I enjoyed it. Looking at the rise of Homo Sapiens and the decline and eventual extinction of Homo neanderthalensis through the prism ecology and theorI enjoyed it. Looking at the rise of Homo Sapiens and the decline and eventual extinction of Homo neanderthalensis through the prism ecology and theories of invasive theories. The subtitle of the book: "How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction" does seem to be a bit of a stretch. Her theory definitely suggests that early domesticated dogs/wolves might have aided Homo Sapien (Modern Man) in dominating the apex guild of carnivores in Europe.
The book is also a bit more broad, because dominating that position, man with pup's help might have also been part of the eventual extinction of other large carnivores (Cave Bear, etc) and large mammals (mammoths). The book, however, is a bit more nuanced, recognizing that climate change also probably had pushed neanderthalensis near extinction, and the introduction of man to Europe might have been the final spear in the side of the Neanderthal.
I enjoyed the book and it systematically covered a lot of territory and synthesized a lot of literature surrounding this period. The writing was ok, just didn't blow me away. So, I enjoyed it, but it didn't exactly blow me away. ...more
Whenever there is a disaster of epic proportions, something so grand it adjusts the way we look at the world (think Greeks and volcanos, other civilizWhenever there is a disaster of epic proportions, something so grand it adjusts the way we look at the world (think Greeks and volcanos, other civilizations with fires, floods, famines) a myth often gets created to explain it. Gods were made. Stories were told. We need to make sense of the world and grand myths give us structure.
The 20th century, with its world wars and the emergence of quantum mechanics and the atomic age, created a huge disruption. The gods that came out of the 20th century were mathematicians and physicists (at least for a while) and we developed myths about them. Certainly, they were real men, with real passions; real flesh and blood, but they were our rock stars, our saviors, a ultimately, perhaps, our destroyers.
The use of fiction mingled with nonfiction isn't new. We have seen it several times with Norman Mailer, Hilary Mantel, Truman Capote, etc. We see it all the time with movies (Based on a true story). But often, when we mix fiction and nonfiction, it causes some heartburn in those who crave certainty. The problem is we live in an age of uncertainty. We have deconstructed the atom and history. Even those histories that seem rigorous and scholarly, can also be perceived as works of fiction. Just like an electron can take an infinite number of paths between two points, so too can a historian when writing about a grand figure of history. Gaps are filled. Assumptions are made. Things are included and excluded. The record is only so available. The reader either fills in what she wants or the author, in sketching a line between points ,makes an assumption about a path.
What Labatut has done here is explicitly been creative in those gaps. He's ventured into an almost mythic and surreal darkness and come out with a story that seems born as much as written. These stories weave a fabric together with fact and fiction and the pattern is dark, but also illuminates....more
"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again." - John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
[image]"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again." - John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
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This book was originally the idea of Steinbeck and his marine biologist/muse Ed Ricketts. They traveled from Monterey, CA down to Baja and collected flora and fauna throughout the Sea of Cortez (see Gulf of California). This is right before WWII started for the US and about 1.5 years before Japan pulled us into it, but the impending war is like a giant submerged whale that follows the Western Flyer down to Mexico and back.
It is told mostly in a first person, plural, supposedly the joint thoughts of Steinbeck and Ricketts, but mostly a narrative constructed by Steinbeck after reviewing his log/diary from the trip. The original book, Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research included the research and accounting of Ed Ricketts of all the items they collected. After Ed Ricketts died, his name was dropped as was the species catalogue. Steinbeck added a Eulogy for his dead friend, but the estate keep Rickett's name from the authorship.
I read this book as I drank Pain Killers and Margaritas in Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), Mexico while recovering for a week after breaking a femur in May. It seemed an appropriate time to carefully place a toe back in the warm pool of Steinbeck's writing.
I read this, as a mostly-dry-Mormon, hoping to get a nice framework for bourbon. A lot of the info is really meant for beginners. Much of it I alreadyI read this, as a mostly-dry-Mormon, hoping to get a nice framework for bourbon. A lot of the info is really meant for beginners. Much of it I already discovered on YouTube. Obviously, the history is fantastic and the author's ability to separate history from myth. Albala also does a great job of building the basic skeleton of this most American drink. My biggest complaint is the format (Audiobook; Great Courses) keeps this from getting more meat on the bones. Just too wee a dram. A good start, however. More like a WILD TURKEY 101 than a Michter's 20 Years Old Limited Release-Single Barrel Bourbon ...more
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." - Richard Feynman
"Shut up and calculate." - David Mermin
"Sweet is by convention, b"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." - Richard Feynman
"Shut up and calculate." - David Mermin
"Sweet is by convention, bitter by convention, cold by convention, color by convention; in truth there are only atoms and the void." - Democritus
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As an amateur, I love physics. I think there is something in my brain that associates the bleeding edge of physics with poetry and art. I'm not the only one. Authors like Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthy are constantly using physics as a springboard into literary ideas and explorations. I think one of the big connections between theoretical physics and literature is the fact that both seek to explain the world through imagery and metaphor. Physics are hard science's poets.
Sean Carrol does a fantastic job of describing the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) as initially suggested by Hugh Everett. The entire price of admission to this book was paid when I discovered in this book that Hugh Everett is the father of EELS' lead singer and song-writer Mark Oliver Everett (also known as E). Talk about convergence.
Anyway, the book was well written, carefully laid out, and like other topics I've flirted with (Knot theory), I'm pretty sure I just walked off with a pip of knowledge, but I'll keep coming back to the damn fruit of the tree of knowledge....more
"...we don't always make rational distinctions between what is likely to kill us and what is likely to hurt us, scare us, or simply make us uncomforta"...we don't always make rational distinctions between what is likely to kill us and what is likely to hurt us, scare us, or simply make us uncomfortable." - Michael Osterholm, Deadliest Enemy
I picked this book up after hearing Dr. Osterholm on The Joe Rogan Experience #1439. I could probably write a whole piece about how Joe Rogan has become mainstream. It is a strange world. Anyway, like most of us, I've been a bit consumed in Feb/Mar/Apr 2020 with reading everything I can on infectious disease.
Dr. Osterholm, like Bill Gates, seems almost prophetic in this book. It was published in 2017, but seems prophetic not just in-terms of predicting the crazy aspects of a massive, airborne virus epidemic, but also in recognizing the weaknesses of our global and political preparedness. I guess that is one piece of dealing with epidemiology and public health. You can't just be science-focused, you also have to possess very little naïveté about the way economics and politics impacts public health. Thank God for people like Dr. Osterholm and Dr. Fauci. Their work seems a bit Sisyphean, but still maintain a pretty good perspective as they go on with their research, their realpolitiks, and their gentle persuasion. What a job....more
Anyway, as a Mormon who drinks 20 cups a month, I still dug the book and dig the drug. I look back and Yes, I did publish a review back on March 5th. I'm not sure what is up....more
"We are stories, contained within the twenty complicated centimeters behind our eyes, lines drawn by traces left by the (re)mingling together of thing"We are stories, contained within the twenty complicated centimeters behind our eyes, lines drawn by traces left by the (re)mingling together of things in the world, and oriented towards predicting events in the future, toward the direction of increasing entropy, in a rather particular corner of this immense, chaotic universe." - Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time
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An interesting short exploration of time as deconstructed (crumbled), shown to not exist except as relationships, and rebuilt through some theoretical poetry that uses psychology, theoretical physics, poetry, and perspective to paint a sense of what time (as we experience) might just be. I do like Dr. Rovelli. I don't even mind if a lot of what he's saying is theoretical (part 2) and speculative (parts 3). It is poetry and even if he isn't right, or physics or science shows a different path, his exploration is beautiful and revelatory. I wish I had a more complicated understanding of Quantum Gravity so Section 2 made more sense. I seemed to grab some of it, but I know I'm grabbing a tail of something I've only seen at the edge of my perception....more
"We don't really understand how the clockwork of nature functions, and as long as we don't, we shouldn't try to fix it." - Peter Wohlleben, The Secret "We don't really understand how the clockwork of nature functions, and as long as we don't, we shouldn't try to fix it." - Peter Wohlleben, The Secret Wisdom of Nature
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I should disclose that my discomfort with Peter's empathetic narrative style, is mostly just a person preference and one I've brought up with his previous books in his 'The Mysteries of Nature trilogy'. I DO love his enthusiasm and agree with a lot of what he has to say in his books.
He even, in this book, addresses his writing style:
"Over the years, an undertone of emotion crept in, which was more in line with my personal thinking. In other words, I relaxed adn let my heart do the talking instead of my brain."
...And...
"The language I use is too emotional, they said. My descriptions make trees and animals seem human, and that is not scientifically correct. But can a language stripped of emotion even be called a human language?"
So, while I still will argue that anthropomorphizing trees and animals presents VERY real issues, Wohlleben has also recognized that the costs of doing it are worth the benefits (empathy with the situation of trees and animals). And, really, it is hard to argue with that.
All that said, his curiosity and his ability to pull research and other ecological writing into a compelling narrative is amazing. My favorite part, however, is one that is often overlooked in both scientific studies and commercial lobbying. Wohlleben presents nature as complicated and inter-dependent and recognizes just how much we don't know about nature, let alone our impact on the trees and animals we interfere with everyday. His combination of curiosity and humility kept me reading this trilogy.
"He is writing not as a scientist but as an observant animal lover." - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, introduction to Inner Life of Animals
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Peter Wo"He is writing not as a scientist but as an observant animal lover." - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, introduction to Inner Life of Animals
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Peter Wohlleben, who brought us the The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World is back with the Inner Life of Animals. My same critiques of his last book are still here. I think Peter tends towards a heavy anthropomorphism when dealing with both trees and animals. I get it still. It is hard to view other species outside of our own viewpoint. In his enthusiasm FOR trees and animals, he wants to give us a reason to love them. We naturally love ourselves, so why not talk about how animals share common traits with man? But I think that can be a dangerous precedent.
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That said, Wohlleben is a natural observer. And his enthusiasm is a delight. This book was just not nearly as smooth or as surprising and delightful as the Hidden Life of Trees. Still good, just not great.
Oh, and this is just Part II of Wohlleben's 'The Mysteries of Nature trilogy'. The other books are:
A great micro-biography of Ernest Rutherford. I knew about his genius (Rutherford Model for the Atom, etc), but had no idea he was the mentor to 11 NoA great micro-biography of Ernest Rutherford. I knew about his genius (Rutherford Model for the Atom, etc), but had no idea he was the mentor to 11 Nobel Prize winning scientists. It was also nice to understand his particular kind of genius. A famous quote about him, demonstrated in the book, was "the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday". Anyway, I'm enjoying the series and sometimes, just a random new idea or contextual fact makes the book worth the read. This biography had several of those. ...more
A very good survey of Einstein and his life, with great explanations for the non-physicists of the theories and impact of Einstein on physics. It is aA very good survey of Einstein and his life, with great explanations for the non-physicists of the theories and impact of Einstein on physics. It is a small book, so nothing goes very deep, but it is a great way to explore the man, the mind, and the world that surrounded Albert Einstein. Nothing radically new here, but the writing is great and like a Haiku, the beauty is found in the simplicity of how Kaku approaches the subject....more
A nice micro-history of Kurt Godel and his incompleteness theories. One of the better books in this excellent 'Great Discoveries' series. A nice micro-history of Kurt Godel and his incompleteness theories. One of the better books in this excellent 'Great Discoveries' series. ...more
Brief, but her personal record was brief, so we nest her among her peers, speculate about where she might have gone if she wasn’t sickly or relegated Brief, but her personal record was brief, so we nest her among her peers, speculate about where she might have gone if she wasn’t sickly or relegated to just an employee....more
Enjoyed this quite a bit. There were a couple areas where I felt the narrative fell down. Bell wasn't able to tie together the irony of Lavoisier beinEnjoyed this quite a bit. There were a couple areas where I felt the narrative fell down. Bell wasn't able to tie together the irony of Lavoisier being guillotined by a movement (the French Revolution) that had some thin tie to rationality, etc. I think he reached to far. Was the Jacobin movement a direct result of the Enlightenment, meh, maybe, but the parts where Bell brings Charles Murray (of Bell Curve infamy) into the equation to point to Newton as being to blame for the revolution seems like a move that would bring into question the rest of Bell's inclusion or exclusions from this book. That alone threw me off during the final stretch of this otherwise good book. ...more
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