Alexandra Day’s book for children in the lower grades is about a little boy who hears a story with a fairy godmother. Wanting a fairy godfather, he requests one. He’s dyslexic. Guess who responds. What a charming premise! In contrast with most children’s books, the art is good and the vocabulary not dumbed-down.
Charles Seife’s book about the Internet reveals surprising things about Amazon, Facebook, Google, email, search engines, sock puppetry, and Wikipedia. There are fake individuals, academic journals, and corporations. If something is free, you aren’t the customer; you are the product being sold. Think about it! One man has 110,000 books online. Thanks to widespread education and underemployment, too many people are writing and too few are reading. We are inundated with books and other print… read more →
Is it Donald Trump’s job to split, discredit, and discombobulate the Republicans so that Hillary becomes President?
During his long career, the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel, M.D., has studied this phenomenon with a mind that is both open and scientifically rigorous. A lifelong learner, careful thinker, and meticulous writer, he expresses difficult concepts in words that enable the nonscientist reader to comprehend them. The desire to believe can affect research results, so sound research design is imperative, conducted double-blind with enough subjects and with control groups. Doctors and scientists, accustomed to… read more →
My talented website designer, Frederick Graham Jones, died age 59 in Prescott, Arizona, March 16, of complications of laryngeal cancer. I’m sorry, Graham.
Why do I write? There are important things that demand, even clamor to be known. They chose me to express them, so I struggle to find the words that will give them voice. An actor can express truths more compellingly by wearing a costume, mask, and makeup. An author can express truths more fully in literary fiction because it loosens inhibitions. My vehicle is a multigenerational family saga that follows identical twins reared apart.… read more →
No Way Out, flawless acting by Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman. A masterpiece of intricate plotting, layer upon layer, twist upon twist, surprise after surprise.
Food animals are given substances to maximize weight-gain (or milk-production) per unit feed. How much of these substances comes through in our food, and affects us? Most food animals have miserable lives, with inevitable biochemical consequences. What substances produced by their stress-altered chemistry come through and affect us? Plants are bred but for easy harvesting, appearance, shelf life, and pest resistance––not nutrition and flavor. Pests too seek flavor and nutrition, so these are… read more →
Based on the book by Siddhartha Mukherjee. A fascinating and clear overview of the history of cancer, theories, and and its treatment.