Recently Read Books 082505

Cassidy DC. J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century. New York: Pi Press, 2005.

Blom P. Enlightening the World: Encyclopaeie, the Book that Changed the Course of History. New York:l Palgrave Macmilan, 2005.

Sturgeon T. More than human. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953.

Simmons D. Olympos. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.

Durham DA. Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal. New York: Doubleday; A Division of Random House, Inc., 2005.

Huxley E. Red Strangers. London: Penguin Books, 1999.

Coelho P. The Alchemist. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Surowiecki J. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why The Many Are Smarter Than The Few And How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

Greenblatt S. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2004. -- [Greenblatt knows the plays like the back of his hand; the back of his other hand has the history of the times.]

Shakespeare's The Tempest. CliffsComplete. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 2000. -- [Complete play, plus commentary & glossary] See: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsTitle/productCd-0764585762,categoryNavId-106166.html

Poem: A Few Words

A Few Words

“In the beginning was the Word…”—
World-building Lego pieces.

Lego, Goddess of words.
Always hungry, we feed Her lexicons.

How many words to build the world?
Two, two bits. One ought...to know.

Two bits we call a quarter,
A quarter of a buck. Any one of four.

Four-play, word-play, on an okay day
In a world of words, you have your say.

Some new words—
Bacedif, bacedifog, bacedifoguh.

When we discover something new,
Lego forbid we don’t clothe the naked thing.

So few vowels. We need more.
We need to genegineer an extra tongue.

Tongues. Useful little devils. For cursing,
The specialty of devils. And praying.

The specialty of saynts.
Say it ayn’t so, Lego Jo.

—TonySeb


NB: All neologisms dedicated to Lego. Lego my foot.

Favorite Quotation 081905 [Martin Luther King, Jr.]

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Questions:

Either or? Can one 'decide'? Definition of altruism? Whatever definition, what 'motivates', 'actuates', 'drives', etc.?

Makes one think.

History and Future of the Universe

History and Future of the Universe

PBS-Nova offers a one-page illustrated chronicle of the universe's history and projected future. Worth a glance, at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/univ-nf.html

Food and Health - I [Green Tea and Cancer]

Green Tea and Cancer

Studies have shown that green tea affords protection in animals against cancers caused by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, standard combustion products of automobiles and airplanes, formed and released in the atmosphere during the incomplete burning of coal, oil and gas, garbage, or other organic substances (e.g., in wild fires).

Beliveau R, Gingras D. Green tea: prevention and treatment of cancer by nutraceuticals. Lancet 2004;364:1021-2. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17076-1

Park OJ, Surh YJ. Chemopreventive potential of epigallocatechin gallate and genistein: evidence from epidemiological and laboratory studies. Toxicology Letters. 2004;150:43-56. doi: 10.1016/j.toxlet.2003.06.001

Information on sources and toxic effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts69.html.

Technical Point: Green tea contains a substance called epigallocatechin gallate, a member of the class of plant phytochemicals called polyphenols, that may mediate green tea's cancer-protecting effect by indirectly inhibiting the transcription of a gene, aryl hydrocarbon, known to mediate the toxic effects of numerous environmental contaminants, including the cancer-producing polycyclic aromatics hydrocarbons.

Palermo CM, Westlake CA, Gasiewicz TA. Epigallocatechin gallate inhibits aryl hydrocarbon receptor gene transcription through an indirect mechanism involving binding to a 90 kDa heat shock protein. Biochemistry 2005;44:5041-52. doi: 10.1021/bio47433p

For more on green tea, plus red wine, read:

The Elixir of Life: Green Tea or Red Wine?, by William H. Baarschers, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Volume 29, Issue 5, September/October, pp 30-33.

The article identifies the author as:

“William H. Baaschers is a professor emeritus of chemistry at
Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. His research
interests have included the chemistry of medicinal plants, synthetic chemistry, environmental science, and industrial toxicology. He is currently an advisor to the university’s Resource Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. He is the author of Eco-Facts and Eco-Fiction: Understanding the Environmental Debate (Rutledge, 1996).”

Future blog-entries: More on polyphenols; more on doi’s.

Questions: Which cancers protected against? How much green tea required, and for how long?

Favorite Quotation 081505

By words the mind is winged.

—Aristophanes, Greek Playwright, comic dramatist (c. 448-c. 385 B.C.)

For a brief bio from the Columbia Encyclopedia:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ar/Aristph.html

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristophanes

Understanding Evolution - II

Click on this blog-entry's title to enter the website of the National Academies developed for easy access to resources on evolution education and research, including books, research papers, position statements, and links to outside resources.

The National Academies comprise the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.

If title link not operative, click:
http://nationalacademies.org/evolution/

Understanding Evolution - I

Click this blog-entry's title to enter a website developed by evolutionary scholars for teachers, to help them learn more about evolution so that they might improve their teaching of the subject.

But the site has value for anyone interested in learning more about evolution.

Website covers: nature of science; evolution 101; relevance of evolution; evidence; misconceptions; history of evolutionary thought; pitfalls; roadblocks; and much more.

If title-link non-operative, click here:
http://evolution.berkeley.edu

Poem: The Words on This Page

The Words on This Page

the burst
of electric cognition
that spattered them there

the crackle of synapses,
the hum of ionic pulsations
that gave them their chance

the hectic committee
of word agents
that compiled them

the Darwinian selection
that composed them
as thoughts

of themselves
as words on this page

--Anthony Sebastian

Non-Material Resources Required for Life-Fulfillment

Consider these non-material resources, and how together they give you what you need to live a fulfilling life:

• a sense of purpose
• a vision of opportunity
• a sense of the mainstream of work and life
• a strong family ethic
• a sense of community
• the capacity to engage with diverse groups
• an ethic of benevolence
• a work ethic
• a sense of discipline
• the capacity to focus and concentrate one's efforts
• the capacity to resist the lure of hedonism
• the capacity for self-education
• a thirst for knowledge
• an appreciation for quality
• self-esteem

--by Robert William Fogel (1926-), Nobel laureate, Economics

In, The Fourth Great Awakening and The Future Of Egalitarianism, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2000

For a review of the book, click this blog-entry’s title.

Additions to the list welcomed: non-material resources.

Favorite Quotation 081405 [Iris Murdoch]

Words constitute the ultimate texture and stuff of our moral being, since they are the most refined and delicate and detailed, as well as the most universally used and understood, of the symbolisms whereby we express ourselves into existence. —Iris Murdoch, English novelist and philosopher (1919-1999).

To see a list of her publications, click this blog-entry's title.

Tonyseb's Blog Goals

I plan to make entries in this blog as one would make entries in a commonplace book: "a book of literary passages, cogent quotations, occasional thoughts, or other memorabilia" --[Merriam-Webster 3rd International (MW3)].

Also, I will post information (including excerpts and links) on various topics: nutrition, evolution, human physiology, cognition, consciousness.

"Occasional thoughts" may take the form of poetry.