Discussions of food policy, climate change, international security and many other global issues often take place in isolation, cut off from consideration of other factors delineating the pinch points as humanity’s population and appetites crest in the next couple of generations.

via Feeding Fewer Than 9 Billion – Dot Earth Blog – NYTimes.com.

It’s All Greek to Me is one of those compendium books that, in a series of snippets and vignettes, tries to give the casual reader (commuting on the train or hanging out in a café trying not to be distracted by everything go on around her) a sense of where she came from.

But that sense will only be even moderately inclusive if our imaginary casual reader is very, very white. There’s no sense in Higgins’ book of there being any foundational culture other than the Greeks. Indeed, there’s no indication here that having the Greeks as the foundation of all that is good, true and beautiful might not be such a good or beautiful thing. There’s no sense here of the horrible xenophobia that is central to the ancient Greek cultures, nor of the racist sense of superiority that infuses much of ancient Greek literature. Even though they lived in a Mediterranean culture themselves, the Greeks figured that pretty much everyone living in the “warm climates” was lazy, uncultivated — and dark-skinned.That said, there are no real surprises in what Higgins includes or excludes from her book of snippets. It’s all been done before, pretty much in exactly the same way. Higgins loves her Homer, so that’s what we get here: a love letter to Homer, along the lines of her Latin Love Lessons: Put a Little Ovid in Your Life. If you haven’t read Homer (or Ovid, for that matter), her books are worth checking out.

But if you’re up for the dark side of ancient cultures, there’re plenty of more interesting books out there. Simon Critchley’s morbid, wacky and altogether fun The Book of Dead Philosophers will help you put your ancient Greeks into a far-sighted context. James Davidson’s Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens, for instance, is a wonderful (and wonderfully twisted) look at everyday life in that ancient navel of culture (until you’ve thought of fish addiction, you’ve never really thought about addiction). Or Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by the ever-marvelous Thomas Cahill gives a decent introduction with much more depth and narrative arc than Higgins’ lightweight book. Likewise, Vicki Leon’s book on Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World or Philip Matyszak’s The Classical Compendium: A Miscellany of Scandalous Gossip, Bawdy Jokes, Peculiar Facts, and Bad Behavior from the Ancient Greeks and Romans both harbor all sorts of offbeat naughtiness that, once you’ve had your eyes opened, will make you wonder why milquetoast books like Higgins’ still get published.

The reason, of course, is that Higgins is brainy, generous with what she does choose to include, and an elegant writer. It’s All Greek to Me is an idiot’s guide to a key ancient culture and so, for idiots, it’s a great place to start.

via Book review: Charlotte Higgins’s *It’s All Greek to Me: From Homer to the Hippocratic Oath, How Ancient Greece Has Shaped Our World*.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Brian Charles Clark, 2010

Doug Stanhope: Voice of America – ABORTION IS GREEN.

Well, duh.

via YouTube – Doug Stanhope: Voice of America – ABORTION IS GREEN.

Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Scott Brown of Massachusetts proposed a bill to allow the State Department to strip Americans of their citizenship if there is evidence that they support terrorism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the measure, and House speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed with its “spirit.”

The New York Times has more details but no answers to my questions.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have found the first solid evidence of horizontal DNA transfer, the movement of genetic material among non-mating species, between parasitic invertebrates and some of their vertebrate hosts.

The long-held theory is that mammals obtain genes vertically, or handed down from parents to offspring. Bacteria receive their genes vertically and also horizontally, passed from one unrelated individual to another or even between different species. Such lateral gene transfers are frequent in bacteria and essential for rapid adaptation to environmental and physiological challenges, such as exposure to antibiotics.

Until recently, it was not known horizontal transfer could propel the evolution of complex multicellular organisms like mammals. In 2008, Feschotte [of UT Arlington] and his colleagues published the first unequivocal evidence of horizontal DNA transfer.

“Since these bugs frequently feed on humans, it is conceivable that bugs and humans may have exchanged DNA through the mechanism we uncovered. Detecting recent transfers to humans would require examining people that have been exposed to the bugs for thousands of years, such as native South American populations,” Feschotte said.

via Scientists uncover transfer of genetic material between blood-sucking insect and mammals.

Taken separately, average ocean temperatures were the warmest for any March and the global land surface was the fourth warmest for any March on record.

Additionally, the planet has seen the fourth warmest January through March period on record, NOAA analysts conclude.

Arctic sea ice covered an average of 5.8 million square miles (15.1 million square kilometers) during March. This is 4.1 percent below the 1979-2000 average expanse, and the fifth-smallest March coverage since records began in 1979.

Ice coverage traditionally reaches its maximum in March, and NOAA scientists observed that this was the 17th consecutive March with below-average Arctic sea ice coverage.

Melanie Fitzpatrick, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the recent data are part of an overarching trend.

“The continuing warming trend of temperatures worldwide explodes the global cooling myth contrarians have been peddling for the past several years,” Fitzpatrick said.

“While we can’t draw strong conclusions from a single month, we know that global warming will bring more record-breaking temperatures in the future. Hot months are just a harbinger of a future that could include more heat waves, more droughts, and species extinctions as animals attempt to migrate to colder areas and run out of habitat,” she said.

“The good news is that the degree to which global warming affects our economy and environment is ultimately up to us,” Fitzpatrick said. “If we significantly reduce emissions, we can avoid the worst effects of climate change.”

via Global Temperatures Last Month Broke Heat Records for March.

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

via NCLR: issues & cases > case docket > greene v. county of sonoma et al. See also Dan Savage’s column in today’s Stranger and President Obama’s request last week that the “Department of Health and Human Services…  establish a rule that would prevent hospitals from denying visitation privileges to gay and lesbian partners.”

Apparently, this all took place in Sonoma County.

Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care.

What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold’s lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.

Tragically, Harold died in the nursing home.

Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.

Court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, got Clay  released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O’Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O’Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.

There’s more info on National Geographic.