(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Keeping a place or an object secure largely consists of three elements: first, you want to discourage or prevent people from getting in; second, you want to know when they … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Anybody who’s played a rogue in Dungeons & Dragons is familiar with “thieves’ tools” as an essential item of equipment, with which one can pick locks and disarm traps. But … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In my anthropology and folklore classes I dealt with a pair of terms I think have some utility to the writer of speculative fiction: emic and etic. … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Last week’s discussion of opium leads us naturally around to another category of drugs, which is hallucinogens. These have a long and venerable history, and also a rather bad reputation … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Pain sucks. And unfortunately, we have a limited number of ways of dealing with it. Willow, myrtle, and a few other plants are naturally occurring sources of salicylates like aspirin, … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Alcohol: fun diversion, highly sophisticated art form, disgusting vice, or sensible health precaution? It’s a trick question. The answer is, all of the above. … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Our general theme for this month is drugs, but I’m going to start off with a category whose most common members are rarely thought of as drugs at all: stimulants. … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) During the periodic waves of plague that struck London in the early modern period, people noted that the best nurses for the afflicted were those who had survived the plague … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) I presume that everyone reading these essays is familiar with the basics of germ theory: that many diseases are caused by microscopic organisms such as bacteria or viruses. And probably … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Plagues are one of the more terrifying disasters human society can face. Something like a hurricane or a volcanic eruption is more destructive on a physical level, but an epidemic … Continue reading
