Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 140

Jaundiced for the Cause

In today’s edition of NtHWS Extras, we’re taking a look at a nearly forgotten medical tale from World War II: The widespread use of Atabrine to combat malaria, with varying results.

This story starts all the way back in the 19th century, with a bunch of Dutch smugglers who brought Cinchona seeds from South America to Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies). Cinchona is the source of quinine, the most effective anti-malarial agent then known. It had long been manufactured in Peru, but the Indonesia

The Kobe Bryant of Netball

Microkhan’s Australian readers (we have at least two!) may already be familiar with Romelda Aiken’s spectacular exploits on the netball court. She is, after all, the best player on the Queensland Nationals, a lithe and aggressive scoring machine who recently racked up 42 goals in an upset win over the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic.

The above paragraph may seem like gibberish to Americans, however, unaccustomed as we are to the sport of netball. It’s basically a more static version of basketball, in

Microkhan’s Bicentennial

Just realized that the quickie below on flu terminology was Microkhan’s 200th post. As such, now’s the perfect time to thank y’all who’ve helped build this blog since its early February debut. Really grateful for your daily clicks, given how much time and effort we’ve expended on this rather esoteric project.

We’ve got plenty more cookin’ for the coming months, so please stick around and, if possible, help spread the good word. If your pals balk, tell ‘em that a blog that inspires this sort of cu

Know Your Flu Terms

What’s the difference between an epidemic, a pandemic, and a mere outbreak? Microkhan gives the skinny here. Apparently the dreaded Osaka flu doesn’t qualify as any of the above, at least in the non-Simpsons universe.

The Cannabis Debate, Circa 1894

For today’s edition of NtHWS Extras, we’ll be covering a topic that’s been much in the news as of late: Cannabis laws.

Ganja use plays a significant role in Now the Hell Will Start, as it did in the lives of thousands of American GIs during World War II. The book’s main character became a devotee of the substance during his time in northwest Burma, where there were few ways of salving the pain of jungle life. Soldiers were promised a case of lager every month, but the Army often failed to make go

Thoughts on Lithium

So there’s a fresh stir over Bolivia’s massive lithium reserves, which a French industrialist hopes to tap virtually all by his lonesome.

This isn’t news to Microkhan, since we helped coin the term “the Saudi Arabia of lithium” last fall. But the object of our interest back then was Chile, currently the world’s leading lithium producer. And despite our acknowledgement that, yes, the Bolivian reserves in the Salar de Uyuni are larger than in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, there are two technical facto

Shacked!

Given that Radio Shack provides one of the least pleasant retail experiences imaginable, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Though I wonder if the employee asked for the customer’s zip code while delivering the beatdown.

“The Palm Beach of Manchuria”

The best novel we’ve read so far this year is Ian Buruma’s The China Lover, a criminally underrated fusion of first-rate historical reportage and thoughtful meditation on the nature of art. The book’s backbone is the true-life tale of a Japanese actress-turned-politician, whose career is recounted through the eyes of three lonely, movie-obsessed observers. The first of these narrators has a most unusual job—working on 1930s propaganda films meant to pacify the denizens of Manchukuo, or Japanese-

“A Crushing Insult”

In today’s edition of Now the Hell Will Start Extras Month, we’re going to delve into one of the book’s main themes: Military segregation during World War II. Time and again in the course of my research, I was struck by the virulence of Jim Crow attitudes within our nation’s armed forces. Despite the desperate need for manpower, especially as the conflict wore on, the generals and War Department planners continued to resist calls for even mild forms of integration; like their Axis opponents, the

Top-Notch Pigeon Tech

With legit cash available on the pigeon-racing circuit, there’s huge demand for gadgets that can ensure fair play. And that’s where Germany’s Unikon comes in, offering the very best in tracking rings, loft antennas, and clocks capable of simultaneously timing 250 birds.

A video review of Unikon’s latest clock, the Champ, is available here, via the greatest Spanish pigeon breeder in recent memory. You do not mess with Mister Universe.