No comments about Deal Makers, Brokers, and Bankers (Secrets of the Great Investors).

5 comments about Track Conditions: A Memoir.

1. This book is so unique and special -- not at all your typical gay coming out story. There are horses here and the tactile world of the racetrack and Klein's lyrical and spare prose adds just the right kind of music to a poignant and harrowing redemption tale.



2. Michael defies narrative convention while achieving its goals in his long prose poem/memoir/story. His is a story of triumph: whether found covered in ash and velvet and 100 dollar bills or perhaps in the spotlight of literary praise. Either way this story helped save me. Michael is a writer I respect and emulate.

   donaldahearn@hotmail.com




3. Being a straight nursing student who lives in small town america,I wasn't sure I would relate to this book. But the writing and the openess of the author surpasses any differences between our lives. An amazing book.



4. Oprah, for a million little reasons, you chose the wrong memoir for your book club.
   
   In an age where honesty in memoir seems to be a rare commodity, TRACK CONDITIONS is probably one of the most honest, compelling, and underrated books in print.
   
   A fascinating glimpse into author Michael Klein's downward spiral into alcoholism, lost love, dependency, and casual sex, this lyrical memoir is not an easy read-never easy to read about another person's coming-of-age psychic pain. But this memoir is a must-read.
   
   A real-life thoroughbred horse story, from a former groom's point of view, this memoir focuses on the deteriorating relationship between two young men in the midst of their own personal crises.
   
   In 1979, Klein, a confirmed New Yorker, desperately followed his lover Richard Coatney into the homophobic underworld of thoroughbred racing, beginning his career as a horse walker at River Downs in Cincinnati and working his way up to groomer at Belmont, Churchill Downs, and Pimlico.
   
   Among all the empty booze bottles and one-night stands, Klein discovered an aesthetic affinity for horses, in particular one special--and well-known--thoroughbred, precipitating the author's final downfall and then leading toward his eventual salvation--and this memoir.
   
   Klein leads the reader into a world rarely ventured into by the average horse track bettor: vivid descriptions of lame horses being cruelly euthanized and the casual doping of horses for monetary gain. At the beginning of chapter three, the author summarizes, from his perspective, the visible and invisible aspects of "racetrack society":
   
   "There are people you see all the time: the barn help, the trainers, the exercise crew, the men and women who deliver hay and straw and feed. And there are those you see only rarely, if at all: the jockeys, the parimutuel clerks, the owners, the starting-gate crew. Two worlds: the training world and the racing world."
   
   Ironically, from the reader's perspective, the visibility/invisibility paradigm is directly the opposite from the author's.
   
   And Klein offers insights into worlds which are largely invisible to most of us: in addition to the gritty side of thoroughbred racing, he also reveals the limited options available to an impoverished young homosexual, also a poet and rebel, of the late seventies and early eighties.
   
   First published in 1997, the memoir's main narrative covers the author's racetrack life, from its inauspicious beginning to its shocking 1984 denouement, with some interspersed flashbacks to his abusive and incestuous childhood and Manhattan life with Richard.
   
   While revealing vivid and harsh details about his life, the author maintains a psychic distance from the reader through his dispassionate use of the past tense; moreover, he does not editorialize from the perspective of the forty-something memoirist.
   
   He simply unfolds his story, leaving judgments, analyses, and evaluations up to his readers.
   
   The distance works well; the author never whines or asks his audience to feel sorry for him. He simply presents "in-your-face" statements and facts, like them or hate them.
   
   It doesn't matter what the reader thinks; in the end, Klein, with a metaphorical kick from his equine friend, triumphs.
   
   There is beauty and poignancy in Klein's spare prose, yet glimmers of humor add some comic relief, for example, when he describes some of the other grooms and other track people and recounts some his late mother's family stories.
   
   I recommend this book for both gays and straights--anyone who appreciates a well-written life-story, no matter how down and gritty.
   
   I own the 1997 hardcover edition, and it is worth every one of the twenty-two dollars that I paid for it.



5. Klein, Michael. "Track Conditions: A Memoir", University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
   
   Memorable Memoirs
   
   Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
   
   Michael Klein is an award winning poet and should win awards for his wonderful memoir "Track Conditions". It is both shameless and fascinating. After he followed his lover to an Ohio race track, Michael Klein began a three year career as a groom in the world of horse racing. He managed to bond with the 1984 Kentucky Derby winner, Swale. However he was plague with alcoholism and deeply concerned about his relationship with his lover which was on the skids as well as memories of having been abused as a child. His memoir is a story written from the heart and it is a tale of resilience. Using the race track as a metaphor for life, he shares his joys and his pain.
   This is some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read but that does not mean that Klein does not get down and gritty. He holds nothing back as he illuminates his life. His life is not a pretty story--it is filled with excesses--but even so it is beautifully rendered. Here is an honest recreation of a life that is compelling.
   We read as Klein succumbs to alcohol and enters a depressive state over lost love, dependency and casual random sex. It is never easy to read coming-of-age stories that are filled with pain but this is a coming-of-age story not to be missed.
   It is likewise a story about horses and with the equestrian background we read about a relationship between tow men that are in the midst of deterioration.
   The world of horse racing is a homophobic place but Klein managed to survive it and move up along the circuit as a groom. He discovered an affinity for horses and loved them as they loved him. We get to look into the world of horses and learn things that the average person never knows. He refers to the secrets of the world of horses as "racetrack society. The world of horse racing is a gritty and unreal world but it is not just that world that Klein tells us of. He writes of how little was available to a young homosexual with very limited means.
   Written in the past tense, the memoir puts a distance between reader and writer from his beginnings until 1984 with quite a shocking ending. Klein makes no evaluations or judgments--he leaves that to the reader.
   It is Klein's openness that makes this book so good. He defies the usual conventions of narrative and he is a writer to be cherished. The book is unique and very special and in no way follows the styles of other coming out stories. It is harrowing tale of redemption written by a poet in prose. The chapters are short and amazing and we realize early that there is little chance of resolution to be found. It is not a tell-all memoir--rather it is a half-told life and has something for everyone. It is not a book just for gays but rather a small life story that looms large.

1 comments about Tesla Man of Mystery.

1. NIKOLA WAS DEFINITELY A MAN OF MYSTERY -- THIS BOOK OFFERS A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT APPROACHMuch has been written about Nikola Tesla and his great inventions. This book tackles Tesla's work in a slightly different way by suggestion that Tesla might have been a time traveler or a being from another planet who was abandoned here and adopted by an Earthly couple.Though at first this may seem to be utter nonsense,a closer look would indicate that the author (a seasoned writer on metaphysical and New Age topics, and a fantastic prophet in his own right) might have a good point. For many of the things Tesla invented were decades -- if not a century -- a head of their time.HOW THEN DID HE GET THESE IDEAS?One source says that Tesla communicated with space beings and actually constructed a telescope-like device to enhance his ability to "speak" with extraterrestrials. Naturally, this was long before the SETI movement or interest in UFOs. So what gives?Though relatively short,this book does offer some very useful insights into the life of Tesla that you will no find elsewhere. It is well written and straight to the point. It is not a boring rehash of previously published material, but a seemingly bright new approach to a subject that is of increasing interest.

No comments about Dr. Nikola Tesla Bibliography.

No comments about Walter B. Cannon: Science and Society.

5 comments about Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals About How We Become Who We Are.

1. Liars, Lovers and heroes
   (What the new brain science reveals about how we become who we are)
   :: Speaks in very professional sounding voice::
   This book reviewed nature vs. nurture and how evolution and genes may predispose us to a certain personality. It discussed how enormously complex the connections between genes and behavior that make humans what they are.
   :: Cuts the crap and talks in real voice::
   I would not recommend this book to anyone. The title leads us to believe that this would be a really interesting book full of great tips on how to improve our personality and what we are doing wrong that makes us a liar and not a lover or a hero.
   The truth is, this book had almost nothing to do with human personalities and more to do with responses mice had to flashing light patterns or why a fly would turn left or right when it sensed danger. This very educational, and yellow book, was set up so that each chapter had an unnecessarily long paragraph at the beginning explaining what it was about to explain, even though it could have been summed up in two to three sentences. There were also lots of unneeded metaphors added to these paragraphs that seemed to me like they were put in just to make the author sound more clever or for the book about nothing to seem really long and important. (I¡¯ve written many essays that were made by taking one paragraph and turning it into two pages. I know filler when I see it, which is why I should get back to the point¡¦)
   My brain is like a Swiss army knife? A collection of special gadgets? Replete with hundreds of metal corkscrews and cognitive tweezers? DUH! I just wasted a whole minute reading a paragraph with sentence after sentence telling me how my brain was like a Swiss army knife. Leave that to a poetry book man, not a scientific one.
   ¡°Francis Crick¡¯s intuition told him that the connections between neurons were a key to understanding the brain.¡± Good job genius. That wasn¡¯t your intuition. It¡¯s called common sense.
   This book must be good for what I call math-people. They are really book smart and have great memories but lack any sort of common sense. This book is basically pointing out common sense theories about the brain and the justifying them. Then giving elaborate stories about various scientists¡¯ lives and how they experienced the result of whatever brain process they were discussing it the chapter.
   This book had many good ideas about what could possibly be causing this reaction or that reaction. It had examples of a few studies that have been tested on specific things like subconscious pattern-remembering but a lot of it was a bunch of ¡°what ifs¡± and ¡°it could bes.¡± I found myself wanting to skip over many parts because it would explain the same idea more then once. Most of What they were saying I had heard before and didn¡¯t learn a lot of new stuff. Also, a lot of their ideas I didn¡¯t completely agree with.
   I¡¯m going to give you an example of a chapter in this book. Chapter three ¡°how to make a human¡±
   It starts out comparing a brain to a computer. WOW! GOSH MR.PHD QUARTS, I¡¯VE NEVER THOUGH OF IT THAT WAY! (This analogy takes five pages of obvious statements about the similarity between computers and brains.) Then it goes into the similarity between us and chimps. (This takes two pages)It does though, give an interesting story about how a family raised a chimp along side their son and the son started to act more like a chimp than the chimp acted like a human. As for example, the 17 month old son would give the chimpanzee-food-call when hungry instead of simply asking for food.
   This, also, is mostly obvious because an intelligent animal can always be trained to act less intelligent than it actually is, but a stupid animal can never be trained to act smart.
   At this point I was wondering how any of this has to do with making a human let alone a liar, lover or hero. Fortunately though, I have figured out that most of this book really doesn¡¯t have much to do with anything but I keep reading for the grade.
   If you were to skim through the next sub chapter you would come across scientists trying out the idea that neurons might actually have blueprints inside of them that tell them exactly what to do like this is some new discovery. ::Bangs head against the wall in pursuit of figuring out how these guys managed to get PhDs:: I¡¯m going to give you guys a hint. Listen closely now. IT¡¯S CALLED DNA. Even Mrs. Sautter knows that, don¡¯t cha Mrs. Sautter? Maybe they should have taken your class. This book was printed in 2002 and they hardly even talk about DNA having much to do with it besides how similar ours is with monkeys.
   I¡¯m going to stop going through the chapter now because I think you have a good enough idea of what this book consists of. Also for the reason that this book report is already a page too long. Anyway, I hope I get a good grade on this¡¦ Even though the book deserves an F.
   :: this book has been reviewed by the critic Hannah Scott ::



2. This is a great book, that gives a solid argument against evolutionary psychology's rigid and rapidly outdated theorised argument that our genes determine our nature.
   Liars, Lovers, and Heroes and the discipline that it adheres to - Cultural Biology, explains that culture is a precursor to our evolution tract, that at times can go against evolutionary determinism. In the sense that our brains build the determined path to evolve. That we are not essentially hard-wired with mental capabilities, nor can we sustain on primitive gene like impulses. The authors Steven Quartz, Terrence Sejnowski explain, human adaptation is linked to brain chemistry; that if we lose a limb, or other body function, our brain resources other parts of the body to compensate. That brain damage is far more prevalent in our society, that leads to cultural problems, such as murder, murderous cults and even mass hysteria. Which is important to understand, that evolutionary psychology falls short in explaining the details, which are the most important in our human biology.

   Liars, Lovers, and Heroes reveals the hypocrisy and the inconstancy of Evolutionary Psychology's gender differences, especially the ever changing cultural pressures that confront us. Why is cultural genital mutilation so highly valued in countries consumed with cultural identification? Chapter 4 explains the problem with relying on evolutionary psychology's connection that cultural identity lies within reproductive desires. That if clitoris removal occurs, it is done without any genetic purpose - that its a purely a cultural restraint against women, which could be argued enforced by religious dominance in cultural behaviour. How religious/cultural motivated ceremony's (such as clitoral removal) can be justified using evolutionary psychology logic,is something that evolutionary psychology must be struggling to answer, since according to evolutionary psychology theory, that all our actions are based on replicating our genes.

   The authors go on in later chapters, and explain the complex connection that culture and cultural identity have huge impacts of how we define our existence. As the brain is constantly up dating, and renewing thoughts an actions, and adapting to new perceptions. Steven Quartz, Terrence Sejnowski , also go on to explain the aggression in humans, is not always a need to exercise superiority over other humans from a genetic or competitive instinct. Which is highly dangerous for evolutionary psychology to make assumption's that most "male" aggressive traits are based on genetic impulses. Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, explains that babies act more aggressively at a more rapid rate, than adults. Although not as physically devastating as a full grown adult, Cultural Biology dismiss the notion that enhanced aggression is solely a male testosterone trait.

   The end chapters and the afterword (which was written after September 11), reveals some fascinating incite into eugenics and its impact of industrialised society. That the negative of eugenics, has lead to presumption of intellectual capabilities - by using simplistic IQ tests. According to the authors, this has lead to the expectation that our society has inherited, and praised, racist, class and intellectual divisions. To insure industrial productively. Not to mention huge health problems, under the pretext, that as humans we continue to learn; that our minds are not meant for mundane, or tedious work practises. As eugenics suggested, some were born with it, and some weren't. Incredible backward thinking, yet still with us. And dismissed appropriately within the book

   The afterword which was written a month after September 11. Which was fascinating and insightful, even though it was written so soon after that tragedy.
   The authors expressed that alienation, and cultural isolation can lead to mental breakdown, that leads to identifying with extremist, and destructive, self destructive conformist views. That class and educational status had nothing essentially to do with the profile of the hijackers. Which is to say that our culture now is creating even more isolation aspects, and that is transcending over class, and educational so called superiority. Considering that one of some of the hijackers when middle class, and well educated.

   I recommend Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, to anyone who is interested in cultural biology, and brain science.




3. Explaining the field of cultural biology and the evidence from neuroscience that supports it, the authors have written a book that is accessible to all readers, regardless of their background. Every page gives a fascinating look at the causes/motivations behind human behavior and the authors argue convincingly for their thesis that this behavior has both environmental and genetic origins. They also include ample references for the reader who wants to pursue the subject in more detail.
   
   The authors do not hesitate to embed their discussion of cultural biology in the historical backdrop in which it arose. As the authors report, some of the early research in the subject was met with harsh criticism, as for example the reaction against the book on sociobiology by E.O. Wilson. The vituperation leveled against Wilson by prominent intellectuals has no place in scientific debate and should not be engaged in under any circumstances.
   
   The ability to image the brain and to model it with sophisticated computational tools has led to more knowledge about it in the last ten years than all of previous history, the authors argue. Brain imaging techniques such as MRI, PET, and optical topography have given experimental support for theories of the brain, giving much more valuable information that is needed to understand various diseases and abnormalities of the brain. Philosophical speculation and rhetoric have been eliminated in favor of careful scientific analysis and measurements, fortunately.
   
   The book is packed full of interesting examples and surprises, and space does not permit a detailed review of these, but a few of them include: 1. The fact that the brain can detect and respond correctly to regular patterns in the environment without a person's conscious awareness of them. Experiments illustrating this are discussed in the book. 2. Neural network models of the basal ganglia indicate that it learns in essentially the same way as the brain of a bee. 3. The fact that the brain functions at different time scales, depending on the problem that it is presented with, from milliseconds all the way to minutes. This wide gap in processing time no doubt reflects evolutionary pressures that optimized the brain to prioritize some problems relative to others. 4. The suggestion that the anterior cingulate in humans may be the site of free will. 5. The suggestion that the "area 10" region in the front of the prefrontal cortex is the origin of our sense of self and our self-awareness. 6. The fact that half of the cortex is devoted to visualization. 7. The experimental evidence that indicates that environmental stimulation induces the maturing of brain cells in the hippocampus. 8. The fact that the brain is 90% of its final size at age five, and keeps growing until adolescence. 9. The rise of the "neural constructivist" view that the brain uses information from the world to build itself. Called "self-organization" by those who work in the field of dynamical systems, the constructivist point of view holds that the interaction with the world is a special type of learning that changes the brain and assists in building it. The authors refer to the brain/environment interaction as "constructive learning", and believe that the slow time scales needed for cortical development optimizes the influence of the world on the human brain, and thus make being human possible. The more time the brain has to develop, the likelihood of helpful inputs from the world to guide the construction of highly complex neural circuits increases. The result of this is a mind that can deal efficiently and accurately with the complexities of human existence. 10. The evidence that the development of the brain is non-uniform, but rather occurs hierarchically. The portions of the brain dealing with sensory information develop earlier than those that are responsible for the encoding of more abstract information. 11. The reason for suicidal behavior lies in the prefrontal cortex, which is also involved in mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. 12. The origin of drug addiction being in the ventral tegmental area of the basal ganglia. 13. The effects of serotonin and its manufacture in the brain by a group of neurons called the dorsal Raphe nucleus. Interestingly, despite being a small cluster of neurons, it is able to influence billions of neurons in the cerebral cortex. 14. The TD-Gammon learning machine and its ability to teach itself backgammon. The authors believe that the TD-Gammon machine exhibits real machine intelligence, and it is the opinion of this reviewer that they are quite correct in asserting this. 15. The origin of human personality as being from the anterior cingulate cortex, which uses previous experiences in order to construct the appropriate cognitive and emotional responses to novel situations. Attention to difficult problems is correlated with high activity in the anterior cingulate. 16. The fact that the male and female brains are the result of hormones, such as testosterone. The male brain becomes "masculinized" under the influence of testosterone, but only indirectly: the brain converts testosterone into estrogen, interestingly. The authors are careful to point out that testosterone and estrogen do not act at all places in the brain, and that sexual identity has its origin mostly in the hypothalamus. 17. The suggestion that it is the concurrent release of opiates and the oxytocin that produce the sensation of orgasm. 18. The origin of romantic love as being in the various chemical processes of the brain, and the experiments involving transgenic mice that supported this viewpoint. 19. The evidence from neuroscience that supports the "Aristotelian" conception of human nature, i.e. that family ties, friendship, and trust are more characteristic of humans than antisocial or individualistic behavior. Humans need to identify with something larger than their private existence, the authors argue. 20. The neuroscientific explanations for involvement in cults and for conformity to groups. 21. The authors' view of "constructive intelligence", and how it is at odds with the modern "IQ" version of intelligence.



4. 
   The past 10 years have generated more knowledge about the brain than all prior years of history combined. The authors compile intriguing findings from many scientific disciplines (brain imaging, genetics, computer modeling, psychology, neurochemistry, etc), and give readers their take on the development, organization and ongoing remodeling of the human brain.
   
   They entertain us by comparing the emotional and enthusiastic Tony Robbins (motivational speaker), the analytical and stoic Mr. Spock (Star Trek), and the morose and neurotic Woody Allen. Each most likely has a deficiency or excess of serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine in specified brain areas, dictated by the genes and modified by environmental influences. They prescribe Prozac for Spock.
   
   Lee Carlson provides a superb review of additional highlights, therefore, I will add to the mix a few comments:
   
   "Liars, Lovers, and Heroes" is a misleading title in that it does not give an accurate hint as to the book's contents. At every possible opportunity, the authors evaluate their data from the point of view of the relative contributions from Nature vs Nurture. The vast majority of scientists these days consider them both important - to the extent that it's hard to imagine them apart from each other. These authors, however, consistently grant Nurture more credence. In the process, the authors criticize evolutionary psychology (a Nature oriented approach to human behavior) and advocate a new discipline, cultural biology. This discipline would stress the plasticity of a neuronal system which is always ready to be remolded by new experience.
   
   Data from psychological studies is softer than that of physics and is subject to more interpretation. A scientist of the "Nature in more important" persuasion could make the same data support a more deterministic view without much massaging.
   
   Criticisms: First, the ineptly-named chapters lack cohesion, as if the authors had stacks of reference papers, divided them into similar categories - then tried to make cohesive chapters out of the new stacks. Although the subject matter is interesting, one idea frequently flows poorly into the next. At the end of a given chapter, sometimes I thought, "Now what the Hell WAS that?" Second, although each chapter has a number of topics that attract attention, most topics are treated with only the most cursory scientific discussion with little or no documentation. There is, however, considerable opinion and speculation. This leaves the book suitable mainly for the casual science audience.
   
   In conclusion, with smatterings of science, these authors offer their analysis of brain and personality development. Normal people obsess about finding patterns to make sense out of life. Schizophrenics overdo the same adaptation, constructing grand plots and delusions. One of life's secrets which may never be completely decoded is the complexity of the brain.



5. This book describes some of the more interesting functions of the human brain. I found it fascinating that our brains share some basic functions with the brains of insects. The authors take on nature vs. nurture, which is fun. We all know at this point(hopefully) that we are the result of both, which the book states many times. No big controversy, I don't think. There are a couple of poor arguments against evolutionary psychology, but otherwise Quartz and Sejnowski take a middle of the road stance. What I enjoyed most about this book was learning about the various ways in which the brain operates in different people. A lot of attention goes to the prefrontal cortex and those chemicals involved in 'reward systems,' which I liked learning about. If you have an interest in psychology and nature vs. nurture, and if you can stomach one or two feeble arguments when they pop up, then you'll enjoy this book, as I did, because there's plenty of good stuff in here. As a bonus, you will learn all about the lurid sex-lives of bonobos!

No comments about Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Culture of American Science (History Amer Science & Technol).

No comments about Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology: From Metaphor to Theory (Monographs on the History and Philosophy of Biology).

1 comments about Issigonis: The Official Biography.

1. This book is pretty good read. Sometimes the writing stalls as I think the editors didn't check it for flow. Overall though, this is the most complete biography of Issigonis' life and what he accomplished.

No comments about American Men & Women of Science (American Men and Women of Science).