Arctic Drift - Book Review

Arctic Drift
By Clive Cussler
G P Putnam & sons
2008

This book is set in the Canadian Arctic. The basis of this story is that the USA and Canada are on the brink of war. And as always, this war is over resources.


A potential breakthrough discovery to reverse global warming
A series of unexplained sudden deaths in British Columbia
A rash of international incidents between the United States and Canada that threatens to erupt into an actual shooting war

NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his children, Dirk. Jr. and Summer, have reason to believe there's a connection here somewhere, but they also know they have very little time to find it before events escalate out of control. Their only real clue might just be a mysterious silvery mineral (ruthenium) traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. But no one survived from that doomed mission, captain and crew perished to a man - and if Pitt and his colleague Al Giordino aren't careful, the very same fate may await them.

This book does include Dirk junior and his twin sister Summer in the first section of the book. They are in BC testing the innner passage waters for unexplained toxins. Their results lead them to a plant near Kitimat, which is turning CO2 into water and hydrogen, in an attempt to aleviate the global warming crisis.

When the twins results point back to the discovery of the mineral ruthenium, Dirk senior and his pal Al Giordino head to the Canadian arctic north to find some answers.

An excellent and exciting novel as always. I could not put this down and despite attending class, I managed to finish this in just 1 day.

Sweet Poison - Book Review

Sweet Poison
By Janet Starr Hull
New Horizon Press
HB 1999
PB 2004
Janet's website



This is the story of Janet Starr Hull, a Texas Nuitrionist, who fell ill during the 1980s and was diagnosed with Graves Disease. Janet began having ongoing sharp headaches, which the doctors said were just migraines. No medicine was helping. And she was eating healthy foods - including sugar-free yogurts, sugar free gum, sugar free everything, and drinking diet sodas.

Her doctor had told her that she had Graves disease and that her thyroid would have to be irradiated (or destroyed) and that she would be on medication for the rest of her life. But there was one problem that the doctor could not explain. One of the symptoms of graves disease is unexplained weight loss. Janet was putting ON weight, not losing it. This is why she refused to allow her doctor to irradiate her thyroid.

It took Janet some time to associate her headaches with the diet drinks she was drinking. It took even longer to discover that aspartame was the culprit and why. So she went to a nutritonist who told her to stop drinking al diet sodas and to stop eating any and all "sugar free" foods. She did so, and in just a few months, her headaches stopped, her weight gain stopped and her general health improved.

After some time of investigation, Janet discovered that Aspartame was made up of 1 amino acid and 2 chemicals. In the human body, both chemicals break down to substances that are very toxic to the human body.

"Methanol [one of the breakdown products of aspartame] has no therapeutic properties and is considered only as a toxicant. The ingestion of two teaspoons is considered lethal in humans" (Monte, Woodrow, "Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health", Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol. 36, Number 1, 1984, p. 44).

There have been 92 symptoms reported to the FDA in connection with Aspartame. but the FDA refuses to recall aspartame or make it illegal.

Whats this I hear about Graves Disease and Aspartame
How safe is Aspartame

Mark Gold is another person who has been reseaching and investigating Aspartame for a numnber of years.

What you should know about Aspartame.

Can aspartame cause visual damage?

Official answer - No. Scientists know that only huge quantities of methanol can affect vision. A small amount of methanol is formed when aspartame is digested or when its components separate. However, the amount of methanol one could possibly consume from aspartame is well within safe levels, and is actually less than that found in many fruit and vegetable juices.

Unofficial answer - Stuff and nonsense. These "Scientists" are industry scientists who are talking about acute poisoning of methanol as opposed to chronic poisoning. The EPA admits that the effects of chronic low-level administration of methanol have never been tested in long-term experiments (EPA 1994). A recent, double-blind experiment of short-term methanol exposure showed small, but key changes in brain response and energy level after exposure to methanol equivalent of that found in two liters of diet soda for an adult or 1 liter of diet soda for a child (Cook 1991). One would hope that there would have been long-term, independent studies on this issue long before aspartame was approved. A methanol expert and eye specialist, Dr. Morgan B. Raiford, M.D., Ps, Msc Med. Ophthalmology testified before U.S. Congress about one of the many persons he had seen with eye damage from aspartame (Raiford 1987):


Can persons with diabetes consume aspartame?

Official answer - Yes. The American Diabetes Association has stated that aspartame is acceptable as a sugar substitute and can be included in a diabetic meal plan.

Unofficial answer - There is no properly conducted research that shows that medium- or long-term administration of aspartame is safe for diabetics. There are some poorly-designed, industry studies which were relatively short-term. Considering that fact that significant numbers of diabetics have reported severe health problems from aspartame in the relatively short time that it has been on the market, and considering that fact that proper tests have not been conducted, and considering the fact that the American Diabetes Association gets significant amounts of money from Monsanto, one should not take their wishful thinking too seriously


How is aspartame handled by the body?

Official answer - Aspartame is digested just like any other protein. Upon digestion, aspartame breaks down into it basic components and is absorbed into the blood. Neither aspartame nor its components accumulate in the body over time.

Unofficial answer - This is an outright falsehood. Even the industry researchers admit that it is not handled like any other protein. Chapter two in the industry's own book on aspartame proves this "information" wrong.

I have to admit, though, saying that it is handled like any other protein makes good PR, but it would be laughed out of any reputable scientific journal.

Saying that aspartame's components don't accumulate in the body is based on a few poorly conducted animal tests and wishful thinking. Formic acid (a toxic metabolite of methanol) likely can accumulate in the organs (Liesivuori 1991). No one knows if DKP or a metabolite of DKP accumulates in the body over time. Proper tests have not been conducted. Aspartic acid may accumulate for a significant amount of time like another excitotoxic amino acid, glutamic acid (Toth 1981). Much of the damage caused by aspartic acid and glutamic acid ingested orally is clearly laid out by Dr. Russell Blaylock, Professor of Neurosurgery, in his well-referenced book, "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills." Either way, gradual damage can be caused by aspartame breakdown products even when they do not accumulate. A chemical does not have to accumulate to cause damage.

And now the yogurt companies are petitoning the FDA to be excused from listing chemical ingredients added to the yogurt, on their containers. This is so they do not have to state the presence o aspartame, nutra-sweet, equal, etc. This article is dated March 2009. Why do yogurt producers even NEED to add ANY chemicals?

If you or your family, consume products with aspartame, Nutra, Equal, artifical sweeteners in them, PLEASE Please STOP drinking/eating them now. Switch to water. Not only will you lose the extra weight you are carrying, you will also lose the symptoms you may be exhibiting, and you will become much healthier as well.

I have started a new blog about Aspartame Safety.

Happy Birthday to Historia's Blog

I grew up with the knowledge that in my family, March 21st is a very important date. That date is my mother's birthday. And this year (2 days ago) I remembered to send her an email saying Happy Birthday to her. Usually I forget.

But this month I forgot another anniversary I should have been celebrating. This blog is now 2 years - and 5 days old. And I have posted around 550 posts. I forgot this same anniversary last year as well.

On March 17th next year, I MUST REMEMBER that this is the birthday anniversary of this blog. And that my mothers birthday comes AFTER this blog's birthday - not before it.

Hacker Cracker - Book Review

Hacker Cracker
by Ejovi Nuwere and David Chanoff
Harper Collins
2002

By age 21, Nuwere had grown from a precocious child in Brooklyn's embattled Bedford -Stuyvesant neighborhood to a well-established Internet security specialist for a major investment bank.



In between, he served a long stint as a renegade though ultimately benign hacker, an experience that gave him much-needed background for his professional career.

Written with Chanoff, his memoir is an appealing primer to hacker culture matched with the personal story of being raised by an extended family (due to Nuwere's mother's death from AIDS) in an impoverished environment.

Nuwere's adventures in the computing underworld primarily include phishing, or conning Internet users into divulging credit card information; making free phone calls using stolen 800 numbers; and exploring the computer systems of major corporations in order to better understand their intricacies.

Unfortunately, much of the drama is mitigated by the blacking out of the name of the company most seriously hacked by Nuwere, as well as the name of the project in development that he was busted for entering ("We kept going deeper and deeper into [blacked out] until we reached the computers that actually controlled the [blacked out] that was all over the news").

This continues for some pages, making it difficult for readers to maintain interest in this pivotal episode. Superfluous details about Nuwere's high school experiences and martial arts tournaments are not well integrated with the more compelling hacker narrative. Nonetheless, this is an empathetic, revealing account of a new breed of insurgents.

Amazon.com

At the end of the book, Ejovi was working for a major Financial institute out of the Jersey City office. On September 11 (2001), Ejovi was in Manhattan still on his way to work, when the towers fell. The next day when he went to the Jersey City office, the employees had to spend several days hurriedly putting togteher a network of computers and hooking them up to the company intranet and databases. This had to be done because many of the company's networks and databases were lost when the towers fell. He worked for Lehman Brothers. (see below)



One of the hacking groups that Ejovi joined while he was in high school was called
w00w00.
Ejovi attended the High School for Graphic Arts in Manhattan.
The first job Ejovi got out of high school was with TGIX - aka Thaumaturgix. He was at this company for two and a half years.

Video Interview by Ejovi Nuwere

Ejovi's blog - but he does not post too often.

Ejovie now runs his own company - Security Labs. On the website it mentions that he used to work for Lehman brothers out of Jersey City. Lehman Brother's equities e-commerce office, was located on the 40th Floor in One World Trade Center.

Natasha Richardson - Death

We are all shocked and saddened by the sudden death of English actress Natasha Richardson this week. The reason I mention this, is because one of the most recent reports about her death, mentions the fact that she starred in a movie based on a book I read and reviewed some time ago.

Though she starred in a host of films over the years, including the film adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Richardson was perhaps most celebrated for her stage career.
Source - Richardson death ruled an accident

I was told that the movie was rather graphic, but now that Natasha has gone, I would like to find it and watch it.

Around the World in 80 Dates - Book Review

Around the World in 80 Dates
by Jennifer Cox
Penguin Canada 2005
Book Website

Jennifer was a publicist for Lonely Planet Books. Based in England, she had a great job but NO love life. so using her contacts from her jobs, she contacted them adn asked them to find men that she could date. Then she went around the world, meeting and dating the men. she had 80 dates lined up. Somewhere in that lot, she figured, she should find her soul mate.

She did find him. He was number 55. Although he was from Seattle, he and Jennifer actually met in Nevada. She spent a week with him in Nevada and they clicked immediately. The sparks were there right from the start when they laid eyes on each other. Love at first sight does work.

So Jennifer visited him in Seattle and then she continued on around the world to finish dating the last 25 men on her list - well almost the whole list. Jennifer stopped after date 76. She actually met a second soul mate, and decide that two soul mates was one too many. So Jennifer stopped the dating tour and flew back to Seattle.

This is date number 55 - the soul mate.

I will let you read the book to find out his name and why they are on a boat.
Another excellent book that I could not put down until I had finished it.

Gifted to Learn - Book Review

Gifted to Learn
by Gloria Mehlmann
University of Alberta Press 2008

This book not a chronological biography. Instead it consists of a series of stories about various students that Gloria was lucky enough to teach and how each of these students taught Gloria something about herself or about the world. Gloria is a Native Indian and yes, she grew up on an Indian reserve.


The biggest thing I learnt from this book was the deplorable and discriminatory state of Canadian Federal Indian and Treaty laws before 1985.

In 1960s Regina, Saskatchewan, when racial discrimination often went unchallenged, and the education system needed visionary reform, Gloria Mehlmann struggled to embrace her Cree/Saulteaux identity and sustain her passion for learning and teaching.

According to the 1895 Indian Act, indigenous women who married white men, lost their treaty status, and their children would not get status at all. In the reverse situation (indigenous men married to white women), men could keep their status, and their children would also get treaty status.

In the 1970s, the Indian Rights for Indian Women and National Native Women's Association groups campaigned against this policy on the grounds that it discriminated against women and failed to fulfill treaty promises. They successfully convinced the federal government to change the section of the act with the adoption of Bill C-31 on June 28, 1985.

Women who had lost their status and children who had been excluded were then able to register and gain official Indian status. Despite these changes, First Nations women who married white men could only pass their status on one generation; their children would gain status, but (without a marriage to a full status Indian) their grandchildren would not.

A First Nations male who married a white woman retained status as did his children, but his wife did not gain status, nor his grandchildren.

Source

While Gloria herself was lucky enough NOT to be sent to the notorious Indian Residential Schools, her older siblings were not so lucky. Gloria grew up hearing stories of the atrocious and violent acts committed in the schools. This was why the reserve demanded a school of its own. Gloria's formal education did not begin until the reserve finally got its own school. She was 10 years old when she started school.

At age 14 Glorias parents decided to send her away from the reserve to Regina, Saskatchewan, where she attended a local high school. Gloria later attended University in Regina as well as a Teachers Training College and by the early 1960's she was a qualified teacher and began teaching.

Gloria married a German immigrant (Peter Mehlmann) in 1960 and gave birth to a daughter Gabrielle around 1962. Gloria lost her treaty status as an Indian when she married Peter - just because he was not an Indian. Therefore she was never able to access federal funds to pay for her education. The family lived off student loans and other grants. They were always poor.

Under the Federal law, Gabrielle was not entitled to call herself a First Nations Indian - not until 1985 when the law was finally changed and both Gloria and Gabrielle has their Treaty Indian status restored.

Gabrielle graduated from Campbell Collegiate High School in Regina in 1980. Which makes her roughly two years older than me. If Gabrielle later married an non-Indian man and had children (even under the 1985 law) - because they are Gloria's grandchildren, they will NOT be entitled to any Indian treaty status, and they will not be entitled to any federal funds. They would only be entitled to treaty status and federal funds IF Gabrielle married a treaty status Indian man.

This is still a very discriminatory law. The only reason it was changed in 1985, was because an Indian woman took her case all the way to the United Nations which agreed that a woman losing her status in marrying a non-status man was discriminatory. Treaty status should NOT STOP after just one generation. Indian blood does not suddenly stop. One can have Indian blood down to the 128th part - that is, down to the 6th generation.

Residential schools

Rights of First Nations Women

Native Women's Rights March - 2008

Assembly of First Nations - Native Status FAQ (scroll down)

I read this book for the second Canadian book challenge - under the Biography (ABM) genre.