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Who's Behind the Wheel?

Have you ever been in a situation to answer somebody's question with 'Yes and No'? Well, it is definitely one of those answers they are teaching politicians to answer every time they need to use some evasive maneuvers in order to avoid discussions they don't want to get into. But in this case, the answer to the question from the title, or expanded a little with, "Are you really behind the wheel of your body?" is really 'Yes and No'. And nothing could be closer to the truth. The keyword is, of course, parasitology, a very complex scientific research that is trying to understand properly all the macro and microorganisms who can't live without other living beings and usually do that without their consent and rather use them to live their entire or partial life, which in most cases leads to the host's malfunction, to use a raw mechanical word. They only leave hosts in case of their death or if the host's environment is exploited to the level of uselessness for parasitic survival or simply to follow the natural circle of life, i.e., to lay eggs outside the host environment.

Toxoplasma gondii—a single-celled protozoan*

This blog is not a medical source or place for studying biological entities of any kind, and I am surely not really qualified to provide any advanced knowledge about parasites and how to avoid contamination or heal after. But I am always interested in scientific edges and research that provide unusual results, to say the least, and this post is more about whether or not some parasitic species, like Toxoplasma gondii, are able to affect the human mind in a way that the personality of the host could be changed to the level of influencing entire social life. However, some basic information can't hurt in order to better understand how biology works. For example, if we are talking about macroparasites or entire sexually developed tiny organisms with complex, 'teen' and 'adult' lives with stages of infecting hosts, feeding, laying eggs, and contaminating surroundings, then we are talking more about different kinds of worms (shaped as round, tape, hook, whip, etc.) invading hosts through raw meat, contaminated water, or unclean food. This is the most common way of intrusion, but parasitic eggs can be spread everywhere and through the simple touch of infected handles, phones, appliances,... anything at all. When inside, they eat your digested food or even your blood vessels and cells. And they spread a wide variety of diseases, even though they can stay dormant for months and years. They are truly microscopic monsters, very similar to those 'Alien' types in horror movies.

However, the bigger they are, the better they are studied and understood and today, contrary to dark ages when parasitic infection was able to spread severely among huge numbers of people, treatments are very successful if detected as early as possible. The smaller they get, like the single-cell deadly microorganism known as Plasmodium (Malaria parasite), the tougher the fight is for knowledge and treatments for diseases they are causing. And for some parasites, disease, in the form we define it, is just the final stage of their complex life. As it seems, they are also very much able to force their hosts to do their bidding as well. In the most intelligent and cruel way. Let's see what Toxoplasma gondii is capable of. Sometimes it is hard to believe all the scientific facts. And believe me, 'believe' is the right word for this little alien and hostile invader of hosts' minds. Humans included.

Cats and Mice: It's Complicated*

All parasite species tend to complete their lives from the stage of being born till the end of their lives. Toxoplasma gondii's ultimate treat is the cat. This is what it is designed for, and this is where it wants to finally multiply and end its life. But it is hard to find a cat when you need it, right? So there are lots of potential intermediate hosts on the way. Before they ultimately end in the intestine of a cat-shaped animal, they find the drive in the encysts of the brain and other tissues of a warm-blooded species, including humans. If they move in rats or some other rodent animal, the parasite recognizes its intermediary and alters the host's behavior for one purpose only—to be an easy victim for cats. More precisely, they induce high levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter known to alter novelty-seeking and enhance the host's neuroticism. In other words, the mouse becomes a curious adventurer of its surroundings and loses fear of cats and everybody else. Uninfected rodents have built in protection from their native predators and always try to avoid areas marked with cat urine or odor, but after the infection, parasite brainwashes rodents to even go into craving cat urine and directly into trap. Toxoplasma gondii can only sexually reproduce in the feline gut, and there you have the answer to why cats so much love mice and rats. Even more surprisingly, all the symptoms in infected lab rats stay after parasites die in the rodent, suggesting permanent changes in the host's neural system.

But what happens if T.gondii finds the way and invades the human body? And according to research, it is apparently capable of infecting us on large scales, and up to one-third of people around the world are estimated to be potential hosts. And we are sort of dead-end for their travel. If we exclude sporadic cases of tigers and lions attacking and eating humans, cats actually can't thrive on us. Well, yes, domestic cats don't eat human beings, but still, there are other ways of transferring parasites from humans to cats, and it seems that Toxoplasma gondii, like in rodents, is also trying to use its unprecedented ability to alter host behavior, all in favor of parasitic life fulfillment. For the simplicity of this blog post, we can make a difference in parasitic life inside an intermediate human host compared to rats and mice. In its acute form, I would say after the parasite realizes there is no way out, or due to some other reason in the mixture of parasitic and host's life, the human host can go into severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, suicidal behavior, or the performance of slow mental activity and thinking. Within a large amount of time, in the parasite's latent form, the host is going through light personality changes that are very difficult to recognize as a disease. The latent toxoplasmosis might even be immune to treatments and antibiotics, and some hosts, like our distant rodent relatives, could even change their response to cat odor as well.

The Veneration and Worship of Felines in Ancient Egypt*

Perhaps a decade ago, one comprehensive study was finished at Charles University in Prague, in the Czech Republic, by Jaroslav Flegr, and numerous researches ended with extremely interesting findings published in the paper "Induction of changes in human behaviour by the parasitic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii" (referenced below). Over the years, they tested many cases of infected men and women against 'Cattell's personality factors' (a sort of scientific personality test designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character) and compared them to those performed by non-infected people. Both infected men and women had significantly higher apprehension and level of social fearness, with significant differences in results between the two groups. Infected men showed lower superego strength (rule consciousness), higher vigilance, were more likely to disregard rules, and were more expedient, suspicious, jealous, and dogmatic. Women, on the other end, showed higher warmth and higher superego strength, suggesting that they were more warm-hearted, outgoing, conscientious, persistent, and moralistic. And all those human properties are not considered a disease of any sort. Remember that the latent stage of toxoplasmosis can be the case of one of three people you can meet on the street, including yourself and me. All those people would behave differently if they were not under the influences of small microorganisms only visible under the eye of an electronic microscope!

Now, it is very much close to all sort of logic that human culture, isolated or widespread, can alter individual personality. In simple words, if you are a member of a herd of sheep, the most likely you would be a white sheep and behave like all the other members of society, well... herd. However, the same logic goes for humans and the other way around—that cumulative personality might shape cultural dimensions through the collective behavior of individuals. And if you got yourself a society of humans all or most of them infected with T.gondii (which is not far from the truth, especially in the early history of mankind ever since the ancient Egypt and domestication of cats), their cultural self would no doubt be shaped far from the case if all they were uninfected and healthy. And if you glimpse again the personality of diverted subjects above, with increased apprehension and decreased superego with men and highly sensitive women, if you ask me, the very own free will could be in question along with increased susceptibility to superstition and religiosity.

Well, I am not saying it, and surely there's lots of more research to be done, but if one small society in the history of humanity should thank a small microorganism for, i.e., the rise of religion and everything that implies, you have to wonder...


...about a nice plot for a novel. And that is exactly what Tom Knox did with his thriller called "The Deceit" and amazingly wrapped plot that connects the origins of all religions, ancient Egypt, domesticated cats, Toxoplasma gondii, and everything that might come out of this twist glued together. True or partially true or not at all, this book inspired me to learn something that I didn't know before and, of course, pushed me for a little web research that ended with this blog post. This is actually a second time that Tom Knox, a.k.a. Sean Thomas, forced me to do some more reading about the background of his novel—the first time it was after his "Genesis Secret" in post Supermarket Religion and needless to say, I recommend both books and am looking forward to more of his work. I am already hinted at "The Marks of Cain", which apparently offers similar travel from the history of man. Stay tuned.

T. gondii refs:
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/1/1.short
https://web.natur.cuni.cz/flegr/pdf/induction.pdf
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070403-cats-rats.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16PF_Questionnaire

* Image refs:
https://www.science.org/content/article/.../toxoplasmosis-parasite-lab
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/veneration-and-worship-felines-ancient-egypt-003030
 

Atlanteans

If I am going to give a thought or two about ancient Atlantis, its mysterious people and all the conspiracy theories behind it, there is no doubt that I'll first think of the origin of the story. Classical Greece and Plato. One of the most famous scholars from BC. In his own time, Plato was definitely the top Greek philosopher from ancient Athens, who lived in fourth century before Christ and dedicated his entire scholarly life to philosophical research and development of modern society and politics. The method he used in his publications were dialogues, very popular way of expressing scientific thoughts at the time. Plato's dialogues, in which he never took the role as one of participants, were often the front story accompanied with narration, but in some of them he even excluded narrator and presented his work in pure novel-style with his characters carrying the story all the way.


In regards of today's title, two dialogues are especially interested - Timaeus and Critias. Participants in the dialogues where Socrates, Timaeus, Hermocrates, and Critias and Plato tried to describe the perfect society time-framed way back before the old Classical Greece. In very short, these two dialogues describes a tale from a man called Solon, another Athenian, who during his travels throughout the ancient Egypt, learned about mysterious people who lived and perished many generations before. Twenty years or so before these dialogues, Plato had written his masterpiece "The Republic" in which he discussed what he thought of ideal state with a 'just man' and the meaning of justice in general from the point of view of Greek cities from the classical time. His ideal state was named 'Ancient Athens', placed in existence 9000 years before Plato's time (or 900 if suggested error in translation is true) and governed with superior and almost utopian society. As it seems, Atlanteans are used in Plato's books just as an example of how even the enemy that was so powerful, beyond any current comprehension, is incapable of defeating perfectly regulated society. After that the story went wild and Atlanteans, who tried to enslave entire Mediterranean, were easily defeated by 'utopian' and perfectly organised Athenians. In the aftermath, their superb armada retreated to their island and the gods in their final rage destroyed entire Atlantean civilization which Plato described in his famous words "There occurred violent earthquakes and floods and in a single day and night of misfortune the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea." In second dialogue "Critias", Plato described in more details the origin of the 'ancient' Atlanteans with extensive use of old Greek mythology as Poseidon's heaven who created perfect society that ultimately, over time, started to fade out as soon as they started losing their divine origin and got overwhelmed in corruption.

Today, we have a great knowledge about ancient Greek times and so far there is no scientific facts in favour of "ancient of the ancient" Greek society that is older than 3 millenniums BC who fought mighty civilizations who came from the other side of the Pillars of Hercules and both vanished without a single trace. However, there is a faint clue and tons of theories of where Plato really found inspiration for this incredible tale.

Reconstruction of a late Cycladic Ship (© 7reasons, Michael Klein)*

As for the faint clue, I would vote for ancient Minoan civilization and their predecessors who preceded Greeks in the Aegean and suffered ultimate decimation from both natural disaster and human invaders. They lived on the island of Crete within ancient settlements of Knossos and Gortyn and also within northern Aegean island of Thera (Santorini) in ancient site of Akrotiri which is, just like Roman Pompeii remarkably preserved after the tremendous volcanic eruption. Their civilization flourished in late Bronze age and like in Plato's words, within single day and night, around the year of 1600 BC, disappeared into the sea in one of the most powerful volcano eruption in the history of entire world. What is today known as 'The Minoan eruption of Thera' seismologists tend to classify as four times powerful than well known explosion of Krakatoa. If Minoans had more settlements in the neighborhood, which was likely, they were all destroyed and sunk during the natural reshaping of the archipelago. Massive eruption, no doubt, created large tsunami wave that probably reached all the way to Crete and ultimately decimated Minoan people in the northern part of island. In a following years, pirates and thieves from the sea and land took the chance and made sure for Minoans to never recover to what they once were.

Well, in a conclusion and after this small history glimpse, if you ask me, there is a fair chance that Plato's Atlanteans are truly based on ancient Minoans. After all, 2300+ years ago, in Plato's time, the world wasn't big and the entire cradle of the civilization as we popularly call Greek Classical times was small and all about the Aegean sea. Even the Mediterranean was too large for wooden galleys and far travels. Ancient Minoans came to Aegean two millenniums before Plato and after their misfortune I am sure the legends and myths about them grew slightly above the facts. Still, their language, clay tablets, art, pottery, architecture and overall history prove they once were a very respectful and organized society.


There is no doubt that Atlanteans from Plato's 'Timaeus and Critias' served just a supporting role in this piece of philosophy but still ever since the Atlantis story has had a large impact on literature, comic books and movies. They are used in tons of novels and portrayed as insanely advanced civilization with all the technological wonders, perfect cities, flying ships, state of the art armory, etc. There is no bay or gulf in Mediterranean sea and Atlantic ocean all the way to Caribbean that some rich adventurer or scholar didn't try to find the Atlantean ruins or at least to post new theory of Atlantis site or conspiracy theory of some sort. To be honest, I am really ok with that - if you look to it from the entertainment point of view, what you get is very much fun and if you read it on the beach it surely adds another level to your vacation time.

This is exactly what I did this summer and during our ten days of R&R on Thassos Island of northern Aegean I loaded all three books of The Origin Mystery in my Kindle and swallowed them all in record time. Honestly, from this trilogy I expected a lot and this is exactly what I got! You have to be brave to make yet another novel about Atlanteans and A.G. Riddle wrapped it just right. He managed to connect several Sci Fi genres into one successful story. For my taste all the sciences are there and connected perfectly. Biology, virology and genetic research including junk-DNA involvement, physics and space travels, quantum entanglement, Antarctica, known history and use of connection and conspiracy theories like Nazi bell (Die Glocke) or Roswell UFO sighting. Play with time dilatation and hibernation. Space battles of enormous proportion. Explanation of Gods and ancient astronauts. If you add usual 'Indiana Jones' type of adventures and romance there was no better choice for me this July. Perhaps, using so many connected sciences in the plot is too risky as the author faces with challenges of choosing what is more important and deserves to be explained better at the expense of other technologies or speculations but I don't mind. All in all, Riddle's Atlanteans are perhaps the best version I read in a long while and I warmly recommend it.

Reconstruction of the Akrotiri Supervolcano (© 7reasons, Michael Klein)*

As for the real Atlanteans or in this case ancient Minoans I hope some of next summers will lead us to the southern Aegean and then this story will earn another post in the thread. No doubt with images from ancient Akrotiri. In the meantime don't miss below link with incredible scientific reconstructions from before the Minoan Eruption made by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archeology (LBI ArchPro).

Images credit:
* The Akrotiri Supervolcano (© 7reasons, Michael Klein)
 

Do You Live to Work, Or Work to Live?

Do you ever wonder why we work like we work? Why does working time last those eight hours, and why does it take the best part of the day? Who made it this way? And why? It all started with the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, which culminated into a real nightmare for most of the workers, especially in large factories, where long working hours were mandatory and kept people outside their homes all day long. The working day was 10 to 16 hours, six days a week, and not only for adults. Use of children was cheap and preferable. Deaths and illnesses from exhaustion were common, and it was cruel and inhuman. Eventually, the nightmare spread from workers toward capitalists as well, in form of rise of social movement with Robert Owen's famous slogan, "Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest".


Well, today, almost two centuries later, we now live, more or less, in Owen's vision, working around eight hours per day and enjoying our lives during or after work. Or both. Nobody today dies from the job. Well, not due to poor working conditions, anyways. Perhaps some of us are in danger ofdeath by boredom on some rainy days in the office, but, and again more or less, today we are in control of our professional careers. On the other end, if you ask me, even these eight hours are sometimes too long. Many times. They say that with age comes wisdom, but also comes a certain dosage of laziness, especially in the second part of the working hours. After 20 years of continuous work in my professional career, eight hours now seems too long. I passed that period in my life with idealistic thoughts and glimpses of the world as it is, waiting for me to make the difference. If you are in your forties, there are other variables that must be included in private and professional life. Middle-age crisis, for example. Not enough challenges like before. Too much routine in both lives. Too competitive an environment, to say the least, wherever you look. Generation gaps. Following faster ways of living. And you don't have to be in your forties anymore to feel the difference or experience injustice.

Perhaps it is time again for another Robert Owen to appear and try to shorten this eight hours to six or less. Or to try and modify the working habits and move everything possible to freelancing and outsourcing. To ban offices in those businesses that still insist on using them in old-fashioned ways, although the entire job can be done today from a kitchen table and home wifi. Before, when I was a teenager and later when I was trying to take the first step in my professional career, they used to say that major changes will come in the 21st century. The new millennium will change everything. Well, the 14th year now in the new spectacular century is about to expire in a few months, and I can't notice anything majorly different. More or less. But still, the major question from the old times is still there. Do you live to work, or do you work to live?


It would be unfair if I continued with this story without answering it first. And to be honest, from the beginning and my first employment, I always worked to live. For me, family and home was, is, and will always be number one. No exceptions. No matter how important the project I was involved in was. But to be completely honest, if I used a scale from minus ten to ten, where -10 means full commitment to the job, while +10 is the finest family time, I would not score the biggest number too often. I don't think I score it easily even today. It is impossible. Sometimes, if it comes into my life challenged and pure, the job can suck me in for days. Months, even. But always let me go. So my number is within a wide scale from -5 to the very high of 9, with more positive than negative values. Ten only sometimes. And I want to keep it that way. If I looked to all my half-a-dozen companies I was working with in my former professional life, the cruel truth is, with a couple of exceptions, that I didn't stay in touch with my former co-workers. We all moved along. Simply put, while our intelligence and education define us completely, our curriculum vitae is nothing more than a document only worthwhile during searching for a new job. Nobody cares what is written inside while you are having a steady job. Only in between two of them.

But enough with work; let's see the other side of the medal. The story I wanted to tell in the first place, and maybe unconsciously, I started with too long an introduction. What actually inspired me for today's story is Tony Parsons—British journalist and novel author. About a month ago, after I read three of Harlan Coben's thrillers in a row and two of James Patterson's Alex Cross series during the summer, I felt that I needed a break from tension and crime stories. But I can't really swallow those light readings with love stories in the foreground, so I went in search of something different—hoping to find a story based on ordinary life, family affairs, or one of those with "true story" written on the main cover. Tony Parsons, with his "Man and Boy" trilogy, gave me exactly what I wanted. And more.


If you didn't read it already, I recommend it warmly. It is about a typical family of the early 21st century, filled with both pain and love, surrounded by a tough life in one large city in which work and mortgage can destroy your life in a split second. Harry Silver, in the main role, shows us everything that might strike one modern family in one fast-forward world and where, no matter how he tries to maintain normal family life, this proves to be not entirely possible with all the mistakes and distractions from the job. It is also about conflicts between generations and what connects them. About the shallowness of business life. Friendships. This is the story that will force your eyes to let go of a tear or two too often, but also it will put a smile on your face every now and again as well.

I stumbled upon "Man and Boy" within Serbian Laguna, my favorite online bookshop, in their editor selection called "Laguna gems" or something like that, and after I reached the second cover, I felt hunger for more stories like this one. So I browsed the bookshop's online store again, secretly hoping for a sequel, and searched the author's page. To my surprise I found two more novels in the trilogy and also short news about the author visiting our town on the tour to promote his latest book. To cut the story short, I ordered the remaining novels, read them in record time, and yesterday Viktor and I grabbed the first book and went to the signing event to meet Tony in person. I knew that a person who was able to write Harry's adventures couldn't be much different than his main character, especially after I read somewhere that his personal life story has many connecting points with the novel itself. As it turned out, Tony Parsons was one great guy with nothing but the smile on his face despite the endless line of people waiting for the autographs. He was especially nice with Viktor and shared the fact that his middle name is also Victor, named after his father, so I can't resist not sharing the photo of two Viktors below. After the event, my son and I went to McDonald's for a Happy Meal to sort out our impressions, and later, the first thing he said to his mother when we came home was, "It was the best day!" I couldn't agree more.

Tony Victor Parsons & Viktor

Anyway, to resume the main story and in conclusion, my life outside work, in its current stage, is one huge place and full of wonders and challenges. No matter if I just read a book, watch a movie, do dishes, participate in a social occasion, play a game, travel, or enjoy precious family time, it is always far ahead of the most enjoyable project at work for which I, in the end, receive a paycheck. This always makes me feel that "work has this strange effect of zooming things larger than they really are".** Money is one great thing we can't live without, but sometimes, if not always, it manages to spoil the very essence of the work it is paid for. In the latest years, when I ask myself why I worked so hard on a project that gave me pleasurable time while it lasted, I always answer with "Oh yes, for the money'. And it wasn't my first thought when I asked myself the same question twenty years ago...

Image refs:
http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/5-things-every-son-needs-to-hear-from-his-dad.html
https://vomitingdiamonds.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/boredom-at-the-office/

Refs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
* http://connections.msn.com/articles/detail/256476535
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/05/typical-work-day-length/
** http://www.thehighcalling.org/work/work-life-balance
http://financecareers.about.com/od/careermanagement/a/LiveToWork.htm
 

The Funniest Book

Have you ever felt sick (medically or ... some other way) and tried to find all the symptoms online? Desperately searching to find what's wrong with you and to catch the disease by its name and to seek for the ultimate cure on the net? If you did, don't worry, you are not alone. The Internet is the smartest thing ever invented, so it's only logical to check your smartphone every time you need it, and everything will be fine.

Or it seems... Well...

Sometimes what you find online is too vague or written with too scholarly words... Other times it looks like you have symptoms of multiple diseases. Sometimes the cure you found online can only be bought on the other side of the planet. And in most cases not in regular or even legal pharmacies... What to do? Well, don't worry, there is a way out. Do what you did before the internet. Make the appointment with your doctor, and if he or she is your good friend, you will get out with the ultimate cure for every single disease out there.

The three men in a boat preview*

Yep, there is one. Here is the recipe:

"1lb beefsteak, with 1 pt bitter beer every 6 hours. 1 ten-mile walk every morning. 1 bed at 11 sharp every night. And don't stuff your head with things you don't understand."

And try to laugh on as many occasions as possible. Laughter is the best medication of all time. The other day after I read one of the thriller books with a great adventurous plot and good characters behind a very well-written script, I thought I needed to get a break from "serious" stuff, and the time came for something lighter and funnier. Therefore, I decided to stop by the nearest bookshop to search their comedy section. Imagine my disappointment after I found out there is no such shelf, even though this was one of the biggest bookstores in the town.... I didn't know what to do... If only I could remember to whom I gave that book about those men in a boat I had and read a decade or so ago. It was the last comedy book I read, and believe me, I'm not exaggerating when I say that I never had more laughter tears on my face with reading any book before. On a couple of occasions it went that far away, so I needed to stop reading in order to go and wash my red face made out of loud laughter! Well, as it happens, and almost immediately after I gave up searching for funny novels online and went to our small library downstairs to get another thriller, I saw it hiding between two James Paterson's Alex Cross books. It never left the shelf in the first place! You can only imagine my happiness. I grabbed it the same moment, cleaned the dust away, and started reading for the second time, and judging by the acquired date inscribed inside, there were more than 12 years between the first encounter of the 19th-century classic, written by Jerome K. Jerome, and the more than promising title "Three Men in a Boat. To say nothing about the dog".

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy**

And yes, the all-diseases-cure recipe I mentioned above is one of the quotes from this very book, and along with all the funny moments inside, I recommend it for the same purpose. This book will trigger the cure for any troubles you possibly have, and believe me, if you are really a fan of true English humor like I am, you will be surprised that you can laugh that hard. Not to mention all the chuckles that are coming out from almost all sentences. Yesterday, while reading a chapter with Uncle Podger hanging a picture frame on the wall, I wasn't aware of all the sounds I emitted in the air, and in one moment, Viktor, my son, sneaked behind me, glimpsed the book on my lap, then looked at me with his most sympathetic expression and said, "What is wrong with you?"

It is really one extraordinary book and one of those that will last forever and be enjoyed by all generations. Whether or not this is really the funniest book ever written depends on your hedonistic inner being, and it is, of course, a highly subjective matter, but nevertheless, over the period of one century by now, it is indeed located highly on numerous top lists of the genre. Well, whatever book it's on the very top being the funniest one ever written, I know for sure which one would score second place. No doubt this place is reserved for the legendary "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and the equally legendary quote about the number 42, which was calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years to be "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything". To me, there is no better science fiction parody ever written, and following Marvin, the Paranoid Android, for the first time sometimes approaches a dangerous level of continuous laughter that can't be stopped easily. Don't panic. Nobody died from laughter ... well ... except for that one guy who died laughing by watching a donkey eating figs. True story. Google it.

Cyrillic vs Latin***

Finally, and almost completely unrelated to the topic, I think it is a good place to share some thoughts about the relation of Cyrillic vs. Latin alphabets that are widely in use in nowadays Western civilization. Contrary to most other nations, Serbians have this privilege of using both letters. Indeed, in the very first grade of the primary school, we learn to read and write in Cyrillic, and in the second one, in the Latin alphabet. It's hard to tell which one is used most often. Officially, the number one alphabet is Cyrillic, but Latin is catching up, especially in recent decades withworldwide globalization and technical education with more usage of modern technologies, especially the internet.

Keeping that in mind, and especially when it comes to paper printing books, magazines, and newspapers, Cyrillic is losing the battle rapidly. Thanks to non-proportional Latin letters, such as "i, l or j" which need little space on the paper, the same text occupies less paper space than if printed in Cyrillic. Therefore, it is hard to find books in Cyrillic today even though, directly inherited from the Greek alphabet, Cyrillic letters are fully proportional and don't require fancy fonts in order for any publication to be eye-catching, and even the reading, from my subjective point of view, is more pleasurable than reading the same text in Latin. That was why, when the other day I opened "Three Men in a Boat" and saw it was printed in Cyrillic, I was twice excited to read it again. Check the difference in the above image with the small Latin snippet in English from Jerome's book and its Cyrillic translation.


I know reading a book has a special magic, but English humor is almost as good in motion pictures as well. If you liked "Only Fools and Horses" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" before, I am sure you will feel the same with "Three Men in a Boat".

* Three Men in a Boat Comic Book
http://pt.slideshare.net/campfiregn/the-three-men-in-a-boat-preview
http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2013/06/three-men-in-boat-part-1.html

**The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
http://www.northernsoul.me.uk/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/

***Cyrillic vs Latin Alphabet
http://www.belgradian.com/useful-information/cyrillic-vs.-latin-alphabet/