Back from Extinction

Interesting advances in cloning and back breeding may bring back extinct animals and reverse the process of extinction
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/09/10/how-a-pigeon-saved-the-buffalo/

http://singularityhub.com/2012/03/20/raising-the-mammoth-%E2%80%93-russian-and-korean-scientists-set-out-to-bring-back-the-extinct-giant/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7011035/Giant-cattle-to-be-bred-back-from-extinction.html

Dinosauer reading

http://www.dinosaurnews.org/

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/01/201311711276656948.html

 

The Upper Room

http://aalbc.com/reviews/the_upper_room.htm

This novel was in my Black literature section at home and since it was set for the most part in Florida, I thought it a good one to bring down for the winter.  I am enjoying it.  I have read really nothing much like it before.  lt is a strange vision of really poor and poorly educated Black community and is almost dark and funny.  The central character catches out attention; however, at times there is just too much repetition of the same rants.  The novel could have been shorter and done just as much.  Still, I keep reading and am about half way through.

The central character talks a good bit of Jesus but is basically amoral and narcisistic to a radical degree.  She kills anyone who gets in her way, even those who just basically annoy or in a vague way threaten her.  She believes she has magical powers and so do those in her family and community, but it is all simply strong assertion of a powerful will. No one can get in the way of Mama Ruby and live.

I can't say this is the best novel I've read.   It is too simplistic and the characters are all shallow with few real complications and no depth.  The main character simply rants about Jesus and the Devil, tries to use her healing hands, and murders men who get in her way and tries to isolate her "daughter" Maureen from the world.  The dead are all men in this book, those that are killed and those that just die. 
Still there is some fascination to the strange community of people and the rules that govern it.  And the reverse prejudices are interesting as well.
There are few good men and few good whites.  Big Red the sherriff is good to Mama Ruby in some ways but totally corrupted.

In the end it was just as disappointing.  Some of the resolutions seemed fitting.  Most of it seemed silly, really.  Still, for some odd reason I'm happy to have read the book.  Now i think it is time to get back to oysters. 
 

Tender is the Night

Perhaps one of the best illustrations of just how poorly I read lately is to say that I have just ow finished the Fitzgerald, which went to France with me and was supposed to be finished for the book group I get emails for but do not attend in mid November.
Another sad commentary, and a good reason for this blog, is that I've read this novel before, in fact, I've read this particular book before, and there in the final pages are a few of my notes. 
I don't remember it.
And having read it again, I can't really say it was something I managed to get a lot out of.  Too much was too obscure.  Too much required that one have sympathy for the independent rich.  I don't. 
The idea of suffering so much on the Riviera has always seemed to me absurd.

Perhaps I'll see what they did with it in a movie or read some crtical analysis to see what it is that I've missed.

I could not quite get Dick's inner struggles.  They all seemed too melodramatic.
I did chuckle that the last bit of his life was spent in small towns of the finger lake area.  It is these places that are presented as certainly the dullest places to live and work.  So hard for me to get that as I think of them as certainly as delightful as the riviera, perhaps more so.

Well, I enjoyed the book, nonetheless.  It did hold my attention.  The young girl traveling with her mother hit home when we were on the Viking cruise because we met a young girl traveling with her mother.  And there we were in France and having some of the kind of social interactions with people that are experienced on the Riviera.  A Viking cruise is a bit like the Riviera for modern travelers indulging themselves with a bit of Europe.

Best is that I am done with the novel. I've finished one of the dozens of books that sit on shelves here and at home with book markers in them. 

I intended to just toss this volume away in France, but it came home with me, and I guess I'll just keep it.  The last page is not attached but folded in half and kept in the book almost as a bookmark. The cover is detached.  The back cover is gone.  The book is really functionally useless.  But now that it has these personal struggles of these characters in it, I guess I'll keep it.

From the papers

Now it starts. Climate change is here and already affecting the way we govern ourselves. Down the road there will be no bailout for those who choose to live in dangerous locations. Private insurace will be so expensive few will be able to afford it and buy out plans will replace rebuilding plans. But people are slow to face reality and give up tradition. Nice to see New York acting first here too. Progressive government. I like it. Cuomo is doing a great job with the state. Hopefully we won't lose him to some crazy Presidential run. More reason to support Hillary if she runs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/nyregion/cuomo-seeking-home-buyouts-in-flood-zones.html?hp&_r=0

It also could be noted that one of the things to do with this reclaimed land is to make oyster beds. Great idea! Kurlansky will be proud.
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It is amazing what science can do now to reconstruct the past. This is an incredible story of finding the remains of Richard III.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/nyregion/cuomo-seeking-home-buyouts-in-flood-zones.html?hp&_r=0
http://blog.waterstones.com/2013/02/richard-was-that-rarity-a-king-who-died-on-the-field-of-battle-sharon-k-penman/
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Ear infection is much better today but resiliently hanging on.
That other ear infection, the roaring of the Super bowl better as well. Finished.
Now we can get on with baseball.

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Ah.... I don't feel quite so crazy to have so many caps.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/books/dr-seuss-himself-was-a-cat-in-the-hat.html?hpw


March 19
Another threat for cosmic destruction
http://coursesmrhedges2013.blogspot.com/2013/03/sun-storm-forecast-tiny-chance-of-havoc.html#!/2013/03/sun-storm-forecast-tiny-chance-of-havoc.html

A good article on the issues around bringing back extinct animals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/science/earth/research-to-bring-back-extinct-frog-points-to-new-path-and-quandaries.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Kurlansky's Choice Cuts

This is subtitled "A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History."


It is amazingly entertaining to anyone interested in food.  Kurlansky's selections are unique to his own love of historical trivia as well as reflecting his sense of humor.  The pieces, of which I've only read a half a dozen or so, offer more of a window on how people think about food, then practical advice or recipes.  What a fun book!

Kurlansky's Blog

I found this easily.  However, he does not write very often.  Once again I noticed how much food works in his writing, and how much he understands the vast amount of meaning that is expressed in our eating and in the way we prepare our foods.
Here is a good example.  This solves the Basque dilemma for me.  I am not in favor of kept secrets because I think it makes rare and precious simple things subject to extinction.  However, I like how this recipe works to define a woman's life.

http://www.markkurlansky.com/Default.aspx?pg=12772831-68e0-486e-b79d-80e6deae8ff5&detail=48cdf0d1-f5c1-46b6-b699-38d62b0bf5ab#9920d0fd-723f-4b36-be09-43498aae06a2

I also was thrilled with this report on the writing left by those who wrote when the government paid for the writing, writing which has been ignored for the most part.
http://www.markkurlansky.com/Default.aspx?pg=12772831-68e0-486e-b79d-80e6deae8ff5&detail=ab6989b3-81ed-457d-86fe-63d325b2e91e#9920d0fd-723f-4b36-be09-43498aae06a2