I'm guessing this is an old graphic!

Getting WARM. Time for a snooze.......

Just Finished Reading: The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (FP: 1995)

Even tragedy fades – at least the Sauvelle family told themselves. When their beloved father died suddenly their world changed. With debts to be paid their fine clothes and their large house had to be given up to creditors. Without any income their mother had to look for work. For almost a year the family lived from day to day dependent on the charity of others. Until one day their luck changed for the better. Their mother had been offered a job in the country as a housekeeper for the legendary but reclusive toymaker Lazarus Jann. They had to leave their beloved Paris and travel to a small coastal town in Normandy but it was a small price to pay for the hope of getting their lives back on track, and what a place to do it. Their new home Seaview overlooked the wild Normandy coastline whilst behind it was the Cravenmoore estate, home to the enigmatic if charming Jann and his even more mysterious wife. Surrounded by an extensive forest it was the perfect place to recharge the soul and allow the children – young Dorian and his older sister Irene – to fill their young lungs with fresh air. It was perfect….. until Dorian noticed that Lazarus Jann failed to cast a shadow.

I didn’t know this at the time but this was one of the author’s earlier works and was aimed at a child readership – of around 12 to 13. Initially a little irritated by the fact I thought I’d give it a try and thought that worst case at least it would be a quick and easy read. I was wrong. Although I fairly breezed through the 246 pages in around 4 days it was far from an easy read – it was damned scary! I couldn’t help thinking that the author’s experience of early teenage literary courage was far greater than mine. At several points in the book I did think that if I had been reading this in bed at age 12 I would’ve peed my PJs! Parts of the book – no spoilers here but there’s a ‘monster’ involved – are REALLY creepy with an oppressive atmosphere that anyone with half an imagination could run with. Some parts are definitely the stuff of teenage nightmares despite the heroic nature of other parts of the narrative. Heroes abound in this book – not only Dorian who at one point threatens the ‘monster’ with a knife to protect his mother – but Irene and her recent 16 year old boyfriend Ismael as well as the children’s mother Simone who fought for her children using her heart and her head as much as her physical presence.

There’s a lot for a young teen to learn here – and not just about courage in the face of monsters. There’s love and loss, friendship and loneliness. There’s trust and keeping secrets, there’s letting go (of childhood and the past) and embracing wonder. Finally there’s that liminal space between the child and the adult and how you navigate – successfully or not – between the two. I did have a quibble or two – mostly towards the end where the ‘boss fight’ took a little too long and was a little too convoluted but such things pale beside the positive attributes of this book. For a children’s book this was very well, indeed beautifully, written. Reading the prose was like dinning on a perfectly made multi-layered richly decorated cake. All of the characters – even the minor ones – were fully fleshed out and believable. The dialogue from everyone was spot on – no rolling of eyes here. The range of atmosphere throughout flowed as if directed by the conductor of an emotional symphony orchestra. It was, in short, a delight from beginning to (mostly) the end. Being an early work – and being aimed at a younger readership – I am intrigued to read the more accomplished more adult works he has subsequently produced. He’s definitely on my follow up list. Highly recommended but you might have to read this in the daylight or be prepared to sleep with your lights on! 

Translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves

Coming Next: 10 books of Historical Crime.

Cartoon Time.

Dogs' eyes evolve to appeal to humans

By Sean Coughlan for BBC News

18 June 2019

If a dog has eyes that seem to be telling you something or demanding your attention, it could be evolution's way of manipulating your feelings. Researchers have found that dogs have evolved muscles around their eyes, which allow them to make expressions that particularly appeal to humans. A small facial muscle allows dog eyes to mimic an "infant-like" expression which prompts a "nurturing response". The study says such "puppy eyes" helped domesticated dogs to bond with humans. Previous studies have shown how such canine expressions can appeal to humans, but this research from the UK and US shows there has been an anatomical change around dogs' eyes to make it possible.

This allows dogs to create what the researchers call "expressive eyebrows" and to "create the illusion of human-like communication". "When dogs make the movement, it seems to elicit a strong desire in humans to look after them," says the study, co-authored by Dr Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth. This muscle movement allows dogs' eyes to "appear larger, more infant-like and also resembles a movement humans produce when they are sad". She says that humans would have an "unconscious preference" to protect and breed from dogs with such an appealing trait, giving them an evolutionary advantage and reinforcing this change in subsequent generations. "The evidence is compelling that dogs developed a muscle to raise the inner eyebrow after they were domesticated from wolves," says Dr Kaminski, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

The findings, from UK and US researchers in anatomy and comparative psychology, show that the facial change has developed over thousands of years of dogs living alongside humans. Previous research has shown that dogs are more likely to use this "puppy eyes" expression when a human is looking at them - suggesting that it is a deliberate behaviour and intended for human consumption. Anatomist and report co-author, Professor Anne Burrows of Duquesne University in the US, says that in evolutionary terms the changes to dogs' facial muscles was "remarkably fast" and could be "directly linked to dogs' enhanced social interaction with humans". The findings, says Professor Bridget Waller of the University of Portsmouth, show "how important faces can be in capturing our attention, and how powerful facial expression can be in social interaction".

[Oh, those sneaky canine bastards! They deliberately evolved ‘puppy eyes’ to make us love them more. How deeply, deeply diabolical. I’ll never trust another dog as long as I live…. Unless they’re REALLY cute puppies!!]

They see me rollin'.....

Just Finished Reading: Killers of the King – The Men who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer (FP: 2014)

They knew the risks. But they had no choice, not really. Despite being beaten on multiple occasions during the bloody Civil Wars the King was adamant – he was appointed by God and only God could remove him. Certainly Parliament had no jurisdiction over him and could not legally put him on trial for his actions in the Wars. But a trial was held and his execution was ordered – for the safety of Parliament and the New Model Army who had so ably resisted him if nothing else. When the axe fell and the head rolled the gasp of horror was heard around Europe – the English had killed their king and had offended God. They were outcasts on the world stage to be left without a single ally. Despite everything and the growing number of enemies both foreign and domestic the Interregnum (honestly one of my favourite words of all time) survived – at least for as long as its Protector Oliver Cromwell lived. But soon after his death calls for a return to monarchy became louder by the day. It was not long before Charles II, the murdered king’s son and heir, returned to England to take up the throne to popular acclaim. Promising only limited retribution – lest he start another uprising – only seven names were put forward for legal consequence. Confident that they would face no more than a loss of position, rank and land they gave themselves up to the king’s mercy. But the new king was far from feeling mercy for the killers of his father. Tried and convicted of High Treason each of the judges who passed sentence on their rightful Lord was publically executed in the most brutal fashion. Then, his thirst for vengeance only beginning the king ordered the drawing up of a list of everyone directly or indirectly involved in the unspeakable crime of regicide. It was time to run, to hide or to plead for mercy.

When the list was finally compiled it came to over forty names – every judge, every lawyer and every man who signed the death warrant was ordered to give themselves up to the authorities or they and their families would face the consequences. Many did so, more to protect their families and their estates more than trusting in the forgiveness of the king. Some hid and eventually gave themselves up. Some ran and were caught fleeing or betrayed by others. Some fled and were hunted down and assassinated by royal assent. Some fled and fought and lived a precarious life never knowing who to trust or when the assassin’s knife would finally find them. Some fled as far as the New World colonies hoping for a new life in a place where they could vanish into the wilderness whilst still looking over their shoulders at every noise and being suspicious of every stranger. Only when Charles II had been replaced in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 could the few remaining regicides finally breathe free air. After so many years in hiding and in fear of their lives it was a small mercy.

Obviously the Civil Wars of the 17th Century loom large in English history and I have a reasonable familiarity with them. The great battles of the Wars and the New Model Army in particular were taught in great detail in school and, I remember, were very much taught from a Parliamentary point of view (despite still being a constitutional monarchy). What I didn’t realise, despite knowing about the Restoration and the subsequent Glorious Revolution, was that Charles II spent a great deal of time, effort and gold hunting down and killing his father’s murderers. It just never really crossed my mind that he’s do that (although it’s pretty obvious that he would once he was in power!). This excellent page turner of a book most certainly filled in a gap in my countries historical knowledge – which I really like. It was also nice to get away from modern times for a while. The Civil Wars are a fascinating time (from the distance of over 350 years) and through up some truly modern political ideas. They also changed the monarchy forever despite Charles’s intentions otherwise. Highly recommended for anyone interested in English history. More to come on this period! (R6)

Cartoon Time.

.....just most of them.

Just Finished Reading: A Higher Loyalty – Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey (FP: 2018)

The present incumbent of the White House, despite his MANY faults has been very good for three things – First: He’s made US politics unmissable on TV, Second: He’s putting a LOT of lawyers kids through College and Third: He’s created a whole publishing industry on his own which is much appreciated by authors and publishing houses across the globe. But in spite of being honestly entranced by the car crash Presidency of Donald Trump (which is much more ‘entertaining’ than our own train wreck politics of Brexit – especially from thousands of miles away) I had decided long ago that I wouldn’t read any books about it – yet. Despite the publication of (most of) the Mueller Report, which I have downloaded but haven’t read yet, there’s still much we don’t know about everything that’s been going on in the last few years so any book about Trump is necessarily going to be incomplete or just wrong – at least in places. I certainly had (and have) no intention or reading any of the existing or future ‘kiss and tell’ narratives that seem to come out on a regular basis. But, as with many things in my life, I do make exceptions. This was one of them.

Now I know of Comey (as a Trump watcher how could I not) but I knew almost nothing about him prior to his firing as Head of the FBI by Trump not long into his tenure at the White House. This book fills in a lot more of that background. This is very much a biography of Comey rather than about Trump per se. Comey goes back to his childhood experiences, his time in College and his decision to follow a career in Law. There’s also some very personal and very emotional insights into his life as a husband and father and of losing a child. It all goes to the character of the man himself, of who he is and why he went down the route he did and the decisions he made. Throughout the book Comey focuses on Leadership – both good and bad – from grocery store owners to Mafia bosses (with whom he interacted regularly during his time in New York as an attorney with SDNY). What was obvious to me though was that, at least for the first half of the narrative, Comey was looking back over his life and looking at both incidents and people through the filter provided by his experiences with Trump. More than once he made parallels between his experiences with the Mob and with Trump’s White House and most especially with his experience of being asked to provide personal loyalty to the President.

The second half of the book was more contemporary and somewhat less personally biographical. Not surprisingly a good chunk of it related to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and especially the re-opening of the investigation just prior to the 2016 Presidential election. Also, not surprisingly, Comey goes into great detail and makes a great effort to defend himself against accusations of giving the election to Trump. I disagree with this assessment for several reasons. For one it is clear that Clinton sent a significant number highly classified e-mail over a non-secure network. She might have done so in ignorance (which is no real excuse) and may well have done so unintentionally. They may not have resulted in a security breach but still the e-mails were sent. So the question remains who was ultimately responsible and what happened about it. It seems that the answer was no one and nothing. I honestly found this shocking. If that had happened over here, no matter who sent them, heads would roll and the high level Minister would at least be sacked if not jailed. Second, I don’t honestly think the initial investigation nor its subsequent re-opening affected the 2016 election that much. Sure Clinton was expected to win and no one really thought Trump had a chance but in this case (not really a shocker there) the pundits were wrong. I think Trump won for two reasons: the major reason was that people all across the world (and not just in the US) are sick and tired of ‘Business as Usual’. There are groups of significant numbers of people who feel themselves to have been ignored and side-lined (mostly because they have been) by mainstream politicians who took the opportunity to get their own back in the 2016 Presidential election and here in the Brexit Vote. Both events are symptoms of a deeper problem that has yet to be addressed. In the US Trump offered them (admittedly false) hope. Clinton (as perceived) did not. The other ‘elephant’ in the room is, I think (as my perception from someone who only ‘followed’ the election from far away) the Bernie question. The animosity between Clinton and Bernie supporters was real. So when Bernie lost the nomination I’m guessing that at least some of his supporters just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the Democratic candidate so stayed at home. Despite winning the popular vote those stay at homes probably had enough of an impact (in conjunction with the much larger change factor) to ensure a Trump victory. Comey’s investigation of Hillary’s e-mail (I think) probably had a very minor impact blown out of proportion by the understandable size of the Democratic disappointment.

The final section of the book covered Comey’s shortened tenure as FBI Director first under Obama and then Trump. The contrasting styles between the two presidents could not have been starker and Comey brings this very much to the fore. When he was fired in May 2017 Comey was attending (or just about to attend) a recruitment event in LA. Fired with ‘immediate effect’ he first found out his new status as a private citizen when he saw it on a newscast being shown in the LA FBI building. At first he thought it was an elaborate joke. It wasn’t. Normally accompanied by armed guards and driven around in an armoured Suburban he was fully expecting to be dumped out on the street with no clear idea on how to get home to Washington. That, if nothing else, shows the kind of President he was expected to serve with loyalty.

From the perspective of someone lucky enough not to have ‘skin in the game’ this was an interesting a valuable insight not only into the Trump presidency but to US politics in general. I thought it very well written, rational and reasonable. Comey certainly explained his actions and thoughts well enough to understand them and agree with most if not all of them as something that I would have done in his place. After reading this I definitely feel the need for more insight and more analysis of the situation in the US and the wider western world. I’ll be looking to pick that up in the coming months (plans are already ‘a foot’). I shall definitely be picking up more books by ex-FBI and ex-Intelligence chiefs as they come out in paperback. I shall also be waiting to snap up the much needed later assessment (post 2020) of what exactly happened here and how it all fell apart in the end – presumably with a substantial index of who committed what crimes when and how long they expect to spend in prison because of it. Now that’ll be a book worth waiting for! Highly recommended for anyone interested in what’s really happening out there. (R6)

Cartoon Time.

Fan, much?

Divided, pessimistic, angry: survey reveals bleak mood of pre-Brexit UK

By Nosheen Iqbal for The Observer

Sat 15 Jun 2019

Britain is a more polarised and pessimistic nation than it has been for decades, according to a survey that reveals a country torn apart by social class, geography and Brexit. The survey by BritainThinks reveals an astonishing lack of faith in the political system among the British people, with less than 6% believing their politicians understand them. Some 75% say that UK politics is not fit for purpose. As the Conservative party focuses on who its new leader should be, and the Brexit impasse continues with no solution in sight, 86% think the UK needs a strong leader more than ever – but only 21% think the next prime minister, whoever it may be, will be up to the job. Some 52% believe the country is heading for a Boris Johnson premiership. Pollster Deborah Mattinson said she was shocked by the findings. “I have been listening to people in focus groups since the late 1980s and I cannot recall a time when the national mood was more despairing. ‘Broken’, ‘sad’, ‘worried’, ‘angry’– the negatives tumble out, as does the long list of grievances. I’m hearing anxieties voiced in a way that I haven’t heard since the 1990s: a rundown NHS, job insecurity, teacher shortages.”

BritainThinks polled more than 2,000 people and hosted several focus groups in London and Leicester to gauge the national mood. Almost three-quarters of the British public believe the divisions on Brexit between Leavers and Remainers will deepen and get worse within the next year. Two-thirds feel depressed by rising poverty and homelessness. While people say Brexit has made them more politically engaged – 40% are paying more attention since the 2016 referendum, rising to 50% in those aged between 18 and 24 – the polling suggests the bitter political debate over leaving the EU has shattered public trust in the way the nation is governed. Some 83% feel let down by the political establishment and almost three-quarters (73%) believe the country has become an international laughing stock and that British values are in decline. In focus groups, “worried” and “uncertain” were the most repeated keywords used by respondents to describe how they felt about the future. Job insecurity and a perceived breakdown of local communities concerned both older and younger generations. Some blamed immigration, others pointed to cuts in public funding following a decade of austerity.

The poll found an extraordinary gulf in levels of optimism between the generations: while 52% of those aged over 65 said they felt optimistic about the country’s future, this dropped to just 24% of under-34s. Mattinson said: “Younger people feel a strong sense of injustice. Home ownership seems a pipe dream even for the relatively well off. Secure employment can be elusive for them too, despite being far better qualified than their parents and grandparents.” Those who self-identify as “haves” stand at 52%, while 48% see themselves as “have-not”, but anxiety about crime is widespread. In 2016 the Office for National Statistics revealed that 15% of the public expected to be a victim of crime within the next year. Today that stands at 19%, rising to 29% for those living in London. Conducted between 7 and 9 June and weighted to be representative of all UK adults by age, gender, region and socioeconomic grade, the BritainThinks poll found only 58% believe the UK will still leave the EU. Uncertainty over the country’s future is deep rooted, but green shoots of optimism could be found in an underlying stoicism: two-thirds of those polled felt positive about their homes, relationships and mental health and that “British people will just get on with things regardless of the impact of Brexit”.

Class was a clear dividing line; 72% of those from AB social grades felt positive about their personal lives compared with 57% of those from DE households. Similarly, only 54% of those in social grade DE are optimistic about their physical health, compared with 71% of ABs. “The people we elected think we’re too stupid to understand what’s going on, there’s condescension and no respect for us,” said one Remain voter from Leicester, who now believed that the only way to uphold any sense of national pride would be to leave Europe. “The British took democracy to other countries, but we can’t even abide by it or believe in it ourselves,” he said.

[It’s weird. Ever since the referendum YEARS ago now the political map of the country has essentially morphed from Left-Right to Leave-Remain. Class doesn’t seem to matter anymore, nor does age, gender or ethnicity. The leading question, the most important thing to ask is: Leave or Remain? Or where do you stand on Brexit? Once you know the answer to that question everything else falls into place – even the fact that you’re going to continue the conversation or not. As the article quite rightly points out – this divide will not go away once we leave (or crash out in October as I’m predicting) but will get worse. If things turn out badly (as I believe they will) there will be endless recriminations. Politics will get increasingly messy and increasingly divided. It’s already almost impossible – as the world has seen – to get politicians to agree on anything. Political parties of the Left, the Right and even the Centre are fracturing along Brexit lines and tearing themselves apart. It’s little wonder that the voting public has lost what little faith it had in its elected officials. The predicted arrival of Bris Johnson as PM will help none of this. He will only divide his party and the country more. The next ten years (and beyond?) are going to be turbulent. Time to tighten our seatbelts I think!]

It'll stop raining..... Any day now.... any day.....

Just Finished Reading: The Outposter by Gordon R Dickson (FP: 1972)

After half of his life away Mark Ten Roos is finally going home. But he is not leaving an overcrowded Earth as one of the compulsory colonists. No, he is returning as an Outposter, one of the few men and women dedicated to protecting the far flung colonies from random attacks by the alien Meda V’Dan – the same aliens that killed his parents over a decade earlier. But Mark is not driven by the altruistic defence of reluctant colonists. Mark is driven by a much stronger if a less pure emotion – revenge. Mark has studied hard and has planned his campaign meticulously anticipating every move by the aliens he hates and the Earth government whose weakness he despises. He has even gone so far as to anticipate his own death and make it part of his larger plan. Only one element eludes him and only one factor is beyond his control – Ulla Showell, the Admiral’s headstrong and prideful daughter.

As a fan of the author’s Dorsai books I thought I might be in for a treat with this slim volume. I was indeed. Whilst not exactly great literature or even great SF it was certainly entertaining enough and much better (and much more mature) than my previous venture into older SF. Although the overall plot was rather bare bones and simplistic the story was told with style, intelligence and a fair knowledge of history, culture and human psychology. Full of relatable characters with fleshed out back stories who usually communicated in believable dialogue it more than once surprised me with its cleverness. Written by someone who had clearly not simply thrown a bare-bones story together in order to make a quick buck I found it an engaging page turner with a pretty satisfactory ending. Overall a pretty good example of 70’s combat SF with a political and cultural twist. (R)

Cartoon Time.

Just Finished Reading: The American Presidency – A Very Short Introduction by Charles O Jones (FP: 2007)

..and so to the third (and final) book in my US Politics book ‘blitz’. This was actually the longest (at 165 pages) and probably the driest, in places, of all three books. Starting with the invention of the position – which almost didn’t happen as some of the original drafters of the Constitution wanted a 12 man committee rather than a single man in charge. Plus the role was almost called ‘Governor’ rather than President… Then moving on to how the President found his feet and settled into his constitutional role. Then onto how Presidents are elected (and other ways they gain office!), how the role has changed over time and expanded as the role of government expanded. The final sections (the largely dry bit) looked in more detail of how the President functions within government and how he fits into the larger governmental landscape.

As I’ve still very much a novice in respect to the US political system (something that these 3 books was a hesitant attempt to begin to rectify) a portion of this book passed without much sound over my head. My knowledge of the intricacies of how US Government (or indeed my own Government) operates revolves mostly around pop culture references in TV shows and movies. I’d need to read a lot more than this to truly get my head around things – but little steps and all that. I have quite a few US culture and politics references coming up so I’ll have a greater appreciation of things in the next few years no doubt.

In larger news I thought the book blitz idea worked really well (at least in theory) so I’ll be doing that again. The next one is likely to be in August with a further one over Christmas. The August event – already in the pipeline with be on ‘Empire’ with 4 books planned over 9 days. Should be a good one. More VSI to come no doubt.

Cartoon Time.

OK, DECAF from now on for you....

Ultimate limit of human endurance found

By James Gallagher for BBC News

6 June 2019

The ultimate limit of human endurance has been worked out by scientists analysing a 3,000 mile run, the Tour de France and other elite events. They showed the cap was 2.5 times the body's resting metabolic rate, or 4,000 calories a day for an average person. Anything higher than that was not sustainable in the long term. The research, by Duke University, also showed pregnant women were endurance specialists, living at nearly the limit of what the human body can cope with. The study started with the Race Across the USA in which athletes ran 3,080 miles from California to Washington DC in 140 days. Competitors were running six marathons a week for months, and scientists were investigating the effect on their bodies.

Resting metabolic rate - the calories the body burns through when it is relaxing - was recorded before and during the race. And calories burned in the extreme endurance event were recorded. The study, in Science Advances, showed energy use started off high but eventually levelled off at 2.5 times the resting metabolic rate. The study found a pattern between the length of a sporting event and energy expenditure - the longer the event, the harder it is to burn through the calories. So people can go far beyond their base metabolic rate while doing a short bout of exercise, it becomes unsustainable in the long term. The study also shows that while running a marathon may be beyond many, it is nowhere near the limit of human endurance.

Marathon (just the one) runners used 15.6 times their resting metabolic rate

Cyclists during the 23 days of the Tour de France used 4.9 times their resting metabolic rate

A 95-day Antarctic trekker used 3.5 times the resting metabolic rate

"You can do really intense stuff for a couple of days, but if you want to last longer then you have to dial it back," Dr Herman Pontzer, from Duke University, told BBC News. He added: "Every data point, for every event, is all mapped onto this beautifully crisp barrier of human endurance. Nobody we know of has ever pushed through it." During pregnancy, women's energy use peaks at 2.2 times their resting metabolic rate, the study showed.

The researchers argue the 2.5 figure may be down to the human digestive system, rather than anything to do with the heart, lungs or muscles. They found the body cannot digest, absorb and process enough calories and nutrients to sustain a higher level of energy use. The body can use up its own resources burning through fat or muscle mass - which can be recovered afterwards - in shorter events. But in extreme events - at the limits of human exhaustion - the body has to balance its energy use, the researchers argue. Dr Pontzer said the findings could eventually help athletes. "In the Tour de France, knowing where your ceiling is allows you to pace yourself smartly. Secondly, we're talking about endurance over days and weeks and months, so it is most applicable to training regimens and thinking whether they fit with the long-term metabolic limits of the body."

[I am honestly fascinated with the long distance and extreme long distance runners. What they manage to do amazes me! I don’t run much as a rule (maybe for the bus) but loved running as a child and as a teenager – it was probably because of my leg length and lung capacity. I wasn’t fast (actually one of the slowest kids in my year) but I could keep on running long after the sprinters had given up. I also loved what we used to call ‘Cross Country Running’ – off track in the open across normal rolling landscape. That was much fun…. I really must read up on these LONG races……]

Worth close examination.....

Just Finished Reading: American Politics – A Very Short Introduction by Richard M Valelly (FP: 2013)

In contrast to my previous VSI foray into US politics this short volume (a mere 112 pages) looks primarily at the components of the US political system and how it all fits together. Starting at the top with the Presidency (which of course might not have happened if some people got their way after the Revolution and had placed executive power in the hands of an executive committee rather than a single man), the bicameral Congress – with that sneaky series of divisions (term length and numbers amongst other things) to keep powers separated, the Supreme Court, the Bureaucracy (who everyone loves to hate but could hardly do without), the Press and the power of public opinion, and the inevitable creation and rise of political parties and the follow on partisanship we’re dealing with today (actually across the world).

I suppose the biggest thing that really jumped out at me is that the US government in all its many aspects is very deliberately – by design of the Founders – inefficient. In order to prevent the potential tyranny of one person or one party all of the elements of government are designed not to work well with each other. To me that’s just odd. You would think that if a group of people sat down to create a more perfect union then they’d try to make things more efficient and not less! OK, I get that they had just successfully won a revolutionary war against a defined tyrant but still… it seems a little excessive to me after over 200 years. Is there much evidence that the design of the political system has prevented and tyrannical aspirations since 1789? Has the US ever even started on that road never mind approached that destination? Nixon maybe? I think my American readership might have a better idea than I obviously do!

Despite being a little dry in places this did compliment both the previous VSI book in this ‘blitz’ of mine as well as the next one too – which was the idea after all! I definitely learnt a bit more about how the American system works and intending delving a little deeper into the Revolution and the Founders themselves. As always much more to come. 

Cartoon Time.

The ideal place to head for in a Zombie Apocalypse! 

Just Finished Reading: American Political History – A Very Short Introduction by Donald T Critchlow (FP: 2015)

As my regular reader(s) will know I’ve lately become rather fascinated with the train wreck that is US politics these days which is MUCH more interesting than our own slow motion political clusterfuck – enhanced (as always) with having the Atlantic ocean between us. In order to keep up with the latest craziness I’ve been watching a lot of US political news and debate mostly on MSNBC with a bit more from CNN. As we are two nations separated by a common language I ‘get’ most of what’s being talked about but are undoubtedly missing out on sub-text, nuance and what would be considered common knowledge in North America. So, as I didn’t go through the hell (or fun) of High School – complete no doubt with a killer soundtrack – I’m forced to read up on the subject to fill in the blanks. As always with this sort of thing I usually turn to one of my favourite series of book produced by Oxford University Press – the Very Short Introductions. This one – on Political History – will be the first of a set of three, what I’m calling a book blitz. I read three books on this subject over a long weekend just recently and thought it was a really cool idea – so I’ll be doing it again later in the year.

This seemed to be a good place to start – history! Covering US politics from 1787 to 2015 it split things up into the politics of the Constitution, the Early Republic (complete with in-fighting and the evolution of political parties), the age of democracy 1816-44, the prelude to Civil War, War and Reconstruction, the Gilded Age (up to 1918), affluence, depression and world war (up to 1945), Cold War politics to 1974 and then 1974 to the present.

As my knowledge of American history – and particularly political history – is sketchy and largely based on secondary reading, novels and movies/TV I had a lot to learn here. In fact most of the detail was essentially new – apart from the major events and major players. I had no idea, for instance that the idea of a federated system of States stood in such great tension to a more centralised nation state – to the extent that from the very start there was opposition to having a President at all or even a national capital (it seemed). I was somewhat less surprised at how quickly political parties emerged against dire warnings from the Founders. I suppose that it was completely natural that men of like mind would inevitably band together to get their own way with things. Interesting also is, again from minute one, the tension between city and country, between factory and farm. It seemed that from its very origins America was torn across ideological and philosophical lines that have persisted to the present. Finally, the thing that I suppose most surprised me was just how chaotic US political history has been. I think that news reports of the present situation as ‘unprecedented’ are somewhat exaggerated. The US has gone through periods of intense partisanship not unlike today it would seem and past Presidents have been imperialistic, bombastic, corrupt and most certainly not above placing friends and family members in high positions and lucrative jobs throughout the government or associated agencies. Nothing, it would seem, is completely new! Obviously this was a very broad overview covering the entirety of US political history in a mere 133 pages. It did give me a much better idea of the flavour of the subject though and the subsequent two books helped too. Obviously I need to dive somewhat deeper though I suspect I’ll need to good long shower afterwards.   

Cartoon Time.

GM fungus rapidly kills 99% of malaria mosquitoes, study suggests

By James Gallagher for BBC News

31 May 2019

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests. Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. The researchers say their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria. The disease, which is spread when female mosquitoes drink blood, kills more than 400,000 people per year. Worldwide, there are about 219 million cases of malaria each year.

Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. The next stage was to enhance the fungus. "They're very malleable, you can genetically engineer them very easily," Prof Raymond St Leger, from the University of Maryland, told BBC News. They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web spider in Australia. The genetic instructions for making the toxin were added to the fungus's own genetic code so it would start making the toxin once it was inside a mosquito. "A spider uses its fangs to pierce the skin of insects and inject toxins, we replaced the fangs of spider with Metarhizium," Prof St Leger explained. Laboratory tests showed the genetically modified fungus could kill quicker, and that it took fewer fungal spores to do the job. The next step was to test the fungus in as close to real-world conditions as possible. A 6,500-sq-ft fake village - complete with plants, huts, water sources and food for the mosquitoes - was set up in Burkina Faso. It was surrounded by a double layer of mosquito netting to prevent anything escaping.

The fungal spores were mixed with sesame oil and wiped on to black cotton sheets. The mosquitoes had to land on the sheets to be exposed to the deadly fungus. The researchers started the experiments with 1,500 mosquitoes. The results, published in the journal Science, showed numbers soared when the insects were left alone. But when the spider-toxin fungus was used, there were just 13 mosquitoes left after 45 days. "The transgenic fungus quickly collapsed the mosquito population in just two generations," said Dr Brian Lovett, from the University of Maryland. Tests also showed the fungus was specific to these mosquitoes and did not affect other insects such as bees. He added: "Our technology is not aiming to drive the extinction of mosquitoes, what we're aiming to do is break malaria transmission in an area."

New tools are needed to tackle malaria as mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides. The World Health Organization has warned that cases are now increasing in the 10 worst affected countries in Africa. Commenting on the findings, Prof Michael Bonsall, from the University of Oxford, said: "Neat - this is a super-exciting study. The prospects for controlling mosquitoes using this modified fungus are high. Proportionate bio-safety regulations are needed to ensure that the viability of this and other approaches for vector [mosquito] control using genetic methods are not lost through overly zealous restrictions." Dr Tony Nolan, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, added: "These results are encouraging. We need new and complementary tools to augment existing control methods, which are being affected by the development of insecticide-resistance."

[WOW! If this is as targetable as it seems and effective as it appears it will be incredibly effective against malaria carrying mosquitoes. I do worry some that the fungus could end up killing other insects once it’s released into the wild (once approved for use) but that *might* be a risk worth taking with so much at stake. I wonder if they could GM the fungus to make the mosquitoes sterile. Maybe that might be a better idea than having a fungus out there producing spider venom? Plus it does kind of worry me that it’s so easy to weaponise fungus….. Where could THAT lead…..?] 

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