This is a good book if your are interested in the way science and scientific thinking has evolved over the years.


The equations are:
The Pythagorean Theorem
Newtons Second Law of Motion
Newton's Law of Gravitation
Euler's Equation
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Maxwell's Equations
E=mc2 and Special Relativity
General Relativity
Schrodinger's Equation
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle


The book introduces are German word: anschaulich, which roughly means "visualizable".
The Pythagorean Theorem is anschaulich… quantum mechanics is not. 

If you have never seen Inherit the Wind (stage play and several movies, most notably the one starring Spencer Tracy), you should. It is the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial in the town of Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. It pitted the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow for the defense against William Jennings Bryan, a two-time candidate for President and well known bible thumper.

Bryan thought that the federal government should stay out of state business, except in matters of religion.

​Other major players in the events of those days were H. L. Mencken and Thomas Henry Huxley (died in the 1890s). Huxley was Darwin's defender, and coiner of the word "agnostic" in 1869.

In reading this book, I learned a new word: sacerdotalism. Sacerdotalism is the church doctrine that one can only address god through a priest. In other words: it is a self serving argument that allows priests to keep their phony-baloney jobs. That alone made it a worthwhile read.

In 1922, the US House passed the Dryer bill making it illegal to lynch people (black people, that is). The bill died in the Senate, much to the relief of Bryan.

One of the things that struck me most about the book is how little has changed. The language of the righteous  in 1925 is very little different from that of the creationists today. They still attack evolution as "unscientific" and "ungodly".

The book covers the various players one at a time, one per chapter. The trial itself does begin until page 309.

In early 1925, Tennessee passed the Butler Bill making it illegal to teach anything the contradicts the Bible… especially evolution. Scopes was a science teacher. He was chosen to challenge the law. Scopes insisted that the out-spoken and controversial lawyer William Darrow lead the defense.      

Much of the dialogue of the plays and movies are lifted directly from the statements of Darrow and others during the trial. In the end, they lost. The judge fined Scopes $100, but that was overturned due to an error by the judge (in Tennessee, a jury must approve the fine, which did not happen).

This book documents a fight from 100 years ago that is still on-going today. As a skeptic, I see anti-evolution garbage on a regular basis. The latest battle ground is so called "intelligent design".

​Have you ever wondered how it will all end? And by "all", I mean everything… space, time, matter, light… the works.

The author is a cosmologist. She has a good sense of humor.
First… do not sweat it. The end is not due for quite some time. When it does come, months and months from now, it might come as space unraveling. If that happens, you will not see it coming (because it is moving towards you at the speed of light), and you will not notice when it arrives. Because you, along with everything else, will be gone. 
​
I was familiar with about 70 percent of the book's content. These rest was both interesting, and opaque in the sense that the conclusions come from what I assume is very deep math. So rather than summarize it, I will simply list it as a good read. It is quite approachable, even if this is the first thing you have read about the subject.

This book addresses the biggest questions we can ask, or at least many of them.

It covers a lot of ground. The author is a biochemist (and a local), and as you might imagine, the book address physics, astronomy, the history of Earth, etc. and biology, with the emphasis on biology.

It lacks an index which is a real shame. The biology sections of the book introduces many scientific words with  non-obvious definitions. I am not a biologist, and an index would have helped me get through them.

The author is aware of this and does his best to explain complex chains of actions in simple terms. He writes in a very folksy style, likes Douglas Adams, and cracks the odd pun or four.

There is little point in summarizing a book that is summarizing literally everything.

Life started about 4 billion years ago(bya). Then came LUCA, the Last Universal Common  Ancestor at about 3.5 bya. The first categories of life were  Archaea, Eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus), and Bacteria (cells without a nucleus). We are eukaryotes. Over the eons, the Earth has been molten, and then frozen, and then hot again; has had no oxygen to having an atmosphere loaded with it; gone from low CO2 to high CO2 and back, and so on. Sex was invented and evolution took off. There have been several mass extinctions in history, The Permian was the largest, and the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 mya was the last.


I finished this book, but did struggle with biology sections…. Largely because biology is really complex. Worth reading, especially if you have a little biology in your back pocket. 

​Snyder also wrote Bloodlands which I have "reviewed".

This book deal with the geopolitical statehood issues that gave rise to the Holocaust. The book makes several points that are surprising. The main point is that being a member of a state was all important in the survival of Jewish people. If you were a German Jew, your chances of survival were far better than if you were a stateless Polish Jew...stateless because Germany and Russia destroyed the Polish state.

In Hitler's mind at the end of the war was the idea that the defeat of the Nazis was brought about by a worldwide Jewish plot and, if he had only ordered the gassing of a few thousand Jews at the start, Germany's victory would have been assured. Hitler said "A people that is rid of its Jews  returns spontaneously to the natural order." "Lebensraum" was a term Hitler liked. It meant both living space  for the German people and "living room",  as in a cozy room. Hitler's quest for lebensraum was justified by racial theories. Inferior races must be displaced (e.g.: the North American Indian population).

Poland had the lions share of Jews in Europe. Both Berlin and Warsaw supported the displacement of Jews from Europe… possibly to Madagascar or, more likely, Palestine.

Anschluss with Austria was desirable for Germany, mostly because Austria had a lot of money and Germany was in need. Austria took it out on their Jewish population. Humiliation, pain and flight had come to the Jewish people… the Holocaust had started. Neighbor states did not want them.

Jews were stripped of citizenship. Stateless Jews could be mistreated as one pleased... without consequence.

An invention of Hitler was the judeobolshevik plot. There was no such plot. If you were not a Jew, you were a bolshevik, and vice verse. Labels can be used for evil. The Baltic states used this to purge (kill or  deport)  all Jews by the end of 1941. The judeobolshevik  myth was used to kill Jews, with Soviet citizens help. This was done by the einsatzcommandos (special forces). Many people would spontaneously switch sides several times as the Soviets and the Germans exchanged territory.

Who knew? This is question that has troubled me. How many Germans knew about the mass killings of Jews? Snyder said: "It is possible that many Germans did not know what happened at Auschwitz. It is not possible that many Germans did not know about the mass murder of  Jews."  Many German families got rich stealing Jewish property.

Estonia and Denmark were much alike. Both occupied  by Germany; both Baltic states; each home to a small number of Jews, and each declared Judenfrei (free of Jews). But at the wars end, Estonia had the lowest percent of  Jewish survivors and Denmark the highest.

Denmark was maintained as a state. Estonia was not.  Denmark did not border the USSR. It was deemed that the Final Solution would not be acceptable to Denmark.  On October 2, 1943, the Germans captured 401 Danish Jews. They all survived the war.


Anti-Semitism  was baked into many countries. Romania adopted Germany's Jewish laws. France enacted anti-Semitic  laws and as educated Poles were being killed in Poland, educated Frenchmen were getting jobs in the civil service to track Jews in France.

Another cold fact: from July 1944 to June 1945, the US only admitted 4,705 Jews… roughly how many Jews were gassed at Treblinka on any given day.

Of course, there were tales of enormous heroism and bravery as well. The Bjelski brothers in Belarus (see the movie Defiance with Daniel Craig) for example. Raoul Wallenburg was the most effective rescuer of Jews. He died in a Soviet prison. The church was hard to find. Only one Christian Churchman of high rank (Andrei Sheptyts'kyi) acted to save Jews.

The Roman Catholic Church took no stand on the mass murder of Jews because they felt the Jews were responsible for kill Jesus.  

One of the major conclusions of the book is the need for a Jewish state, Statehood was the key to living through WWII as a Jew.

This book is a little dry, but hugely enlightening. It certainly changed my view of the politics of the day.  It also reinforced a  belief of mine, namely that religion poisons everything. 

This book addresses the biggest questions we can ask, or at least many of them.

It covers a lot of ground. The author is a biochemist (and a local), and as you might imagine, the book address physics, astronomy, the history of Earth, etc. and biology, with the emphasis on biology.

It lacks an index which is a real shame. The biology sections of the book introduces many scientific words with  non-obvious definitions. I am not a biologist, and an index would have helped me get through them.

The author is aware of this and does his best to explain complex chains of actions in simple terms. He writes in a very folksy style, likes Douglas Adams, and cracks the odd pun or four.

There is little point in summarizing a book that is summarizing literally everything.

Life started about 4 billion years ago(bya). Then came LUCA, the Last Universal Common  Ancestor at about 3.5 bya. The first categories of life were  Archaea, Eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus), and Bacteria (cells without a nucleus). We are eukaryotes. Over the eons, the Earth has been molten, and then frozen, and then hot again; has had no oxygen to having an atmosphere loaded with it; gone from low CO2 to high CO2 and back, and so on. Sex was invented and evolution took off. There have been several mass extinctions in history, The Permian was the largest, and the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 mya was the last.

I finished this book, but did struggle with biology sections…. Largely because biology is really complex. Worth reading, especially if you have a little biology in your back pocket. 

This book addresses the biggest questions we can ask, or at least many of them.


It covers a lot of ground. The author is a biochemist (and a local), and as you might imagine, the book address physics, astronomy, the history of Earth, etc. and biology, with the emphasis on biology.


It lacks an index which is a real shame. The biology sections of the book introduces many scientific words with  non-obvious definitions. I am not a biologist, and an index would have helped me get through them.


The author is aware of this and does his best to explain complex chains of actions in simple terms. He writes in a very folksy style, likes Douglas Adams, and cracks the odd pun or four.


There is little point in summarizing a book that is summarizing literally everything.


Life started about 4 billion years ago(bya). Then came LUCA, the Last Universal Common  Ancestor at about 3.5 bya. The first categories of life were  Archaea, Eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus), and Bacteria (cells without a nucleus). We are eukaryotes. Over the eons, the Earth has been molten, and then frozen, and then hot again; has had no oxygen to having an atmosphere loaded with it; gone from low CO2 to high CO2 and back, and so on. Sex was invented and evolution took off. There have been several mass extinctions in history, The Permian was the largest, and the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 mya was the last.


I finished this book, but did struggle with biology sections…. Largely because biology is really complex. Worth reading, especially if you have a little biology in your back pocket. 

This book is old news. The BSA (Boy Scout's of America) has been on the ropes for sometime.  I have read and written about The Roman Catholic Church ands its decades long struggle with priest's raping boys.  By "struggle" I mean its ongoing efforts to bury the story, keep its money, and protect the perpetrators. But a priest only get s unsupervised access to boys for perhaps half a day, whereas a scout leader gets them for entire weekends. The BSA makes the RCC look like novices.

The book is written chronologically, each chapter moving ahead by a month or a year.  Intertwined with that account is the story of Carl Bittenbender, a serial abuser,  and Cindy Corbett, the mother of one of Carl's victims.


Carl was court martialed out of the military but had no trouble getting a gig as Scout Master. He was charged with molestation, and still had no trouble getting another Scout Master job. No one checked. They thought this sort of thing happens to other communities. They thought that the  BSA kept records, so they would catch pedophiles.  The BSA did keep records, but they were "confidential" and using them could create law trouble. The parents were happy to have the kids out of the house.

But BSA leaders wanted none of it. Checking people out costs money. They did keep files, but they would never look at them. Why? Because then they might actually know the answer to questions  like "How many records of sexual abuse does the BSA get per year?"  One person said "I do not know how many we get per year, but it is miniscule." Think about that answer. It is self contradictory.

Pedos are smart. They can spot a possible target, perhaps a troubled looking kid, or a loner, with a quick glance around a room full of boys. They are persuasive.  They work their victims slowly. They can use pot and beer to gain control ("We would not want your parents to know about this, so say nothing!").

There was always a reason why it was not the BSA's fault, or that the BSA could not afford to do this or that. When the BSA would estimate x number of assaults per year, they real number was en times that.  Other organizations like Big Brothers knew better and ran criminal checks on all their adults.


In one case, a monk (Brother Edmund) abused a boy who ultimately killed himself. Law suits followed, and two years later, he was banned by the BSA.  By 1982, a Scout Leader was being banned every eleven days.  The BSA issued a warning to its boys about mutual masturbation, saying it as wrong. They offered no such warning if an adult was involved.

One abuser was kicked out, only to let back in when a psychologist said he was cured. He re-abused.

If this book contains one message, it is that abusers cannot be cured. They need regular treatment for life. I have a lot of disdain for clinical psychology in the 80s and 90ss, but I am given to understand that the science behind it has improved a great deal since.

Carl, after years of abusing boys, was finally jailed for 30 years. He got out after 20, and died a few years later.

By the end of the eighties, the BSA was under attack. Law suits and outrage  were the harvest from years of deliberate ignorance and general all-round lying. 

I really enjoyed this book.  It is a good look at the sleazy underbelly of the snake-oil "One True Cure". And it is funny. The author has a first class sense of humor, which is rare in serious journalism.

The book has an extensive bibliography. But no index! That is weird. Computers make creating an index very easy. It is a bit of work to do it right, but it is worth it for the reader.

The narrative takes a different course than most books. Instead of telling a series of stories about seven One True Cure (OTC) promoters, the books chops each quack's tales into four pieces… roughly speaking: Getting started, the early years, the latter years, and the end. This allows you to compare each  whacko's experiences with the others over time. The down side is that is it hard to keep up with narratives like that. You lose the thread of one nut-bar and then have to pick it up again three more times.

The main players and their One True Cures are:

Larry Lytle; A laser pistol OTC
Toby McAdam: Herbal Supplement OTC
Robert O. Young: Bleach OTC
Alicia Kolyszko: Leeches OTC
Dale and Leilani Neumann: Prayer OTC
An Alien inside a human skin: MMS  (Miracle Mineral Solution) OTC

Mara-A-Lardo is mentioned many times, but only by the moniker "former game show host".

As I mentioned, I find humor injected into the serious work of journalists who are trying to get to the truth is a necessity when the truth is that these people are nuts, evil and/or self-deluded. Twenty-five  years ago (or so) I a wrote a piece on the difference between pseudo-science and proto-science. The I issues I raised in that piece, not surprisingly, cropped up constantly in this book.

Many people needlessly die in this book, and there is nothing funny about that.

Well researched, and a very fun read. But no index. If you take dietary supplements, you might find it illuminating.     

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