REVIEW of Livia Capponi, Roman Egypt.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.09.04Livia Capponi, Roman Egypt. Classical World Series.  London:  Bristol Classical Press, 2010.  Pp. 89.  ISBN 9781853997266.  $23.00.   

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Reviewed by Nikolaos Lazaridis, California State University, Sacramento (lazaridis.nikolaos@gmail.com)

Livia Capponi, an enthusiastic and experienced papyrologist who is currently a lecturer in Ancient History at Newcastle University, has written a modest but well-documented introduction to Roman Egypt, a long historical period that begins with Augustus’ arrival at Alexandria on 1 October, 30 BC and ends with the Arab conquest of Egypt sealed by a treaty signed by the general ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and the patriarch Cyrus on 8 November 641. This introduction is intended for “students and teachers of Classical Civilization at late school and early university level”, according to the series’ mission statement on the back cover, even for “those with no previous knowledge of the classical languages and those who, before reading, did not even know what a papyrus was”, according to the author’s preface.

Etc. at BMCR

Canadian National Vimy Memorial

We're in Brussels babysitting my granddaughter Zoë while her parents are house hunting in Los Angeles.

Yesterday we went to see the Canadian National Vimy Memorial on Vimy Ridge, the site of an important battle in April 1917. Thousands of Canadians died in the battle.

Zoë liked climbing on the steps and statues.

There are 11,000 names engraved on the memorial. They represent Canadian soldiers who died in France during World War I and whose remains were never recovered. One of the names is Lance Corporal Robert Alexander Hood (1895 - 1917), a distant cousin of Ms. Sandwalk. He died on April 12, in 1917 during the final days of the battle of Vimy Ridge.

We found his name.

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COMUNICAZIONI dell'Istituto Papirologico "G. Vitelli" 9,

COMUNICAZIONI dell'Istituto Papirologico "G. Vitelli" 9,
Firenze, Istituto Papirologico "G. Vitelli" 2011,
pp. 134 + XVI tavv.
ISBN 978 88 87829 46 4
prezzo 40 euro

distribuzione:

CASALINI LIBRI
via Benedetto da Maiano 3, I-50014 Fiesole (FI)
Also at ibs.it

CLGP I v. 1 fasc. 3: Apollonius Rhodius (M Haslam), Aratus (R. Luiselli), Aristides (M. Sroppa) Archilochus (A. Porro),

Commentaria et Lexica Greca in Papyris reperta (CLGP)
ediderunt G. Bastianini, M. Haslam, H. Maehler, F. Montanari, C. Römer, adiuvante M. Stroppa

Pars I. Vol. 1. Fasc. 3. Apollonius Rhodius – Aristides

Apollonius Rhodius, cur. M. Haslam
Aratus, cur. R. Luiselli
Archilochus, cur. A. Porro
Aristides, cur. M. Stroppa

Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter 2011, XXXVI + 200 pp. + V tabb.

ISBN 978-3-11-019502-6
e-ISBN 978-3-11-023902-7

Praise for Canadian Blood Services

Last week I criticized the Canadian Blood Services for a stupid website called "What's Your Type?" The website associated certain personality traits and diet preferences with your blood type and also gave out false information about the origin of the various blood types [Shame on Canadian Blood Services].

Many people wrote letters to the Canadian Blood Services complaining about the obvious woo. They usually received a form letter saying that the site was not meant to be serious. It was for amusement only and whenever donors showed up for typing they would be told the real science behind blood types. In response to those form letters I wrote to explain that the actual science on the website was wrong—how were they going to explain that as a form of entertainment?

I'm pleased to report that the website is gone [What's Your Type?]. Now you just get a message explaining why you should know your blood type.

I never received a replay from Canadian Blood Services but PZ Myers posts a copy of a letter that some have received.

Dr. Sher has asked me to respond to your recent e-mail regarding our What's Your Type? new donor recruitment program. I understand that you have also sent an e-mail communicating your concerns to www.whatsyourtype@blood.ca and that others from our organization have provided you with specific details in response. I can confirm that the content you object to has been removed from our web site. The marketing materials for this program are being revised.

Thanks again for sharing your views with us.

Ian Mumford
Chief Operating Officer
Canadian Blood Services

Congratulations, Canadian Blood Services. You did the right thing.

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Revisiting the Central Dogma in the 21st Century

James A. Shapiro is an interesting character. He claims that he is opposed to both neo-Dawinism and Creationism (upper case "C") and he claims to offer a "Third Way." That "third way" appears to be indistinguishable from Intelligent Design Creationism although Shapiro never admits to being an advocate of intelligent design. Instead, he prefers to let his "science" do the talking and points out that it's science that leads us to the conclusion that life is designed.

Shapiro has published scientific articles with Richard Sternberg who advocates a similar position but who has become one of the poster boys of the Discovery Institute and one of the stars of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Like Sternberg, Shapiro is admired by IDiots [Non-supernatural ID?: University of Chicago microbiologist James Shapiro works with ID guys, dismisses Darwinism, offers third way].

One of the characteristics Shapiro shares with the IDiots is attacking evolution. In this post I want to review a paper he published in 2009 on "Revisiting the Central Dogma in the 21st Century" (Shapiro, 2009).

The correct version of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology is:

... once (sequential) information has passed into protein it cannot get out again (F.H.C. Crick, 1958)

The central dogma of molecular biology deals with the detailed residue-by-residue transfer of sequential information. It states that such information cannot be transferred from protein to either protein or nucleic acid. (F.H.C. Crick, 1970)

In other words, the flow of information is from nucleic acid to protein and never from protein to nucleic acid.

The incorrect version of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology is what Crick referred to as the "Sequence Hypothesis" and what we now know as a simplified version of the standard pathway for information flow from genes that specify a protein product. The incorrect version is often presented in textbooks as the real Central Dogma although that's slowly changing [The Central Dogma Strawman].

None of this should be a problem for someone who is writing a scholarly article for the scientific literature since we expect such a person to have read the relevant references (Crick, 1958; Crick, 1970). They should get it right. Let's see how Shapiro does when he says ...

The concept was that information basically flows from DNA to RNA to protein, which determines the cellular and organismal phenotype. While it was considered a theoretical possibility that RNA could transfer information to DNA, information transfer from proteins to DNA, RNA, of other proteins was considered outside the dogma and "would shake the whole intellectual basis of molecular biology [Crick, 1970].

That sounds pretty good but the first part is a little troubling. Which version does Shapiro actually believe he's "revisiting"?

Read more »

Chris Talks to God

Chris DiCarlo tries to teach God about philosophy. He doesn't do so well.

Chris is coming to Toronto (from Guelph) on Sept. 9th to talk about his book, "How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass" [Centre for Inquiry]. He'll also be visiting/has visited Vancouver, Kelowna, Kamloops, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Ottawa, and Montreal.

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