Michael Kodas in Today's New York Times

From The New York Times, June 26, 2007

The Height of Avarice
by Michael Kodas

WHEN China announced its plans to pave a highway to the Mount Everest base camp in Tibet as part of its 2008 Olympic preparations, adventurers around the world winced at the latest encroachment into the Himalayan wilderness. Mountaineers who have already been to Everest, however, were more likely to greet the announcement of the “blacktop highway fenced with undulating guardrails” with little more than a shrug.

Despite an elevation of more than 17,000 feet, it’s been a long time since the Chinese base camp has resembled a wilderness.

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Marlene Zuk Interview in New Scientist

New Scientist, June 20, 2007

The Joy of Parasites
by Peter Aldhous

While grim tales of coming plagues engage the popular imagination, biologist Marlene Zuk is focusing on the bright side of disease. Pathogens aren’t always our enemies, she says; in fact, they have helped shape our evolutionary history. As Zuk tells Peter Aldhous we ought to respect our complex – and sometimes comical – relationship with pathogens and parasites.

"You call for greater appreciation of pathogens. What is there to appreciate?
This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. We need to appreciate them not in the sense of praising, but in the sense of understanding the impact of parasites – and I include viruses, bacteria and fungi. When you take an art appreciation course, no one expects that you’re going to love all the paintings, but you’re going to see how art has affected life. Similarly, if you’re going to appreciate disease, you need to understand how it has affected life. It doesn’t mean you’re going to love diseases, or that you’re going to think it’s great to be sick.

Why have parasites and pathogens been such a powerful force in our evolution?
Because of the potential for co-evolution. When selection acts to produce an animal that is able to resist a drought, it leaves more offspring, and so you end up with a population that has, say, skin that is less likely to desiccate. But that doesn’t provoke the environment into becoming even drier. On the other hand, if defence against a disease evolves, there is selection pressure on the disease organism to evolve back. The tuberculosis bacterium might become better at penetrating your lungs, if your lungs have evolved a mechanism for resisting their entry.

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JoeAnn Hart's Addled on YouTube

Check out author JoeAnn Hart's Addled, on YouTube.

Heads Up: Lou Ureneck's Backcast

Look for a feature on Lou Ureneck and Backcast in the September issue of Men's Journal.

Also, look for an article by Lou in the Travel section of the New York Times, date TBA.

Warren Goldstein on Barry Bonds

Full story can be found in the Chronicle, Newsday, The Courant and the Star Tribue.

San Francisco outfielder Barry Bonds, one of the most talented hitters to play Major League Baseball, as well as the single most disliked player in the game, is about to break one of the most hallowed records in all sports: Henry Aaron's lifetime home run record of 755, which Aaron took away from the game's greatest player, the legendary and beloved George Herman "Babe" Ruth.

Bonds' run-up to this extraordinary record is complicated by many factors, including the likelihood that he used steroids for several years, probably lied about it to a grand jury and could be indicted for perjury sometime this year. He also appears to be a genuinely unpleasant human being.

Nevertheless, his family pedigree reaches deep into baseball's history of segregation and reintegration. Beyond his father, Bobby, a 14-year major leaguer, there's his godfather, Hall of Fame slugging outfielder Willie Mays, who began with the Birmingham Black Barons and then integrated the New York Giants in 1951, and whose 660 home runs now ranks fourth in baseball history.

Jessie Gruman: When bad news comes

From the May 29th Star-Ledger

When bad news comes
How to deal with a devastating diagnosis
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
BY MEG NUGENT
Star-Ledger Staff

"THIS IS A book about what you must do to take care of yourself while your heart is breaking."

That's how author and social psychologist Jessie Gruman introduces the difficult topic of handling bad health news in her new book, "AfterShock: What to Do When the Doctor Gives You -- or Someone You Love -- a Devastating Diagnosis" (Walker & Company, $16.95).

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JoeAnn Hart: Addled

A review of JoeAnn Hart's Addled, from the May 2007 issue of BookPage

Fowl play at the country club

REVIEW BY KRISTY KIERNAN

JoeAnn Hart takes on the New England social set in her clever debut novel, Addled. When geese descend upon the carefully manicured golf course of Eden Rock Country Club, changes are set in motion that bedevil both blue bloods and employees alike.

After bond trader Charles Lambert brains a goose with a sliced golf ball, the club's already tenuous hold on the traditions and rituals that provide structure to an ever-weakening elitist system is shaken. As Charles' guilt over the dead bird drives him to find his true calling, he distances himself from his wife Madeline, and finds a new respect for his animal rights activist daughter, who sets her sights on turning Eden Rock vegan.

Poor beleaguered Madeline must not only try to figure out a new relationship with her husband and daughter, but also withstand the attentions of a studly young lifeguard who runs the risk of appearing in the club's secret book of lovers (and therefore possible fathers of club children who must, in turn, never marry their unknown relatives), a corpulent gourmand whose probing questions are as far-reaching as his appetite, and the increasing suspicions of fellow members who've taken note of Charles' apparent break with their reality.

But the geese don't cause problems for Eden Rock members alone. The employees gather their fair share of heartache and hilarity when otherwise competent general manager Gerard can't control his staff, including the food-obsessed chef, Vita, who sets her sights on a succulent resolution to the goose problem, and greens manager, Barry, who adopts an orphaned gosling as well as a new, organic view on golf course management.

When the members take things into their own hands—employing alcohol-fueled, shotgun-toting midnight raids—the feathers fly, and carefully guarded secrets and social boundaries fall like geese from blue skies during hunting season. Addled sings with carefully observed satirical wit and is pure, laugh-out-loud funny. Hart knows her subject as well as she knows her audience, and this accomplished debut makes for a perfect summer read.