kw: book reviews, fiction, crime fiction, anthologies
From time to time I like to read mysteries. I like the cerebral stuff such as the Agatha Christie classics featuring Hercule Poirot. I prefer to avoid murder mysteries; thefts, daring escapes, and clever conspiracies are more my speed. I decided to venture into reading crime fiction when I saw the collection CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour, edited by Martin Edwards.
Apparently, everyone's favorite crimes are murders. Of the 28 stories, more than 20 involve a murder, plus one probable murder (but a lot about that story is ambiguous as well). Whether murder, theft, arson, or something else, in about 2/3 of the stories the perpetrator got away with it. In the three stories that feature a detective, by the various names they are called, the perpetrator is caught, typically in a clever way.
The subtitle indicates that these stories are set in locales worldwide. Few are placed in America. One touching, and very gentle story, "Bombay Brigadoon" by Vaseem Khan, is set in India. "Wife on Tour" by Julia Crouch is an escape story, with plenty of backstory to have the reader rooting for the wife to take flight. I'll not give the title to avoid a spoiler: one story has two seeming friends, each plotting to kill the other. The better planner succeeds.
The writing is, of course, excellent from end to end. Given my proclivities, however, this book has sated my interest in the genre for a good, long time to come.
Friday, March 29, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
Weather understanding for attention paid
kw: book reviews, nonfiction, weather, climate, nature
My favorite weather book nearly fifty years ago was Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather by Eric Sloane. When I saw The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs by Peter Wohlleben, an author I've read before (The Inner Life of Animals, and The Hidden Life of Trees is on the agenda), I figured it might bring "naked eye" weather observation a bit more up to date. Eric Sloane is a hard act to follow, but Peter Wohlleben does a creditable job.
The author is a forest warden in Germany (the book was translated to English by Ruth A. Kemp). In such a trade, one must make the most of observations. Instruments are useful but don't replace our own senses. We come equipped with senses that can dig out a lot of information about, not just what the weather is now, but what it is likely to do soon.
He writes that the weather forecast on the radio or TV is pretty general, and to get the most out of our garden spaces, we need to know their microclimates. In the section on observing and measuring temperatures, for example, he points out that two plots sited just a few yards/meters from one another can have average temperatures in any season that differ by as much as ten degrees (that's °F, because the translator converted lots of units also). Of course, shade or its lack can have a big effect, but so can reflectors (nearby shrubs or walls) and screening plants that lift the wind.
He recommends getting to know the local plants, in addition to those you are trying to grow (flowers, vegetables, shrubs, whatever), many of which respond to temperature, brightness, humidity, etc. He tells of Linnaeus's "flower clock", with twelve segments containing plants with flowers that opened at each hour. It was insanely troublesome to keep maintained, because most plants bloom for a few weeks at most, so the gardeners had to rip out plants and set new ones every 2-4 weeks. That didn't last long!
There's a very useful chapter, "How to water properly", that describes what the layers in the soil beneath our garden or yard are likely to be, and why we need to water more deeply and less frequently, compared to the daily schedule many of us keep, particularly if we have a sprinkler system installed (much less common in Europe than America).
Here and there in the book climate change/global warming is mentioned. When he does get to discussing that matter, his approach is different from anything you'd read by an American author. No shrillness, no finger pointing. The current warming going on is a fact, so how will we cope with it, and how will we help plants and animals cope. Of course, most animals are mobile. Plants are not, but some can spread towards a better place surprisingly fast, by having seeds that travel or are carried by animals. For context, he discusses how living things adapted to a warming episode a few thousand years ago (more than two degrees warmer than now), to a similar but shorter one during the Middle Ages, and the "Little Ice Age" just 200-300 years ago.
So at this point, he is discussing more than just what the weather is, but how things react to it. "Invasive" plants and animals are non-native organisms that wind up in a place they did not originate, and do well there. About 1% of them do so well they suppress the thriving of other organisms, or destroy them. I think of Kudzu, the Japanese wild vine that is covering trees everywhere in the southern half of the eastern U.S. (from Texas west, it's too dry); or the Spotted Lantern Fly, a rather lovely insect that came from Asia recently, probably by accident, but is beginning to do great damage in the northeastern U.S.; and then there is the Starling, a European bird that I call a "weed bird", because in many parts of the U.S. most of the "blackbirds" you see, flying in large, coordinated swarms in season, will be starlings.
The closing sections are an invitation to experience the weather with all our senses, to get to know it, to remember what follows what, so we can know what to expect from what is happening right now, and what just happened earlier. Humans have the best general vision system of any mammal or bird. It's there for a reason. By comparison, we don't hear or detect smells nearly as well as other mammals, but those senses are still very useful. We can actually hear how strong the breeze is, when it is still high in the trees where we don't feel it.
It's a good book to use to help you get acquainted with weather and weather signs where you live, wherever you live. By the way, I got curious about the author's surname. "Wohlleben" means "healthy living", a fitting name for a nature warden!
P.S. I finished this book three days ago, but the review sat nearly finished while I tended to other pressing matters. I shifted the publication date/time.
My favorite weather book nearly fifty years ago was Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather by Eric Sloane. When I saw The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs by Peter Wohlleben, an author I've read before (The Inner Life of Animals, and The Hidden Life of Trees is on the agenda), I figured it might bring "naked eye" weather observation a bit more up to date. Eric Sloane is a hard act to follow, but Peter Wohlleben does a creditable job.
The author is a forest warden in Germany (the book was translated to English by Ruth A. Kemp). In such a trade, one must make the most of observations. Instruments are useful but don't replace our own senses. We come equipped with senses that can dig out a lot of information about, not just what the weather is now, but what it is likely to do soon.
He writes that the weather forecast on the radio or TV is pretty general, and to get the most out of our garden spaces, we need to know their microclimates. In the section on observing and measuring temperatures, for example, he points out that two plots sited just a few yards/meters from one another can have average temperatures in any season that differ by as much as ten degrees (that's °F, because the translator converted lots of units also). Of course, shade or its lack can have a big effect, but so can reflectors (nearby shrubs or walls) and screening plants that lift the wind.
He recommends getting to know the local plants, in addition to those you are trying to grow (flowers, vegetables, shrubs, whatever), many of which respond to temperature, brightness, humidity, etc. He tells of Linnaeus's "flower clock", with twelve segments containing plants with flowers that opened at each hour. It was insanely troublesome to keep maintained, because most plants bloom for a few weeks at most, so the gardeners had to rip out plants and set new ones every 2-4 weeks. That didn't last long!
There's a very useful chapter, "How to water properly", that describes what the layers in the soil beneath our garden or yard are likely to be, and why we need to water more deeply and less frequently, compared to the daily schedule many of us keep, particularly if we have a sprinkler system installed (much less common in Europe than America).
Here and there in the book climate change/global warming is mentioned. When he does get to discussing that matter, his approach is different from anything you'd read by an American author. No shrillness, no finger pointing. The current warming going on is a fact, so how will we cope with it, and how will we help plants and animals cope. Of course, most animals are mobile. Plants are not, but some can spread towards a better place surprisingly fast, by having seeds that travel or are carried by animals. For context, he discusses how living things adapted to a warming episode a few thousand years ago (more than two degrees warmer than now), to a similar but shorter one during the Middle Ages, and the "Little Ice Age" just 200-300 years ago.
So at this point, he is discussing more than just what the weather is, but how things react to it. "Invasive" plants and animals are non-native organisms that wind up in a place they did not originate, and do well there. About 1% of them do so well they suppress the thriving of other organisms, or destroy them. I think of Kudzu, the Japanese wild vine that is covering trees everywhere in the southern half of the eastern U.S. (from Texas west, it's too dry); or the Spotted Lantern Fly, a rather lovely insect that came from Asia recently, probably by accident, but is beginning to do great damage in the northeastern U.S.; and then there is the Starling, a European bird that I call a "weed bird", because in many parts of the U.S. most of the "blackbirds" you see, flying in large, coordinated swarms in season, will be starlings.
The closing sections are an invitation to experience the weather with all our senses, to get to know it, to remember what follows what, so we can know what to expect from what is happening right now, and what just happened earlier. Humans have the best general vision system of any mammal or bird. It's there for a reason. By comparison, we don't hear or detect smells nearly as well as other mammals, but those senses are still very useful. We can actually hear how strong the breeze is, when it is still high in the trees where we don't feel it.
It's a good book to use to help you get acquainted with weather and weather signs where you live, wherever you live. By the way, I got curious about the author's surname. "Wohlleben" means "healthy living", a fitting name for a nature warden!
P.S. I finished this book three days ago, but the review sat nearly finished while I tended to other pressing matters. I shifted the publication date/time.
Spiders under the radar
kw: blogs, blogging, spider scanning
I last posted four days ago. Starting 18 hours ago, an interesting "hit" pattern emerged:
It was evident that the four spikes in the 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM window of activity were all 19. The spike of 12 hits about 11:00 AM may also be related. Those 88 hits are most likely related.
Looking at the sources:
It looks like most of them came from Russia. The 11:00 AM spike may be the 10 from India plus a couple of "real" hits.
Ignoring the top two lines, I see what I would expect for a 1-day list of sources. I wonder if the four "19"s were happenstance, or if someone out there is trying to mask spider activity by keeping spurts under 20 at a time…
I last posted four days ago. Starting 18 hours ago, an interesting "hit" pattern emerged:
It was evident that the four spikes in the 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM window of activity were all 19. The spike of 12 hits about 11:00 AM may also be related. Those 88 hits are most likely related.
Looking at the sources:
Ignoring the top two lines, I see what I would expect for a 1-day list of sources. I wonder if the four "19"s were happenstance, or if someone out there is trying to mask spider activity by keeping spurts under 20 at a time…
Thursday, March 21, 2019
A collection of very mixed value
kw: book reviews, science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, science fantasy, anthologies, collections
Long gone are the days I could pick up a book of short Sci-Fi stories, or an issue of Analog or The Magazine of F&SF, and read from cover to cover with few or no pangs of conscience. I don't mind the discomfort of learning, nor that of attaining a new viewpoint, as long as I gain something of value. But I don't like taking in something that drags me down and is hard to be rid of.
In SF genres, I prefer short stories to novels. Starting in about 1980, during a period in which I read very little SF, Tor began publishing in the genre and became a leader in the field. But now that sword-and-sorcery fantasies have come to dominate the genre, even being placed in space settings and alien planets, I read a lot less than I did before. Tor seemed to have a pretty good lineup of the "sword free" stories I prefer. Unbeknownst to me until this past week, Tor has an online imprint, Tor.com, that publishes shorter pieces, up to novella in length.
Tor.com is almost eleven years old, and to mark their first decade in business they gathered 40 stories into a hardcover book, Worlds Seen in Passing: 10 Years of Tor.com Short Fiction. I began to read with great anticipation, and when the first two stories ("Six Months, Three Days" by Charles Jane Anders and "Damage" by David D. Leving) earned my personal "Glad I Read That" distinction, my anticipation increased. Then, "Thud, Bam!", I read the next two ("The Best We Can" by Carrie Vaughn and "The City, Born Great" by N.K. Jemisin). The first was so-so at best, and the second made me cringe, not in any good way; it earned "Sorry I Read Any of That" distinction by 1/3 the way through, and I didn't complete it. A few stories later I came across my first "Didn't Read Any" ("Elephants and Corpses" by Kameron Hurley). The editors of Worlds Seen were kind enough to put a brief summary ahead of each story, which helped me select the ones to not even try. Scores for the 40 stories:
For someone who loves good SF, that is a sad commentary. Why do I dislike certain stories? First and most important, they offer to take me somewhere I don't want to go, and put something in me I wish I hadn't imbibed. I try to catch these as early as possible, and the summaries helped. Secondly, in others the main character(s) go nowhere, learn nothing, and leave a reader feeling at best like the time to read was just wasted. I look at such stories as fodder for the feckless Millennials of the stereotype (and I thank God that, among the Millennials I know, few are truly so directionless and void of aspiration). Thirdly, some stories are just plain evil.
Well, then, what do I like in SF? Firstly, the characters either dwell in a world I'd like to inhabit, or are effectively working toward constructing one. Secondly, the characters (and by extension, the authors) are capable of constructive thought and able to learn, unthreatened by the abilities of others. Coda: In a longer story, characters may not begin that way, but grow into it. That also makes me happy. Thirdly, if malice or evil makes an appearance, it is thwarted; neither is it over-dwelt upon.
I suspect the Tor.com editors thought all these stories were just peachy. Each story had its own editor, but I didn't count how many editors participated in the volume. It's a sure bet that no more than a fourth of them are people I'd be willing to count as friends.
Long gone are the days I could pick up a book of short Sci-Fi stories, or an issue of Analog or The Magazine of F&SF, and read from cover to cover with few or no pangs of conscience. I don't mind the discomfort of learning, nor that of attaining a new viewpoint, as long as I gain something of value. But I don't like taking in something that drags me down and is hard to be rid of.
In SF genres, I prefer short stories to novels. Starting in about 1980, during a period in which I read very little SF, Tor began publishing in the genre and became a leader in the field. But now that sword-and-sorcery fantasies have come to dominate the genre, even being placed in space settings and alien planets, I read a lot less than I did before. Tor seemed to have a pretty good lineup of the "sword free" stories I prefer. Unbeknownst to me until this past week, Tor has an online imprint, Tor.com, that publishes shorter pieces, up to novella in length.
Tor.com is almost eleven years old, and to mark their first decade in business they gathered 40 stories into a hardcover book, Worlds Seen in Passing: 10 Years of Tor.com Short Fiction. I began to read with great anticipation, and when the first two stories ("Six Months, Three Days" by Charles Jane Anders and "Damage" by David D. Leving) earned my personal "Glad I Read That" distinction, my anticipation increased. Then, "Thud, Bam!", I read the next two ("The Best We Can" by Carrie Vaughn and "The City, Born Great" by N.K. Jemisin). The first was so-so at best, and the second made me cringe, not in any good way; it earned "Sorry I Read Any of That" distinction by 1/3 the way through, and I didn't complete it. A few stories later I came across my first "Didn't Read Any" ("Elephants and Corpses" by Kameron Hurley). The editors of Worlds Seen were kind enough to put a brief summary ahead of each story, which helped me select the ones to not even try. Scores for the 40 stories:
- "Glad": 10
- "So-So": 10
- "Sorry", didn't read much of it: 7
- "D.R.", didn't read any of it, or no more than a paragraph or two: 13
For someone who loves good SF, that is a sad commentary. Why do I dislike certain stories? First and most important, they offer to take me somewhere I don't want to go, and put something in me I wish I hadn't imbibed. I try to catch these as early as possible, and the summaries helped. Secondly, in others the main character(s) go nowhere, learn nothing, and leave a reader feeling at best like the time to read was just wasted. I look at such stories as fodder for the feckless Millennials of the stereotype (and I thank God that, among the Millennials I know, few are truly so directionless and void of aspiration). Thirdly, some stories are just plain evil.
Well, then, what do I like in SF? Firstly, the characters either dwell in a world I'd like to inhabit, or are effectively working toward constructing one. Secondly, the characters (and by extension, the authors) are capable of constructive thought and able to learn, unthreatened by the abilities of others. Coda: In a longer story, characters may not begin that way, but grow into it. That also makes me happy. Thirdly, if malice or evil makes an appearance, it is thwarted; neither is it over-dwelt upon.
I suspect the Tor.com editors thought all these stories were just peachy. Each story had its own editor, but I didn't count how many editors participated in the volume. It's a sure bet that no more than a fourth of them are people I'd be willing to count as friends.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
A pretty Cuban operculate
kw: species summaries, natural history, natural science, museums, research, photographs
To summarize what I wrote a few days ago, an operculate terrestrial snail is one that has no lung, as most land snails do, but respires using gills kept inside the shell, and it has a "door", the operculum, that can seal the shell shut when dryness or predators threaten. The genus with which I have been involved the past few days, Chondropoma, is found primarily in Cuba and around the Caribbean islands.
This species, Chondropoma presasianum (Gundlach in Pfeiffer, 1863), has been collected primarily in the Matanzas Province of Cuba, but is likely to exist (or have existed) over much of the island. El Palenque is a hill or small mountain with a steep flank that looks like a palisade ("palenque"), near the border between Matanzas and Mayabeque Provinces.
Many species in the genus Chondropoma have flared apertures, as these do. Juveniles do not have the flare, and in the past were often thought to be of different species.
This lot of 10 shells was given to George and Mary Kline by the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (M.C.Z.) in 1956. In 1972 the Klines gave many specimens to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. The Klines collected many of the specimens in their donation, and, as is true for many shell collectors, they had also traded with other collectors and institutions.
I chose these to show because of the detailed decoration of their shells. A lot is going on here: colored bands and stripes, rows and columns of bumps, and the ribs on the flare. Lovely! For those with aperture upward, you can also see that they all retain the operculum. These were originally collected alive and then carefully dried. Such specimens are precious because at some future time a bit of DNA can be extracted for comparison with similar species, and to trace genetic changes in time.
To summarize what I wrote a few days ago, an operculate terrestrial snail is one that has no lung, as most land snails do, but respires using gills kept inside the shell, and it has a "door", the operculum, that can seal the shell shut when dryness or predators threaten. The genus with which I have been involved the past few days, Chondropoma, is found primarily in Cuba and around the Caribbean islands.
Many species in the genus Chondropoma have flared apertures, as these do. Juveniles do not have the flare, and in the past were often thought to be of different species.
This lot of 10 shells was given to George and Mary Kline by the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (M.C.Z.) in 1956. In 1972 the Klines gave many specimens to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. The Klines collected many of the specimens in their donation, and, as is true for many shell collectors, they had also traded with other collectors and institutions.
I chose these to show because of the detailed decoration of their shells. A lot is going on here: colored bands and stripes, rows and columns of bumps, and the ribs on the flare. Lovely! For those with aperture upward, you can also see that they all retain the operculum. These were originally collected alive and then carefully dried. Such specimens are precious because at some future time a bit of DNA can be extracted for comparison with similar species, and to trace genetic changes in time.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
The tales that reach inside us
kw: book reviews, fantasy, fairy tales, collections
After reading How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen, it took me a few days to work out just how to review it. I realized that using my usual methods I could not avoid serious spoilers.
Having been primed by the cover of Bitwise, I noticed the odd green hue on this cover. Sure enough, under black light it has quite a different aspect, but although the green ink is fluorescent, it is not phosphorescent.
Stories of giants, monsters and supernatural creatures are more than just children's entertainment. They allow us to think, "What if I was like [insert favorite monster]?" We may identify with the prince or the hero when we're little, but later on, we tend to identify with the giant, the dragon, the vampire, or whatever.
I can't be certain that Ms Yolen consciously obtained her title from the "Fractured Fairy Tales" feature of old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, favorite fodder of my teen years. Actually, only one story in this book partakes of the spirit of the cartoon, for this Snow White gets a jump on the stepmother and brains her with a frying pan when she visits the Dwarves' cottage. A more satisfying ending, don't you think?
The stories partake of numerous cultures, from Japan ("Foxwife", where the wife's name is Kitsune, キツネ) to Scotland ("Sule Skerry"), from China (a few featuring Eastern dragons) to Israel ("Wrestling with Angels"). Prompted by the author's Jewish heritage, two (three?) stories feature time travel to or near the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, one in particular in which a young women is brought by Elijah to rescue a little girl who will become her great-grandmother. Some are more explicit fractures of well-worn sayings ("Cinder Elephant" and "Sleeping Ugly" for example).
The last 35+ pages of the book have musings on the tales, and a poem for each, sometimes following the theme, sometimes in stark contrast. And I really ought to end right there.
After reading How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen, it took me a few days to work out just how to review it. I realized that using my usual methods I could not avoid serious spoilers.
Stories of giants, monsters and supernatural creatures are more than just children's entertainment. They allow us to think, "What if I was like [insert favorite monster]?" We may identify with the prince or the hero when we're little, but later on, we tend to identify with the giant, the dragon, the vampire, or whatever.
I can't be certain that Ms Yolen consciously obtained her title from the "Fractured Fairy Tales" feature of old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, favorite fodder of my teen years. Actually, only one story in this book partakes of the spirit of the cartoon, for this Snow White gets a jump on the stepmother and brains her with a frying pan when she visits the Dwarves' cottage. A more satisfying ending, don't you think?
The stories partake of numerous cultures, from Japan ("Foxwife", where the wife's name is Kitsune, キツネ) to Scotland ("Sule Skerry"), from China (a few featuring Eastern dragons) to Israel ("Wrestling with Angels"). Prompted by the author's Jewish heritage, two (three?) stories feature time travel to or near the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, one in particular in which a young women is brought by Elijah to rescue a little girl who will become her great-grandmother. Some are more explicit fractures of well-worn sayings ("Cinder Elephant" and "Sleeping Ugly" for example).
The last 35+ pages of the book have musings on the tales, and a poem for each, sometimes following the theme, sometimes in stark contrast. And I really ought to end right there.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
The other kind of land snail
kw: species summaries, natural history, natural science, museums, research, photographs
I spent more than two years, in my work at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, cleaning up/correcting and loading data for their collections of terrestrial gastropods, informally known as land snails. Correction: the past 2+ years I worked with the pulmonate terrestrial snails. They are called "pulmonate" because they have lungs, though really they are modified gills in an internal cavity where they can be kept moist, and muscular contractions pump air in and out, like real lungs.
That is not the only kind of land snail. The other great division is the operculate terrestrial snails. They are called "operculate" because they have an operculum, a kind of door that they can use to seal the shell shut, to keep water in, because they have gills inside the shell, and also to keep predators out. Many marine snail species also have an operculum, used to avoid desiccation when they get stranded above the tide line for a while, and even more to keep predators out.
The pulmonate lifestyle is apparently the easier, because there are many more species of pulmonates than operculates. In the DMNH collection, 95% of the land snail collection is pulmonates, more than 40,000 lots versus about 2,000 lots or operculate land snails.
Thus, my last project is to clean up, and load, all the data for the operculates. The first major family that I encountered is the Annulariidae. Many of these have a flared aperture, as shown in these two images:
This image is roughly life size (the museum label is 3" long). The species Chondropoma bairense Torre & Bartsch 1938 is a little prettier than most of its kin, and larger. Here, "Chondro-" relates to "grain", and many species in this genus are little larger than grains of corn. The flared aperture is characteristic of species in many genera of the Annulariidae.
This one is called "bairense" because it was first found at Baire, Cuba, which is in the south, in the state of Santiago de Cuba, west of Guantanamo. Hoyo de la Reyes can mean "king's pit" or "-hole", but here it probably refers to a steep valley.
From the differences between the older label and the one that C.L. Richardson typed up we can see why it is helpful to have all the labels possible with a specimen. Richardson simply left out the name of the town on his own label!
Here is a closeup of the shells. Sadly, both have their tips knocked off. This is the only lot of this species in the DMNH collection, so we must make do with what we have. I find it fascinating that there is ribbing along the outside of the whorls, but the shell on the right also reveals longitudinal ridges in the omphalos (a synonym of "navel" or belly-button; it refers to the central hole where the whorls come together. Not all snail species have one, including the next one shown).
I picked one other species to show, because of its bristly appearance and because one shell still has the operculum:
In spite of the way the name is spelled on both labels, this species is Blaesospira echinus (Wright, 1864). The parentheses indicate that the genus name has been changed, but I don't know the history. I don't know what the genus name means, but I suspect it means something like "open spiral" because the whorls of the shell are not in contact.
The species name is easier: "echinus" means "spiny", and this little critter is truly spiny. The mogote (isolated hill) named "El Queque" is a well known snail collecting locality in the Viñales area of the state of Pinar del Rio, Cuba.
This image is about 40% larger than life size; the shells seldom exceed a centimeter in length or diameter. These spiky little critters are even more impressive when magnified:
Here you can see that one of the shells still has an operculum in its aperture. Opercula frequently have a spiral structure like this one. The wavy rim of the apertures hint at the way the spikes are formed. They are hollow with open tips. These lovely little shells are very popular with collectors, which makes me wonder if they are still to be found there. Few specimens from Cuba have found their way into American collections since the Castro regime began in 1959.
I should also mention that some taxonomists place this genus in the family Pomatiidae (once called Pomatiasidae). What with DNA sequencing and other tools of molecular biology, the taxonomy of mollusks in general is being reviewed and revised more than ever.
I spent more than two years, in my work at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, cleaning up/correcting and loading data for their collections of terrestrial gastropods, informally known as land snails. Correction: the past 2+ years I worked with the pulmonate terrestrial snails. They are called "pulmonate" because they have lungs, though really they are modified gills in an internal cavity where they can be kept moist, and muscular contractions pump air in and out, like real lungs.
That is not the only kind of land snail. The other great division is the operculate terrestrial snails. They are called "operculate" because they have an operculum, a kind of door that they can use to seal the shell shut, to keep water in, because they have gills inside the shell, and also to keep predators out. Many marine snail species also have an operculum, used to avoid desiccation when they get stranded above the tide line for a while, and even more to keep predators out.
The pulmonate lifestyle is apparently the easier, because there are many more species of pulmonates than operculates. In the DMNH collection, 95% of the land snail collection is pulmonates, more than 40,000 lots versus about 2,000 lots or operculate land snails.
Thus, my last project is to clean up, and load, all the data for the operculates. The first major family that I encountered is the Annulariidae. Many of these have a flared aperture, as shown in these two images:
This one is called "bairense" because it was first found at Baire, Cuba, which is in the south, in the state of Santiago de Cuba, west of Guantanamo. Hoyo de la Reyes can mean "king's pit" or "-hole", but here it probably refers to a steep valley.
From the differences between the older label and the one that C.L. Richardson typed up we can see why it is helpful to have all the labels possible with a specimen. Richardson simply left out the name of the town on his own label!
Here is a closeup of the shells. Sadly, both have their tips knocked off. This is the only lot of this species in the DMNH collection, so we must make do with what we have. I find it fascinating that there is ribbing along the outside of the whorls, but the shell on the right also reveals longitudinal ridges in the omphalos (a synonym of "navel" or belly-button; it refers to the central hole where the whorls come together. Not all snail species have one, including the next one shown).
I picked one other species to show, because of its bristly appearance and because one shell still has the operculum:
The species name is easier: "echinus" means "spiny", and this little critter is truly spiny. The mogote (isolated hill) named "El Queque" is a well known snail collecting locality in the Viñales area of the state of Pinar del Rio, Cuba.
This image is about 40% larger than life size; the shells seldom exceed a centimeter in length or diameter. These spiky little critters are even more impressive when magnified:
Here you can see that one of the shells still has an operculum in its aperture. Opercula frequently have a spiral structure like this one. The wavy rim of the apertures hint at the way the spikes are formed. They are hollow with open tips. These lovely little shells are very popular with collectors, which makes me wonder if they are still to be found there. Few specimens from Cuba have found their way into American collections since the Castro regime began in 1959.
I should also mention that some taxonomists place this genus in the family Pomatiidae (once called Pomatiasidae). What with DNA sequencing and other tools of molecular biology, the taxonomy of mollusks in general is being reviewed and revised more than ever.
Monday, March 11, 2019
Hawking's swan song
kw: book reviews, nonfiction, essays, science, the future
When the deepest and most powerful thinker of the Twentieth Century, Stephen Hawking, passed away just one year ago, I was saddened, but grateful that he had lived as long as he did. He, who endured the great curse of a terrible disease, was very lucky to have achieved a certain stature by the time he became so severely disabled. Having a body that others must tend to, because he could not, he was free to live a life of the mind, which he certainly did, and yet he was always a persistent and preternaturally clear communicator, with a love of both teaching and dialogue.
He was working on a last book when he died. With a little tidying up by good friends and editors, it was released a few months later. So this past week Brief Answers to the Big Questions worked its way to the top of my reading stack. What a joy to spend a few days in the presence of such a clear-headed thinker!
After a foreword by Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Hawking in The Theory of Everything, and an introduction by Hawking's good friend Kip Thorne, ten big, big questions are addressed. Naturally, "Is there a God?" comes first. He was asked that question frequently, sometimes to an irritating extent. I won't dig into his answer, but mention two things that impressed me. I'd had the idea in recent years that he was trying to disprove God's existence. He explains that, for science to be theory of nature, it must confine its explanations to natural effects and forces. If it is possible to develop a theory that fully explains the origin of the universe, then that is a complete natural theory. He does not express hostility toward God. Secondly, he mentions Laplace, who replied to Napoleon's question about the "author of the universe" by saying, "Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis", and he explains that, while we often take that for an anti-God statement, it was, rather, Laplace's way of saying that supernatural causes did not need to be added to his useful scientific methods, for they were sufficient. I'll mention just a few things I found interesting in other chapters; it would be presumptive to try to riff upon them all.
In "What is inside a black hole?" he tells us of the deep connection between the theory of black holes and that of the Big Bang, because both involve a singularity, that is, a location in space-time where our theories cannot probe, because phenomena such as density and the dilation of the flow of time reach infinite values…perhaps. To solve one would be to solve the other.
He discusses, "Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?" he comes at the answer from a few angles, without digging much into how soon such a thing might eventuate. It is clear that the techniques called "artificial intelligence" today, while quite capable and useful, are various expressions of massive data manipulation to winkle out the answers to questions that are posed. He mentions Moore's Law, which has been bent entirely out of shape, compared to how Dr. Moore posed it: that the density of transistors that could be fitted onto a unit area of silicon seemed to be doubling every 18 months. We know that law must come to an end because there are atoms, whose very name "a-tomos" is Greek for "can't be cut". Since a transistor has to have a few layers to operate, and each layer has to have at least a few atoms, the limit to Moore's Law, as stated, will be reached before the size of a transistor has shrunk to perhaps 20 atoms. That will still take a while, as today's CPU transistors still have millions of atoms. But other effects seem to be limiting things; it appears that the Law stalled out about ten years ago. Hawking does not go into certain issues that might be necessary for a machine intelligence to become "more like a human", before becoming "more than human", such as whether intelligence has to be embodied, not just because it is running on a physical substrate of some kind, but because it gets sensory input from thousands or millions of sensors, the way our brains receive input from the tens of millions of sensors of many kinds in our own bodies.
Here and there are side questions and very short answers. I was tickled by one in the "AI" chapter:
His answer to another side question surprised me, and made me wonder if he blundered. Asked what is the biggest threat to the future of Earth, he dwelt on global warming, because it is more immediate than the threat of asteroid impact. He warns that it could lead to Earth getting a "climate like that of Venus with a temperature of 250°C (482°F)." The temperature of the near-surface environment on Venus is about 460°C (over 860°F). If Venus were moved to Earth's orbit, the difference in sunlight intensity would allow it to "cool off" to 350°C (~660°F). Apparently, the differences in the possible carbon dioxide composition of our atmosphere would reduce the effect by another 100°C. Maybe. By my own calculations, raising carbon dioxide from the current 400 ppm to Eocene levels of around 2,000 ppm would result in temperatures like that of the Eocene thermal maximum, about 8°C warmer than now. The secular increase in the sun's brightness since the Eocene, 55 million years ago, was less than 0.4%. I think that Hawking relied on material about global warming that I consider to be little better than propaganda.
On a more positive note, he believed we must colonize other places in space, first the "nearby" planets and their satellites in our own solar system, and eventually those of other stars. He does not believe that science will become a kind of static thing, as portrayed in Star Trek. Scientific progress shows no signs of slowing down, though it is evident that the "low hanging fruit" seems to have all been picked, and the "gentleman scientist" of the Enlightenment period is necessarily being replaced by ever-larger consortia of scientists working together.
By his own example, a heady mix of individual effort on his part, and intense collaboration with others such as Kip Thorne, Dr. Hawking showed a way for science to continue far into the future. And he urges us to re-emphasize the need for science education and popularization. Wouldn't it be something if the science lectures of the Enlightenment period could be resumed, and achieve similar levels of popular success? Scientists such as Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday were like rock stars in their generation, largely because of popular lecture tours. We need more rock star scientists!
When the deepest and most powerful thinker of the Twentieth Century, Stephen Hawking, passed away just one year ago, I was saddened, but grateful that he had lived as long as he did. He, who endured the great curse of a terrible disease, was very lucky to have achieved a certain stature by the time he became so severely disabled. Having a body that others must tend to, because he could not, he was free to live a life of the mind, which he certainly did, and yet he was always a persistent and preternaturally clear communicator, with a love of both teaching and dialogue.
He was working on a last book when he died. With a little tidying up by good friends and editors, it was released a few months later. So this past week Brief Answers to the Big Questions worked its way to the top of my reading stack. What a joy to spend a few days in the presence of such a clear-headed thinker!
After a foreword by Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Hawking in The Theory of Everything, and an introduction by Hawking's good friend Kip Thorne, ten big, big questions are addressed. Naturally, "Is there a God?" comes first. He was asked that question frequently, sometimes to an irritating extent. I won't dig into his answer, but mention two things that impressed me. I'd had the idea in recent years that he was trying to disprove God's existence. He explains that, for science to be theory of nature, it must confine its explanations to natural effects and forces. If it is possible to develop a theory that fully explains the origin of the universe, then that is a complete natural theory. He does not express hostility toward God. Secondly, he mentions Laplace, who replied to Napoleon's question about the "author of the universe" by saying, "Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis", and he explains that, while we often take that for an anti-God statement, it was, rather, Laplace's way of saying that supernatural causes did not need to be added to his useful scientific methods, for they were sufficient. I'll mention just a few things I found interesting in other chapters; it would be presumptive to try to riff upon them all.
In "What is inside a black hole?" he tells us of the deep connection between the theory of black holes and that of the Big Bang, because both involve a singularity, that is, a location in space-time where our theories cannot probe, because phenomena such as density and the dilation of the flow of time reach infinite values…perhaps. To solve one would be to solve the other.
He discusses, "Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?" he comes at the answer from a few angles, without digging much into how soon such a thing might eventuate. It is clear that the techniques called "artificial intelligence" today, while quite capable and useful, are various expressions of massive data manipulation to winkle out the answers to questions that are posed. He mentions Moore's Law, which has been bent entirely out of shape, compared to how Dr. Moore posed it: that the density of transistors that could be fitted onto a unit area of silicon seemed to be doubling every 18 months. We know that law must come to an end because there are atoms, whose very name "a-tomos" is Greek for "can't be cut". Since a transistor has to have a few layers to operate, and each layer has to have at least a few atoms, the limit to Moore's Law, as stated, will be reached before the size of a transistor has shrunk to perhaps 20 atoms. That will still take a while, as today's CPU transistors still have millions of atoms. But other effects seem to be limiting things; it appears that the Law stalled out about ten years ago. Hawking does not go into certain issues that might be necessary for a machine intelligence to become "more like a human", before becoming "more than human", such as whether intelligence has to be embodied, not just because it is running on a physical substrate of some kind, but because it gets sensory input from thousands or millions of sensors, the way our brains receive input from the tens of millions of sensors of many kinds in our own bodies.
Here and there are side questions and very short answers. I was tickled by one in the "AI" chapter:
Q: Why are we so worried about artificial intelligence? Surely humans are always able to pull the plug?His view is similar to mine, that such an event is far in the future, though he perhaps thought it to be "far" in the sense of a few decades, while I tend to believe it is more like centuries.
A: People asked a computer, "Is there a God" And the computer said, "There is now," and fused the plug.
His answer to another side question surprised me, and made me wonder if he blundered. Asked what is the biggest threat to the future of Earth, he dwelt on global warming, because it is more immediate than the threat of asteroid impact. He warns that it could lead to Earth getting a "climate like that of Venus with a temperature of 250°C (482°F)." The temperature of the near-surface environment on Venus is about 460°C (over 860°F). If Venus were moved to Earth's orbit, the difference in sunlight intensity would allow it to "cool off" to 350°C (~660°F). Apparently, the differences in the possible carbon dioxide composition of our atmosphere would reduce the effect by another 100°C. Maybe. By my own calculations, raising carbon dioxide from the current 400 ppm to Eocene levels of around 2,000 ppm would result in temperatures like that of the Eocene thermal maximum, about 8°C warmer than now. The secular increase in the sun's brightness since the Eocene, 55 million years ago, was less than 0.4%. I think that Hawking relied on material about global warming that I consider to be little better than propaganda.
On a more positive note, he believed we must colonize other places in space, first the "nearby" planets and their satellites in our own solar system, and eventually those of other stars. He does not believe that science will become a kind of static thing, as portrayed in Star Trek. Scientific progress shows no signs of slowing down, though it is evident that the "low hanging fruit" seems to have all been picked, and the "gentleman scientist" of the Enlightenment period is necessarily being replaced by ever-larger consortia of scientists working together.
By his own example, a heady mix of individual effort on his part, and intense collaboration with others such as Kip Thorne, Dr. Hawking showed a way for science to continue far into the future. And he urges us to re-emphasize the need for science education and popularization. Wouldn't it be something if the science lectures of the Enlightenment period could be resumed, and achieve similar levels of popular success? Scientists such as Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday were like rock stars in their generation, largely because of popular lecture tours. We need more rock star scientists!
Tuesday, March 05, 2019
Women writers who can really write
kw: book reviews, science fiction, short stories, anthologies, women
Science fiction has always been experimental. While fiction in general is a frequent avenue to try out ideas, "mainstream" fiction just doesn't lend itself to truly outlandish thinking the way SciFi does. The wonderful collection The Future is Female, edited by Lisa Yaszek, contains stories written by 25 female writers, and though the editor emphasizes feminism as a theme, the point of the stories is seldom feminism as such. These writers present strong, talented women, frequently among equally strong, talented men, who are in the main not intimidated nor subjugated by them. For women writing prior to 1940 (the first three stories), that is no mean feat, because of the heavy patriarchy of Western society of the time. And…not all the protagonists are women. The last story, "Nine Lives" by Ursula K. Le Guin, is focused on the interactions of mainly male characters; it explores the way a multi-clone is accustomed to live, and how he fares when the rest of the clone (his clone-mates you could say) all die in a sudden accident.
The stories were written from 1928 to 1969. I don't know if there is a companion volume or two in the works that would feature later stories. I would find that of great interest.
One of my all-time favorite SciFi stories is included, "Ararat", by Zenna Henderson. Her "People" series feature women and men with special powers (actually, shipwrecked aliens who look entirely human) who live on an equal footing among themselves, but are in hiding from the rest of the human race because of prejudice against their seemingly magical abilities. This is a common enough theme, but Ms Henderson explored it in a way much more intimate and moving than any other writer.
Another story I love more than most is "All Cats are Gray" by Andrew North (a pseudonym for Andre Norton). Here a mysterious woman is able to see a nearly invisible monster because she is color blind. I hope that is not too much of a spoiler.
There is less for me to riff upon here, because I am mostly on the outside looking in through a window. My main insight into female experience is the little I've gleaned from nearly 45 years of marriage. My wife is foreign born and raised, so I have the extra handicap of seldom knowing whether her unique viewpoint is because she is female, or arises from a different culture I know only in part. So I leave you with the stories: get the book, enjoy the book, and particularly if you are male, learn from it!
Science fiction has always been experimental. While fiction in general is a frequent avenue to try out ideas, "mainstream" fiction just doesn't lend itself to truly outlandish thinking the way SciFi does. The wonderful collection The Future is Female, edited by Lisa Yaszek, contains stories written by 25 female writers, and though the editor emphasizes feminism as a theme, the point of the stories is seldom feminism as such. These writers present strong, talented women, frequently among equally strong, talented men, who are in the main not intimidated nor subjugated by them. For women writing prior to 1940 (the first three stories), that is no mean feat, because of the heavy patriarchy of Western society of the time. And…not all the protagonists are women. The last story, "Nine Lives" by Ursula K. Le Guin, is focused on the interactions of mainly male characters; it explores the way a multi-clone is accustomed to live, and how he fares when the rest of the clone (his clone-mates you could say) all die in a sudden accident.
The stories were written from 1928 to 1969. I don't know if there is a companion volume or two in the works that would feature later stories. I would find that of great interest.
One of my all-time favorite SciFi stories is included, "Ararat", by Zenna Henderson. Her "People" series feature women and men with special powers (actually, shipwrecked aliens who look entirely human) who live on an equal footing among themselves, but are in hiding from the rest of the human race because of prejudice against their seemingly magical abilities. This is a common enough theme, but Ms Henderson explored it in a way much more intimate and moving than any other writer.
Another story I love more than most is "All Cats are Gray" by Andrew North (a pseudonym for Andre Norton). Here a mysterious woman is able to see a nearly invisible monster because she is color blind. I hope that is not too much of a spoiler.
There is less for me to riff upon here, because I am mostly on the outside looking in through a window. My main insight into female experience is the little I've gleaned from nearly 45 years of marriage. My wife is foreign born and raised, so I have the extra handicap of seldom knowing whether her unique viewpoint is because she is female, or arises from a different culture I know only in part. So I leave you with the stories: get the book, enjoy the book, and particularly if you are male, learn from it!
Monday, March 04, 2019
The religion of false peace
kw: book reviews, nonfiction, religion, islam, muslims
A friend suggested that I read Muslim: What You Need to Know about the World's Fastest Growing Religion, by Hank Hanegraaf. It led to a shift in my attitude, in two directions. We'll get to that…
Muslim examines Islam from a Biblical Christian perspective, and a sympathetic treatment of Jewish concerns. I recommend that every Christian and Jew read it. For one thing, "The peoples of the Book" are stated targets for Muslim abuse, conquest, and annihilation. But even the more, you may not be a Christian or a Jew, but if you are not a Muslim, the intention of the Muslim world is to bring all the earth under Sharia law. (Note, I leave out the apostrophes in words derived from Arabic. I can seldom remember where most of them go). Thus I recommend this book to every non-Muslim.
The author discusses the person of Muhammad, his character, and his principal actions; the Quran and how it originated; Sharia law; the principle of the Caliphate; and how the beliefs and practices of Islam square with the Bible.
To me Chapter 3 is crucial, "Sharia is State, and State is Sharia". I confess that I had fallen prey to the misleading propaganda of Islamists, and of President Obama (whom I now consider to be much more a friend of Muhammad than a "Christian"). I thought that "radical Islam" was an aberration, not supported by the Quran. I thought that the things Muslims believed were comparatively innocuous, and no threat to the rest of the world. In each case I was wrong.
Mr. Hanegraaf presents extensive quotes from the Quran, backed up by many quotes from the hadith (historical writings about Muhammad and the Quran, with many interpretations of Quran passages).
A second turn in my thinking was a welling up of enormous pity for Muslims. I think we all have heard stories of how safe it is to go about in Saudi Arabia or one of the Emirates, for example. This is generally true, though a colleague of mine was beheaded on the street in Riyadh because he wore shorts to exercise, running in public. The reason for such peacefulness is Sharia law, which is terrifying. The beheading just mentioned was carried out on the spot, by a Saudi who saw my friend running by; he just whipped out his sword and did the deed. The populace in these countries is totally subjugated by such draconian laws and practices.
In its way, Islam can be a paradise…for a man. It is much more likely to be a hell on earth for a woman. Women who want the high extremity of "protection" that Islam offers are OK with it. But the slightest infraction can be met with beating, by her husband, and if continued, her life is at risk.
I am reminded of Medieval Cathlocism, which was similarly totalitarian. In a similar fashion, the leaders lived in luxury and the populace was kept in utter subjection to their whims. The church leaders and the royalty cynically ignored the tenets of the religion that they used (and abused) to subjugate the population, but they delighted in the willing submission of many, who truly believed the religion. If anything, Islam is even more onerous, and their leaders, equally cynical.
These are just a few things I learned from reading Muslim. I suspect Muslims don't like any of them to be known by a non-Muslim. The matters discussed in the book are not hearsay. Every item is backed up by quotes from the Quran and the pertinent hadith. A few times there are citations from the biography by Sahih, but those are always backed up by references from the Quran.
What does all this mean to a non-Muslim? If you happen to live in an Islamic country, it means that, while your life may not be in danger today, one day when the political circumstances allow, your life may depend on your willingness to accept Sharia, say the "Muhammad prayer" and pay a poll tax for non-Muslims. Do or die. Countries that are currently non-Muslim may become so in the future. This is the intent of the leadership of every Islamic country, every mosque. They will not rest until no religion but Islam is to be found anywhere on Earth.
Don't take my word for it. Read Muslim for yourself.
A friend suggested that I read Muslim: What You Need to Know about the World's Fastest Growing Religion, by Hank Hanegraaf. It led to a shift in my attitude, in two directions. We'll get to that…
Muslim examines Islam from a Biblical Christian perspective, and a sympathetic treatment of Jewish concerns. I recommend that every Christian and Jew read it. For one thing, "The peoples of the Book" are stated targets for Muslim abuse, conquest, and annihilation. But even the more, you may not be a Christian or a Jew, but if you are not a Muslim, the intention of the Muslim world is to bring all the earth under Sharia law. (Note, I leave out the apostrophes in words derived from Arabic. I can seldom remember where most of them go). Thus I recommend this book to every non-Muslim.
The author discusses the person of Muhammad, his character, and his principal actions; the Quran and how it originated; Sharia law; the principle of the Caliphate; and how the beliefs and practices of Islam square with the Bible.
To me Chapter 3 is crucial, "Sharia is State, and State is Sharia". I confess that I had fallen prey to the misleading propaganda of Islamists, and of President Obama (whom I now consider to be much more a friend of Muhammad than a "Christian"). I thought that "radical Islam" was an aberration, not supported by the Quran. I thought that the things Muslims believed were comparatively innocuous, and no threat to the rest of the world. In each case I was wrong.
Mr. Hanegraaf presents extensive quotes from the Quran, backed up by many quotes from the hadith (historical writings about Muhammad and the Quran, with many interpretations of Quran passages).
- He shows that Islam is far from peaceable, that Jihad is definitely commanded against all non-Muslims. Contrary to many English-language apologetical articles stating that Jihad is primarily an "inner struggle", the great majority of jihadist texts in all Muslim literature, and particularly the Quran, explicitly demand the military subjugation of everyone, particularly Jews and Christians, and requires that any who will not submit by quoting "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet" and paying a poll tax must be killed.
- He shows that Islam is not just a religion, it is a political system that is entirely theocratic. The statement "Sharia is state and state is Sharia" encompasses it. No "right thinking" Muslim will submit to any other legal system except as a temporary measure to gain favor until that system can be overthrown.
- He presents several passages, and indicates that many more exist, in which Muhammad is given permission by Allah to engage in behaviors that other Muslims were forbidden, or that most people find abhorrent. Chief among these is his marriage, in his fifties, to a six-year-old girl, and his consummation of the relationship only three years later. Others permit slavery, particularly the taking of women as sex slaves.
- The Sunni-Shia schism is outlined in an Appendix. It is rooted in the murder of Muhammad by either one or two of his wives. It is known that Muhammad was poisoned. But who did it? According to Sunni tradition, it was a Jewish woman: Muhammad led the slaughter of some Jews, and he himself killed the husband of the most beautiful of the women. Then he raped the woman and later made her his wife. She poisoned a bowl of broth, after which Muhammad suffered greatly for about three years and then died. But according to Shia tradition, two wives conspired together, and one of them was Ashia, the "baby bride" mentioned above.
- He compares the compilation of Biblical books with that of the Quran. Thousands of early copies of Bible manuscripts exist, but none of the originals. The discipline of Literal Criticism compares all the copies of each passage so as to determine which variation is closest to the original. Interestingly, I have a book that details all the important variations in New Testament manuscripts, and none impinges on the meaning of critical doctrines of the Christian faith. As to the Quran, Caliph Uthman ordered a massive project to gather all copies of the Quran. Once his scholars had put together a definitive copy, he had all other manuscripts burned. All copies since then have been from this "official" document. This is behind the contention of Muslims that the Quran is pure, that no variations exist. Apparently, though, from other sources I've read, a number of manuscripts that were never sent to Uthman do exist. But there is no Literal Criticism for the Quran, nor could there be.
A second turn in my thinking was a welling up of enormous pity for Muslims. I think we all have heard stories of how safe it is to go about in Saudi Arabia or one of the Emirates, for example. This is generally true, though a colleague of mine was beheaded on the street in Riyadh because he wore shorts to exercise, running in public. The reason for such peacefulness is Sharia law, which is terrifying. The beheading just mentioned was carried out on the spot, by a Saudi who saw my friend running by; he just whipped out his sword and did the deed. The populace in these countries is totally subjugated by such draconian laws and practices.
In its way, Islam can be a paradise…for a man. It is much more likely to be a hell on earth for a woman. Women who want the high extremity of "protection" that Islam offers are OK with it. But the slightest infraction can be met with beating, by her husband, and if continued, her life is at risk.
I am reminded of Medieval Cathlocism, which was similarly totalitarian. In a similar fashion, the leaders lived in luxury and the populace was kept in utter subjection to their whims. The church leaders and the royalty cynically ignored the tenets of the religion that they used (and abused) to subjugate the population, but they delighted in the willing submission of many, who truly believed the religion. If anything, Islam is even more onerous, and their leaders, equally cynical.
These are just a few things I learned from reading Muslim. I suspect Muslims don't like any of them to be known by a non-Muslim. The matters discussed in the book are not hearsay. Every item is backed up by quotes from the Quran and the pertinent hadith. A few times there are citations from the biography by Sahih, but those are always backed up by references from the Quran.
What does all this mean to a non-Muslim? If you happen to live in an Islamic country, it means that, while your life may not be in danger today, one day when the political circumstances allow, your life may depend on your willingness to accept Sharia, say the "Muhammad prayer" and pay a poll tax for non-Muslims. Do or die. Countries that are currently non-Muslim may become so in the future. This is the intent of the leadership of every Islamic country, every mosque. They will not rest until no religion but Islam is to be found anywhere on Earth.
Don't take my word for it. Read Muslim for yourself.