Half way through her book “Scatter, Adapt, and Remember”, Annalee Newitz states that her goal “is to get us off this crowded planet and into space.”  I don’t think she achieves her goal.  I wasn’t convinced we need to get off our beautiful blue world (at least for the next billion years or so), but it’s a fun romp and worth reading.

Newitz starts with a review of the history of mass extinctions in the last 2.5 billion years, such as the Oxygen Apocalypse (which may be unfamiliar to readers), the Permian Great Dying, and the famous demise of the dinosaurs.  She notes that mass extinctions are usually defined in terms of species going extinct.  Even with such a drop in diversity, the number of individual creatures may (or may not) remain high.  Reasons why some genetic lines survived are often speculative, but if you enjoy natural history, this is an interesting section of the book.

In the second part of the book, Newitz gets closer to home.  She discusses the human genus, Continue reading →

This book, which has the subtitle, “The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must” by Robert Zurbin with Richard Wager was recommended by a friend, and I was glad to have been told about it.  The book provides important examples of the power of imaginative and innovative thinking. It gives examples of explorations that failed because they relied on transporting everything needed into inhospitable territory. That is contrasted by expeditions such as the one by Lewis and Clark that succeeded because they used available resources accumulated during their travels. The book presents a case for exploring Mars while the team uses the resources available on the Red Planet to, as examples, build a shelter, grow food, and manufacturing the fuel that will be needed on the return trip to Earth.  Continue reading →

This book by Andrew P. Napolitano has the subtitle, “Myth, Power, and Deception in American History.” Libertarians will like the book and there are scattered places that Liberals/Progressives will be pleased with what is written. The book is not, in my judgment, enjoyable to read.  However, I’m glad to have been exposed to the well-researched and well-documented information.

There are passages to anger almost everyone except strict Libertarians and Constitutionalists. For example, the book is very outspoken against George W. Bush and the approach used by his administration to obtain Congressional approval of the second Iraq war. It is also comments that, “The 2000 presidential election will be remembered as one of the most glaring examples of the federal judiciary infringing up the fundamental right to vote.” Progressives will enjoy that but not the observation that they believe“…all power goes to the gang that gets the most votes, and all (legal) structural efforts to temper that power…must give way to the majority will” They also believe that they “…can use to power of the government to steal from those who have and give to those who do not.” The Progressive Woodrow Wilson probably took or allowed more actions to infringe on individual rights than any other President. The book criticizes both Bush and Obama for their support the Patriot Act. The author proposes that people voted for Obama not because he had any different policies, but because he “…was not a Republican.” Continue reading →

Many non-fiction books are interesting or satisfying to read; Monte Reel’s book “Between Man and Beast” is also fun.  Reel tells the story of Paul Du Chaillu, a “forgotten explorer” of Africa who was important to the discovery of the gorilla by Western science.  Paul’s story is set against “Victorian London at its Dickensian peak, New York on the verge of the Civil War, and the African interior at its most lush.”  Reel’s descriptions are as striking as anything in a novel.

Reel describes white missionaries and traders as well as Africans.  I thought it was interesting to read that everyone, whites and Africans, came to trust and like the African coastal tribes they were familiar with, but claimed inland tribes were vicious cannibals.  As Paul traveled inland, he judged the tribes he met as “fellow men worthy of respect”, but they told him the tribes further inland were vicious cannibals.  Some African tribes thought the white traders must be cannibals since they bought and sold people like cattle. Continue reading →