Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

This thread is for discussion of: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong.

From the NYT: "‘An Immense World’ Is a Thrilling Tour of Nonhuman Perception -- Ed Yong’s book urges readers to break outside their “sensory bubble” to consider the unique ways that dogs, dolphins, mice and other animals experience their surroundings. ... If there is a benefit to trying to imagine ourselves into the experiences of others, maybe it lies in the enormous difficulty of doing so; the limits of every species’ sensory bubble should serve as a reminder that each one of us has purchase on only a sliver of reality. Yong’s previous book, “I Contain Multitudes,” was an exploration of microbes and microbiomes; his writing for The Atlantic on the Covid-19 pandemic has frequently shown how the response to the crisis has been limited by our assumptions about the world and our place in it. Yong would like us to think more expansively — something that humans are, it turns out, equipped to do."

This thread is for Ron and Larry (and any others) to discuss The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer.

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "John & Carol,

There is little understanding among the public about science in general and matters like the importance of the asteroid material. We live in a world where entertainment...

Larry, my own rant for today has to do with an impending Federal government shutdown. It is the absolutely dumbest way for so-called adults to run things. And very tiresome given the harm it causes. "

I went through several of those shutdowns. The work had to get done, so whether I was in the office or at home supposedly on shutdown, I worked. And we eventually got paid. The harm is immense when a shutdown lasts more than a day or two. Science experiments get ruined at NIH and elsewhere. I could go on, but I would just annoy myself.

I think that the President, whoever it is, should play hardball and say this, "If you want to play this game of Government Shutdown, Okay. I'm telling the air traffic controllers to go home. Civilian air traffic is cancelled. No football or baseball games ... unless teams can travel by train or bus. No business travel. Etc." I don't think that the shutdown would last for more than another 48 hours."

Acorn,

I finished the book yesterday. I thought it was a great short introduction to viruses and the role that they have played in the history of humankind.

It explains how there are literally trillions of different. I read that last year for the first time and hard a hard time believing it at first. But if Carl Zimmer reports it, I guess I believe it.

He doesn't explain the many good things that viruses do, but one is particularly important, A virus millions of year s ago resulted in a protein that led to the mammalian placenta. And then there is the eight percent of the human genome that is composed of endogenous RNA viruses.

It's the viruses that have caused diseases that most readers will be interested in. And especially Covid-19, which the book was updated for. He explains--again briefly--how some Coronaviruses have resulted in dire results, most notably SARS with its 10 percent fatality rate and MERS with its 30 percent fatality rate. Those fatality rates are probably about right. But the fatality rate Zimmer gives for Covid is 1 in 200. It might have been that early in the pandemic for some countries and regions, but it is not not nearly that for the United States now. Fatality rates are really, really hard to calculate. This is the best look at that that I know of Covid fatality rates, but it does require some technical expertise to fully appreciate it.

It's titled "Understanding the case fatality, crude mortality, and the infection fatality rate," and I have to confess that I struggled to understand significant parts of it.

https://ourworldindata.org/mortality-...

What is simple is that the precautionary measures at the beginning of the pandemic in a few countries, e.g. South Korea, were much better in preventing infection and reducing deaths than in other countries, e.g. the United States.

What is most scary is not Covid but the story of how smallpox has essentially been eliminated (except for locations in the United States and Russia) but that the total sequencing of the smallpox genome now might allow a terrorist group to build the virus from scratch in a lab.

Not a complete review ... but just some of the key things from the book that stuck in my mind.

Ron & Cynda,

I have so many broken commitments on GoodReads ... I am glad for the general forgiveness of the reading community.

Ron, you made the right decision ... totally.

Cynda, thank you for your statement to Ron. Most helpful.

Larry

And Ron, I think we'll enjoy reading this book together.

John & Carol,

There is little understanding among the public about science in general and matters like the importance of the asteroid material. We live in a world where entertainment is king and that affects so much of our lives, especially how the need to be entertained determines how the media is shaped.

That rant aside, I am excited by the return of the asteroid material. I wonder if any organizc materials will be among the sample.

Ron wrote: "Thanks for the set up Larry. Can't wait to start the book in October."

Ron,

I would note that David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present has a personal stake in these matters. He has two other books. In one, Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life, he "talks about growing up on Leech Lake Indian Reservation, and his people, the Ojibwe.”

And in Living Our Language: Ojibwe Tales and Oral Histories, he has this to say: "“We’re not losing our language, our language is losing us,” says White Earth elder Joe Auginaush. I have been both haunted and driven by that thought for many years now. The current peril faced by the Ojibwe (Chippewa) language is a matter of a declining number of speakers and a people who have lost their way, rather than a language that is lost or dying. The Ojibwe language, spoken by as many as 60,000 Anishinaabe people in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, is alive. The grammar, syntax, and structure of the language are complete. The oral tradition and history of the Ojibwe are still with us. Yet in many areas fluency rates have plummeted to unprecedented and unsustainable levels. Especially in the United States, most speakers are more than forty-five years of age. In some places, the fluency rate is as low as one percent."

I think that personal stake makes me want to read his The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present even more.

Sure, Eileen. I totally understand.

Carol wrote: "I saw Neil de Grasse Tyson interviewed on the Piers Morgan Show. He made an interesting comment about our eating plants and that any extraterrestrial visitor might well be plant based and probably ..."


I like that joke (???).

It's coming our way .... rain starting now in Northern Virginia. We sure need the rain, I just hope that the winds aren't too strong. I like the name also ... and also the Lumineers' song by the same name.

Ron,

Sometimes the YA editions are totally great. I read the regular edition of Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and then bought his Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry. (I bought it to discuss it with my older granddaughter.) I enjoyed the latter even more.

Larry

OK, no formal voting other than the assumed votes by the nominees of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us and The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present. Acting with my immense powers as Moderator, I'll declare Ed Yong's book as the winner and set up Buddy Reads for the other two books ... one for The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present for Ron and me and one for Napoleon: A Life for Eileen and Carol.

Cynda wrote: "I got called out when buddy reading a retelling of the ancient Greek/Roman myths written by a woman. The two other women reading with were upset that I did not tell them of the various rape scene--..."
Cynda,

I have learned that you just can't win with some people. They will treat you unfairly, even attacking you, and then pretend that they hold the higher ground. I have also learned that I am glad to be rid of such people.

I think that trigger warnings have a place but they also can be inappropriate. the request by some students to have trigger warnings when rape cases were to be discussed in Yale Law School is an overreach. Professional students need to be able to handle this kind of thing. On the other hand, if the rape case to be discussed involves something like torture, then warnings are indeed appropriate.

The men's clubs, e.g. Masons, have really fallen off in membership. This is from a 2014 article in the Smithsonian. I bet there are some more recent articles ... somewhere.

"A generation ago, Freemasonry began to decline, and many of the fraternity's buildings around the country were being turned into movie theaters. Membership in the U.S. fell from almost 4.1 million in 1960 to about 1.3 million in 2012. While membership is still falling, those declines have been less steep in recent years."

SOURCE: https://www.npr.org/2014/08/27/342209...

My mother found a large gold ring that had the Masonic crest on it in a parking lot. I asked her if I could have it to try to return it to its owner. I found one of the officials of the local Masonic lodge and gave it to him. Although I never heard anything, I was pretty confident it got back to the right party ... if he was still alive.

Carol wrote: "Freemasonry was very important in previous centuries. Its tenets of freedom, equality and virtue helped to encourage liberal values(in the European sense, I believe the American sense is slightly d..."

I never knew that about Lafayette. My grandfather, Fain Roby, was a 33rd degree Mason. I never knew anything about what that meant and he never talked about it. He owned and ran two country stores in rural Tennessee outside of Memphis. We would visit him every other year. It was a very different life than living in suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Ron, I've read half of it. I thought it was great. I have a much better understanding of the Iroquois and the early days of the various Sioux tribes. I'll get back to it.

Cynda wrote: "The masking of Latino ancestry also goes as far back as Spain. Here are a couple of good books.

To read about both convivencia (+/- living beside each other) and ethnic strife: [book:Convivencia: ... To read about The Reconquest of Spain and The Explosion of the Jews both in 1492: Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kirstin Downey"

Cynda, I do think that is the "Expulsion" and not "Explosion" of Jews. I never knew about my own Jewish ancestry until genetic testing of my Stidham ancestral line revealed it. The Stidham or Stiddems (which was how it most often spelled when they came to the New World) had Sephardic Jewish ancestry and were apparently forced out of Spain in 1492. I am descended from a Stidham who married a Creek Indian named Priscilla, who was herself dealing with genocidal removal from her ancestral lands.

Cynda, you are so right about how access to a given book through a particular e-service may come and go. That used to be more prevalent for albums among the music streaming sources. Simon & Garfunkel albums would be available and then they wouldn’t be. That’s not as big of an issue these days. But the digital world will probably always be more ephimeral.