Fateful Choices by Ian Kershaw

I heard about this book while in Paris on CNN. It's a 2007 book which basically goes back to WWII and reviews ten choices made which altered the course of the war dramatically. They are all fascinating. A couple which I had no idea about were the choices of Japan at that time to continue its aggression against China and the rest of Asia -- it was at the time highly dependent on American oil -- and Germany to go back on its agreement with Russia and actually attack Russia, the two front war decision. But besides these there is also the decision by Great Britain to continue to fight Germany despite expectations of a near destruction of its army (expeditionary force, it was called) in France near Dunkirk and the imminent surrender of close allies Belgium and France. A really thick tome, but exceptionally well written as it considers the thinking at the time and the egos of the personalities involved in making the decisions.

The Rating Game by Reba Toney

Leave it to a woman to figure out a workable dating method. But it seems surprisingly sensible. Boiled down: what usually works is if both people bring -- not necessarily the same thing -- but something equivalent to the table. First off, if a person is a real loser in every way, that person would never rate a winner in any way. Since people value different things, perhaps the author's innovation is not to focus on just the obvious aspects: face and body. There's also personality and money (latter is euphemistically termed "life situation"). As she says, this seems key to the success of hetero: supermodel/rock star couplings. I.e. the man's ugliness is canceled out by his attractive personality, status, friends and money through a simple averaging function. One key of course is to be honest on one's own rating so one doesn't date outside of one's rating class. The author even tosses in some semi-helpful hints on improving one's various categories. Perhaps this is a more detailed look at what it means when people say: "he's way out of your league".

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, by Richard Dawkins

My favorite (warning: spoiler) passage:

Shooting the messenger is one of humanity's sillier foibles, and it underlies a good slice of the opposition to evolution that I mentioned... 'Teach children that they are animals, and they'll behave like animals.' Even if it were true that evolution, or the teaching of evolution, encouraged immorality, that would not imply that the theory of evolution was false. It is quite astonishing how many people cannot grasp this simple point of logic. The fallacy is so common it even has a name, the argumentum ad consequentiam - X is true (or false) because of how much I like (or dislike) its consequences.

I would add in the case of the hypothesis of God (a name for religion), the life after death or 'Heaven' is the consequence that people so want to be true that they ignore all other contrary information including evidence for evolution.

I've learned a few things from this book despite having some knowledge about evolution already:

1. Evolution has been observed to happen in experiments conducted on bacteria and animals. That bacteria has been observed to evolve should be expected. Bacteria grow very quickly and have new generations over a short period of time. But animals generally reproduce more slowly. In experiments, lizards were brought from one island to another, and guppies from one stream to another. Both animals were observed to evolve to better adapt to the environment even over the relatively few generations compared to those observed in bacteria.
   
2. In embryology, how do cells which are dividing specialize into different parts of the body? The answer is simple, they don't divide evenly. One daughter cell gets certain parts of the mother cell and the other daughter cells gets other parts. How does this relate to evolution? It shows how the DNA recipe is used to determine ultimate shape and function of an animal's body. I.e. relating to genetics and passing of characteristics from one generation to another.
3. How continental drift works is by creation of rock generally in the middle of oceans and consumption of rocks usually at the other side of the continent. (Actually, I knew this, but forgot some details.) This relates to evolution by explaining why South America and Africa have similar fossils because they were once attached.
   
4. Using radioactive decay of several different isotopes, scientists determined the Earth is 4.6 billion years old. (I knew that scientists had determined this, but didn't remember how.) This relates to refuting creationist belief that the Earth is only 6000 years old.
5. There is substantial fossil evidence linking humans to apes, but fossils are not required to prove that evolution happens (see item #1).
   

But while this book is written to preach to the choir, I would like to think that a relatively open minded non-dogmatic moderate religious person could open this book and be somewhat persuaded. I could be wrong about that, but to my religious friends I propose my usual experiment, read the book and see if you found the needle moved in any way towards belief of evolution.

Henry's 12th Street Tavern, Portland

Portland is the US beer capital. This place has got a gazillion different ones. If you're confused when confronted by the menu, it's worth trying the chocolate beers.

Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008)

It's an in your face message to men, including gay ones, about the incomprehensible need women have for 'romance', the perversely increasing desirability of a man when he is already loved by another woman, and womens' disregard for men's looks. Let's just say Bardem is quite far from the gay male ideal. I didn't get this movie. Perhaps, I just don't want to. This is a Woody Allen film, no wonder. I've never liked his films, except maybe Match Point (and that one just a little), sorry to say.

Gran Torino (2008)

The midwest neighborhood is extremely volatile with teenage thugs around every corner in gangs of all races, seemingly egged on in testosterone filled quests to display dominance and carry out violence. The movie does a good job of side-stepping the need to explain this lack of chill behavior by focusing on old Korean war veteran Walt played by Clint Eastwood. A fascinating, direct, seemingly racist, somewhat tortured and crusty old man who just lost his wife, now seems disconnected from almost everyone except his barber perhaps. But violent happenings in the neighborhood come to pull him out of his isolation. A great story, and of Eastwood's recent films as an actor, actually I liked this role the best.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

It could otherwise be entitled, something like: the strange and unhappy things that happen when you marry a strange person. Both DiCaprio and Winslet are very good in this film about a tumultuous marriage. The movie does surprisingly well at allowing the viewer see this from both points of view. Later it becomes clear to the practical and realists in the audience, that one of them is a villian and far more strange than the other.

The Proposal (2009)

Several years ago, when there were sitcoms and I watched more tv: 2 guys, a girl and a pizza place had Ryan Reynolds in it. He was easy on the eyes back then. In this movie, he's in as good a form. The story has the usual romantic comedy contrivances, but overall funny and engaging, and pleasant to watch. Actually, it's too bad I saw it on a tiny screen on a plane.