“I Am Potential” is an autobiography of an able but disadvantaged man who grew up with no eyes and a severe limb growth problems with his arm and legs. The amazing thing is that he managed to learn playing piano, trumpet and participated in school marching band. His father played a huge role in enabling him to accomplish so much. Of course, the mother overcame the adversity and the “card” she was dealt with and proceeded to have two more healthy children after Patrick Henry. My compliment to the couple; they have made great sacrifices. Patrick Henry gave the couple the meaning to what life is all about.

It’s hard to imagine if I were to live in his shoes. Would I have the strong will and vitality to live as a normal life as I could? What is it like to live a life not knowing what “colors” mean? Would I be bothered/frustrated by the constant pain and fragility? Just imagine how I should have accomplished if Patrick Henry can accomplish so much in his position. It makes me question whether I’m achieving to the best of my potential.

Anyone who’s depressed and feels sorry for his/her life should read this book. Everything will seem easy for a person without the same disadvantages that Patrick Henry has. This is a heart warming and encouraging story.

This is the story about Uranium, from its humble beginning when no one paid attention to it, to its glorious days even after the the two atomic bombs were dropped in Japan that ended the World War II.

The author spent a lot of time developing the story about how the atomic bomb was developed. It started from the theory about the tremendous force postulated when the uranium nuclei are punctured by neutrons, then the race to find sufficient Uranium and its purification, the start of the Manhattan Project, and finally the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan. This first part of the story was captivating.

The second part of the book is about the race to become nuclear superpower in the post-World War II era. I was shocked to hear that Eisenhower was giving away the atomic bomb secret (atoms for peace) to spread the know how in order to keep peace. It’s counter-intuitive but may be effective. But it also propel countries like Pakistan, India to trade their hard earned money for a namesake in the nuclear hall of fame.

The uranium rush was not much different from the gold rush. There were speculators, winners and losers. The politics and economics behind the uranium ore are both mind boggling and outrageous.

The book is long but interesting, at least the first part of it. The second part about the politics of Uranium is informative but less interesting. Overall, it is very educational. Never thought an element besides gold could play such a big role.

Picked up this book from Overdrive library. The introduction was so interesting that I picked this, thinking that I may learn something from the wisdom of an old woman.

Maya has lots of opinions about ring piercing, vulgarity, being truthful when people asked you “how are you?”, no sugar-coating of violence/rape, and etc.

Maya was very honest about her beliefs, her past mistakes (giving birth after a meaningless sexual encounter, encounter of a psychotic boyfriend, called Two-finger Mark, who almost killer her), her thought about suicide, her story about a party where she stepped on the tablecloth, mistaken as rug, and her perception of the prejudices against black and women. Each chapter is an essay of a certain topic.

My favorite quotes are:
On Chapter 1 “Memory,” “I am convinced that most people do not grow up…. I think what we do is mostly growing old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias… We fee safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.” How true and beautifully put!

On Chapter 2 – “Philanthropy” After giving a smile to her own mother, she said, “I learned that I could be giver by simply bringing a smile to another person… I’m happy to describe myself as charitable.”

On Chapter 16 – “Eternal Silver Screen” “I came to understand that I can never forget where I came from. My soul should always look back and wonder at the mountains I had climbed and the rivers I had forged and the challenges which I still await down the road. I’m strengthened by that knowledge.”

On Chapter 25 – “Commencement Address” – “Of all your attributes, youth, beauty, wit, kindness, mercy, Courage is your greatest achievement, For you, without it, can practice no other virtue with consistency.”

Maya’s mother was a rich lady. In order to maintain her independence, she insisted on living within her means and not taking charity from her mother. This took a lot of courage, as she put it, “independence is a heady draft, and if you drink it in your youth it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine, … it is very addictive and with each drink the consumer wants more.”

In a way, Maya was lucky to have a loving family, a grandmother who brought her up in her childhood and taught her the basic value, a mother who provided for her and supported her even after giving birth to her son out of wedlock and thereafter, and of course a loving son, who never caused her to regret raising.

This is a wonderful, short book. Lots of wisdom is contained within.

This book describes the journey of finding the lost painting by Caravaggio, called “The Taking of Christ.” It also goes into more details about Caravaggio’s tumultuous life. It reads like a novel, full of twists and turns. The main characters were interesting. I learned a lot more about restoration of painting and techniques to authenticate a painting. An artist’s life, like Caravaggio’s, was fragile and at times suicidal. Living between feast and famish, Caravaggio was at his best when driven to the extreme, running away from the authority after killing a man in a fight.

The secret aristocratic, art society was revealed somewhat. The competition to find the lost painting was fierce.

I utterly enjoyed the audio book.

Mr. Darwin was a very careful man. Like a good scientist/engineer, he would check and double-check his data to prove his hypotheses. The hypotheses of evolution was and still is a difficult subject to prove, as it would like thousands and millions of years for evolution to take place. His painstaking work on barnacles and other species showed that he assumed a lot of pride in his work.

His peculiarity in dealing with deaths of loved ones and respected colleagues by not attending funeral services showed his deeply seated belief that our lives end at the time of death. There was no afterlife or heaven and hell to him. This ran into conflict with his religious wife, who gave births 10 children, 3 of those died at young age. Through his love for this children, he seemed to express deep dissonance that the afterlife doesn’t exist.

His rush to publish the “Origin of Species” as an abstract was prodded by another colleague, who had similarly reached the same conclusion about evolution/transmutation, and etc. This had resulted in a writing more concise and easy to understand than his other writing. (I haven’t read the “Origin of Species” yet. It’s on my to-do list).

Fortunately, Darwin had a rich father, who passed on to him lots of wealth and assets. This allowed him to concentrate on his research/field work. Without the wealth, Darwin may need to resort to academia that would probably put him in the same group as any others. His uniqueness may have been a byproduct of his financial independence.

For a man living in that era, it took a lot of courage to publish his work and his belief. Darwin may have been reluctant to go against the grain of the largely religious society, but he finally gave in to speak his mind, risking ridicule of others. How’s that different from a modern hero?

This is another interesting in-depth discussion of some interesting topics in micro-economics. It’s all about how people respond to incentives.

The surprise about the key ingredients for global warming is not even CO2 but water vapor. And the quick fix for the problem may be just pumping sulfide dioxide to the stratosphere 16 miles above the sea level. Some smart people at IV (Intellectual Venture) are working hard addressing the issue.

The fact that prostitution has lower value now compared to the 60~80 years ago because the “easier” sex nowadays. And the various kinds of sex fetch different price levels. In the epilogue, it was told that even monkeys respond to incentives and may even resort to prostitution if necessary.

Messing around with nature like reducing the likelihood of hurricanes could be as simple as putting some floaters on the ocean just to reduce the surface temperature by cycling the surface ocean layer to the lower layer.

Why the suicide bomber terrorists should buy life insurance? Because it could avoid being profiled as most terrorists don’t ever buy life insurance. Why bother?

The stories are interesting and I enjoyed listening the the audiobook.

The author describes a good story about the birth of the first antibiotic drug – sulfa. Discovered accidentally in the German lab, the early form of sulfa paved the way to all the variants of the antibiotics that followed. In addition, it brought about the current powerful state of US FDA to help reduce the abuses by pharmaceutical companies. The ironic part is that sulfa was born out of the necessity of curing the soldiers in World War I and used extensively in World War II.

The author tells a very interesting story while educating the readers the science of how the antibiotic medicine works. The book also goes into the politics and world as seen by Germans in Hitler’s Germany. In addition, the politics and competitiveness among the drug researchers in the pursuit of the super drug are so vividly described.