clock | August 25, 2006From December 18, 2005 - a very modern version of Dick and Jane...
This is what my wife brought home yesterday: Yiddish with Dick and Jane. I picked it up and read it out loud for the whole family and we could not stop laughing! I cannot possibly give it the review it deserves, but check out the readers' reviews. Here is the "official" review first:
"Dick and Jane are all grown up, and they're living in the real world-and it's full of tsuris (troubles). That's the premise of this hilarious little book, which functions both as a humorous tale and a genuine guide to a language with a…
clock | August 25, 2006Read this great post by Amanda (who's really been on the roll lately): Weddings and fear
clock | August 25, 2006 You probably know that I am quite interested in the history, current state, evolution and future of the institution of marriage, mainly because it is an important indicator of societal attitudes towards sex and towards gender-relations, which is the key to understanding political ideology. Between May 29, 2005 and February 23, 2006 I frequently mentioned Stephanie Coontz and particularly her latest book - Marriage, A History, e.g., in New History Of Marriage, Stephanie Coontz On Marriage, Op-Ed on the 'End of Marriage', Don't Know Much About History.... and What 'traditional' marriage?.…
clock | August 25, 2006It is great when you write a blog post about somebody, then that somebody shows up in the comments and clarifies his position thus starting an interesting conversation (both in the comments and via e-mail), then you realize that his book-signing tour is bringing that somebody to your town, so you go there and meet that somebody in person and have a great conversation, which inspires you to write yet another blog post - the one under the fold....
It's too late and I am too tired to write a long post on this, but I know I won't have time tomorrow. All dirty, scrungly and unshaven after a day…
clock | August 25, 2006A very brief review from April 17, 2005....
I have just finished this fun fast-paced novel of not-so-far future. There are no more taxes, Police and NRA are security companies for hire, and Government investigates only if you can pay for it. Nobody seems to be able to recognize the US President when he appears in public, but CEOs of conglomerates are celebrities of sorts. It is a libertarian dream....and a logical outcome of such ideology is anarchy, and that is why every friggin' idiotic libertarian small-government, anti-tax, "free-market", gun-toting moron has to be forced to read this…
clock | August 25, 2006First written on March 04, 2005 for Science And Politics, then reposted on February 27, 2006 on Circadiana, a post about a childrens' book and what I learned about it since.
When I was a kid I absolutely loved a book called "Il Ciondolino" by Ricardo Vamba - a book in two slim volumes for kids (how times change - try to publish a 200+ page book of dense text for children today!). I later found out that it was translated into English under the title The Prince And His Ants in 1910 (Luigi BERTELLI (M: 1858 or 1860 - 1920) (&ps: VAMBA) The Prince And His Ants [It-?]. Holt.(tr S F WOODRUFF…
clock | August 25, 2006
I wrote this post on Dec 23, 2004 and posted it both on Science And Politics and DailyKos. Then, on April 03, 2005, I reposted it on my blog again. Many good books have been published since then, but the list would not have changed too much if I have made it today, e.g., I would have replaced E.J.Graff's book on the history of marriage with much better book on the same topic by Stephanie Coontz, and I probably would have replaced the last two on the list with new books by John Dean and Geoffrey Nunberg on the strength of reviews and what some smart bloggers said, as I have not read them…
clock | August 24, 2006This is the movie I want to see next:
Profits on a plane:
In truth, the film's title is more of an attention-grabber than an accurate representation of a film that should be considered the human race's nightmare. Sauper's film is a punishing account of global free trade as a zero sum game. Everything the affluent West takes from Africa makes it richer, and all of Africa's recompense comes in the inverted form of suffering at the hands of war, famine and pestilence.
clock | August 24, 2006John McKay, one of my most favouritest bloggers, is hitting the Big Five-Oh today. So, go say Hello and help his Sitemeter get the 75,000th hit today.
clock | August 24, 2006First 'encyclopedia' of nuclear receptors reveals organisms' focus on sex, food:
Organisms thrive on sex and food, and so do their cells' receptors.
In creating the first "encyclopedia" of an entire superfamily of nuclear receptors - proteins that turn genes on and off throughout the body - UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that certain receptors form networks and interact to regulate disease states and physiology in two main areas, reproduction and nutrient metabolism.
Receptor networks also have key roles in metabolism's biological clock, researchers found.
The findings,…
clock | August 24, 2006Carnival of the Liberals #20 is being held Wednesday, August 30th at The Greenbelt. Do you want to host a future edition?
clock | August 24, 2006Perspectives, the magazine of the North Carolina State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in its Summer 2006 issue has highlighted five 'stellar' students, including Kevin (the third one, so you'll have to scroll down - they do not understand the concept of Permalinks yet).
The article mentions his prior survey field-work in the Sandhills of North and South Carolina, particularly his excellent study on the effects of moon phase on snake activity.
clock | August 24, 2006Now you know where I was last night instead of blogging. Local North Carolina wine and local North Carolina cheeses and local handpicked blueberries and local grass-grown beef and local organic potatoes, tomatoes and squash....and discussing "Omnivore's Dilemma" with the locally grown, organic and sustainable (grass-fed?) science writers of North Carolina.
clock | August 24, 2006Hsien Hsien Lei is continuing her series of interviews of science bloggers, and today is my turn. As you have learned to expect by now, my answers are long and wordy. But the questions are interesting, so I hope you like the answers as well. Check it out here.
clock | August 24, 2006Some ideas from November 17, 2005:
So, you've been writing a blog for quite some time now. You are proud of some of your work. You are particularly proud of some of your old stuff, now burried deep in the archives never to be seen again. Who reads archives, after all? You don't want to repeat yourself over and over again, and have never felt at ease with constantly linking back to your old posts (I never had such qualms). So, what can you do to make your old stuff more accessible and available?
Well, now you can turn it into a book form - yup, the real, physical book - and sell it through…
clock | August 24, 2006First reviewed on June 18, 2005:
Guns, Germs and Steel is an excellent book. Collapse is better.
When "Guns, Germs and Steel" first came out, I was fortunate to take part in a graduate seminar that was built around it. Along with reading a chapter each week, we also read a number of additional readings, some of which were technical papers.
Careful reading of "Guns, Germs and Steel" reveals that, contrary to some opinion, it is not a work of "environmental determinism". Much of history is microhistory. There is also quite a lot of history studying how quirks and idiosincrasies of important…
clock | August 24, 2006Wow - this one is old: December 29, 2004. It is in a need of serious updating, not to mention providing amazon links so I can earn pennies if you click and buy. But, it is still a good list nontheless:
I have picked my top ten books on politics and have posted a long list of books before, and now, as I promised, here is my list of best science books. As I struggled so much to restrict myself to just 10 books on politics, and left out so many worthy titles, this time around I decided to cheat a little. Instead of Top 10 Science Books, I will make a meta-list of my top picks of books in each…