Additions not listed above
Here are some additions not listed above (except some items that I think are worthy of yet another listing):
BOOKS
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Six Roads from Newton: Great Discoveries in Physics by Edward Speyer
I think this is the only book from this author . . . and it is one of the best never talked about books I have read on physics.
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Edward Hutchings, and Albert R. Hibbs
What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Phillips Feynman, Ralph Leighton
Six Easy Piecesby Richard Feyman
A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our Future by Bill Moyers
Transcribed from the television series by the same name. Here is a fantastic accompolation of interviews with interesting, thoughtful people. I read back through this book like a reference, it’s timeless. The interview between Moyers and Isaak Asimov is a must read for any secularist.
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
This is Carl Sagan’s last book, finished soon before he died, and when reading it I got the sense that he knew he would not live to write another. It offers a great overview of what science is and isn’t and should I think be read by all skeptics. I have this book on audio, and have listened to the final chapters countless times during long road trips.
A Spell For Chameleon Piers Anthony
I haven’t read this book since I was a kid, but I loved it then, and I still think of it as my favorite childhood book. Piers Anthony is very good at posing interesting ideas and introducing fresh concepts in his books. The first book or two in any one of his ‘anthonologies’ are almost always at least interesting and thought provoking - though the stories themselves can get a little trite - and the Xanth stuff got tiresome. His “Blue Adept” series I liked too.
MOVIES
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Contact - adapted of course from Carl Sagan’s book. I actually liked the movie more than the book.
GATICA
The Matrix
but not the sequals - which I think strayed from the philisophical coolness of the first.
The Thing - John Carpenter
The Life of Brian Monte Python
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
TELEVISON
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A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our Future by Bill Moyers.
This series had a profound -profound effect on me. I truly love Bill Moyers; I admire his approach and thoughtfulness and professionalism. Even if you aren’t a fan of Moyers, everyone shold watch the great interview he has with Issaac Asimov.
Cosmos
I used to skip school in the afternoon, go back home into the basement, turn off all the lights and engourge myself in each episode. That’s how deeply I loved this program. I return and watch some of the episodes and it still has that same inspirational effect on me.
Babylon 5
Quite seriously, after watching B5, I couldn’t stomach watching other Sci-Fi TV, because the others suffered so badly by comparison. Take the time to watch . . . many of the episodes are very average, but your time will ultimately be rewarded. I wasn;t necessarily crazy about the wauy the series ended, but, oh well.
Star Trek - the original and The Next Generation
TNG episodes with Dr. Polasky are the best . . . Polasky added a critical edge to the otherwise too perfect world of the Federation. I love her polite bigotry toward data. It created great dialogue. The episode in the holodeck when a holodeck charcter become conscious is great too.
Law And Order
What a great series of shows. I especially enjoy the Special Crimes Unit. I saw an epsisode last week where recently release sex crime offenders were being stalked and killed . . . one of the best television dramas I’ve ever watched.
The Power of Nightmares - A BBC Documentary film about the co-dependent rise of fundamentalist movements in the U.S. and the Middle East.
MUSIC (not already mentioned)
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Incubus (great stuff!)
Peter Gabriel
ART
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Van Gogh
Jasper Johns
Louise Nevelson
James Whistler
Goya
James Stephen George
GAMES (the best tools for getting a reality check on the state of your critical thinking)
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Connect Four (teach a 6yr old strategy)
Stratego (teach a 9 year old strategy and the art of bluffing)
Blockus
Acquire
Fortess America
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