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...
This is a summary of a review-piece published in the prestigious science journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences in 2010 ([link]) entitled “Nicotine receptors and depression: revisiting and revising the cholinergic hypothesis“. The publication was authored by Yann Mineur and Marina Picciotto and discussed the connection between smoking, nicotinic receptors, and depression. Below I...
Three books collide in my mind and make me reflect on the human condition. Please excuse me. 1. T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruellest month because it reminds us of renewal; once, long ago, a woman asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in April taunts her. 2. Jorge Luis Borges, who was undoubtedly intimately familiar...
Editorial notes: This is Shai’s first dedicated write-up relating to Jorge Luis Borges. Borges is referenced in two earlier essays and between Jan 2010 and Nov 2017 is referenced by Shai 17 times. The Writing of the God (Spanish: La Escritura del Dios; also sometimes entitled The God’s Script) is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. It first appeared in Borges’ short story...
I hadn’t intended to review this book – Men and Cartoons: Stories by Jonathan Lethem – but then, like with so many other things, I got thinking. This was the first thing I’d ever read by Lethem – surely there must be something unique about a person’s first introduction to an author? Surely there must be something unique about my introduction to Lethem? But...
The Eyes of the Beholders is the number thirteen of the TNG books, and is written by A.C. Crispin. The plot begins quite traditionally with the Enterprise ordered to investigate an area of space from which a number of ships have gone missing. Some sort of field soon captures the Enterprise, and draws it towards its source, which is revealed to be an artificial object of unknown purpose. Once in...
Doomsday World is the twelfth numbered TNG novel, written by a whole host of authors: Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Robert Greenberger. Carmen previously wrote The Children of Hamlin, which I quite liked; David has already authored two TNG novels by this time (#5, #10), and his proclivity for (and style of) humour comes through in a notable Monty Python reference early on;...
This is number eleven of the TNG novels and Keith Sharee’s only Star Trek novel. Troi has some dreams, the Enterprise follows a signal from a missing ship, some characters are taken prisoners on the planet, and then it’s explained what the dreams had to do with everything, the end. In short. In long: the Enterprise crew find themselves at a planet called Rampart, where a Federation...
This is the tenth numbered TNG novels, and also Peter David’s second. Riker’s off to inspect some terraforming project, permitting for the plot to quickly bifurcate: on the colony Paradise we follow Riker as he catches up with some old friends from his Alaska days, while on the Enterprise various members of the crew (especially Picard and Troi) come to terms with a Quinton Stone, who...
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 16/04/2010 Now that I have a queue of posts scheduled I thought I could afford to start something new: a focus on a particular author. I decided to do Peter David. A caveat should be noted right here at the start: this will...
