Reviews and Comments

An interesting look at the history and impact of the barcode upon society. Starting out as a way to quickly and accurately input product information into cash registers, its usage would become ubiquitous as a way to track inventory. Despite the rise of the QR code (a two-dimensional form of barcode), the traditional barcode is still widely used due to business inertia.

The book starts with the invention of the cash register as a way for businesses to keep track of items being sold and the money being handled. As the number of transactions grew, the need to automate the cash register became imperative. The barcode was invented and patented as a way to automate number entry, but the technology was not there. It was only when the laser scanner was developed would the technology to scan barcode entries become available.

A committee was set up to decide on what should be used to label products. The barcode that we know was not the first choice: that was a circular code, and the choice of a linear barcode may have been due to some internal politics. With the choice of barcode done, the task was then to get businesses together to decide on a common standard for the data encoded by barcodes.

The usage of barcodes was not inevitable. Consumer and workers unions opposed the use of barcodes, for they reduce user choice (individual pricing as opposed to shelf pricing) and the job losses due to automation. Businesses pushed back, but it would be many years before barcode usage would grow to the point where its use would be ubiquitous and objections would begin to die down. But one group would continue to oppose the use of barcodes, religious groups who believe that barcodes are the 'mark of the devil'.

The book also looks at the appearance and influence of the barcode in society. Films like "The Terminator" would use barcodes as a shorthand for oppression (humans are barcoded by the machines). In politics, the barcode would feature as a political point when George H.W. Bush was portrayed as out of touch with the public due to his reaction to seeing a barcode reader in action (a false portrayal, it would later turn out).

The book closes with a look at QR Codes, which are two-dimensional barcodes. The difference between QR codes and barcodes is what the encoded information represents. Barcodes encode a number which references an item in a global, central database. QR codes directly encode the data and do not have to reference a central database. QR codes were also first developed and popularised in East Asian countries (Japan and China). It would require COVID-19 restrictions for QR codes usage to grow in other parts of the world.

A short but fascinating book on viruses, by a science writer with the art of making complex subjects easy to understand. It is divided into several sections, each containing essays on an aspect of viruses in general.

The introduction looks at the history of viruses with the discovery of the first virus known to man, the Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Initially though to be a contagious fluid, and then living protein, it is only when technology got good enough that viruses could be seen, as packets of RNA or DNA contained in a protein capsule.

The first section looks at viruses that have been 'companions' of mankind for a long time: the Rhinoviruses (which causes the Common Cold), Influenza and Papillomavirus. He explains how they invade and take over our cells, causing the cold, the flu and even cancerous tumours.

Next, he looks at bacteriophages, viruses that attack bacteria, and how therapies combining both antibiotics and bacteriophages may be able to treat hard-to-kill bacteria that have grown immune to antibiotics-only treatments. Marine virus are then examined, showing that the oceans contain vast numbers of them than we are only now starting to recognise. Retroviruses (viruses that have become part of human DNA) are then looked at. While most are now harmless, one protein produced by a retrovirus in our DNA would prove to be important: it produces the protein that is a vital part of the mammal placenta.

The next section looks at what is in store for us as development and climate change causes disruptions, and it is not a pretty picture. HIV (and AIDS) is one example of an animal virus that spilled over into humans, causing massive suffering over the decades. The West Nile Virus is a virus that targets birds, but can end up killing humans because the mosquito, which spreads the virus, does not discriminate when feeding. And COVID-19 shows what can happen when humanity is not prepared for a virus that can cause a rapid global epidemic. Finally, he looks at the question of what to do with the last stockpiles of smallpox virus, one of a few viruses that man has managed to eliminate from the world.

The epilogue looks at what we still don't know about viruses. The discovery of giant viruses (the mimivurs) shows that viruses are not necessary tiny containers of DNA or RNA. And the question of how life began and how viruses may have played a part in cells becoming alive is yet to be answered.

An average issue with some weird stories. The ones I enjoyed were by Philip Fracassi and David Cleden.

• "Orange Slab" by Ashley Stokes: a weird fiction piece about moving a large piece of orange slab from the house of a person who believes in conspiracies. Only this time, the purpose and place where the slab, which feels alive, is to be moved too might not be a conspiracy this time.

• "The Astral Key" by Philip Fracassi: a group of people wake up in an unfamiliar place, to be told that their consciousness have to 'projected' into a game, and only one of them may find the key to win and escape, while the rest lost and may die. A 'cheat' happens at the end of the game and, the eventual winner may not have won the expected prize.

• "Dawnies How the World Is (Dictated)" by Rachael Cupp: on interpreting the words of a girl who misses the world after the apocalypse.

• "Learning to Fall" by David Cleden: a person selected to climb a very tall construction hides a fear from his fellow climbers. But when an unexpected event happens during the climb, he may have no choice but to overcome his fear.

• "Mirrored" by Corey Jae White: an influencer suddenly discovers online posts by him in places where he's never been. He is determined to find out who is taking over his online life. But the answer may not please him, unless he can find a new life to lead.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Rocío Vega, Somto Ihezue and Wang Zhenzhen.

• "Bodyhoppers" by Rocío Vega, translated by Sue Burke: in this story, a person's consciousness can be stored while they bodies are 'rented'. But some personalities get deprived of their bodies by a company and become outlaws, hopping into stolen bodies. One personality hops into a body and immediately runs away for a secret rendezvous, hoping to meet up before the company finds them, again.

• "King of the Castle" by Fiona Moore: set in a post-civilization collapse world, one person still seeks to become a leader to be feared in a village. But can this be done, when the village has moved on and prefers cooperation among its members.

• "We Begin Where Infinity Ends" by Somto Ihezue: a story about two boys and a girl who come together over a dream to save fireflies by using technology to make the environment better for the fireflies. Wrapped up in this tale is also a story of a blossoming relationship between them that leads to conflict and mixed feelings, but ends with a deeper and loving friendship between them.

• "A Planet Full of Sorrows" by M. L. Clark: a group of explorers discovers the remains of an alien city on a planet, sparking a race between different groups of human zealots eager to claim (and destroy) the city to further their on cultish agendas. The only way to save the city may be for the explorers to think out of the box, and consider what their recently dead and unorthodox crew member might do in this situation.

• "The Hanging Tower of Babel" by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan: a son is taking care of his father, who was one of the people who helped build a space tether from the earth into space. But living in space has caused his father to suffer from an early form of Alzheimer’s, and an economic downturn has made the tether uneconomical and may now be partially dismantled. Now, the son has to figure out how to take care of his father's deteriorating mental state, while preserving his legacy.

• "Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five Regents" by Louis Inglis Hall: a story about five minted coins and the person who made them during a time of upheaval and the (violent) changing of rules of the city.

• "Celestial Migrations" by Claire Jia-Wen: a story about the migration of celestial creatures, mixed in with the yearly migration of people studying creatures back to their homes.

A fascinating book about numbers big, small and infinite, and how they relate to physics, astronomy, cosmology, history, and culture.

The book start with big numbers. Some people may be familiar as the googol, but there are numbers even bigger, like Graham's Number, which is so big that attempting to put even the beginnings of the number into a volume the size of the brain would result in the 'Black Hole Head Death'. Why that happens leads to an introduction to entropy, its relationship with information, information storage in a black hole, and the holographic principle.

Then, it is on to small numbers, starting with zero and why it took so long for zero to be accepted as a number. Then it is on to smaller numbers, like 0.00000000000000001 which is interesting, because it is the difference between the actual and expected mass of the Higgs boson, leading to still unanswered question in quantum physics about the expected vacuum energy or why the constants of the universe are the values they are.

Finally, it is on the infinity and the difficulties it caused to people trying to imagine such numbers and how to act them. When infinities appear in physics, it is a sign of trouble. Quantum physics, once again, has its troubles with infinities, and it would need insights to handle them.

A fascinating book about bees (and occasionally other arthropods) that looks at their behaviour and possible intelligence. Using research done by others or conducted by his team, he shows that bees are not automatons with preprogrammed actions or behaviours, but are individuals that can learn and act on their experiences of the world around them.

The rest of this review looks at each chapter of the book and what it has to say about bee behaviour and thinking.

In "A Poor Sense of Direction", the author looks at how bees navigate their environment and contrasts this with his own poor sense of direction. Despite the bee's small brain, bees have a remarkable sense of direction, able to use clues (visual, electrical, touch, etc.) to guide them towards flowers and back to their hives. Experiments to alter these clues (moving objects placed around the hive and flowers, for example) show how bees rely on these clues to get around. As flying takes a lot of energy, bees have an incentive to optimise their flight paths to get food efficiently: experiments show how bees converge on optimal flight paths after a few trips.

"The Fragrance of Déjà vu" looks at how bees (and other social insects) can recognise and learn from one another. The bodies of bees give off odours, a mixture that consists of their queen's odour, the food and their environment, that can be used to identify bees to each other. Social bees can be less discriminating, allowing hives to be put close together with some mixing of worker bees. In extreme situations, this odour discrimination can be lost, giving rise to 'supercolonies' with many individual queens and workers mixing together (like the massive Argentine ant supercolonies now found in Europe). In contrast, some wasp species can use visual (facial) identification to identify members of their family. Being social insects, bee can also learn from one another. Through experiments, it has been shown that bees that observe other bees perform an action (gather pollen, solve a problem to get a reward) can learn from the observation and perform the same actions, or improve upon it.

"The Limits of a Miniature Intelligence" looks research done on the bee's brain to figure out how it is organised and what it can do. Experiments with stimuli show that bees can be conditioned to associate actions with stimuli to get a reward (like Pavlov's dogs). Bees are also shown to be able to count and even understand the concept of zero. Interestingly, research on wasp that have a social hierarchy show that they are able to infer the order of non-adjacent patterns (if A > B and B > C, therefore A > C). Like another intelligent animal (us), bees (and insects) can also have moods. Flies denied mating choices, for example, tend to feed on alcoholic food, just like depressed people. Bees also have a good sense of self and are able to judge which holes they can fit through. Bees can also know what an object feels like in the dark after being show the object in light (without touching): an impressive test of imagination.

"The Superorganism" looks at how a hive can become more intelligent than individual bees via the 'wisdom of the crowd'. When social bees need to find a new place to build a hive, scouts go out to look for possible locations and return. They then perform actions that indicate the suitability of the location. But while this is happening, other scouts also go out and return with their own location information. These scouts either enhance or inhibit the actions of the earlier scouts, leading to their signals being depressed or enhanced. Once a particular location has the support of many scouts, the decision is made. The hive intelligence also arises because bees are individuals: some bees are very efficient at gathering from some kinds of flowers, while others are not as efficient but are generalist gatherers. This allows the hive to thrive in good times (when some flowers are readily available) and bad times (when there are fewer good flowers but more of many kinds).

"Achilles' Tarsus" looks at the effects insecticides, pollution and poor nutrition can have on bees. Since the brains of bees are small, only a few neurons need to be damaged to alter the bee's behaviour for the worse. Like humans, bees need a varied diet, but the use of bees to pollinate only one type of plant at a time in agriculture causes nutritional problems. These problems can be minimised, but it needs public education and awareness to make people aware of these problems and to convince people how remarkable bees are and what they can do for us and the environment.

A funny and interesting book that makes fun of the usual fantasy tropes about good (White) and bad (Dark) Wizards, heroes, princesses, goblins and villages. The protagonist, Gav, wakes up in a room filled with dark wizarding material, with no memories of how he ended up there, and expects to be tortured by a returning Dark Wizard. Only, it turns out that he is the Dark Wizard, Gavrax, in a castle with goblins, a grovelling man servant, and a princess that he captured. Now he just has to figure out how to be bad and what he's supposed to do.

Acting out the role of a Dark Wizard, and hoping nobody else notices that he hasn't a clue about what he is doing, Gav realises that whatever it was Gavrax did to become a Dark Wizard, Gav's heart isn't in it. But not being bad is harder than it looks, especially when people have expectations of what a Dark Wizard does, which Gav no longer wants to do. It doesn't help when it turns out that the princess he captured has a role in a dark spell that he and a group of other Dark Wizards will perform in a few days time at his castle, and in a midst of a garlic festival in the village below the castle. Throw in a horde of heroes that is on the way to rescue the princess, and mayhem ensues.

In the end, Gav would need the help of the princess, the goblins and the villagers (who have a fatalistic viewpoint due to the presence of Dark Wizards) if he is to thwart the spell and have a chance to save himself and the others.

A story that centres on librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle as she goes about solving murder mysteries in her small town; until a murder gets personal for her. At that point, the story segues into fantasy as a demonic character reveals that it wants her to solve this murder mystery, too.

At this point, Sherry, and the reader, might start to notice many strange things about the small town, like why there are so many murders there, why she can solve them better than the local sheriff, or why the town seems to lack certain modern amenities. Also, her cat suddenly develops a voice, and would guide her in her investigation and in how to break the demon's hold over the town and its people.

An intriguing premise, but the execution of the story could have been better. The demon's power and restrictions over Sherry are never really stated, making the reader (and Sherry) guess what she can and can't do. One of the things she can do would lead her to discovering who the real murderer is. But the reader might not have a fair chance of deducing this before Sherry as a vital clue is not fully revealed, although hints are there, in hindsight. This reader was able to deduce that one suspect was not the murderer only moments before Sherry reveals this.

Still, an interesting story with hints of more stories to come involving Sherry as her investigative powers are more fully revealed in the end in a side-story that involves her from an event from years ago that proved to be pivotal in causing the demon to become interested in her.

An interesting collection of stories by John Wyndham, better known for his SFF novels that involve ordinary people being thrown into extraordinary situations, some of which can be found in these stories. The stories range from the mildly fantastic to truly fantastic, with one murder mystery at the end. Some stories are dated, but others would not look out of place in a current-day anthology.

• Technical Slip: a dying man is offered a chance to live a whole new life. Only, there is a technical slip that must be resolved after the offer is accepted.

• A Present from Brunswick: a mother receives an unusual musical instrument from her son. Upon playing, it has an effect on others that results in the repeat of a fairy tale.

• Chinese Puzzle: a family in Wales receives a foreign egg sent by their son from China. When it hatches, it reveals itself to be an unusual creature that becomes a local curiosity. Only, one person does not believe what it is and sets out to disprove it, setting up a confrontation that would have an unexpected resolution when yet another creature appears.

• Esmeralda: the star of a flea circus would get caught up in a love triangle in a circus.

• How Do I Do?: after a break-up, a woman impulsively visits a fortune-teller. But what she reveals about the woman's future would turn into an unexpected trip and a meeting with a person she would least expect to meet.

• Una: a story of a spotting of unusual animals in a town, which leads two members of an animal rights group to a laboratory. There, they find unusual sights, including one named Una, who takes a liking to one of the animal rights persons, with rather hilarious, and ponderous, results.

• Affair of the Heart: two people have been meeting at a restaurant on the same day for many years. One is a woman who, when young, married a soldier who died during the war. The other was the soldier's companion, who every year asks her to marry him now. But this year, the woman's "No" to the companion would take a different meaning when a person, skilled in the art of reading the lips of others, decodes what her "No" really means.

• Confidence Trick: during an underground train journey, a small group of people suddenly find themselves making a journey to a different underground area. Things look grim until one of the members states his disbelief. Later on, that disbelief would go on to create even more trouble.

• The Wheel: a young boy horrifies a family when he creates a work of the Devil. His grandfather would explain what to him what he did, what may now happen, and how the future might be.

• Look Natural, Please!: a groom wonders why studio photographs of wedding couples always have a fixed smile. Convinced he can do better, he sets up his own photo studio with his own ideas on portrait photography to wide acclaim. But as the years past, others now question his style.

• Perforce to Dream: a new author submits her first novel, only to learn that another has also submitted a similar story. The story came to her in a dream, and apparently it was the same for the other author. The mystery deepens when a play is announced that is also similar. Only when a crisis occurs at the play is the mystery resolved.

• Reservation Deferred: a young girl is dying and is looking forward to going to heaven. Then one day, she is visited by a ghost and asks the ghost how heaven is like. Sadly, the ghost's descriptions of heaven don't match her expectations.

• Heaven Scent: a chemist discovers a scent that turns any woman in a heavenly presence to any males who smell it. But his unnoticed secretary would have other plans for it.

• More Spinned Against: the wife of a man who is fascinated by spiders discovers an unusual spider in his collection, which is revealed to be Arachne, the mythical mortal turned into a spider by Athena. Arachne makes a deal with the wife for freedom for a day. But what she does with the freedom would upturn the wife's world.

• Jizzle: a talented monkey is discovered by a man who works at a circus. He puts the monkey to work, making him wealthy. But the man's wife is displeased with the monkey, and things turn ugly when the monkey uses her talent to turn the wife away. The man then sells the monkey away, but his troubles are not over when the monkey makes use of her talent for revenge on him.

• The Curse of the Burdens: a family and their house live under an apparent curse, which causes each member of the family to die under strange circumstances, until only one man is left. Then, the man disappears, and a search is conducted by his fiancée. But the trail may lead through the fiancée's father and involved others who are investigating the murders and his disappearance.