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Chris OConnor  Rhodes Scholar BookTalk.org Owner

Joined: 20 Oct 2000
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LanDroid  Senior Silver Contributor


Joined: 27 Jul 2002
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Location: Cincinnati, OH

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LanDroid  Senior Silver Contributor


Joined: 27 Jul 2002
Posts: 384
Gender: 
Location: Cincinnati, OH

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Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 4:53 pm Post subject: Baboonery
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"Like apes and chimps, we copy the mannerisms of our masters, down to their speech patterns, choice of clothes, automobiles, and style of homes." (p. 170)
Bloom uses the rise of Japan's economy in the 80's as an example of reactions to dominance. I remember America feeling under economic attack and businessmen using phrases like "Business is war", but I didn't realize Japan actually did top America in many categories for a time.
Quote: By the mid-eighties, Japan had more money controlling more resources in more countries than any other nation in the world. Its foreign exchange reserve was the world's largest. It was the world's leading exporter and source of loans. The shares on Tokyo's stock exchange topped in value those on the Big Board in New York. Japan possessed 54 percent of all the cash in the world's banks. The top twelve global banks, in fact, were wholly Japanese. The average Japanese per capita income had surpassed that of U.S. citizens, who still spoke of themselves mistakenly as the weatlthiest in the world. (p. 171)
Bloom describes the admiration and imitation of Japan by nations lower on the totem pole. He doesn't mention how the focus has returned to the U.S. after Japan's real estate and stock market bubbles burst...
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LanDroid  Senior Silver Contributor


Joined: 27 Jul 2002
Posts: 384
Gender: 
Location: Cincinnati, OH

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LanDroid  Senior Silver Contributor


Joined: 27 Jul 2002
Posts: 384
Gender: 
Location: Cincinnati, OH

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Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 5:17 pm Post subject: Irrationality
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Chapter 18 describes how the forces of the learning machine do not always provide rational results. He uses the example of Dr. Gilbert Ling, a cell physiologist. It is still not exactly understood how cells keep potassium within the cell and keep sodium out. The prevailing theory seems to be that the cell wall has an array of pumps that force sodium out. Ling provided a lot of evidence that no cell wall pumps were necessary to maintain this potassium/sodium imbalance. These insights were hailed by a Cambridge professor as "one of the most important and advanced contributions to the understanding of the structure of living systems which I have seen". Ling was described by a Nobel prize winner as "one of the most inventive biochemists I have ever met".
But then the supporters of the sodium pump theory gained power, started excluding Ling from important meetings and journals, and cut off the flow of money to that line of research. Ling was forced to close his lab and find other areas to research.
It is actually rather reassuring to see that Science is not always carried out in the highest ideals, that it too is subject to the same petty forces as other human institutions... |
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LanDroid  Senior Silver Contributor


Joined: 27 Jul 2002
Posts: 384
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Location: Cincinnati, OH

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Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2003 5:33 pm Post subject: deleted
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- Moved to another thread... - Edited by: LanDroid at: 2/24/03 12:56:53 pm
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