Reviews for Culture media for food microbiology

The average rating for Culture media for food microbiology based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-29 00:00:00 Richard Boynton Very unusual read. And do NOT let the length fool you. This is not a short skip across the brain pond. It holds layers. Philosophers amongst you, as much as those who have minutia interest in the natural world, may appreciate these ponderings of Fra Mauro. He has made it his life's work to chart a picture of the "world" for that information rendered during the general periods of explorations (1300's-1400's)for the then known boundaries of Earth. But not Earth alone. This is not an easy read. Footnotes alone took me as long as a normal "modern" novel. But it was 5 star intriguing to the perceptions and conceptions about our human positions. Cultural perception and worldview paradigm are parsed here in rather unique fashion. I much appreciated the "us/we" and "they/them" juxtapositions of what is and was "reality". This is a book that demands concentration to grasp its conceptual depths. And it is SO extremely interesting to see where dogma and morality fall in these strictures and definitions too. No more so than in those implications for humans and cultures who attest in "believing" nearly nothing about the spiritual or God origins of any existence. And how that mind concept in its practical applications may become one of the strictest dogmas of all. Lots and lots below the surface in implications here to judgment of others intentions too. And the physical aspects as well, impelling for those who have intense interest in anthropology or biology/botany of the natural world. The last pages are his eventual drawing of the "real world" from the facts of his research and first person witness to world travelers and other earth locations. I especially chuckled at his one footed human described by witnesses (I'm nearly sure they were kangaroos)and other animal world entities you may hear described through completely different "eyes". His philosophy and ponderings of depth upon cannibalism was especially astute and illuminating to the profundity of Fra Mauro's understanding of what is human cognition and inputs of cultural context that ground it. This was an excellent read. I do NOT suggest that you read this on an airplane with a screaming baby in the row behind you and three 8-10 year olds traveling without an adult in the row in front of you, as I did. But then, maybe I do, because you NEED to focus all your attention on this book to plunge its sublime depth. And if you can slide into his subtle and lyrical language of detail to abstractions - you will absolutely transfer your attendance to "another world". Fra Mauro's world of erudite thought. One more thing. I just HAVE to add it. This is fiction and poses an author and worldview of a certain place and time, as well. It has a mood and a yearning feel of lassitude because of Fra Mauro's status state of a NON-TRAVELER. I think other posters of reviews of this book have possibly missed a layer here and there. And want a more modern snark humor because that is what they may closely self define as that of the more educated of "knowledge". This work approaches with far less ridicule in comparisons. Well- to me- this category of observation for homo sapiens' cognition of "real"; this way may be less snappy, but far more actual to what can eventually be defined as closer to "truth". This kind of deceptively brief exercise could be easily under appreciated, IMHO.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-25 00:00:00 Marcello Piz I read this book when it first came out in 1997, then just reread it again. I wish I would not have reread it, since the shine has faded. If this is your first dip into a fictional pseudo-history, you might like A Mapmaker's Dream, as I did on the first reading. At the time, I was eyeball-deep in academic texts on history and some philosophical writings (Foucault, Derrida, and Chomsky, mostly). So the escape into a fictional realm that read like non-fiction was a treat. Since that time I've discovered (and sometimes rediscovered) several authors who do the same thing much better than Cowan did here and, despite the chronology of my encounters with their works, did it earlier, as well. If you feel the need to read A Mapmaker's Dream, may I recommend, rather, Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars, Rhys Hughes' A New Universal History of Infamy, Ivo Andric's The Bridge on the Drina, or Norman Lock's/George Belden's Land of the Snow Men? Each of these handles the pseudo-historical fiction sub-genre with greater joy and acumen than Cowan's novel. Each of these novels had me voraciously chewing my way through them and at least a couple of them have stood up well on a re-read (Calvino's and Hughes' in particular). These works filled me with excitement and (sometimes grim) laughter, whereas the philosophizing in Cowan's work had the opposite effect, at least the second time around. A Mapmaker's Dream was, as the title might imply, a soporific, causing me to dream more than to read. Like a drug, it's easy to build up a tolerance for this sort of thing and need a stronger, headier dose of the stuff to get excited about it. Unfortunately, I didn't find my fix between the covers of this book. To quote Huey Lewis (apologies, I'm a child of the '80s): "I need a new drug".