First Family Detail - Ronald Kessler

Ronald Kessler's 20th book, The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents, offers a behind the scenes look at the secret service detail guarding elected officials, candidates and their families.  The book also offers up a critique of the mismanagement of the secret service and the risks posed to the security of the people being protected.

The first family and the agents work together to balance security and freedom.  In the view of the line staff managers and directors of the secret service are too willing to compromise the security of the President to give in to personal favors or cover up incompetency.

After reading this book I hope the Democratic Party comes up with an alternative to Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.  As detailed in the book, Hillary's public persona contrasts with her very nasty behavior with secret service agents and White House Staff.  The author's sources credit Hillary's public humiliation of Vince Foster as a contributing factor to his suicide.  She also fired an agent for helping former first lady Barbara Bush with a computer problem. Agents assigned to Hillary view it as a form of punishment.

Joe Biden is an affable person, but according to accounts does not take his responsibility for the nuclear football seriously.  His habit of swimming without clothes in front of female agents assigned to him does not earn him any respect.  His erratic personal schedule makes it very difficult for agents to plan for his protection.  This contrasted with Dick Cheney who planned out his life almost a year in advance.

Agents report excellent treatment by the Obama's.  This contrasted with the utter disdain the the Clinton's and Al Gore had for the secret service.  The agents were told to be invisible and they were told to hide from view.  Mr. Clinton has mellowed since leaving office and now has a good relationship with his agents.  John F. Kennedy was kind to the agents while being less than faithful to his wife.  As President, Jimmy Carter was a know it all faker who could not take instruction even from a ski instructor.  Lyndon Johnson probably was the worst of the lot being inconsiderate, profane and coarse to everyone.

The secret service had a good working relationship with the two Bush Administrations and with Ronald Reagan.  The Reagan's and Bush 41 would do there best stay in Washington over Christmas to allow agents to be with their families.  Richard Nixon was characterized as a man with a sharp political mind while being socially awkward and paranoid.

The first ladies are a mixed bag: Pat Nixon and Betty Ford were alcoholics. Nancy Reagan was controlling and protective. Rosalynn Carter was intellectually sharp and cordial.  Barbara Bush was everyone's mother and Laura Bush was uniformly loved by the secret service.

I appreciate the author providing details on the security breakdown's for each of the assassination attempts.  Peter Gabriel's song; Family Snapshot provides a good generic profile of these often mentally disturbed individuals listening to the wrong voices inside their heads. 

The office of the presidency reveals the true character of the person charged with leading the nation.  Are the people running the country completely self absorbed and inconsiderate of others, or do they treat others with respect without regard to a person's status?  Is there a huge disconnect between their public and private life?
.

Peter Gabriel - Snapshot - 5 min.

The Smell of Truthiness by N.G. Carlson

After about eight years of rewrites and a conversion from a screenplay my book is finished.  Originally titled The Singing Volcano the book describes events during 2028 US Presidential Election, widely regarded as the least important election of the 21st Century. 

Former high school classmates from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, now candidates for National Office are reunited and given the opportunity to change the world.  The book The Smell of Truthiness is available from Amazon.

The video below provides a guide for my dream cast for the work as a screen play.  I borrowed the speech patterns of Nathan Lane for President Gene Alidy.

Several songs referred to in the book add some depth to the reading experience.

• Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd - Clare Tory singing
• Cold As Ice - Foreigner
• The Future Soon - Jonathan Coulton 
• Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin

The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd with Clare Tory

Cold as Ice - Foreigner - lyrics 3 min.

The Future Soon - Jonathan Coulton 4 min. 

Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg describes how habits are developed in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business . Positive habits create benefit.  If groups or corporations develop habits to work around unresolved conflicts the results can be deadly as in an increase in surgery and doctor errors and emergency management.

Strictly defined areas of job responsibility and poor training slowed the response to the Kings Cross subway fire in England on November, 18 1987.  A match dropped under an escalator, slow response in investigating the source of the fire and a flash explosion resulted in the deaths of 31 people and injuries to 100 people. Unwritten rules kept employees from stepping out of their narrowly defined roles making them reticent about contacting anyone outside their specific department.

A toxic work environment between surgeons and nurses in a Rhode Island hospital made it difficult for nurses to bring up patient safety concerns to physicians.  Nurses developed informal coding systems on charts to alert other nurses about tyrannical physicians.  As a result of the unequal truce a series of several brain surgeries on the wrong side of peoples heads or other body parts occurred in less than a year.  The resignation of the chief neurosurgeon and staff training specifically empowering employees to bring up problems finally turned the hospital around.

At Alcoa, Paul O'Neil turned the company around by focusing on a culture of safety.  Previous failure to address safety concerns resulted in unscheduled plant shut downs and worker injuries.  The change in this keystone behavior resulted in an number of other positive changes in the company with an increase in corporate profits.

Professional athletes benefit from focusing on specific behavioral clues and specific training routines.  Tony Dungy taught his players to focus on a few simple cues to allow his players to be successful in football.  Ultimate success only occurred after the players rallied around the coach after the death of his son. 

The best success comes specifically identifying behaviors to change and changing the definition of a person or a groups character giving them a large sense of purpose or mission. Student's classroom behavior improves more when they develop a group identity.  We are people who care about keeping the classroom clean, as opposed to specific constant direction on how to cleanup and why taking care of the environment is a good thing.

http://getthepicture.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/oct-13.png click to enlarge

For further reading online: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - PDF

Book summary - Main takeaway - 10 minutes

The Triumph of the Fungi by Nicholas P. Money

Nicholas P. Money in the The Triumph of the Fungi: A Rotten History covers the often futile attempts by humans to prevent plant pathogens from destroying trees, potatoes, cereal grains, coffee plants and rubber plants.

For non mycologists the discussions can be very steeped in the terms of mycology.  The author balances this with biting social commentary such as the benefits and downside of colonialism and slave labor.

For public policy experts the implications for ignoring the concerns of plant pathologists are dire.  The Japanese near monopoly on natural rubber production in WWII spurred the development of petroleum based polymers that did not work as well and the failed experiment by a US company to establish rubber trees back in South America. A local endemic pathogen killed the plants thwarting the best efforts to establish the plants.

Gold colored Urediniospores - Outside air air sample from Texas 10/2012 - N. Carlson

For mycologists the author describes the many ways the fungal organisms reproduce.  These have implications for control as some types of spores travel very short distances while the urediniospores produced in some cases by the same organism can travel across the Pacific Ocean. 

The chapter titles reflect the dark humor of the author "Cereal Killers," "The Decaffinator" and "Rubber eraser."  There are very few notes of optimism in this grimly realistic tome. After offering an uncharacteristically optimistic paragraph the author points out why this may be just wishful thinking.

The last chapter focuses on the future of fungal plant pathology and the concern for bioterrorism.  It is important to do our best to control the spread of fungal pathogens.  At a minimum the controls allow us to feed our addition to coffee and chocolate.  Lack of control results in death and deforestation. The book explores the current limits on the ability of humans to control our environment.

Nicholas P. Money -Who are the invisible rulers of the Planet?  The microbial world dwarfs the macrobiotic world - 3min.

Mushroom reproduction - 2min.

The Amoeba in the room- 30 min.  - We still can't categorize all the organisms in his pond.

Redirect by Timothy D. Wilson

Timothy D. Wilson PhD. covers the science of changing and helping people cope with difficult circumstances using a technique known as story editing in his book, Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change . 

Mr. Wilson points to research from Association for Psychological Science and others showing that CISD (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) that occurs after a traumatic event does not reduce the incidence of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and may in fact make it harder for people to move on and recover if they are forced to recount the event against their will.  Waiting several weeks after an event and writing down thoughts for 15 minutes on three consecutive days works much better as does cognitive behavior therapy.  This allows people time to make sense of an event.

Mr. Wilson mocks the premise of the book, The Secret, pointing out the stupidity of attracting good things while sitting at home eating snacks.  He finds it ludicrous to blame the Secret-challenged people of Darfur for their inability to attract wealth and prosperity.

He devotes considerable attention to case control research on effective ways to promote healthy behaviors by helping college students realize the actual rates of binge drinking are lower than they thought.  He also points out activities that he finds are similar to blood letting.  It is a very bad idea to bring at risk teens together for activities.  They reinforce each others bad behaviors.  It is better to have the teens mentored through a program like Big Brothers Big Sisters.  

He offers some health parenting tips backed by case control studies on ways to coax the best behavior out of your kids.  Use the minimum reward/punishment necessary to accomplish a goal.  Change in behavior sticks when it becomes a part of who a person or groups identity.  We are a class that does not litter works much better than lectures telling kids to do the right thing.  Praise kids for doing hard work studying for a test not for being smart. 

RSA talk with Timothy Wilson - 18 minutes

Social Psychology - 40 minutes

James Lilek's Gallery of Regrettable Food

Local Minnesota author James Lileks offers a health serving of barely edible food with a presentation designed to test even the most robust digestive tract.

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/knox/4.html

Brain shaped tuna casserole competes with stringy meat wrapped in cabbage.  Faded color images from the 50's and 60's provide motivation for a dieter's last ditch attempt to shed unwanted pounds.

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/vegetables/3.html

Food was not meant to be observed in its natural state.  With the help of gelatin, food could be formed into shapes not found in nature.  The book visually catalogs the artistry in food presentation at the epoch of prepostmodernism.

More images are available for viewing at James Lilek's Gallery of  Regrettable Foods. Warning: some of the commentary is geared toward an adult audience. 

 The One Minute Critic Review - 1 min.

George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger

The Long Island spy ring provided valuable information on British military operation during the Revolutionary War to General George Washington.  After the failed attempt at spying by Nathan Hale, George Washington set up intelligence operatives in and around New York City.

The spies used many of the standard techniques used today including, unique invisible ink.  Code names, a code book and people to transport the documents.  The identities of individuals in the ring were kept secret.  The lone woman in the ring remains unknown to this day.

The book provides more information about the activities and motivations of Benedict Arnold than the light gloss given during a typical history lesson.  His wife's Tory sympathies played a significant role.

The authors provide a good description of the main players working for British and American espionage.  Each person handled the emotional stress of the spy work differently.  Some masked their American sympathies so well that George Washington had to offer them protection after the war to prevent them from being attacked as traitors. 

Be aware that some of the dialogue in the book is fictionalized for narrative purposes.   This did not take away from the well researched information provided in book.

Culpeper spy ring on Long Island, NY 5min.

Radio interview with Author Brian Kilmead - 14 min.

Bob Newhart - I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!

Bob offers a candid look back through his career.  He started his comedy work as a duo with another man and when he left he just filled in the gaps offering one end of the conversation.

His real life personality is similar to the character he plays on the two longest running sitcoms: The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart.  For his stand up comedy routine, he has a bit of a stubborn side and will occasionally toss in a joke that doesn't quite work into his routine.

Bob's wife doesn't follow show business too closely and enjoyed meeting Don Rickles, whose abrasive onstage personality is very different from his more reserved home life. Bob had to prepare her for the insults after that had a nice supper with Don before his stage show.

Bob describes the miserable conditions that they had to work under for the movie Catch 22.  He and another cast member wanted to bolt from the set but were told their breach of contract would make that fiscally unwise.  Bob also tried to get out of the last two seasons of the Bob Newhart Show but complied with his contractual obligations after being threatened with a lawsuit.

I enjoyed learning how Bob constructed his jokes and appreciated that someone can be very funny without going blue.  I've included a sketch on the flea circus with his good friend Dean Martin alone with a couple other favorites.

Bob Newhart interviewing an author - Bob did not read the book beforehand. 6 min.

Major Major - Catch 22 -3min.

Bob on Mad TV - Very short therapy - 6 min.

Hitler's Furies by Wendy Lower

Hitler's Furies by Wendy Lower covers the role of women on the Eastern Front during World War II.  The daily lives of women serving various roles from horrified bystanders to active participants in the Holocaust.  

Wide discretion was given to local field offices when it came to sending Jews to concentration camps, mass shootings and the gas chambers.  Often female clerical workers in branch offices made the final choice.  One woman was saved because she hadn't finished sewing an item for one of the secretaries.

The book is filled with specific details providing a forensic analysis of German women's life in occupied territories.  For example: one of the women noted that the well water at a location had a foul taste which she attributed to the run off from the decaying corpses in the large number of mass graves nearby.  

Indoctrination of students was very systematic.  Adults and children read books highlighting the need for Germans to have more room to expand and the need for more land to provide breathing space.  This set up the necessity to occupy territory to the east of Germany.  The dehumanization of Jews was also as systematic.  

The book highlights the big and small roles women had in maintaining the Nazi power structure.  Nurses providing lethal injections, secretaries passing along war correspondence, female prison guards having discretion to be professional or brutal, and wives of Gestapo officers shooting Jews while hunting the woods when no other wildlife was to be found.  

The capacity of humans to be kind or unkind is not limited to gender, race or religious affiliation.  The capacity for good and evil is present in all along with the free will to act on that capacity. 

Wendy Lower reads from Hitler's Furies - 6 min.

If I Only Knew Then ... Learning From Our Mistakes - Charles Grodin

Charles Grodin collected essays from over 80 friends and friends of friends on mistakes they made in life and what they learned from them.  People from the entertainment world are well represented along with astronauts, politicians, doctors, policeman and members of the legal profession.

Many contributors focused on not trusting their instincts or missed financial opportunities.  Some regret not taking time to show gratitude to someone who was very important in their lives.  Others came to the brink of a bad decision and changed their mind at the last moment, like attorney Nancy Grace's story of the prosecution of a serial child abuser.  She decided to play it safe and not risk disbarment during a trial.  She changed her mind at the last moment and pandemonium ensued.

Alan Alda's confession about excessive preparation for and interview contrasts with another person's error caused by lack of preparation.  The person spoke highly of an individual but repeatedly referred to them by the wrong name at a well attended charity event.  Gene Wilder's story of something good coming out of a very miserable situation in a play with Anne Bancroft was both funny and enlightening.  

As I look back on my mistakes, many of them center around not asking enough questions or making a poor decision on not trusting in others and wishing I had listening carefully to them and taken their advice. 

For further reading, refer to an article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman 9 Habits that Lead to Terrible Decisions subtitled for mass market appeal as, "Nine Habits of Very Unsuccessful People".  The paraphrased list includes the qualities of laziness, indecision, lack of independence, failure to see how the decision fits with an overall strategy, lack of technical knowledge, isolation, failure to communicate, and being stuck in the past.  My recent favorite is the failure to examine negative possibilities by viewing the world through a pair of tightly gripped rose colored binoculars.

The proceeds of the Mr. Grodin's book go towards HELP USA.  An organization devoted to getting people out of the trap of homelessness. 

Book highlights  -  2 min.

Adaptability - How to Survive Change You Didn't Ask For

Mary Jane Ryan's Book on AdaptAbility: How to Survive Change You Didn't Ask For offers helpful guidance for all of us coping with change that is suddenly forced on us.  Mary allows all of us a brief period of time to BMW (B*tch, Moan and Wine) prior to adapting to change.

Like stressed lab rats we all need a bit of TLC for comfort during an unexpected stressful live event.  Lab rats stress is reduced by petting the fur.  For each of us we need to figure out what positive thing in our life reduces our stress.  Stressed individuals suffer from tunnel vision unable to think creatively about possible alternatives.  Setting aside time to do a brief mindfulness meditation can be one way to reduce stress.

Mary recommends parallel processing several options at once when responding to an unexpected career change.  This is similar to spreading risk by taking a company stock option, cashing it out and investing it in a wide array of different investment categories.

Katie Goodman's book, Improvisation for the Spirit,  serves as inspiration for the tactic of Ready, Go, Set recommended by the author.  The author recommends testing and evaluating solutions before they are 100% ready.  You can make adjustments based on evaluation and improve the product.  I've done this with video production and it's helped out with the learning curve by learning rapidly from my mistakes.  Hint: Keep the camera stable when doing green screen work. 

Mary frequently references Amanda Ripley's excellent book, The Unthinkable.  People respond to unexpected change in many ways.  Many people are simply frozen by fear.  This is why flight attendants are trained to yell at people during an emergency to break people out of this state of inaction.  After the World Trade Center plane crash people milled about for up to 45 minutes prior to taking action to save themselves.  Mary advises finding someone who is taking action, model their behavior and get yourself out of this unproductive rut. 

The book was helpful to me as our office will be moving from our comfortable building with private offices that we occupied for the past 60 years to a new collaborative work environment.  I am trying hard to move past the BMW phase and work to make the new surroundings less miserable for my co-workers. 

Letting Go of Your Tortured Mind - 33 min.

Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills

Steven Novella's 24 lectures describe in great detail the ways our own brain can trick us into making incorrect assumptions about the world.   For example are wired to give more weight to personal anecdotes than scientific studies.

He also advocates not strongly weighting the results of one scientific study but waiting for other confirmatory results.  If the results of the study are confirmed and are valid the additional studies will use the original findings as a launching point to advance knowledge.  As in the case of psi research the opposite is true.  Studies have not built on each other.  The research has not moved forward and people engage in creative pleading as to why no effect is observed.

According to Dr. Novella,  most people are unaware of the clumpiness of random data.  If we cherry pick samples of data there will appear to be an effect.  People can test this by checking on long runs of heads or tails when flipping a coin.  Eventually over 1000 flips the heads and tails will average out but during the course of this flipping exercise there will be runs sometimes exceeding 10 in a row of heads or tails.

Silverwood Park, St. Anthony, MN - Reflection - N. Carlson

The term, Pareidolia,  is the tendency to ascribe meaning to random bits of primarily visual or auditory information.  Because our brains are very good at face recognition we often convert random visual stimuli into a human face.  We can see a face in the clouds or on stains in tapestry.

This series of lectures provides helpful tools for scientists and the general public trying to make sense of the vast amount of information begging for our attention.  Dr. Novella strongly advocates critical thinking and approves the efforts of Professor Richard Muller (NY Times: Climate change skeptic) to conduct a fresh analysis of the data on climate change.  Professor Muller had legitimate concerns about the earth surface temperature data and the techniques used to analyze it.  After excluding unreliable temperature data reporting areas, urban heat zone and using nearly 100% of rural reporting stations he concluded that the observed 2.5 degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature over the last 250 years was best fit to a similar increase in known greenhouse gas emissions.  The periodic dips in temperature best fit to large volcanic eruptions.  Professor Muller pointed out that this did not conclusively prove causality but he challenged others to find another cause for the observed temperature change that matched the data.

For further information please consult Steven Novella's Skeptic blog.

The guide book to the lecture is available here:  Your Deceptive Mind - pdf

Preview of Your Deceptive mind - 2 minutes

My Word is my Bond - Roger Moore

Roger Moore offers a look into a career that spans decades and moves toward an enlightened view of the world. 

Audrey Hepburn ask him to join in these charitable efforts and Roger gladly accepted. I actually found the charitable work he's done persuading governments to assure people get iodized salt to be the most interesting part of his life.  Many unscrupulous people will allow people to be miserable by selling salt with out the added iodine to people in poor countries.  The efffects of iodine deficiency during the developmental year can result in learning defects or mental retardation.

Roger's take on James Bond was different than Sean Connery.  He felt the gentle art of persuasion was more effective than force.  He however did use force when the director asked for it.  Roger has a dry British sense of humor referring to his Co-star Maude Adams as Mud.  He did not suggest any romantic onscreen romances with his co-stars in the Bond films. He actually found the company of several of them to be very disagreeable.

Roger Roore's friendship with David Niven was similar to Roger Wegner's.  They both thought David's last wife was a detestable human being. 

In summary, Roger's evolution from a young actor to humanitarian provides a lesson in making the most of your life from a man who doesn't take himself too seriously

Early career - 4 minutes

Part 1 - 10 minutes

Part 2 - 8 minutes

The Price of Inequality

Joseph E. Stiglitz offers a progressive democrats prescription for fixing the US economy by taking measures to reduce the inequality in income distribution.  A significant portion of the book is a rather depressing litany of how the US fails to measure up to other countries with respect to equality of income distribution and opportunities for people to move up in society.  He suggests that rising out of poverty to wealth is part of American mythology not supported by the evidence.

He points out that the current economic system provides rewards to individuals managing money that is not in proper proportion to the individuals benefit to society.  The ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of workers has doubled since the 1970's.

As noted in Linked, income inequality is based on a power curve.   When rules are applied to a random system, some individuals are quicker to understand the rules of the game or are able to write the rules to benefit themselves.

Mr. Stiglitz advocates raising the maximum tax rate and keeping the inheritance tax on the upper income earners. The interest rate on student loans should be much lower because banks do not have any risk associated with the loan because the loan is one of the few that are not severable in bankruptcy. This should give loan co-signers pause.

It is interesting to note that many of the founders of a company (Microsoft) that Mr. Stiglitz suggests engaged in monopolistic behaviors are also people who run some of the largest charitable foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   There is also a club that billionaires can join if they make a promise to give away more than 1/2 their fortune through The Giving Pledge.

For those who want to join the one percent, not break a sweat and play by the current rules.  How to get rich in America? It is almost impossible to get into the the top 1% in income by actually doing productive work according to John Macintosh's Satirical comment on Income Inequality in America.  John writes a letter to a son he never had about how to move into the top 1% in income.  You need to find a job that allows you to benefit from managing other people's capital preferably more than $100 million.  Skim off one to three percent annually for management and you are set.

 89 minute lecture

22 minutes - reform tax code to improve economy

Think Like a Freak

Freaknomics authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner tackle more perplexing problems with their new book, Think Like a Freak. Of the the three books, they have produced this one is less flippant and more nuanced.  The authors acknowledge that many problems in this world are incredibly complex and do not lend themselves to simple solutions.

The authors did help solve one of the more perplexing additions to their previous book.  In Super Freakonomics they added a section to the book on why terrorists should by life insurance from their bank.  They came up with an algorithm that could identify the unusual banking activities of terrorists with greater than 99% accuracy.  Unfortunately this still included a large number of innocent individuals.  They wanted the terrorists to reveal themselves by buying life insurance from a bank because almost no one buys life insurance from a bank.

They also describe the paradigm shift in the approach to eating hot dogs that allowed one man to double the previous record for the number of hot dogs eaten.  He broke down the task into parts discovering that moistening the bun with water made it go down quicker.  Eating the dog from the side sped up the chewing. This has implications for process improvement. We need to take a fresh look at how we do things and determine different ways of accomplishing the task. 

They encourage individuals to approach problems with intense child like curiosity.  It frees people from normal constraints and ways of looking at problems. 

Eating hot dogs like a freak - 7min.

Aaron Task - 4 minute interview

Ask questions with childlike curiosity - 1 min.

The Elements by Theodore Gray

Theodore Gray's book  The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe , provides a humorously informative and visually interesting introduction to the known natural and man made elements on the periodic table.  Most elements have two to four pages packed with information about the elements usefulness, it's discovery and some health and safety information.

Sodium and other alkali metals are known to react strongly to water.  As part of my job, I've had to respond to the aftermath of this reaction.  The researcher in this case was safe but the lab was a mess.

I enjoyed his explanation of the relative amount of elements on the earth.  For example almost all of the helium on earth has originated from alpha particle radioactive decay of two protons and two neutrons. 

I have included a sample page from one of my favorite elements.  Even though Gallium's gray color fails to distinguish itself from many other metals, it has the unique property of melting just above room temperature.  This was the basis of Sam Kean's book, The Disappearing Spoon.

Sample page on Gallium - click to enlarge

 

Theodore Gray's 4 minute video on the book. It includes Tom Lehrer's song The Elements.

A World Without Time - Maggie Carlson

 

My daughter completed writing her first book last fall.  It's now available for Amazon Kindle at this link A World Without Time by Maggie Carlson.

The book is a fast paced adventure that gets rolling when three students on a field trip get separated from their group.  They mistakenly set off an experiment that traps the three of them in a world without time.

They learn to rely on each other as they overcome many obstacles on their quest to find the inventor who can stop the experiment and bring back time.

The cover photo was taken this spring while we were touring Cave in the Mounds Park in Wisconsin. 

Linked

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi compares the linked nature of the web to the rest of our world.  Web hubs and links are not created equal.  Web link traffic like income distribution and job performance follow a power law curve and not a bell curve distribution.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/19/the-myth-of-the-bell-curve-look-for-the-hyper-performers/

A bell Curve distribution would assume that traffic to websites would only have a few sites with high number of hits and a few sites with a low number of hits.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/19/the-myth-of-the-bell-curve-look-for-the-hyper-performers/

The power law distribution shows a few websites (Google, Amazon) having a lot of traffic and many websites (personal, research) having little or no traffic.


US income distribution (click on image to enlarge)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

This also has implications for disease management. In the spread of STD's there are individuals who have 1000's of partners and controlling their behavior or contacts has a much greater impact than focusing on individuals with one or two partners.

TED talk - linked theory in disease managment

Gift of God - An Adoption Story

C.A. Krinke's book offers an emotionally honest account of one couples decision to adopt a baby.  The author covers the personal journey starting with the disappointment of miscarriage and ending with the joy of adoption.

The book offers a useful guide to individuals going through the modern adoption process as they attempt to find an adoption agency that is a good fit.  

This path to adoption has its moments of frustration and humor.  The couple spends many nights crafting an adoption letter to appeal to a birth mother only to be told that the color choice was all wrong.  They spend time in the required counseling sessions and group meetings on how to be a good parent while listening to others cope with the stress of waiting.

The book Gift of God is available for Kindle at Amazon.  The book Gift of God is available in soft cover at Creatspace.

The Epic of Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell

 

Stephan Mitchell provides a gripping English version of the Epic of Gilgamesh combining all of the known fragments of this ancient story into a compelling narrative while taking some liberties with the text.  He also offers extensive commentary on the book explaining and offering various interpretations of the text including references to the 2003 Gulf War.   Warning: some sections of the text contain graphic material that is not suitable for children. 

The earliest portions of the text date back more than 4,000 years ago various versions were written or interpreted over a 2000 year period.  The text was discovered in 1853 and translated from the cuneiform logographs. When the section of Gilgamesh that contains a story very similar to a biblical Noah the translator could not contain his enthusiasm.   Update: 20 new lines of the poem describing the Cedar Forest and its destruction have been recently discovered as summarized by Fox News reporter Elizabeth Palermo.

Gilgamesh offers a complex tale of personal discovery and a post modern view of false heroism.  It also is a cautionary tale against the unintended consequence of preemptive strikes against monsters guarding the forest. 

The epic suggest that finding your complementary opposite can make you a better person or it can cause you change into that person.  Gilgamesh the king of Uruk finds this in his friend Enkidu, an uncivilized man created by the gods to distract him from being cruel to the people he rules.

Gilgamesh early on treats death with dismissiveness as nothing to be feared because life is short.  But when confronted with the death of a dear friend he becomes inconsolable, eloquently expressing the agony of loss.  He then sets out on a quest to find the one man who cheated death and learn his secret.

Some references in the Babylonian Epic have references to real people which suggests that this may be in part a fictionalized account of a real king and a real city of Uruk.  I found the text to be thought provoking and emotionally honest.  

Animated version of the story - 11 minutes

This Wikipedia article provide  more information on the blue rock known as lapis lazuli referred to in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Debunked! by Georges Charpak and Henri Broch

 

 

The authors work to demystify magic and coincidence through probability and hard science.  Because something is an unlikely coincidence does not make it a miracle.  In fact, given the several millions of random opportunities for interaction during the course of a year it would be highly improbable if a rare coincidence did not happen. 

 

I found the book to be helpful if a bit short on examples. The author's are at their best when tackling topics not directly related to the books main theme.  They describe the overthrow of colonial governments with even more corrupt and incompetent national governments as a sad commentary on the human condition.  It makes the US revolution seem much more like a rare event than the more typical French Revolution where there is a violent overthrow and the king is replaced by a dictator.

 

The book exposes charlatans, the dowsers, the astrologers, and the fakers using probability to create the illusion of miracles. Mediums offering vague predictions that allow the receiver to fill in the details and create meaning out of very little. 

 

Humans have survived because we are able to see patterns.  This allows us to determine that I felt sick after eating this plant and infer cause and effect.  The rigors of the scientific method require that the effect be repeatable to tease out a random association from actual cause and effect.  The ability to see patterns also allows humans to see deities, pop stars and grade B movie actors in moldy tapestry or clouds.  Fortunately moldy tapestries offer a more lucrative source of revenue than an ephemeral cloud formation.

 

The authors fault TV shows for not thoroughly debunking and investigation situations attempting to make ordinary physical phenomenon appear extraordinary.  The "miracle" of the weeping box can be explained by condensation, rain water, a porous top and a sealed bottom.  News crews with limited scientific background do a cursory investigation and proclaim that science has not come up with an explanation for the phenomenon. 

 





Georges Charpak - the value of scientific experiments in Education

Enchantment - The Biography of Audrey Hepburn by Donald Spoto

I listened to the Audio version of the book by Donald Spoto as I was driving to an from work over a week and a half.  My curiosity about Audrey was raised when Roger Moore gratefully accepted her invitation to work for UNICEF as noted in his autobiography.  As a child dancer growing up in both England and Holland in the late 1930's and 1940's Audrey escaped starvation during the Nazi occupation by eating tulip bulbs.  A relief agency was able to get the family food at a low point in the war.  She fell in love with the smell of diesel trucks and cigarettes as the British troops liberated the family residence in Holland.  During the war Audrey and the other children assisted the local resistance movement in Holland.  She also witnessed Jews being rounded up and trucked off to concentration camps.

Her father left her when she was young and her mother was very formal showing her love by supporting her efforts to learn to be a dancer but not through affection.  This left Audrey with a need to give and accept affection in her life and infrequent bouts of depression.  This resulted in two failed marriages and several short lived on the set romances.  Her two son's were the loves of her life and took precedence over other relationships.

Audrey did not intend to become and actress but fell into it as a result of failing to become an elite dancer.  The hiatus from dance lessons during WWII kept her from achieving that goal.  She never felt fully secure as an actor and felt after doing GiGi on Broadway for over a year that she was just beginning to understand the part. The exposure to both English and Dutch during her formative years left her with an accent that was unique helped her stand out as unique.

She found her life changed and she became a different person after researching and acting in the movie the Nun's Story.  While researching the part she went to the African missions personally witnessing both successful and unsuccessful medical operations.  She got to know the author and subject of the book and became lifelong friends with the women. 

In the last decade of her life, Audrey focused her energies on improving the living conditions of children in the most politically unstable locations on the planet.  She donated her salary from a PBS series on gardening to UNICEF.

Review of the book - 5 minutes