What I've looked up thus far for State of Wonder

Marina mentions how she had horrible nightmares whenever she went to India as a child and didn't realize until she had to go to Brazil and start anti-malarials again, what was the cause. The drug Lariam. When I was on malaria meds (less exotic than this sounds), I took plain old chloroquine and if they had adverse affects I didn't notice them between the dysentery and general craziness of being in a foreign country.

Chloroquine is a 4-Aminoquinoline and for the most part, its side effects seem benign. Itchy skin, unpleasant taste in the mouth, headache. All pretty generic and if you are in a place where malaria is prevelent, you probably feel all of the above regardless. Along with an unceasing fear you are at any minute going to shit yourself.

Lariam, or Mefloquine, was created by the army in the 1970's. It's a synthetic form of quinine, the original Malaria remedy that comes from cinchona tree bark. According to Wiki, as of 2009 Roche no longer manufactures it but you can get generic analogs still.

Although, why the hell would you want to. Take a look at these side effects: psychosis, seizures, pneumonia and abnormal heartbeat. In fact in {the website in the link says 2008 but it appears this happened in 2002}, within 6 weeks time 4 soldiers at Fort Bragg murdered their wives. Two later killed themselves. Lariam was mentioned as a possible cause.

As to why the character was taking Lariam at all, I found this on a travel website:

Generally, chloroquine is not prescribed for areas where chloroquine-resistent malaria is thriving - mainly in tropical climates. In more temporate zones, such as Argentina, chloroquine is sufficient as most areas are of no risk.

There are other options but they have other side-effects, such as doxycycline which causes photo-sensitivity (and is an antibiotic. I'm surprised it's in this list.) 

Marina mentions she is going to Manaus. Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonas, which is the largest state in Brazil. Look where this place is:

It's 2674 miles from Rio de Janeiro. It's 1200 miles from Brasilia. It's not a tiny backwater though. The population is 2 million. It looks very pretty , more than I expected, in pictures.

What I've looked up thus far for The Dead Hour

Just a mystery series based in Scotland so not a lot to look up, although I am a big Denise Mina fan girl so that's not a slight.

Still, a little geography never hurt anyone.

It was hard to find a map of Glasgow that wasn't too busy. Here's a fairly good one:

The Clyde River of course runs through the city of Glasgow. It's the third largest river in Scotland and the ninth longest river in the UK and too far down on either of those lists to probably ever come up as a trivia question.

From all of the maps, it looks like Glasgow is mostly on the north side of the river. I know some of the poorer areas (like the Gorbals, which is semi-infamous) are south of the river. Here is a whole website dedicated to educating tourists about sights to see south of the Clyde.

Paddy mentions going to St. Columbkille's Church with her mother. I wasn't familiar with this saint but evidently he's a big deal in Scotland and Ireland. According to an eponymous US church, he is one of the great saints of Ireland and the first missionary to Scotland. His name is Gaelic for "dove of the church."

Great lines from The Coroner's Lunch

Another mystery set in an exotic locale actually written by a Brit expat. Why are those Brits so damn good at this type of stuff?

Colin Cotterill lives in Thailand currently and has worked to prevent the child sex trade. Here is a link to an NPR story about him. He felt like the Laos were underrepresented in literature.

The Lonely Planet, btw, says the Lao people are some of the chillest on earth and it's a great travel destination. The story takes place in the capital of Vientiane. Here is a map:

This explains how Dr. Siri, the protagonist, is able to hear the banned Thai radio programs.

Dr. Siri is a 76 year old coroner in 1970's Laos following the communist takeover. I wish I knew more about this area. They've had their problems but obviously not as bad as Vietnam or Cambodia.

Here, Dr. Siri ponders his Communist party membership:

If the truth were to be told, he was a heathen of a communist. He'd come to believe two conflicting ideas with equal conviction: that communism was the only way man could be truly content; and that man, given his selfish ways, could never practice communism with any success. The natural product of these two views was that man could never be content. History, with its procession of disgruntled political idealists, tended to prove him right.

Just to remind us that living in a communist Utopia isn't all it's cracked up to be, Dr. Siri is awakened very early on his only day off to go dig a canal by his local Communist leader:

Community service in the city of Vientiane wasn't a punishment; it was a reward for being a good citizen. It was the authorities' gift to the people. They didn't want a single man, woman, or child to miss out on the heart-swelling pride that comes from resurfacing a road or dredging a stream. The government knew the people would gladly give up their only day off for such a treat.

....

"What happened to all the prison inmates? They used to do all this. Dig ditches, unplug sewers."

"Dr. Siri, I'm surprised at you....There's no longer any excuse for the uneducated and ignorant to be doing all our dirty work. We're all perfectly capable of lifting a hoe and swinging an ax....All our ill-advised criminal types are undergoing re-education at the islands. You know that."

...

When he went downstairs, he found two trucks loaded with drowsy silent neighbors, obviously overcome with delight. Area 29C was providing the labor for irrigation canal section 189.  

Dr. Siri gets the shaft for falling in love with the wrong chick when he received his medical training in France:

She had learned of the French Communist Party from her first lover, a skinny young tutor from Lyons....Whereas Siri had come to Paris to become a doctor, Boua was studying nursing as a pretext: she was actually in Paris to become the best communist she could be, in order to return to elevate the downtrodden masses in her homeland. 

She made it clear to Siri that if he wanted her hand, he had to embrace the red flag also. He did want her hand, and the rest of her, and considered four evenings a week, the odd Sunday, and five francs a month, cheap at half the price. At first, the thought of attending meetings that espoused the fall of the great capitalist empire made him uneasy. He was quite fond of the music of capitalism and fully expected to dance to it as soon as the chance presented itself. He'd been poor all his life, a state that he was hoping to recover from as a doctor....So it was that communism and Boua conspired to damage his hopes and dreams.... The patients adored him, and the staff at the Hotel Dieu Hospital thought so highly of him that the administration asked him to consider staying on in France...but his heart was with Boua, and when she returned to further The Cause in her homeland, he was at her side. 

...This was it. This was the team he'd inherited, the job he didn't want, the life he didn't expect to be leading.


Siri is given a ride home by his friend, the policeman Phosy (who has been "re-educated" to limited success thankfully) after he survives an assassination attempt:

The bike growled away, leaving Siri in the lane in the dark. Despite his brave words, it was still an eerie spot. Around him there were a few yellow lamps, some candles in neighbors' windows. There didn't seem to be insect noises any more at night. People wondered whether the bugs had all escaped across the river, too.

Epistemophilia: the world's biggest Jesus

PRI's Geo Quiz did a story about the world's largest Jesus statue. No, it's not in Brazil. Or Bolivia. It's in Poland. Specifically, in Swiebodzin near the German border. As Poland is a poor country, the cost has been somewhat controversial. As has the height. I guess the South Americans are a little miffed. Apparently without the crown, the Bolivian Jesus is still bigger though.

The Guardian did a story about the statue and what was interesting is that despite Poland still being overwhelmingly Catholic, some locals find the statue something of an embarrassing eyesore. Particularly the younger generation who are growing more agnostic like in the rest of Europe.

Poland needs the money so I hope it does bring tourists there. However, I'd shudder to have tacky giant Jesus casting a shadow over my backyard.

What I've looked up thus far for Bangkok 8

I'm loving this original mystery set in Bangkok. And bonus, I don't really know that much about Thailand. And I have to love a hero who falls apart and mourns his fallen partner and childhood friend by ostensibly investigating who might have stuffed that Mercedes full of drugged cobras and a python (no, really) but really by smoking dope, taking yaa baa (it's Thai meth, it literally means mad drug) and dancing with prostitutes. Original in a hero.

Yaa baa is apparently sometimes cut with caffeine because...the problem with meth is it just won't keep you awake?

Bangkok is really not the correct name of the city of course. It's Krung Thep to the locals. Bangkok was the original site chosen as the Thai capital but the King decided that a site across the river was better. The official name is officially the longest place name in the world. Translated, it roughly means this:

The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.

Apparently, if you get far enough into rural Thailand, there are people who won't have any idea what Bangkok is. Clearly the musical Chess flopping is to blame here.

Here is a map of Thailand that notes both Krung Thep and Bangkok on it.

Sonchai also mentions visiting a teak house so I went to look up some examples. And there I learned the world's largest teak mansion is in Bangkok. Most of the world's teak, alas, currently comes from Myanmar.

At one point, Sonchai eats papaya pok pok which is a dish of chilis and papayas that even the Thais can find hot. Here is the recipe. I like spicy stuff as much as anyone but papaya in a melange of chili sounds like a recipe for the most miserable vomiting experience of your life.


Sonchai also visits an old farang (foreigner, usually white) boyfriend of his mother's at Bang Kwang Prison which is also known as the Bangkok Hilton. It's about 7 miles north of the city on the Chao Phraya River. There is a lot more about this prison on the BBC's site here and here. The locals have little to no choice but I wonder about the Westerners who end up here. Did they not catch Midnight Express?

What I've looked up thus far for Faceless Killers

So, I'm winding up my holiday mystery sojourn. Some of it was at least on the heavier side, like the current one I'm reading by Henning Mankell. The overarching theme of his series is what has caused the decay of Swedish society. At least they've been successful in keeping up appearances. I think of Scandinavia in general and Sweden specifically (along with Denmark) as being somewhat Utopian. Vast social welfare networks, high literacy and a nearly atheist society. However, there are also serious problems such as human trafficking, racism and Nazi movements and increased violence towards women. Although on the last one, some Swedes dispute the meaning of that statistic, saying women are simply more likely to report acts of rape, etc. in Sweden because they are encouraged to do so which means its a positive.

(then again, the Swedes' history of collaborating with the Nazis in WWII is kind of murky so is their society really degenerating or are they fighting their way up?)

Faceless Killers is the first book in the Wallander series. The farmer who opens the story by discovering his neighbors have been murdered makes several references to the county of Skåne (which seems to be pronouned "Skoanay" according to Wikipedia.) Skåne is known to English speakers by the exonym Scania which is preferable because I don't have to mess with the crazy Swedish diacritic. And speaking of Scandinavia, that's where the word comes from.

Scania is the Southernmost county in Sweden. Its seat is Malmo (where the Oresund Bridge now connects Sweden to Denmark although the ferry they mention in the book still exists.) It's small but contains ~13% of Sweden's total population-which makes sense when you look at a map.

Wallander is based in Ystad which is on the Southern coast. According to Wikipedia, it's small. Like 17,000 people. Curious to read a mystery set in a fairly obscure place. According to Forvo.com, it is pronounced "ee-stad" with a soft "d." If you Google Ystad, btw, you invariably get references to Wallander. A whole tourism industry is set around him. Also, Ystad is apparently very picturesque and one of the best preserved old towns in Sweden.

Epistemophilia: quasars and the Catholic Church--both destructive in their own way

So, I was listening to an Astronomy Cast recently about quasars. Here's the thing--I never really understood them. Typically people say something like, "Well, no one does." And this is on the happy occasion that I'm talking to someone who knows what a quasar is, vaguely.

Yes, I know it stands for "quasi-stellar object" or, originally, "quasi-stellar radio srouce" because it was first discovered by radio telescopes in the 1950's and the energy looked like a star but it was red-shifting like a galaxy. The degree of red shift indicated it was moving away from us very fast. Now they are considered high energy galactic nuclei. Wikipedia says that a galaxy hosting an AGN (active galactic nucleus) gets its radiation from the supermassive black hole at its center (I also learned that astronomers originally referred to these as "angry monsters." I like it.)

Wait, does this mean the Milky Way is an active galaxy? We have a supermassive black hole too. NASA says no. An active galaxy is any that emits enormous amounts of energy (xrays, gamma radiation, etc.) caused by an object at its center. I guess we don't emit enough. I expect that's a good thing, to understate.

So, quasars and black holes aren't the same thing, y/y? Correct. The current thinking is a quasar has a spinning black hole at its center. This site explains it well. The intense luminosity comes from gases in the accretion disc. All of the energy in a galaxy added up would equal one of the brighter quasars. They say a large star would have had to collapse to create its black hole.

Ok, on to something completely different. Nicaea. I heard it mentioned recently in a story about the Crusades and I realized I didn't know wtf it actually is. Greece? Turkey? Syria?  It's Turkey, Western Turkey. The town is now called Iznik. It was the capital of the eponymous Empire. One of the Byzantine emperors hid there during the Fourth Crusade-the one where Rome illogically decided to attack Constantinople in 1204. The Catholics then formed the Latin Empire which lasted until 1261. The Byzantines returned to power Michael VIII but Byazntine fell to the Turks under the rule of Constantine XI.

All good preparation for when  I eventually get around to reading Lost to the West.

In A Corpse in the Koryo, Inspector O meets a Finnish/Chinese prostitute named Lena who is also an intelligence operative living in North Korea. The obvious question as to why the hell anyone would live in North Korea on purpose is never addressed. But she mentions growing up on the shores of Lake Keitele in Finland. It's a lake in what Wikipedia says is central Finland (it looks like southern Finland to me.) Alas, I couldn't find anything really interesting about it but it's pretty. Here is a painting of it by a (surprise!) Finnish painter from 1905. The blue of the Scandinavian Cross in the Finnish flag is said to represent the many lakes of Finland.