1493

E-mail from library: "Snuff has arrived!" (Pratchett's latest.) I go down to get it. On the counter is 1493 by Charles Mann, author of 1491 on pre-Columbian America. I grabbed that. And it's due in a week without renewals, so for once a new Discworld novel can wait. 1493 is on "the world Columbus created", particularly the biological/ecological Columbian exchange of species. I think I saw a reviewer say "isn't this stuff every educated person already knows?" but so far the answer is "no, it's far more detailed". It also points out analogies to modern globalization: if you have a city with people from four continents, it might be Mexico City in the 1500s; if you have Japanese loggers in Brazil, it might also be the 1500s.

Some highlights so far:

( longish )

The beaver would be hunted to near extinction, and replaced as natural engineer by the European earthworm, the long term effects (climax ecology) of which are still unknown. In the short term it can in a few months suck the leaf litter into the soil, killing off plants and animals which depend on litter instead of soil for food. Deforestation and plowing would do their part for pro-European terraforming of America as well.

Webcomics: Skin Horse and Narbonic

A couple nights ago I started in on the Skin Horse archives, and finished yesterday and added it to my comic list.

After that, I figured I should give Narbonic another shot... like the third shot. Should see where Artie came from, right? I got past the really early art, but, I dunno, still don't care much. Partly not caring about the characters, partly all the interruptions of fan art or haiku or now, fan fiction. And I'm getting it easy, 5-6 strips a page normally... except when the funky stuff starts, then there's a splash/title page, and another page per part, and I just want to get back to the story, such as it is.

Oh right, a comic jumping menu bar. I should use that.