Experimental Blog #53

Comments on "Living History" - by Hillary Rodham Clinton

"Where the lights are brilliant the shades run deep" and "Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind" are two aphorisms, the first one of unknown origin, the second one biblical, that could apply to Hilliray Rodham Clinton.
Hillary Rodham's first political activism was as a "fearless and stupid," she says, 13 year old volunteering for a Republican Party investigation for vote fraud in the 1960 election. She knocked on doors, alone, in a poor South Side Chicago neighborhood, and in one day, or less, uncovered at least a dozen apparently fraudulent voter registrations.
However, Hillary Rodham was "obviously" born to be, not a Republican, even a liberal one, but a very partisan Democrat, which she easily became when she met William Jefferson Clinton in 1970 at about 23 years of age.
Among other things, Hillary's book succeeds in making Bill Clinton a forgivable and likable human being, a naturally very sympathetic and charming man, who was, perhaps, beguiled and seduced by almost unlimited audulation and power to the point of losing his "better judgement," at times; actually a very common occurence. "Birds of feather flock together" is another aphorism that seems very appropriate to describe Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Many of Hillary's finest moments and speeches occur when she is working and speaking for children's and women's causes. It seems safe to say that Hillary Rodham Clinton was likely the most visible, influential, and controversial American First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. She makes people think, and how can she do that without being controversial, or even offensive, at times.
However, Hillary shows her most narrow-minded and intransigent side near the end of this book when she expresses her views on the outcome of the stalled election of the year 2000. Here she seems most clearly incapable or unwilling to understand other people's different points of view.
How would she react to the opinion that Richard Nixon was, and so far remains, arguably the most significant and critical American President since Franklin Roosevelt, in spite of having acquired very early in his career the nickname "tricky Dick," and his several public "poor Richard" performances?
In the modern scientific age we may no longer be punished for our "sins," but we are all punished for our "stupidity", and it all turns out to be more or less the same in the long run.
Now, after having been a United States Senator from New York for 8 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton is our American Secretary of State. Her career continues, and she will surely write another book, or books, in the years ahead.

Experimental Blog #52

Comments on "Dreaming in Chinese" - Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language by Deborah Fallows

Some books come with many recommendations, and, sometimes it seems that they need them, for some reason or other. This book has 7 recommendations, but it does not need any such authoritative defenses. The author, Deborah Fallows, is a very impressive linguistic scholar. For outsiders, her little book is a very engaging introduction to the mysteries of the spoken and written Chinese language.
Among other things, this little journey into the Chinese language and people shows what differences and similarities 5000 years of continuous history and vast, or maximum, linguistic differences have produced among the hundreds of millions of Chinese people, and many of the other people of the world as well.
If these comments were authoritative, they might be an 8th recommendation.

Experimental Blog #51

Comments on "The Next Big Story" - My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities by Soledad O'Brien with Rose Marie Arce

Most people probably know the author of this book, Soledad O'Brien, as the well-known, always charming, news anchor and special correspondent. Not surprisingly, she has always been an exceptionally high achiever. Soledad is a graduate of Harvard University, as well as are all 5 of her high achieving sisters and brothers. Page after page of this book relate her seemingly inexhaustible energy, optimism, and successes.
Soledad O'Brien's stories about her family and hometown, and her reporting about the different news networks where she has worked, and about all kinds of people, such as Lou Dobbs, another news anchor and Harvard graduate at her workplace, are extremely interesting.
Most of all, however, she seems to concentrate on the events of Hurricaine Katrina and the massive earthquake in Haiti in January 2010.
She generally seems disappointed with and is disparaging about the efforts of the American government. However, it also seems that the nature of the American government and political solutions must derive from American sources; they can not be imported, at least for very long.
America has its own "political philosophers", such as, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, to mention only 3. The best description, or most dependable in the longest run, of American government seems to be Abraham Lincoln's; that is, the conveniently somewhat ambiguous, "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." This description can impose limits on those people who want more American government as well as on those people who want less government.

Experimental Blog #50

Comments on "When a Billion Chinese Jump" - How China Will Save Mankind - Or Destroy It by Jonathan Watts

Right near the beginning of this book this British author, Jonathan Watts, declares that his book's "structure is polemical rather than geographic." The book is highly praised; there are 10 recommendations from other authors or executives of organizations of public education or opinion. However, the author's writing should not be accepted without any criticism, such as, he seems so determined in his polemic, or disputation, that he often gives the impression that he is contradicting himself, even if that may not be more strictly true. His stated "facts" are occasionally controversial, such as, he says that China has 3000 years of continuous history, the world's longest, while other authorities have usually, or often, given 4000 years, or even longer, for this figure. The author twice, first in the text and again in the end notes, seems to report, without sufficient comment, that China has converted carbon dioxide into hydrogen!

However, in spite of this frequent, or even continuous polemical overstating, this book is a very informative tour of some of China's provinces and territories and China's immense significance and problems, both for itself and for everybody else too.

Experimental Blog #49

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

Experimental Blog #42

Comments on "Jimmy Carter" by Julian E. Zelizer

This book is a brief, but concise, account of the life and political career of Jimmy Carter, who rose quickly to the American presidency to some extent because of the disillusionment of American voters with the Washington establishment and political system. However, in spite of very high public support and expectations and initial public relations successes, it seems that the Carter administration was overwhelmed by an exceptional number of domestic and foreign problems and crises, few of which it dealt with very successfully in the last 2 years of President Carter's one term.
At 56 years of age, Jimmy Carter became one of the youngest of American ex-presidents. In the 30 years since that time he has participated very productively and helpfully, although sometimes controversially, in solving many of the world's problems and events.
It is especially stimulating to read about those times and events of the Carter presidency and to think about them again.

Experimental Blog #41

Comments on the books "The Greater Good" - How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism by Claire Gaudiani and "After the Fall - Saving Capitalism from Wall Street - and Washington" by Nicole Gelinas

The first book, written "before the fall" in 2003, is all about the history and necessity of the philanthropy of the wealthier Americans, and especially the most wealthy of them. This very American practice of giving to, endowing, and founding of hospitals, libraries, museums of many kinds, housing projects, universities, colleges and other schools of all kinds, advocacy organizations of any kind, and whatever else people thought of makes America what it is, and provides an example to the rest of the world.
Private funding seems to have almost always led the way in everything in America except for purely government functions, such as the military and prisons.
The whole history and ongoing process of American philanthropy, and that it must be continued, might be described as "Voluntary American Socialism."

"After the Fall" by Nicole Gelinas was written in 2009, and is all about the"meltdown" of the world's financial markets in 2008. The details and technical vocabulary are very difficult for an outsider to understand.
However, it seems possible that the government regulation of American industry and finance, that was largely constructed by the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt, effectively lasted about 50 years, but became irrelevant and ineffective during and soon after the presidency of Ronald Reagan, actually a few years before the downfall of all the Marxist-Socialist governments in Europe.
Near the end of the Reagan presidency the American government began a policy of "propping up", or saving failing American corporations, banks, and other financial institutions that were considered "too big to fail." This policy was continued by all succeeding administrations.
Meanwhile, Wall Street financial firms began "securitizing" and "tranching", that is classifying securities in order of risk and expected return, all kinds of debt and credit in as many ways as possible.
Among other things, all this "propping up" of banks and other financial firms that were considered "too big to fail," and "securitizing and tranching", and who knows what else led to the illusion of the absence of risk and the certainty of profits. Some financial executives took huge bonuses based on profits that had not yet been made, since they would save or make so much money for their companies, including firms that were receiving billions of dollars to "prop them up" from the federal government.
The author says that even Nobel laureates in mathematics were working for some of these firms, and were providing the complicated equations.
"Financial Armageddon" arrived in 2008, and so did one "panicky bailout" after another for financial firms considered "too big to fail". Nicole Gelinas writes that all of these "bailouts" are unpopular with the public, and that the public will eventually have its way.

Experimental Blog #40

Comments on "Cro-Magnon - How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans" by Brian Fagan

This very prolific anthropologist and author, he has written 23 other books besides this one, provides documentation that the scientific revoultion of the late 20th and early 21st centuries also occurred in paleoanthropology.
The author's thorough acquaintance with and careful explanations of the new revolution producing sciences of paleoclimatology and molecular biology together with his gifted persuasive imagination create descriptions of something like the real histories of Neanderthal people, who were human, but not surviving today or anatomically modern, and Cro-Magnon people, modern and very much surviving.
These excellent, vivid and persuasive descriptions, along with those of even earlier people, cover tens and hundreds of thousands of years.

Experimental Blog #39

Comments on "Pandora's Seed" - The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization by Spencer Wells

The author of this book, Spencer Wells, seems to be a very accomplished American anthropologist and geneticist who also writes very informatively and persuasively. His book is full of stimulating information in paleohistory, genetics, and quite a few other subjects.
For instance, scientists can now find out that about 10,000 years ago, or about 350 generations, the human population began to dramatically increase and undergo an enormous genetic differentiation in hundreds of places on our chromosomes. The author writes that these changes occurred in conjunction with the developement of agriculture, that is, the domestication of land animals and plants.
The author also describes how until about 10,000 years ago, people died most often from "trauma", that is, injuries from hunting or other accidents. However, by about 7,000 years ago, most people died from infectious diseases, acquired from their domesticated animals and from each other in their large permanent settlements. Today, for the first time in human history, most people in the world are now dying from chronic non-infectious diseases of "genetic maladaptation" in origin. Even mental illness is predicted to become the second most common cause of death, after heart disease, by 2020.
And the author goes on to many other contempoary subjects and problems.

Experimental Blog #38

Comments on "The Ptarmigan's Dilema" - An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself by John Theberge and Mary Theberge

It is possible that there is a common opinion among scientists and interested non-professionals that Charles Darwin's most serious and least forgivable mistake was to replace his original concept, in the first publication of "Origin of the Species", of "Natural Selection", ten years later, in the fourth edition, with Herbert Spencer's concept of "The Survival of the Fittest."
Today, "Natural Selection" seems more purely scientific, and maybe, even beautiful; while "The Survival of the Fittest" became very distorted in an assortment of political uses, none of them very beautiful.
Charles Darwin's own explanations for preferring Herbert Spencer's term are not very clear or understandable today.
This book by the husband and wife team, John and Mary Theberge, describes some of the amazing developements in contemporary Biology and Ecology, which was a science that did not exist until long after the death of Charles Darwin. It might be said that entirely new dimensions of knowledge and understanding, never known to Charles Darwin, are being discovered by these sciences.

Experimental Blog #37

Comments on "Anything Goes - A Biography of the Roaring Twenties" by Lucy Moore

Some of the most memorable developements and events of the 1920s, which seems to be the "birth of Modern America", are; the spectacular developement of motion pictures with sound in Hollywood and the lives of its equally spectacular stars, both male and female; African-American cultural developement in Harlem and Jazz in other cities as well; the widespread growth and activity of the Ku Klux Klan; the flourishing gangster activity, especially in Chicago, thanks to prohibition; the trials, and execution, of the anarchist-communists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti; the Scopes trial, about the teaching of Darwinian evolution versus the Bible, with its charismatic lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan; the building of America's first giant skyscrapers in New York; and Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight.
Some of the specific representative people of the era were; Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Warren and Florence Harding, Al Capone, Charlie Chaplin, and Jack Dempsey.
The author also writes a lot about Harry and Caresse Crosby, but how many people today know who they were?

Experimental Blog #36

Comments on "Civil War Wives" - The Lives and Times of Angelina Grimke' Weld, Varina Howell Davis and Julia Dent Grant by Carol Berkin

In the acknowledgments to this book the author, Carol Berkin, writes that her "home state" is Alabama. However, she received her college degrees at the very "Yankee" schools of Barnard College and Columbia University of New York.
On the back of the book there are 8 very respectable recommendations, and the writing is very thorough and informative in all three parts.
The first part, about Agelina Grimke' Weld, is especially interesting for its relation of the conflicts and splintering within the counter-cultural abolitionist movement, among various other things about Angelina's life.
The second account, about Varina Howell Davis, is very descriptive about the "lost cause" of the American Civil War from a more Southern point of view. It seems that, except for the first several months, the war became an increasing disaster that lasted about 4 years for the Confederate States. Varina's long, vigorous, but tragic, life was very interesting to learn about.
In the third account, about Julia Dent Grant, the author sounds somewhat dismissive, maybe even ridiculing at times, about Julia and even her autobiography in some ways. However, she recognizes that Julia's book was not published until 1975. Carol Berkin also writes that Ulysses S. Grant was five feet and eight inches tall. Others say that he was at least 4 inches shorter.

Experimental Blog #35

Comments on 2 books: "The Story of My Life" - The Restored Classic by Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, and John Macy and with the editors Roger Shattuck and Dorothy Herrmann;
and "Helen Keller" - A Life by Dorothy Herrmann

Helen Keller met her first president, Grover Cleveland, when she was 8 years old. In a few years she would become one of the world's most well known people, and she would meet every American President through Franklin Roosevelt at least. She would also meet and correspond with many other of the world's well known or famous people. Even beyond 70 years of age, Helen Keller would repeatedly travel to Europe and Asia and, perhaps, other countries.
Although criticized by a few people, Helen Keller's self-confessed ability to "see through other people's eyes" and to "hear with other people's ears", together with her phenomenal memory, caused some people to call her "the 8th Wonder of the World."
Helen Keller's famous teacher, Anne Sullivan, was considered by a few people to be the "true genius." However, except for Anne Sullivan's reports about her work with her pupil, and her not particularly unusual letters, and, of course, her virtually countless performances as Helen Keller's interpreter, Anne Sullivan does not seem to give much evidence for such an evaluation.
It is very interesting to read the reports that deaf and blind people do not really "live in darkness," and that they possess their own complete sense of identity, and that, at least eventually, they become so accustomed that they have little or no feeling of deficiency or deprivation.

Experimental Blog #34

Comments on "Daily Life in Immigrant America 1820-1870" How the First Great Wave of Immigrants Made Their Way in America by James M. Bergquist

This book is the first of two books, not 3, as I mistakenly thought and wrote in blog #9 on December 26, 2009. Each book somewhat arbitrarily covers 50 years of a 100 year period. The 50 year period of this book begins in 1820, when almost 8,400 immigrants came to America, and ends in 1870, with over 387,000 immigrants arriving. Almost 429,000 people arrived in the "peak" year of 1854; which was not exceeded until the 1880s, I believe.
The first wave of immigrants described by the author, James M. Bergquist, was composed mostly of Protestants from the north of Ireland, which is not so often remembered, but Catholic Irish soon overwhelmed these earlier arrivals, especially during the "Irish Potato Famine" of the 1840s. Although the Irish immigrants came mostly from small farms in Ireland, they generally did not adapt to American large scale agricultural methods and take up farming. Instead, they did an enormous amount of generally unskilled labor, especially building canals and, later, railroads.
In later decades, Irish immigration was also distinguished for the fact that women arrivals outnumbered men.
Germans composed the second largest group, although they eventually totaled more than any other immigrant group because they continued coming to America in large numbers into the next 50 year period. Earlier Germans were largely Catholic from the southern and western German states, but later, Protestants of northern and eastern Germany predominated. Among other accomplishments, they became known for making thousands of farms and towns from Pennsylvania through the Midwest to Missouri and Texas.
Immigrants from Great Britain adapted to American life most easily wherever they went, and were sometimes called "the invisible immigrants."
Among the Scandinavian immigrants, Norwegians came in the greatest numbers, and they usually settled in the Upper Midwest.
Overall, the book describes much of the country and society made, or transformed, by all of these immigrants that the immigrants who arrived in the next 50 years, from 1870 to 1920, found when they came to America.

Experimental Blog #33

Comments on "Lyndon B. Johnson" by Charles Peters

The author of this book from the Schlesinger-Wilentz American Presidents series has worked in Democratic Party campaigns and administrations since 1960, so his political sympathies should be very clear. He also has a large number of interconnected sources that give him a well founded perspective.
The description of Lyndon B. Johnson's, that is, LBJ's, early years in what must be central Texas, although rather brief, is, as usual, very interesting. LBJ's long Washington DC political life begins very early in 1931, when he is 23 years old.
Although already a congressman, Lyndon Johnson actually flew on one combat mission during World War II in a B-26 two engine bomber as a fact finding Naval Observer. This airplane was attacked by a squadron of Japanese Zeros{fighter airplanes} and endured very intense fire, but amazingly escaped being shot down.
Charles Peters' descriptions of LBJ's habitual, humiliating, and crude language and behavior is quite explicit, and this characteristic language and behavior in itself would make Lyndon Johnson one of America's controversial presidents.
However, the author rates Lyndon Baines Johnson as a near great American President because of his almost unequalled record of legislative accomplishments in civil rights and "Great Society" welfare programs. Although these latter programs seem to have been largely demolished by President Ronald Reagan, and other following presidents.
Charles Peters' account of the growing engagement in the War in Viet Nam is also very informative.

Experimental Blog #32

Comments on 2 books

"The Private Lives of Birds" - A Scientist Reveals the Intricacies of Avian Social Life by Bridget Stutchbury

Reading a book like this is probably the only way that very amateur bird watchers can appreciate the work and science of professional ornithologists. This particular author seems especially capable of describing everything about birds with detailed and precise Darwinian concepts of evolutionary biology.


"Spoken from the Heart" by Laura Bush

Laura Bush writes that all 4 of her grandparents came to West Texas in the last decades of the 19th century from Arkansas. And that both of her parents, Harold Welch and Jessie Hawkins, were born there too.
Laura Bush also writes about a very interesting childhood history that took place in West Texas, through college graduation, and her first jobs.
However, she does not write in so much detail of her early adult years, until she meets George Bush again, in 1977 at 30 years of age. She does say that she "lost faith" for a very long time as a result of a tragic accident{which she completely describes}.
Laura already knew something about George; they had attended the same junior high school at the same time, and they were soon married. These events take up almost the first 100 pages; and about 65 pages and 24 years later, Laura Bush has become America's First Lady.
The rest of the book, over 250 pages, is a very detailed account of her many activities as wife, mother, and First Lady, and, of course, the events of her husband's presidency.
She seems quite conscious of and defensive about the great deal of criticism that was directed at her husband, and often her too. However, she is very thorough and factual in the extreme; so much so that her writing seems at times like a "catalogue", that is, persuasive, but not so interesting. Nonetheless, it seems that Laura Bush makes, and proves, her arguments that no President and First Lady could have done more than they did in the American White House.

Experimental Blog #31

Comments on 2 books

"Maharanis" - The Extraordinay Tale of Four Indian Queens and Their Journey from Purdah to Parliament by Lucy Moore

This book covers the lives of 4 queens, Maharanis, of India who lived in two small and one large Princely States in the northern part of India. The first lady was born in 1865, and the last of the 4 was still living in 2004 when this book was published.
The book also provides a very interesting and informative description of the history and society during this period of the British Raj, or rule, and the earlier years of independence.
Everybody has heard about the Brahmins of India, but not so many outsiders remember the Kshatriya, or warrior caste, who were probably the real rulers of India before the arrival of the British, and in tandem with them, but not quite equal to them, during the British colonial period.


"How Capitalism Will Save Us" - Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today's Economy by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames

It seemed that at least one half of the time I did not really understand very well what these authors were writing about; that is, all the many details and specifics of modern American finance and computer tecnology.
Besides that, the principle title of the book, that is, without the subtitle, can hardly be taken entirely seriously; and, at times, the writing seemed even somewhat peculiar.
However, these things notwithstanding, the authors took up at least 77 questions in economics, business, and government. And always refering to their "Real World" way of evaluation, it seems that they answered them all very expertly and persuasively; often surprisingly demolishing long and widely held, maybe even "sacred", liberal political views on these matters.

Experimental Blog #30

Comments on "The Edge of Physics" - A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Anathaswamy

About a century ago the sciences of particle physics and cosmology could be studied and appreciated by millions of educated amateur scientists all over the world. In spite of the very commendable efforts of Anil Anathaswamy, and others, times have changed considerably. However, if anybody is tempted to think that contemporary theoretical and experimental physicists are talking nonsense simply because outsiders can rarely really understand their esoteric subjects, this book should persuade them to give up such opinions.
Among the 9 or more places of advanced study visited by the author, the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider, located in France and Switzerland, seems to be the most publicized, as well as controversial. Needles to say, the project is enormously impressive; even more so than expected.
This super collider contains the world's greatest vacuums. They cannot even be measured and are equivalent to 600 miles out in space. The collider's proton beams might get "lost", and are "dangerous", moving "at full throttle" with energy equivalent to "400 ton trains traveling 150 kilometers per hour", "liquefying anything directly" in their path.
Most amazing is that the 40,000 tons of special magnets are the coldest things, or places, in the entire universe; even colder than outer space. They require 5 weeks to cool down, and 5 weeks to warm back up to room temperature.

Experimental Blog #29

Comments on the book "Supreme Conflict - The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court" by Jan Crawford Greenburg

Jan Crawford Greenburg's book on the politics and recent history of the United States Supreme Court is, naturally, supremely interesting and informative. It is especially so from about the time of 1981, the year Sandra Day O'Conner was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, to about 2006.
This book is also more specifically informative and interesting about the court appointments and careers of Justices William Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter, as well as the more recent appointments of Justices John Roberts and Sam Alito.
The author also describes in very informative detail the concepts of the "New Federalism", first heard during the presidency of Richard Nixon, and "judicial restraint". Both concepts are associated with Republican Party efforts to transform, overrule, or "roll back" some of the earlier liberal court rulings. The author writes that these efforts failed several times, but eventually succeeded.
Jan Crawford Greenburg also describes very interestingly the Supreme Court's involvement and rulings in the stalled election of the year 2000, between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Experimental Blog #28

Comments on 2 books

"A Is for American" - Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States by Jill Lepore

This original American historian demonstrates how much can be investigated and written about language, and its several cognitive aspects, and how important it all is to individual and national identity.
Jill Lepore's narritives of seven people include prominent known Americans, as well as an American Indian named George Guess, but better known as Sequoyah; and an African named Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima, who was brought to America to be a slave when he was about 26 years of age, but obtained his freedom about 40 years later, and went back to Africa of his own accord.
All of these people left their mark in the world as thoughtful, mentally active, and productive individuals.


"Conspirator" - Lenin in Exile by Helen Rappaport

It seems that Vladimir Ulyanov was a consistent, lifelong, and conscientious student and scholar; but before he was 20 years old he was already getting into trouble with the Okhrana, the Department for the Protection of Order and Public Security.
Vladimir, and his wife Nadya, would spend their entire adult lives repeatedly moving to avoid arrest, or in exile in Siberia{about 3 years}, or in many places in Europe{England, Switzerland, Finland, France, Poland, Germany}from about 30 years of age{for Vladimir}, in 1900 to 47 years of age, in 1917.
This book describes in remarkable detail the many events and people of those years, and in the process describes and uncovers a more believable and human story.
The amount of Lenin's collected works, at least 45 volumes, is truly extraordinary.

Experimental Blog #27

Comments on "The Fossil Hunter" - Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World by Shelley Emling and "The Sisters of Sinai" - How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice

The somewhat peculiarly written book by Shelley Emling is about the life and work of the English amateur/professional fossil hunter named Mary Anning. However, the book is also very much about the beginning modern sciences of geology, biology, and paleontology; mostly in early 19th century England, as well as France and Switzerland. Although all the scientists and searchers in these activities were religious, that is, they believed in the Bible and religion to a greater or lesser degree, and not infrequently to a very great degree; in the longer run they all contributed to establishing and accumulating scientific truth; that is, all the facts of the natural world concerning matter, space, and time. And, although it is absurd to believe that some, or all, of this scientific truth could ever be contradicted or "overthrown", the scientific understanding of things is continuously altering and expanding.

The second book above, by Janet Soskice, describes the meticulous search and deciphering of the most ancient palimpsests in order to obtain the, presumably, least distorted or adulterated versions of the books of the Bible. This search and study was in large part stimulated by the earlier scientific efforts of the people written about in Shelley Emling's book, and, of course, many others; whose scientific discoveries were undermining the authority of the Bible and religion in general.
However the results of the work of the biblical scholars supported them in the belief that they were in possession, as close as humanly possible, of the "Divine Revelation" attributed to Jesus Christ, that is, a divine revelation of supernatural, eternal, absolute and unchanging factual and moral truth, instruction, and guidance for all human life.

Experimental Blog #26

Comments on 2 books

"Franklin Pierce" by Michael F. Holt

The author of this book, possibly the briefest in "The American Presidents" series, writes that although Franklin Pierce was one of the "most amiable and congenial" and personally charming men to ever become an American president, he served from 1853 to 1857, he is usually ranked by historians as one of the 6 to 8 worst because of "his obsession with preserving the unity of the Democratic Party." He did what he did by consistently catering to, or appeasing the southern Democratic slaveholders. Franklin Pierce was from New Hampshire. However, could the Democratic Party, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia slaveholder; and later identified, almost to the present day, with the politics of Andrew Jackson, a Tennessee slaveholder, really have been expected to do anything to limit the expansion of slavery?
Another book in this series claimed that Zachary Taylor, who was a southern Whig, and who was inaugarated in 1849 and died about 20 months later in 1850, was America's last chance to avoid civil war, because Zachary Taylor, although a large scale slaveholder, was sincerely opposed to the expansion of slavery to the new territories.
However, would northerners have accepted a serious and firm enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Laws, including the suppression of the famous Underground Railroad? And could Zachary Taylor, had he lived, have persuaded enough southern slaveholders to accept that there would be no more new slave states?
"And so the war came," said Abraham Lincoln years later, in 1865, when the war was almost over.


"The Cave Painters" - Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists by Gregory Curtis

For about 1000 generations, or about 20,000 years, as far as we know; that is, from about 32,000 to 10,000 years ago; anatomically modern Europeans created an artistic record of cave paintings and engravings. Almost 350 such caves have been discovered so far, and except for a "widely scattered few", they are all located in southern France and northern Spain.
These cave paintings and engravings reveal the abundant large animal world in which their creators lived. The animals are represented in great, but fluctuating numbers; sometimes in "huge vivid herds" of horses, reindeer, bison, mammoths, cows, bulls, bears, and even a rhinoceros.

Experimental Blog #25

Comments on "Can't Remember What I Forgot - The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research" by Sue Halpern and "The Male Brain" - A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think by Louann Brizendine

Both of these books seem to be exceptional examples of the incredible developements in the neurosciences of recent decades.
The first author, Sue Halpern, has a doctorate degree and once taught at a prestigious medical college, but she is more known for her writing as an educated "outsider" to science or medicine. Her whole book is a very detailed account of research into the treatment for Alzheimer's desease. She could be described as obsessed with Alzheimer's desease to the point of being tedious, but she can be excused because this desease apparently runs in her family. Besides that, her book is none the less interesting to people with other neurological deficits.
The author of the second book, Louann Brizendine, is a practicing medical doctor, or psychiatrist, and a professor of clinical psychiatry. Her first book, "The Female Brain", was a "New York Times" best seller. Although, apparently, it did not escape some criticism.
All that I will say about her second book, "The Male Brain", is that it was similar to taking very strong medicine, or receiving very severe treatment for those of us with unlucky neurological deficits. But it was a considerable, or at least significant, help; in spite of having to recover from her medicine, or treatment.

Experimental Blog #24

Comments on 2 books

"A Mountain of Crumbs" - A Memoir by Elena Gorokhova

Elena Gorokhova's book comes recommended by 10 accomplished authors{counting Sergei Krushchev}. It provides many, both first and second hand, vivid and often charming descriptions of Russian-Soviet life. I also found the extensive comments, or reviews, of Russian classical authors to be very educational.
Although I could not really believe the author remembered her own childhood and young adult dreams of long ago as well as she describes, it didn't seem to matter very much.
The title, "A Mountain of Crumbs", comes from a second hand description of coping with the extreme scarcity of food in the early years of the Soviet Union, but it seems that Elena Gorokhova uses it to describe her own experience and opinion of the artificiality and pretending of official Soviet life. But how basically different was that life, or society, from other similar places or times?


"The Relentless Revolution - A History of Capitalism" by Joyce Appleby

This book is described as "a crowning achievement" and a "capstone to a distinguished career" and in other glowing terms by some of the author's equally distinguished colleagues. It certainly was very educational and clarifying on many pages, but on other pages the language and style seemed, perhaps, supercilious or obfuscating or, at least somewhat "trendy" or "closed to outsiders".
Since "Capitalism" is not really a creed as "Communism" or "Marxism" are, or were, perhaps even the basic thesis is debatable. That is, does "Capitalism" really have a history? Or, at least, what kind of history can "Capitalism" have outside the minds of a historically recent "specialized few"?
At least many people, both liberals and conservatives, apparently agree that since the end of the Soviet Union{if not actually several years earlier} we are living in a "new", or different era.

Experimental Blog #23

Comments on "Pink Brain, Blue Brain" - How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps - and What We Can Do About It by Lise Eliot

I feel so amazed and dumbfounded by the continuing scientific developements of the last 25 years, or so; and with the most complicated, or even mysterious, neurosciences among those leading the way; that I have decided to pass up making any more comments in this blog about this book. I don't really have anything to add to the above subtitle of "Pink Brain, Blue Brain."

Experimental Blog #22

Comments on "In Triumph's Wake" - Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory by Julia P. Gelardi

This author is described as an "independent historian." Although there are some very noticable lapses in this, her second book, such as; she describes one of these women as something like, "her hair turned gray", and later on, "turned white", both times apparently over night; Julia Gelardi's books seem to be much praised. The author's writing also seems to be overly dramatic at times; skipping over long peroids of time and linking separate events because they support her basic ideas of these mother-daughter relationships.
However Gelardi's fundamental method relies heavily on quotations from the writing of the 6 women{and others} in these histories. There are over 1100 of these quotations, and 18 of them are from near 100 words to almost 300 words.
In this way Julia Gelardi writes very instructive, persuavive, and moving accounts of the histories of Queen Isabella I of Castile, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, 3 of Europe's most important and influential reigning monarchs, and also their much less successful and less happy daughters; Catherine of Aragon, Marie Antoinette of France, and Empress Frederick{also Victoria} of Germany.

Experimental Blog #21

Comments on "Born to Rule" - Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia P. Gelardi

Since genuine aristocracy in the European form was prohibited in the American Constition adopted in 1788, it is, perhaps, not so common for Americans to know the truth, both good and bad, about monarchy and its government. Such as, for instance, how "royals" provide instruction, by their examples, on how the rest of their people should face and manage life's many common problems.
The histories of these 5 Queen Consorts of 5 European countries reveal what, supposedly, the "best" of Europeans can do or become when they are given the freedom and power of monarchs; which is far more, although not unlimited, than what the great majority of more common people ever experience.
Of these 5, the author's favorite seems to be Marie, the Queen Consort of Rumania, and that is easy to understand, just from reading the many quotations from Marie's many letters, books, and conversations. The Queen Consorts of Greece and Spain, Sophie and Victoria Eugenie, seem also to have been extraordinary people. Queen Consort Maud of Norway, although a very fine lady, didn't seem to have as much opportunity to reveal her potential in the smaller and more stable and democratic country of Norway.
In most contrast, the awful history and tragic death of Tsarina of Russia Alexandra has eventually become well known, but is it really easy to honestly imagine that somebody else could have done much better in her overwhelming circumstances?

Experimental Blog #20

Comments on 2 books

"Not Quite Paradise - An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka" by Adele Barker

It seems that the author arrived in Sri Lanka in October 2001 to be a teacher for about a year, and stayed until August 2002. Adele Barker gives a very good description of the long ongoing civil war between the mostly northern Tamil - Tigers minority, a Hindu Dravidian language speaking people; and the Sinhalese speaking{an Indo-European language} Buddhist majority. The Sinhalese dominate the government, and are centered primarily in the southern part of the island nation, Sri Lanka.
The author also mentions an earlier violent Marxist movement that was suppressed, or died out somehow, in the 1970s and 1980s.
The author returned to Sri Lanka in October 2005 and gives a very good report on the terrible tsunami that occurred on December 28, 2004 and its after affects. During this visit the author managed to go to the Tamil held territory in the north and reported on the violence still occurring there. She soon left Sri Lanka after that trip.
Adele Barker reports on the end of the civil war in May 2009, but I can't tell whether she had been back to the country or not.


"Fugitive Denim" - A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade by Rachel Louise Snyder

I have nothing to add to the content of the subtitle, "A <> Story of People <> in the Borderless World of Global Trade", except my usually silent complaints.
This author, Rachel Snyder, and others keep saying that we live, not in the modern era, but in the "post modern", or even, "post post-modern" era. The "Modern Era" is said to have ended in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, or 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is also said that the "Modern Era" begins with the ideas of Karl Marx, and continues with the influences of his many followers, and others also influenced, although not Marxist followers.
Does this mean that this "Modern Era" began way back in 1848{I think} with the publication of "The Communist Manifesto"? Could this era really last for 141 to 143 years?
Finally it seems, that this "old Modern Era" should be renamed by historians, both liberal and conservative. Isn't it true that people always live in modern times, or in the modern era, by definition?

Experimental Blog #19

Comments on the book "Little Mother of Russia - A Biography of Empress Marie Feodorovna" by Coryne Hall

What I most want to remember from this book is that this book is, as the title says, definitely a biography. Although the book is full of Russian and European 19th and 20th century history, the author, Coryne Hall, overwhelmingly writes about and consistently defends her subject, Marie Feodorovna. Of course, she honestly admits Marie Feodorovna's faults and errors.
I hope to understand and remember the history of Russia better, begining with the reign of Tsar Alexander II, who liberated the serfs, but was eventually assassinated by the terriorist organization that called itself "The People's Will". He was followed by Alexander III, Feodorovna's husband, making her the Empress, and Alexander III was followed by Nicholas II, Feodorovna's son.
Other things that I learned more about were: the Revolution of 1905, which was more widespread and violent than I had realized; and the intriguing and mysterious story of Gregory Efimovitch Rasputin. I am not quite sure if I acquired a much clearer understanding of the Bolshevik Revolution.
However, I learned about the flight of the now Dowager Empress and her very large household first to the Maryinski Palace in Kiev, and then to several places in the Crimea; where it seemed she was an on again off again prisoner of the Bolsheviks; and where, it seems, more than once she could have been executed, were it not for the circumstance that the Bolshevik groups were in considerable disagreement about what to do with her and all the other Romanovs.
In spite of the Dowager Empress's stubbornness, she finally agreed to exile, first in England, and then in Denmark{which was actually where she was from}.
There was also the interesting story of Anna Anderson, the fraudulent Anastasia, whose story and intrigues of everybody on all sides of the matter stirred up and divided the surviving Romanov family and many other people for many decades.
Finally, there was the immensely complicated background panorama of the long decline of aristocratic European society.

Experimental Blog #18

Comments on the book "Direct Red" - A Surgeon's View of Her Life-or-Death Profession by Gabriel Weston

As the subtitle suggests, this book is about a medical doctor's training and experiences. My experience is that reading such books, especially by female doctors, is a great help in, at least, thinking about the medical side of my own life. The fact that the author is British is, perhaps, additionally interesting from an American point of view.
Gabriel Weston clearly states that her book is a "mixture of things that have happened and <> might happen," yet "entirely authentic," she hopes.
Some events seem to stand out as invented. Besides, the author was very careful to protect her confidentiality to her patients, as well as to her colleagues.

Experimental Blog #17

Comments on 2 books

"Chances Are" - Adventures in Probability by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan

For the most part, this book was for me very intriguing, thought provoking, and entertaining. The scope of the subjects that it touched upon was amazing. However, it is difficult for me to say very much in detail because the book was often somewhat, or more than somewhat, beyond my understanding.
It seems that our brains are constantly looking for patterns, order, or predictability in a more fundamentally patternless, disordered, and unpredictable world.


"The Last Days of the Romanovs - Tragedy at Ekaterinburg" by Helen Rappaport

The Soviet period of Russian history, about 71 to 73 years, is, as yet, far from being completely explained, but this book is an excellent first step at the very heart of the subject. The author's earnest attempt to unravel and describe Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's relationship to the massacre of the Romanov family and 4 others with them is very thorough and persuasive; and her detailed account of the last 14 days is, if not true, at least seems to be something very similar to what actually happened.
Helen Rappaport shows how Lenin knew all about the execution of all 11 people well in advance of the event, and allowed it to happen. And that he certainly would have executed the Tsar and Tsaritsa under any circumstances. Lenin was, at the time, very overburdened with many other matters, and the fate of the Romanov family and their household staff was of little concern to him.
The author also mentions that the three most active and influential party members who brought about the massacre; namely Yakov Sverdlov, Fillip Goloshchekin, and Yakov Yurovsky, were of Jewish origins; and that this generated much anti-Semitic commentary for several decades. The author seems to consider the importance of the Jewish backgrounds of these three men as only a coincidence.
Finally, as much as I appreciate the author's work, I don't think that she was very well informed, or informative, about permafrost{she wrote that there was permafrost in the Ekaterinburg region} or adrenaline{she referred to adrenaline to describe both sides of the massacre}, but I did enjoy her use of the word 'inscrutable', which I think I remember she used 3 times.

Experimental Blog #16

Comments on the book "1989" - The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe by Mary Elise Sarotte

This book is history from the very top. It summarizes all of the relationships, conversations, and negotiations of all the heads of state, their foreign ministers and secretaries of both Germanies, the Soviet Union, the United States, France, and Great Britain during the uncertain and extremely fast changing events from, mostly, the second half of 1989 and on into 1990. And it explains how some peoples' concepts and plans did not succeed while others' did.
The end results are well known; the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact alliances, and the transformation of Russia and its former satellite countries. And almost all of these things occurring with little or no violence.
The terrible wars and revolutions of the first half of the 20th century were finally resolved, for better or worse, and Europe began to move off in a new direction.
It may seem to have all been started by Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, but it was Helmut Kohl of West Germany who managed to carry out and achieve his goals most successfully by far.

Experimental Blog #15

Comments on the book "Ayn Rand - And the World She Made" by Anne C. Heller

When I was writing my comments in my last blog about the Ayn Rand biography by Jennifer Burns, I decided to save my major remarks until after I had read this biography by Anne Heller. This second book about Ayn Rand, which also came out in 2009, is much longer and more detailed. It was also very fascinating and educational.
However, other than agreeing with thousands, if not millions of other people, that Ayn Rand deserved to be called a genius of her age; which is demonstrated many times over by remarkable book quotations and other remarks; I don't see much point in my repeating what probably thousands of other people have said, or will say about her or her books, either positively or negatively.
I will only state that I was extremely affected by learning about Ayn Rand's literary and political life, especially during the late 1940s through the 1960s; and my own relationship to all of that in the 1960s and '70s. These are decades that can hardly be exaggerated for people of my age. Reading Jennifer Burn's and Anne Heller's Ayn Rand biographies helped me very significantly to understand my place and relationship to politics and in society in general.
My last remark is to wonder, "How much will people be reading and be influenced by Ayn Rand's books 50 years from now; compared to today, over 50 years after her books were written?"

Experimental Blog #14

Comments on 2 books


"The Blue Sweater" - Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz

Throughout this book the author demonstrates that she must be an exceptionally strong person, both physically and mentally. Although she had what must have been a very exciting and promising job at one of America's largest banks, she could not satisfy her desire to involve even the poorest people of world in our interconnected economy and society, by means of finding local "entreprenuers," that is, people with ideas and ability, and the new practice of "microfinancing," very small loans at very low rates of interest. By choice, it seems, she worked mostly with women.
This desire of her's led to a series of posts and projects, and ultimately revealing acquaintances with Rwandan women on both sides of, and both before and after, the genocide of 1994, which killed over 800,000 people; about 10% of the population.
The author's accounts repeatedly demonstrate the relationships, conflicts, and hopes of Africans and Western outsiders in our "post-modern" times.


"Goddess of the Market - Ayn Rand and the American Right" by Jennifer Burns

Although the author of this fascinating book writes that in the year 2008 alone the combined sales of Ayn Rand's four novels, all written over 50 years ago, exceeded 800,000 copies; I never read any of them, and I still have no plans to do so. However, Jennifer Burns outlines at least 3 of them so well, I feel that I already know something about them.
For me this book was filled with history and information about early Soviet Russia, Hollywood, and American politics, primarily conservative politics, from the 1930s to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
All the philosophical and personal conflicts, disputes, and struggles involving Ayn Rand, and her "Objectivist" philosophy, and "libertarians," and various conservative factions was entirely new to {oblivious?}me, and very educational and enlightening.
The author also mentions the last television appearance of Ayn Rand on a well known, at the time, American "talk show," which occurred not long after the death of her husband of 50 years in 1979. I do remember watching that program.

Experimental Blog #13

Comments on the book "The Name of War - King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity" by Jill Lepore

The author of this book, the original scholar {from my point of view}, Jill Lepore, seems to have meticulously given all sides and opinions about this American event, which occurred over 325 years ago, and its subsequent affects.
I found the philosophical background to be especially interesting. The author says that the Dutch jurist and theologian Hugo Grotius was "deeply influential" in New England during this time, and he wrote that a "just war" must have two criteria; a "just cause" and "just conduct". She also mentioned St. Augustine, who said that a "just war" is "fair, legal, and limited", while a "holy war", a concept rejected by Hugo Grotius, is "sanctioned by God", or "divinely ordained and unrestrained".
The author also wrote at length about how American public opinion went seemingly from one extreme to the other about King Philip and his war. First he was a "treacherous beast", but then he was portrayed, especially in the 19th century, as a "noble, but doomed, hero, who must die." At the very same time the majority of Americans supported the "Indian removal" policy, often brutal, persued by President Andrew Jackson and all the following presidents.

Experimental Blog #12

Comments on 2 books

"The Map that Changed the World"- William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

Another geology book that I read recently listed this book in the bibliography as somewhat "hagiographic", but still informative or worth reading. I found the book to be a very informative account of the life and sometimes amazing work of William Smith. However, the book did leave an impression that it was somewhat one-sided, and almost always, in favor of William Smith.


"Stories in Stone"- Travels Through Urban Geology by David B. Williams

When I finished this book, I could not get over the feeling that this book was one of the most impressive and informative books that I have read in a year or more. Reading it made me somewhat distressingly aware of my lack of, or miseducation, many years ago. Although, it is perhaps partly because geology and paleontology are also sciences that seem to have made remarkable advances or consolidation and interpretation of knowledge and research in recent decades, that is, in the last 30 years, or so.

Experimental Blog #11

Comments on the book "The Passage to Cosmos" - Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America by Laura Dassow Walls

As the subtitle says, this book is all about Alexander von Humboldt, the very famous, in his lifetime, "Natural Philosopher" from Prussia, who lived right before the full developement of genuine science from 1769 to 1859. Alexander von Humboldt denied the existence of, or, at least criticized, the new concept of "scientific objectivity."
So, my opinion is that this book is best when it is about geography and the description of Humboldt's American travels. It is also interesting when it is about the history of American landscape art of the 19th century. I thought it was fairly good, but variable, when it was about early 19th century American literature.
However, as a book of philosophy or religion, which I think both Alexander von Humboldt and this book are really about, I did not find it very inspiring.
Among very many people, the author mentions Karl Heinzen, the German philospher of "terrorism." Heinzen was one of Humboldt's many followers; who included both abolitionists and racists, and many other people with very opposing views.
Laura Dassow Walls begins her book by relating a "life changing experience" that involved holding a dead bird, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, that she was preparing for stuffing. Well, the last Ruby-crowned Kinglet that I saw, very briefly, was along the Fox River, not far south of Geneva, Illinois, on December 1st 2009.

Experimental Blog #10

Comments on 2 books:
"Ages in Chaos - James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time" by Stephen Baxter and
"The Man Who Found Time - James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity" by Jack Repcheck

Recently I became more aware that I had a serious gap in my education in the science and history of geology. I could not decide which of the above 2 books to read, so I decided it would be better to read the longer one first. Of course, James Hutton was never called a scientist, since all such people were called Natural Philosophers back then.
Stephen Baxter, author of the longer book above, is British, and is described as primarily a writer of science fiction. His book seems to include more discussion of English politics and European philosophy, and he refers to such people as Rene Descartes, Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and even Karl Marx. He also mentions the beheading of the famous scientist, or Natural Philosopher, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, during the "Terror" of the French Revolution.
The shorter book is by an American, Jack Repcheck. Both books are very interesting, well written, and complement each other very well. Repcheck goes back as far as ancient Rome, and writes about the religious chronologies of Bishop Eusebius, Flavius Josephus, Julius Africanus, and others too, even in Medieval times. Of course, both authors write about the Bible, and the well known religious chronology of James Ussher; who was the established authority at the end of the 18th century, when James Hutton lived.
Repcheck also writes more and very interestingly about the "Scottish Enlightenment," and those famous people associated with it, such as; David Hume, Adam Smith, and others less famous. He also writes very descriptively about the city of Edinburgh and the environments of Scotland and England.


And another book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

I counted 22 recomendations, or positive comments, on the cover, or inside this book. I learned{I hope}many much needed lessons, not only about all kinds of punctuation marks, but about the proper, or improper, use of some words and other points of grammar. For one thing, it seems I use too many commas, but it was very interesting to find out what radically different opinions some famous authors, other writers, and editors have about punctuation.
Thanks to this book, I will make more effort to use punctuation correctly; so as to write more clearly and accurately.