Soldier. Farmer. Felon. Writer. Father. Lover.
One man, many lives.
Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic.
Tag Archives: Reviews
Health: Nature Medicine Magazine – October 2022
Association of step counts over time with the risk of chronic disease in the All of Us Research Program
Using electronic health records data from the All of Us Research Program, we show that higher daily step counts in data collected over several years of Fitbit fitness tracker use were associated with lower risk of common, chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux disease, depression, obesity and sleep apnea.
Meat, vegetables and health — interpreting the evidence
Although questions remain about several diet and disease associations, current evidence supports dietary guidelines to limit red meat and increase vegetable intake.
CRISPR–Cas9 hits its target in amyloidosis
Nature Medicine explores the latest translational and clinical research news, with an analysis of Intellia and Regeneron’s gene-editing treatment, which reduced levels of transthyretin in patients.
Nature Medicine Website
Preview: The Economist Magazine – Oct 15, 2022
The Communist Party’s obsession with control will make China weaker but more dangerous
Its five-yearly congress will further tighten one man’s grip
It will be an orderly affair. From October 16th the grandees of China’s Communist Party will gather in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for their five-yearly congress. Not a teacup will be out of place; not a whisper of protest will be audible. The Communist Party has always been obsessed with control. But under President Xi Jinping that obsession has deepened. After three decades of opening and reform under previous leaders, China has in many ways become more closed and autocratic under Mr Xi. Surveillance has broadened. Censorship has stiffened. Party cells flex their muscles in private firms. Preserving the party’s grip on power trumps any other consideration.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Oct 13, 2022
Had COVID? A delayed booster might lead to a better response
People vaccinated not long after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 mount a weaker immune response than do those whose infections are well behind them.
This rare primate will not survive deforestation
Modelling suggests that tree cutting is a greater threat to the Milne-Edwards’s sifaka than are climate extremes.
Hydrogen could help China’s heavy industry to get greener
Providing the clean fuel to manufacturing plants would be a cost-effective way to tackle the country’s climate goals.
Dinosaur-killing asteroid set off colossal global tsunami
For the first time, scientists simulate the worldwide spread of the staggering wave triggered by the Chicxulub impact.
Preview: New Scientist Magazine – Oct 15, 2022
FEATURES – How curiosity can supercharge your brain and boost your success
FEATURES – Carlo Rovelli on the bizarre world of relational quantum mechanics
FEATURES – Human hibernation is a real possibility – this is how it might work
NEWS – DeepMind AI finds new way to multiply numbers and speed up computers
Previews: The Guardian Weekly – October 14, 2022
Rebellion in Iran: Inside the 14 October Guardian Weekly
The women and girls facing down Iran’s leaders. Plus: Putin strikes back
For the past few weeks, nationwide protests have gripped Iran after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who had been detained for breaching Islamic dress codes.
Details of what is happening inside the country remain patchy, but social media footage suggests action has been substantial, resulting in mass arrests and scores of deaths. Yet Iran’s repressive state apparatus has not been able to quell the unrest or diminish the morale of protesters, many of whom are young women and schoolgirls.
Preview: Foreign Policy Magazine – Fall 2022
The Solution to the Global Food Crisis Isn’t More Food
There’s plenty to go around, but it’s going to the wrong places.
Africa Needs More, Not Less, Fertilizer
Developing countries need to boost their yields, even if that conflicts with climate goals.
How the World’s Appetite for Meat Is Changing
Who’s eating more, and who’s eating less.
Foreign Policy Magazine Website
Books: The New York Times Book Review – Oct 9, 2022
Sex, Violence and Ecstasy: Leonard Cohen’s Early Fiction
A posthumous release of the songwriter’s unseen novel and stories from the 1950s reveals his nascent fascination with human frailty.
The Global Might of the Tiny Chip
Silicon chips power everything from cars and toys to phones and nukes. “Chip War,” by Chris Miller, recounts the rise of the chip industry and the outsize geopolitical implications of its ascendancy.
Ignoramuses Are Gaining Ground, Andy Borowitz Warns
In his new book, the satirist and comedian traces the rise of ill-equipped politicians and considers how to thwart them.
Travel Guide: 36 Hours In New York City (Fall 2022)
36 HOURS – New York City
By Becky Hughes Photographs by Karsten Moran
Friday – 3:30 p.m. Get a bird’s eye view of the city
Pack in 400 years of history at the Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem ($20 suggested admission), opposite Central Park at the top end of Museum Mile. Its ongoing exhibition, “New York at Its Core,” will give you a glimpse of the neighborhoods you’ll encounter this weekend, and an overview of the many eras of the city’s development, including its few decades as the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, its 19th-century shift to an immigrant hub, the growth of the city’s park program after the New Deal and the birth of the punk and hip-hop subcultures of the 1970s and 1980s.
6 p.m. – Go grand in Midtown
To the dismay of the too-cool-for-school set, Midtown is having a moment. Rockefeller Center is enticing popular restaurateurs with real-estate deals, aiming to draw locals and tourists alike. One glamorous newcomer is Le Rock, a French brasserie (from the owners of the popular TriBeCa restaurant Frenchette) with a sleek Art Deco design and a pricey (around $200 for two without drinks) menu of chilled oysters ($24 for a half dozen), bison au poivre ($60) and a long list of natural wines. For a night of grand Manhattan opulence, you’re in good hands. Other notable arrivals in the area: Detroit-style slices at Ace’s Pizza, Italian dining with outdoor seating at Lodi (a Times food critic’s favorite) and the 11-seat Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar.
Saturday – 10 a.m. Have a morning nosh
The real breakfast of champions is a pastrami, egg and cheese sandwich ($12.50) at Frankel’s Delicatessen & Appetizing in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. There may be no better representation of New York deli cuisine than the happy marriage between the Jewish staple meat, and the bodega and coffee-cart hero, the bacon, egg and cheese. If securing a window seat is a bust, the benches of McCarren Park across the street are calling your name. And for breakfast dessert (you’re on vacation!): Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop. You might recognize the bakery from the 2021 movie “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” but regulars know it for the unparalleled blueberry buttermilk doughnuts ($1.75).
11 a.m. Shop by the skyline
From Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood in Brooklyn, the views of the East River are unbeatable. Follow Noble Street all the way to the end, and you’ll find Greenpoint Terminal Market, a marketplace of vendors, every Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine. You’ll get a top-tier view of the Manhattan skyline while you sift through racks of vintage clothes, tables of art and jewelry, and maybe get a really bad portrait made ($5) to commemorate the day. For a little more shopping, try Big Night, a “shop for dinner, parties and dinner parties”; Dobbin St. Vintage Co-op for vintage furniture; and the mini-Japanese market at 50 Norman for housewares by Cibone and customized dashi packs from Dashi Okume.
1:30 p.m. – Dive into NYC ephemera
Hidden away from Williamsburg’s chain coffee shops and boutique gyms is City Reliquary ($7 entry) a tiny, colorful storefront wedged between buildings on Metropolitan Avenue. Inside is a quirky and fascinating collection of New York artifacts curated by this not-for-profit community museum and civic organization. Packed (really packed) into two small rooms, you’ll find defunct subway signage, souvenirs from New York World’s Fairs, samples of rocks from far below the city and an astonishing amount more. Look for the many iterations of paper deli cups, including the iconic Anthora cup (designed by Leslie Buck in the 1960s), which you’ll still see at diners and bodegas today.
6 p.m. – Dine in the heart of the Village
Greenwich Village cynics will complain about its restaurants: Lines everywhere, many cash-only and littered with celebrities and the rubberneckers that follow. For first-time Village diners, though, Bar Pitti unfailingly delivers an entertaining night out. Get there around 6 p.m. (with cash — no cards accepted) and there should be a short wait. Order the eggplant Parmesan if it’s on the chalkboard of specials ($14.50), pappardelle in a pink cream sauce ($23.50) and a bottle of Lambrusco ($50). The best Italian food in New York? It’s probably not the best on its block. But the brash-yet-somehow-charming service, prime location and killer people-watching makes Bar Pitti a true New York affair. For a more relaxed alternative, Malatesta Trattoria has an excellent tagliatelle ragu ($17, cash-only) and a lower-key ambience.
To state the obvious: You can’t see New York City in 36 hours. You could easily fill a couple of days eating your way down one street in Jackson Heights, Queens, or spend an entire weekend uncovering corners of Central Park. This guide is not designed to check landmarks off a list, but rather to offer visitors one slice of life in New York (minus the laundry schlepping and skyrocketing rent). Below you’ll find a subterranean piano bar, a hidden garden, market shopping against the backdrop of an unbeatable skyline and some big-picture and hyperlocal history to bring you a little closer to feeling the gestalt of the city.
Read more at The New York Times
Previews: Archaeology Magazine – Nov/Dec 2022
Priestess, Poet, Politician
4,000 years ago, the world’s first author composed verses that helped forge the Akkadian Empire
Mexico’s Butterfly Warriors
The annual monarch migration may have been a sacred event for the people of Mesoamerica
A Tale of Two Abbeys
How entrepreneurial monks shaped the landscape of medieval England
Bronze Age Urban Experiment
Archaeologists debate who ruled the cities of the ancient Indus Valley
Magical Mystery Door
An investigation of an Egyptian sacred portal reveals a history of renovation and deception
Boomers Daily 