History of Placer and Quartz Gold Mining in the Coeur D'Alene District: A Thesis

Book Description

Jewish Communities in Exotic Places examines seventeen Jewish groups that are referred to in Hebrew as edot ha-mizrach, Eastern or Oriental Jewish communities. These groups, situated in remote places on the Asian and African Jewish geographical periphery, became isolated from the major centers of Jewish civilization over the centuries and embraced some interesting practices and aspects of the dominant cultures in which they were situated.

Customer Reviews:

Detailed and Descriptive.......2005-11-04

As a Jew of Maghrebi (North-West African) and Andulusi descent, many aspects of the contents of this book do not come as a surprise. Especially since I have been in Israel and Ethiopia and could myself be classified as an exotic Jew. Ken Blady's book goes into a great amount detail about the various communities, from many different perspectives. This is the type of book that needs to be taught in every Yeshiva because there are many Jews, even from the regions mentioned in the book, who don't know the history of the Jewish communities from North Africa, East Africa, Yemen, Persia, India, China, etc. I have had this book for several years, and it continues to be a good source of information.

What is enlightening about the book is that many of the stories in out about these communities are being lost in the sands of time, because of the changing of dynamics of the Jewish world, now that there is a state of Israel. I would recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in Jewish history. It is especially important because several of the communities in the book i.e. the Persian/Babylonian/Yemeni/Maghrebi Jewish communities are the oldest Jewish communities outside of the land of Israel.

Great to hear about these communities.......2003-06-16

It seems that we hear a lot about the Jewish communities in North American and Europe, but we are less familiar with the Jewish Communities of Africa, the Middle East, Caucusus, Central Asia, India and China. These are some of the oldest Jewish communities in the world so they deserve attention.

Blady has compiled a history and study of these communities. First Blady offers some general information on the country and then focuses on the Jewish community in that country. The communities Blady focuses on are Yemen, Iran, Crimea, Kurdistan, Georgia, Afghanistan, Daghestan, Uzbekistan, India, China, Morocco, LIbya, Tunisia and Ethiopia.

Jewish Communities you didn't know exist !!!.......2002-12-31

I have bought many, many history books from Amazon.com and this is definitely one of the best and most interesting of them all. There are Jews and there are Jews. I grew up in Malaysia (where there are no Jews) thinking that the modern-day Jewish people is a Semitic Middle Eastern looking people since they all originated from Israel.

Then I thought that Jews were in fact all whites after finding out that many white American celebrities were Jewish. Later on, I discovered that there were actually two Jewish "peoples" : the Eastern European variety (i.e. Ashkenazim) and the Spanish/Mediteranean looking variety (i.e. Sephardim).

But after buying and reading this book, I now know that there is no such thing as a Jewish race (in the anthropological sense of the word). The concept of a "Jewish race" as perpetuated by Hitler and other anti-semities had truly fooled people like myself and others who grew up knowing little about Jews.

As Jews became dispersed by persecution and massacres they brought along Judaism with them to almost every corner of the known world. Not all went to Europe to become the ancestors of the Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Many settled in North Africa, the Middle East and Persia, Africa (i.e. Ethiopia)...and even travelled as far as India and China. In all these places, these Jews accepted proselytes/converts and married local women, who added their genetic material (and customs) into those isolated Jewish communities ......so much so that these Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian, Persian, Afghan, Kurdish, Tat, Yemeni, Beber, Bukharan and Georgian Jews become physically indistinguishable from their Gentile neighbours and had very similar customs. In all these places, as the Gentiles became converts to Judaism, they and their descendants became an integral part of the Jewish people. Similaly, the authors inform that a great many Jews in North Africa, Persia, Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Yemen after the Islamic conquests converted to Islam (sometimes by force). No doubt they become absorbed by and contributed their genes to the aforesaid Muslim communities/peoples.

Also, I thought that were only two Jewish kingdoms in history (i.e. Israel and Judah from the Bible). In fact, when Judaism spread with the Jewish dispersion, a number of peoples and kingdoms embraced Judaism. Jewish kingoms in fact existed at one point in time from Berber North Africa in the West to Kurdistan and Western India in the East; and from Khazaria (modern day Russia/Ukraine) in the North to Yemen and Ethiopia in the South. Most of these kingdoms were small except for the Khazar Empire.

The authors definitely deserve more than 5 stars for their research and the compilation of these facts into this truly intriguing book.

Jews from exotic hidden corners of the world.......2002-05-10

This is an excellent book on the 17 "Oriental" Jewish communities in Asia and Africa, namely those of Kurdistan, Crimea, Georgia, Daghestan, Bukhara, Afghanistan, China, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia as well as the two communities each in India, Yemen and Persia. As this book is confined only to exotic communities, the larger 'mainstream' and better-known Jewish communities such as the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Greek-speaking Romaniotes and even the Mizrachim are outside the purview of this book. The terms 'Sephardim' and 'Mizrachim' in this book are used in a technical sense and as such refer only to the Ladino-speaking Jews of Spanish origin and the Arabic speaking Jews of Iraq and Egypt respectively.

The author describes in great detail the physical appearance, customs, religious practices, social status, common occupations of the members of each Jewish community as well as the relationship with and the treatment by their gentile neighbours. The Jews of these exotic communities are very similar in physical appearance, cuisine, lifestyle, customs, and even in language (which is normally a variant of the local language mixed with Hebrew words) with the indigenous peoples who they live among, which challenges the concept of Jews as a race. For example, the Jews of Kaifeng, Malabaris and Beta Israel are physically indistinguishable from the Chinese, Indians and Ethiopians respectively. Even the Krimchaks of Crimea are Caucasians with Mongoloid features not unlike their Crimean Tatar neighbours. This shows that intermarriages between Jews and the locals as well as conversions to Judaism must have been substantial at one point.

Eleven of the Seventeen Jewish communities live in a Muslim milieu. Unlike most books written by Western apologists of Islam, this book describes the persecution and decimation of the Jews by their Muslim rulers/conquerors. On the eve of the Muslim conquests, the Jews must have formed a very substantial part of the population in North Africa and West Asia. In Persia for example, they once numbered in the millions. Jewish Berber tribes such as the Jerava Berbers under El Kahina in Morrocco and the Ureshfani under Fanana in Libya played a prominent role in fighting the Muslim invaders. After the conquests, thousands of Jews were killed and even more escaped annihilation by embracing Islam. This book briefly mentions that many of the ancestors of the Muslim Pathans (the main ethnic element of the Taliban), Tats, Kurds (who played a prominent role in the 1895 and 1915 Turkish-orchestrated Armenian massacres), Yemenis (Osama bin Laden and a fair few of the Al-Qaeda members are of Yemeni origin) and the various Berber groups in North Africa (many of them are now supporters of Islamic fundamentalist movements) were of the Jewish faith.

The Jewish remnants who remained in the Islamic lands during the medieval period were subjected to all kinds of indignities, abuses and not to mention institutionalized contempt. Many a times they were on the brink of extinction. Under Islam, Jews were made to do the most humiliating and repugnant tasks in society. A Jew was not allowed to defend himself when attacked by Muslims and almost all Muslims who murdered Jews went unpunished. The Jew was never out in the street with his wife because he could not intervene on her behalf if she was assaulted. During times of religious violence, everything a Jew owns is snatched from him, his children taken away and he himself would be killed or auctioned off. Sometimes, the Jews were lucky. They were given the choice of converting to Islam and many did while secretly practicing Judaism. The numbers of forced converts to Islam must have been considerable, as there were at least 20,000 Meshedi New Muslims [cum]Crypto-Jews (whose ancestors "converted" generations ago) of Iran who openly returned to the Jewish faith in more recent years after fleeing Iran.

Islamic history is revisionist and subjected to propaganda. On one hand Islam institutionalizes the discrimination of Christians and Jews for rejecting Muhamad as a prophet of God but on the other hand claimed that they were never persecuted. It is like the anti-Semitic Neo-Nazis who say "did 6 million Jews really died" whilst working towards the destruction of the Jewish people. I hope that there would be more such books which give a fair and objective account of the history of the Jews living under Islam. More often than not, Western writers while emphasizing the expulsion of the Sephardim from Spain and the massacres perpetrated by the Crusaders in medieval Germany and the Cossacks in Ukraine, give a distorted account of how Jews lived happily under Islam. What is intentionally concealed is the fact that the religion in which the great Spanish-Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, was compelled to convert to was Islam and not Christianity and that Sabbetai Zevi (the "Jewish Messiah"), a Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire was forced to accept Islam on the pain of death and commissioned to evangelize the Jews for Islam.

This book is a must buy for all those who are interested not only in the history of the Jewish diaspora but also if they are interested in exotic cultures in hidden corners of the world.

Book Description

Completion of the Human Genome Project is just the tip of the iceberg in our understanding of human genetics. How can information gathered during the Human Genome Project be used? This brief booklet explains in accessible language what readers need to understand about the Human Genome Project, including the background, findings, and social and ethical implications. The author, Michael Palladino, also includes relevant Web resources and exercises for readers.

Customer Reviews:

Pretty good........2006-12-18

Outdated in 2006 but worthy enough for a good read. Short, simple, and very informative.

Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are

Average customer rating:

Good, not great, book
Important Issues
Fear of Technology
powerful critique of science of genetics

Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are
Barbara Katz Rothman
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393047032

Book Description

The new genetics and race, illness, and procreation. Scientists are racing to unravel the code of life in our DNA sequences. But once we know the code, will we know what life means? Will we know what to do with the powerful-healing, destructive, and marketable-information we will have? Barbara Katz Rothman's warm, learned, passionate, and humorous voice is just the one we need to guide us through some of the most loaded issues and technologies of our time-ones that bear on the most intimate aspects of our lives. Her astute observations about the new genetics are combined with personal reflections: about raising a black child; the risks of cancer; midwives and pregnancy; the social web into which we are born; motherhood; time, growth, chance, and all the indefinable things that make us human. She helps us to think about the place of genetic science in our own lives, its role in our social world, and how we choose to think about human life itself. A genetic map will take us places, but we need an imagination to see the relationship between DNA and public policy, between genes and the society we live in, and to understand why human life can't be reduced to genetics. Rothman inspires that imagination, in a book that is essential reading.

Customer Reviews:

Good, not great, book.......2006-04-17

I thought the book was generally well written, although as one reviewer stated, felt as though I was back in undergraduate lecture halls through some. She raises some interesting and thought provoking questions, but it sometimes takes her awhile to make her point. It was an interesting book, and certainly made me evaluate where I stand on some issues.

Important Issues.......2000-07-07

A former medical researcher and now a historian of medical ethics, I take a position between the two that have been expressed to date. We absolutely must consider the consequences of any new technology, and Rothman explores the possible deeper implications of the human genome-- which has at this point been deciphered. At times, her writing smacks of revised undergraduate lectures with all their attendant hyperbole, but for the most part she presents crucial questions in a clear and readable manner. I would recommend this book to persons who want to think responsibly about genome issues, but with the caveat that they should also read other points of view.

Fear of Technology.......1999-11-05

Very negative book that exaggerates dangers of a new technology. To demonstrate her exaggeration, turn to page 14 where she states "Every possible area of basic research has been cut, and cut again, and cut yet again. But genetics gets funded." Between the books that exaggerate the negative and those which ignore the dangers exist more balanced books. One such book is Lois Wingerson's "Unnatural Selection: The Promise and Power of Human Gene Research." Lois correctly points out on page x that "There are exaggeration and misinformation at both ends of that spectrum--and a wealth of important detail in between, steadfastly overlooked by both sides." In my opinion, "Genetic Maps" represents the pessimistic end of that spectrum, and should be avoided.

powerful critique of science of genetics.......1999-01-31

This book helps us better understand the limits of genetic research and testing, and the dangers of believing that this magic new bullet will solve a host of social and medical "problems". For women especially, this book is must reading.

AIDS Understanding Molecular Biology: Characterization of HIV Genome

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AIDS Understanding Molecular Biology: Characterization of HIV Genome
Pedro Z., M.D. Taussig
Manufacturer: Doctors Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Understanding genome structure, function, and evolution in the halophilic archaeon Halobacterium NRC-1 : (Dissertation)

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Understanding genome structure, function, and evolution in the halophilic archaeon Halobacterium NRC-1 : (Dissertation)
Sean P. Kennedy
Manufacturer: ProQuest Information and Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Distributed by ProQuest Information and Learning

Understanding the Genome (Science Made Accessible)

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Understanding The Genome
Understanding the Genome
Hard to Understand and Outdated
Excellent but somewhat dated intro to human genome issues
An interesting anthology of SciAm articles

Understanding the Genome (Science Made Accessible)
Scientific American
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0446678724

Book Description

On June 26, 2000, scientists completed a draft of the human genome sequence. Readers will now be able to expand their understanding of this fascinating scientific subject with essays from the top scientist working in the field.

Download Description

On June 26, 2000, great fanfare accompanied the announcement that scientists had completed a draft of the human genome sequence. While the possibilities of this development are exciting, questions inevitably follow: What is the timetable for the annotation of this code? How will this information transform preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic medicine? Will this discovery help us to reconstruct the major steps in the evolution of life on earth? UNDERSTANDING THE GENOME, one of the first four titles in Scientific American's Pocket Science series, examines these questions and discusses the technological and medical repercussions that spring from the study of genes. The book-like the entire series-is targeted to intelligent readers who want to expand their understanding of complex scientific subjects and contains essays from top scientist working in the field, including Francis Collins, the director of the National Institute of Health's National Human Genome Research Institute, and William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences.Like the magazine, the book encompasses a spectrum of innovation through expert-authored articles that demonstrate the convergence of science, technology, and the world economy, challenging readers with fresh, new ideas and empowering them to make smart, strategic decisions.

Customer Reviews:

Understanding The Genome.......2005-01-03

The Human Genome Project (HGP) has been an ongoing research project for many years. Throughout this book, it is explained in different scientific essays what the project is about and what exactly the human genome is. Although this book is quite outdated, for it was published in 2002, it is a great introduction to understanding the genome and what it is about. As previously stated, there are scientific essays as well as interviews between Scientific American (where the book actually came from) and the scientists themselves.

The articles and essays that are contained in this very short read cover a wide range about human genomics. That is one thing that I liked about this book. The articles, although based mostly around one point of view, (scientific as opposed to ethical), cover all the bases concerning the HGP. For example, it covers both sides of the fact that drugs that can cure diseases may be discovered in the future. It may sound crazy, but like everything, there are people that go against things like this.

The book was relatively easy to understand. There was no need to look up words very often, for they explained it all to you. The point of the book was for scientists and the regular man alike to have a better understanding of the genome. If you really want to know more about this interesting topic, I would definitely recommend reading this book. In addition to this book, you should pick up another, more recent one too, because so much has happened regarding the Human Genome Project since 2002. It is a short, quick, easy to understand book that has a lot of information. If you are just now beginning to want to know about the HGP, you should read Understanding the Genome for a solid grounding about the subject.

Understanding the Genome.......2004-12-28

This book gives a great background of the scientific advances in studying the human genome as of 2002. Unfortunately, a lot more innovation and discovery has occurred since then so this book is up-to-date. However, this book is a great tool for learning the basics of human DNA and where we were in the beginning of our new millennium.
This short book is really a collection of essays taken from experts in the fields concerning the study of the human genome. The essays give factual information concerning the subject as well as the issues that go along with this scientific advancement. The first step of the genome investigation was to sequence the human genome into the bases A, C, G, and T. The two main groups competing for the completion of human DNA were the Human Genome Project (HGP) and Celera Genomics. HGP, a publicly funded organization, sequenced DNA by breaking apart a human's 23 chromosomes and finding the DNA bases of each small piece of the DNA. Celera, a privately funded group, broke apart the entire genome sequence at once and relied on master computers to build then back together in the base code. Both groups successfully completed the code in the summer of 2000.
Today, scientists are trying to answer the more important questions of how and why the human genome works. Many groups, especially large pharmaceutical companies, hope that this investigation will lead to future drugs that can cure illnesses brought on by differences in individuals' DNA. However, worries have arisen with these hopeful advances. Some fear that genetic discrimination will cause the public to lose their insurance and be rejected by employers. Others worry about the effect on people's mental health of knowing they are at risk for a fatal disease.
This book is a good reference for people who want to know the basics of the human genome and problems that could grow with increasing genetic testing. However, I would recommend trying another book if you want up-to-date information on the studies of human DNA. This book also talks briefly about the human genome itself, often using scientific phrasing. Therefore, I would recommend starting off with another resource if you have never even heard about DNA. This book is certainly not entertaining, but it is a good resource for someone who wants to learn more about the start of the investigation of the human genome.

Hard to Understand and Outdated.......2004-12-26

I thought the book Understanding the Genome wasn't a very good book. In the beginning of the book, the scientific concepts were easy to understand and follow, but then as I kept reading the concepts became more and more confusing until eventually I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Also, this book is kind of outdated to what is currently going on now with the Genome Project and other breakthroughs with genomics. Unless the reader understands and has studied DNA and genomics, I would not recommend this book. It is definately not a book someone would want to pick out for light reading. This book consisted of essays written by or about scientists in the field of genomics. I may say though that this book was atleast very discriptive of concepts and contained pictures and diagrams of different concepts.

Excellent but somewhat dated intro to human genome issues.......2003-04-11

This book is a collection of articles and columns from issues of Scientific American between March 1996 and April 2001. This date range represents a long time in molecular biology and now some of the articles are dated. For example, several articles estimate that humans have 100,000 genes; a more recent textbook gives the number of human genes in the range 25,000-40,000. Also, this book is part of the "Science Made Accessible" series so the reader should not expect much technical depth. An exception is the interview with Stuart Kauffman which tends to uses undefined technical terminology such as "canalizing input" and "cis site." Better editing could have brought the articles up-to-date and provided definitions (especially for the Kauffman interview) to make the material more "accessible."

So why do I give this book a four-star rating? Because of its coverage of human genome issues. A couple of articles discuss genetic discrimination and insurance. Another couple of articles discuss bioinformatics (biology as an information science). I thought one of these articles, the interview with Kauffman mentioned earlier, was the most interesting in its discussion of gene regulatory circuits. Several articles discuss the history of the publically funded Human Genome Project and the privately funded Celera group. Many articles are concerned with the medical advances that may result from having sequenced the human genome. Perhaps what this short (150 page) volume best provides is a hopeful view of where biology and medicine are headed (the genetic discrimination issue is somewhat less hopeful) and I recommend this book for its glimpse of the future.

An interesting anthology of SciAm articles.......2002-10-18

This book is one in a series by Scientific American that has been published with the intent to give an overview of various themes in science to a lay audience. This book on genomics is a reprint of various articles that have been published in SciAm (in either magazine or web formats). The articles include: articles on J. Craig Venter and Francis Collins (the two de facto leaders of the Human Genome Project), an article co-written by Dr. Collins, articles on business and philosophical aspects of genomics, etc.

Overall, I thought this book was interesting. It doesn't get the 5th star because of the sort of hodge-podge feel to the book (it is an anthology of somewhat disparate articles not originally intended to be published together) ... which more assertive editing may have solved. But, all-in-all, considering the low price tag, I would recommend the book to those who are interested in the subject and do not own copies of the relevant SciAm back issues.

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WEB WATCH: Understanding the Human Genome Project.: An article from: Phi Delta Kappan
Sharon Grubka , and Heather Jacobs
Manufacturer: Phi Delta Kappa, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B0007URFQA
Release Date: 2005-07-13

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Phi Delta Kappan, published by Phi Delta Kappa, Inc. on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 740 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: WEB WATCH: Understanding the Human Genome Project.
Author: Sharon Grubka
Publication: Phi Delta Kappan (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: Phi Delta Kappa, Inc.
Volume: 86 Issue: 4 Page: NA

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Understanding our genetic inheritance : the U.S. Human Genome Project : the first five years, FY 1991-1995 (SuDoc E 1.19:0452 P)

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Understanding our genetic inheritance : the U.S. Human Genome Project : the first five years, FY 1991-1995 (SuDoc E 1.19:0452 P)
U.S. Dept of Energy
Manufacturer: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Human Genome Research U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental Research, Human Genome Program National Technical Information Service, [distributor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000109JV0

Customer Reviews:

Reflections on living on the "dry" side of the mountains.......1999-05-23

The author, an English professor at Central Washington University, takes the reader through some of terrain surrounding the Central Washington Basin, east of the Cascade mountains, with reflections on what it means to live in tune with the surrounding enviornment.

His observations are usually keen, with excellent attention to detail. He obviously knows the land on which he traverses, and takes the reader through the varied landscape of that area.

Whether he is describing a hike, cross-country skiing, or a search for a "city walk" the author makes excellent use of sensory images, evoking smells, sights, and sounds.

One of the more interesting essays concern the author's move from his native New England to the Far West. In "My Old Arcadia," the writer describes his growing up days, and how the land he once knew, is no more.

But poingantly, he admits that while the "Kittitas is as good a place as a belated immigrant could hope for," it is not a place where he can "claim [any] memories."

Sometimes the essays end abruptly, leaving the reader with an uneasy feeling, as if the thought was somehow not completed, like chatting with a person on a street corner and a bus suddenly arriving, interreputing the conversation.

Still, I'd recommend this book. It's a fast read, and one you're sure to enjoy.

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