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.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
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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