I'll Drink to That

Toasting the End of an Error - Proof Blog - NYTimes.com:

The writer and social commentator H.L Mencken compared its effects, in terms of the suffering it had caused, to the Black Death in Medieval Europe and marked its passing with a glass of water — “my first in 13 years.”

Sway

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman read by John Apicella

Description

Like the bestselling Blink and Freakonomics, this lively narrative is a fresh view of the world, explaining the previously inexplicable and revealing hidden influences on human decision-making.

A Harvard Business School student pays over $200 for a $20 bill. Washington, DC commuters ignore a free subway concert by a violin prodigy. A veteran airline pilot attempts to take off without control tower clearance and collides with another plane on the runway. Why do we do the wildly irrational things we sometimes do?

Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, brothers Ori and Rom Brafman reveal the dynamic forces that act on us repeatedly over time, affecting nearly every aspect of our personal and business lives. They show how we are sabotaged by loss aversion (going to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (ignoring evidence that contradicts our initial take on a person or situation), and commitment (even when a plan isn’t working, we are reluctant to change course). Weaving together colorful stories-- about dot-com millionaires, game show audiences, NBA coaches, and the US Supreme Court-- tours the flip side of reason and points us toward a more rational life.

Momster

Hot Library Smut

Hot Library Smut:

Yesterday I came across a truly gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, one rich, sumptuous, photo of a library interior after another. It’s like porn for book nerds.

Henri

Will Braden:

“A Hilarious parody of European existentialism, on a budget probably no pricier than a week’s supply of cat food.”

-LA Weekly

Absurdistan

Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart read by Arte Johnson

Description

2007 Audie® Award Finalist - Literary Fiction

"With the enormous success of the critically acclaimed The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Gary Shteyngart established himself as one of the most talented writers of his generation. Open Absurdistan and meet our hero, the outsize Misha Vainberg, son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, lover of large portions of food and drink, lover and inept performer of rap music, and lover of a South Bronx Latina whom he longs to rejoin in New York City, if only the American INS will grant him a visa. It won’t, because Misha’s late Beloved Papa whacked an Oklahoma businessman of some prominence; now Misha is paying the price of exile from his adopted American homeland. He’s stuck in Russia, dreaming of his beloved Rouenna and the Oz of NYC.

Misha’s quest in Absurdistan is a strange, oddly true-to-life look at how we live now from one of the most exciting and original new voices on the literary landscape.

What Happened

What Happened - Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception by Scott McClellan read by Scott McClellan

Description

Scott McClellan belonged to Bush’s select inner circle of trusted advisers during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Over a period of more than seven years, he witnessed day-to-day exactly how the Presidency veered off course: not only by its decision to topple Saddam Hussein, but by an embrace of confrontational politics in the face of an increasingly partisan Washington and hostile media.

In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and two hotly-contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and explores the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.

Stupid Black Men

Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card - And Lose by Larry Elder read by Larry Elder

Description

Is life unfair for Black Americans?

Is racial equality the answer to every question of public policy?

Is a huge group of citizens kept down by “the man”?

Radio host and bestselling author Larry Elder has made a career out of being a thorn in the side of the conventional-wisdom crowd. He deflates the pompous and points out the completely logical truths hidden behind the nutty rhetoric and out-of-control pandering of politicians and the so-called leaders of a variety of special-interest groups. In Stupid Black Men, he takes on the mind- set of those people who always capture the most media attention-as well as masses of public money-people who say that racism in the root of all problems and who end up hurting precisely those they claim to be helping. Whether they are demagogues like Al Sharpton, established politicians like Hilary Clinton, or entertainers like Danny Glover, no one escapes Elder’s cogent arguments and rapier wit. His sometimes hilarious and always infuriating examples of wrong-headedness skewer not just politicians for their smugness and hypocrisy but also actors, educators religious leaders, and the “main-scream media” for keeping the story in the headlines. But Elder has a positive message; too: though they are fewer-and generally not as loudmouthed-there are leaders and role models today who want to sweep away race-based whining and urge everyone in America to share in the hard work, smart thinking, and optimism that make this country great.

Avoiding Compunction

Cheap advice: Author of "Rancho Costa Nada" on how to not spend money:

'I'm as unambitious as a Buddhist,' Garlington said by way of explanation. 'I'd rather have leisure than income. I want plenty of time to ramble or lounge around with a book, and so don't wish the constraint of a schedule or an overseer.'

"My strategic goal is not to better the planet through reducing my share of smudge, although it's true my thumbprint is small," he said. "My goal is to avoid compunction by not working very much for others."

The Bush Tragedy

The Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg read by Robertson Dean

Description

In this first important consideration of the George W. Bush presidency and its profound impact on the state of the world, Jacob Weisberg crafts a wide-ranging portrait that is both balanced and insightful. Weisberg traces the evolution of Bush's political philosophy from its roots in his early life and his years as governor of Texas through the events of 9/11 and his turbulent two terms in office. With careful analyses, Weisberg offers an eye-opening assessment of Bush's deeply conflicted relationship with his father, former President George H. W. Bush, and with major figures in the administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This groundbreaking book of reportage, synthesis, and analysis will stand as the indispensable account of a presidency of enormous consequence.

Life, the Universe and Everything

Life, the Universe and Everything - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series, Book 3 by Douglas Adams read by Martin Freeman

Description

The third installment in the hysterical Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. The unhappy inhabitants of the planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads - so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goals of annihilation...

Blackwater

Blackwater - The Rise Of The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill read by Tom Weiner

Description

A largely untold facet of the war on terror is the widespread outsourcing of military tasks to private mercenary companies. Accountable neither to the citizenry nor to standard military legal codes, these largely unregulated corporate armies are being entrusted with ever-greater responsibilities on behalf of the nation.

Meet Blackwater USA, the world’s most secretive, powerful, and fastest growing private army on the planet. Founded by fundamentalist Christian megamillionaire Erik Prince, the scion of a conservative dynasty that bankrolls extreme-right-wing causes, this company of soldiers is now being sent “to the front lines of a global battle, waged largely on Muslim lands, that an evangelical President whom Prince helped put in the White House has boldly defined as a ‘crusade’.”

Ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to Washington, D.C., where they are hailed as heroes, this is the dark story of Blackwater’s rise to power.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series, Book 2 by Douglas Adams read by Martin Freeman

Description

This sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy finds Arthur Dent, reluctant space adventurer, joining Zaphod Beeblebrox—two-headed former president of the galaxy—Zaphod's dead great-grandfather, sexy cadet Trillian, and paranoid Marvin in the search for the ruler of the Universe.

Banana Guard

19 Clever Inventions That Make Life Easier... or Not | DailyCognition.com:

"BANANA GUARD - Protect Your Banana!

Are you fed up with bringing bananas to work or school only to find them bruised and squashed? Banana Guard allows you to safely transport and storage individual bananas letting you enjoy perfect bananas anytime, anywhere.

Synthetic Happiness

Book Fetish

Johnny Depp: Manuscripts Librarian? | LibGig:

"a belief that books will gain increasingly fetishistic status in the digital age"

The Botany of Desire

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan Read by Scott Brick

Description

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulop, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, the plants have also benefited at least as much from their association with us. So who is really domesticating whom?

Click here to read the full AudioFile Magazine review of this title

They Don’t Want to Leave Providence.

Towns They Don’t Want to Leave - NYTimes.com:

AFTER graduating from Brown in May, David Noriega, a 21-year-old comparative literature major from Binghamton, N.Y., moved a few miles away from campus and began reading the books he didn’t have time for in college. While most of his classmates have started jobs in new cities, he is paying cheap rent, playing in a noise band, working on translating two Mexican novels — a voluntary extension of his thesis — and looking for a day job that’s “probably not motivating or career-furthering.”

“The graduation ceremony is this giant, expensive gesture telling you that you are done here,” says Mr. Noriega. “And yet I’m still wandering around the same spaces, passing the desolate main green, wondering what exactly it is that I’m doing.”

Mr. Noriega, faced with the pressure of graduation, is not alone in his decision to, more or less, ignore it. Come commencement, many linger for months or years, prolonging the intermediate stage between college and the rest of their lives

PROVIDENCE (pop. 175,255)
(BROWN; RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN)

Freshly minted graduates support themselves (and their art projects) with part-time jobs like milling soap, making cheese or working as nannies for professors’ children. They share cavernous spaces in converted 19th-century textile mills in working-class neighborhoods rapidly rising in value, often to the dismay of longtime residents.

“Providence used to be a place where graduates left immediately, but now it’s gotten to the point where people not affiliated with either university are moving here just to be near a young, creative community,” says Megan Hall, 26, a public radio reporter who graduated from Brown in 2004 and initially lived in a partially converted potato warehouse, where sacks of potatoes were routinely delivered to the building by forklift. “A lot of us can experiment with this really simple lifestyle. We’re not afraid of being poor.”

Ms. Hall still thinks about returning home to Portland, Ore. Most of her friends, she says, talk about leaving but never do. Last year, she and a friend made a radio documentary, “The Break Up Project Performance,” about the city’s incestuous dating pool, which begins with a teary-voiced woman complaining about"

NYT: Living in Providence After College Makes You Super Lame
12:26 pm on July 28th, 2008 in Daily Dose by Lissa Jean

Innisfree

Innisfree is a 150-acre public garden in which the ancient art of Chinese landscape design has been reinterpreted to create, without recourse to imitation, a unique American garden. At Innisfree the visitor strolls from one three-dimensional picture to another. Streams, waterfalls, terraces, retaining walls, rocks, and plants are used not only to define areas but also to establish tension or motion. The 40-acre lake is glacial, most of the plant material is native, and the rocks have come from the immediate forest.

• Season: Innisfree Garden is open from May 7 to October 20.
• Hours: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10 AM to 4 PM. Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, 11 AM to 5 PM. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays except legal holidays.
• Admission: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, $4 per person 4 years of age and older. Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, $5 per person 4 years of age and older.
• Telephone: 845-677-8000

Black Duck

Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle read by David Ackroyd

Original historical fiction by Newbery Honor winner Janet Taylor Lisle is filled with resounding mystery and suspense. When Ruben and Jed find a dead body on the Rhode Island shore, they are certain it has something to do with smuggling liquor. It is the 1920's, Prohibition is in full swing, and almost everyone in the shore community is involved. Suddenly, the boys find themselves involved as well: Didn't the dead man have something on him, and didn't they take it? It isn't long before Ruben is actually on the legendary Black Duck itself, caught in a war between two of the most ferocious prohibition gangs.

Buddha Brand

In Japan, Buddhism May Be Dying Out - NYTimes.com:

“I know that, originally, that’s not what Buddhism was about,” Mr. Hayashi said of the top name. “But it’s a brand that our customers choose. Some really want it, so that means there’s a strong desire there, and we have to respond to it.”

Today's TEDs

Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
Karen Armstrong: 2008 TED Prize wish: Charter for Compassion
Dave Eggers: 2008 TED Prize wish: Once Upon a School
Paul Collier: 4 ways to improve the lives of the "bottom billion"
Nathan Myhrvold: A life of fascinations

Daylight Robbery

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Panorama | Daylight Robbery:

"Daylight Robbery: BBC One 9pm Tuesday 10 June 2008. Panorama investigates claims that as much as $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams read by Stephen Fry

Description

Don't leave Earth without this hilarious international bestseller about the end of the world and the happy-go-lucky days that follow...about the worst Thursday that ever happened and why the Universe is a lot safer if you bring a towel.

Last Lecture

Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow read by Erik Singer

Description

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." - Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave - "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" - wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this audiobook, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

For more information visit www.theLastLecture.com

GOD's Banana

from kottke.org by jason@kottke.org
Man, I love this video. It's some guy explaining how...

Man, I love this video. It's some guy explaining how the banana -- "the atheist's nightmare" -- so perfectly fits in the human hand and peels so easily that it must have been made by God**. Kirk Cameron listens intently. I can't wait for the followup video where he explains why watermelons don't have handles and what God was thinking when he built the coconut.

** Not that this guy cares or whatever, but the modern banana is a cultivated fruit...i.e. pressured by humans to, oh what's the word...evolve into its present form. And other varieties of bananas are smaller or larger and differently shaped. Some wild bananas have large hard seeds. I could go on....

Bananas

Bananas: How The United Fruit Company Shaped the World by Peter Chapman

NYT Sunday Book Review
Big Fruit
By DANIEL KURTZ-PHELAN
Published: March 2, 2008
A U.S. company, Latin America and the dark side of the banana business.

Banana

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel

Description

From its early beginnings in Southeast Asia, to the machinations of the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica and Central America, the banana's history and its fate as a victim of fungus are explored.

New York Times - Op-Ed Contributor

Yes, We Will Have No Bananas

By DAN KOEPPEL

Published: June 18, 2008

If bananas reach $1 a pound, the strategy that allowed banana companies to turn an exotic, tropical fruit into an everyday favorite will begin to unravel.

The Nation - Banana Kings by Emily Biuso

The Passion Plan

The Passion Plan: Find Your Passion and Change Your Life by Richard Chang read by Richard Chang

Description

In The Passion Plan, Dr. Richard Chang presents seven simple steps to discovering the things we really care about, deciding where we want them to take us, and developing a plan to get us there.

Hot Target

Hot Target: Troubleshooters Series, Book 8 by Suzanne Brockmann read by Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank

Description

New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann knows exactly what makes hearts race and pulses pound: peril and passion. No one succeeds more brilliantly at blending these exhilarating elements in breathtaking novels of men and women forced to grapple with the deepest emotions and the highest risks. And there's no better proof than her new novel of suspense: Hot Target aims to thrill on every level.

Like most men of action, Navy SEAL Chief Cosmo Richter has never learned how to take a vacation. So when he finds himself facing a month's leave, he offers his services to Troubleshooters Incorporated. Founded by a former SEAL, the private-sector security firm is a major player in the ongoing war against terrorism, carrying out covert missions too volatile for official U.S. military action. But the first case Richter takes on is anything but under the radar.

High-profile maverick movie producer Jane Mercedes Chadwick hasn't quite completed her newest film, but she's already courting controversy. The World War II epic frankly portrays the homosexuality of a real-life hero - and the storm of media buzz surrounding it has drawn the fury of extremist groups. But despite a relentless campaign of angry e-mails, phone calls, and smear tactics, Chadwick won't be pressured into abandoning the project. Then the harassment turns to death threats.

Though the FBI is on the scene, nervous Holly-wood associates call in Troubleshooters, and now Chadwick has an army of round-the-clock body-guards whether she likes it or not. And she definitely doesn't. But her stubbornness doesn't make FBI agent Jules Cassidy's job any easier. The fiercely independent filmmaker presents yet another emotional obstacle that Cassidy doesn't need - he's already in the midst of a personal tug-of-war with his ex-lover, and now he's also fighting a growing attraction to Chadwick's brother.

Determined to succeed - and survive - on her own terms, Chadwick will face off with enemies and allies alike. And yet she hasn't counted on the bond she'll form with the quiet, capable Cosmo Richter. Even as the noose of deadly terror around them draws tighter, their feelings bring them closer. And when all hell erupts, desire and desperate choices will collide on a killing ground that may trap them both in the crossfire.

The Golden Rule of Schmoozing

The Golden Rule of Schmoozing: The Authentic Practice of Treating Others Well by Aye Jaye read by Penn Jillette

Description

So what is schmoozing? According to Webster's unabridged dictionary, schmoozing is a yiddish word that means to chat or to converse idly. But today there is a common misconception, the word has come to suggest a con or trickery. It's not. Schmoozing is the Golden Rule at full throttle. It's a thrill and an art form that encourages people to say, "you've made my day" instead of demanding "make my day". It's a technique for turning others on, not taking others on. A schmoozer is someone who talks to people as if they really mattered-and they do! Read by Penn Jillette, who has been called the most wired magician on this planet, is the more gregarious half of Penn & Teller—the world’s most famous magic duo.

Kingfish

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long by Richard D. White, Jr. read by Patrick Cullen

Description

Outrageous demagogue or charismatic visionary? In this powerful new biography, Richard D. White, Jr., brings Huey Long to life in all his blazing, controversial glory.

From the moment he took office as governor in 1928 to the day an assassin’s bullet cut him down in1935, Huey Long wielded all but dictatorial control over the state of Louisiana. A man of shameless ambition and ruthless vindictiveness, Huey orchestrated elections, hired and fired thousands at will, and deployed the state militia as his personal police force. And yet, paradoxically, as governor and later as senator, Huey did more good for the state’s poor and uneducated than any politician before or since.

With Kingfish, White has crafted a balanced, lucid, and absolutely spellbinding portrait of the life and times of the most incendiary figure in American politics.

Poe: A Life Cut Short

Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd

Edgar Allan Poe's life (1809-1849) was Gothic, mysterious, theatrical, fatally flawed, original, dark, dazzling, satirical, inventive - in short, an ideal subject for Peter Ackroyd. Concise, dramatic and immensely readable, this is an essential and idiosyncratic addition to Ackroyd's canon of brilliant biographies.

Look Me in the Eye

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison read by Mark Deakins

Description

Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)—had earned him the label "social deviant." No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent evenings pickling himself in sherry. It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on. After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars. Later, he drifted into a "real" job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be "normal" and do what he simply couldn't: communicate. It wasn't worth the paycheck. It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger's syndrome. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw himself—and the world. LOOK ME IN THE EYE is the moving, darkly funny story of growing up with Asperger's at a time when the diagnosis simply didn't exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes you inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as "defective," who could not avail himself of KISS's endless supply of groupies, and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people's given names (he calls his wife "Unit Two"). He also provides a fascinating reverse angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents—the boy who would later change his name to Augusten Burroughs and write the bestselling memoir Running with Scissors. Ultimately, this is the story of Robison's journey from his world into ours, and his new life as a husband, father, and successful small business owner—repairing his beloved high-end automobiles. It's a strange, sly, indelible account—sometimes alien, yet always deeply human.

America Alone

America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It by Mark Steyn read by Brian Emerson

Description

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer of a muezzin. Europeans already do.

Liberals tell us that “diversity is our strength”—while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, while the Supreme Court decides that sharia law doesn’t violate the “separation of church and state,” and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.

If you think this can’t happen, you haven’t been paying attention, as the hilarious and provocative columnist Mark Steyn shows to devastating effect in this, his first book on American and global politics.

The Return of History

The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan

Description

Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. The world remains "unipolar," but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict. In The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.

Your Inner Fish

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin

Description

Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik—the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006—tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.

Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light. Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

Super Crunchers

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres

Today, number crunching affects your life in ways you might never imagine. In this lively and groundbreaking new book, economist Ian Ayres shows how today's best and brightest organizations are analyzing massive databases at lightening speed to provide greater insights into human behavior. They are the Super Crunchers. From internet sites like Google and Amazon that know your tastes better than you do, to a physician's diagnosis and your child's education, to boardrooms and government agencies, this new breed of decision makers are calling the shots. And they are delivering staggeringly accurate results. How can a football coach evaluate a player without ever seeing him play? Want to know whether the price of an airline ticket will go up or down before you buy? How can a formula outpredict wine experts in determining the best vintages? Super crunchers have the answers. In this brave new world of equation versus expertise, Ayres shows us the benefits and risks, who loses and who wins, and how super crunching can be used to help, not manipulate us.

Howl

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

The epigraph for Howl is from Walt Whitman: "Unscrew the locks from the doors!/Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!" Announcing his intentions with this ringing motto, Allen Ginsberg published a volume of poetry which broke so many social taboos that copies were impounded as obscene, and the publisher, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was arrested. The court case that followed found for Ginsberg and his publisher, and the publicity made both the poet and the book famous. Ginsberg went on from this beginning to become a cultural icon of sixties radicalism. This works seminal place in the culture is indicated in Czeslaw Milosz's poetic tribute to Ginsberg: "Your blasphemous howl still resounds in a neon desert where the human tribe wanders, sentenced to unreality".

The Dharma Bums

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac read by Tom Parker

Description

Two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for dharma, or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude, a lesson that has a hard time surviving their forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia with its marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, experiments in "yabyum," and similar nonascetic pastimes.

This autobiographical novel appeared just a year after the author's explosive On the Road put the Beat generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the best-seller lists. The same expansiveness, humor, and contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novel ignites this one.

Know-How

Know-How
The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't

Description

The new grand theory of leadership by Ram Charan…The breakthrough audiobook that links know-how--the skills of people who know what they are doing--with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader.

How often have you heard someone with a commanding presence deliver a bold vision that turned out to be nothing more than rhetoric and hot air? All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business--the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before.

For well over four decades, Ram Charan has been learning in the most visceral way the underlying reasons why leaders succeed and fail. As one of the most influential advisers to top management teams of leading companies around the world, he has had a front-row seat to observe the cause and effect of leadership practices and behaviors.

How To Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less

http://www.nicholasboothman.com/manifestos.htm

Description

Whether meeting a new client or bumping into a potential mate, you only have a few seconds to make a favorable impression. Is that really possible? Author Nicholas Boothman, a lecturer and licensed master practitioner of neurolinguistic programming, believes yes! He introduces a revolutionary approach to face-to-face communication that will help anyone succeed at making meaningful, and immediate, connections. Whether selling, managing, job hunting, negotiating, pitching an idea, applying for law school, joining a new group, or on your knees with a marriage proposal, the secret of success is based on connecting with other people. And the most powerful new idea for making connections is revealed, step by step, in Nicholas Boothman's breakthrough program of rapport by design. Easily learned, it will help you make the best of any relationship's most important moment: those first 90 seconds!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

http://www.audiobookstand.com/product.asp?AuthorId=405&Titleid=8695

Description

First published in 1865, these endearing tales of an imaginative child's dream world by Lewis Carroll, pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, are written with charming simplicity. While delighting children with a heroine who represents their own thoughts and feelings about growing up, the tale is appreciated by adults as a gentle satire on education, politics, literature, and Victorian life in general.

All the delightful and bizarre inhabitants of Wonderland are here: the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat, the hooka-smoking Caterpillar and the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Ugly Duchess . . .and, of course, Alice herself - growing alternately taller and smaller, attending demented tea parties and eccentric croquet games, observing everything with clarity and rational amazement.

Worms eat my garbage

Worms Eat My Garbage: How to setup & maintain a vermicomposting system

For the Union Dead

For the Union Dead By Robert Lowell

The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide

The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide: The Inner Path to Finding Your Work in the World by Rick Jarow

Description

According to the perennial wisdom teachings, your vocation is not a means of survival in the world – it is a pure expression of your life force. Vocation arises, not as a response to external forces, but authentically from within your own body. To the modern mind, this approach to work sounds radical. But for more than 3,000 years, sacred traditions in the East and West have allowed vocation to serve as a platform for spiritual and material growth. The Ultimate Anticareer Guide is the first audio curriculum that adapts this classic approach to right livelihood to the challenges unique to our place and time. Based on the national anticareer workshops taught by Dr. Rick Jarow since 1988, this is the same life-changing program that has helped thousands of frustrated job seekers open to their intuition, transform their values into action, and answer their true calling – instead of settling for a paycheck. Traditional career strategies are simply reactions to the job market; Dr. Jarow begins – for example, matching an inventory of skills with the want ads. An “anticareer” is a manifestation of the unique blueprint for your destiny encoded in your body since birth. The key to this revolutionary approach is your body’s chakra system; the seven centers that govern the free flow of prana, or life force, through your body. Through a program of powerful meditations, you gain direct access to your chakras, clearing and aligning them with the energetic forces that make everything in life possible. You don’t have to go out looking for a job, Dr. Jarow says. The job you were born to do will unfold in time, like a tree from a seed, as you let go of self-limiting concepts and open to the energy of creation – with The Ultimate Anticareer Guide.

Bad Money

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips read by Scott Brick

Description
The critically acclaimed author of American Theocracy delivers a thought-provoking look at the state of our economy.

Two years ago, Kevin Phillips warned us of the perilous interaction of debt, financial recklessness and the increasing cost and scarcity of oil. The current crisis in housing and mortgages—virally infecting the entire structure of credit and banking—are sadly proof of Phillips astute prescience. This national crisis will likely play directly into the 2008 election and then dominate the challenge facing our government in 2009. Phillips presents the current state of economic vulnerability within an historical and global context, and argues that we are reaching the end of a five-century continuum of over-speculative global capitalism, one that American leaders are reluctant to face.

Books / Sunday Book Review

Riches to Rags

By DANIEL GROSS

Published: August 3, 2008

Kevin Phillips argues that America’s monomaniacal focus on finance is hurting us in the diverse global economy.

Change or Die

Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life by Alan Deutschman read by Brian Keeler

Description

What if you were given the ultimatum: Make a radical shift in your life, or lose it all?

This was the question Alan Deutschman posed in "Change or Die," his sensational cover story for the May 2005 issue of Fast Company. Surprisingly, Deutschman concluded that although we all have the innate capability—and fundamental need—to change our behavior, we rarely ever do. Against all warnings and reason, heart patients and smokers continue to lead dangerously unhealthy lifestyles, and many doomed companies stick to the same archaic business practices that routinely destine them for failure.

In this inspiring, revelatory book, Deutschman helps deconstruct and demystify five age-old myths about change, including: small, gradual changes are always easier to make and sustain, and we can't change because our brains become "hardwired" early in life. Introducing breakthrough research and progressive ideas from a diverse selection of medical, science, and business leaders, Deutschman demonstrates how to achieve lasting, revolutionary change. A powerful book with universal appeal, Change or Die addresses every sphere of life—from companies that must remake their corporate culture to survive, to individuals who must force 360-degree changes in their lifestyle or risk stagnation or even death. Each chapter also includes several emotional stories about real people who have succeeded or failed in their attempt to change—and why.

Change or Die is not about merely reorganizing or restructuring priorities; it's about challenging everyone to make drastic transformations in all aspects of life—changes that are positive, attainable, and absolutely vital.

Live from the Hong Kong Nile Club : poems, 1975-1990 / August Kleinzahler

ON JOHNNY'S TIME

When Johnny goes out
he's careful what gets into his Time.
He likes Time plain,
the better to taste it run out of him
like water out holes
in the Old Town's corroded pipe.

_What sort of business you in?
the good burgher always asks John.
_Monkeybusiness, is what John likes to tell him,
and won't crack a smile, ever.
That's John.
But when Johnny goes out

on Johnny's own Time
he's out there doing the only one thing:
he's burning off all the stillborn Johnnys
that hatched in his head in the night.
And that John, he won't ever come home,
not until he's right.

Politics Lost

Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid by Joe Klein read by Terence Mcgovern

Description

People on the right are furious. People on the left are livid. And the center isn’t holding. There is only one thing on which almost everyone agrees: there is something very wrong in Washington. The country is being run by pollsters. Few politicians are able to win the voters’ trust. Blame abounds and personal responsibility is nowhere to be found. There is a cynicism in Washington that appalls those in every state, red or blue. The question is: Why? The more urgent question is: What can be done about it?

Few people are more qualified to deal with both questions than Joe Klein.

There are many loud and opinionated voices on the political scene, but no one sees or writes with the clarity that this respected observer brings to the table. He has spent a lifetime enmeshed in politics, studying its nuances, its quirks, and its decline. He is as angry and fed up as the rest of us, so he has decided to do something about it—in these pages, he vents, reconstructs, deconstructs, and reveals how and why our leaders are less interested in leading than they are in the "permanent campaign" that political life has become.

The book opens with a stirring anecdote from the night of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Klein re-creates the scene of Robert Kennedy’s appearance in a black neighborhood in Indianapolis, where he gave a gut-wrenching, poetic speech that showed respect for the audience, imparted dignity to all who listened, and quelled a potential riot. Appearing against the wishes of his security team, it was one of the last truly courageous and spontaneous acts by an American politician—and it is no accident that Klein connects courage to spontaneity. From there, Klein begins his analysis—campaign by campaign—of how things went wrong. From the McGovern campaign polling techniques to Roger Ailes’s combative strategy for Nixon; from Reagan’s reinvention of the Republican Party to Lee Atwater’s equally brilliant reinvention of behind-the-scenes strategizing; from Jimmy Carter to George H. W. Bush to Bill Clinton to George W.—as well as inside looks at the losing sides—we see how the Democrats become diffuse and frightened, how the system becomes unbalanced, and how politics becomes less and less about ideology and more and more about how to gain and keep power. By the end of one of the most dismal political runs in history—Kerry’s 2004 campaign for president—we understand how such traits as courage, spontaneity, and leadership have disappeared from our political landscape.

In a fascinating final chapter, the author refuses to give easy answers since the push for easy answers has long been part of the problem. But he does give thoughtful solutions that just may get us out of this mess—especially if any of the 2008 candidates happen to be paying attention.

The Disappointment Artist

The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem read by Jonathan Lethem

Description

In a volume he describes as "a series of covert and no-so-covert autobiographical pieces," Jonathan Lethem explores the nature of cultural obsession—in his case, with examples as diverse as western films, comic books, the music of Talking Heads and Pink Floyd, and the New York City subway. Along the way, he shows how each of these "voyages out from himself" have led him home—home to his father's life as a painter, and to the source of his beginnings as a writer. THE DISAPPOINTMENT ARTIST is a series of windows onto the collisions of art, landscape, and personal history that formed Lethem's richly imaginative, searingly honest perspective on life as a human creature in the jungle of culture at the end of the twentieth century.From a confession of the sadness of a "Star Wars nerd" to an investigation into the legacy of a would-be literary titan, Lethem illuminates the process by which a child invents himself as a writer, and as a human being, through a series of approaches to the culture around him. In "The Disappointment Artist," a letter from his aunt, a children's book author, spurs a meditation on the value of writing workshops, and the uncomfortable fraternity of writers. In "Defending The Searchers" Lethem explains how a passion for the classic John Wayne Western became occasion for a series of minor humiliations. In "Identifying with Your Parents," an excavation of childhood love for superhero comics expands to cover a whole range of nostalgia for a previous generation's cultural artifacts. And "13/1977/21," which begins by recounting the summer he saw Star Wars twenty-one times, "slipping past ushers who'd begun to recognize me . . . occult as a porn customer," becomes a meditation on the sorrow and solace of the solitary movie-goer.THE DISAPPOINTMENT ARTIST confirms Lethem's unique ability to illuminate the way life, his and ours, can be read between the lines of art and culture.

The Assault on Reason

The Assault on Reason by Al Gore read by Al Gore

Description

A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degration of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism.

We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions.

How did we get here? How much damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As THE ASSAULT ON REASON shows us, we have precious little time to waste.

Gore's larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason's enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life's work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking.

On the Road

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/2008winners.php

Vibrations

http://www.davidamram.com

The Geography of Bliss

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World

Eric Weiner - Official Website

My Favorite Quote:

Hilmar is a successful Heathen but not an ambitious one. His goals today remain what they've always been: to compose his music. To own a good sofa. To read good books. Hilmar owns many books, even by Icelandic standards. The other day, when he came home with a wheelbarrowful, his five-year-old daughter looked him in the eye and implored, "Please, Daddy, please, no more books!" Hilmar has a stock answer to those who criticize his excessive book buying. "It is never a waste of time to study how other people wasted time."

Conscience of a Liberal

Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman read by Jason Culp

Description

With this major new volume, Paul Krugman, "the heir apparent to Galbraith" and today's most widely read economist, studies the past 80 years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the hard inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman has created his finest book to date, a work that weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis. The audiobook, written with Krugman's trademark ability to explain complex issues simply, will transform the debate about American social policy in much the same way as did Kenneth Galbraith's deeply influential book The Affluent Society.

Discover Your Genius

Discover Your Genius: How to Think Like History's Ten Most Revolutionary Minds by Michael J. Gelb read by Michael J. Gelb

Description

Imagine unleashing your creativity by letting your imagination enjoy the benefits of the type of mental play that helped inspire the theory of relativity. Or evaluating your business climate with the combination of keen observation and an open mind that yielded the theory of evolution. Or navigating your life path with the same love of knowledge and truth that spawned all of Western philosophy. The individuals behind these revolutions of thought live on in our collective memory as models for tackling the challenges that lie ahead. The difference between your mind and theirs is smaller than you think, and is determined less by inborn capacity than by passion, focus, and strategy -- all of which are yours to develop.

Everyone has the potential for genius. The full expression of your unique genius awaits you in these pages! In Discover Your Genius, Michael J. Gelb draws upon the wellspring of history's most revolutionary minds to guide you to unleash your own creativity through mental play. Searching for the most world- shaking ideas, discoveries, and innovations, Gelb assembled a "genius dream team" comprising ten individuals, each of whom embodies a special "genius" characteristic that you are invited to integrate into daily life.

They are:

* Plato-Deepening your love of wisdom
* Filippo Brunelleschi-Expanding your perspective
* Christopher Columbus-Going perpendicular: strengthening your vision, optimism, and courage
* Nicholas Copernicus-Reorganizing your vision of the world
* Queen Elizabeth I-Wielding your power with balance and effectiveness
* William Shakespeare-Cultivating your emotional intelligence
* Thomas Jefferson-Celebrating your freedom in the pursuit of happiness
* Charles Darwin-Developing your power of observation and cultivating an open mind
* Mahatma Gandhi-Applying the principles of spiritual genius to harmonize spirit, mind, and body
* Albert Einstein-Unleashing your imagination and "combinatory play"

Through fascinating, accessible biographies, you'll develop a personal relationship with each genius and learn how to use his or her guiding principle to enrich the quality of your life. Personal self-assessments will help you gauge how each principle is working in your own life, followed by a series of practical and vibrant exercises to help you develop each principle fully.In How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Gelb taught us how to unlock the "da Vincian" genius inside us. Now he provides an enlightening plan for personal and professional development by encouraging us to apply the wisdom of ten of history's greatest minds. Engaging and practical, Discover Your Genius gives us the tools to improve our own mental abilities by making "genius thinking" accessible and fun!

Getting Unstuck

Getting Unstuck by Pema Chodron read by Pema Chodron

Description

Have you ever had an itch--and not scratched it? In the Buddhist tradition, this points to a vast paradox: that by refraining from our urge to “scratch,” great peace and happiness is available. On Getting Unstuck, Pema Chödrön introduces a rare Tibetan teaching she received from her teacher, Dzigar Kontrul Rinpoche, and one that has become critical to her practice. Here, she unveils the mystery of an ineffable quality; a “pre-emotional” feeling that arises in us, brings us discomfort, and causes us to react by escaping the discomfort--often with harmful habits. With Getting Unstuck, she offers us a first look at “both the itch and the scratch”: what Tibetan Buddhists call ... shenpa. On this new recording, Pema Chödrön--bestselling author and beloved American Buddhist nun--shows us how to recognize shenpa, catch it as it appears, and develop a playful, lively curiosity toward it.

Bill of Wrongs

Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault Against America's Fundamental Rights by Molly Ivins read by Liz Smith

Description

Throughout her long career of "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted," the cause closest to Molly Ivins's heart was working to protect the freedoms we all value. Sadly, today we're living in a time when dissent is equated with giving aid to terrorists, when any of us can be held in prison without even knowing the charges against us, and when our constitutional rights are being interpreted by a president who calls himself "The Decider." Ivins got the idea for BILL OF WRONGS while touring America to honor her promise to speak out, gratis, at least once a month in defense of free speech. In her travels Ivins met ordinary people going to extraordinary measures to safeguard our most precious liberties, and when she first started writing this book, she intended it to be a joyous celebration of those heroes. But during the Bush years, the project's focus changed. Ivins became concerned about threats to our cherished freedoms–among them the Patriot Act and the weakening of habeas corpus–and she observed with anger how dissent in the defense of liberties was being characterized as treason by the Bush administration and its enablers.From illegal wiretaps, the unlawful imprisonment of American citizens, and the undermining of freedom of the press to the creeping influence of religious extremism on our national agenda and the erosion of the checks and balances that prevent a president from seizing unitary powers, Ivins and her longtime collaborator, Lou Dubose, co-author of SHRUB and BUSHWACKED, describe the attack on America's vital constitutional guarantees. With devastating humor and keen eyes for deceit and hypocrisy, they show how severe these incursions have become, and they ask us all to take an active role in protecting the Bill of Rights.In life and on the printed page, Molly Ivins was too cool to offer a posthumous valedictory (or even to take a victory lap for her many triumphs over inane, vainglorious, and addlepated politicos). But in BILL OF WRONGS her final and perhaps greatest book, the irrepressible Molly Ivins really does have the last word.

Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up

Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up by Dave Barry read by Arte Johnson

Description

"Dave Barry has a knack for giving his readers more than a few laughs. This audio presentation is no exception. Read by "Laugh-In" veteran Arte Johnson and featuring introductions by the Author, this is audio comedy at its best. The earnestness and honesty of Barry's humor are stylized with perfection by Johnson's warm and distinctive voice. If you're a fan of Dave Barry's columns, you'll have to have this audio program."

A Complaint Free World

A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted by Will Bowen read by Will Bowen

Description

In your hands, you hold the secret to transforming your life. Big words? Yes, but this is a plan that has already proven itself with millions of people around the world. Pastor Will Bowen developed the life-changing A COMPLAINT FREE WORLD plan based on the simple idea that good things will happen for you in abundance if you can just leave your grumbling behind. In a Sunday-morning sermon, Will told his congregation he wanted to make the world a complaint-free zone and, to prove he was serious, he passed out purple bracelets to each church member and offered them a challenge. "If you catch yourself complaining, take the bracelet and move it to the other wrist." Now, less than a year later, more than six million people have taken up the challenge, trying to go twenty-one consecutive days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping, and in so doing, forming a new, positive habit. By changing your words, you can change your thoughts and then begin to create your life by design. People have shared stories with Will of chronic pain relieved, relationships healed, careers improved, and becoming an overall happier person. Less pain, improved health, satisfying relationships, a better job, being more serene and joyous—sound good? It's not only possible, it's probable. Consciously striving to reformat your mental hard drive is not easy, but you can start now by using the steps Bowen presents here. In this audiobook, you can learn what constitutes a complaint, why we complain, what benefits we think we receive from complaining, how complaining is destructive to our lives, and how we can get others around us to stop complaining. You will learn the steps to eradicating this poisonous form of expression from your life. If you stay with it, you will find that not only will you not complain, but others around you will cease to do so as well. In a short period of time, you can have the life you've always dreamed of having.

To get your Complaint Free bracelet please visit www.acomplaintfreeworld.org.

The Don't Sweat Guide To Your Job Search

The Don't Sweat Guide To Your Job Search, by Don't Sweat Press

Finding a new job is a job in itself. Readers will quickly learn how to concentrate on the positive aspects of the search, such as finding jobs they love, rather than getting caught up in the negative aspects of rejection letters and no responses.

The Names of God

Arthur C. Clarke - Science Fiction - A Boy's Life, Guided by the Voice of Cosmic Wonder - New York Times:

In his short story “The Nine Billion Names of God,” published in 1953, Clarke wrote of a pair of computer programmers sent to a remote monastery in Tibet to help the monks there use a computer to compile a list of all the names of God. Once the list was complete, the monks believed, human and cosmic destiny would be fulfilled and the world would end.

The programmers are fleeing the mountain, hoping to escape the monks’ wrath when the program finishes and the world is still there, when one of them looks up.

“Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”

Buried in Treasures

Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding by David F. Tolin

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

DownCity in The New York Times

Providence Begins to See Its Future Around the Corner:

"PROVIDENCE, R.I. — This is a city of 25 diverse neighborhoods, many with distinctive New England character, but it is Downcity that is the urban core and the city’s historical heart."

Providence Athenaeum in the New York Times

Where Greek Ideals Meet New England Charm - New York Times:

"A GROUP of first-time visitors to the Providence Athenaeum climbed the steep stones steps to the imposing front door. One pried open the door tentatively, peered inside and exclaimed, “Oh, this is what a library is supposed to look like!”"

Free for all

Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert

NYT Op-Ed

Bibliophiles Not Baby Sitters

By DON BORCHERT

Published: April 8, 2007

A librarian’s guide to dealing with bored and unruly teenagers.

Second Nature

Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan

Anne Bradstreet

Thoreau - Autumnal Tints How beautifully they go to their graves," "How gently they lay themselves down and turn to mold... They teach us how to die."

Whitman - "This Compost"

Ortho Rose Dust - "Madeleines are everywhere in the garden (and surely Proust is its guardian spirit)."

Storm World

http://www.tantor.com/BookDetail.asp?Product=0508_StormWorld

Leading environmental journalist Chris Mooney immerses readers in the world of those who study hurricanes. In particular, he explores one of the most politicized and hotly contested debates in American science: whether or not the recent hurricane disasters---culminating in Katrina---are connected to global warming.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, published in 1838.

The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym who stows away aboard a whaling ship called Grampus. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym including shipwreck, mutiny and cannibalism. The story starts out as a fairly conventional adventure at sea, but it becomes increasingly strange and hard to classify in later chapters, involving religious symbolism and the Hollow Earth.

All Fishermen are Liars: True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar

http://www.lindagreenlawbooks.com/books/liars.asp

Just before Christmas, Linda meets up with her best friend and fellow fisherman Alden Leeman for lunch and a drink at the Dry Dock, a well-worn watering hole in Portland, Maine. Alden, the captain of Linda's first fishing expedition, has seen his share of mishaps and adventures at sea. When Linda shares memories of navigating her ship through one of the craziest storms she's ever seen, Alden quickly follows up with his own tales. Then other fishermen, who are sitting on the periphery attentively listening, decide to weigh in with yarns of their own.

All Fishermen Are Liars brims with true stories of the most eccentric crew member, the funniest episode, the biggest fish, and the wildest night at sea. Denizens of the Dry Dock drift in and out as the bar begins to swell with rounds of drinks and tales that increase in drama. Here are some of the greatest fishing stories ever -- all relayed by Linda Greenlaw in her inimitable style.

All Fishermen Are Liars will give readers what they have come to love and expect from Linda Greenlaw -- luminous descriptions and edge-of-the-seat thrills. It's the perfect book for anyone who loves fishing and the sea.

The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Weird_America

http://books.google.com/books?id=tTDHLy3T5bsC&pg=PA138&vq=sarah+vowell&dq=old+weird+america&sig=zirp5HNfvvMBMDWBRNrqNBz3QNA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_American_Folk_Music

http://www.highwatereverywhere.com/2005/05/bob_dylans_old_.html

Film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028561/

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/389617/The-Old-Weird-America-Harry-Smith-s-Anthology-of-American-Folk-Music/overview

http://fest07.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=73

Secret History of the Credit Card

"In 'Secret History of the Credit Card,' FRONTLINE® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt."

Life After People

What would happen to planet earth if the human race were to suddenly disappear forever? Would ecosystems thrive? What remnants of our industrialized world would survive? What would crumble fastest? From the ruins of ancient civilizations to present day cities devastated by natural disasters, history gives us clues to these questions and many more in the visually stunning and thought-provoking new special LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, on The History Channel®.

The Now Habit

A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore, Ph.D, psychologist and personal coach Author of Awaken Your Strongest Self and The Road Back to Health

Beyond the Outer Shores

Beyond the Outer Shores - The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell by Eric Enno Tamm

Seeing Joseph Campbell's name mentioned, I picked up this book. Since reading the "Masks of God" thirty years ago, I've admired Joseph Campbell. Reading this book has reawakened my interest in him as well as created new interests in John Steinbeck and Robinson Jeffers as well as that of the subject of this biography Ed Ricketts. I've got copies of Ed Ricketts' "Between Pacific Tides", His and Steinbeck's "Sea of Cortez", Steinbeck's " Log from the Sea of Cortez" and "Cannery Row", and a paperback collection of Jeffers' poems which includes the "Roan Stallion" which features prominently in this book stacked up by my bedside.

I copied out three excepts from the book dealing with Joseph Campbell's relationship with Ed Ricketts which I'll share here.

From page 13:

Campbell was also at a personal impasse, in his "own deep swamps" as he recalled. Out of work for five years, he was depressed and confused.
"I've been saying no to life," Campbell told Ricketts one day.
"Well," Ed replied typically, "the best way to start saying yes to life is to get drunk. I'll take some of my laboratory alcohol, [and] we'll make a drink out of it."

From page 180:

It had been an "epochal voyage," according to Joseph Campbell. The 1932 trip brought about "one of the primary personal transformations of a life dedicated to self-discovery." Many of the philosophic conclusions reached during the voyage would resonate in the future work of both the marine ecologist and mythologist.

From page 214:

In his research at the time Joseph Campbell was coming to the conclusion that the same fate that befell the Haida was now befalling modern society. "We have seen what has happened, for example to primitive communities unsettled by the white man's civilization," Campbell later said, "with their old taboos discredited they immediately go to pieces, disintegrate, and become resorts of vice and disease. Today the same thing is happening to us."

David Cay Johnston on How the Rich Get Richer

Fresh Air from WHYY, January 3, 2008 · Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.

Cay Johnston covers tax policy for The New York Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on that beat. His previous book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich — and Cheat Everybody Else, was a best seller.

The new book, which expands the inquiry beyond tax policy into a whole range of regulatory machinery, is titled Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill).

Sherpa Blues

CBC News: Sunday: "Nepal's Sherpa community is in mourning over the death of the man they called 'a second father': Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to conquer Everest. But when foreign climbers seek the glory of Mount Everest's summit, what's left for the Sherpas who did the grunt work? We examine how the life of the Sherpa has changed since Sir Edmund made it to the peak."

Our cell phones, ourselves

Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase's investigation into the ways we interact with technology has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets. Along the way, he's made some unexpected discoveries: about the novel ways illiterate people interface with their cellphones, or the role the cellphone can sometimes play in commerce, or the deep emotional bonds we all seem to share with our phones. And watch for his surefire trick to keep you from misplacing your keys.

"Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature"

Professor Michael D.C. Drout (Wheaton College)
Michael D.C. Drout is an associate professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he teaches courses in Old and Middle English, medieval literature, Chaucer, fantasy, and science fiction.

I enjoyed listening to this professor's lecture series From Here To Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature and decided to also listen to this one.


The overwhelming success of the Lord of the Rings films and the Harry Potter series aptly demonstrates that the fantasy genre is alive and well in the new millennium. The names of authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Terry Brooks evoke ripe tales of heroism and the clash of good versus evil in magical, faraway lands. The rich collection of King Arthur tales have also captured the imagination of millions and resonates with audiences to the present day.

Should fantasy be considered serious literature, or is it merely escapism? In this course, the roots of fantasy and the works that have defined the genre are examined. Incisive analysis and a deft assessment of what makes these works so very special provides a deeper insight into beloved works and a better understanding of why fantasy is such a pervasive force in modern culture.

Course Syllabus

Lecture 1 What Is Fantasy Literature?: Genre, Canon, History

Lecture 2 Origins of Modern Fantasy

Lecture 3 Tolkien: Life and Languages

Lecture 4 Tolkien: The Hobbit

Lecture 5 Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring

Lecture 6 Tolkien: The Two Towers

Lecture 7 Tolkien: The Return of the King

Lecture 8 Tolkien: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and Other Posthumously Published Work

Lecture 9 Tolkien: Criticism and Theory

Lecture 10 Imitations and Reactions: Brooks and Donaldson

Lecture 11 Worthy Inheritors: Le Guin and Holdstock

Lecture 12 Children’s Fantasy

Lecture 13 Arthurian Fantasy

Lecture 14 Magical Realism and Conclusions

RAT by Jerry Langton

RAT - HOW THE WORLD’S MOST NOTORIOUS RODENT CLAWED ITS WAY TO THE TOP
JERRY LANGTON

From the swamps of Southeast Asia, to the medieval Black Death to its unshakable niche in modern urban centers, the rat has incredible evolutionary advantages

Plague carrier, city vermin and an out-and-out menace to modern man, the rat, like death and taxes, is a certain fixture on humankind’s history. Rats are found in virtually every nook and cranny of the globe and their numbers are ever increasing. Rats are always adapting and they seem to outwit any attempts
by humans to wipe them out. What makes the rat such a worthy adversary and how has it risen to the top of the animal kingdom?

• Rats have been discovered living in meat lockers. The rats in there simply grew longer hair, fatter bodies and nested in the carcasses they fed upon.
• A female rat can, under good conditions, have well over 100,000 babies in her lifetime.
• A rat can fall 50 feet onto pavement and skitter away unharmed.
• A rat’s jaws can exert a force more than twenty times as powerful as a human’s.
• The front side of a rat’s incisors are as hard as some grades of steel.

In Rat, Jerry Langton explores the history, myth, physiology, habits, and psyche of the rat and even speculates on the future of the rat and how they might evolve over the next few hundred years.

JERRY LANGTON is a now freelance writer whose work appears regularly in The Globe & Mail and The Toronto Star. In doing research for the book he spent a lot of time in sewers meeting with rats face to
face. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36384-0
5 1/2" x 8 1/4" / 208 pages
Includes 100 b&w photos and illustrations throughout


Steve Goddard's History Wire:

"Rat -- How the World's Most Notorious Rodent Clawed Its Way to the Top by Jerry Langton, St. Martin's '07, $21.95, 207 pages, ISBN #0-312-36384-2. No index, bibliography or source notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.

Within the entire constellation of subjects a writer could immerse himself in, rats ranks pretty low with this writer, particularly when learning that to get up close and personal with those he writes about, Jerry Langton had to spend lots of time in sewers. But, hey, there's no accounting for taste, is there?

Among the more interesting tidbits the author has unearthed is that more than a half-million homes in North America keep rats as pets, and some describe them as clean and affectionate, even though he also finds that the front side of a rat's incisor teeth can be as hard as steel. Message: don't piss off your rat. Langton tells us that 'Rats can swim well enough to catch fish, and can hold their breath long enough to climb out of your toilet.' (Alfred Hitchcock, call your office).

Rat enthusiasts, freelancer Langton tells us, have their own websites, associations, and even breed shows. Imagine, a Best in Show Rat. 'A rat can fall 50 feet onto pavement,' he writes, 'and skitter away unharmed.' Don't throw Fido off the balcony to test this theory.

On the serious side, rats are a terrific public health problem in many countries and are nearly universally found where messy human beings concentrate. One reason they proliferate so quickly, the author writes, is that "A female rat can become pregnant hours after giving birth and since the gestation period is about the same time as it takes to wean baby rats, litters can be continuous."

Rat : how the world's most notorious rodent clawed its way to the top / Jerry Langton.

JUSTINIAN'S FLEA

Justinian's Flea
Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe
By William Rosen
Narrated by Barrett Whitener

The Emperor Justinian reunified Rome's fractured empire by defeating the Goths and Vandals who had separated Italy, Spain, and North Africa from imperial rule. At his capital in Constantinople, he built the world's most beautiful building, married its most powerful empress, and wrote its most enduring legal code, seemingly restoring Rome's fortunes for the next five hundred years. Then, in the summer of 542, he encountered a flea. The ensuing outbreak of bubonic plague killed five thousand people a day in Constantinople and nearly killed Justinian himself.

Light in the Dark Ages: The Friendship of Francis and Clare of Assisi

Light in the Dark Ages: The Friendship of Francis and Clare of Assisi: "The Middle Ages were not so very dark, as the old textbooks say. As you will discover in this intriguing portrait of the first Franciscans, we live in dark ages whenever we become preoccupied with power. In this popular history, Jon Sweeney reveals the timeless temptations that come with being human---greed, competition, ego, and selfishness---as well as the many ways that Francis and Clare of Assisi inspired change and brought light into darkness.

Discover how Francis was first found by God and then joined by Clare despite the violent objections of her family. Explore a variety of issues that they faced, including the treatment of lepers in medieval society, corruption in the Church, and attitudes toward the created world. You will also learn how Clare's spirituality influenced that of other prominent women, how St. Francis lost control of his own movement, and why Francis's body was secretly buried upon his death.

The examples of early Franciscan spirituality challenge any of us who would follow Christ today. How would we view a young person today who rejected family for spiritual reasons? Is it possible for men and women to have deep friendship and remain true to a call to chastity? Is intentional poverty of any value? Have we sentimentalized family to the point of ignoring"

The Secret Life of Lobsters - How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean

The Secret Life of Lobsters - How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean: "In this intimate portrait of an island lobstering community and an eccentric band of renegade biologists, Trevor Corson escorts the reader onto the slippery decks of fishing boats, through danger-filled scuba dives, and deep into the churning currents of the Gulf of Maine, to learn about the secret undersea lives of lobsters. In revelations from the laboratory and the sea, the lobster proves itself to be not only a delicious meal and a sustainable resource, but also an amorous master of the boudoir, a lethal boxer, and a snoopy socializer. THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS is a rollicking oceanic odyssey punctuated by salt spray, melted butter, and predators lurking in the murky depths."

Rethinking Thin

PROVIDENCE ATHENAEUM/RISD /All Locations: "Author Kolata, Gina Bari, 1948- Title Rethinking thin : the new science of weight loss--and the myths and realities of dieting / Gina Kolata. Imprint New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007."

Welcome to the Providence Department of Art, Culture & Tourism - Phone: 421-7740

Welcome to the Providence Department of Art, Culture & Tourism - Phone: 421-7740: "Organization: First Unitarian Church of Providence Event Name: Not About Heroes Dates: 11/12 - 11/12/2007 Description: Monday, November 12, 7pm Aurea presents 'Not About Heroes' starring Nigel Gore and Rudy Sanda, featuring Consuelo Sherba, viola, directed by Bob Colonna. First Unitarian Church Parish Hall, 1 Benevolent Street (corner of Benefit and Benevolent Sts.), Providence. Tickets available at door only; $15 general admission, $10 seniors, $5 students. Phone 401-654-5372. Aurea, by popular demand, reprises its critically acclaimed production of 'Not About heroes', Stephen MacDonald's moving play about World War 1 poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. The play is inspired by true events; Sassoon and Owen met during the war, while both at a Scottish hospital for 'nervous disorders,' and formed a deep friendship that affected the poetry of each man, as well as the poets' view of war. The production is complemented by period music, performed live by violist Consuelo Sherba. 'Not About Heroes' is intensely relevant, particularly on this national weekend of remembrance."