I’ve just finished reading “Hominids” - the first book of Robert J Sawyer’s trilogy. It’s about bisexual Neanderthals from a parallel universe who use quantum computers, wear Hawaiian shirts and stumble into our universe by accident. In all seriousness, it’s a great sci-fi book. It’s been a while since I found something as bizarre and interesting. Here’s a link if anyone is interested: http://www.amazon.com/Hominids-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/0765345005/

dougsmith - 26 July 2012 05:38 AM

harry canyon - 25 July 2012 01:23 PM

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. It’s an entertaining read, murder mysteries, history, and chemistry all rolled into one. I had no idea there was such a problem with wood alcohol during prohibition…

(Who would have thought chemistry could be so interesting. )

IIRC the author was a guest on PoI awhile back. It’s a very good book.

I’ll second that, It was good enough for a re-read!

Finished E.O. Wilson’s “The Social Conquest of Earth” recently.  Very interesting, highly technical book dealing with the biological underpinings of societies.  (Gets an A-)  Also have just read Charles Duhigg “The Power of Habit” A sociological based study of the uses of habit within socities. This gets a B.

I am currently reading Jules Feiffer’s “Explainers”  The complete Village Voice Strips 1956-1966.  I had forgotten how funny Feiffer can be with his critisms of society.  I have had to look up several things he was refering to in these pieces as they wee before I ecame an adult.  It is amazing how many of his observations are still valid.

I am currently reading Jules Feiffer’s “Explainers” - The complete Village Voice Strips 1956-1966.  I had forgotten how funny Feiffer can be with his criticisms of society.  I have had to look up several things he was referring to in these pieces as they occurred before I became an adult.  It is amazing how many of his observations are still valid 50 plus years later. 

As I am sure many of you know I am a bit of a compulsive reader.  I am considering a new project, partly to lighten up my reading.  I am starting to collect various cartoons with a view to showing how they influence society as much if not more than the heavy philosophical works that many professors demand be used.

My favorites in the daily paper are Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean, both written by the same Canadians, although this week’s Doonesbury with the pen being passed from father to daughter has my attention.

Nothing, but I just finished Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex.

I recently finished The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

I’m currently reading How To Be A Really Good Pain In The Ass by Christopher W. Dicarlo.

Take care,

Derek

I have recently read “The Third Pandemic” by Pierre Ouellette and “The universe is a single atom” by the Dalai Lama.  The first is fiction but presents a great story that most will enjoy reading.  The one by the Dali lama explains the scientific knowledge he has obtained of the world.  The third is about how physics and scientific thinking can illuminate the modern world.  They are all good and you don’t need to be a biologist, Buddhist Monk, or physicists to understand them.

Just finished “The First Human” by Ann Gibbons. It’s literally a history of paleoanthropology from the naturalists of the 19th Century through the Leaky’s and beyond. it’s a very detailed account of the earliest homonim remains pushing the development of humans back to 7-8 million ya. She also shows the fights among the paleo community over territory and overcoming the political strife in Central Africa. This is a must read for anyone interested in the roots of paleoanthropology.

I’m now in the middle of Pinker’s “The Language Instinct”. Right now he’s blasting Chomsky for obfuscation. Interesting stuff.

Cap’t Jack

Just finishing “The Character of Physical Law” by Richard Feynman. I’m in the middle of “The Blind Watchmaker” by Richard Dawkins, “Some Mistakes of Moses” by Robert Ingersoll and “Symmetry” by Leon Lederman and Christopher Hill.
I just got “A Universe from Nothing” by Lawrence Krauss from the library and so I’ve got to work that into my queue also.(I’ve heard it’s excellent and a fairly easy read too)

lhkollider - 08 September 2012 10:28 AM

Just finishing “The Character of Physical Law” by Richard Feynman. I’m in the middle of “The Blind Watchmaker” by Richard Dawkins, “Some Mistakes of Moses” by Robert Ingersoll and “Symmetry” by Leon Lederman and Christopher Hill.
I just got “A Universe from Nothing” by Lawrence Krauss from the library and so I’ve got to work that into my queue also.(I’ve heard it’s excellent and a fairly easy read too)

Sounds like you like to read as much as I do.  Currently fiinishing up the current issuse of Foriegn Affairs reading the Economist, have just finished Harrold M. Tanner’s History of China and am currently readingSimon Sebag Montefiore’s Jerusalem and It’\s Obvious You Won’t Survive by Your Wits Alone - A Dilbert Book by Scott Adams.

Glad to have you aboard.

Re-reading Childhoods End by Arthur C Clarke. One of the best, most thought-provoking sci-fi I’ve ever read. And to me at least, it’s one of those books whose ideas are so grand, that it makes reading “lesser” sci-fi a bit harder, as in boring.

I’m sending a box of books to my daughter, and needed one more thin one to fill the box.  I pulled out a copy of Calvin & Hobbs, The Revenge of the Baby-Sat.  It fit nicely, but I made the mistake of opening it up.  I have to read the whole thing again.   An early one was him looking up and yelling about wanting snow.  This goes on for ten drawings, him getting angrier and angrier, and the eleventh is him looking up, shaking his fist and yelling, “Do you want me to become an atheist?”

Occam

I just recently finished A.C. Grayling’s Against All Gods, and have been going trough selections of Hitchens’ collection The Portable Atheist. (where A.C. Grayling also finds himself).

Brilliant writing. I particularly enjoy Rushdie’s Letter to the 6 Billionth Citizen of the World

This appeared in Librivox last month.

Thinking as a Science (1916) by Henry Hazlitt
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104611461/Henry-Hazlitt-Thinking-as-a-Science
http://librivox.org/thinking-as-a-science-by-henry-hazlitt/

Hazlitt really cracked me up.  He is the first person I have encountered to come to the same conclusion I did.

God can’t think.

If you KNOW EVERYTHING then what is there to figure out to THINK about? 

psik

Common Sense Economics by James D. Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Dwight R. Lee and Tawni H. Ferrarini. I haven’t read a lot of economics books but I like this as it’s not ‘math-based’ or basics, but more how economics, people and government are interwoven.

Take care,

Derek

I’m currently reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Since I’m already traveling down the road of Atheist literature, I thought I would follow that up with God is Not Great By Christopher Hitchens, then What is Good: The Search for The Best Way to Live by AC Grayling.