Monthly Archives: July 2022
Verdi’s Priests
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st July 2022Giuseppe Verdi as was typical of 19th century liberal intellectuals was distinctively anti-clerical. Accordingly, the priests in his operas are not usually sympathetically portrayed. Here are a few depicted in different ways. Verdi’s first success, Nabucco, was about the Babylonian Captivity of the Hebrews. It starts in the Temple of Solomon. The Israelites pray as…
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Y Chromosome Loss and Heart Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th July 2022Below is a release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It summarizes a study published in the AAAS’s journal Science. It deals with the previous observation that loss the the Y chromosome in white blood cells with an increase in cardiovascular disease and death. Whether this loss of the male sex chromosome…
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I Don’t Want A Bone, I Want The Bone
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th July 2022Anyone who’s had two dogs understands the title. If you give each of them a bone, they’ll each want the one the other has. They also don’t want to relinquish the one they already have. The resultant conflict, the closest a dog can come to envy, will send them into a muddle of canine angst….
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Unsettled – Book review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th July 2022Steven E Koonin has written a book Unsettled: What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters. The volume is not very long consisting of mostly data (yes data!) and endnotes. It is a sober analysis of a subject that has been a field of landmines maiming the facts that underpin an…
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The Tales of Hoffmann – The Septet
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd July 2022The renowned septet from Offenbach’s final work is of uncertain origin. It was not in the original score and its source remains a riddle. The opera was written for the Opéra-Comique and was to have spoken dialogues. It was incomplete at the composer’s death in 1860. Ernest Guiraud completed the piece and added the recitatives….
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