The 4th Wing is a good read.
I read Wonder, its pretty good.
Just finished “Into Africa” — Stanley’s search for Livingstone, missing in Africa for years. Pretty good. Recommended.
In the mid-1860s, exploration had reached a plateau. The seas and continents had been mapped, the globe circumnavigated. Yet one vexing puzzle remained unsolved: what was the source of the mighty Nile river? Aiming to settle the mystery once and for all, Great Britain called upon its legendary explorer, Dr. David Livingstone, who had spent years in Africa as a missionary. In March 1866, Livingstone steered a massive expedition into the heart of Africa. In his path lay nearly impenetrable, uncharted terrain, hostile cannibals, and deadly predators. Within weeks, the explorer had vanished without a trace. Years passed with no word.
Also finished “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation”. Had new (to me) details on well-known financial manias like the Dutch Tulip Bulbs Craze. This book might be too duplicative for those already familiar with financial bubbles.
Wow! This is a real-life page-turner. Newby writes very engagingly about her ordeal with Lyme Disease and her difficulties in getting it correctly diagnosed & treated. Book was so interesting to me that I read it one sitting — Recommended.
From the Amazon review:
While on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Kris Newby was bitten by an unseen tick. That one bite changed her life forever, pulling her into the abyss of a devastating illness that took ten doctors to diagnose and years to recover: Newby had become one of the 300,000 Americans who are afflicted with Lyme disease each year… As a science writer, she was driven to understand why this disease is so misunderstood, and its patients so mistreated. (bold added)
It took my client a trip to the Mayo clinic to be diagnosed with Lyme. She was misdiagnosed so many times in the Houston area, it’s scary. It had progressed so far she is totally disabled and will shorten her lifespan significantly
That title makes it sound like lyme disease was/is a biological weapon.
Is that what the author is asserting? Or am I reading the title wrong.
There’s a theory that Lyme was bioengineered
If you like WWII history then Silent Victory by Clay Blair Jr. is about the US submarine war in the Pacific. It’s very complete and covers every patrol by every boat.
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Here are my long-winded thoughts about that —
Author Newby strikes me as an honest & engaging science writer. She criss-crosses the country following the trail of Lyme Disease’s possible origins by interviewing researchers, attending conferences, & reading archives. She’s open, thorough, presents facts, and — when she hits a dead end — speculates reasonably.
She does not find definitive, smoking-gun proof that Lyme Disease is an intentionally or accidentally released bioweapon. She does make a strong case that we bioengineered ticks to each carry multiple, hard-to-detect pathogens. See this exchange with a key researcher on p.117—
I checked… to see if my theory was correct: “The virus lowers the antigen, so you can’t test for it?” “That is it,” he said. “So, are you saying, if you infected a … population, they wouldn’t be able to figure out what was wrong?” “Yeah.” (bold added)
This scenario — ticks carrying multiple hard-to-detect pathogens & patients testing negative — possibly describes the experience of many Lyme Disease victims: months spent in debilitating agony while desperately searching for a diagnosis. For heart-breaking examples, see the movie links at bottom.
Newby describes her own infection as being caused by 2, perhaps 3, pathogens on p.89. It took her a year, ten doctors, & $60K. Then she faced a multi-year recovery.
Her conclusion says it well: “As I left Montana, I knew that some people would find it difficult to come to terms with the stories I was putting on paper. But I also knew that only by understanding the truth can we find a way forward to fix our current problems and possibly avoid repeating these mistakes.”
Read it for yourselves, it’s a page-turner.
Separately, here are trailers & the full movie for “Under Our Skin”, a documentary about victims of Lyme Disease.
Trailer — https://youtu.be/z5u73ME4sVU
Long Trailer — https://youtu.be/sxWgS0XLVqw
Full Movie — https://youtu.be/2JgR_Jfbhv8
A look at the difficulties in treatment
Going to Spain from France was a yearly trip for us since we were kids. Back in the 70’s as soon as you crossed the border we were immediately followed by “La guardia civil”
I had friends in the Basque areas of France and Spain and friends in Catalonia. These were not good times for freedom. We still had great times despite all of the dictatorship bs. El caudillo/franco was a ruthless dictator. After WWII many nazis “relocated” to Spain.
To this day Spain is still a “fragmented” country with forever strong regional identities.
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Just finished this. Depressing to see the fighting in Crimea — today & 170 years ago. The same confusion about the other’s motives. The same suffering & bloodshed of the troops & civilians.
493 pages. Comprehensive, with the first chapters covering events leading up to the conflict and the final chapter describing the geopolitical effects of the war over the next decades.
From the Amazon review —
The Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale―these are the enduring icons of the Crimean War. Less well-known is that this savage war (1853-1856) killed almost a million soldiers and countless civilians; that it enmeshed four great empires―the British, French, Turkish, and Russian―in a battle over religion as well as territory; that it fixed the fault lines between Russia and the West; that it set in motion the conflicts that would dominate the century to come.
I learned the origin of the phrase “bite the dust” — a soldier killed in combat who has fallen face-first to the ground.
The famous Charge of the Light Brigade was by the British into a valley with Russians on both hillsides and ahead. Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote this famous poem about it —
p. 249 — during the Charge of the Light Brigade — Trooper Wightman of the 17th Lancers saw his sergeant hit: “He had his head clean carried off by a round shot, yet for about thirty yards further the headless body kept in the saddle, the lance at the charge, firmly gripped under the right arm.”
Just finished this 2010 book on the Great Financial Crisis. A sad, crazy walk down Memory Lane circa 2008. This recap of the subprime mess & AIG’s meltdown says it all…
(click to embiggen)
I believe I heard on one Tim Ferriss podcast (who has Lyme disease) that the ticks may migrate south over time and will become a national issue versus it being a big problem in the northeastern part of the United States.
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Bring it! My fire ants are ready
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Good quick read on the mess in medical costs & billing. Recommended.
Here’s a snip from a good review at the NIH — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7023959/
Makary devotes an entire chapter to reporting on the billing practices of the only hospital in Carlsbad New Mexico a town with a population of about 25,000. He and his team found that about one fifth of the town’s population has been sued by Carlsbad Medical Center. Many have had their wages garnished. Carlsbad Medical Center is part of a for profit hospital chain.
Makary then went to the courthouse in Carlsbad where he discovered that about 95% of all civil cases have been filed by Carlsbad Medical Center going after patients. He is “shocked” when the judge handling these cases told him that “My husband and I have both been sued by the hospital…”on separate occasions for different bills.” Makary then spoke with the head surgeon at the hospital who is well regarded and serves on the hospital’s board. Like most doctors he had no knowledge of the hospital’s billing practices.
The chapter on the privatization of air ambulance services increasing costs is good, too — Competing helicopter services landing at a crash site like wrecker drivers competing for a tow.
He also reports on Ob-Gyn costs including the doctor who was well-known for C-sections so he could keep a 9-5 schedule and be home for dinner.
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
I learned the Portuguese took over the Indian Ocean spice trade with terrible, savage violence.
Tidbits — The round trip from Lisbon to India was 24,000 miles and only being able to sail outside of monsoon season meant requests from India to the King in Lisbon took a year & a half round trip. The Arabs controlled the spice trade through Cairo with 500%-600% markups. The direct sea route broke that monopoly and made Lisbon wealthy. Since Ptolemy’s time, some thought the Indian Ocean was surrounded by land and could not be reached by sailing around Africa. Recommended.
From the Amazon blurb:
The discovery of a route to India around the horn of Africa was not only a brilliant breakthrough in navigation but heralded a complete upset of the world order. For the next century, no European empire was more ambitious, no rulers more rapacious than the kings of Portugal. In the process they created the first long-range maritime empire and set in motion the forces of globalization that now shape our world.