Reading
Log For 2000
ALL
TOMORROW’S PARTIES
(1999)
Hardcover
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York
2000.1.7 – 2000.1.9
- Laney is trying to find the nodal point from a cardboard
box in a Tokyo
train station. He suspects that the salker effect of the 5-SB
has
kicked in.
- 4: The last nodal point in history was 1911.
- 194: It had to do with Pierre Curie getting run over in
1906.
- This node revolves around the San Francisco bridge.
- Yamazaki brings Laney medicine.
- Rydell was hired by Laney to check it out.
- 128:
Specialist dealers wanted low wholesale,
basically,
so they could whip the big markup to collectors. If you were a
collector,
Fontaine figured, specialist dealers were nature’s way of
telling you had
too much money to begin with.
Watches there, each face to him a
tiny and contained poem, a pocket
museum, subject over time to laws of entropy and of chance.
- Bohemias = subcultures.
- 230: Tape is mystical: It has a dark side, a light side,
and it holds
the
universe together.
THE
FLAMINGO’S SMILE
(1985)
Hardcover
W. W. Norton & Company, New York
– 2000.1.22
Paperback:
- 36: Lamarck had the right idea but the wrong mechanism.
- 94: On the question of individuals; all members of an aphid
clone are
female,
grown inside their mother without fertilization. A stand of
bamboo
are clones attached to a common runner.
- 95 ftnt: A fruit stand sells 2 for 35¢; a lady
asks how much
for just
one? 20¢; “fine, I’ll take the
other.”
- 99: In paintings of Adam and Eve, their navels are covered
by strategic
foliage because of theological debates.
- 125: On Sedgewick recanting the Flood:
The final irony and deep message
is simply this: flood theory, the
centerpiece
of modern creationism, was disproved 150 years ago, largely by
professional
clergymen who were also geologists, exemplary scientists, and
creationists.
The enemy of knowledge and science is irrationalism, not religion.
- 155: Kinsey’s report Sexual
Behavior in
the Human Female(1953)
occurred at the height of McCarthyism, so he lost financial support.
- 168: Gould’s 100th essay
mentions
getting caught in a shoot-out
among drug runners in North Andros.
- 185: Human Equality is a Contingent Fact of History.
- 196: Gould’s colleague, Richard Lewontin says
that if a
holocaust occurs:
and only the Xhosa people of the
southern tip of Africa survived,
the
human species would still retain 80 percent of its genetic variation.
- 215: Losing the Edge: About 0.400 in
baseball; one
of Gould’s most
famous essays.
- 216:
Something in us needs to
castigate the present in the light of an
unrealistically
rosy past. In researching the history of misconduct, for example, I
discovered
that every generation (at least since the mid-nineteenth century) has
imagined
itself engulfed in a crime wave.
- 238: A cycle of extinction of 26 million years (more later).
- 245: Churchill described Russian policy as a:
riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
- 248: At a paleontology conference, he wondered if just one
bomb... but
why would anyone bother?
- 308: Note “epileptic” on a form for a
mental
hospital.
- 309: By 1935, there were 20,000 forced
“eugenic”
sterilizations performed
in the U.S., nearly half of them were in California.
- 313: The Supreme Court plaintiff Carrie Buck was of normal
intelligence.
- 317: Vivian (Carrie’s daughter) had normal grades
(and died
at the age
of 8). Unlike what Oliver Holmes said,
Three generations of imbeciles are enough.
- All three generations were normal! What happened
was
obviously due
to out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Carrie was shipped to a
hospital.
- 319: The Nature vs. Nurture debate in Singapore.
Prime
Minister Lee
Kwon Yew, upon hearing that educated women have less children, wanted
to
encourage them to have more.
- 347: Be careful with the romanticized Darwinian
“legend” in the same way
as Galileo or Newton.
- 377: Mentions The
Tables Turned:
“Sweet is the lore which nature brings...” by Wordsworth
- 400: On the “strong” anthropomorphic
principle:
Eighty years after
Wallace’s book [Man’s
Place in the Universe],
our universe could not be more radically different, yet human hop
continues
to impose the same invalid argument upon it.
- 403: Gould is a big supporter of SETI.
- 477: In EVER
SINCE DARWIN
(1977), he wrote that Pangea was the primary cause of
extinction, now
he thinks it was just one factor.
- On the subject of Nemesis causing comets to go out of their
orbits,
Gould
thinks that the star would better be named “Siva”
after the god of destruction
and creation.
ENTERING
SPACE
Creating A Spacefaring Civilization (1999)
Hardcover
Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam, New York
2000.1.9 – 2000.1.26
- 18: Admiral Cheng Ho, a Chinese Muslim makes voyages from
1405 to 1433.
- 24: “Cost plus” creates disincentives
in government
contractors.
Of the 9,000 people at the Lockheed plant in Denver, only 1,000 work in
the factory. By assessing the costs of every part, you create
an
army of “matrix managers”.
- 29 - 30: The Space Shuttle upper stage should be
disposable, or rather
the lower stage should be reusable.
- 32: Lockheed-Martin president Norm Augustine promised that
if they won
the $900 million X-33 prize, they would invest $4.5 billion of their
own
money into SSTO research. When Augustine retired, it became
something
that they might do.
- Zubrin accuses NASA of anti-SDI bias against the Delta
Clipper team in
their SSTO decision.
- 92: He also accuses NASA of denying Clementine II for the
same anti-SDI
bias.
- 119: The Pathfinder web site got 100 million hits a day,
which is more
than the number of people who vote, and more than
the number of people who are
actively for or against abortion, gun
control,
a balanced budget, and national health care, combined.
a hundred years from now, no one
will either know or care what our
gun control, abortion, balanced budget, or national health care laws
were.
But what we do to start the space faring stage of human history by
opening
Mars will be of supreme importance.
- 124: Rights of Mars.
- Probes with nuclear power and more powerful remote sensing
will provide
better data than the current ones.
- 262: It might be easier to detect high-powered alien
spacecraft
directly
than radio signals.
- 272:
FULL
HOUSE
The Spread Of Excellence From Plato To Darwin (1996)
Hardcover
Harmony Books, New York
2000.1.29 – 2000.1.31
- This book barely mentions Plato.
The thesis of this book is that systems quickly approach their ideal
mode,
while staying close to either right or left “walls”.
- 9: A ship’s captain writes in his log,
“First mate
was drunk today.”
The first mate pleads with him that it was a unique episode, then
writes
in his entry, “Captain was sober today.”
- We tend to ignore the obvious that bacteria is the
“ideal” life form.
“Lower” forms don’t disappear as
“Higher” forms appear.
- 36: “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”
is
attributed to both Mark
Twain and Disraeli.
- 47: On Bernie Siegel’s books about the role of
positive
attitude in serious
diseases:
From the depths of my skeptical
and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord
to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom.
- 51: Mortality statistics are right-skewed. Gould
notes that
most
people may expect more time than they actually get.
- 63: Life’s little
joke:
On the typical horse evolution diagrams:
We choose horses because their
living species represent the endpoint
of such an unsuccessful lineage.
- From this perspective, primates are also unsuccessful.
- What are the successes of mammalian evolution?
Rats, Bats,
and Antelopes
have the most numbers and ecological spread.
- 70: Some examples of species decreasing in size.
- A long discussion of the 0.400 hitter and the general
improvement in
the
game.
- 137: Darwin
never used the word
“evolution” in the first edition of The
Origin of Species.
- 165: A graphic of the lower limit, or left wall in size.
- 171: The bacterial mode is still large, despite the right
skew.
THE
MAN
WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT
And Other Clinical Tales (1987)
Paperback (1990)
HarperPerennial, New York
1999.11.30 – 2000.2.8
- 3: Neurological problems:
- aphonia
- aphemia
- aphasia = difficulty in speech
- alexia
- agnosia = difficulty in recognition and perception
- amnesia
- ataxia
- anosagnosia = right-hemisphere issue where one does not
recognize own
problems
- Descriptions indicate that left-hemisphere problems are
more common
than
right.
- The Lost Mariner: Amnesia erased all
his
memories since 1945, when
he was 19, and he has no short term memory.
- 37: Sacks asks Sisters if he has a soul.
- 28: Sacks shows him a picture of the Earth from the Moon.
- The Disembodied Lady
- 54: There are now hundreds of disembodied people, possibly
due to
overdoses
of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), which is common
among health faddists.
- 80: Whenever Reagan gave a televised speech, there would be
roars of
laughter
from the aphasia ward. They are good at detecting liars
because they
must rely on body language.
- 93: Witty Ticcy Ray: has
Tourette’s
syndrome. He only wants
help (haldol) during the week because he takes advantage of his
impulses
when playing music on the weekends.
- 103: A woman with Cupid’s disease
(neurosyphillis) is giddy
and does not
want help.
- 113: A man with Korsakov’s disease is prone to
confabulation,
and loses
his identity. Again, Sacks the Sisters if he has a soul.
- 156: A medical student on drugs claims to have an extremely
acute sense
of smell.
- 187: A person with an amazing musical memory.
- 195: The Twins, John and Michael, are math savants.
- 203: They can factor primes as long as 20 digits!
FUZZY
LOGIC (1993)
Paperback
Touchstone, New York
2000.2.5 –
- Lofti Zadeh can be thought of as the inventor of fuzzy
logic.
- 11:
The Japanese were selling fuzzy
TVs, which ironically show sharper
pictures.
- 58: The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions
(1962) by Thomas
Kuhn defines paradigm shift.
- 66: hedges = terms that modify fuzzy sets.
- all purpose = very, quite, extremely
- truth-values = quite true, mostly false
- probabilities = likely, not very likely
- quantifiers = almost impossible, quite possible
- others = contrast intensification vs. contrast diffusion
- For example, room temperature varies from very cold;
moderately cold;
slightly
cold; neutral; slightly hot; moderately hot; very hot
- Another example:
Most men are vain.
Socrates is a man.
Thus, it is likely that Socrates is vain.
- 84: Eleanor Rosch, a psychologist at UC Berkeley did a
simple rating
experiment
with resulted in strong agreement between students.
- 93: Ewald Hering (1834 – 1918) found that color
derives from
basic oppositions:
red vs. green, blue vs. yellow; black vs. white. Later
discoveries
about cones, etc. proved him mostly right.
- 120: Holmblad and Østergaard develop FCL, a
Fuzzy Control
Programming
Language, which is somewhat like FORTRAN.
- 128: When equal vertical and horizontal lines are placed
together and a
subject is asked which is longer, Americans tend to pick the vertical,
while those from Zaire (Suku tribesman from grasslands with long
horizons)
tend to pick vertical lines overwhelmingly.
- 129: Jainism is a religion older than Buddhism
(Mohenjo-Daro c. 2500
B.C).
It stresses tolerance, nonviolence (ahim·sa¯) and
is the source
of the parable of the blind men and elephant.
Sya¯dva¯da
= truth is many-sided.
- 134: The Japanese language (as practiced) is vague.
- 137: In July 1937, Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at
the Marco
Polo
Bridge near Beijing. This was the beginning of
Japan’s invasion of
China and can be considered the true start of WWII.
- 144: Michio Sugeno popularized fuzzy logic. He is
known as
the “Zadeh
of Japan”.
- 146: Fuzzy measures are the likeliness of something
happening. Unlike
probability, fuzzy measure numbers do not have to add up to 1.0.
- 153: Musashi
Miyamoto (1584
– 1645) says in THE
BOOK OF FIVE RINGS (1994) to study not only
fighting, but the arts
as well.
- 159: Akihabara is Tokyo’s “Electric
Town”.
- 164: The human eye shifts around about every 5 seconds,
called
“saccades”,
which are hardly noticeable.
- 166: The Canon company was started in 1933 by physician
Takeshi
Mitarai.
Originally called Kwannon after the Japanese goddess of
mercy. It
is now the source of the biggest oxymoron in the field, fuzzy focus.
- 201 - 202: Set of sets.
- 219: Hitachi sells an all-purpose fuzzy expert shell called
“ES/KERNEL”.
- 220: A simulated stock trader sells before Black Monday,
but software
faltered
when the Nikkei lost half of its value from the end of 1989 to spring
1992.
- 234: Bart
Kosko
developed a Fuzzy
Kalman Filter.
- 237: Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM, pronounced with internal
schwas) apply
to politics.
- 239: Kosko foresees a day when all documents since the
Sumerians are
put
into one huge FCM.
- 251: Sugeno has a fuzzy controller for an R.C. helicopter,
which works
even when a rotor blade is lost.
- 255: Yamakawa showed Kosko the cave of Musashi.
SHOGUN
A Novel Of Japan (1975)
Paperback
2000.2.20 – 2000.4.2
- Set in 1600.
- John Blackthorne: English pilot major for Dutch
fleet. Due to
his
unpronounceable last name, he is called Anjin-san
(“pilot”).
- The lone surviving Dutch ship washes up at Izu.
- Omi: Local magistrate brings his uncle Kasigi Yabu, the
local daimyo,
to
determine the fate of the barbarians. Yabu tortures and kills
one
of them.
- Father Sebastio: A Portugese priest who embodies the
animosity between
the Protestants and Catholics.
- Blackthorne is taken to Toranaga, who has secret designs to
become
Shogun.
- Toranaga is the successor to the Taiko, Goroda.
- Vasco Rodrigues: Portugese pilot. Saved by
Blackthorne.
- Father Alvito (a.k.a. tsukku-san = “the
translator”): Speaks the best Japanese
of all Europeans.
- Mariko: Unhappily married to Buntaro. Because of
her language
skills,
she becomes close to Blackthorne.
- Omi: Asked by Toranoga to be Blackthorne’s
consort.
- Ishido: Toranaga’s rival; especially in gaining
the Christian
daimyos.
- Some
important phrases are:
- sama = “Lord” suffix
- san = “Sir” or
“Ma’am” suffix
- wakarimasu ka = “Do you understand?”
- namu? = “name?”
- kinjuru = “forbidden”
- ima = “now”, “at
once”
- isogi = “hurry”
- teki = “enemy”
- tsuyaku = “to interpret”
- domo arigato = “thank you”.
Women say
“arigato goziemashitu”
- dozo = “please”
- domo, genki desu = “fine, and you?”
- gomen nasai = “I’m sorry”
- mizu = “water”
- nihon go ga hanase-masen = “I don’t
speak
Nipponese”
- dozu ga matsu = “please wait”
- Time of day:
- 0500 – 0700 = Hour of the Hare
- 0700 – 0900 = Hour of the Dragon
- 0900 – 1100 = Hour of the Snake
- 1100 – 1300 = Hour of the Horse
- 1300 – 1500 = Hour of the Goat
- 1500 – 1700 = Hour of the Monkey
- 1700 – 1900 = Hour of the Cock
- 1900 – 2100 = Hour of the Dog
- 2100 – 2300 = Hour of the Boar
- 2300 – 0100 = Hour of the Rat
- 0100 – 0300 = Hour of the Ox
- 0300 – 0500 = Hour of the Tiger
- anata wa yoko nemutta ka = “did you sleep
well?”
- watashi wa yoku nemutta = “I slept very
well”
- kotaba shirimasen = “I don’t know the
words”
- yokoso oide kudasareta = “welcome to my
house”
- anatawa suimin ima = “you sleep now”
- miru = “watch, observe”
- 528: The simplicity of the language: there are no articles,
no verb
conjugations
or infinitives. All verbs are regular, ending in
“masu”. For
questions, just add “ka” after the verb.
For negation, just change
“masu” to “masen”.
- 542: Discussion about how guns are distasteful in combat.
- 591: 600 Christian knights and a few thousand Maltese
auxiliaries
defended
Malta at from 60,000 Turks at St. Elmo.
- 747: Gyoko proposes the idea of the Gei-sha = entertainers,
not
concubines.
- 748 - 749: About how it’s baffling that clever
people become
gullible,
and as they slit their bellies and tear their topknots, they bewail
their
karma or blame kami (gods).
- 750: Native Japanese priests wonder aloud why none are
ordained.
- 753: Christianity would be easier to accept by samurai had
not Jesus
died
like a common criminal.
- 862: List of European survivors.
- 902: When asked about treason by Toranaga, Blackthorne
answers:
“Sire, there are too many
precedents for deposing a
lord. ... A victor never commits treason.”
- Yabu commits seppuku. His death poem:
What are clouds
But an excuse for the sky?
What is life
But an escape from death?
THE
MARTIAL
ARTIST’S BOOK OF FIVE RINGS
The Definitive Interpretation of Miyamoto
Musashi’s Classic Book of Strategy (1994)
Paperback
Charles E. Tuttle Company, Boston
2000.4.1 – 2000.4.3
- See other translations:
Preface
- ix: Musashi is considered the Kensei,
sword-saint
of Japan.
Introduction
My name is
Miyamoto Musashi. I have killed
over sixty men in fights and duels. When I was sixty years of age I
looked
back upon my life and in a flash of wisdom, realized that all my
victories
were based on either great luck, an innate ability, or perhaps the fact
that the methods of other schools were inadequate.
- He is dedicated to painting,
sculpture,
and poetry, as well
as swordsmanship.
- The book is broken into 5
sections
(Kanji courtesy of http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~fwkf1685/kanji.htm):
The
Book Of Earth (chikyu)
- This lays the groundwork for study of the whole book
The
Book Of Water (mizu)
- This explains attitudes of
warriorness
through understanding
of strategy.
- 31:
It is
essential that you understand there
is no difference between using the sword in combat and in practice.
A bullet from a gun does not make
a distinction between practice and
combat.
The
Book Of Fire (hi)
- This teaches fighting with principles of Earth and Water.
The
Book Of Wind (kaze)
- This describes differences between his style and those of
other schools.
The
Book Of No-Thing (MU / BU / na(i))
- This describes the “Way” of nature as
the true mode
of being.
ENDER’S
SHADOW (1999)
2000.4.3 – 2000.4.9
- Bean: As in, “not worth a”.
It turns out
that he was a genetically
modified hyper-intelligent kid.
- Petra Arkanian: Bean wasn’t sure if she was
helping set up
Ender (for Bonzo
Madrid).
- Poke: Bean chose to be in her crew on the streets of
Rotterdam. One
of many killed by Achilles.
- Sister Carlotta: Searches for Bean’s past.
- Vauban built defenses for the impoverished Louis XIV.
- 130 b: In space, buggers can come from all directions in
the same way
that
Nimitz and MacArthur used 2-D island hopping in WWII.
However, defense
is much harder in 3-D.
- 131: The reason for sending the fleet immediately after the
Second
Bugger
War.
- 132:
Defensive war didn’t
take brilliance, just alertness.
- Battle School only makes sense for offensive war.
- 133: The I.F. needs the bugger menace to prevent Civil War,
just like
that
in Rome after the defeat of Carthage. Battle School is there
to take
away all the potential Napoleons.
- 134:
“By taking us, they
have tamed the world.”
- Nikolai Delphinki: Bean’s friend, and genetically
his (twin?)
brother.
- 210: The world is controlled by the triumvirate: Hegemon,
Polemarch,
and
Strategos.
- The International Fleet had set its own budget early and
never let
go.
Therefore Polemarch and Strategos had more money than Hegemon, who had
the highest title.
- Ender tends to misunderstand and even underestimate Bean.
- 279:
- 295: Scoreboards made commanders more cautious and less
willing to
experiment.
HEN’S
TEETH AND HORSE’S
TOES (1983)
Paperback
W. W. Norton & Company, New York
2000.4.10 – 2000.4.23
- 23: Darwin’s theory holds that evolution is
fundamentally a
struggle among
individual organisms to pass more of their genes to future generations.
- 27 - 28: The male anglerfish (of course, what is
“the” anglerfish?) fuses
with the much larger female.
- 33: Gould calls the movie Alien:
an uninspired, grade-C, formula
horror film.
- 95 - 96: Georges Cuvier had eleven desks each with pens,
inkstands,
etc.
for each of his many interests.
- 102: By looking at ancient fossils of the Egyptian ibis,
Cuvier (a
creationist)
found proof of why the Earth is ancient.
- 108: Agassiz went to Galapagos in 1872 and died in 1873.
- 154: A drug intended to prevent miscarriages caused high
androgen
levels
in baby girls who were born with male-mimicking genitalia.
- 242 - 243: Gould rants some more about sociobiology:
Zoocentrism is the primary
fallacy of human society.
- 247: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin defined the
“Noosphere” as the psychically
reflexive human surface.
- 257: The definition of “special
creation” means
that it is not science.
Duane Gish admits as much in Evolution? The Fossils
Say No!:
By creation we mean the bringing into
being by a supernatural
Creator of the basic kinds of plants and animals by the process of
sudden,
or fiat, process He used, for He used processes which are not
now operating
anywhere in the natural universe. [italics in the original]
- 258: Entymology of September, October, November, and
December (months 7
through 10). The year started in March and had 10 months.
- 263: Leopold and Loeb (defended by Clarence Darrow)
bludgeoned Bobby
Franks
to test if the perfect crime could be committed by men of sufficient
intelligence.
- 268: Gould, et al. around
“the”
table that started the Scopes Trial.
- 278: Protestant theologian Martin
Niemöller’s famous
quote:
First the Nazis went after the Jews, but
I wasn’t a
Jew, so I did not react.
Then they went after the Catholics, but I
wasn’t
a Catholic, so I didn’t object.
Then they went after the
workers, so I
didn’t stand up.
Then they went after the
Protestant clergy and by
then it was too late for anybody to stand up.
- 281: Gould’s high school teacher gave Darwin only
two
apologetic days at
the end of the year.
- 282:
No arm of the industry is as
cowardly and conservative as the
publishers
of public school texts—markets of millions are not easily
ignored.
- 302: In The Legacy of Malthus,
Allan Chase estimates that
6 million southern, central, and eastern Europeans were turned away
from
the U.S. because of the quota system.
- 305: The 1840 census showed that the rate of insanity in
Blacks
increased
dramatically as one moved further North, showing that slavery was the
“natural”
state of Blacks. Despite his evidence that this was a
forgery, Dr.
Edward Jarvis tried in vain to get corrections made. The
Secretary
of the Department of State, John C. Calhoun, was a vigorous defender of
slavery.
- 307: Jarvis spent a decade trying to get it corrected.
- 309: King David attempts a census in I Chronicles, chapter
21 and is
punished
by God with famine and death.
- 313: Cope’s rule of phyletic size increase.
- 315: Graph of Hershey bar cost vs. size.
- 325:
Radiation increases the mutation rate
and yields a population
with more variation. But more variation per se leads neither to
extinction
by prevalence of monstrosities nor to unusually rapid rates of
evolution,
because evolutionary tempos seem to be controlled by a different
force—natural
selection.
- 366: Are zebras white with black stripes or vise
versa? Most
African
people regard them as black and Europeans tend to think the opposite.
- 375: Bard concludes that zebras are in fact black with
white stripes.
THE
DIVINE COMEDY (1306 –
1321)
Hardcover
Pantheon Books, New York (1945)
2000.4.23 – 2000.5.4
- White translated this into blank verse.
- shades = the name for spirits who reside in Hell.
- flames = the name for spirits who reside in Heaven.
INFERNO
- In the woods, Dante sees a leopardess, and is led to safety
by Virgil
- Canto 3; 4 - 5: Above the gate of Hell:
Through me lies the road to the City of Grief.
Through me lies the pathway to woe everlasting.
Through me lies the road to the souls that are lost.
Justice impelled my mighty architect:
The power divine, and primal love and
wisdom
Surpassing all, Have here
constructed me.
Before I was created, nothing was save things eternal.
I shall last forever.
Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here!
- Canto 4; 7 - 8: In the top most ring are Ovid, Homer,
etc.
- Canto 6; 10: Cerberus.
- 11: People he knew give prophesies.
- Canto 7; 12: Cardinals and Popes.
- Canto 9; 15: The Furies: Megaera, Tisiphone, and Alecto.
- Canto 11; 18-19: The three lowest circles.
- Canto 26; 45 - 46: Ulysses.
- Canto 28; 48 - 49:
Behold, how mutilated is Mahomet!
- Canto 34; 60: Near the bottom, it is cold because of the
beating of
Lucifer’s
giant wings. Lucifer has three faces which constantly chew on
three
people: Judas, Cassius, and Brutus.
PURGATORIO
- This includes people who died violently and
didn’t repent
until their very
last.
- Canto 6; 74: Two countrymen find each other:
“Ah Italy! Enslaved,
abode of grief!
Ship without pilot in a mighty storm,
Mistress not of states, but of a brothel!
Even here, that noble spirit was so prompt
To give glad welcome to his countryman
At the mere sound of his dear city’s name;
While in thy land, they living citizens
Are all at war, and rend each other’s flesh,
Even those that dwell within one moated wall.
O German Albert, you who have abandoned
Come, see the Montagus and Capulets,”
- Canto 10; 92 - 93: Marco of Lombardy rants:
“One Rome, which wrought such good upon the
world,
Possessed two suns, to point the ways to her—
One the world’s way, the other that of God.”
“O ancient she-wolf, be accursed
forever—
Thou who dost seize more prey than other beasts,
Because of thy insatiable hunger!”
“O greed! How has so completely won my race
That they neglect their very flesh and blood?”
PARADISO
- Canto 2; 132: A science experiment with three mirrors.
- Canto 5; 137:
“O Christians, be
careful as ye move!
And be not like a feather to the wind,
Nor think that every water will absolve you!
Ye have that Testament, both New and Old.
The Shepherd of the Church to guide your steps:
Let these suffice to lead you to salvation!
If lust for evil cry to you aught else,
Be men, not silly sheep, so that the Jew
Who dwells among you, man not laugh in scorn;”
- Canto 6; 138 - 139: Emperors give a brief history of Rome.
- Canto 8; 141: He now refers to the “heathen
peril”
and the “fallacy” of
ancient mythology.
- 143: Charles Martell’s speech:
“Hence Esau’s seed is different
from
Jacob’s
If providence divine did not prevail,
One generation’s nature would pass on
Unchanged, into the nature generated.”
“Above are mirrors—which you men
call
thrones—
Wherefrom God judicant shines forth upon us,”
“Thou saidst: ‘A man is born on
Indus’
banks
Where no men live to speak to him of Christ,
Nor even any who can write or read;
His wishes and his actions all are good,
So far as human reason can discern;
Devoid of sin in action or in speech,
He dies without the faith, and unbaptized:
Where, then, is the justice that condemns him,
And where his fault, if he does not believe?’
“If Christianity could win the world
Without the aid of miracles, this fact
Surpasses miracles a hundred times.”
“’Twas not our purpose that the
Christian people
By our successors be divided this,
Some on the right hand, some upon the left;
Nor that the keys entrusted to my hands
Should e’er become and emblem on a standard
Borne to make war on those who are baptized;
Nor yet that I should figure on a seal
Affixed to bargained-for indulgences—
Whereat I often blush, feeling not shame.”
“Each one now strives to make an outward
show
Offering inventions of his own
For preachers’ themes; but silent is the Gospel!
For Indians and for Spaniards, and for Jews.
Florence has fewer Lapi, fewer Bindi,
Than fables that from pulpits now are shrieked
And yet their blindness frees them not of blame.”
EUROPA
STRIKE
Book Three Of The Heritage Trilogy (2000)
Paperback
Avon Books, New York
2000.5.6 – 2000.5.9
- Set in 2067, 25 years after LUNA
MARINE (1999).
- After the desolation wrought on Chicago during the UN War,
a Space
Military
Directorate has been established to guard strategic space.
- Recently though, the Chinese have been challenging that
power with
their
own antimatter warships.
- Meanwhile, Sam Too has been sent to Europe, to protect the
recently
discovered
“Singer”, and facilitate First Contact.
- The Chinese commit a first strike with hypervelocity
railguns,
devastating
the Marine landing force and the JFK.
- The Marines, including Frank Makinski from the earlier
novels, mist
protect
the outpost, despite harsh conditions, until reinforcements arrive (if
Congress allows them to).
- A makeshift ground-based railgun overshoots the Chinese
encampment, but
makes a hole in the ice.
- The Marines embark on a daring sneak attack using Manta
subs piloted by
Navy SEALs.
- Again, we see the inherent high mortality rate in space
combat. There
is no good defense against railgun attacks, and lasers can easily
breach
spacesuits from a distance.
- 243 - 244: During the Boxer Rebellion, the international
force
uncovered
an old artillery piece, and created the hybrid “International
Gun”.
- 387: “Oscar Sierra” = “Oh
Shit”
- 420: An essay makes up the appendix: Marines
on the
High Frontier
The question, of course, is whether
Marines will be
needed in space in their traditional roles as peacekeepers, as
protectors
of America’s strategic interests, as America’s
“first to fight.” The answer,
sadly, depends on whether humankind will carry its squabbles and tribal
bloodlettings into space. Given our past record in such matters, war on
the High Frontier seems inevitable.
THINGS
FALL APART (1959)
Paperback
Anchor Books, New York
Read entirely on 2000.5.26
- Set in the nine villages of Umuofia.
- Okonkwo: A successful farmer, unlike his father Unoka, and
a champion
wrestler.
Beats his wives and children on a regular basis.
- When a wife of a villager is killed, the offending village
offers a
virgin
and a young boy, Ikemefuna, who resides with Okonkwo, who regards him
as
a son. Later, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves
pronounces that
Ikemefuna must die. Okonkwo provides the killing blow himself.
- Okonkwo is chastised for beating his wife during Peace Week.
- If twins are born, they must be thrown away.
- When Christianity appears, it appeals to of the
dispossessed: A woman
who
bore several sets of twins and Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye.
- During a festival, Okonkwo’s gun accidentally
discharges,
killing someone.
Because this is a minor (“female”) offense, he and
his family are banished
for seven years.
- The District Commissioner plans to write a book called The
Pacification
of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
THE
DECAMERON
Otherwise Known As Prince Galahalt, Wherein Are Contained A
Hundred Stories,
Told In Ten Days By Seven Young Ladies And Three Young Men (1348
– 1353)
Translated from the Italian by G. H.
McWilliam
with the woodcuts of José
Narro
Hardcover (1981)
The Franklin Library, Franklin Center, Pennsylvania
2000.5.5 – 2000.6.25
- Set in 1348, during a plague.
- 4:
For the ladies, out of fear or
shame, conceal the flames of passion
within their fragile breasts, and a hidden love is far more potent than
one which is worn on the sleeve, as everyone knows who has had
experience
of these matters. Moreover they are forces to follow the whims,
fancies,
and dictates of their fathers, mothers, brothers, and husbands, so that
they spend most of their time cooped up within the narrow confines of
their
rooms, where they sit in apparent idleness, wishing one thing at the
same
time wishing its opposite, and reflecting on various matters, which
cannot
possibly always be pleasant to contemplate.
- The Women:
- Pampinea: the oldest at 27.
- Fiammetta
- Filomena
- Emilia
- Lauretta
- Neifile
- Elissa
- The Men (all are over 25):
- Panfilo
- Filostrato
- Dioneo
- 10 - 11: Graphic depiction of the effects of plague.
- 20: The women decide that they are too stupid to survive
without men.
- Day 1: Pampinea, who organized the
situation is
“queen” for the
day. She allows stories on any topic desirable.
- 42: Third Story: Melchizedek the Jew tells a story of three
rings to
avoid
an argument with the Saladin. This was a very clever way to
prevent
bad relations between religions.
- Day 2: Filomena wants stories where
misfortunes
lead to unexpected
happiness.
- 144: The speaker credits the Lord, in His infinite
kindness, etc.
- Ninth Story: Bernabó bets that his wife cannot
be
seduced.
Believing that she was, he orders her death. She runs away to
the
Sultan, pretending to be a man.
- Tenth Story: Dioneo says that Bernabó was a
fool, because
all women
are naturally unfaithful.
- Day 3: Under Neifile, stories are
about people
who achieve an object
greatly desired or recover a thing previously lost.
- First Story: Filostrato says that nuns do not give up their
longings
when
they take the white veil and don the black cowl.
- There are several stories where an unhappily married woman
takes on a
lover
and the group says something like “God grant that we end up
the same way.”
- Ninth Story: Finally, a story about a smart and capable
woman, Gilette
of Narbonne.
- Day 4: Filostrato wants stories where
love ends
unhappily.
- 269:
“And but for the fact
that I would be transgressing the
normal bounds
of polite debate, I would invoke the aid of history books and show they
are filled with examples from antiquity of outstanding men, who, in
their
declining years, strove with might and main to give pleasure to the
ladies.
If my critics are ignorant of this, let them go and repair the gaps in
their knowledge.”
“I die a thousand
deaths in the course of every hour that
I live, without
being granted the tiniest portion of bliss in return.”
“He who is wicked and held to
be good, can cheat because
no one imagines he would.”
- 331: Many stories involve forced torture and confessions,
often with
characters
confessing crimes they never committed.
- Day 5: Fiammetta wants stories of
lovers who
survive misfortunes
and achieve happiness.
- Sixth Story: 379: The king decides it would be cowardly to
stab two
naked,
sleeping people, but it’s perfectly fine to burn them at the
stake.
- Seventh Story: 384: She gets pregnant and tries to
miscarry, to no
avail.
- The Sixth and Seventh Stories involve people who are about
to be
executed,
until it is discovered who their parents are.
- Eight Story: This is the most surreal story of the
lot. A
ghost of
a girl is eternally getting hunted and killed by hounds. When
a suitor
sees to it that his beloved witnesses the apparition, she decides to
marry
him to avoid the same fate.
- Ninth Story: They mention a self-made man (a rarity).
- Day 6: The Rule of Elissa is to tell
of a
witticism to avoid danger,
etc.
- Day 7: Dioneo’s Rule is
about women
who play tricks on husbands.
- 459: Filostrato actually says that women are as clever as
men.
- Some common phrases among the stories:
- “This suited x down to the
ground” = pleased with.
- “x took to his
heels” = ran
away.
- Day 8: Lauretta continues with tricks
which
women and men are continually
playing on each other.
- Seventh Story: A widow plays a trick on a scholar
suitor. He
tricks
her to climb up a tower, naked in the hot sun and doesn’t
care if she lives
or dies.
- Tenth Story: A classic confidence scam.
- Day 9: Under Emilia, everyone may
speak on any
subject.
- 645 b.: Emilia concludes that women should be governed by
men.
- 648: A man beating his mule inspires another man in the
“correct” way to
beat his wife.
- Day 10: Panfilo requests stories about
liberal
deeds.
- Second Story: Gentile birth, poverty and exile made Ghino
di Tacco into
a brigand. An abbot he captures was so impressed by his
generosity
that he requests the Pope to pardon him.
- Third Story: Everyone loves Nathan because he is so rich
and generous.
- Fourth Story: 675:
“But as every woman
knows, no sooner does a man obtain one
thing, especially
if he happens to be in love, than he wants something
else;”
“But as you know far
better than I, when people fall in
love they are
guided, not by reason, but by their natural inclinations and
desires.”
“They [the stories]
were told in gardens, in a place
designed for pleasure,
among people who, though young in years, were nonetheless fully mature
and not to be led astray by stories, at a time when even the most
respectable
people saw nothing unseemly in wearing their breeches over their heads
if they thought their lives might thereby be preserved.”
“Even Charlemagne,
who first created the Paladins, was
unable to produce
them in numbers sufficient to form a whole army.”
“I will grant you,
however, that the things of this world
have no stability,
but are subject to constant change, and this may well have happened to
my tongue.”
LODESTAR
(2000)
Hardcover
TOR, New York
2000.5.11 – 2000.7.5
- Set in 2016 – 2017.
- 47: The Chesapeake Bay strike (uncovered in 1996) is
the
seventh
largest
in the world, and happened during the Eocene. The author
describes
what would happen if it occurred now.
- 102 - 103: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome turns out to be
“Neo-Encephalitus”.
- 242: The “Three Cities”: Guangzhou,
Hong Kong, and
Macao.
- 268: Bat Da Silva, from earlier novels, died on a
ballistic
run.
- 339: According to 2 Samuel 21:19, someone else besides
David killed
Goliath.
- 349: The King James version changed it to the
“brother
of” Goliath to make
it consistent. This shows that Chronicles was done much
later.
Samuel and Kings are considered Israelite, while Chronicles, Ezra, and
Nehemiah are Juhahite.
- 344: Date of impact is 17 October 2023.
THE
LYING STONES
OF MARRAKECH
Penultimate Reflections In Natural History (2000)
Hardcover
Harmony Books, New York
2000.6.6 – 2000.8.14
- 10: Much Renaissance scholarship depended on Hermes
Trismegistus
(“Thrice-Great
Hermes”). Those attributed to Thoth, the Egyptian
god of wisdom were
exposed as a Third Century A.D. forgery.
- 10: Shabbetai Tzevli led thousands of pious Jews to
Jerusalem in 1666,
but was imprisoned by the sultan. He converted to Islam and
became
the sultan’s personal doorkeeper.
- 11: In 1726 Dr. Johann Beringer was fooled by
“Lügensteine” = “lying
stones” and, according to legend, he tried to buy back all
the copes of
his book.
- 24: Karl Marx wrote (about Napoleon III) that all great
events in
history
occur twice—the first time as tragedy and the second time as
farce.
- 55: Francis Bacon cites a story about a culture
convinced
that the Sea
God saves shipwrecked people who pray for aid because of the testimony
of sailors. A skeptic asks “whether he did not now
confess the divinity
of Neptune?” He replied:
yea, but where are they printed,
that are drowned?
- 84 t.: Buffon makes a personal remark:
I have always named the Creator;
but we need only remove this word
and,
of course, put in its place the power of Nature.
- 84: On January 15, 1751 the Theological Faculty of the
Sorbonne
attacked
Buffon for his denial of the Deluge. He gives a
“sort-of” apology
and remarks “It is better to the humble than hung.”
- 113: Lavosier’s last letter:
I have had a fairly long life,
above all a happy one, and I think
that
I shall be remembered with some regrets and perhaps leave some
reputation
behind me. What more could I ask? The events in which I am involved
will
probably save me from the trouble of old age. I shall die in full
possession
of my faculties.
- 147: Frost’s
poem could be used to
ridicule Global Warming:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
- 148: Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23 – 79) died from
asphyxiation
when investigating
the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
- 158: Lyell’s Principles of
Geology
has diagrams of the Three
Pillars of Pozzuoli which demonstrate the rising and falling of sea
levels.
- 202: Robert Scott’s last entry from the South
Pole:
It seems a pity, but I do not
think I can write more.
- 207: Wallace notes that before railroads, the trip from
London to York
was shortest in A.D. 300 because the Romans had better roads.
- 222: An essay was dedicated to my favorite Alexander
Pope quote:
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring;
There shallow drafts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
- Pieria was a district in northern Thessaly, the reputed
home of the
muses.
- 270: A plaque at Kennedy Airport has The New
Colossus
by Emma
Lazarus, but is missing the line “The wretched
refuse of your teeming
shore.”
- 293: Dolly the cloned sheep has the mitochondria of her
surrogate, not
her “twin”.
- 308: J. B. S. Haldane (who performed
self-experimentation
of gas
warfare)
wrote Callinicus: A Defense of Chemical Warfare.
Callinicus
was a Seventh Century Jewish refugee in Constantinople who invented
“Greek
Fire”.
- 311: Haldane predicts that we can never harness
subatomic
phenomena as
a weapon, but that his successor will be lecturing on the moon well
before
such a feat.
- 336: Examples of short-term evolution:
- Guppies from Trinidad: maturing earlier and at a
smaller
size.
- Lizards from Exuma Cays, Bahama Island: length of
legs.
- Snails of Great Inagua, Bahama Islands: front page
stories in
newspapers.
- 344: Evolution is measured in
“Darwins”.
- 346: Measuring species is a lot like the fractal
problem of
measuring
coastline,
it all depends on scale.
- 353: Pre-Darwin Scottish evolutionist Robert Chambers
made
a metaphor
about
a mayfly who considered tadpoles and frogs separate species.
BABYLON 5: The Psi Corps Trilogy
Hardcover
Science Fiction Book Club, New York
2000.8.16 – 2000.8.28
DARK
GENESIS (1998)
Paperback:
- The Birth of the Psi Corps
- In 2115 an article in the New England Journal
of
Medicine
brings
attention to telepaths.
- Senator Lee Crawford starts the Metasensory Regulation
Authority, which
becomes the Psi Corps..
- Females often take their mitochondrial
(mother’s)
name.
- Kevin Vacit: Crawford’s assistant and hidden
telepath.
- Fiona: Daughter of Kevin Vacit and Ninon
Davion.
She becomes
the
leader of the resistance with Matthew and Steve (who formerly hunted
them).
They become known as “The Three Musketeers” of the
underground.
- Desa “Blood” Alexander and
“Monkey” (Jack O’Hannlon) are the parents
of
Brenna Alexander, who is the mother of Shell Alexander, who is the
mother
of Natasha Alexander, who is the mother of Lyta Alexander.
- William Karges saves the life of President Elizabeth
Robinson after the
creation of the M.R.A. and the story becomes exaggerated.
- Vacit thought the underground would stimulate
evolution. But
by visiting
Venus (in “geosynchronous” orbit around the SOUTH
POLE!), the Vorlons convince
him otherwise, and he decides to crack down on rogue telepaths.
- 205:
“Evolution is about
reproduction, nothing else. It never
produces anything
‘better’ except in that sense. It evens out
extremes in preference to flexibility.
What we want is extreme—the best telepaths
possible.”
- Stee: Son of Fiona and
Matthew.
Abducted by the Psi Corps as
a child
and is renamed Alfred Bester, after the science fiction author.
DEADLY
RELATIONS (1999)
Paperback:
- Bester is given an education about appreciating fine
art by
being
locked
in a room and watching Rashômon
by Akira
Kurosawa.
- Stephen Walters (the only rogue Psi Cop) leads the
underground since
2190.
He was killed on by Bester (causing his shooting hand to cease
functioning).
FINAL
RECKONING (1999)
Paperback:
- Bester hides out in Paris. Garibaldi finally
captures him in
2271.
Bester still outlives Sheridan. In accepting his parentage in
death,
Bester’s hand opens. Garibaldi drove a stake into
the ground above
Bester’s coffin.
- 677: Imagine a rubber sheet with a bowling ball and a
ball
bearing.
They approach each other like the warping of gravity.
WHY
PEOPLE BELIEVE
WEIRD THINGS
Pseudoscience, Superstition, And Other Confusions Of Our
Time
(1997)
Hardcover
MJF Books, New York
2000.9.3 – 2000.9.8
- Forward by Stephen
Jay Gould:
xi: Because Gould has an autistic son, we was concerned the reality
behind
“facilitators”.
- 1: Rosemary Altea was a guest on the Oprah
Winfrey Show
on October
2, 1995.
- 2 - 3: Altea had access to one of the subjects before
taping.
The
audience was stunned at the reading. When Shermer pointed
this out,
his comments were simply edited out of the show.
- 4: Shermer debunks James Van Praagh on Unsolved
Mysteries.
When a mother has a K pennant, he asks about a Kevin or Ken.
- When a reporter asked Shermer why anyone should believe
him, he
answered,
“You shouldn’t.”
- 29: In ZEN
AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE (1984), the
son asks if belief
in science is like belief in ghosts. Shermer calls this Pirsig’s
Paradox.
- 47: Sir
Arthur
Stanley Eddington
makes an analogy about using a net in the ocean and concluding that all
fish are at least two inches long.
- 89: When Shermer was sleep deprived during an extremely
long distance
bicycle
race, he had an “alien abduction” fantasy.
- 93: The alien abduction movement took off after NBC
showed
the movie The
UFO Incident in 1975.
- 108 - 113: On “recovered” memories
and
accusations.
- 114: This chapter as well as the prologue discuss how Ayn
Rand and Nathaniel Branden turned Objectivism into a
cult. The
irony was that the ideology they preached was completely contrary to
this.
- 123: Even William F. Buckley, Jr. criticized
Objectivists
without ever
reading ATLAS
SHRUGGED (1957).
- 129: Lists of creation stories from various cultures.
- 133: Judge Braswell Dean of the Georgia Court of
Appeals
said:
This monkey mythology of Darwin
is the cause of permissiveness, promiscuity, pills, prophylactics,
perversions,
pregnancies, abortions, pornography, pollution, poisoning, and
proliferation
of crimes of all types.
- 138: School Superintendent Kenneth Shadowen of Marshall
County,
Kentucky
glued together the pages in a textbook that discuss the Big Bang.
- 162 - 163: Justices weigh in on Creationism vs.
Evolution.
Rehnquist
splits hairs about a “divine” creator.
Scalia gives an example where
a teacher is asked to stop teaching an incorrect fact that just happens
to offend religious beliefs.
- 175 - 180: Transcript of the Donahue Show
confrontation on Holocaust
denial where one of the survivors inadvertently gives the denier
ammunition
by misremembering certain facts.
- 181: Many Holocaust scholars talk to Shermer
“off
the
record” when they
obviously should be correcting the record. For example, no
one has
produced a bar of soap made from humans, so why not debunk this myth?
- 183: Elizabeth Loftus studied memories and went to the
trial of
Demjanjuk,
a.k.a. “Ivan the Terrible”, but felt that
testifying would be a betrayal
of her people. Holocaust deniers then use her candid thoughts
against
her.
- 183: In February 1995 the Japanese magazine Marco
Polo
published
“The Greatest Taboo of Postwar World History: There Were No
Nazi ‘Gas Chambers’”.
Under great pressure, the magazine folded. Jewish groups had
done
what deniers accused them of doing: unfairly wielding economic pressure.
- On 7 May, 1995 the Toronto headquarters of denier Ernst
Zündel
was
set on fire.
- 186: Clarence Darrow said during the Scopes trial
(quoted
by Gould
in HEN’S
TEETH
AND HORSE’S TOES (1983)):
If today you can take a think like
evolution and make it a crime to
teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to
teach
it in the private schools, and next year you can make it a crime to
teach
it in the church
- 189: The exact things that Holocaust deniers are saying:
- There was no official Nazi plan.
- Disease, overwork, etc. were the causes of death.
- 300,000 to 2 million died, not 5 to 6 million.
- 191: The Institute for Historical Review promised to
pay
$50,000 for
proof
that Jews were gassed at Auschwitz. Mel Mermelstein met the
challenge
and also got $40,000 for “personal suffering”.
- 196: David Irving is barred from several countries.
- 218: Deniers spend much time discussing the work
“ausrotten”, which ostensibly
means “to exterminate”.
- 232 & 234: Photographic evidence of
crematoriums in
action.
- 246: The History of Human Genes
by Luca Cavalli-Sforza, et
al, which according to a Time review,
“flattens The Bell
Curve, proving that racial differences are only
skin deep.”
- 249: Kinsey’s 1948 book Sexual
Behavior in
the Human Male.
- 253: From Essay on Man by Alexander
Pope:
Hope springs eternal in the human
breast:
Man never is, but always to be, blest.
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv’n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler Heav’n,
- 256: Voltaire’s observation that noses were
made
to hold up
spectacles.
- 262: Anthropic Principles.
- 263: Barrow and Tipler find significance in universal
constants.
- 265: Mathematician Martin Gardner found
“significance” in the Washington
Monument similar to pyramidology.
BELOVED
(1987)
Paperback
Penguin Books, New York
2000.9.8 – 2000.9.15
- Sethe: Came to “Sweet Home” at
13. She
“married” Halle one year later.
- Beloved: Mysteriously shows up at 123. It
sounds
like she had
escaped
(killed?) a white guy who kept her locked away. Spoiled by
Sethe.
- Denver: Sethe’s second daughter.
Born
while she was
escaping to Cincinnati.
- Baby Suggs (a.k.a. Jenny Whitlow): Halle’s
mother.
- Stamp Paid (a.k.a. Joshua): Had helped lots of people
escape.
He
never feels the need to knock on entering a Black’s home.
- Paul D Garner: Finally game to live with Sethe.
- 10: The Sweet Home Men: Paul D Garner, Paul F Garner,
Paul
A Garner,
Halle
Suggs, Sixo.
- 11: The baby’s spirit hurts their dog,
HereBoy.
- 31: The White girl who helped deliver Denver was the
daughter of an
indentured
servant. After her mother’s death, she still had to
pay for her mother’s
passage.
- 57 b.: Sethe’s mother (who rarely wanted
anything
to do with
her) was marked
with a circle and cross (religious symbol?).
- 97: Baby Suggs had one lesson from her 60 years as a
slave
and 10 years
free: there there was no bad luck in the world but White
people.
“They don’t know when to stop.”
- 130: The Bodwins (brother and sister) helped resettle
slaves and
provided
a house, “because they hated slavery worse than they hated
slaves.”
- Baby Suggs had it easy. Her son bought her
out of
slavery,
etc.
- 167: Sethe realizes that Beloved is her daughter.
- 171 b.: All the atrocities that year (1874): 87
lynchings
in Kentucky,
4 colored schools burned, whippings, etc.
- 175: The origin of “Stamp
Paid”. He
turned over his wife to his master’s
son, but didn’t kill anyone.
- 180: All the Blacks have to wait behind
Phelp’s
store until
Whites have
been served.
- 183: “Schoolteacher” had his
students
make a list
of:
Human Characteristics
Animal
Characteristics
- The schoolteacher also measured Sethe (phrenology).
- 190 - 194:
- 213: Sixo has a nail in his mouth to help him undo the
rope
when he has
to.
- 216: Sixo’s end.
- 221 - 222: More on Stamp Paid and his wife Vashti.
- 231 - 232: Sethe and Baby Suggs discuss the plusses and
minuses of
Whites.
- 235:
The colored population of
Cincinnati had two graveyards and six
churches,
but since no school or hospital was obliged to serve them, they learned
and died at home.
If the white people of Cincinnati
had allowed Negros into their
lunatic
asylum they could have found candidates in 124.
DO
I STAND ALONE?
Going To The Mat Against Political Pawns And Media
Jackals
(2000)
Hardcover
Pocket Books, New York
2000.9.19 – 2000.9.23
Either you think, or else others have to think for
you and take power
from
you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize
you.
- 42: Common Cause and the Taxpayers League went after
Ventura’s money-making
as governor.
- 72: He clarifies the infamous religion quote from the Playboy
interview:
he didn’t mean to say that all religion
is a sham.
- An incident where a reporter follows Terry to church.
- 100: Originally, the term “Politically
Correct” was
a good thing.
- 102: When he was a sports commentator, he did not refer
to
Washington
as
“Redskins”.
- 105 & 125: Thomas
Jefferson
attended church services in the Supreme Court chambers.
- 108: He mentions the “scam” of
Creation
Science.
- 130: About welfare misnomers and reform.
- 139: Quote from Tony
Morrison:
In this country American means white. Everybody else
has to hyphenate.
142: Ventura supports “domestic
partnership” but
will not call it “gay
marriage”.
149: Abortion is a no-win issue.
185: During the 2000 Presidential election, Bush holds
up a
document
accusing
McCain of negative campaigning, but the document said no such thing!
THE
TERRIBLE HOURS
The Man Behind The Greatest Submarine Rescue In History
(1999)
Paperback
HarperTorch, New York
2000.9.29 – 2000.10.1
- Headlines for Tuesday 23 May 1939 read,
“Submarine Squalus
Down Off New
England Coast”.
- The aft sections flooded and those up front did not
know if
there were
survivors there.
- Lt. Oliver Naquin: Skipper.
- Harold Preble: Civilian test superintendent.
- Lt. Walter Doyle, Jr.: X.O.
- Lt (J.G.) John Nichols: Gunnery and torpedo officer.
- Chief Electrician’s Mate Lawrence Gainor:
Prevented an
explosion.
- Charles Bowers “Swede” Momsen:
Develops
methods to
rescue downed submariners.
- 62: S-51 sinks in 1925.
- 63: S-4 sinks in 1927 and all 40 men were alive 110
feet
down, but
could
not be saved.
- 97: The cable providing communication to Squalus
breaks.
- 113: The crew sends a message, “Conditions
satisfactory but
cold”.
- 159 - 160: Testing of diving bell.
- 184: Luckily, the Penacook had
snagged Squalus
near the escape
hatch.
- 186 - 187: Discussion of how many (of 33) men should be
sent per trip.
- 190: When the rescue team arrives with supplies, they
are
greeted with,
“What, no napkins?”
- 199 - 200: The bell rode heavy with 8 men, and it was
thought they
would
have to make too many trips. But in all the excitement, it
turned
out there were 9!
- 207 - 208: The cable begins to fray.
- 209: List of the final group, including a radioman.
- 216: At 00:38 on May 25, thirty-nine hours after
sinking,
the rescue
was
complete. However, they still did not know about the aft
torpedo
room. The book, however, was just beginning. The
attempts to
recover the Squalus were a Herculean effort.
- 232: A helium hat for diving was in an experimental
stage
at the time.
- 234: The main induction valve was in fact open.
- 239: Nine days after Squalus sank,
the
British sub Thetis
sank in the Irish Sea. Only 4 of 103 escaped despite being
only 20
feet below the surface.
- 241 - 242: Gunner’s Mate First Class Louis
“The
Greek” Zampiglione seemed
immune to the bends.
- 243: Only one accident had occurred up to that
point. Momsen
vetoed
all suggestions of tunneling.
- 245: Gunner’s Mate Third Class Orval Payne
yelled
that he was
going to
cut his lines.
- 246: McDonald jumped in to save Squire even though he
couldn’t swim.
- 254: A few days after the French order four diving
bells,
the lose the Phenix.
- 258: Squalus surfaces and then
sinks
again.
- 274: Six months later, Morrison would accidentally
shoot
himself.
- 282: Naquin would never get another submarine to
command
after it was
found
that he dove with open hull valves. Such procedure was not
unusual.
- 287: News of the war:
FROM COMMANDER ASIATIC FLEET, JAPAN HAS COMMENCED
HOSTILITIES. GOVERN
YOURSELVES
ACCORDINGLY.
- 290: The final irony: The refurbished Squalus
sank
a Japanese carrier
with 21 prisoners from her sister ship, the Sculpin.
Only
1 survivor.
- 302: Silk bags were used for gunpowder after Momsen
proved
that
friction
caused a spark.
- Momsen proved, at great personal risk, that Mk. 6
Torpedoes
did not
explode
when hitting perpendicular. Worse shots had better chances
for sinking
the enemy.
- 304: Momsen wanted a fast attack sub, but the
carrier-dominated Navy
would
never approve it. However, they did approve the idea for
“Target”
subs.
THE
CHOCOLATE WAR (1974)
Paperback
Laurel-Leaf Books, New York
2000.10.21 – 2000.10.22
- Archie: The leader of the Vigils, makes a deal with the
headmaster of
his
Catholic school (who had lost lots of money) to help sell lots of
chocolates.
- Jerry Renault: His mother recently died. Has
a
poster in his
locker
with a T. S.
Eliot quote,
“Do I dare disturb the universe?”
- As a Vigil dare, Jerry refuses to sell chocolates for
10
days, despite
enormous peer pressure. However, he eventually decides not to
sell
any at all.
- Archie comes up the the idea of a “boxing
raffle”.
PLOWING
THE DARK (2000)
Hardcover
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York
– 2000.10.26
- Preface: A quote indicates that Picasso thinks he
invented
camouflage.
- This book is split into two main stories. The
first involves
a high-tech
venture capital firm doing research into virtual reality (V.R.) in the
midst of the political changes occurring in the late 1980s and early
1990s.
Some viewed the advent of V.R. with unbridled optimism, believing that
it would lead to a new consciousness. In the second, an
American
is held hostage in Lebanon. Apparently, there was a tentative
connection
between the two, but it was so subtle that I missed it.
- Adie Klarpol: Artist who hasn’t drawn
anything
original in
years. She is
asked to help with a V.R. system. As a kid she used to
visualize
paintings.
- Steve Spiegel: Lived with Adie and Ted in Mahler Haus
back
in college.
- Ted Zimmerman: Gave Steve reading lists.
Composes
electronic
music.
Dying of M.S. in Ohio.
- Jack “Jackdraw” Acquerelli:
Adie’s
assistant. He got engaged online.
It got called off, and he left the office in tears, but we never found
out why.
- Spider Lim
- Sue Loque: Software.
- Jonathan Freese: The director of RL (Realization Labs).
- Ronan O’Reilly
- Rajan Rajasundaran: Wrote morphing software.
- Karl Ebesen: He thinks Adie looks like Gail Frank (a
murdered
performance
artist, p. 283).
- Ari Kaladjin
- Taimur Martin: Half Lebanese American who teaches in
Lebanon.
He
made the mistake of joking to his class that his reason for being there
was “Tip-top secret”. He had just broken
up with Gwen Devins.
Kidnapped Friday 14 November 1986.
- Dale Bergen: Biochemist working on 3-D enzymes.
- 42: Gauguin had a painting called “Where Do
We
Come From?
What Are We?
Where Are We Going?”.
- 75: Mnemonic for downtown Seattle streets: Jesus Christ
Made Seattle
Under
Protest.
- 79: O’Reilly makes an agent-based simulator:
Segments of data spoke of
saturation, conditioning, habituation,
fads,
cravings, lemming drop-offs, crash diets,
lowest-common-denominationalism,
prime time, rushes to the bottom, spontaneous altruism, unsponsored
innovations,
gratuitous novelty, brand loyalty, brand aging, arms races of acumen
and
finesse, co-optation, preemption, addiction, dumping.
A few
iterative,
independent, self-modifying procedures created markets as complex as
those
run by the world at large.
- Their computers didn’t have names, so Adie
makes
some up.
- “Merhadh” = toilet
- 102: A late night online computer session.
Someone on the
network
broadcasts:
You are standing at the end of a road before a small
brick building.
- This creates a wave of
nostalgia among the
programmers. They
compare
notes at a frantic pace.
- 114:
“Anybody ever make it through
to the end?”
Silence flashed across the broadband.
- 126: They all got caught up in the optimism of Tianamen
Square.
- 133: “El Jaleo” by Sargent includes
a
cave
painting. One had been
discovered the year before, but it took decades for experts to believe
it was art. The painters accepted it immediately.
- 146: Persian stories begin with: “Yeki bood.
Yeki
nabood.” = “It was so.
And it was not so.”
- 182: Martin takes to calling one of his captors Walter
(as
in Cronkite).
- 188: In August there was a human chain in the Baltics,
large enough to
be seen from space.
- 198: They were in Madison, Wisconsin!
Sterling
Hall, State
Street,
etc. They were there right after the bombing of the Army Math
Research
Center. A low-temperature physicist was killed.
- 227:
Evolution’s most
productive trick was to rig things so
that the idea
of need grew more insatiable than the needs it represented. Feelings
had
nowhere near ample room in which to play itself out. Sex at best mocked
what love wanted. The gut would explode before it could dent the
smallest
part of its bottomless hunger.
- 233: Martin’s mother had a midwestern Persian
catering
service.
- 251: Martin talks his way into getting better food:
“Muhammad. I once read
somewhere... that Shiites believe
food to be the holy gift of Allah. A mirror of the divine substance.
Look
at this.”
- 271: An email to the brass at TeraSys:
The whole fad may quite simply fade
before we get the
real thing to market.
- Delivery date was set for March 1991.
- 273 - 275: A demoralizing reality check reminiscent of
that
in THE
GOLD BUG VARIATIONS (1991). Software and
hardware seem hopeless.
- 338: A simulation of future energy crises.
The
world goes
dark in
2030.
- 395 - 396: When Adie watches the news of the Gulf War,
she
asks,
“Did we
do this?”
- 398: Adie starts deleting (backups first).
THE
MARTIANS (1999)
Paperback
Bantam Books, New York
2000.11.11 – 2000.11.23
- Some of the stories take place in an alternate reality
from RED
MARS (1993) where Michel convinces the program not
to send people
permanently to Mars. He meets with Maya years later.
- A couple stories revisit Roger Clayborne of
K.S.R.’s early Green
Mars novella, which was printed in ISAAC
ASIMOV’S MARS (1991). He even
meets Peter Clayborne (Anne’s
son).
- Maya knew about Coyote on the Ares!
- A new story called “Discovering
Life”
takes place
at the present day Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
- “infictions” =
“fictional
infections”
- 130: When the prospect of colonization
doesn’t
look so good:
“Well, shit,” Mike
said, waving at the view. “We’ll
just have to terraform Earth instead.”
- 264: The Northern Sea was freshwater because it came
from
aquifers.
- The Mars Constitution is written with commentary.
- 290: Nirgal meets two of the “First
100” who were
loyal to Phyllis Boyle.
They hint of the trouble ahead with the climate.
- 296: The Noctis Dam is saved by plywood.
- In “Sexual Dimorphism” Dr. Andrew
Smith
discovers
links of junk DNA between
dolphins and primates. He hit his girlfriend once, and
wonders if
all men are really beasts.
- 345: Diskhouses were based on designs by Paul
Sattelmeier
of Minnesota.
- 353:
We look at the past through the
wrong end of the telescope, he
thought
one day; eventually the things that we can see in there become simply
too
small to hurt us.
- The twenty hour work week and six months vacation every
M-year has
become
the standard for Mars.
- 367: Sax likes reading The Journal of
Irreproducible Results.
- Will Roger and Eileen (from Green
Mars)
live through the
Ice Age?
- Years without summer
- Little Ice Age
- The Crash Itself
- 389: Theories behind the Ice Age include the
brightening of
the albedo
when the North Sea froze and mutant bacteria from U.V. radiation.
- 393: Roger and Eileen are 240 years old and no one is
older
than 260.
- 431: Organic molecules didn’t exist in the
early
stages of
the cosmos,
so only certain smells were only possible after enough stars exploded.
BABYLON 5: Legions Of Fire
Paperback
Del Ray, New York
THE
LONG NIGHT
OF CENTAURI PRIME (1999)
2000.11.23 – 2000.12.7
- Shiv’kaka: The book starts out with a bad
description of this
Drakh.
- Durla: Chosen by the Drakh to be the real power of
Centauri.
He is
in love with Londo’s former wife Mariel.
- Kane, Gwynn, and Finian: Technomages in training.
- Rem Lanas: Originally a patsy. Became
involved in
Legions of
Fire
with Renegar.
- Dunseny: Londo’s loyal butler.
- Timov: Londo sends her away for her safety.
- Senna: Refa’s daughter. Londo takes
her
in. She is supposedly
the one from the movie In the Beginning, though
this character doesn’t
fit very well with that portrayal.
- 44: Drak’hul (a.k.a. Dracula) lived on Earth
centuries ago.
- 85: A riddle: What is “greater than the Great
Maker... more
frightening
than a shadow ship... the poor have it... the rich need it... and if
you
eat it, you die?” Answer: nothing.
- Mariel lives with Vir for a while but is really spying
on
him.
ARMIES
OF LIGHT AND DARK
(1999)
2000.12.21 – 2000.12.22
- Vir and the Technomages blow up a Drakh base.
- Vir has Galen make Mariel love him.
- 142: When he shot Lincoln, J. W. Booth said,
“Sic
semper
tyrannis” = “So
is it always with tyrants”.
- Garibaldi and Lou Welch are sent to investigate.
- 210: The ignoble death of Lou, despite his Drakh cloak.
- 236: Vir grows up via blowing up Throk’s head.
OUT
OF THE DARKNESS
(1999)
2000.12.22 – 2000.12.25
- G’Kar saves Londo from an assassination
attempt.
- The “eye” from the prophesy is the
“I” of Londo.
MNRay.net
