very Important Date Chapter Ten: So What Do I Do? Epilogue Appendix: Does Prayer Reduce the Risk of Death?...more
Just how much of our materials & goods are transported by ship crewed by so few people is incredible. The laxness of laws regarding the ships & their Just how much of our materials & goods are transported by ship crewed by so few people is incredible. The laxness of laws regarding the ships & their crews are, too. I had no idea that Mongolia, a landlocked country, had such a large merchant fleet - on paper, at any rate. Known as 'flags of convenience', ships can & are owned by shell companies & registered in all sorts of odd places to avoid regulations & taxes.
The economics of container ships is incredibly tight. They cost tens of thousands dollars to operate per day so changes in the market can make or break an entire shipping line. Maintenance is constant & difficult with crews pared down to the bare minimum. Near ports, crews are often required to work around the clock for days at a time & yet they're fed on as little as $7/day for months on end. Fuel is expensive, so the cheapest & most polluting is used. Their environmental impact, especially on whales, is horrendous. IOW, she paints a very grim picture.
I noticed that the worst figures were usually given as plain numbers, not percentages for the emotional impact, though. IMO, this is a cheap shot. Big numbers overwhelm, but often turn out not to be nearly as bad when looked at as an overall percentage. I looked up a few & that did indeed turn out to be the case, although hard numbers are very difficult to come by. The high seas don't encourage reporting.
I also know a couple of people familiar with the trade. One worked these ships for several decades usually under the US flag & another was a tugboat captain for almost 50 years. Both agreed that the stories were probably true, but thought they were the worst, not the norm. Both also admitted that things were getting worse as the years went by, so there is definitely an ugly side & it might be as prevalent now as George makes out.
Well worth reading especially in light of the Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez Canal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Su... It puts quite a different light on the responsibility for the accident & puts just how badly the interrupted passage was for world trade. Well narrated & definitely recommended....more
This isn't meant to be an audiobook, but a large format hardback since it's filled with gorgeous pictures & it would certainly be worth reading that wThis isn't meant to be an audiobook, but a large format hardback since it's filled with gorgeous pictures & it would certainly be worth reading that way. The narration I listened to was good, but obviously just the captions from those pictures & the text in between. Not enough. Abandoned. ...more
I started to write a bit about each story, but it was too difficult to do without spoilers. I'll just say they were good, one of the better collectionI started to write a bit about each story, but it was too difficult to do without spoilers. I'll just say they were good, one of the better collections, & the narrators were all very good. This celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Mystery Writers of America, so it's pretty close to perfect. Muller & Pronzini did a great job. Highly recommended.
A standout story was "The Anniversary Gift" by Jeffery Deaver. Not that it was much better than the others, but I generally don't care for his style & I really liked this one. Ditto for the Lee Child story since he didn't try to describe guns, their use, nor any injuries. (These are subjects he's apparently researched only in comic books.) He stuck to people & managed a good, thoughtful one. "Case Open" by Carolyn Hart was the story I liked the least. The setup wasn't bad, but the end fizzled unlike the other stories which had good twists.
Table of Contents Introduction
"If You Want Something Done Right. . ." by Sue Grafton "Ten Years On" by Laurie R. King "Normal in Every Way" by Lee Child "The Replacement" by Margaret Maron "Chin Yong-Yun Sets the Date" by S. J. Rozan "Amazing Grace" by Max Allan Collins
"Recipe: Lemon Layer Cake" I guess this is Grace's recipe from the story above.
"Ten Years, Two Days, Six Hours" by Wendy Hornsby "The Anniversary Gift" by Jeffery Deaver "The Last Dive Bar" by Bill Pronzini "Case Open" by Carolyn Hart "The Bitter Truth" by Peter Lovesey "Unknown Caller" by Meg Gardiner "April 13" by Marcia Muller "Whodat Heist" by Julie Smith "Blue Moon" by William Kent Krueger "Aqua Vita" by Peter Robinson "The Last Hibakusha" by Naomi Hirahara "30 and Out" by Doug Allyn "The Fixer" by Alison Gaylin and Laura Lippman ...more
Not what I expected from the blurb. It delves deeper into the how we perceive color than I expected. Sure, I wanted to know the mechanics, but not theNot what I expected from the blurb. It delves deeper into the how we perceive color than I expected. Sure, I wanted to know the mechanics, but not the names of the many genes that give them to a biological structure. That was too much & just confused the issue for me. The explanations of the differences between RGB & CMYK were more technical & confusing than they needed to be, too. The variability in color vision in animals wasn't explored very well, either. I knew a bit more in some cases from other reading & was hoping to learn more, but this often stopped well short.
Well narrated, but I almost quit a few times due to lack of interest. I can't recommend this to anyone, not because it was bad. It's not, but it's awkward. Doesn't really fit into an interest niche that I can think of. It's too detailed for the layman & not enough for the professional....more
...much of Goulson’s evidence is purely anecdotal — such as fewer bugs splattering on the windshields of European cars now compared to the past — and the few studies of global insect populations he does consider are deeply flawed or mischaracterized in his account.
Perhaps the most problematic study of them all is the one that precipitated the insect apocalypse frenzy — a 2017 study co-authored by Goulson with 11 other scientists that compared insect populations in certain German nature reserves over the last quarter century. Its dramatic finding — that the biomass of flying insects had declined an astonishing 76 percent in 27 years — together with Goulson’s eager goosing of the press — generated the apocalyptic headlines he was clearly seeking....
Experts who raised doubts about the study received little attention, but there was much to criticize. Among other things, the researchers in many cases failed to sample the same sites in comparison years — a fundamental flaw that in itself renders the findings suspect, if not totally meaningless. They also used what are called malaise traps to collect their samples. These only collect insects when they are flying, which is highly influenced by other variables like the weather — insects fly more when it is warmer — making the measurements even less reliable, despite the scientists’ attempt to account for them. And even though the study took place in nature reserves and did not even purport to test possible causes of decline, Goulson was immediately giving interviews to the press blaming agricultural pesticides (a long time hobby-horse of his), in the absence of any evidence in the study to support the claim. --------------------------- Perspective: ‘Silent Earth’ is simply alarmism from an anti-pesticide trustee By Amanda Zaluckyj, The Farmer’s Daughter USA, Published: October 01, 2021 https://www.agdaily.com/insights/pers...
...But it won’t come as any surprise that Goulson isn’t an unbiased and impartial researcher. He’s a trustee for the Pesticide Action Network UK, an activist organization that strives to reduce the use of “hazardous” and “chemical” pest control. Worse, some circles consider Goulson a “scientist for hire.” In other words, his studies elicit the results his clients want.
The good news is that Goulson is wrong. The surveys and studies he’s conducted and relies upon are flawed and incomplete, to say the least. Fortunately, scientist Matthew Moran and his hand-selected team published a comprehensive study in 2020 that challenged Goulson’s conclusions. Moran’s approach took raw data spanning decades for various insects in North America. Guess what? They found no significant change in population... ----------------- Standard Disclaimer Look at what shelves this book is on. This book is on my 'do-not-read' shelf because it was shoved under my nose I thought I might want to read it. I did some research & found that it was crap. If you disagree & want to discuss in the comments, you need to prove that it isn't with solid evidence. That means peer reviewed science, not anecdotes, opinions, or sites that are biased. Read the Debunking Handbook which is available for free here & follow its guidelines for providing proof. I'm willing to look at good evidence. I've been wrong before.
Comments that don't adhere to the above will be deleted. We're not going to change our minds if you just want to troll. If you repeatedly troll, your comment will be flagged & support will spank you. I may block you, too....more
This isn't just a list of seemingly crazy schemes, but a look at how & why they were considered & even funded to the tune of billions of dollars. HougThis isn't just a list of seemingly crazy schemes, but a look at how & why they were considered & even funded to the tune of billions of dollars. Houghton does a good job of describing the times, the people, & the problems they faced. Most of these happened during wartime, whether active or Cold, during a time of unprecedented technological growth, when both paranoia & hope abounded. That brings them into a more forgiving & different perspective, but some are still howlers. I wouldn't be surprised to see others recycled, though.
Sometimes the ideas were simply ahead of their time. "Acoustic Kitty" is the first chapter & good example. Most like cats & don't suspect them of being enemy spies. Technology had brought down the size of listening devices considerably & we were butt hurt by Soviet victories in the area, so the idea to implant one in a cat in the 1960s actually made it into a testing phase. I won't spoil the outcome, but since it made it into this book that should be obvious. Today though we're attaching bugs to bugs & implanting chips into pets, so I wouldn't be surprised if our top leaders don't have to have security clearances for theirs. My one issue with this book is that Houghton didn't mention this sort of possibility.
Other ideas led to some fascinating discoveries. Just how much & fast the ice sheets in Greenland move wasn't known until we'd poured far too much time & money into a project. Others would have been scrapped far sooner if someone had bothered to do a little math such as controlling hurricanes by nuking them since the energy contained in a hurricane is orders of magnitude greater than that of even the most powerful bombs. Oh yeah, some thought of the environment wouldn't have hurt, either. Houghton makes this clear, but also provides some mitigating insights. He also provides informative sidebars & histories of the people involved when it was applicable. That he couldn't provide some information because portions of these schemes are still classified is instructive.
Overall, a lot of fun, interesting, & well narrated. It's quick, too. Highly recommended.
CONTENTS Because some of the chapter names don't make much sense, I'll put a little explanation after those that need it.
Introduction: Left on the Drawing Board
Part I Adventures in the Animal Kingdom 1. Acoustic Kitty 2. Operation Capricious - goat poo as biological warfare 3. Project X-Ray - bats as pyromaniacs 4. Project Fantasia - glowing foxes as psychological warfare 5. Blue Peacock - nuclear landmines scattered about Europe
Part II Astonishing Operations 6. Operation Foxley - an umbrella name to cover schemes to kill Hitler 7. Operation Northwoods - kill Castro, somehow 8. Felix and His Rifle - ditto above 9. Project Seal - man-made tsunamis 10. Operation Monopoly - tunneling for a listening post 11. Operation House Party - a deceptive death ray
Part III Truly Extraordinary Technology 12. Project Habakkuk - an ice ship/fortress 13. Tagboard - jet/rockets & surveillance 14. The X-20 and the MOL - more of the same 15. Brilliant Pebbles - This chapter is singled out for "The Day After" (1983) starring Jason Robards, John Lithgow, Jo Beth Williams, Steve Guttenberg. I knew it scared the crap out of me, but apparently it also gave legs to Reagan's Star Wars program & Houghton does a great job explaining it all. 16. The Sun Gun - James Bond got it right
Part IV “Fun” with Nuclear Weapons 17. The Plowshare Program’s Strangest Idea - nuking hurricanes 18. Protecting the Peacekeeper - Keeping the missile safe 19. Project Iceworm - a village in Greenland's ice sheet 20. Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion and Project Orion - nukes as propellant 21. Project A119 - nuking the moon
Conclusion: And Then What? Summation; a good one but I don't think he took it far enough....more
Gear has an interesting premise using quantum entanglement to create parallel universes & time travel which is told through a group of military psychiGear has an interesting premise using quantum entanglement to create parallel universes & time travel which is told through a group of military psychiatric patients barely managed by their shrink. As several others put it, they were a group of misfits, but high caliber ones, the best in their lines of work. I guess it's not surprising that he jumped the shark at times, but I expect better from him. Still the caricatures rested on a solid foundation, so it was fun, just a bit more like an action comic book than anything else of Gear's that I've read.
I see several reviewers objected to the displayed male chauvinism. IMO, that's part of the armed services & was true to life, somewhat understated if anything. The boys were typical of the breed, somewhat over-sexed & cocky as hell. The girls gave as good as they got, though. Golf tees & penises. Shudder! Maybe it's more of a guy book.
Well narrated & a fun break from the nonfiction I've been reading, but not one of Gear's best. ...more
This is a subject I know a little about from our small flock & the hand craft perspective of knitting/crocheting yarn I've spun from fleece. That's juThis is a subject I know a little about from our small flock & the hand craft perspective of knitting/crocheting yarn I've spun from fleece. That's just enough to know how ignorant I am, especially about the commercial processes, so I really looked forward to this teaching me more. It's well narrated by the author, but it was an educational disappointment especially given the high rating it has. The overall journey of her "white bale" from sheep to finished yarn could have been really interesting if she'd actually done some research & used hard numbers. Instead she seemed to think total ignorance was the way to walk into new, complex situations. This was dumbed down because complex processes were often too much for "poor-little-old me" to handle which is ridiculous! She can't be as stupid as she makes out.
She constantly used vague terms like 'eco-friendly', 'organic', & 'natural'. I'm all for being 'eco-friendly' & she missed plenty of opportunities to show how being so is probably less expensive in terms of sewage & waste disposal if nothing else, but she never mentions this or why any of these are actually 'good' or even what the alternatives are. As she constantly points out, the wool industry has just about disappeared in this country & is in trouble around the world. I know this & we're on the same page when it comes to our love of wool, but economics is full of hard numbers that must be met or the business isn't sustainable.
There were no pictures, although she mentions taking them, so I had to search out pictures & further explanations of complicated equipment online. I couldn't even find them on her blog or web site which I'll list at the bottom of this review. Overall, this was a disappointment; a vapid day trip instead of a decent look at the industry.
Table of Contents Introduction: Girl Meets Bale: Interesting. A 676 pound bale of wool sounds like a lot to me since I can take years to spin & knit up a single fleece, but apparently it's an awkward amount; too big for hand & too small for commercial. Her solution is cool - crowd sourcing the financing & processing in 4 batches, but I was left with a lot of questions: Why 4 batches? About how many fleece in a bale? Why is the bale this weight/size?
CHAPTER 1 - Wool Harvest: I had as little to do with our 50 Dorset ewes as possible & Mom sold them off 25 years ago, so I don't know much yet I still found this chapter horribly lacking. She obviously doesn't know a thing about sheep or shearing & didn't bother to do any research before or after. Instead she relied on a single day visit to one farm & wasted space describing her feelings of ignorance & wonder. She barely describes the flock or farm.
She didn't mention that there are 3 basic types of sheep: fiber, meat, & dairy. In all types, half the lambs are male & are usually butchered. She does mention turning some of the lambs into sausage, but she fails to mention what that means in terms of time, labor, feeding, or why they aren't kept for wool in the fiber breed she is 'researching'. Since meat lambs are an Easter specialty, our breeding & thus lambing season varied. Mom set it with extra feed & letting loose the rams. (Sheep don't take well to artificial insemination.) That meant a partial shearing was needed if there was an early lambing. Parkes does mention some of the dangers of not shearing the teat & backside areas.
Parkes didn't describe anything about feeding or caring for the sheep beyond a vague story of their grazing. Nothing about birthing, a relatively short period (maybe a month) of little sleep punctuated by moments of terror when there is trouble. There's constant counting & scanning of the fields for newborns, too. She says nothing about tail docking & neutering or how/why these are done.
She also didn't see the cutest moments in creation when the lambs are nursing with their butts wiggling & tails spinning like a propeller. Or when they're playing "King of the Mountain" with their mother as the mountain. She didn't mention if the number of lambs was bred for in this flock or how many they typically had. Our Dorsets averaged more than 2 & we bred for 3 since that meant more money. Was that a consideration with the Merino flock?
Worst of all, she completely misses conveying the tension & wonder of shearing. In Maryland, we used to get an Australian crew who roamed the world following the shearing seasons to help shear ours. In a few minutes, they used a 3" wide head the clippers to cut the fleece off in a single piece while rolling the ewe around to gain access. Wow! This 2 minute video shows the process fairly well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53KoR... Then we'd have to rush to get the ewe & fleece out while getting another in through temporary gates. It was crowded & there were cut/squished hands, sweat, & cussing. The Merino flock she saw was always sheared the first week of March by a local. End of story. Boring.
Why is keeping the usable fleece in one piece so important? I still don't know & I was hoping to learn. She mentions inadvertently cutting the skin, but not that it's a lot tougher to do with modern shears compared to the grass clipper things that some still use. She didn't mention the clippers or anything about their history. She mentions rooing (plucking fleece) but nothing about the time frames or types/breeds. Nor did she mention how the the ewe is positioned to stretch the skin to avoid this - it's a high skill. I hoped she'd teach me more, but even I could easily add a chapter to her poor coverage.
Belly, leg, & bottom fleece is soon trashed & she does describe both the process & the reasons for that well enough, but she makes bagging the fleece seem easy. Hah! It's a nasty job that leaves everyone covered in greasy, smelly lanolin mixed with manure from the unwashed fleece. We had a metal staircase to hold the 3'x8' burlap bag once we'd filled what we could from the floor. I eventually had to climb down into it & pull the fleeces past me to where I could stomp them tight. When I worked my way to the top, I'd sew it shut & tip it onto the forks of the tractor since it weighed 300 lbs or so. This whole chapter was far too superficial & missed far too many important points. Not a good start.
CHAPTER 2 - Double Bubble Bale and Trouble: The lack of scouring & processing facilities as they close due to offshoring & the entire process was interesting. Again, her lack of prior research & preparation was irritating. I don't understand why she seems to think going in blind is a good thing. She admits to missing too much each time & yet continues to do it.
CHAPTER 3 - Infiltrating Big Wool: I like her idea that the American Sheep Industry Association should pay attention to the little guys, but I wonder if the numbers back her up? We won't learn it with her lack of research & vague wishes. She didn't even mention that the 1995 loss of the wool credit put a lot of smaller operations out of business. Mom sold her flock then because it cost more to shear the sheep than she got for the wool. Even with her shearing as many as she could & most of the income coming from meat sales, the loss was enough to make her operation a financial loss. She found the market glutted with others selling, too.
CHAPTER 4 - Moving Bodies: Shipping sucks, but she knows people who do it & yet she asked none for advice. She's supposed to be a kind of investigative reporter & yet she can't figure out how to find someone in the industry to explain it? I'm not & yet I've managed it a couple of times including getting things crated. Her trials opening the bale just made her seem like an idiot. She finally does say there are 183 fleeces in her bale.
CHAPTER 5 - Ready to Roll: Repacking the wool was simple since she had the talent right there & should have known it. She must have known it & just wrote this to make herself seem stupid. Well, intentional ignorance is stupidity.
CHAPTER 6 - Bartlett Bound: Her description of the business, plant, & machinery were OK, but I really didn't get what a spinning mule was. I googled it & immediately found a good page from the UK. https://www.belpernorthmill.org.uk/co... Why couldn't she provide pictures, illustrations, or even the names of helpful sites to search for?
CHAPTER 7 - The Stradivarius of Salvage: How different methods create different yarns is really interesting, although I don't have her feel for yarn. I feel their pain at keeping old equipment working, but wonder at their economics. Being down for 6 months due to the lack of a part seems ridiculous when new equipment is available. Again no numbers to make sense of it, though. Parkes is more in her comfort zone working with fibers, so there's a little more depth. Still no pictures so I had to search the Internet.
CHAPTER 8 - Journey to the Heart of the Madder: Natural dyes are interesting & I've tried a few in woodworking, but would never use them on wool. Parkes lists a few reasons most don't use them any more, but fails to mention some can cause rashes when sweat leeches them on to skin. I saw a really bad case from a scarf sold at a craft sale where I was selling my bowls. It was fast & furious. 'Natural' doesn't equate with 'healthy' or 'good', it simply means a lot of chemicals that are unknown. 'Organic wool' is a scam.
CHAPTER 9 - Rust Belt Revival: I was really lost in her machine descriptions in this chapter, but the business side was a little better. Interesting family & struggle.
CHAPTER 10 - Tree House Confessions: The best chapter, IMO. I hand dye my own yarn & I've actually tried one technique described here (squishing in multiple dye colors which I thought of on my own) but I didn't know about steaming. I had the problem described with mixing & muddy colors. I'll have to delve more into finishing techniques since I had no idea it could change the yarn so much. This is more like it!
CHAPTER 11 - Saved by the Ball: I had no idea baseballs were covered in wool. It's really scary that a single contract can make or break a company too, but I work for a small manufacturing company & know how easily it can happen. I owned a Navy Pea jacket for years & loved it. Finest kind & it will be a shame if they do away with them.
CHAPTER 12 - Halloween Spooktacular at the Haunted Dyehouse: Interesting commercial dye information, people, & business, but she dismisses a fairly straightforward calculation as too complicated for her. Again, idiocy is not cute.
CHAPTER 13 - Casting Off: Sums up the book fairly well, although the names came at me a bit too fast, so I had to read them in the ebook. It was nice to find out what happened to the people & businesses she'd visited years before in her quest.
I agree we need to tell people about wool, but I think college is too late. Teach kids in school. Bring back the Industrial Arts programs. Kids are curious & eager to learn even from an old curmudgeon like myself. I've taught some woodworking, knitting, & such. Some have 'helped' me fix their parents' spinning wheels, looms, & made their own knitting needles & crochet hooks. Hands on learning early usually beats books later.
If you're interested in fiber, I highly recommend The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook. It's a bit much, but a great reference & worth skimming through before going to any fiber festivals.
His major points are well made: There are human races & we are still evolving. The idea that we stopped evolving 10,000 years ago or so is implicit in many studies & discussions today. That's just silly since we've identified quite a few changes such as lactose tolerance. Unfortunately, it is politically fraught territory, especially when it comes to those changes that might influence our cultures. Wade states that these areas aren't well understood, but maintains (correctly, IMO) that we'll never understand them until we examine them. He takes great pains & much repetition to point out that this doesn't require judgements of good or bad or superiority, but it does require acknowledging & discussing them, something which is highly discouraged now.
Wade points out that it only hurts science to be guided by political correctness. No, there aren't hard boarders between races & there are a number of ways to qualify them depending on the use, but they exist. For instance, there are enough generally recognizable skeletal differences to let forensic science identify races. Some medical conditions are more common in some groups or races as are reactions to some drugs. (He didn't mention it, but there was a drug (heart or blood pressure?) that didn't seem to pan out for Caucasians & was considered a failure. Another study found that it worked well on Mexicans & Caribbean's, though. It became a financial success for the company.)
If he had stuck to these points, the book would have been a lot shorter & I would have liked it better. Instead he tries very hard to appease the politically correct, so he broadens his examples into areas that I thought were sketchy. I found a lot of interesting trivia interspersed with opinions & incredible repetition. The book gets 5 stars for its main points, but it gets 2 stars for much of the opinion & repetition beyond that. Overall, I'll give it 4 stars with the caveat that skimming will help a lot.
Table of Contents 1. EVOLUTION, RACE AND HISTORY 2. PERVERSIONS OF SCIENCE 3. ORIGINS OF HUMAN SOCIAL NATURE 4. THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT 5. THE GENETICS OF RACE 6. SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS 7. THE RECASTING OF HUMAN NATURE 8. JEWISH ADAPTATIONS 9. THE RISE OF THE WEST 10. EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES ON RACE...more
I was especially interested in reading this with the Science & Inquiry group since it's a question that's been on my mind since a dendrologist in a reI was especially interested in reading this with the Science & Inquiry group since it's a question that's been on my mind since a dendrologist in a recent book said the bulk of tree wood was 'dead'. Others don't think so, but apparently we don't have a good definition for "life" or "death". I hoped that this book would shed some light on the subject. It didn't, but it was still an interesting trip through the history of our search for an answer & it was quite up to date.
The book started out slow for me since a lot of it was a rehash of what I'd read recently, but it got more intriguing as he explored some of the newer science relating to it. Here on Earth we have plenty of examples of things that are in the borderland such as viruses & red blood cells. When we start thinking about alien biology, the ground gets even shakier. Usually I'm not much of a fan of philosophy, but I found some solace in the idea that we might not know enough to be able to define "life" yet much in the same way as the alchemists failed to define water.
Well narrated & pleasant enough to read. Not great, but more satisfying than I would have expected....more
Quick & fun, so don't get the idea there is any heavy discussion, just a synopsis of a popular current theory or two with some supporting evidence. I Quick & fun, so don't get the idea there is any heavy discussion, just a synopsis of a popular current theory or two with some supporting evidence. I really liked how he put a face on these anonymous people. Well narrated & interesting. Definitely recommended.
Throughout, he makes a big deal out of what 'primitive' man had to know & remember. Agreed, it was impressive, but I don't think he gives us enough credit. Most of us don't know what our ancestors did about the 'natural' world, but the number & complexity of things we do know is even more impressive. Still, he helps dispel the idea that their ignorance equates with stupid. They knew a LOT.
Introduction These narratives are based on the current best guesses based of current evidence which is rapidly changing as we get better tools & make further discoveries, so each should be taken as interesting possibilities NOT fact.
He handles the big number problem by setting these discoveries into a 24 hour clock based on the 300K history of anatomically modern humans, ...written history would begin a half hour before midnight. That leaves twenty-three and a half hours of “prehistory,” a place that an estimated 1.5 billion anonymous people called home. Thus the earliest leaps forward take place before the clock even starts. I find this more confusing than helpful, but when read in order, it does help put our accelerating tech in perspective.
1 Who Invented Inventions? He comes to the conclusion it was probably a woman figuring out a baby sling roughly 3 million years ago, long before modern humans evolved. Good supporting points made about the cost of caring for an infant who couldn't cling for over a year with foraging needs doubled due to carrying & nursing the kid, yet foraging was harder due to one hand holding the kid. Carrying/clinging was harder due to the mother having an upright posture & there was probably a total lack of day care. Set the kid down & it would likely become a meal, so without this invention we likely would have died out.
2 Who Discovered Fire? Probably Homo habilis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_ha...) a million years ago. I hadn't realized chimps liked to scavenge around fires or preferred cooked food. I'm always amazed by the figures of how much easier cooked food is to digest, thus giving many more calories & cutting back on the time eating/foraging took. He provides some remarkable figures.
3 Who Ate the First Oyster? 10:53am, 164,000 ya is the worst chapter. He contends it was probably an early woman who might have figured out the tides since he contends extremely low tides were needed to harvest oysters. It's all a real stretch, IMO. He seems to believe there was no other food available on the sea shore without tools which is ridiculous. He must never have visited a seashore or even seen one on TV. He never even mentioned tide pools.
4 Who Invented Clothing? 2:34pm, 107,000 ya. He contends it was probably a guy for decoration. I hadn't realized how long between our loss of hair & the appearance of the body louse was. This dates clothes since the louse needed them to evolve from our head lice. Interesting facts about the use of clothing across cultures, but I think he discounts the need for warmth too much.
5 Who Shot the First Arrow? 6:48pm, 64,000 ya. He contends the bow probably started as a toy & that makes sense. It seems as if it is a modern human trait only. Neanderthal's haven't been found to have them, but we had them for about 15K years before we killed them off. He's obviously not a woodworker. While I don't recall The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization's take on bows, I recommend reading it for a far better perspective on just how well our ancestors handled this material.
7 Who First Discovered the Americas? 10:43pm, 16,000 ya. He discusses migration across Beringia only without mentioning any alternate hypotheses. He does mention how swiftly we spread all the way from there to the southern tip of SA, but doesn't mention the issues this has caused with our theories. Other evidence for earlier habitation & DNA studies are still problematic, but new evidence in NM with purported 23,000 year old foot prints recently. https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
8 Who Drank the First Beer? 10:48pm, 15,000 ya. Probably a woman who left her grain gruel sitting a bit too long. It wouldn't have been a fine pilsner, but the slight buzz it imparted would have been recognizable & become sought after.
9 Who Performed the First Surgery? 11:27pm, 7000 ya. Trepanation (cutting out chunks of skull) is shown in the fossil record from this time & isn't uncommon since we hit each other in the head a lot. Often successful, too. Some mention of how warlike we were which is refreshing since that's been suppressed for decades by our government wouldn't fund studies for 'war'.
10 Who First Rode the Horse? 11:33pm, 5600 ya. Probably the Botai in northern Kazakhstan where the first bit for a bridle was discovered. Horses were domesticated before that for meat & milk, but not ridden until they could be controlled.
11 Who Invented the Wheel? 11:35pm, 5400 ya. Logs for rollers were used long before, but the first axle discovered on a potter's wheel in Mesopotamia & on toys after that. Good discussion about wheel & axle construction & how complex they really are. He mentions hooking oxen to carts, but he never mentioned the odd lag between the yoke & collar. IIRC, the collar wasn't invented until 1000 ya. It takes the pressure off the windpipe & thus allows the animal to pull much heavier loads more easily, especially important for horses. The shorter neck & more horizontal build of the ox means it doesn't need it as much.
12 Who Was the Murderer in the First Murder Mystery? 11:35pm, 5300 ya. Ötzi was found in the Swiss Alps in 1991, a shepherd probably murdered by another by an arrow shot from ambush. The fantastic preservation of the corpse & how much it has taught us about the times was interesting.
13 Who Was the First Person Whose Name We Know? 11:36pm, 5000 ya. He was a Mesopotamian accountant who signed his name on a clay tablet. Some discussion of early accounting & money.
14 Who Discovered Soap? 11:38pm, 4500 ya. She likely worked in Sumeria’s textile industry & found it out trying to wash lanolin out of wool. Discussion of how important soap has been to our health including a mention of Dr. Semmelweis.
15 Who Caught the First Case of Smallpox? 11:41pm, 4000 ya. Someone on the Horn of Africa first came into contact with the variola virus & he discusses how it killed more people throughout history than all the wars combined. We killed it off in 1977 save for cultures kept by the US & Soviets.
16 Who Told the First Joke We Know? 11:41pm, 4000 ya. Mesopotamian accounting grew to include some jokes, probably to help budding scribes learn.
17 Who Discovered Hawaii? 11:55pm, 1000 ya. Interesting discussion of South Pacific islanders & their explorations. Very cool. ...more
I've always wondered at some of the extreme weapons that some animals mounted & this popular science book answered the question admirably. Sexual seleI've always wondered at some of the extreme weapons that some animals mounted & this popular science book answered the question admirably. Sexual selection can be confusing since it doesn't always make sense. Emlen not only explains it well, but sorts out just how it leads to extremes both through ivory tower science & extensive anecdotes of his field research. He then draws parallels to human weapon evolution. As he points out, he's a beetle scientist, not a historian, but his somewhat facile explorations into this area were really good. His simplicity made the point far better than a more detailed narrative would.
Emlen maintains that there are 3 conditions needed to trigger an arms race: 1 - Competition: winning the prize 2 - Economic defensibility: a clear goal such as the exclusive ability to breed & other factors that narrow the focus. 3 - Duels: individual combat between relative equals, not free for alls
He shows how these conditions play out in animal populations from beetles & crabs to elk & human societies. The examples were fascinating & the parallels staggering. Bigger is often better simply because it reduces the need for combat. Weaker opponents fight others in their class & don't bother fighting those that are much better armed. Still, changing circumstances can also doom an entire species as his example of the Irish elk makes clear. Their antlers were too expensive to support when the climate changed. His data on the antlers of elk & the toll they take on the males is fascinating. They rob their own bones of material just when they need them as strong as possible for fights & only have a few weeks to recover before winter descends. This leads to a high mortality rate, but a very few victorious males father all the following year's calves. Something like 90% of the males never mate in their lifetimes.
The last part of the book looks at how we're now at a very dangerous point because of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) which have changed this age old equation. We almost ended life on the planet a couple of times due to nuclear WMDs, but limited our duels with the USSR & never actually came to direct blows. Now the landscape has changed with nuclear proliferation. Too many states have the ability to cause wide spread destruction with WMDs. The weapons are hidden & even a small state can cause unprecedented damage to a much larger one.
I read Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity (My 4 star review.) just before this book & both authors came to the conclusion that genetics is our new greatest threat. Emlen points out just how inexpensive & easy genetic engineering has become; it's literally now the realm of a garage inventor. Both authors show how inevitable it is that we'll start genetically engineering our children & Emlen's ideas on weaponizing this are just scary. It's not just countries creating super soldiers, but parents wanting to give their kids an advantage. Every parent wants the best for their kid & we already weed out some defects at IVF clinics. It's a very small step to fixing single gene diseases such as Huntington's. If we allow that (Can we really argue against it?) another small step takes us to 'fixing' multi-gene complexes which could be intelligence or strength.
Local laws against such practices won't be able to curtail more extreme practices, especially among the rich. They'll just go to another country that does allow it (or doesn't stop it) & we have no way to tell. We're already complaining about the unfair allocation of wealth. What chance do we have of maintaining any sort of 'fair' competition when the 1% can insure their progeny are stronger, faster, more disease resistant, & have higher IQs? Science fiction? Not really. We're not all the way there yet, but we're closing in rapidly. It's a scary new arms race, one where the weapons aren't clearly displayed. Indeed, they're hidden & almost anyone can wield them.
Highly recommended. It was great in audio format, but do find a text copy to see the pictures. One reviewer even mentioned it turning their kid on to more books. I can't think of higher praise....more
The blurb made me think this would be about caves & service tunnels. I'm interested in them & just how much of our infrastructure is hidden from us. CThe blurb made me think this would be about caves & service tunnels. I'm interested in them & just how much of our infrastructure is hidden from us. Caves have a lot of interesting aspects too, but I abandoned this about 20% in since it's all about him & vapid descriptions of what he saw in his explorations. If I was into such explorations, perhaps this would appeal. Well narrated, but I'm just not interested in him....more
A very good primer that covers genetically engineering ourselves & the issues that raises. I really liked the way the author framed some of the questiA very good primer that covers genetically engineering ourselves & the issues that raises. I really liked the way the author framed some of the questions through stories. That really made the issues understandable, even personal.
For instance, a woman in an IVF clinic choosing which embryo to bring to term. This simple setting allows for the exploration of a variety of issues past, present, & future in a rational, but very human way. If she discards one because it has a recognizable 'defect' (Tay-Sachs or Huntington's) is the choice eugenics in action? Some Jews study their genealogy & recommend against marriages which might result in Tay-Sachs now. Is that eugenics? What is a recognizable defect? Is Down Syndrome, autism, or bipolar disorder?
Does discarding the majority of the embryos count as abortion? Why don't Pro-lifers picket IVF clinics where more embryos die than in any abortion clinic? This is not 'bashing' Pro-lifers as some reviewers maintain, but simply asking a question we all need to ask of ourselves; where do we draw the lines & why? Is it rational? A lot of hard questions are raised & few are answered. They're just food for thought. My guess is probably not. There are too many complex gray areas with too much emotional baggage attached.
The idea that reproduction can become weaponized isn't new or shocking, but I've rarely seen it framed better - I think. Unfortunately, I forgot to write this review & went on to read Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle which also explores the subject so the two mixed in my head since both had such a similar take on the subject.
Highly recommended. It's not a great book, but it frames the general questions & fills in the basic science pretty well for regular folks. There were times I thought more depth was called for, though.
Authors that aim to rewrite 500 years of accepted history should rely less on subjective claims and more on hard evidence. And this is where Menzies ultimately fails to persuade. First, he does not read Chinese and thus cites no primary sources--a problem even if one accepts that the records were all destroyed. Even more fatal to his argument, Menzies often fails to provide corroborating data for many of his claims. To cite just four examples, he: never provides the DNA evidence supposedly linking the American Indians and Chinese; fails to document the discovery of Chinese anchors off the coast of California; appeals to unspecified "local experts," as when arguing that remains of 15th century Chinese shipwrecks have been found in New Zealand; and says that a Taiwanese museum's copy of a Chinese map allegedly showing Australia and Tasmania "unfortunately...has been lost." Questionable speculative leaps are also Menzies's stock-in-trade, as when claiming that the inscription on a stone column in the Cape Verde Islands (off Africa's western coast) is in Maylayam, a language of South India, and that this proves the Chinese were there. Yet why would a Chinese fleet admiral order a message inscribed in a language other than Chinese? And sometimes Menzies just plain contradicts himself, as when he asserts that "sea levels in 1421 were lower than today" (p. 257) because of modern global warming, but then later claims "Greenland was circumnavigable in 1421-2, for...the climate...was far warmer than it is today" (p. 306).
Standard Disclaimer Look at what shelves this book is on. This book is on my 'do-not-read' shelf I thought I might want to read it. I did some research & found that it was crap. I'll post why I think so & might even rate it with 1 star if it is really bad. If you disagree & want to discuss in the comments, you need to prove that it isn't with solid evidence. That means peer reviewed science, not anecdotes, opinions, or sites that are biased. Read The Debunking Handbook which is available for free here https://skepticalscience.com/the-debu... & follow its guidelines for providing proof. I'm willing to look at good evidence. I've been wrong before.
Comments that don't adhere to the above will be deleted. We're not going to change our minds if you just want to troll. If you repeatedly troll, your comment will be flagged & support will spank you. I may block you, too....more
This is not a condemnation of 'natural', but a close look at what it means now & has meant historically in various contexts. When the word takes on reThis is not a condemnation of 'natural', but a close look at what it means now & has meant historically in various contexts. When the word takes on religious connotations, we need to be especially wary. While often equated with 'good', it often isn't, especially when our ignorance of its subtleties leads us into binary judgements. It has been used to justify many horrible inequities such as banning interracial marriage, homosexuality, & women from various sports.
Levinovitz admits to initially holding the idea that the idea of 'natural = good' was complete bunk, but he has since changed his mind. While it is certainly suspect, we can't scientifically quantify much of the world, especially how the idea affects others. He makes the point very well in his discussion of faith healing.
Table of Contents Introduction PART I Myth CHAPTER 1 In the Beginning CHAPTER 2 The True Vine CHAPTER 3 States of Nature PART II Ritual CHAPTER 4 Hey Bear! CHAPTER 5 Let Food Be Thy Medicine CHAPTER 6 Deepak Chopra’s Condo PART III Law CHAPTER 7 The Invisible Hand CHAPTER 8 The Rhythm CHAPTER 9 God-Given Talent Afterword: Salvation ...more
I meant to read this with the Evolution of SF group, but had a brain fart & read it a month early. (Actually, it hasn't officially won the poll yet.) I meant to read this with the Evolution of SF group, but had a brain fart & read it a month early. (Actually, it hasn't officially won the poll yet.) I guess it's on my mind since I've been rather fascinated by apocalyptic stories since I was a kid. As with most things, 90% are crap, but some are great & I've reread them over the years. I should have read this one sooner.
I'm always fascinated by what kills folks off & what remains for the survivors since they're a reflection of the times the author lives in. The earliest I've read recently is The Last Man (1826) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. It's a slog. Everyone dies of a plague & the guy wanders around, finds & abandons a dog. This heinous crime really hurt the book for me.
The "Scarlet Plague" is a slimmer, updated version of Shelley's with most of mankind wiped out by the plague as told by a very old man to his grandsons who have reverted to barbarians. Its influence on Earth Abides (1949) is quite obvious. Shorter than either of the other books, I think it manages to deliver the main message every bit as well.
Other apocalyptic books I've really liked: Before the 1950s, disease was the bugaboo that killed us off, but after that we usually ruin our civilization with atomic warfare. On the Beach (1957), Alas, Babylon (1959), & A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) are all classics, IMO.
Recent (to me) books seem a bit more varied in how the apocalypse comes about. Zombie plagues are common & owe a great debt to I Am Legend as well as Romero & Russo for the "Living Dead" movies. ("Night of the Living Dead" came out in 1968). One Second After is an updated version of "The Bomb" from the 50s & 60s by wiping out the electrical grid. Its point of the complexity & fragility of our supply lines has been made quite clear by the pandemic. Another book that makes this point is The Harrows of Spring: A World Made by Hand Novel. I didn't like it as much, though. (I don't recommend any of Kunzler's other books.)...more
I picked this as the Sep2021 Short Story group read for the Evolution of SF group. Some of SF's finest work is in the short stories, so I pick a free I picked this as the Sep2021 Short Story group read for the Evolution of SF group. Some of SF's finest work is in the short stories, so I pick a free one. It can be from any date & area. This one is fairly new & is written by... well, I won't say since I think not knowing until the end helps prove that people are the same all over the world. We're discussing it here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The story was good, fairly short, & mightily depressing. Not an easy read, but definitely moving. I had to search out a few things.
manioc is another word for cassava, a root that is a staple in much of the world. I know it best as what tapioca is made from. It was also mentioned in a book I read recently as poisoning poor people when its price goes up. Apparently they wind up selling all they've processed because they need the money & eat the unprocessed root which is toxic.
après moi sounded familiar, but I couldn't define it. It's part of an expression "après moi le deluge" attributed to Louis XV describing people who behave as if they don't care about the future, since the "flood" will happen after they're gone. His ineffectual rule contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution 15 years after his death.
cetiya are objects & places used by Buddhists to remember Buddha.
I wondered about the location since it was quite generic at first. The names didn't narrow it down for me. It wasn't until I tried searching on the foreign script about loneliness that I could nail it down to (view spoiler)[Sri Lanka since it's Sinhala. Indeed, the end note says the author is from there. (hide spoiler)]
Really good, as usual. There was a lot of good information about topics I never would have thought about otherwise & I've dealt with animals all my liReally good, as usual. There was a lot of good information about topics I never would have thought about otherwise & I've dealt with animals all my life. Of course, I haven't lived in India with their monkey or leopards, but I hadn't even considered tracking pests forensically. I know invasive species can be a problem, but the issues New Zealand faces are really difficult. There were a lot of other fun, interesting, & exciting issues all told with her typical good humor.
The holes in our scientific knowledge of animals is incredible & so is science's blindness to some of the best sources. I'm constantly amazed when a study finds out things about animals that I thought everyone knew such as their differences in intelligence & personality, but I grew up with them. They're just different people to me. (In another book I'm reading, Jane Goodall says her first teacher was her dog, Rusty.)
Toward the end, she got pretty lopsided toward animal welfare. I'm all for traps that kill quickly & I'm not a fan of poison or glue traps, but there were some numbers about the number of dogs killed by poison put out for coyotes without balancing numbers such as the number of baits, the number of coyotes estimated to be killed, or if it helped. (I'm pretty sure it didn't.)
She really painted a poor half picture when dealing with genetically changing animals & releasing them into the wild to bring down or eradicate populations of animals that are causing problems. Her mention of mosquitoes was really incomplete & misleading, but I really objected to: “I think the concern is that the technology and the ability of people to experiment with it is moving way too fast, and the only way you’re going to slow it down is to shut it down completely,” is attributed to Jane Goodall through another scientist & Roach seems to agree. Regulate, sure. Shut down completely because you lump many methods under one umbrella of ignorance - absolutely not. It can't be done, anyway.
Overall, I liked the book. It was perfect reading while waiting for doctors since the chapters were fairly short & engaging. I definitely recommend reading it as I do all of her books. ...more
Loading...
