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.