Book Reviewed: The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin

Physical evolution of our universe The theory of cosmological natural selection proposed by author Lee Smolin states that a process analogous to biological natural selection applies to the evolution of our universe. In this theory, a black hole from a previous universe creates a white whole on the other side of space-bulk to create a new universe (a white hole, an equivalent of a Big Bang), whose physical parameters such as, mass of an elementary particle, Planck constant, speed of light, electrical charge, etc. differ slightly from that of the previous universe where the black hole collapsed. A universe with "unsuccessful" physical parameters is predicted to reach heat death before being able to evolve, that is some physical parameters become more likely than others. The physical laws like the relativistic physics, and quantum physics are postulated to evolve over time and the future will evolve. Hence, the laws of physics we experience today is not fixed but evolved over time for the past 13.8 billion years. The author differs from other physicists who believe that laws of physics are immutable. Natural selection, according to this theory guide the laws of physics favoring those universes which best reproduce and give opportunities for life to be born and evolve. However, there is no direct selective pressures of biological systems in the evolution of the cosmos (and the origin of laws of physics.) The theory predicts that nature's parameters should be optimized for birth, growth, and death of a star that may result in black holes. Our universe has billions of black holes, and according to this book, it would give rise to billions of new universes. For the author Time is an important fabric of the universe where cosmos evolved over billions of years. For many physicists like Julian Barbour, Carlo Rovelli, and others time is a human construct and therefore an illusion. If you could get outside the universe and observe the cosmos, you would see that every moment of this universe. Smolin differ from the other physicists and argues that the fabric of the universe is made of Time only. This is an elegant, comprehensive, and radically different from anything proposed before. The author appears to be a heretic but writes with passion and a force of scientific ideas that is readable and enjoyable for professionals as well as a layperson interested in physics. Lee Smolin is one of the leading physicists of our time. He is a philosopher and a great thinker who disfavors non-testable concepts in physics and offers testable and verifiable suggestions for his idea of cosmological natural selection.

Book Reviewed: Mass Appeal: The Formative Age of the Movies, Radio, and TV by Edward D. Berkowitz

Legends from Broadway and Hollywood Hollywood motion pictures transformed American society with its revolution in the entertainment world. This is the result of the work numerous studios, its executives, and performers from 1910s to 2020. But the book focuses on only a few actors like Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Cantor, Groucho Marx, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, and Katharine Hepburn. This book ignores key players of the Golden age of Hollywood like Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Mae West, Jean Harlow, and Greta Garbo whose contributions led to the success of the movie industry transitioning silent movies to the talkies, despite the fact it suffered financially during the Great Depression. The author is a Professor of History at George Washington University and has researched the material for this review with authentic and reliable sources. He offers readers to discover movies of the 1930s, radio programs of 1940s, and television of the 1950s. The negative side of his narratives is that it does not go into any great lengths. It is also a little confounding that the cover page of the book has the photo of young Katharine Hepburn with the title ”Mass Appeal.” This title is little to do with the larger portion of the book.

Book Reviewed: Meditation, A Journey of Exploration: Based on the Teachings of Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita & Yoga Sutras by Swami Tadatmananda

Practicing mindfulness Meditation calm the waves of mind and experience peace from divine source within the body (Prakriti) and soul (Atma). In the first chapter, Swami Tadatmananda describes meditation as a skill to learn and practice. He emphasizes on developing these skills and build a structured practice. He frequently refers to Bhagavad-Gita, especially the sixth chapter where Lord Krishna teaches Arjuna about the posture, concentration, and mental discipline that prescribes a particular object of meditation to concentrate upon. Where necessary Swamiji also quotes extensively from the Principal Upanishads about consciousness, Yoga Philosophy, and mediation. He describes meditation is an exploration of the inner terrain and its depth. By his method, over time, you can learn to lead your mind to a place of profound silence and develop the capacity for laser-like concentration and to remain deeply absorbed for extended periods of time. Bliss is an inner-most experience and the essential nature of the experiencer. Swami Tadatmananda’s profound exploration of yogic practice is based ancient Hindu scriptures that masterfully articulates meditation and the needed exercises. I very much enjoyed reading this book that is built upon the concepts of Patanjali’s yoga sutra.

Book Reviewed: The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation and Study Guide by Nicholas Sutton

Revisiting the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita The problem with an English translation of the Bhagavad-Gita is that it tends to be either too literal to the Sanskrit text which would obscure the intended meaning, or it is translated to strengthen a particular philosophical perspective. Modern English translators like Nicholas Sutton tend to be closer to the meaning of the sacred texts but lacks the poetic touch. One of the challenges is that the translations cannot be entirely separated from interpretations since different meaning is derived from similar construction of words, and thus tend to reflect the translator's own philosophical orientation. Major commentaries due to Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and later followers of Samkhya and Vedanta philosophies stretch the meaning of the Sacred Word. The author of this book illustrates this point with a good discussion of various translations and commentaries. The idea of good and bad occurring in life is due to previous actions (or karma) in a prior life, in the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Hindu scriptures like Bhagavad-Gita and Upanishads teaches us the way one can put an end to this cycle i.e., release from rebirth (Moksha). The teachings are based on the concept of dharma or duty that should be performed without desire for personal gain. The practice of dharmic duty represents worshiping God who is the creator of dharma. Dharma is not just a series of tasks one ought to perform but it should a part of one's very nature. it reflects a person's inner nature (Sva-bhava) generated because of past karma. Karma influences the three gunas (qualities) over human action and thus lead the life’s sufferings (Samkhya Philosophy). The Bhagavad-Gita teaches that it is not the action but the selfish desire that prompts it must be renounced. In this way, the performance of dharmic duty becomes compatible with escaping from the cycle of good and bad karma. Gita also teaches that spiritual knowledge (jnana) and the practice of devotion (bhakti) to Lord Krishna also help us overcome previous karma to seek release from rebirth. This book reads well, and the discussion of various translations and commentaries are well presented.

Book Reviewed: The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans, by Eben Kirksey

Reflections on recent advances in gene surgery to create modified human babies This is a nicely written book which focuses on current biomedical advances that allows medical professionals to tinker with Mother Nature. Applications of gene editing has tremendous potential in the pharmaceutical industry largely driven by economic interest. Academics are persuaded to get involved for the name, fame, and fortunes that rollout from this venture. But activists, sociologists, and ethicists are pushing back. The author narrates the discussions he had with leading figures in this growing field and offers insight into scientific developments in human gene editing and associated ethical issues. There are profound questions about how people may choose to alter their own DNA. If everyone uses these tools and achieve unimaginative dreams, to grow big muscles or have blonde hair with blue eyes and great figure, the humanity will be stripped of character and biological diversity. In November 2018, when a Chinese scientist named, Jiankui He created the first human genetically edited twin girls. He used their parents' sperm and eggs, and to protect the children from the HIV, since the father is HIV-positive, he used the CRISPR technique to edit the genes, and after fertilization created the HIV-free embryos. It was as initially praised as a major scientific advancement. But following scrutiny on how the experiment was executed, He received widespread condemnation and three-year jail term. The author narrates his discussions with leading figures in this field that includes; Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna (2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery CRISPR genome editing), Biochemist Gregor Wolbring, Biologist Jiankui He, physicist Michael Deem, Feminist Studies Professor Donna Haraway of UCSC, Harvard geneticist George Church, Historian Ben Hurlbut, HIV researcher Jay Lalezari, HIV-patient advocate Jay Johnson, artist Tamara Pertamina, and several members of transgender community and HIV activists. The book reads flawlessly and offers an insight into what is happening in the emerging world of human gene surgery.

Book Reviewed: Gita For Children /A Teaching Tool for Elders by Swami Chinmayananda

Teaching the Word of God to Hindu children Bhagavadgita is the Song of Lord Krishna that has the message of dharma yoga, karma yoga and paths to reach Moksha (salvation). This book, intended for parents, is graciously written, and summarized by Swami Chinmayananda, one of the well-known and respected scholars of Vedanta philosophy of 20th century. Swamiji was the founding guru of Bala Vihar, and Shishu Vihar at his missions to inculcate in Hindu children a reverence for the Vedic heritage and inspire them to live with discipline. He intended to create self-confidence in serving their communities while learning the Sanatana Dharma. Bala Vihar is the Hindu equivalent of Sunday schools in a Christian church. The author summarizes each chapter of Bhagavadgita followed by exercises, questions and answers related to the teachings. These exercises are helpful as a learning tool to understand the message of Lord Krishna. The seed of god’s love as described by the author offer positive parenting solutions. John 3:16 is one of the most powerful verses of New Testament that figures often in Sunday schools. There are several hymns that enable and motivate children to learn the message of Bhagavadgita. Examples include hymns, 6:30; 10:8-10; 18:61; 18:65; 8:3; 2:20; 2:51; 10:20; and 4:42

Book Reviewed: The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality Hardcover by Robert Lanza and Matej Pavsic

Consciousness and the cosmic self This is the third book by author Robert Lanza about Biocentrism, an idea that life and consciousness create physical reality. This book propose that our observations and knowledge affect how physical objects behave and appear. Hence the principal argument here is that life isn't just a part of the universe, but life determines the structure of the cosmos including spacetime, matter energy, forces, and fields. The authors propose 11 principals of biocentrism, which states that matter and spacetime are not independent realities but rather tools of our mind. The ideas presented in this book is somewhat farfetched and may be outlandish. Simple considerations of the concepts of physics and biology illustrates the veracity of authors contention. The 4-dimensional spacetime is assumed to be the fabric of reality on which matter, and energy behave according to the laws of physics. Space behaves differently from matter, it can expand faster than speed of light, as it happened during the inflationary epoch. And spacetime apparently does not require energy for existence. But it also falls apart at the black hole implying that it is not fundamental, but an emergent structure from something deeper. General relativity treats gravity as the geometry of spacetime, but it also entails its dissolution which may explain why information escapes from a black hole. When black hole evaporates fully, the information also escapes completely because there is no black hole and no space. Dark energy is probably the intrinsic energy of space. At the cosmic level, the dark energy is overpowering gravity and pushing spacetime apart. When the universe was 380,000-year-old, the universe had 63% dark matter and no dark energy. But after 13.8 billion years, the dark matter is reduced to 23% and dark energy rose to 72% with only 5% visible matter. The universe consists of information; every elementary particle carries information about their physical properties that characterizes them. Fundamental particles like quarks and Higgs Bosons are not directly observed since they are extremely unstable, and generally characterized by the information associated with them. Hence, matter becomes the secondary concept. In addition, space is not smooth and continuous as we see and perceive. At quantum scales space is grid like and exists in discrete bits (like information). It is possible that our universe could be a simulation running on a cosmic computer using these information as codes. Information as a fundamental component of physical reality emerges from the fact that the universe may be like a hologram or an illusion, as illustrated by analyzing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left over from the Big Bang. A black hole also contains information about matter and energy that fell into it. This information is stored on a two-dimensional surface but contains information that came from three-dimensional space. Spacetime may also exist in a knot into doughnut- or pretzel-like shapes. The extra connectivity creates tunnels or wormholes between otherwise far-flung places in the universe and permits quantum entanglement and information exchange that is otherwise forbidden by special relativity. Wormholes, the holographic principle, emergent space-time, quantum entanglement, and quantum computation are some of the concepts in physics that makes understanding physical reality captivating and confounding. At best, the laws as we understand, explains many puzzling things in cosmos, but not all! We know all there is to know about the genome a laboratory mouse, but we don’t know what it feels like to be a mouse. Living systems are defined by the concept of "organization. Cells are autopoietic systems that build themselves: they literally construct their own constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom. Life’s emergence might rest on the foundations of physics, but it is not derivable from them. Living systems achieve a local reduction in their entropy as they grow and develop; they create structures of greater internal energy (lower entropy), higher order, and higher information out of the nutrients they absorb. Central to this philosophy is life is not an objective property of the cosmos, but a collection of special cases that links of non-equilibrium processes and boundary condition constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom. In reproducing systems such as cells, a closure is achieved linking these processes and constraint construction into an organization that closes on itself. Such a system is a self-controlled machine that is independent. Experiments on self-assembly and self-organization in large molecules such as metal oxides are attempting to take an ensemble approach to provide new paths for developing general theories on the universal principles bridging matter and life. Is quantum reality (of subatomic particles) linked to classical reality (of larger molecules/structures) in everyday life? It should be because all objects are made of subatomic particles. It appears that deep down spacetime and matter-energy, the underlying realities may also include consciousness that appears in the interpretations of quantum reality. The nature of dark matter and dark energy and their relationship to each other and their impact on spacetime is also unclear. In metaphysical terms, the book contains ideas of Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism which proposes that the Pure Consciousness (Brahman) is the Ultimate Reality, and the phenomenal transient world is an illusion (Maya). Brahman is the material cause of all that exists in the cosmos. it is the primordial reality that creates, maintains, and withdraws from the universe. Brahman's qualities are called Sat-Cit-Ananda (Eternal Being-Consciousness-Bliss.)

Book Reviewed: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

Mycelium Running This book explores the beneficial effects of the symbiotic fungi in the soil. Mycorrhizal fungi are microscopic organisms that partner with root systems of plants and sequester carbon in much more meaningful ways than human “carbon offsets” will ever achieve. Most of these soil fungi support plant health in elegant ways. They boost green immune function in plants and community-wide networking that forms the basis of ecosystem resiliency. The mycelium’s digestive power and its uses in the decomposition of toxic wastes and pollutants, remove pathogens from agricultural watersheds, control insect populations, and enhance the health of our forests. This book is at the intersection of social science, natural science, and humanities. The author reveals a range of things that goes in the soil of the forests that are ecologically relevant. It does not go into much biology or evolutionary issues but offers a broad range discussion about the beneficial effects of fungi.

Book Reviewed: Immortality, Inc.: Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions, and the Quest to Live Forever by Chip Walter

Technology and post-humanism Technology could make us immortal; The Six Million Dollar Man, Robocop and The Matrix share common DNA of human beings enhanced by technology. The technology will be used to extend longevity and enhance physical and cognitive performance. The goal is to overcome mind and body limitations by making an individual better than merely being human. Immortality has gone secular in the last two decades and unhooked from the realm of gods. It's now the subject of serious intellectual and financial investment in the Silicon Valley to make longevity possible. This book explores scientific pursuit of immortality with Silicon Valley visionaries. The champions of this radical cause include of molecular biologist and Apple chairman Arthur Levinson, genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter, futurist Ray Kurzweil, biologist Aubrey de Grey, and stem cell researcher Robert Hariri. This is the age of billionaires betting their fortunes on laboratory advances to prove aging is unnecessary, and death can be cured. This book does not go into the scientific and technological details behind aging research but provide a journalistic overview of how technocrats are changing the course of human endeavor.

Book Reviewed: The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns by Matty Weingast

Psalms of the Sisters – A celebration of the writings of Buddhist nuns in ancient India (four stars) This is the English translation of the verses of Elder Nuns (bhikkhunis) also known as the Therigatha in Buddhist literature. Some of these writings of Buddhist women were composed during the life of Buddha in 6th century B.C.E. They detail everything from their disenchantment with their roles in society to their struggles for spiritual freedom. Numerous voices are heard from; a mother whose child has died (Therigatha VI.1 and VI.2); a former sex worker who became a nun (Therigatha V.2); a wealthy heiress who abandoned her life of pleasure (Therigatha VI.5); and verses of Buddha's aunt Pajapati Gotami (Therigatha VI.6). These verses reaffirm the view that women are equal to men for spiritual attainment. They focus on status of women in ancient India, and these stories are told with heart-breaking honesty and beauty revealing the deeply human side of the nuns. This is the fullest expression of theological and spiritual aesthetics in a woman’s relationship in earthly realities. Therigatha was first composed orally in Magadhi, an ancient Indian language. The verses were passed on orally until about 80 B.C.E., when they were written down in the Buddhist language of Pali. A poetical expression of life is not only an assemblage of words that is pleasing to the intellect, but it also consists of beauty that is ideally structured causing delight in the beholder. The beauty is produced by the unification of a multiple of symmetrical constructions into a whole. A sixth-century Buddhist scholar named Dhammapala called them Udanas or inspired utterances. The English translation must reflect the beauty contained in these verses and capture the mind and heart of the poetess. There are several English translations of Therigatha in literature and a collation of one of the poems is given below: Translated by Caroline Rhys Davids, from Psalms of the Sisters (1909) The Elephant by Bhikkhuni Dantika Coming from noonday-rest on Vulture's Peak, I saw an elephant, his bathe performed, Forth from the river issue. And a man. Taking his goad, bade the great creature stretch His foot: 'Give me thy foot!' The elephant Obeyed, and to his neck the driver sprang. I saw the untamed tamed, I saw him bent To master's will; and marking inwardly, I passed into the forest depths and there I' faith I trained and ordered all my heart. ----- Translated by Thanisaro Bhikkhu (1995) Coming out from my day's abiding on Vulture Peak Mountain, I saw on the bank of a river an elephant emerged from its plunge. A man holding a hook requested: "Give me your foot." The elephant extended its foot. The man got up on the elephant. Seeing what was untrained now tamed brought under human control, with that I centered my mind — why I'd gone to the woods in the first place. -------- Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato (2019) Leaving my day’s meditation on Vulture’s Peak Mountain, I saw an elephant on the riverbank having just come up from his bath. A man, taking a pole with a hook, asked the elephant, “Give me your foot.” The elephant presented his foot, and the man mounted him. Seeing a wild beast so tamed, submitting to human control, my mind became serene: *that* is why I’ve gone to the forest! ------- Translated by Matty Weingast (2020), Author of this book While walking along the river After a long day meditating on Vulture Peak, I watched an elephant splashing its way out of the water and up the bank. Hello, my friend, a man waiting there said, scratching the elephant behind its ear. Did you have a good bath? The elephant stretched out its leg, the man climbed up, and the two rode off like that­ together. Seeing what had once been so wild now a friend and companion to this good man, I took a seat under the nearest tree and reached out a gentle hand to my own mind. Truly, I thought, this is why I came to the woods. ----- I recommend this book to readers interested in Buddhism, Buddhist nuns, and early feminist literature.

Book Reviewed: Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union by Richard Kreitner

Some reflections on the creation of United States of America America is in a state of crisis, says the author. After reflecting on precolonial days that lead to the American Revolution, and challenging times in building the nation, he observes that it is more polarized towards division rather than a union! He sees flaws in the founders’ wish to forge a democracy: The new world did not create American exceptionalism but produced radicalism and failed hopes. According to him, the puritans, native Americans, enslaved Africans, women with little rights, and new immigrants from Europe offers a picture of the messy years of American birth. The years of the American Revolution were times of changing loyalties, fierce battles and internecine feuds that provides a stage for his reinterpretation of the history. This is a very narrow approach to narrate the American history especially when he finds that the 2016 victory of Donald Trump has furthered the division of the union. This ignores the decades of mishandling of American affairs. It is a matter of choice to bring a new idea into the White House that did not include professional politicians who are corrupt and toxic to the bone! Formative years are always challenging to any nation, and I wished the author had a broader view in his analysis. When English colonists left Asia and Africa, these colonies faced the same challenges that United States faced in creating a union with serious domestic issues. Similar challenges were faced by East European countries and former territories of Soviet Union which collapsed in 1991. The author ignores key features that made United States as one of the strongest and powerful nations in the world. For example, the battles with Native Americans on the western and Southern frontier, and the bloody civil war that lost more than a million Americans. North prevailed in the Civil War ending slavery and giving the country a new birth of freedom. But many confederates found new opportunities in the West. Settlers from the East were pushing into the West, where the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican American War and the occupation of Native American lands created new racial hierarchies. The mining, cattle, and oil industries created wealth and neo-fiscal conservatives like Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. There is no crisis over our national identity. This is manufactured over decades by politicians. Divisions at local and regional areas are not new. They were always there, and politicians have manipulated the system to their advantage to divide people along economic, social, and racial barriers. This is heard every four years!

Book Reviewed: Future Minds: The Rise of Intelligence from the Big Bang to the End of the Universe by Richard Yonck

Intelligence in the universe Human beings may not be Earth’s most intelligent beings for much longer. In fact, some predict that artificial intelligence (AI) could advance to human-level intelligence. The late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking famously postulated that if AI itself begins designing better AI than human programmers, the result could be "machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails." Artificial General intelligence (AGI) is humanity's biggest existential threat, and there is an effort to create machines that can experience consciousness and grasps philosophical issues beneath the algorithms. The machine consciousness could become the byproduct of information processing and intelligence. The author looks at the future from the origin of the universe and draws on recent developments in bio-thermodynamics and the evolution of complexity in living cells. How structured and highly ordered cellular systems evolve that appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But they don’t, because they are not closed systems. But there is a connection between intelligence and entropy maximization. There are entropic forces that can cause two defining behaviors of the human cognitive niche; tool use, and social cooperation that leads to certain emergent properties. Intelligence is not necessarily a cognitive-based property. It is perhaps a manifestation of a much larger universal process, one that is initially dependent on probability, but with emergent properties, it is capable of self-directed volition over time. Emergent intelligence is driven by competition, thermodynamics, and entropy as a means of promoting future freedom of action. A general thermodynamic model of adaptive behavior in nonequilibrium process in open systems, the cognitive-adaptive organisms have an internal mental model of the environment they seek to adapt to. But from a probability-based perspective, high-entropy states should create the best conditions for evolution either for living species or machine intelligence. In other words, the more unrestricted the environment, the more options that can be explored. This concept of causal entropic forcing is critical to the origin of life, and machine intelligence. The author expresses his hope that future intelligence may find the purpose of this universe, this could be a wishful thinking that may never find an answer. The laws of physics are immutable, and the cosmos is limited by 4-dimesional spacetime. The natural and artificial intelligence include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, and perception. In advanced animal species, and robotics, additional requirements include the ability to move, manipulate objects and natural language processing is required. The underlying principles, besides the operation of the laws of physics and (chemistry in biological systems), is to achieve their goal through statistical mechanics, probability, information engineering, entropy, and economics. The author offers reasonable discussion in this book.

Book Reviewed: Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Vivekananda

The wisdom of Bhagavadgita Bhagavadgita is the essence of Vedas that expounds knowledge and remedy the challenges of life. Swami Vivekananda offers a concise interpretation of teaching of Lord Krishna in three consecutive lectures in San Francisco, California. Vivekananda infuse vigor into Hindu thought, placing less emphasis on the prevailing pacifism but more on Hindu spirituality. There are three lectures in this short book of 40 pages. In the first chapter, Vivekananda presents a bird’s eye view of Vedas and what it meant to orthodox and non-orthodox Hindus. But he calls Upanishads equivalent of Bible, which proposes one God (Brahman), and Bhagavadgita as the commentary on the Upanishads. The law of karma gives humans a way out of for happiness, but Vivekananda argues happiness and the concept of heaven are too materialistic in nature. One must go beyond the law of karma and seek unification with Brahman, the Supreme Consciousness. Brahman has no attributes, but it is an entity that encompasses omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), immutable, divine simplicity, and eternal existence. Brahman’s qualities are personal and impersonal which exists in spaceless and timeless dimensions in an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of a universe. The Pure Consciousness (True Self) can transcend all possible laws of physics, all dimensions, and all physical realities. Swamiji refers to verses in Chapter 2 in which Arjuna request Krishna to guide him on how to overcome his grief at the idea of killing his own family members and teachers. Krishna explains that the cause of all grief is due to ignorance that results from the lack of understanding about the True Self. He explains the Yoga of discipline of selfless action without being attached to its fruits is essential. Vivekananda was known for his prodigious memory and the ability at speed reading. He was responsible for bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion and a force in its revival in India and raising interfaith awareness in Western hemisphere. This is one of the numerous lectures Swamiji offered about Gita and the Upanishads during his lifetime.

Book Reviewed: Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore by Jim Schutze

Lady from hell The story of Blanche Moore is a Southern-comfort facade of gentility, a fusion of Scarlet O’Hara and Blanche DuBois, hides a murderous revenge on men in her life. Apparently rooted in the sexual abuse from her father when she was a little girl. Blanche is seductively nice and compassionate until she would find her way of finishing them off, literally. Spiking milk shakes, or potato soups or a drink with anti-ant poisoning, she was cold and calculated killer who manipulated the men she was intimate with. The motive was for financial gain or a plain revenge. She poisoned three men in her life; her first husband, a co-worker, Raymond Reid with whom she worked with, and her second husband, a preacher who survived despite intense arsenic poisoning. She may also be responsible for her father’s death, and her mother-in-law by her first marriage. Currently Blanche Moore is awaiting execution in the state of North Carolina for the 1986 killing of her boyfriend, Raymond Reid. The 1993 movie “Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story” starring Elizabeth Montgomery offered a brilliant performance as sweet-talking cold faced killer. In fact, much of the movie is based on the research work of author Jim Schutze. It saves you great deal of time to watch the movie than read the book. In addition, it saves you from reading the ghastly details of pain and sufferings of arsenic poisoning.

Book Reviewed: Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917 by Dale Cockrell

Boogie Nights: Domestic Revolution in 19th century New York Author Dale Cockrell focuses on music and popular dance forms to narrate the social history of Manhattan in the late nineteenth- and early-twentieth century. It is a historical study of popular music and dance that identifies a connection between uninhibited sex and dancing which included gay sex, orgies, and interracial sex. These were widely promoted in Manhattan bars, brothels, and dance halls where sale of sex for cash was endemic. Social dancing was one of the ways that sex and music were linked. This book looks at race, class, popular culture, and sexuality, which includes the centrality of African-American musical culture, the sexual attitudes and behavior of working-class Americans, and the anti-vice crusaders like Anthony Comstock, Rev. Charles Parkhurst, and others who paved the way for urban Anti-Vice Commissions of the early twentieth-century that targeted these gathering places that facilitated inter-racial socializing which were believed to be inherently immoral. When Charles Dickens visited the United States in 1842, he visited several bars in the Five Points area of Manhattan, just east of today’s Centre Street & north of Worth Street, a neighborhood which at the time had both large black and Irish populations. Tap dancing was invented here by combining Irish step-dancing and African rhythmic patterns. Another account of musical life by journalist George Goodrich Foster gives an even more vivid picture of the musical and sexual atmosphere. The author tries to correlate these anecdotes to illustrate how musical exuberance, dancing and sexual acts occurred. The 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey exploited a cultural banality of people’s feeling about dancing and sex. Boogie Nights, the 1997 film about a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a porn star ties the cultural myth about dancing halls and sex. The Argentine tango, a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the brothels of Buenos Aires around the same time as the emergence of ragtime in New York. The author points out that ragtime, a new musical, and dance form was composed by black musicians, to be played in dance halls and brothels was rarely written down but it is the first identifiable style of jazz. Many of these places were multi-racial venues, known also as “black and tans” which the vice crusaders campaigned against. This devastated the City’s nightlife and undermined many of its musical venues. It targeted black-run clubs to racially divide the social life. Everybody’s Doin’ It is a follow-up from Cockrell’s previous book, Demons of Disorder. This book integrates the history of working-class culture and openness of sexuality in New York. The author is musicologist and not a social historian. He traces the birth of jazz music in the dance halls and dives of New York City, but the book chapters do not flow well from one to another, and images and illustrations shown in this book has white folks in the dance hall and never shows a mixed gatherings of blacks and whites.

Book Reviewed: Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet by Meggan Watterson

The sacred embrace of Mary

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene presents a radical interpretation of Jesus' teachings as a path to inner spiritual knowledge. Both the content and the message lead inward toward the identity, power, and freedom of the true Self. The soul is set free from the powers of matter and the fear of death. For example, The Savior said, all nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots (Mary 4:22, Pages 1 to 6 of the original manuscript containing chapters 1 - 3 are lost. The extant text of this gospel starts on page 7, chapter 4). Such a metaphysical message is all too familiar in the ancient Hindu scriptures of Upanishads and the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Mary’s teachings reject the most fundamental concept of Christian beliefs (e.g. John 3:16) that Jesus paid for the sins of others, and whosoever believe in him as a savior will find everlasting peace. The gospel of Mary also rejects that there is such a thing as sin! For example, Then Peter said to him, you have been explaining every topic to us; tell us one other thing. What is the sin of the world? The Savior replied, there is no such thing as sin (Mary 4:25). Another distinctive feature of the gospel Mary is that God is not referred to as the Father, and this gospel does not say that Jesus is the son of God. The parables of Jesus that is the only form of Jesus’ teachings found in synoptic gospels are not found in this gospel.

When the Christian church leaders decreed that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are to be canonized to form the New Testament, at the council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., they also believed that no rival gospels must exist that contradict the canons. Therefore, the gnostic gospels such as the gospels of Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Philip, and others were destroyed.

This book is written to re-emphasize the teachings of Mary who was the closest female follower of Jesus. She was present at the Jesus’ crucifixion, she was there at the burial, and she was there alone at the empty tomb, and the first to witness the resurrection. In fact, she was assigned to carry out the mission of the ministry of Jesus Christ. I recommend the original work of Harvard University Professor Karen King “The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the first woman apostle” for a deeper discussion.

Book Reviewed: Every Tub Must Sit on Its Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics of Zora Neale Hurston by Deborah G. Plant

The heart and mind of Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neal Hurston was a part of Harlem renaissance, an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered in Harlem during the roaring 1920s. She was also an anthropologist, folklorist, and a playwright. She is well known for her pivotal novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” which is about a Southern love story told by a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams. It is the story of a black woman, fiercely independent and her evolving selfhood through failed marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. Another book Hurston is known for is Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” about the life of a man named Oluale Kossola, who was transported from West Africa to slavery in Alabama in 1860. Her work is a testament to Zora’s singular vision amid so many competing pressures to love blackness at a time that determined to hate it.

In this book, Professor Deborah Plant of the University of South Florida examines Hurston's philosophy and politics considering black women's resistance to domination and struggle for empowerment. Hurston reflected on her innermost thoughts as the only place in which she could escape societal limitations and freely express herself. She found affirmation, a place to heal, restore and recover. She constructed alternative images of herself to stand in opposition to the controlling, stereotypical images of women, built on objectification and subjugation. Hurston deeply believed that the black culture is a vital component in their full political emancipation, individually and collectively. She discovered new (literary) frontiers; she searched for lost cities; she navigated boats; and she climbed mountains. Like the men of her day, she smoked in public, wore pants, spoke her mind, and loved setting her hat at a rakish angle. Her belligerence, tendency to stand and do battle for what is right stands out conspicuously in her life. Zora Neale Hurston leaves us several empowering legacies. Her life expresses the transformative and revolutionary possibilities of an androgynous spirit. Zora was a Republican, a feminist, and believed in the work of Booker T. Washington on black education and self-emancipation.

The author could have revised the order of chapters that made it easy for readers to connect with Zora Hurston better. The writing is in metaphysical style and the reading would be bumpy. I recommend this book to readers interested in the life of Zora Neale Hurston and black American history.

Book Reviewed: White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America, by Khyati Y. Joshi

Christian America: Inequalities in the sanctuary

The white Christian privilege in the American society has been discussed by the author who teaches Race and Religion at the Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Education. The book focuses on societal and institutional issues and offers strategies to achieve the goal of religious pluralism. The author observes that Christianity has dominated over 400 years by setting the tone and establishing the rules and assumptions about who belongs here. What is acceptable and not acceptable in public discourse. As a result, the "freedom of religion" enshrined in the pages of the Constitution did not translate into everyday life, says the author. This is a very narrow way of looking at a nation built by pilgrims who escaped the dominance of Roman Catholic Church in Europe. As you turn the pages, the author becomes very preachy, and her criticism of American whites almost equates to the intensity of the current Black Lives Matter rallies that blames white America for racism. No wonder some of her students complained to the school that she hates whites!

The author discusses the Executive Order 13769 (now 13780), titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, politically labeled as a “Muslim Ban.” She attributes this to the institution of American white Christianity! How could that be? During 2016 campaign Donald Trump explained the effects of more Muslim migrants in this country would lead to more “no go zones” and strengthen the Islamic sharia as it is happening now in Western Europe.

The author states that this is not an exercise in political correctness, but an exploration of challenges deeply held beliefs about religious freedom in U.S. I wished the author could have taken a broader approach to debate race and religious freedom in this country. Did she ever question how religious minorities, especially people of Indian religions are treated in Islamic countries? And how religious minorities are unfairly subjected to Islamic laws? Jews and people of Indian religions adapt to Western culture and integrate with the new society. They do not indulge in Jihad, Fatwa, Ummah (commonwealth of Muslim believers), and Sharia laws. And they do not violently react to the criticism of their religion.

We are living in a pandemic of political correctness where anything you say about race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. would be soundly judged and condemned! Most universities and colleges have become a citadel for left-wing faculty who advance liberal and progressive ideals. Patriotism is old news and traditional values are replaced with fascism. Professor Joshi is no different from the rest of them.

Book Reviewed: The Drudge Revolution: The Untold Story of How Talk Radio by Matthew Lysiak

An inspiring story of Matt Drudge

This is a fascinating story of Matt Drudge that recreates a life from beginning to the end, the promise, and perils of a conservative journalist. His personal and professional life is a result of robust citizen journalist movement inspired by the Internet. Drudge was a high school dropout who grasped the potential of the world wide web and established online news publications that became a new mechanism for reaching vast audiences. He found a way to access privileged news information only a few editors of leading newspapers could access. For example, a news item from Associated Press had many versions, and editors of newspapers across the globe selected the versions they liked and printed in their newspapers, essentially manipulating the news readers.

At one time, Drudge Report set the tone for national political coverage. During the 1996 presidential campaign, he was the first to report Sen. Bob Dole’s choice of a vice presidential running mate. In 1997, printed the story of Kathleen Willey’s sexual harassment accusations against Pres. Bill Clinton, and then a story claiming that White House aide Sidney Blumenthal had a history of spousal abuse. He was the first to report Bill Clinton’s sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and many other breaking news during Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies. His readership grew to millions per day, and gradually dwindled. He helped the career of conservative reporters like Andrew Breitbart.

Living in an era where elite journalists, the products of universities and colleges that is a citadel for left-wing faculty, journalism is a tool of social justice and progressive reform. Patriotism is old news and traditional values are replaced with liberal ideals. It was then Matt Drudge caused revolution in conservative news reporting.

This book is beautifully written and reads flawlessly; highly recommended.

The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts by Karen Armstrong

This is a mishmash

The New Testament and Quran were routinely revised since ancient times and their message dramatically reinterpreted to meet the needs of the ever present. The art of scripture erased the past because the sacred text is known to be the Word of God, and it had to conform to the moral rules set in ancient times. Hence, Muslims are practicing the moral and social norms of ninth-century Arabian Desert, and the Quran and Hadith are used to justify acts of Jihad-terrorism as a religious duty. Muslim women deeply believe that God wants them to cover their head, and Christians use the Gospel of John 3:16 to recklessly convert others into the Christian faith. Force, coercion, savagery, and war was used to enforce Christian beliefs.

The take home message from this book is mixed; the author dwells on the role of myth, how it evolved, and why religions need it. She takes us back to very ancient times, about 40,000 years ago: Long before established religions came into existence to reconstruct the human faith systems. The author is known for her work on Abrahamic faiths, Old and New Testaments, and Islam. Her analysis of Hinduism covered mainly in one chapter; namely Chapter 2, falls too short for a good comparisons with religions of The Middle East. The author lacks a comprehensive competence in the vast field of Hinduism. The religious literature includes Vedas, Upanishads, the Epics, the Puranas, Bhagavad-Gita and the six Hindu philosophical systems that articulate this most ancient faith system. The earliest hymns of Rigveda are dated back to 1700 BCE.

The author’s work focuses on commonalities of religions and employs the need for compassion and often invoke political correctness. She is known to be overtly sympathetic to Muslims since they make the most demand from the Western societies to conform to Muslim sentiments and Islamic values.

Book Reviewed: Until the End of Time by Brian Greene

Unilluminating

There is not much to learn from this book if you are interested to understand physical reality. The book starts well with the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy, but the key aspects of information processing and the role of non-equilibrium thermodynamics is very briefly discussed. Chapters 6-11 did not make significant additions to the general discussions. It merely diluted the discussion relevant for the organization of matter (atoms and molecules) to form a living cell (organized system). Life seem to defy the concept of entropy and laws of physics because of the existence of free will, mind and consciousness. In addition, the idea that the past determines the future challenges the traditional ideas of classical and quantum physics.

The second law of thermodynamics; entropy and the flow of time, from past to future, and the available energy to perform useful work are some of the highlights of this book. Nature has provided a universal mechanism for coaxing certain molecular systems to get up and dance the entropic two-step. A living cell take in high-quality energy, use it, and then return low-quality energy in the form of heat and other wastes thus increasing the entropy of the universe. But internally it creates a high degree of order. This type of dissipative adaptation may be essential to the origin of life. The replication of biomolecules is a tool of dissipative adaptation: if a small collection of particles would become adept at absorbing, using, and dispensing energy. Then molecules that can replicate in larger numbers will be responsible for system-wide dissipative adaptation that is a key in the Darwinian evolution.

Despite the author’s other successful books and popular TV documentaries about cosmos, he has not lived up to his reputation as a good narrator of physics stories. Chapters 6-9 does not offer a path for intellectual stimulation.

Book Reviewed: Economics in the Age of COVID-19 by Joshua Gans

Economic choices during a health crisis

In this book, the University of Toronto economics professor Joshua Gans analyzes economics of Covid-19 pandemic. The principle question addressed here is how to balance the economy and the public health crisis. What epidemiological model should we use? Covid-19 impacts different demographics in different ways, and compounding the problem is the information flow or the lack of it made it harder. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was stated that the virus affects older population, but later we learnt that it also affects younger population with equal ferocity. The actual number of death reported for wealthy countries does not help. It should be based on percentage of population and the economic diversity of the community.

The author suggests government could lend loans to its citizens during a pandemic to ease the economic burden, and repayment of loans to the government over time through taxation. But this leads to massive bureaucracy, and such a model may work for few wealthy countries. The AIDS epidemic in Africa which devastated an entire generation depleted the workforce and hampered the economic development. Prioritizing the economy over health is not necessarily a wise choice. The author also suggests that an international harmonized response would help. But organizations like United Nations and World Health Organizations have become a strong ally of China which is mainly responsible for this global pandemic. Except for United States, no other country is calling for actions against China which may have committed criminal acts.

This book is written in hurried fashion since much of epidemiology of Covid-19 is not well understood. The author does not have any academic publications in peer reviewed journals in the economics of public health that calls for closer scrutiny of his ideas.

Book Reviewed: Discover Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics: A Playful Way of Discovering a Law of Nature by Arieh Ben-Naim

Entropy is not associated with Time's Arrow

The second law of thermodynamics is expressed in many ways, the simplest is that heat flows naturally from a hotter to a colder body. One of the outcome of this simple universal property is that the natural order of events is a transformation of a physical state from an ordered to a disordered state; a state with more useful energy into less useful energy; a system with more information to one with less information; and a system with slow moving molecules to the one with fast moving molecules. Therefore, for a closed system like this universe, the entropy or the chaos is always increasing, hence this sets an arrow of time for events that moves from past to future and never in the reverse direction. This is a distinct feature of second law of thermodynamics that is different from classical and quantum physics which are time reversible.

Boltzmann was first to associate entropy with disorder, but he did not "equate" entropy with disorder. The second Law is also known to be of probability, but Boltzmann did not elaborate on which probability it operated. is it between a state changing from lower to a higher probability or from high probability towards a maximum value?

The author makes a distinction between Shannon’s measure of entropy (SMI) and entropy; entropy refers to macroscopic systems at equilibrium, and SMI refers to all other systems containing either small or large number of particles, and near or far from equilibrium. Thus, instead of saying that the entropy increases with time, and then reaches a maximum at equilibrium, it is shown that entropy is proportional to maximum probability distributions (of locations and momenta of the particles). Thus, the author argues that the SMI, not the entropy, evolves into a maximum value when the system reaches equilibrium. His conjecture is that entropy’s association with time is misunderstood, but when it is redefined with SMI, it becomes clear that entropy is not directly connected to time flow.

This is purely an original idea and the author has a fascinating way of narrating his theory. Very readable and stimulating.

Book Reviewed: The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman

Demon Voices

This is a fictionalized book about mind and its fascination with demons. The physical manifestation of a person’s consciousness is duplicated in the form of a demon represented by an animal. The lead character of the story is Lyra, and her demon is called Pan. They exist as separate entities and hence can leave each other or be associated with someone else! The trilogy begins with a story of two children, Lyra and Will who cross into two parallel worlds and lost forever. The author narrates this story that combines theology, physics, neuroscience, and with the poetry of William Blake and John Milton. Adding to this confusion, he introduces demons which is born out of human psychology. Depression and addiction are examples.

The author is Eurocentric. He does not go beyond the rim of Christian theology. If the author is trying to relate consciousness with laws of physics and biological mechanisms, he must explore physical reality like a philosopher and a scientist. In his recent interview with journal “New Scientist” he freely criticizes scientists for focusing on mathematics and physical theories without a holistic approach about consciousness. He asks, how does consciousness emerge from organic matter? But he does not resolve this question with his futuristic novel that drags readers into array of bizarre episodes. The story is about Lyra who is in pursuit of a dangerous theism. There is graphic violence, rape, and Lyra’s sexuality. She seeks out the company of men who are not attractive, because she feels uncomfortable for being unfaithful to her boyfriend lost to a parallel world! What is the point of this story? The author’s work is hyped up by the media and some clever marketing tools.

Book Reviewed: Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies by Christel Schmidt

The legend of Hollywood

In the early days of cinema, fans recognized Mary Pickford in movies when actors were unmentioned in credits. Her magnetic talent and appeal made her the first movie star. In his 1923 autobiography, studio founder Sam Goldwyn wrote; there was no detail of film production which she had not grasped more thoroughly than any man, and she knew pictures not only from the standpoint of the studio, but also from that of the box office. If we look back at her career from her humble beginnings, she emerges as a Hollywood phenomenon. By the age of twenty-four, she was running her own production company, the Pickford Film corporation. Three years later, she cofounded Hollywood’s first independent film distribution company, the United Artists (UA). She knew the industry inside and out. For her, it was an art, and a passion.

This is a knockout biography by Editor Christel Schmidt. Each chapter is written by a film historian, and they recreate Pickford's life meticulously. This book explores the intricate psychology tied to her mother and analyzes Pickford's brilliant innovations in film acting and movie business. There are several illustrations and photographs from the Library of Congress and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which helps the reader to connect with her life. The story of Pickford is described extremely well. This is a highly readable book.

The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, by Anil Ananthaswamy

Doing astronomy at remote places to get the best view of the cosmos

Gigantic telescopes with high resolutions are necessary to get a good view of the heavens, but we also need an unimpeded look with a clear sky, free from clouds, wind, and dry atmosphere 365 days a year. Such an environment helps us gather images of galaxies billions of light-years away that would answer many fundamental questions of astronomy and physics. Hence large telescopes are built at places like Atacama Desert in Chile at Paranal Observatory. The author provides his personal experiences of visiting these places and reporting the experiments conducted there. Other places of interests include an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota, where experiments are conducted to study dark matter particles. In Antarctica, 1.5 miles into the icy ground, efforts are underway for the detection fundamentals particles like neutrino. Lake Baikal in Siberia, the world’s oldest and deepest lake is also a hotspot for detecting neutrinos, and the Indian Astronomical Observatory in the Himalayas to study galaxies with optical, infrared, and gamma-ray telescopes. This book is not so much about the experiments or astronomy research, but it is about the experience of visiting these places.

Book Reviewed: Let the Cow Wander: Modeling the Metaphors in Veda and Vedanta by Michael W. Myers

Perspectives from Hindu thought

This book is written for readers of philosophy which requires familiarity with Vedanta philosophy, and the ancient Hindu scriptures of Rigveda and Upanishads. The author uses the term “modelling the metaphors of Vedas and Vedanta” to describe the emergence Vedanta philosophy as a leading metaphysical system that sought to reform the Hindu faith away from the ritual and sacrificial practices of Rigveda in ancient India. Brahma sutra, one of the foundational texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy is primarily about the nature of human existence, the cosmos, and metaphysical concept of Ultimate Reality called Brahman. It distinguishes the physical reality we observe and experience from the Absolute Reality. Brahman has no attributes but an entity that encompasses omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), immutable, divine simplicity, and eternal existence. Brahman’s qualities are personal and impersonal which exists in space-less and timeless dimensions in an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of a universe. The Pure Consciousness and the Supreme Being transcend all possible laws of physics, all dimensions, and all physical realities in the multiverse.

The author of this book distinguishes the sacrificial aspects of Rigveda and the teachings of Brahma Sutra (Vedanta, Principal Upanishads, and Bhagavad-Gita) respectably as scientific realism and Idealism (Absolute Truth). Sacrifices of Rigveda expound scientific reality in terms of observational astronomy in relation to altar-construction, and geometry. Vedic Hymns were chanted during the sacrifice to invoke gods and goddesses to seek heaven, freedom from sins and long healthy life. In contrast, Idealism of Brahma Sutra asserts that Upanishads describe the knowledge and meditation of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Brahman is the source from which the universe came into existence, and eventually to which it returns.

Sacrifice was also practiced and commanded in the Torah of Judaism. The animal sacrifice for zevah shelamim (the peace offering) and olah (the "holocaust" or burnt offering) included a bull, sheep, goat, or a dove that underwent shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter). The Hebrew Bible says that Yahweh commanded the Israelites to give offerings and sacrifices on various altars. Jesus Christ, referred to as "the Lamb of God" was a sacrifice as an atonement for human sin, this idea is derived from the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh.

The discussions in this book are sometimes vague and incoherent and the title of the book is little to do with the material presented in this book.

Book Reviewed: Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood by Agata Frymus

Tinseltown and the European rhapsody

Studying the female performers on American cinema during early 1900s is fascinating. The success of European women in Hollywood was particularly noteworthy. This book discusses the lives of three women from Europe: Pola Negri, Jetta Goudal, and Vilma Banky, and it attribute their lack of success in showbusiness is due to their “ethnicity,” “femininity” and the cultural process of “Americanization.” This argument is somewhat strange since all of them were white and their spoken language and accents did not matter since the movies were silent. Despite this, all of them gained good roles opposite well-known male actors, and they lived comfortably amidst success during the silent era. The transition from silent film to the “talkies” in the late 1920s transformed the movie industry. Many American icons could not make it into talkies successfully. It hurt more American actors/actresses than European performers who had voice and accent issues that made it harder. Despite this shortcoming, some European women succeeded, like Greta Garbo, Marlena Dietrich, Alla Nazimova, and others.

The author repeatedly uses ethnicity and feminine nature of European performers. There was nothing special about the feminine nature of these three women that contrasted others in Hollywood, Vilma Banky spoke little English. But she got to costar with matinee idols like Rudolph Valentino and Ronald Coleman. Some of them like Jetta Goudal was casted as Mexican or Asian was due to the available roles in their studios. American actresses like Loretta Young, Katharine Hepburn, Myrna Loy, Mary Pickford, Gale Sondergaard and Barbara Stanwyck have played roles of an Asian character. The author’s labeling Jetta Goudal as physically different from the ideals of white femininity is groundless and unwarranted. How can European be a racialized spectacle? The logic behind the author’s judgment is unreasonable. Despite this shortcoming in author’s assessment, the book covers the personal and professional career of Pola Negri and Vilma Banky to an acceptable level.

Book Reviewed: Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, by Joseph McBride

Success in Hollywood: Director Frank Capra Story

Director Frank Capra is well known for the Christmas classic “It's a Wonderful Life,” but he is also known for other successful films like; It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He worked with some of the most successful actors in Hollywood and produced epic films. This book chronicles a story of his struggle during his career in Tinseltown against politics, bureaucracy, and rivalries for the creative freedom.

Director Capra had a reputation for fierce independence when dealing with studio bosses. On the set he was said to be gentle and considerate, and his films often carry a message about basic goodness in human nature and show the value of unselfishness. His style is often termed "Capra-corn." Sometimes, "Capraesque" for the dramatic ends as we see in “It’s a Wonderful Life” and other Capra’s movies. His films championed the common man, as well as his use of spontaneous, fast-paced dialogue and goofy, memorable lead and supporting characters, made him one of the respected filmmakers of the 20th century.

Each film of Frank Capra is discussed in separate chapters in this book that provides fascinating details about his challenges in working with studio executives and movie stars. His passion for creative stories and transforming them into Capra-Corn style movies is memorable for movie fans. My favorite film of Frank Capra is the 1932 film “American Madness,” which illustrated his mastery over making movies, he was a visionary and a had a unique style. In fact, Capra was disappointed, according to the author, when the Academy did not nominate him for that year’s Oscar Award in the “Best Director” category. This book is informative and readable.

Book Reviewed: The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics, by Leonard Susskind & George Hrabovsky

An easy guide to learn classical mechanics

This is one of the best books to learn the math behind classical physics. Written beautifully by Stanford University Professor Lenny Susskind, and George Hrabovsky, it provides strong introduction to classical dynamics/Newtonian physics for college-level students of physics, chemistry, engineering, philosophy, and others interested in understanding the physical reality.

This book begins at the simplest level. It develops the basics and reinforces fundamentals, ensuring a solid foundation in the principles and methods like calculus. Vectors, integral calculus, and partial differentiation (dynamics) is introduced at the basic level. It is very well explained to do math. The highlight of the book includes space and time (coordinates), particles (matter), energy (kinetic and potential), motion in spacetime coordinates, momentum, electric & magnetic forces, force of gravity, acceleration, and energy. Application of Newton’s laws of physics, principles of least action, symmetries, conservation laws, Hamiltonian mechanics and invariance of time-translation are fascinating. You have everything you need to get mathematical perspectives of classical physical reality.

I read the book from beginning to end; and revised a second time, I got a much better understanding of the calculus. There are companion videos on YouTube from Lenny Susskind which is helpful. Mechanics and calculus are also described by many other physicists on YouTube that also assist in your learning experience. You can do this at your own pace. This book is enjoyable to read, and it is highly recommended.

Book Reviewed: Hollywood: Stars and starlets, by Garson Kanin

Playing the field: Stardom and success in Tinseltown

Author Garson Kanin gives a behind-the-scenes look at what working in Hollywood is really like. This book is not about the sex, murder or extortion, but it is about being a good director and screenwriter. It narrates the author’s encounters with studio executives, demanding stars, struggling actors. The focus is about the life and work of Sam Goldwyn, one of the founders of MGM Studios. Sam Goldwyn is an unscrupulous businessman with wit and charm. It highlights the mystique of Hollywood's glamorous and heady years which reminisces about working with some of the greatest names; Harry Cohn, chief of Columbia Pictures, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Wilder, Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton, Sophia Loren, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, and John Barrymore. There is also a brief discussion of stars who did not make it to the top.

This book is an honest illustration of what it is like to work with big names in Hollywood. There are ups and downs, hilarious and comical moments while networking with stars of that era. The writing is absolutely at its best and highly engaging. Recommended to readers interested in the history of Hollywood.

Book Reviewed: Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks

Reflections on inner fury

This is actress Louise Brooks memoir that reflects on the rise and fall of her movie career. She wrote this book after a lifetime to reflect on her work in United States and Europe. There are eight essays. Some of them are about Hollywood’s definitions of success and failure, and how actors are manipulated by studios and the press. Brooks writes stardom is an abrasive disease. Her writings are eloquent, beautiful, and straight from her heart. She had decades to recollect after her fall from grace in movie business. She covers a wide range of topics from her childhood in Wichita, Kansas. Then her teenage years with the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts in Los Angeles, California., where she met Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. She also reminisces about her work in Ziegfeld Follies in New York and her friendships with Charles Chaplin, W.C. Fields, CBS founder William Paley, and Austrian director G.W. Pabst.

In the movie Pandora’s Box, Lulu is the mistress of a publisher. This role played by Louise Brooks carried her to fame and success although it was short. Reflecting on her own life, she complains that it is harder for a reader to understand without knowing the character, personal conflicts and challenges in her life. She observes that she is unwilling to write about the sexual truth that would make her life worth reading. Since she cannot unbuckle Bible Belt, she would spare the curious readers about the challenges of her as a woman in the movie industry.

In her younger days Brooks read books by philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer, George Bernard Shaw, and Friedrich Nietzsche. She had academic interest in intellectual topics despite tremendous amount of misfortunes in her life. She contemplated suicide until William S. Paley, the founder of CBS started sending her monthly checks for decades out of his kindness.

Book Reviewed: Louise Brooks: A Biography by Barry Paris

Lulu, the dreamer

This book is 609 pages long! But do not be afraid, because this is a real page-turner that makes reading this biography fascinating. Louise Brooks is one of the famous actresses of the silent movie era, renowned for her rebellion against the industry. Her performances in such influential films as Pandora's Box epitomized the ideal of feminine eroticism. Brooks' portrayal of a seductive, thoughtless young woman whose raw sexuality and uninhibited nature bring ruin to herself including those who love her. Although this film was initially unappreciated, eventually it made her a star. Brooks real life reflects her role in Pandora’s Box. She was a prisoner of the world she created. She was an enigmatic character blended with sophistication, elegance, panache, intelligence, and her infidelity to numerous lovers and two husbands. She was defiant and had irresistible appetite for sex and alcohol. In her sexual affairs with powerful men and women in the entertainment industry, she crossed the boundaries of gender at a time only a few women dared to cross. She was married twice, and both her husbands were powerful men who would have given her stability and financial security to pursue her acting career, but she lacked the foresight and went ahead with her carefree lifestyle ruining her own life.

At one time, Brooks was completely broke and lost all her friends. She had drifted into selling sex for cash. One of her former lovers was William S. Paley, the founder of CBS who persuaded her to leave Hollywood, which she did and moved back to her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. It did not last, the local community despised her, and she eventually moved to Rochester, New York. Paley sent her a monthly checks for the remainder of her life out of kindness. That was the only income she had, but this did not make her humble or appreciative of others. She was easily irritable, and acted mean to people who wanted to care for her. In the last 20 years of her life, she began writing articles about her film career, and her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim in the literary world. In her younger days she read books by philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer, George Bernard Shaw, and Friedrich Nietzsche. She had academic interest in intellectual topics like Frances Farmer, another famous Hollywood actress. Both had many other similarities, both were alcoholics, destructive and abusive to others, and descended to low paying jobs in local departmental stores. In her younger years, Brooks had distinctive bob haircut that helped her start a trend, and many women styled their hair in imitation of her. in Bob Fosse's 1972 film Cabaret, actress Liza Minnelli reinvented the character with Louise Brooks makeup and helmet-like coiffure.

This book is professionally researched and written with style and passion for the life and work of Louise Brooks. I recommend this to readers interested in the history of Hollywood and the life of Louise Brooks.

Book Reviewed: World Film Locations - San Francisco by Scott Jordan Harris

Bay area movie locations

This book is a good reference for someone interested in connecting with the iconic films shot in the San Francisco area. This includes the Hotel Bristol lobby as featured in What's Up, Doc? to the actual nightclub of Frank Sinatra's character in Pal Joey. The images are small, on average eight images per page. The locations are also identified in easy-to-follow color maps. Included in the book are significant historical film sites such as The Navigator (1924), Greed (1924) that includes the iconic images of The Cliff House Restaurant at 1090 Point Lobos, San Francisco and the street scenes from the movie Birds (1963). Recommended to readers interested in the San Francisco filming locations

Book Reviewed: Hot Toddy - The True Story of Hollywood's Most Sensational Murder, by Andy Edmonds

The fallen angel

Thelma Todd was a stylish blonde with an illustrious career in Hollywood. She worked with some of the best in showbusiness including Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Gloria Swanson, and others. She was one of the rare breed of actors to successfully cross over from silent films to talkies. This biography traces Todd's life and career of a perky little girl from her hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Under pressure from her mother, she became a reluctant beauty queen and then her rapid rise to become a star. She was a cross between Goldie Hawn and Farrah Fawcett. Despite this celebrity status, Todd was a very troubled; she had a difficult relationship with her husband Pat DiCicco, a self-described Hollywood agent with mob connections. She also had relationship with Mobster Lucky Luciano: Both the men were physically abusive to her. Her father was a distant, unloving man. Her on-screen life appeared to be a happy one and life seemed beautiful for this outspoken Hollywood rebel, but she was a deeply troubled who went out with several men and all of them were wrong for her.

Todd’s mysterious death at the age of 29 produced the same level of shock of other mysterious deaths like Marilyn Monroe and Sharon Tate. Her lifeless body was slumped over the wheel of her Lincoln convertible in her garage and the engine was still running. The coroner ruled her death a suicide due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The grand jury came up with same conclusion, but crime scene evidence and witness accounts contradicted this conclusion.

There are numerous suspects according to author Andy Edmonds that includes Todd`s ex-husband, Pat DiCicco; Roland West, a failed director and Todd`s lover; Roland’s wife Jewel Carmen. The Wests had financed the Sidewalk Café, overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Pacific Palisades, California. But it was owned by Thelma Todd. The three partners lived in a duplex together above the restaurant, it was an uncomfortable arrangement. While Roland West bitterly resented Todd`s numerous affairs with mobsters and studio bosses. But surprisingly, his wife Jewel Carmen didn`t object to his liaison with Todd. When the restaurant started to lose money, she threatened to kill her for squandering her investment. The most prominent name associated with her murder is the mob boss Lucky Luciano, a psychopath involved in gambling and extortion. Luciano was interested to control her restaurant to set up a gambling operation.

This biography reads like a textbook by Freud. The author has researched the relevant materials and interviewed people who were connected to her death. This is a highly intriguing murder mystery written in engaging style. A real page turner for readers interested in history of Hollywood, murder mystery in Tinseltown, and life of Thelma Todd. Based on the materials of this book, a TV movie entitled, ''White Hot” was aired in 1990 starring Loni Anderson as Thelma Todd. Anderson offered a passionate, flamboyant, and a touching performance. In an interview, she said that studio chief Hal Roach included a `potato clause` in Thelma Todd's contract, if she gained more than five pounds, she`d be fired. This led to weight control pill addictions, and excessive alcohol. Her death remains a mystery just like that of Marilyn Monroe.

Book Reviewed: Sugar Shock by Carol Prager

The myth of sugar detox program

In 2018, 34.2 million Americans (10.5% of the population) had diabetes according to American Diabetes Association, and 14.3 million of them were over the age of 65. Diabetes is also controllable by following low carbohydrate diet. Eating doesn’t have to be boring, but it is all about finding the right balance that works for you. The A1C test is a common blood test used to diagnose type 1 and type 2 diabetes, this is also referred to as hemoglobin A1C and HbA1c.

The glycemic index, or GI, measures how a carbohydrate-containing food raises blood glucose. Foods are ranked based on how they compare to a reference food — either glucose or white bread. A food with a high GI raises blood glucose (diabetic state), but a food with a medium or low GI produces glucose slowly into the blood stream (non-diabetic state). Examples of carbohydrate-containing foods with a low GI include dried beans, legumes, all non-starchy vegetables, some starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, most fruits, and many whole grain breads and cereals. In page 22, the author discusses these food types and offers some advice; substituting sugary food with spices would be helpful (page 66).

The sugar detox program of the author includes following 7-Day Sugar Tracker exercise for three weeks that includes recording the type of food consumed, portion consumed, sugar amount in the food consumed, time of eating, and a measure of urge to eat. The author makes helpful suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One of the downside of the plan is it is focused on non-vegetarian food. There is little room for people interested in vegetarian diet. This is a helpful book if you are seriously considering going through a sugar detox program.

Book Reviewed: Maya in Physics, by N. C. Panda

Connecting the metaphysics of Advaita Vedanta with Quantum Reality

This book is documented with a good literature review, and the discussions are presented in a readable fashion to connect physical reality with laws of physics and Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. Much of the book is introductory in nature but relevant discussion is presented in the final chapters of the book.

The focus of discussion is the concept of Maya of Vedanta; the physical reality we experience, the cosmos, matter & energy, spacetime, living beings and consciousness are attributed to the illusory nature of Maya. It is a changing empirical reality conditioned by human mind, and the subjective nature, incorrectly interpret this as the final reality. Because the manifestation of Maya cloud the true nature of metaphysical reality called Brahman, which has no attributes. But it is an entity that encompasses Omniscience (infinite knowledge), Omnipotence (unlimited power), Omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), Immutable, Immortal, and Pure Consciousness. These qualities are personal and impersonal in nature that exists in spaceless and timeless dimensions. It is an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of the universe. The Pure Consciousness is an entity that can transcend all possible laws of physics, all dimensions, all universal constants, and all physical realities in the multiverse.

In science, the physical reality is mainly experiential, that is mind, or a mind-like aspect creates reality, this is panpsychism. It also requires sentience or subjective experience to be included in the description of physical reality. Both classical and quantum physics explain reality in terms of the behavior of matter and energy in spacetime, but consciousness becomes involved in interpreting quantum reality. One of the lessons of Einstein's theory of relativity is the principle of "background independence", which argues against attributing any fixed, necessary features to spacetime when matter and energy are at play. They do not say whether time is moving forward or backwards. Nor do the laws identify a moment as “now.” Hence, the sense of a flow of time doesn’t exist , and the distinction between past, present and future is only a persistent illusion. Physicists like Erik Verlinde takes one more step to argue that spacetime and its curvature (gravity) is illusory. In fact, it is treated as an emergent phenomenon arising from the second law of thermodynamics; from the collective motion of small bits of information encoded on spacetime surfaces called holographic screens.

Fundamental particles have wave-particle duality, they exhibit both wave and particle behavior. Because of this, the quantum states exist in superpositions of different measurable quantities like position and velocity. But there are many possible positions, which take on definite values only when we observe them. Then, how can spacetime exist in a superposition of different possibilities? Further, fundamental particles like quark has never been observed but found only in confinement of composite states. Quantum field theories also predict existence of quantum foam, a state of vacuum that is unstable ripe with latent energy in which neither space nor time exists in a classical sense. In this state, there are virtual particles constantly popping in and out of existence (virtual pairs of particles and antiparticles), which are fluctuating fields and particles. They exist only momentarily. The principle of conservation of energy may be violated very briefly, since it is done in an extremely short time at quantum timescales.

There is another interpretation about virtual particle-antiparticle pair creation and annihilation. It is treated as a change of direction of moving particles, from past to future, or from future to past, and the principle of classical terms like "cause" and "effect" do not appear at Planck timescales. In quantum physics, the distinction between cause and effect is not made and so time-symmetric systems can be viewed as causal or retro-causal (Backward causation).


Physicist Max Tegmark claims that quarks, atoms, and molecules are meaningless reductionism. He proposes that only the mathematical reality describe the behavior of matter, and not the other way around. The information generation architecture enables an agent to perform mental simulations for planning future action sequences for novel goals. This function of consciousness endows the agent with the ability to achieve novel goals that are difficult to attain only with a collection of reflexes. In addition, the methods of dynamical systems theory are derived from deterministic classical mechanics. In contrast, the methods of information theory are non-deterministic which are based on probabilities. Human consciousness is an emergent property. No single neuron holds complex information like self-awareness. But all neurons and the entire nervous system generate human behavior.

It follows from this discussion that physics at the heart of reality, spacetime and matter are unreal, but the information, statistics and mathematical realities are responsible for physical reality just as the Maya of Advaita Vedanta. One of the downside of this work is that this is confined to knowledge of physics of 1991 when this book was first published. Since then, physics literature has accumulated a good deal of information about the nature of spacetime which plays a cardinal role in the “wholeness” of physical reality.

Book Reviewed: Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

James Joyce’s Dreams

Finnegans Wake is a complex novel that blends reality of life with a dream world. The idea that life is cyclical; birth, death and rebirth, and the repetitive nature of reincarnation illuminates the illusory nature of reality we live in. The beginning and ending of book seem to illustrate this meaning. The novel is a stream illusions and dreams. The plot is difficult to follow as the story explores several fragmented and disconnected episodes. The main tension is the cause and effect, dream, and illusions which are illustrated through changing characters, settings, odd grammar and strange sentences.

This story is about the Porters and their three children. When they go to sleep, their world changes. You enter a dream world where their names and their children’s name are different! It is during the wake of a man named Finnegan; Mrs. Porter makes the spirit come alive at the visitation for the wake where she offers a one-woman monologue and energize her husband from his dreams.

The linguistic tactics employed by author is complex that includes wordplay with hidden meaning throughout the book. Examples include words with one hundred letters that combine numerous languages. His polyglot idiom of puns is to convey the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious side of reality. Finnegan’s Wake is puzzling and confusing! But numerous corrections made by author James Joyce in notes and drafts in the later editions creates doubts that he is really a genius as categorized by many literary critics. We may question the merit of his work. However, this book is not for timid or readers interested in page-turners.

Book Reviewed: Low-Carb Vegetarian Cookbook: 100 Easy Recipes and a Kick-Start Meal Plan by Amy Lawrence and Justin Fox Burks

Carbohydrates: How carbs fit into a healthy diet

I have been a vegetarian much of my life, but recently my physician said that my blood glucose level is high, and I must go on a low glycemic index (Low-GI) diet. Although I led a relatively healthy lifestyle, I worried that a change in my diet would make my life too restricted. But a low carb diet is necessary for various reasons; keeping a healthy body weight, lowering diabetic effects and remain health positive.

This book has many good features that focuses on vegetarians looking on low-carb recipes, especially Chapter 7 where you find main dishes. There are certainly interesting choices but lack variety. My favorites include "spicy vegan Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers", and "Paneer cheese curry with spinach and arugula". There are others that may be interest for you. One drawback is that there are very few main dishes with grains. In addition, I would like to see more colored pictures of recipes in this book that help me connect with the dish I am cooking. Chapter 8 that gives dessert recipes do not have any dishes that contain ice cream.

One note I like to add is that foods with a relatively high glycemic index ranking include potatoes and white bread, snack foods, desserts and sugary beverages. Foods such as whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy products are naturally lower on the glycemic index. Foods with a low-GI value is the preferred choice, because they are slowly digested and absorbed, causing a slower and smaller rise in blood sugar levels (non-diabetic state). On the other hand, foods with a high GI value should be limited since they are quickly digested and absorbed resulting in a rapid rise of blood sugar (diabetic state).

Book Reviewed: Shamanism - An A-Z Reference Guide, by Marilyn Walker

Cultural beliefs and spiritual motifs of Shamanism

Shamanism is a practice of reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with the spirit world and channel these energies into this world. Shamanic practitioners, during rituals, travel between these two worlds through dreams, visionary experience, and waking consciousness. These two worlds are treated as a single reality.

Shamanism offers healing ceremonies that seeks wholeness; the harmony to body, mind and soul. When ancestral laws or environmental boundaries have been violated, the shaman will seek to re-harmonize the relations between people and land with tribal ancestors. When an individual falls into sickness, the shaman will journey to that person's spiritual guardians to take away illness and restore wholeness. When sickness comes to domestic animals, the shaman may commune with the spirits to find healing and renewal. Shamanism doesn’t have sacred scriptures or worship a god or deity, but the faith and belief system is largely focused on the power of spirits and animals, healing and shamanic drumming and entering trance, a state of profound abstraction or absorption.

I was looking for detailed discussion of ritual practices, altered states of consciousness, spirit animals, ancestral spirits, native peoples of Siberia, dreams and signs, healing ceremonies, drums, and entering trance. Many of these terms are defined cryptically in one or two paragraphs. Many terms that are not key to the Shamanic practices are described in relative detail. If you are looking for a book to understand Shamanism as a belief system, then this is not the book you are looking for.

Book Reviewed: Beyond the Dynamical Universe: Unifying Block Universe Physics and Time as Experienced, by Michael Silberstein, W.M. Stuckey and Timothy McDevitt

A journey into the heart of physical reality

The idea that nature is made up of physical entities that evolve over time from an initial state is not explaining the full nature of physical reality. The mind and matter discussions have created more questions than offer solutions. One of the problems is from the theory of relativity unifying space and time into 4-dimensional spacetime. In this reality, there are no preferred dimensions, and there's nothing special about time. It is like a block universe. Just as space exists in the block and so does time. General relativity says that if we know the conditions at one instant in the block universe, then we can predict the entire future because this chunk of spacetime is deterministic. The future is written, but it's just not accessible to us living inside the block. From this block-time perspective, time-experience is an illusion and not a real property of nature. This introduces the concept of time, and flow of time, is a mind and consciousness phenomenon.

In this book, the authors offer an entirely new paradigm called relational block universe in non-dynamical approach in which the past does not determine the future, and it eliminates the experience of the passage of time by invoking philosophy similar to neutral monism that explains the experience of time without consciousness.

The authors have proposed an unorthodox and untested idea which would be a hard sell. But the philosophical underpinnings are familiar in Hindu and Buddhist philosophical systems. The nature of mind and matter, the essence of physical reality has been widely discussed. According to the school of Vedanta philosophy, the ultimate reality is indefinite and indescribable of which no transformation is predictable. The appearance of the world is due to the imaginative activity of manas, which is also an unreal phenomenon. There is no perceiver, and none perceived. In the early phase of Buddhist metaphysics, there was a system of pluralistic phenomenalism with neither matter nor mind as abiding entities. The doctrine of the unsubstantiality and the impermanence of all elements of existence was a consequence of nihilism.

The early versions of classical neutral monism proposed by physicist Ernst Mach, and philosophers William James, and Bertrand Russell reflect the empiricist outlook which leads to conscious experience that the authors like to avoid. But abstract entities like information processing and mathematical reality have been proposed by Thomas Nagel as the neutral basis of this metaphysical realm.

Book Reviewed: Is It Alzheimer’s? 101 Answers to Your Most Pressing Questions about Memory Loss and Dementia by Peter V. Rabins

Understanding cognition decline

A plan to manage Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia becomes necessary when you or your loved ones is affected with a cognitive decline. I have always used well known websites like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and National Institute of Health (NIH) websites for general medical and pharmaceutical questions. I could find answers to many questions this way. But this book addresses a broad audience of patients, caregivers, and treatment centers with a plan to deal with AD. You can learn to recognize warning signs, symptoms, and stages of the disease. The author explains in a conversational Q&A style, about the symptoms of AD and dementia, improving the quality of life of people suffering from AD, and how dementia is diagnosed. For specific questions and treatments, you must consult with your care providers and the physician who is treating your family members, but this book offers some useful advice as how you can handle a critical time in your life.

Book Reviewed: Should schools be colorblind? by Laurie Cooper Stoll

Conversations about color blindness and color consciousness

Color blindness removes certain negative barriers in a society. But there is a larger question behind what the author is trying to tackle. How does a majority support the minority population? Do we need a democratic system that treats all colors the same? Do we take racial distinctiveness into account and be granted equal value? The answer is “yes” for both, because the world has a diverse population. What about color consciousness as opposed to colorblindness that recognizes life’s diversity, especially for people from a different race or culture? One may argue that color blindness is just a way to avoid recognizing disadvantages some races faced in the past. But it also creates a cover for de facto inequality. Neutrality is nothing more than a cover that hides the blemishes of social tendencies that prefer one group over another.

In her study of colorblindness at schools as an ideology, the author observes that the colorblindness looks reasonable if the society is idealistic and not race-stratified. Since the society is stratified, we need to deconstruct racial stratification by giving importance to the significance of race. i.e. be color-conscious! For example, this may help keep the racial identity of an African American student in a white majority school. We must recognize that racial and cultural backgrounds play an important role in the development of young adolescents. A color-blind approach often means that the educator has not considered the meaning of racial/ethnic identity to the child.

In this book, the author suggests that we have a responsibility to hold individual teachers accountable whenever they perpetuate prejudice or discrimination. In addition, the school system must also help combat institutional racism by assisting the teachers who work with students directly on a day-to-day basis. This is an ambitious project, and I hope the author finds success.

Book Reviewed: Eyewitness to Crucifixion: The Romans, the Cross, and the Sacrifice of Jesus by Stephen M. Miller

The cross, crucifixion and Jesus Christ Superstar

The author has discussed the history of the cross, and as how it rose as the religious symbol of Christian faith. Europeanization of the church was a major test in its struggle to emerge as a leading faith of 2.4 billion people on this planet. According to New Testament, Jesus was crucified on a cross, a very cruel death for the only son of God! Does that mean God is merciless and cruel? How could the creator of heaven and earth bring upon such a horrific end to his own son? What is the real message behind this? What is the theology of cross? In order to comprehend the nature and extent of this scandalous story, the author presents an academic style debate about the beliefs and acceptance of the Roman empire and its cultural biases.

One of the most interesting fact is that writers of the gospels didn't say that Jesus; carried a T-shaped cross; carried a crossbeam; fell while carrying cross; hung on a T-shaped cross; or nailed to anything. Christian scholars presumed this after the description of crucifixion was added by the church leaders a century later. The Jesus Seminar, a group of biblical scholars concluded that Jesus was a Jewish sage and faith-healer who preached liberation from injustice through his parables and aphorisms. He broke Jewish traditions in his teachings and his behavior. Jesus was mortal and he did not perform miracles nor die for sins of others. He was executed as a public nuisance, and not for being the Son of God. The belief in the resurrection is based on the visionary experiences of Paul, Peter and Mary Magdalene, says Jesus Seminar.

I strongly recommend reading chapters 22 and 23 of this book that summarizes some key points. In the first half of the book, the author describes the practices of Roman empire and how it may have impacted the evolution of gospels and the church narratives with respect to crucifixion.

There are numerous books in literature that presents the pulpit-based interpretation of the cross, but the author must be commended for his effort to present an unbiased discussion. This book is full of colored pictures, illustrations, visual art and artistic imagination of historical events surrounding the crucifixion. It helps to reconnect with this historical event. The author’s style of writing is objective and dispassionate, this makes reading so effortless.

Book Reviewed: Tanmay Teaches Julia for Beginners: A Springboard to Machine Learning for All Ages by Tanmay Bakshi

Machine Learning

This book introduces the basics of Julia programming. It is essential for beginners but written to be concise and straightforward. The text is very well described with easy to follow step-by-step instructions by a 15-year-old whiz kid. His writing style is amazing, and book-reading is flawless!

For example, we can recognize objects, perceive depth, communicate and understand perspectives and measure outcome of our actions. These are skills that evolved over billions of years. But computers can't understand the contents of images or skills of animal communication, but with machine learning (ML), this challenge is accomplished. Animals learn from experience and so do machine learning algorithms. We can "train" a ML algorithm on a data set, and it'll try to "model" that data set, understand the intricacies and patterns, then define the mapping from input to output. But there's one key difference between training a human and training a machine: a human can learn from very few examples, but a machine requires thousands or even millions of examples to be trained. Training these algorithms requires lot of compute power or parallel computing. In this regard Julia is extremely helpful. It provides a package called Flux that helps you with all your ML needs! A part of the Flux project is called the Metalhead project, which enables us to use pretrained ML algorithms on a computer without having to train them by users of the program.

How does ML works? In machine learning, backpropagation (backprop,[1] BP) is a widely used algorithm in training feedforward neural networks for supervised learning. The algorithms enable computers to find mathematical patterns in vast amounts of data. There are many programming languages like C++, Python and R available for Julia. This enables Julia to combine the simplicity of Python with the speed of C++. One of the prominent features of Julia is its ability to handle mathematical expressions with elegance. Julia is faster than Python because it is designed to quickly implement the math concepts like linear algebra and matrix representations. It is excellent for numerical computing.

Prediction of a physical event does not produce additional energy or matter, but it puts some information from which we can put that in perspective. Information itself is not physical but physical reality may be understood by processing information. My main interest in computing is to simulate the evolution of simple living systems from primordial organic soup. I am very hopeful that ML and programming languages like Julia will enable us in this journey!