Comments on the books "Liberty's Exiles" - American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World and
"Edge of Empire" - Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East by Maya Jasanoff
Benedict Arnold returned to North America, Saint John, New Brunswick, to pursue "what he hoped would be a profitable commercial career." Apparently, before he did that he remarried, and he and his wife, Margaret Shippen, had 3 children, named Edward, Sophia, and George. All three of their children eventually went to India, and a Benedict Arnold's "half-Indian granddaughter", named Louisa Harriet Arnold, some years later went to Ireland and eventually "married a British architect in 1845."
This book, "Liberty's Exiles," also describes the ambiguous and early turbulent history of the founding and early developement of Freetown in Sierra Leone in 1792 by British sponsors for, and by, former American slaves, mostly from Birchtown and other places in Nova Scotia.
The scope of what is actually Maya Jasanoff's first book, "Edge of Empire", is quite vast and covers many very interesting histories of English and French imperial expansion, competition, and conflict in India, Egypt, and other places, mostly in the "East." Many of these many people and events, in spite of their great impact on the world, might be little, or even completely unknown to most Americans.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Experimental Blog #63
Comments on "The Tell-Tale Brain - A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human"
by V S Ramachandran
This author, and others, say that our human brains are "made up" of about 100 billion nerve cells, and he goes on to say that the "number of permutations" of the connections, or synapes, between the nerve cells leads to a "possible number of brain states" that "easily exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe." So, doesn't it seem that no matter how much we learn about our brains, we will not very likely understand them?
However, a large part of V S Ramachandran's book is based on many elaborations of the significance of what are called "mirror neurons."
The author also writes some of his most interesting paragraphs in his book explaining the roughly 1000 year old Hindoo sculptures that he says have been unjustly criticized and underappreciated by "Westerners."
In contrast perhaps, more than once Ramachandran mentions "sightings" of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon's nose and bushy eyebrows. Some scientifically questionable remarks, this is supposed to be a scientific book, include; "folie a deux, in which two people, such as Bush and Cheney, share each other's madness," and "An autistic child may be...still..capable of other abstract distinctions {such as "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican, other than IQ?"}.
The only respect or appreciation for religion, or religious ideas, that the author expresses seem to be for Hinduism, although he never uses the words Hindoo or Hinduism.
V S Ramachandran only once refers to Temple Grandin, as "the famous high-functioning autist and writer.." He does not say what she is famous for, but besides designing better and very widely used slaughterhouses, Temple Grandin is well known for her very exceptional writing about animals and some aspects of psychiatry, such as the long term consequences of chemotherapy.
It was a little bit alarming to read that V S Ramachandran hopes that "someday" he will meet a patient with a certain kind of brain damage that is caused by a stroke in a certain part of their brain, so that he can test one of his hypotheses.
by V S Ramachandran
This author, and others, say that our human brains are "made up" of about 100 billion nerve cells, and he goes on to say that the "number of permutations" of the connections, or synapes, between the nerve cells leads to a "possible number of brain states" that "easily exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe." So, doesn't it seem that no matter how much we learn about our brains, we will not very likely understand them?
However, a large part of V S Ramachandran's book is based on many elaborations of the significance of what are called "mirror neurons."
The author also writes some of his most interesting paragraphs in his book explaining the roughly 1000 year old Hindoo sculptures that he says have been unjustly criticized and underappreciated by "Westerners."
In contrast perhaps, more than once Ramachandran mentions "sightings" of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon's nose and bushy eyebrows. Some scientifically questionable remarks, this is supposed to be a scientific book, include; "folie a deux, in which two people, such as Bush and Cheney, share each other's madness," and "An autistic child may be...still..capable of other abstract distinctions {such as "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican, other than IQ?"}.
The only respect or appreciation for religion, or religious ideas, that the author expresses seem to be for Hinduism, although he never uses the words Hindoo or Hinduism.
V S Ramachandran only once refers to Temple Grandin, as "the famous high-functioning autist and writer.." He does not say what she is famous for, but besides designing better and very widely used slaughterhouses, Temple Grandin is well known for her very exceptional writing about animals and some aspects of psychiatry, such as the long term consequences of chemotherapy.
It was a little bit alarming to read that V S Ramachandran hopes that "someday" he will meet a patient with a certain kind of brain damage that is caused by a stroke in a certain part of their brain, so that he can test one of his hypotheses.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Experimental Blog #62
Comments on "The Philosophical Breakfast Club" - Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J Snyder
The author of this book, Laura J Snyder, a professor of philosophy, seems to have a complete understanding of all the scientific developements that occurred during the very scientifically revolutionary 19th century.
In her book Laura Snyder concentrates on the four principal English natural philosophers, later called scientists, William Whewell, John Herschel, Charles Babbage, and Richard Jones. However, the author is very familiar with all the other previous principal natural philosophers; most importantly, Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, who is credited with redefining scientific study from its ancient Aristotelian origins into modern empirical forms.
Laura Snyder also gives very thorough, synthesizing, and instructive accounts of the works and influences of Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Charles Lyell, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and James Clerk Maxwell; to name only a few of the many others.
The author of this book, Laura J Snyder, a professor of philosophy, seems to have a complete understanding of all the scientific developements that occurred during the very scientifically revolutionary 19th century.
In her book Laura Snyder concentrates on the four principal English natural philosophers, later called scientists, William Whewell, John Herschel, Charles Babbage, and Richard Jones. However, the author is very familiar with all the other previous principal natural philosophers; most importantly, Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, who is credited with redefining scientific study from its ancient Aristotelian origins into modern empirical forms.
Laura Snyder also gives very thorough, synthesizing, and instructive accounts of the works and influences of Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Charles Lyell, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and James Clerk Maxwell; to name only a few of the many others.
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