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A single teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder contributes a hint of New World flavor to an Old World Hungarian goulash. Don't be surprised if your family asks for this soup time and again. Will 'Internet Addiction Disorder' be the downfall of humanity? Neuroscientist Greenfield's foray into science fiction produces sentences that simply boggle the mindIt is sometimes the case that an individual famous for non-literary reasons decides they want to write fiction. To the ranks of Bertrand Russell, Mussolini and Julie Burchill we can now add eminent neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, internationally <img src="http://assets.****brix.com/hashed_silo_content/1e2/dd7/140/resized/wtf-when-you-see-it-you-ll-****-brix-d6dc9a.jpg"> renowned professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College, Oxford, and former director of the Royal Institution. People often say they "have a novel in them". By publishing 2121, Greenfield has proved that she actually did have a novel in her. Unfortunately, it's a very bad novel.How is it bad? Let me count the ways. It is badly <img src="http://img.izismile.com/img/img5/20120119/640/hilarious_and_puzzling_****brix_memes_part_2_640_4 7.jpg"> conceived, badly realised, badly characterised, badly paced and above all badly written. On the plus side, the typeface is nice and I quite liked the front cover art.2121 is a novel with a thesis: that the current vogue for checking Twitter on <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/directory-of-ezines">directory of ezines review </a> watching YouTube videos of cats doing endearing things is a profound pathology of humankind. This, of course, is Greenfield's "Internet Addiction Disorder"; one of her more controversial ideas. Perhaps you agree with it. <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f_v-oc4PKuE/UNvMtG9O2SI/AAAAAAAAA2I/Qx9mslXTdmQ/s1600/Amazing%2BSand%2BArt_shark.jpg"> If you don't, I'd hazard that reading this novel will not convert you.In Greenfield's imagined 22nd century, the pressure of IAD has bifurcated humanity into two groups. On the one hand are the "Hedonists", who live inside geodesic domes playing video games and lack any concept beyond immediate gratification. On <img src="http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/3100000/the-simpsons-vs-family-guy-the-simpsons-vs-family-guy-3145242-600-638.jpg"> the other side of the mountains are the "NPs" ("neo-Puritans", "neo-Platonists"), living in square grey domiciles with grey fixtures and fittings and wearing grey clothes. Their lives are rigidly timetabled. They dedicate themselves to intellectual pursuits, especially neuroscientific research.It is an improbable extrapolation from the present, and the novel's worldbuilding is airless and unconvincing. But what about the story? Well, for the first 100 pages, nothing at all happens. Then an NP neuroscientist called Fred is sent into the land of the "Others" to research them. He makes this journey by bicycle. This bike plays a major part in the novel (indeed, it's a more convincing character than <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/ex-girlfriend-guru">i want my girlfriend back </a> the human beings) and Greenfield repeatedly tells us its colour. It is "lilac". It has "a distinctive lilac colour".Fred infiltrates one of the Others' geodesic domes, becoming <img src="http://cdn.thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/alicia-keys-girl-on-fire-promo-pictures-01-527x325.jpeg"> romantically involved with a woman called Zelda while performing neuroscientific research on a younger female <img src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/gty_courtney_love-kb_130124_wg.jpg"> called Sim. "Do I really want power?" Fred ponders. "What I really want is to escape on my lilac bicycle." Later, Fred copulates (Greenfield's preferred term) with Sim also, which causes Zelda a degree of jealousy. "I heard as though he had spoken at <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-33MnKBjGZPo/UQv8EBotT8I/AAAAAAAAARM/MbDw3SqGJbE/s1600/2.jpg"> five hundred decibels. I was deafened, and the abyss cracked apart to open up yet further depths. I tumbled down blinded into a blackness that was utter, complete, final." Poor Zelda! "The cold dead heart inside me grew heavier and heavier until I was entirely just that, a cold heavy lump. Plodding towards what end?" Sim is upset too: "an unlovely trail of colourless fluid was inching unchecked from her nose. But her chin was still pointed upwards though perhaps teetering on defeat." And Fred? "I have no significance," sighs Fred. "I now feel too sad and small to ride the big, carefree bicycle."Like Dan Brown, Greenfield is <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/natural-vitiligo-treatment">natural vitiligo treatment review natural vitiligo treatment </a> to adjectives and capable of sentences that simply boggle the mind: "Fred looked far away, then visibly jerked himself back to me"; "The moment can fatten, swell, bloated with the reliving of recent times with Fred, looking and listening to that creased smiling face"; "The sudden thud of silence was heavy and suffocating." The prose shifts tense queasily from past to present, and Greenfield appears innocent of the rule that a verb must agree in number with its noun. But she differs from Brown in one respect. Brown is readable; he tells a story that moves briskly along. Greenfield's repetitive narrative is clogged with myriad indigestible mini-lectures on neuroscience, most of them from Fred â€“ "He was speaking in unremitting chunks", is how one character puts it. It's too painfully true. I laid the book down rather as Fred lays down his lilac bicycle: "He had let the bicycle fall. It lay on its side, its wheels still slowly revolving, suddenly awkward, unloved, and lovely no longer."â€¢ Adam Roberts' Jack Glass is published by Gollancz.Science fictionFictionSusan GreenfieldInternetAdam Robertsguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/tinnitusmiracle">tinnitus miracle </a> reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    President proposes spending $2 billion from offshore oil revenues on science <img src="http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/ten-amazing-telescopes-1.jpg"> What Swedish babies and the Stone Age can teach us about life expectancy and income inequality. Venezuela brushed off criticism from U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday and maintained its accusation that an <img src="http://cdn.motinetwork.net/motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/1204/wtf-baby-demotivational-posters-1335795185.jpg"> American detainee in Caracas is a spy pretending to be a filmmaker.     Northeast Cyndi Lauper, trailblazer in pop, now a Broadway composer and reality TV star, expounds on her journey. Eight scientific groups representing 40,000 researchers are calling for a change in the way the federal government assesses the safety of chemicals in everyday products. A new <img src="http://imfunny.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Barbie-fake-funny.jpg"> study finds that elderly people who are resuscitated in a hospital by CPR have a significant chance of being alive one year later. The vanishingly small speck whose spin has been confirmed as being Higgs-like ought to be regarded with aweIt is a subatomic point where hard science meets myth and mystery, so much about the Higgs boson gets mangled in the telling. It is not, as is sometimes <img src="http://cdn.necolebitchie.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Keri-Hilson-Pretty-Girls-Rock.jpg"> claimed, the <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/Pregnancy-Miracle">Pregnancy Miracle </a> of matter's heft â€“ Einstein taught us that mass and energy are two sides of the same coin, so there is (ahem) no such massive hole for a tiny particle to fill. But the vanishingly small speck identified in the Large Hadron Collider last year, whose "spin" is this week confirmed as being Higgs-like, ought to be regarded with <img src="http://static.manoramaonline.com/ranked/online/MM/The_Week/COVER_STORY/Indias_Best_Colleges/52%2520Cover%2520story%2520OPE%2520BEST.jpg"> awe. For Higgs, if that is what it proves to be, lends electrons the bulk they need to hang around, thereby keeping elements distinct and making possible all the reactions that we call chemistry. More specifically, and by means of the so-called weak force, it facilitates the nuclear processes that power our sun, and so makes possible our warmth, our light and ourselves. In Conrad's words: these little things make all the great difference.Higgs bosonParticle physicsPhysicsguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Super Sarko would, begrudgingly, pass up joys of school run for comeback if country veered towards extremism, says magazineThe <img src="http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2012/10/16/AP923869718394/large.jpg"> former French president Nicolas <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/trademiner">trademiner </a> prefer to be left alone to take his daughter to school and travel the world giving speeches.If his country needs him, however, he <img src="http://media.outsideonline.com/images/BestPlaceslogo_12.jpg"> will put duty before desire and return to save France.The ex-president, nicknamed "Super Sarko" during his five-year term at the ElysÃ©e, vowed to disappear from public life after his election <img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6r4npUN671qg4pceo1_400.jpg"> defeat to the Socialist FranÃ§ois Hollande last year.In Thursday's edition of the centre-right magazine Valeurs Actuelles, however, Sarkozy is reportedly ready to make the ultimate self-sacrifice, saying he might have to make a political comeback "for the sake of France."Sadly, there may come a moment when the question is no longer, do you want to?, but, do you have the choice? In this case I cannot say I'm happy taking my daughter to school and doing conferences around the world."In that case, obviously, I shall be obliged to do this. Not because of desire, but of duty, and only because it is for France."However, the magazine quotes the former president as saying that the political world "bores him to death"."Politics â€¦ it's finished. Let's be clear, I've no desire to have anything to do <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/forex-growth-bot">forex growth bot download </a> political world â€¦ and anyway, look how I was treated ... let alone how my wife was treated. Banned from singing for five years," Sarkozy allegedly told friends.He added that he would be persuaded to return <img src="http://img.izismile.com/img/img5/20121218/640/most_wtf_celebrity_pictures_of_2012_640_11.jpg"> only if France was veering towards the "extremism of the right or that of the left".He said he had no desire to avenge his defeat by Hollande. "That's a bad thing to feel. And anyway, what kind of revenge would it be to retake France in the state the Socialists will leave her. So, honestly, do I want to come back. No."Sarkozy was not speaking directly to Valeurs Actuelles, which reported that his comments had been made to close associates who spoke to the magazine, presumably with the former president's blessing.Nicolas SarkozyFranceEuropeKim Willsherguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and <img src="http://redkiteprayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Winter_Ride.jpg"> Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Hawks used to look out to watch over for this piece of farmland for trouble. Soon, it will be parents and umpires monitoring kids pounding cleats on the land <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/vision-without-glasses">vision-without glasses </a> once tilled. The change in land use tells a more complex story about school development, particularly at a time when open space Galatasaray clinched their 19th Turkish league title with a 4-2 win over Sivasspor on Sunday, crowning a successful season in which they reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.     Tensions are high in Venezuela as opposition leader Henrique Capriles pressures the National Electoral Council to permit a complete audit of the April 14 presidential election.     Ron Finley is a crusader for planting vegetable gardens in urban areas.     In high school, I was a nerd with political ambitions, desperate for popularity. My U.S. history teacher encouraged criticism, giving me a chance for glory when, during the usual Friday game of 20 questions, he said the thing we were trying to guess occurred in the 19th century. Image: Christine Daniloff â€œYou have <img src="http://cdn.ph.upi.com/sv/i/UPI-2001362084569/2013/1/13620869041786/Westminster-show-dog-murder-mystery.jpg"> to be meticulous if you are taking a creatureâ€™s life,â€ says Yoshikazu Kondo. â€œWith fish, you must always <img src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/gty_courtney_love-kb_130124_wg.jpg"> take great care.â€ These soap dispensers will shine <img src="http://newspaper.li/static/af9a7d365bf2ff6b98a62905cd7014e1.bmp"> even after the flu epidemic passes. Video: Watch a color movie of Mercuryâ€™s surface captured by MESSENGER BEIJING <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/Fibroids-Miracle">Fibroids Miracle </a> Feiyun belongs to an army that the Chinese government doesn't like. Yang's army operates online, obeying few rules. Its members spend <img src="http://i2.bebo.com/044/5/large/2008/07/20/19/1975860396a8382120256l.jpg"> long hours in front of the computer, normally for meager wages, posting comments in as many places as possible. Nurse practitioners believe that they can lead primary care practices and admit patients to a hospital and that they deserve to earn the same amount as doctors for the same work. Physicians disagree.     The view inside the customized scanning tunneling microscope that the researchers are using. With this device, they create carefully controlled indentations on a surface and then determine atom-by-atom changes in the physical structure as well as local alterations in chemical reactivity that result. West Ham confident of securing winger from Mexican club Morelia, while Jed Steer is set to leave Norwich for Aston VillaJefferson Montero West Ham UnitedWest Ham are close to signing Jefferson Montero by triggering the Ecuadorian's Â£3m release clause at his Mexican club, Morelia.Roberto MartÃ*nez, the Everton manager, is also interested in Montero, who reportedly came close to signing for Wigan Athletic in January when the Spaniard was in <a href = "http://zed15.tumblr.com/Shapeshifter-Yoga">Shapeshifter Yoga review </a> it is understood that West Ham are confident of securing the services of the 23-year-old winger, who has played for Ecuador 27 times.RenÃ© Meulensteen Man UnitedDavid Moyes has dispensed with RenÃ© Meulensteen as first-team coach, the Dutchman becoming the last of Sir Alex Ferguson's senior backroom staff to depart the club. Meulensteen follows the assistant manager Mike Phelan, the goalkeeping coach Eric Steele, and the chief scout Martin Ferguson out of Manchester United. Meulensteen turned down <img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_diF-v-rEz7c/S3CHJStf77I/AAAAAAAAA6A/8TcSIQCBJKM/s400/InternetToughGuy_2-468x.jpg"> the chance to take up an alternative role.Jed Steer Aston VillaAston Villa's manager, Paul Lambert, has said the Norwich <img src="http://mostbeautifulflower.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/red-rose-flower-wallpaper-5.jpg"> City goalkeeper Jed Steer will become his sixth summer acquisition on 1 July.Lambert has been busy in the transfer market, bringing in the defenders Jores Okore and Antonio Luna, midfielders Leandro Bacuna and Aleksandar Tonev, and the Danish striker Nicklas Helenius.The 20-year-old Steer will complete the move once his deal at Carrow Road expires. The former England Under-19 international will provide competition for Brad Guzan and Benji Siegrist.guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9UqIcP_QCd4/Tr_D_JbXnEI/AAAAAAAAAjk/oY2ghE5zVkw/s1600/Rory-Gilmore-gilmore-girls-34512_766_1024.jpg"> More