clock | August 22, 2006 OK, this is not a re-post of one old post, but three. The first one, from December 17, 2005, introduces Institutionalized. The second one, from January 20, 2006, adds some more info about the book. Finally, the third one, from May 17, 2006, gives a paragraph-long review of the book within a bigger question - what should a blogger do when faced with a stack of books sent kindly by authors and publishers for preview? What should one do if one does not like the book? Under the fold....
Institutionalized
Yesterday I received my pre-print copy of Institutionalized by Fred Smith and Joe…
clock | August 21, 2006If you are a blogger and you are in the Triangle area of North Carolina this Friday, I hope to see you at the Triangle Bloggers Barbecue. Sign up on the Wiki there if you know you can show up for sure.
Let's have fun kicking off the Fall '06 Triangle Blogger Season!
clock | August 21, 2006Archy on how politicians try to create conventional wisdom and on parallels between Balkans and Iraq.
Mr.WD on a new moevement within Christianity - Postmodern Christianity (part I).
Publius on the NSA ruling: Part I, Part II, Part III. Lindsay disagrees with some of his points.
Lance on 'conservative' movies and the Western ideal of beauty and what it says about the person holding it.
Jill is back from trekking around the Balkans and has a good one up - Tradition, Family and Property.
Melissa on The Oldest Profession.
Amanda on Nunberg's Talking Left and Projection.
Pam has a personal…
clock | August 21, 2006Several ScienceBloggers are reviewing Coming To Life today (see reviews by Janet, Shelley, RPM, Nick and PZ Edit: Razib has also posted his take), each one of us from a different perspective and looking from a different angle, so go read them to get the full scoop.
PZ Myers reviewed the book a few weeks ago. Someting that struck me was that PZ said that the book :
"....assumes nothing more than that the reader is intelligent and curious. Seriously, you don't need a biology degree to read it!"
...while a reviewer, Edward F. Strasser (a math PhD whose hobby is reviewing books from this angle…
clock | August 21, 2006Church Fires Teacher for Being Female:
The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job - outside of the church.
The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.
The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."
The Rev. Timothy LaBouf…
clock | August 21, 2006Three interesting press releases/news-reports today. Click on links to read the whole articles:
Daytime light exposure dynamically enhances brain responses:
Exposure to light is known to enhance both alertness and performance in humans, but little is understood regarding the neurological basis for these effects, especially those associated with daytime light exposure. Now, by exposing subjects to light and imaging their brains while they subsequently perform a cognitive test, researchers have begun to identify brain regions involved in the effects on brain function of daytime light exposure…
clock | August 21, 2006Why Piglets Shudder To Keep Warm:
Brown fat helps newborn mammals maintain their body temperature by burning fat, which converts into heat. The protein UCP1 (Uncoupling Protein 1) has a key role in this energy conversion, which takes place in the cell mitochondria.
No brown fat or UCP1 protein has been found in domesticated pigs, however. In their study, Berg and colleagues show that the UCP1 gene was shut down about 20 million years ago in an ancestor of the wild boar. They identified four different mutations, each of which would be sufficient to knock out the function of the protein.
This…
clock | August 21, 2006This is not a re-post. This is a brand new book review.
What do you get when a scientist writes fiction? You get a novel that appeals to scientists who like to read fiction.
I know I'll incur the wreath of English majors now, but I skip over the "boring parts". If I am in a mood for a great turn of phrase, I read poetry. In a novel, when I see that the next paragraph is a description, I jump over it.
No matter how wonderfully you describe Harvard Square, your lyrical description will leave me cold as well as frustrated at the slowing down of my reading pace. I've been to Harvard Square…
clock | August 21, 2006This is not a real review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset. Written originally on October 21, 2004:
Whenever a big black SUV with a "W" bumper sticker passes me on I-40 going 90mph in the work zone, my first thought is: "What is this guy compensating for?"
While I argued strongly before that Nurturant Parent model is not feminine, and is only seens as such by people adhering to the Strict Father model to begin with, I have always felt that the childrearing process…
clock | August 21, 2006This list, written on December 17, 2005, is still quite up-to-date. There are also some more specialized books which are expensive, and many of those I'd like to have one day, but I cannot afford them (though I have placed a couple of them on my wish list, just in case I see a cheap copy come up for sale):
I know the holidays are coming in just a couple of days, but perhaps you still have time to order a book or two for your friends and family.
There are tons of books about sleep out there, mostly of suspect quality. Books about clocks tend to be either very old (thus out-dated) or far too…
clock | August 21, 2006 The review of the second chapter was written on September 06, 2005:
I have commented on Tomasello's Chapter 1 earlier. Second chapter is much longer and somewhat disjointed, but I would like to write some of my own first impressions now (also long and disjointed), before I read what other members of the reading group have written. As usual, I will make the post contrarian and critical, in the good tradition of blog-writing, but that does not mean I dismiss Tomasello's hypothesis altogether or do not look forward to reading the rest of the book. Read reviews by other group members for other…
clock | August 21, 2006 The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition by Michael Tomasello was the first book (and still the only one so far) we were reading in the newly minted CogBlogGroup, a group of bloggers reading stuff about cognitive science. You can download the whole book in PDF or the first chapter only in html. This was the first of two parts (I never finished the book nor rerview!), originally posted on August 20, 2005:
Chris of Mixing Memory has written an introductory post providing a broader context and background. Some of the participants have already posted their commentaries on the First Chapter,…
clock | August 21, 2006Continuing with the five-day plan method of blogging, leaving the All Clocks All the Time behind us, we are starting the third week with a theme - Books Around The Clock.
Over the next five days, you will see both reposts (mostly in AM) and new posts (mostly in PM) about books. There will be straightforward book reviews. There will be NYRB-style reviews in which the book is just an excuse for me to go off on a rant. There will be Book Memes. There will be lists of books on various topics I recommend. And anything else you may recommend in comments or by e-mail.
Before we start, you may…
clock | August 20, 2006I know, I know, David Brin is one of those "high-moral-ground", fervently ideological, vehemently frothing at the mouth centrists, but he sometimes writes really good stuff. And this post is pretty good:
Now try this. Imagine a person who holds all of the correct views except one.
Suppose - on just that one issue - a person strongly takes the opposite view. Not quietly, but openly, and vigorously.
Now picture how that person would be received in most liberal gatherings.
What name would they be called?
Read the post. He may put it a little too harsh, but he is not wrong.
clock | August 20, 2006Josh Rosenau has moved from his old Blogger blog to my virtual neighborhood here on Seed. Go check out the brand new version of Thoughts From Kansas!
clock | August 20, 2006Oh yes there are atheists in Foxholes!
In the latest Newsweek:
There are no atheists in foxholes," the old saw goes. The line, attributed to a WWII chaplain, has since been uttered countless times by grunts, chaplains and news anchors. But an increasingly vocal group of activists and soldiers--atheist soldiers--disagrees. "It's a denial of our contributions," says Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson, who founded the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and who will be deployed to Iraq this fall. "A lot of people manage to serve without having to call on a higher power."
It's an ongoing…
clock | August 20, 2006Tar Heel Tavern #78: A Light, Tasty Way to Beat a Hangover is up on Scrutiny Hooligans.