Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher who lived around 2400 years ago in Athens. Almost all of Plato’s surviving writings are dialogues (philosophical plays). Ion is a dialogue between Socrates (Plato’s teacher) and Ion, a celebrated performer of poetry. Although Plato is always interesting, it is often hard to find a positive lesson that can be drawn from his philosophy. Often his...
Jesus’ Son is a collection of stories revolving around a lost soul known as fuckhead. The book was published in 1992, and in 1999 was made into a movie by the same name. The book’s title comes from The Velvet Underground‘s song Heroin. When I’m rushing on my run And I feel just like Jesus‘ son… Comments: While the main theme (or at least thematic motif) found...
Dawkin’s God is a non-fiction book by Alister McGrath published in 2004. It is a response to Dawkin’s views, especially as they regard religion. The book is subtitled Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life. Comments: The most intelligible interpretation of McGrath’s take on Dawkins is that Dawkins is attacking academic-religion and not pop-religion. The reason for making this...
LINE-1 retrotransposons are sections of DNA which are capable of copying themselves into another part of the genome. Although traditionally considered to merely epitomize the concept of the selfish gene, more recently they have been suggested to have physiological functions. Here I discuss the incredibly fascinating hypothesis that LINE-1 retrotransposons may be important in generating neuronal...
The Algebraist is a science fiction novel set in the unfathomably far future and is penned by the established author Iain M. Banks. The plot concerns a star system being attacked by some force, (I would have written “alien force” but by this stage in the universe’s history to define something as an alien is rather provincial). The attack is motivated by a desire to conquer the...
Dangling Man was the first novel published by Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow. It was published in 1944 by Vanguard Press, and which today is owned by Random House. The novel forms a diary kept by Joseph for a one year: December 15, 1942, through to April 9 1943. The very first entry begins with the caveat that although to keep a diary is not something that should be done – since one should...
Editorial notes: This is the first of two posts (bost written on the same day) dedicated to the Antikythera mechanism. Decoding the Heavens is a non-fiction book by Jo Marchant about the Antikythera mechanism, and was published in 2008. For the actual focus of the book, see the relevant node, although suffice to remind everyone at this point that the Antikythera mechanism was a Greek artefact...
In a nutshell, the Antikythera Mechanism is the thing that should not be. It is a mechanical artifact discovered around a hundred years ago at the bottom of the ocean, dated to about a hundred years before the common era, and which uses gears and other impossibilities to predict astronomical phenomenon and align calendars. Its level of sophistication wouldn’t be approached until the...
What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise. Ch.I All the Pretty Horses is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. The novel was published in 1992 and won the National Book...
This is a log of my experiences here to date. Today I was pushed over the line and have won myself the right to vote; seems a good an occasion as any to do this. This log is not meant to be anything more than what it is: A record of some recollections that perhaps later may be of interest. If it’s ordering appears random that is because it is. My first post was Rituals of marijuana...
