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rebeccmeisterI'm not sure how I feel about Good Omens, having not read it, but I did enjoy this piece of fanfic that got published recently, called Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach. Amusing and well-written.
Second, this week I finally finished reading The Sting of the Wild, by my friend Justin Schmidt, that guy who is infamous for his Sting Scale where he has ranked the painfulness of the stings of various species of stinging insects. I'm going to note that I'm using the phrase "my friend" fairly loosely: I got to know Justin one or two years into my PhD because of a joint entomology conference series held by the public universities in Arizona. He and I were both regular attendees and had some fun conversations at some of the conference dinners. Fellow social insect nerds quickly become friends. Oh, and my PhD lab also worked with the USDA facility where Justin works. Small world, the world of social insect research. Anyway, Justin is great and that comes across well in his book.
Anyway. I put off reading Justin's book for a while because I was pretty sure I knew most of what was in it (and I've been reading other things). And while that turned out to be true, I did learn a number of new interesting things about stinging insects, and the book also gave me a newfound appreciation for the diversity of insect venoms. So that was a fun read. I was also amused to discover that Justin wound up rating tarantula hawk stings as being just as painful as bullet ant stings. I'm not one to go around trying to get stung by stinging insects, so I haven't been stung by either, but it's interesting to think that both types are equally painful, if in different ways.
So I would add Justin's book to the canon of popular science insect books that I'd recommend to anyone with more than a passing interest in insects.
Second, this week I finally finished reading The Sting of the Wild, by my friend Justin Schmidt, that guy who is infamous for his Sting Scale where he has ranked the painfulness of the stings of various species of stinging insects. I'm going to note that I'm using the phrase "my friend" fairly loosely: I got to know Justin one or two years into my PhD because of a joint entomology conference series held by the public universities in Arizona. He and I were both regular attendees and had some fun conversations at some of the conference dinners. Fellow social insect nerds quickly become friends. Oh, and my PhD lab also worked with the USDA facility where Justin works. Small world, the world of social insect research. Anyway, Justin is great and that comes across well in his book.
Anyway. I put off reading Justin's book for a while because I was pretty sure I knew most of what was in it (and I've been reading other things). And while that turned out to be true, I did learn a number of new interesting things about stinging insects, and the book also gave me a newfound appreciation for the diversity of insect venoms. So that was a fun read. I was also amused to discover that Justin wound up rating tarantula hawk stings as being just as painful as bullet ant stings. I'm not one to go around trying to get stung by stinging insects, so I haven't been stung by either, but it's interesting to think that both types are equally painful, if in different ways.
So I would add Justin's book to the canon of popular science insect books that I'd recommend to anyone with more than a passing interest in insects.
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Date: 2019-11-01 02:15 pm (UTC)Also, Brian (my husband) has been a low-key fan of Justin Schmidt for years! I'm a little abashed to admit I've had a copy of The Sting of the Wild on my TBR shelf for a year now and haven't read it...I keep hearing such good things. I'm glad to hear he's as entertaining a guy in real life as he seems in his work!