Comments on "Wild West 2.0" - How to Protect and Restore Your Online Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier" by Michael Fertik and David Thompson
Here are some disorganized thoughts provoked by reading this book.
It almost seems that the entire, at least 10,000 year, social history of human beings that happened before about the year 2000 might be thought of as something like "prehistoric," in comparison with the "Internet New Digital Frontier."
The technology described so well in this book applies mostly to the activated, up to date, and, mostly, younger population. However, this portion is truly global, very large, and is continuously and rapidly increasing.
The "Internet New Digital Frontier" society is described as "amoral," and has little or no government, and mostly limited "vigilante justice," at best.
Will this new society ever have more effective government or any religion? And where would these temporizing and self-controlling factors come from? How would they develope?
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Experimental Blog #48
Comments on "Here Is a Human Being - At the Dawn of Personal Genomics" by Misha Angrist
The author of this book, Misha Angrist, quotes others to say that, actually, the entire human genome has not been sequenced because about 7% of the 6 billion base pairs in our 23 pairs of chromosomes, for some reason or other, do not yet yield to sequencing. He does not say anything more about this fact, such as, where is all of this "refractory 7%" located on our chromosomes.
Besides that, instead of a clear "blueprint" for human life, what has been sequenced, or deciphered, of our chromosomes, is often so apparentely repititious and "mixed up", that it is a wonder how it all works, or that it works at all.
None the less, this incredible scientific achievement has led to such a deluge of billions upon billions of facts, that there seems to be as much mystery in understanding the developement of a human life and the genetic sciences as there was 20 years ago, before the genome project had really started. Various scientific experts disagree with each other on the determining importance of our genes and chromosomes.
We all begin with a single cell, the fertilized egg and its chromosomes, but to become a mature adult involves an unimaginable and incomprehensible number of factors and processes. Beyond that, an adult human life includes so much unpredictabiblty of an unimaginable number of events that the control and influence of our beginning and life long individual genomes might seem all but buried.
Besides having a PhD and postdoctoral work in genetics, the author also has a Master of Fine Arts in writing and literature.
The author of this book, Misha Angrist, quotes others to say that, actually, the entire human genome has not been sequenced because about 7% of the 6 billion base pairs in our 23 pairs of chromosomes, for some reason or other, do not yet yield to sequencing. He does not say anything more about this fact, such as, where is all of this "refractory 7%" located on our chromosomes.
Besides that, instead of a clear "blueprint" for human life, what has been sequenced, or deciphered, of our chromosomes, is often so apparentely repititious and "mixed up", that it is a wonder how it all works, or that it works at all.
None the less, this incredible scientific achievement has led to such a deluge of billions upon billions of facts, that there seems to be as much mystery in understanding the developement of a human life and the genetic sciences as there was 20 years ago, before the genome project had really started. Various scientific experts disagree with each other on the determining importance of our genes and chromosomes.
We all begin with a single cell, the fertilized egg and its chromosomes, but to become a mature adult involves an unimaginable and incomprehensible number of factors and processes. Beyond that, an adult human life includes so much unpredictabiblty of an unimaginable number of events that the control and influence of our beginning and life long individual genomes might seem all but buried.
Besides having a PhD and postdoctoral work in genetics, the author also has a Master of Fine Arts in writing and literature.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Experimental Blog #47
Comments on "Going Rogue - An Anerican Life" by Sarah Palin
In this book by Sarah Palin the author reveals a very noticable and unusual ability to recognize and describe her mistakes in a simple factual manner. Other qualities revealed are Sarah's very impressive energy and her quick recovery from setbacks of different kinds. By far the greater part of the book is very informative and persuasive about herself, her exceptional family, and the state of Alaska and its politics, both Republican and Democrat.
Sarah Palin describes herself as a "Commonsense Conservative," and it might be true that many Americans think, along with her, that more prayer, or prayerfulness, would do as much, or more, for America in the long run as any trillion dollar "stimulus package."
Only toward the very end of her book does Sarah Palin expand on her common, and questionable, belief in the "specialness" of Americans. Can it really be true that America and Americans are organically different from all the world's other people today, as well as at other times in the world's history, as she seems to suggest?
In this book by Sarah Palin the author reveals a very noticable and unusual ability to recognize and describe her mistakes in a simple factual manner. Other qualities revealed are Sarah's very impressive energy and her quick recovery from setbacks of different kinds. By far the greater part of the book is very informative and persuasive about herself, her exceptional family, and the state of Alaska and its politics, both Republican and Democrat.
Sarah Palin describes herself as a "Commonsense Conservative," and it might be true that many Americans think, along with her, that more prayer, or prayerfulness, would do as much, or more, for America in the long run as any trillion dollar "stimulus package."
Only toward the very end of her book does Sarah Palin expand on her common, and questionable, belief in the "specialness" of Americans. Can it really be true that America and Americans are organically different from all the world's other people today, as well as at other times in the world's history, as she seems to suggest?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Experimental Blog #46
Comments on "The Lost Girls" - Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World. by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C Corbett, and Amanda Pressner
Before the table of contents and the regular text of this book begins, there is a "Disclaimer." It says, in part, "we occasionally merged characters, reordered events," and "Many names ... have been changed and some of the identifying details altered..."
Whatever this means, one of the authors consistently seems more serious than the others. Another author seems prone to taking a variety of patience testing and provocative risks. The third author, perhaps, seems to sometimes alternate between her two companions. Also, at least 1 or 2 seemingly significant countries that they visited, Myanmar and, maybe, the United Arab Emirates, are completely omitted from the account of their travels.
Towards the last parts of the book the writing seems more hurried, or condensed, or perhaps, somewhat stylized.
However, seriously, overall, totally, their story of three American women, in their late 20s traveling around the world together for a whole year, is rather original and even quite thought provoking, seriously, totally.
Before the table of contents and the regular text of this book begins, there is a "Disclaimer." It says, in part, "we occasionally merged characters, reordered events," and "Many names ... have been changed and some of the identifying details altered..."
Whatever this means, one of the authors consistently seems more serious than the others. Another author seems prone to taking a variety of patience testing and provocative risks. The third author, perhaps, seems to sometimes alternate between her two companions. Also, at least 1 or 2 seemingly significant countries that they visited, Myanmar and, maybe, the United Arab Emirates, are completely omitted from the account of their travels.
Towards the last parts of the book the writing seems more hurried, or condensed, or perhaps, somewhat stylized.
However, seriously, overall, totally, their story of three American women, in their late 20s traveling around the world together for a whole year, is rather original and even quite thought provoking, seriously, totally.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Experimental Blog #45
Comments on "Extraordinary, Ordinary People" - A Memoir of Family by Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice writes that her parents were not "blue bloods." They were not members of that "caste" whose "patriarchs had been freed well before slavery ended." However, she says that her mother's family were more "patrician" than her father's family. She further writes that she apparently had 2, out of 4, white great grandfathers, one on each side of her family.
Condoleezza writes about her childhood and adolescence in Alabama and Colorado and traveling in the USA at times very emotionally, which is quite natural, of course, but, none the less, extremely well and, apparently, honestly. This book is a vital American biography and history.
Her early adult and adult years working in Washington, D.C., during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush, and at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, both before and after this time in Washington, are written in more of the same fine quality.
This book ends at the very beginning of Condoleezza Rice's most well known work in the administration of President George W Bush and the sad coincidence of the death of her father.
Obviously, there is at least one sequal to this book yet to be written.
Condoleezza Rice writes that her parents were not "blue bloods." They were not members of that "caste" whose "patriarchs had been freed well before slavery ended." However, she says that her mother's family were more "patrician" than her father's family. She further writes that she apparently had 2, out of 4, white great grandfathers, one on each side of her family.
Condoleezza writes about her childhood and adolescence in Alabama and Colorado and traveling in the USA at times very emotionally, which is quite natural, of course, but, none the less, extremely well and, apparently, honestly. This book is a vital American biography and history.
Her early adult and adult years working in Washington, D.C., during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush, and at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, both before and after this time in Washington, are written in more of the same fine quality.
This book ends at the very beginning of Condoleezza Rice's most well known work in the administration of President George W Bush and the sad coincidence of the death of her father.
Obviously, there is at least one sequal to this book yet to be written.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Experimental Blog #44
Comments on the books "The $1,000 Genome - The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine" by Kevin Davies and "Why Us? - How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves" by James Le Fanu
The first book describes the fantastic advances in DNA "sequencing", or deciphering the chromosomes of any individual living organism. It took about 10 years and cost about 2 billion dollars to "sequence", decipher, the genome, that is, all the chromosomes, of the first individual person. Now, 10 years later, dozens of individual people have been sequenced-deciphered for about 10,000 dollars, or less, each. The process has taken as little as 7 to 10 days. It is expected that the cost of sequencing an individual human genome will fall to around 1,000 dollars, or less, and take less than an hour in the not too distant future.
The author, James Le Fanu, of the second book, "Why Us?", is a British medical doctor and a well known science writer. His extraordinary and very ambitious book is all about the even more remarkable achievements of what he calls the "materialist sciences; "the single most impressive intellectual achievement of all time," of the late 20th and beginning 21st centuries, in astronomy, geology, genetics, neurology, and other sciences.
However, the author is a very sceptical thinker, and he seems most sceptical of all about the many conclusions of Darwinian evolutionary biology, based on natural selection, including the work and conclusions of Charles Darwin himself and of his many followers. The author's views seem to be that the many millions and millions of people who study, learn, and teach Darwinian evolutionary biology do not really know what they think that they know, or understand what they think that they understand, about the history of all life on earth and, especially, about human history and evolution. He also says that the Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection is not necessarily better than no theory at all.
The author explains all of these matters extremely well, clearly, and persuasively. Was it surprising, or not, that James Le Fanu's book comes without any outside recommendations?
The first book describes the fantastic advances in DNA "sequencing", or deciphering the chromosomes of any individual living organism. It took about 10 years and cost about 2 billion dollars to "sequence", decipher, the genome, that is, all the chromosomes, of the first individual person. Now, 10 years later, dozens of individual people have been sequenced-deciphered for about 10,000 dollars, or less, each. The process has taken as little as 7 to 10 days. It is expected that the cost of sequencing an individual human genome will fall to around 1,000 dollars, or less, and take less than an hour in the not too distant future.
The author, James Le Fanu, of the second book, "Why Us?", is a British medical doctor and a well known science writer. His extraordinary and very ambitious book is all about the even more remarkable achievements of what he calls the "materialist sciences; "the single most impressive intellectual achievement of all time," of the late 20th and beginning 21st centuries, in astronomy, geology, genetics, neurology, and other sciences.
However, the author is a very sceptical thinker, and he seems most sceptical of all about the many conclusions of Darwinian evolutionary biology, based on natural selection, including the work and conclusions of Charles Darwin himself and of his many followers. The author's views seem to be that the many millions and millions of people who study, learn, and teach Darwinian evolutionary biology do not really know what they think that they know, or understand what they think that they understand, about the history of all life on earth and, especially, about human history and evolution. He also says that the Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection is not necessarily better than no theory at all.
The author explains all of these matters extremely well, clearly, and persuasively. Was it surprising, or not, that James Le Fanu's book comes without any outside recommendations?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Experimental Blog #43
Comments on the books "Faces of America - How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered Their Pasts" by Henry Louis Gates and "Neurodiversity - Discovering the Extraordinary Gifts of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Brain Differences" by Thomas Armstrong
Both of these books can be said to be basically about our human heredity, our genes and chromosomes.
Henry Louis Gates's book, "Faces of America", is something like a detailed meeting and acquaintance with 12 people, 6 men and 6 women, who the author calls "extraordinary", although some people might suggest that "high, even celebrity, achievers or performers" would be more tactful and objective. All of their stories, ancestries, and genetic research are very interesting and informative. The author himself fits very easily into this select society.
The other book, "Neurodiversity" by Thomas Armstrong, is at least as educational, with its latest most up to date description of people who are rarely "high or celebrity achievers," although it does occasionally happen, because of their "different" minds and substandard abilities or dysfunctional behavior. The description of what is known of their neurological, or brain, characteristics, which are derived from their individual genomes, demonstrates how far and fast the neurosciences are advancing. And, most importantly, the author explains how their different from more "normal" brains also often have more than "normal" qualities and abilities in a variety of ways.
Both of these books can be said to be basically about our human heredity, our genes and chromosomes.
Henry Louis Gates's book, "Faces of America", is something like a detailed meeting and acquaintance with 12 people, 6 men and 6 women, who the author calls "extraordinary", although some people might suggest that "high, even celebrity, achievers or performers" would be more tactful and objective. All of their stories, ancestries, and genetic research are very interesting and informative. The author himself fits very easily into this select society.
The other book, "Neurodiversity" by Thomas Armstrong, is at least as educational, with its latest most up to date description of people who are rarely "high or celebrity achievers," although it does occasionally happen, because of their "different" minds and substandard abilities or dysfunctional behavior. The description of what is known of their neurological, or brain, characteristics, which are derived from their individual genomes, demonstrates how far and fast the neurosciences are advancing. And, most importantly, the author explains how their different from more "normal" brains also often have more than "normal" qualities and abilities in a variety of ways.
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