The Cognitive Gene

The Cognitive Gene (考える遺伝子)
Yukihiko Makino
ISBN 4-7835-0204-8

Makino, author of the book, is a doctor, not an evolutionary biologist. But, he seems to have been fascinated by wonders of nature especially insects since he was a small child, and he covers wide variety of evolutionary theories. Readers might be a bit confused because he describes wide range topics of evolutionary theory and furthermore mentions his own philosophy repeatedly. But, I think the core message of his book can be summarized like the following:

• There must be some driving principles in origin and evolution of life besides mutations and natural selection.
  

I guess its title, the Cognitive Gene, comes from his perspective above.

I know that not a small number of Neo-Darwinists would attack the viewpoints like Makino's, but still I think the book is worth reading to get a overall perspective of evolutionary biology.

BTW, unfortunately there does not seem to be an English translation.
One more thing is that the book is out of print now. :(
Anyway, we have to look for the book at a library.

Day 442 : A Hat?

Oh, well.
What are you putting on? :o

Actually, the bag is for her toys. :)

Riddle of the Cambrian Explosion

Riddle of the Cambrian Explosion (カンブリア爆発の謎)
Yoshiyuki Usami (宇佐美義之)
ISBN 978-4-7741-3417-8

This book is about Riddle of the Cambrian Explosion which means an explosion of number of species on the earth about 530 million years ago.

Recently, I'm reading various books on evolutionary theory, and at first I expected detailed discussion about the reason why it happened. But, this book describes various creatures of those days and author's work on bionomics of anomalocaris based on numerical simulation.

Basically, I enjoyed the history of strange ancient creatures, but I'm looking for books concentrating on more detailed theories of evolution. :)

Day 440 : A Spoon

Recently, my daughter began to use a spoon when she has a meal, especially desserts like strawberries or apples.

At first, we expected that she would show us some kind of ritual like before. But, she didn't this time, and I'm wondering why... :o

In Memory of Akihisa Yamamura

Today, a friend of mine passed away.
He was only 41 years old.

We were class mates about 20 years ago in our high school days.
In those days, he was the hero of the school.

He played as the center midfielder of soccer football and controlled over the games.
It was like a magic for me when he trapped a soccer ball with a very soft touch, and it was unbelievable that he saw very much wide area of the field and created chances.
Among his team mates, there was Masashi Nakayama who got the first goal of Japanese national team at the FIFA World cup in France later.

Yes, he was really impressive man and stood well apart and above any crowd.

But now, we can't talk with him again anymore.

I pray for the repose of his soul.

Health Screening

Today, I had an annual health screening.

It was weight which was the most impressive among the results.
Last year, my weight was about 84Kg.
But, now it's about 76Kg.
8Kg down! :)

But the doctor said, "Well, it's OK. But, you need to lose 6 more Kilograms." :(

BTW, I didn't do any kind diet things.
One reason could be my daughter. It's really running out of gas taking care of her. :o

Guin Saga 124

The Worshipper's Way
Guin Saga 124
Kaoru Kurimoto
ISBN 978-4-15-030943-5

Google Infrastructure

Google Infrastructure (グーグルを支える技術)
Keisuke Nishida
ISBN 978-4-7741-3432-1

This book seems to be one of best seller IT books in Japan this year.
The English title above is not official one, but my translation.
I'm not sure if the wording has good sense or not, but anyway I think it describes the book enough.

The preface of the book says, "What Google has done is taking future computing in advance."
But, I do not subscribe to this point of view. IMHO, essential points of what Google has done are:

• Make good decisions on various trade-offs
• Concentrate on what they really needed
  

and that's all. It's depends on what kind of goal a company shoots for whether a decision is good or not, or what is needed for a company, I think.
So, I'm wondering if my employer can learn from Google's success now.