Wealhtheow > Recent Status Updates

Rome's baths didn't involve soap, sewage system just carried around bacteria, human waste wasn't composted or processed before being spread on farms, lived in close quarters: several huge plagues that weakened the empire

.>1500 genes in humans' innate immune system come from the time humans took up settled agriculture. Agricultural societies had more babies but also more diseases: the proportion of child and adolescent skeletons increased markedlyw

Many current diseases caused by neolithic pathogens: Hep B, Yersinia pestis, tuberculosis, measles. Then polio and mosquito borne diseases

90% of microorganisms tested from bacteria in feces can produce neurotransmitters like dopamine or serotonin. This ability is unique to bacteria that live in the bodies of animals; microbes have evolved to create chemical messengers that allow them to communicate with/influence their hosts. People w/ depression lack Coprococcus & Dialister but those are common in healthy people's guts

Infectious diseases have killed do many people throughout history that they are one of the strongest forces shaping human evolution. Estimated the viruses account for 30% of all genetic mutations since we diverged from chimpanzees. It is not the strongest or smartest humans that survive long enough to pass their DNA to the next generation, but those with the most effective immune system.

100-200 million years ago, a retrovirus infected a sperm or egg cell, the infection created the placenta which is a temporary organ that attaches to the uterus, doesn't provoke immune response from maternal system, and allows live births instead of eggs. The gene for placentas is almost identical to gene in retrovirus that produces proteins to attach to cells without triggering an immune response.

"Zie hadn't realized living with gravity would pose so many challenges. Objects kept moving on their own instead of staying where zie placed them. Nothing behaved as zie expected it to.'

Do more chapters end with Bree getting knocked out than chapters without? Has someone already counted?

Ok seriously, what part of that was Hansel and Gretel?

So is the professor in The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear a werewolf? Do she and her daughter have prophetic dreams? What??

I don't know what's going to happen in part 4 but to be honest, ending after part three would be pretty awe inspiring. Probably very dissatisfying to most readers.

Probably shades of Meg O'Keefe, there is nothing I love more than a character who overcomes illusion or mind control by knowing and accepting themselves too well for external forces to manipulate them.

Thus far this is the most standard Modesitt book of all time. The protagonist is pleasant, mild, and thoughtful. He spends most of his time experimenting and strengthening his skills. Dialog is almost entirely questions and answers. Every. Single. Meal. Is described.

"Love, I thought crossly, can be very tiresome; and, looking to the stage for some relief, found none; for, with awful purpose writ large upon their youthful faces, twenty children were there assembled, and each bore a violin."

American natives lived in fear of a powerful demon named Bahumet. Europeans offered to overthrow the demon in exchange for the lands it haunted, "the incredulous local leaders consented. Aided by mighty allies and potent magic, the Europeans successfully subdued & imprisoned the demon. Some years later, they founded Fablehaven..."
Everything about this is too vague and a little gross.

I want Desmond to pick between Steinbeck and academic style bc we get paragraphs like this, "What good is all this money when so many of us take 4 buses to work & turn cars into homes & deal with toothaches by waiting for the rot to dull the nerves & drink water we know is poisoned? We should significantly deepen our collective investment in economic stability & basic dignity, promoting a right to a decent existence-

Oh look now there's an unstoppable demon loose bc neither Ryx nor any of her allies thought to just lock up, drug, or heck just kill a guy they knew intended them all harm. DEAL WITH YOUR ENEMIES IN A TIMELY FASHION. This book is twice as long as necessary bc of these endless putting off reckonings.

Ryx please just use your full powers for once. Not doing so means you all get hurt and the psychotic mage that hates you will come after you all your life. Sometimes you just gotta suck some life energy and now's that time!

Frankly I'm with Ambassador Seimet in having little patience with Reet or his feelings when there's blood and gate physics at play.
I know it doesn't say anything good about me that my fave characters are mean Seimet and sardonic Sphene.

Also a big fan of Qven deciding eir self is a princex. I say, in a world with aliens and mechs and corpse soldiers, choose to be a princex!

"Then you wouldn't have to kill people!" said Echemin.
"I am not actually averse to killing people," Sphene said smoothly, almost as though it had just said that it was not averse to an extra cake."It's only that some of my cousins have strong feelings about it, and I would prefer to avoid trouble if I can do so at an acceptably small cost to myself."
[Followed by talk @ whether AI ships could use biological mechs]

Meetings between various ambassadors are absolutely my favorite part of this, especially when it's meetings like an ancillary ship AI talking to a giant spider in a mech. Two alien perspectives at once!

It feels like this book is finally getting underway

The funny thing about having a name is that you begin to think of yourself as a solid thing that continues to exist, instead of just a stream of experiences. And things around you too, seem to become more solid and durable... Before I learned human language, I would have been able to talk about what happened next, but it would have come across very differently.

Bashasa nodded sharply, still not making eye contact. He was flushed a little and Kai got the sudden impression that he was embarrassed by the altercation with Dasara. Embarrassed to have to show just how much raw steel lay under his affable exterior.

Summer took a deep breath. The air smelled of burning, and she was the only one who could smell it. And Lord Almondgrove had asked her to take care of his son, as if she were a grown up, or a wolf.
She straightened her back and followed the guard away, into the darkness, to find her friends.

"it is not entirely clear. Though like a dream, not like magic."
"Dragons aren't magic," said Reginald. "Dragons are *dragons*."
"I thought they were magic," said Summer.
"Magic is like rain," said Glorious. "Dragons are like mountains. Or wolves. Magic may happen to a dragon, but mountains aren't made of rain."

This "magic is an environmental threat" idea is really inconsistently applied.

Ellie and Jay are best friends but don't know basic things about each other like Ellie's real name (which she gives out casually, it's not a secret) or that Jay hates peas.

I really like this take on vampires and the Apache.