After reading his earlier autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, I wasn't in a rush to read this one, but I'm glad I did. IAfter reading his earlier autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, I wasn't in a rush to read this one, but I'm glad I did. I liked it more since he covers his adult life in roughly chronological order teaching, writing, & lecturing touching on the many wonderful people he's met. Many are quite famous, others are unknown, but his remarks about them were usually quite nice & interesting. He's a lot like my father-in-law, another man I respected immensely. He rarely has anything bad to say about anyone even when they've clashed. Dawkins is always generous with praise where it is due unlike another science book I read recently where the author (Reich) took all the credit for everything. Unlike him, Dawkins seems quite pleased when his students have outpaced him in one respect or another & he often makes much of those who have corrected his mistakes or taken his initial work further. He seems positively delighted when they've outstripped him & that's no mean feat.
One of the best bonuses was learning more about his second wife, Lalla Ward, who often alternates narration in Dawkins' audio editions of his books. I hadn't realized she was a leading lady in Dr. Who or that she was so talented in other arts. (She painted a tie for Dawkins & the Queen thought the animal was ugly, although the artwork was good.)
Dawkins also mentions most of his books & what they cover. It's worth getting a text version of this book for the picture section at the end, but I really enjoyed Dawkins' narration of the audiobook edition. It was very much like a conversation with the great man. Highly recommended....more
Science defines our lives as never before, yet we know little about those who have come up with so many of the wonders. Klien interviews a couple of dScience defines our lives as never before, yet we know little about those who have come up with so many of the wonders. Klien interviews a couple of dozen about their work, where it's led, & why they chose to study what they did as well as some other matters. It's fairly brief, informal, & was fascinating. I always felt as if I wanted the conversations to go on - that's a good thing. I was never bored nor was it ever repetitive.
Well narrated & I had the ebook to let me skim back over any points I needed to ponder. There were plenty of those. Highly recommended.
Table of Contents Introduction ON THE COURAGE TO SPEND A LIFETIME SEARCHING We Are All Stardust • COSMOLOGIST MARTIN REES • ON THE BEGINNING AND END OF THE WORLD The Genes of the Good • EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST RICHARD DAWKINS • ON EGOISM AND SELFLESSNESS In the Hall of Illusions • NEUROSCIENTIST V. S. RAMACHANDRAN • ON CONSCIOUSNESS The Recalcitrant Zebra • PHYSIOLOGIST AND GEOGRAPHER JARED DIAMOND • ON CHANCE AND NECESSITY IN HISTORY Chimps Are Individuals Like Us • PRIMATOLOGIST JANE GOODALL • ON OUR RELATIONSHIP TO ANIMALS The Unity of the World • PHYSICIST STEVEN WEINBERG • ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION Can We Become Immortal? • MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST ELIZABETH BLACKBURN • ON AGING Is Luxury Immoral? • PHILOSOPHER PETER SINGER • ON ETHICS Our Well-Being Depends on Our Friends and Their Friends • PHYSICIAN AND SOCIAL SCIENTIST NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS • ON HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS The Software of Life • BIOCHEMIST CRAIG VENTER • ON THE HUMAN GENOME The Poetry of Molecules • CHEMIST AND POET ROALD HOFFMANN • ON BEAUTY Do You Remember? • NEUROBIOLOGIST HANNAH MONYER • ON MEMORY The Others in Our Heads • NEUROSCIENTIST VITTORIO GALLESE • ON EMPATHY The Laws of Devotion • ANIMAL BEHAVIOR RESEARCHER RAGHAVENDRA GADAGKAR • ON ALTRUISM The Hunger for Fairness • ECONOMIST ERNST FEHR • ON MORALITY The Strongest Feeling of All • NEUROPHARMACOLOGIST WALTER ZIEGLGÄNSBERGER • ON PAIN The Female Side of Evolution • ANTHROPOLOGIST SARAH HRDY • ON MOTHERHOOD Babies Can Be Smarter Than Us • DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGIST ALISON GOPNIK • ON CHILDHOOD Love Is the Offspring of Knowledge • ARTIST LEONARDO DA VINCI • ON THE BEGINNING OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH...more
I'm a fan of the author. He's goofy & fun while teaching some great lessons. My boys were of the right age to enjoy his show, so I caught bits of thatI'm a fan of the author. He's goofy & fun while teaching some great lessons. My boys were of the right age to enjoy his show, so I caught bits of that. I live in Kentucky, so I loved it when he took on Ken Hamm over his ridiculous Ark Park & Creationist Museum both in a live debate & Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation. I really liked Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World, but this book was less focused. It was part autobiography & part nerd pep rally. I found the former interesting, but had issues with the cheer leading.
In some ways, Nye reminds me of another hero of mine, Mike Rowe. Both are from middle class roots that evolved into self-made stars promoting ideologies that I subscribe to. I liked the overall message Nye pushes here: Science & its methods gave us a better world with unintended consequences. We need to keep learning all we can & use it to make better decisions. We can & have changed the world. It's similar to Isaac Asimov's quotes “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” & “If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.”
Since I liked one major thread & agree wholeheartedly with the other, why didn't I like this book more? It was too long & repetitive. Not terribly so & it may not be a problem for those who don't fully agree with him. In my case, he was preaching to the choir. I did find some new facts & ways of persuading doubters, just not enough to really light my fire.
I was disappointed that he never delved into why he thinks electric & self-driving cars are so much better for the environment. I'm not convinced since I've yet to find a study that looks at the cost in rare earths & other materials needed. While we all know how bad drilling for & burning oil is, a lot of really horrendous mining & manufacturing practices are used for the batteries & electronics. I wonder what the carbon footprint is of all the fancy & unnecessary electronics on current cars, especially when repairs are taken into account. For instance, we had to replace the entire hub assemblies on my wife's pickup because the ABS sensors died even though we pulled the fuse on that system. It was a ridiculous waste of resources.
Nye's arguments were completely city-centric. It's as if he doesn't even realize that most of the US is & a large portion of the population lives in rural areas. More automation in cars makes them less usable in those areas. My son typically rents a new car when he visits & he always has problems, more each year. This last time, he couldn't even turn off the traction control so had to park at his sister's house rather than ours since he couldn't get in our lane during a snow storm while our older cars had no problem.
I'm all for renewable, distributed energy generation, but he never delved into any of the issues I & people like me have faced when evaluating it. KY has a lot of coal & problems due to it. We have a terrible economy & some of the cheapest electric, but some of the poorest renewable resources according to NOAA. Still, we have a lot of rural area with barn roof tops that might be great solar & wind collectors. They might not, though. There are very few resources to help us decide whether it's worthwhile to invest in either. I've spent a fair amount of time, but with no help from the government, an impartial expert, or local data, I've decided it's too expensive. I may well be wrong, but I can't afford to bet $10k or more. I'm not rich, but I'd invest the money if there was a good chance I'd break even. Instead, Nye talks about cluttering the landscape with huge standalone wind towers. Not only are they ugly, but there are a lot of conflicting reports on just how bad they are for birds. I'm sure storage & transmission issues will be solved eventually, but he never mentions them.
Yes, we can change the world & we should. His rallying cry was well narrated, but a little too long, strident, & far too superficial to really blow any wind up my skirt....more
Highly recommended! While it makes a great audiobook, it would also be great in text & since it can be read in short bites in any order, it would be pHighly recommended! While it makes a great audiobook, it would also be great in text & since it can be read in short bites in any order, it would be perfect for travel or bathroom reading. What higher praise can I give?
The title is a play on "The Rest of the Story", a long running series of radio broadcasts by Paul Harvey. Rowe starts the book with an anecdote about missing a flight because he had to wait for Harvey's tag line. If you're too young to remember the show, I recommend reading this article by NPR which has some examples. https://www.npr.org/2014/10/09/354718...
Rowe mirrors the show's format in each chapter with a short historical anecdote that is careful to avoid revealing who it is about until the very end just like Harvey. He then follows it with an anecdote about his own life & the lesson(s) he took away. He covers a lot of different historical figures. While many of the anecdotes were familiar to me, I still enjoyed them due to his humorous take, plus they're just good stories. For instance, Custer's social embarrassment when his wife's 'sexting' letters were stolen & published or Hedy Lamarr's inventiveness. He even included "Blazing Saddles" (1974) play on her name & how much Mel Brooks admired her. There's even a historical anecdote about Mel Brooks.
Rowe & I are about the same age, from the same area (north of Baltimore, MD), both grew up on farms, & have many of the same opinions about life. I've also done a lot of the "Dirty Jobs" he brought to the attention of the general public, so I found this fascinating & could really relate. Very well read by the author, as you'd expect. I admire the man greatly.
I couldn't find a Table of Contents, but the chapter titles don't make a lot of sense without some explanation & that would be a spoiler. Avoid those. Half of the fun is trying to figure out who or what he's leading up to....more
McMurtry did a good, quick sketch of Custer & the events that led to & followed the battle of Little Big Horn. There was more from the Indian point of view than is normal plus a good balanced account of the man himself. Highly recommended....more
I recently read Great Presidents, one of The Great Courses by Allan J. Lichtman, so I thought a contrast would be good when it caught my eye. It was, I recently read Great Presidents, one of The Great Courses by Allan J. Lichtman, so I thought a contrast would be good when it caught my eye. It was, although I found the presidential rating game rather arbitrary. Strauss makes a case for Polk being one of the worst saying he didn't do much, it was others who accomplished so much during his single term, yet Lichtman lists him as one of his 8 greats. If a president can be blamed for what happens on his watch, he should also reap the benefits, so I think Lichtman had the better side of the argument for Polk.
James Buchanan (1791-1868) the 15th President served from 1856 - 1860 & certainly is in the running for the worst & may well have been. He waffled as the South left the Union & managed to make so many incredibly bad decisions. Behind the scenes, he pushed for the horrible decision in Dred Scott. Even though he was from PA, he was a Southern Democrat. Strauss shows all of this well.
He covered the reasons for the South leaving the Union, states rights over the slavery issue, well, too. He also mentioned the low literacy & slave holding rates among Southerners. Both were low & literacy was much lower in the South than the North. Only about 1 in 5 Southerners owned a slave, less in many of the border states. He did a serviceable job explaining how most Northerners at the time who were for abolishing slavery didn't think Blacks were the equal of Whites in intelligence - not fully human - & mentioned the fears of Blacks taking labor jobs especially from recent immigrants like Germans & Irish who were having issues of their own.
Unfortunately, he didn't pull it all together & really emphasize the economics of the southern leaders, those who had the most invested in slavery, the ones who led their illiterate people into a hopeless war. He did point out how slavery was becoming less lucrative economically & the South was losing their preeminent position in politics, but he never came right out & showed that well.
I really liked the way he showed how so many presidents prior to & including Buchanan were not the best, but the compromise. By the end of the book when Buchanan is turning over the presidency to Lincoln, I really felt sorry for Lincoln & see why he may well be the greatest. He inherited a terrible mess.
Strauss says how instructive Buchanan could be to incoming presidents & I agree. I've read about the greats & certainly they're more fun, but Buchanan is a fine example of what a politician should avoid doing. Well narrated & interesting. Definitely recommended....more
Well narrated with a lot of interesting information that was very poorly presented. Edward Oscar Heinrich was incredibly innovative in his investigatiWell narrated with a lot of interesting information that was very poorly presented. Edward Oscar Heinrich was incredibly innovative in his investigation techniques & his work helped solve thousands of crimes. Incredibly, he doesn't have a Wikipedia page at this time, though! I'm glad this book brings his legacy back to light. As a private forensic scientist, he brought enlightenment to a science that the author contends is still quite dubious in many instances. From other books I've read, I think she's off base on some of that, but her point is valid. There isn't enough oversight of many methods & 'experts'. It's caused a lot of heart ache & her long-winded descriptions of several cases show that it was certainly a problem in Heinrich's time.
If she directly pointed out the obvious, that better public science education is needed, then I missed it. The point was quite obvious from the bewilderment of juries when Heinrich testified back in the 1920s & 30s, but a lot of this stuff was new then. Fingerprinting had been in use, if not fully accepted yet in the US, for decades. Blood typing was first discovered back then, though.
So the author had great material to work with, but she presented it in a haphazard fashion, mostly by straying off the topic at hand & far into the past or future. That confused the time line for me tremendously. There was a LOT of repetition. The afterword consisted of information that had usually been presented several, if not half a dozen times already. Yuck! There was also a lot of over-explanation. For instance, the author explained the purpose of gun sights, so the text was continually padded. The book could have been half the length & would have been far better for it.
I managed to get through it, although I would have done a lot of skimming had this been in print. If there is a decent alternative biography of Heinrich's life & work, I'd recommend reading that instead, though....more
This course devotes 4 lectures (about 30 minutes each) to 12 presidents that had a great deal of influence both on the office & the country. Don't getThis course devotes 4 lectures (about 30 minutes each) to 12 presidents that had a great deal of influence both on the office & the country. Don't get the idea that Lichtman thinks they were perfect or even right all the time. They all had their good & bad points, but they were 'great' meaning influential. He briefly covers their early life, the events that shaped the attitudes they brought into office, the highlights from their presidential terms, & afterward when appropriate. With so much material to cover, the facts are often bare, but he does a pretty good job of describing customs & attitudes that had a lot of bearing on their actions. He's a very good speaker & made the course interesting.
George Washington - (1789-97, #1) Certainly the greatest & Lichtman does a creditable job showing just how tough a job the first terms were. I read Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations not long ago. If you like this section, I highly recommend it. There's a lot more to the story, but he manages to tie the Federalist ideals in well with the opposition that Jefferson created.
Thomas Jefferson - (1801-9, #3) Impossibly, Lichtman does an excellent job showing just how confused Jefferson's ideals & practical applications were. Probably the most quoted & misunderstood president, Jefferson aspired to much higher goals than he actually practiced. He was both far ahead of his times in some ways, yet very much a man of his times in others. This is most evident in his views & relationships with blacks, but it's also obvious in his politics. The more I read about him, the more intriguing he is. Like so many of the presidents that followed him, he defies the good/bad label, so 'great' has to do.
Andrew Jackson - (1829-37, #7) the first 'common man' president, he's best known for extending the power of the presidency even further than before & removing the Indians along the Trail of Tears & tearing down the Bank of America. Some of his greatest achievements came before & after his term in office. Before, he pushed the Spanish out of Florida & afterward his proteges Van Buren & Polk continued his policies. The Democratic party also coalesced under his presidency & he recognized Texas as separate from Mexico. On top of all that, he was a scrapper.
TGC ends Part 1 at the end of the third of the Jackson lectures & starts Part 2 with part 4 of AJ. Why? If you're buying this, beware. Annoying, even though I got the whole thing from the library.
James K. Polk - (1845-489, #11) I was surprised to see him listed since he's not often mentioned & he's the only 1 term president on this list, but he accomplished everything on his agenda which included a war with Mexico to settle Texas in as a state, grab the SW & California, as well as the Oregon territory from Great Britain. While Lichtman points out the advantages to trade, he doesn't mention how securing the west coast protected the US from foreign powers geographically. He also established an independent Federal treasury system. Wow!
Abraham Lincoln - (1861-65, #16) Another good job & he really managed to show Lincoln's attitudes toward slavery well against the practicalities of achieving his position & power. He left me with a lot of questions on how much better the reconstruction would have been had he been in charge.
Theodore Roosevelt - (1901-09, #26) I've read several books by & about the Colonel, so no surprises. His story is a whirlwind, of course. It's wearing just trying to keep up with synopsis of his accomplishments.
Woodrow Wilson - (1913-21, #28) The League of Nations & many other foreign policies that pushed the US into the International scene as well as the Federal Reserve Act & WWI. Like his predecessors, pretty bad civil rights, though.
Franklin Roosevelt - (1933-45, #32) The only president elected 4 times, although he only served 3 terms since he died early in the fourth. He dealt with the Great Depression with the New Deal & WWII finally saw the economy turn around. Terrible civil rights record.
Harry S Truman - (1945-53, #33) I never knew how much of an unknown he was until his post as VP propelled him into the presidency. He had a lot to deal with & seems to have done really well setting up the basics for those that followed. I'm sure a lot will second guess his use of the atomic bomb, but Lichtman managed to get across the Soviet pressure as well as the Japanese fanaticism well.
John F. Kennedy - (1961-63, #35) an excellent background & hit the high points well, not sparing him for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Good, if quick coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis & the middling road he took despite LeMay's push. NASA, Peace Corp, & more.
Lyndon B. Johnson - (1963-69, #36) a southern Democrat with an incredibly liberal home agenda, I forget that LBJ saw the founding of so many of JFK's reforms & added his own by leading NASA, the Civil Rights Act, Clean Air, & welfare. His legacy is overshadowed by his idiocy in Vietnam & the riots that mocked his efforts at reform. Strange times where he was the figurehead of many of the injustices he worked so hard to end.
Ronald Reagan - (1981-89, #40) Dutch, the Teflon President was a somewhat surprising pick since it's tough to put the term great on so recent a figure & his legacy is so mixed. I was married & raising my kids during his terms, so was paying attention. I remember the double digit unemployment & mortgage rates that turned around with his economic policies & was gratified that Lichtman included Clinton's adherence to them, something that too many forget. Since I'm not a Conservative (or a Liberal), I wasn't happy with most of his other domestic policies, though. His foreign policies against the Soviets sure seemed to have worked out, though. Having grown up in a MAD world, his work with Gorbachev & the INF sure seemed pretty great.
There's a lot to be learned from history. The current popularity of destroying, vandalizing, &/or moving all Confederate statues simply ignores & whitThere's a lot to be learned from history. The current popularity of destroying, vandalizing, &/or moving all Confederate statues simply ignores & whitewashes it. Yes, some of the statues can & should be moved, but they're all being treated the same & they shouldn't be. This quick sketch Confederate Kentuckians shows that well. Families were split apart over the issues with many becoming Confederates because they believed in state rights & 'the North invaded Kentucky's neutrality', even though they'd argued against secession before. Some were young, dumb, or had Southern loyalties through family & friends. It wasn't a simple choice for them.
With the advent of the Civil War, [Roger Weightman] Hanson was faced with the same dilemma that confounded many of his contemporaries. Torn between his love for the Union and his sense of obligation to the rights of the State of Kentucky, he determined to uphold the Constitution but desired to remain neutral. To George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, Hanson publicly avowed to be a "Union man without ifs or buts." Soon, however, he did a political about-face and decided that his future and his ties lay with the Confederacy. Hanson was not alone in his decision. Two of his four brothers joined the Confederate ranks, and two others embraced the Union cause. Like Kentucky, the Hanson family was torn apart by the war.
I didn't pay much attention to what most of these soldiers did during the Civil War, but read about their early life, why they joined the Confederacy, & what they did later. Some were outright bastards, but there's a lot of diversity. Some went on to become excellent citizens. Abe Buford is best known around here as starting Bosque Bonita Farm, a Thoroughbred breeding & racing stable, even though he was also governor of the state during part of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.
A better example is John Castleman's statue which was recently removed. Even a brief look at the history of Kentucky & Castleman shows that he was a pretty great guy who didn't choose well as a young man. He was just 19 when he joined the Confederacy, but later was a strong & early advocate for social justice in Louisville & his statue was dressed in civilian attire - it was NOT a Civil War statue. He said he'd salute any ranking officer whether they were black or white & he fought hard to keep KY parks integrated, besides helping keep KY together after Governor Goebel's assassination. He was part of the invasion of Puerto Rico & became military governor of the island. Yet all he's remembered for is being a Confederate in the Civil War. Ridiculous! He's exactly what we should all aspire to; outliving a bad decision made by our younger selves. He didn't let it define him, but moved on & accomplished good things.
Many should be remembered for their service & bravery even though I disagree with their thinking & cause. I have to admire & wonder at General Hood as he had himself tied into his saddle so he could lead his men into battle. He lost use of his left arm, but soldiered on & another wound caused him to have his right leg amputated. He still fought on! After the war, he went on to father a bunch of kids. Now that's an example for anyone pushing through adversity.
Anyway, this is a pretty quick read that shows the Civil War was made up of real people who made some tough decisions. I think some were wrong, but there are plenty of lessons to be learned. The politics of the time were just as partisan as they are today & that led to some really bad decisions.
Each bio is by a different author, so the tones vary from very dry to almost fun. It's laid out well to look up a particular person. Highly recommended! This book is free from the UK Press, but the time might be limited. Download it here: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_milita... I looked for a sister volume of 'Kentuckians in Blue' & couldn't find one. That's a shame & one reason I didn't give this 5 stars.
Although the introduction makes it clear that this was written for older kids (mid teens & up, I'd guess) & was fairly short, it was still pretty thorAlthough the introduction makes it clear that this was written for older kids (mid teens & up, I'd guess) & was fairly short, it was still pretty thorough. Whole books could & have been written about various aspects of his life, even single decisions, but this covers the entire man & does an excellent job of showing just how complex he was. It doesn't excuse his failures nor blow his achievements out of proportion, although the latter would be a chore. He did some incredibly great things that still influence our country.
I really liked the way Meacham points out Jefferson's fears of our country turning into a monarchy via the Federalists & how that caused such a schism with John Adams & Washington. (Meacham didn't give Washington nearly the credit he deserved for not taking the bait, though.) He mentioned Shay's Rebellion without naming it & brought up the Whiskey Rebellion, but supplied only meager details, not enough to really make his point, IMO.
Better yet, he made the point that Jefferson was given to sweeping statements & high philosophy that he couldn't or wouldn't live up to. This was shown in the coverage of his friendship with John Adams; their schism & reconciliation. Jefferson abhorred Adams' Alien & Sedition Acts, yet created the Embargo of 1807. He gave the Navy the authority to wage First Barbary War on the Tripoli pirates & made the Louisiana Purchase. He didn't have the authority to do the last two, yet they had to be done quickly, so he asked after he'd already done the deed. Inconsistent & underhanded? It certainly was according the values he espoused & his fears of the Federalists doing the same, but the last two were good decisions that needed to be made & Congress would have acted too slowly, if at all. The 1807 Embargo was a dismal failure that he passed along to Madison. At any rate, he increased the power of the presidency, a complete reversal of his philosophy to that point.
Meacham also delved into his personal finances & slave holding policies - both awful. We didn't get many details (such as his extensive wine cellar) but he did point out that Monticello had to be sold to pay off all his debts, some of which he'd inherited from his father. He made several attempts to free slaves publicly, but only freed his & Sally's children, the rest being sold with his estate after his death. We are told that while he thought blacks should be free, Jefferson did not believe that two races could live together in equality. How strange from such an intelligent man, but it seems to be one of those basic beliefs (As religion is in many.) that he just couldn't fathom properly. It was undoubtedly propped up by a large dose of selfishness.
There is a lot missing from this book, but it's a really good overview of the man that points out his complexities, public service, brilliance, & utter failures. Very well narrated. Highly recommended for everyone....more
George Washington's Farewell Address can be found as a free PDF at this link. I highly recommend reading it even if you don't read this book which hasGeorge Washington's Farewell Address can be found as a free PDF at this link. I highly recommend reading it even if you don't read this book which has it at the end. The language is a little convoluted, but it's fantastic today, over 2 centuries later, & addresses some points we should all be thinking of far more such as party partisanship & politics. They were so bad way back then that we almost didn't survive; probably wouldn't have save for Washington's sacrifice of 2 terms as president. This book makes that clear, although it is clearly biased toward both him & the Federalist party.
There is a lot of good historical background, but take it with a grain of salt. Paul Harvey would have had a ball with this book for "The Rest of the Story". I'm no scholar of the period, but caught quite a few simplifications that harmed its veracity. That's a shame, but most historical scholars have a bias. Avlon's were pretty obvious, but he did a good job in many other ways, so I highly recommend it. I'll put more comments & some examples in the ToC under each section.
Table of Contents SECTION I: THE CRISIS OF CREATION The First Farewell Washington at Home A Reluctant President The Seeds of the Two-Party System The Death of the One-Term Dream Second-Term Blues Hating George Washington A Time of Riots and Insurrection Washington’s Squabbling Surrogate Sons A Farewell “Importantly and Lastingly Useful”
Very good intro & overview despite the bias. It's obvious that Avlon doesn't like Thomas Jefferson or the Democratic-Republican party of the time. While there is much to dislike (on both sides) Avlon makes it clear he's a complete Federalist & Hamilton apologist. For instance, Aaron Burr is described as Alexander Hamilton's assassin leaving out how annoying Hamilton was or how high tempers ran. (Hamilton could have given Semmelweis lessons both in brilliance & attitude.) Also, it was a duel, the first & only one Hamilton actually had, although he was involved in over a dozen 'affairs of honor'. Burr was just the one who finally got him on the field.
I really didn't like Avlon's coverage of The Whiskey Rebellion which comes off as spurious on the part of small farmers. It wasn't. The tax hugely favored large distillers & whiskey was money. The farmers didn't have any say in the matter, thus it was taxation without representation, a prime motivation for the Revolution, so it pissed off a lot of veterans most of whom were poorly paid for their sacrifice. In hindsight, the rebellion was almost inevitable. IOW, Avlon simplified the situation into absurdity & did a great disservice to the farmers.
SECTION II: WASHINGTON’S PILLARS OF LIBERTY National Unity: Join or Die Political Moderation: The Fight Against Factions Fiscal Discipline: Debt and Taxes Virtue and Religion: The Faith of the First Founding Father Education: “Public Opinion Should Be Enlightened” A Foreign Policy of Independence: Peace Through Strength
Excellent introduction into the section. GW's views on party partisanship & education are incredibly relevant today. I wish I had the ebook so could put in some of Avlon's supporting quotes on GW's influences. GW's studies of the failings of prior republics is enlightening & scary. Avlon's coverage of Fiscal Discipline was repetitive & light, though. Again, he slights the problems with taxes & their collection even though he finally makes the point that it was the main spark for the Revolution. Still, he misses the irony of Sam Adams' position & hand in the Riot Act although he mentions Shay's Rebellion. The rest was good.
SECTION III: THE AFTERLIFE OF THE IDEA Unshackled at the End Washington Wins the War of Ideas A Farewell Fraud? The Farewell for Sale Washington in Blue and Gray World Wars and the Temptation of Empire Ike’s Inspiration The Farewell Echoes On
Again, cherry-picked, but I think it had to be. It's a fairly good summation of the influence of Washington & his Farewell Speech since then. He's certainly a secular saint of our country & deserves the title. Avlon managed to show his character & strength very well throughout & in this summation of his legacy, he shines even brighter.
Conclusion Appendix: Washington’s Farewell Address - definitely listen to this. In audio, it reads much better than on paper for me. If you can't get through it, here's a decent summary in modern language.
Very well narrated & a really interesting book. A big thanks to Cam, my cousin, who recommended it. I'll do likewise, but keep in mind there is a lot more to the story than Avlon tells. For instance, he dismisses Benedict Arnold with one line about "The Traitor" failing to mention his earlier appellation as the "Hero of Saratoga" or his heroic journey through Maine & the fight on the Great Lakes. Avlon is also really light on the economics of the time. Money was a prime motivator & Washington was one of the few who resisted its pull, for the most part. It makes him an even greater man, IMO....more
Another autobiography by Shatner. I've listened to 2 others, so there was some repetition there. This was good, focusing more on what he had learned oAnother autobiography by Shatner. I've listened to 2 others, so there was some repetition there. This was good, focusing more on what he had learned over the years even if he did continually say not to take his advice. I liked his outlook a lot, but he beat the points into the ground several times. Still, anyone who likes horses & dobermans is worth listening to.
For an obviously well educated & thoughtful man, he has some really big holes in his reasoning. The whole life after death thing was ridiculous & he also thinks Dr. Oz is a good doctor. Sheesh!
If you've read his other books, I wouldn't rush out to get this one. It's short, but not short enough even when narrated by him. Still, it had its moments. 2.5 stars rounded up....more
I wish there was a slip in time so I could have read this book earlier in my life, say annually mid teens to mid 20s, & a couple of times a decade aftI wish there was a slip in time so I could have read this book earlier in my life, say annually mid teens to mid 20s, & a couple of times a decade after that. Very well narrated by him, this is a must-read for every young maker out there. Older ones like myself will nod along & hear voice given to some things we've felt, but never managed to really come to grips with. It's well worth the time.
Savage is a maker. He's done it from an early age & made it his life's work as well as his hobby. We have a lot in common & learned many of the same lessons the same hard way, even though what we make is different. Some of us just have to fiddle & no matter what medium you work in, his lessons for every step of the project are important. Interspersed among these great lessons are bits of his life working on stages, movie props, & Myth Busters. That's icing on the cake & it's fabulous icing. I love the glimpses behind the scenes.
1. Dig through the bottom of the rabbit hole: Obsession isn't a bad thing. It's what separates the OK from the great. The best way to get obsessed is to do what thrills you. He's into cosplay, something I don't understand, but most people don't get how much I can get into a piece of wood, either. Embrace your weirdness!
2. Lists: His obsession with them goes way beyond mine, but it's also been a key to his success. Laying out the stages of a project makes a huge difference, especially when they're as complex as his. He mentions The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, a fantastic book that's definitely worth reading. Yes, it is planning. No, it doesn't stifle the creative process, it enhances it.
3. Checkboxes: Crossing items off a list makes them tough to read. A check box has more range & leaves the text unsullied.
4. Use more cooling fluid: Patience, Grasshopper. It makes all the difference. As frustrating as it can seem in the moment to slow down, it's not nearly as frustrating as screwing the project up.
5. Deadlines: His take on these is great. Rather than a wall to be hated, he uses them as a tool to focus the project. Excellent.
6. Drawing: Putting down on paper what is in our heads is amazingly helpful. Even if you can't draw worth spit (Me!) the act cements the relationship of pieces to on another & focuses the vision amazingly. I've made dozens of tables, but I still always sketch the joints because it's just too easy for me to forget which piece laps another & how or - far worse - get a brilliant notion halfway through & then realize it won't work right after I've made cut.
7. Increase your loose tolerance:Making is messy. It’s full of fits and starts, wrong turns, and good ideas gone bad. You WILL SCREW UP, but don't beat yourself up over it, just learn. Also, have extra material. I made 5 perfectly good, 2 piece tapered legs for my last table. I had the luxury of choosing the best, but all too often I don't.
8. Screw > glue: What sort of fastener to use & when. A lot about glues, great for anyone not familiar with them. Using baking soda to harden CA glue faster was new to me. I'll have to try that one, but he doesn't mention how accelerators can make CA glue turn white. That sucks for me in my natural wood bowls & such.
9. Share: I agree that all should be shared. Keeping processes or work secret is usually just silly. It's great to share enthusiasms & it's how to learn new techniques.
10. See everything, reach everything: How he sets up his shop & tool bag. He covers this very well & it is different depending on what you do, space, budget, etc. One of my shops was in an old chicken coop. My shop today is almost as big as his, but I have an overhang for welding which keeps the sun glare & rain off, but allows fresh air & access to equipment too big for the shop. I can't imagine Jamie's shop with all hammers in one place. I have a dozen metalworking & woodworking hammers each & they're stored in or near the areas I use them. Wood tools are not allowed in metal working areas & vice versa, either. (I don't care how well you wipe it, any tool that was greasy better not get near my woodworking bench!) I'm surprised Adam never used 5 gallon buckets with trays or Bucket Buddies. One with trays holds the 16 sizes of nails & deck screws I normally need. One BB is for construction, another for gardening, plus I have a tool belt.
11. Cardboard: Yes, it certainly is great for mockups & templates. I use it all the time plus it's perfect for laying on my gravel driveway when I have to work under equipment.
12. Hammers, blades, and scissors: I concur with his acquisition of tools. For expensive tools, buy cheap &, if you don't use it, don't bother getting another when it breaks. If you do use it, you'll know what to buy in a good one. His example was riveting, but I did exactly that with my first wood lathe. I hated the $120 cheap PoS the day I unboxed it, but a year of working with it made the $1200 I invested on the next one money well spent. I not only liked turning, but found out what sort I liked (bowl rather than spindle) & what accessories I needed. (The lathe was $600, but I spent as much on 2 chucks.) Fabric Scissors - Cloth ONLY or die! Absolutely & just don't use my old Swedish cabinet chisels.
13. Sweep up every day: Cleaning up sucks, but is necessary. It is good meditation time & often creates new ideas simply by moving around & cleaning the tools.
He mentions his Leatherman multi tool fairly often. Agreed. I carry the Juice S2 at work (IT guy) & the Surge around the farm, both in my pocket. Spend the money on a real one, too. The strength & machining make all the difference. Cheap ones are just frustrating....more
I've heard Sam Harris talked up a lot by Dawkins & others, so thought it would be interesting to listen to some essays by him. Nope. I should have reaI've heard Sam Harris talked up a lot by Dawkins & others, so thought it would be interesting to listen to some essays by him. Nope. I should have read the blurb a little closer & realized this wasn't the philosopher and neuroscientist, but an actor. I was anticipating something along the lines of Dawkins, but what I got was a gay actor who seems to know a lot of famous people. I listened to several essays, more like anecdotes, hoping that he'd interest me. Instead, I got a lot of gossip, often told in a breathless show girl voice, about the rich & famous. Catty comments about some old actresses not behaving well at Lisa Minnelli's wedding & Donald Trump's wide hips are of no interest to me.
His description of his early days at school & church plus the reactions he got when he questioned AUTHORITY about them struck a chord. Very similar to my own experiences. If he'd spent more time on such topics, I'd have been interested, but I didn't so I abandoned it....more
I listened to this because my library got a couple of dozen of them & I wanted to see how well this series handled someone I know a bit about before tI listened to this because my library got a couple of dozen of them & I wanted to see how well this series handled someone I know a bit about before tackling those I know little to nothing about. I can't say I was bowled over, but listening to more of them seems like a good way to explore. I detest 1000 page tomes that cover just one period of a person's life. No one is that interesting.
This is good for kids from 7 or 8 & up. Not bad for adults, either. It's short, but manages to capture a lot about TJ, which is tough since he was a complicated guy. It tells the good & bad, but doesn't really make sense out of his feelings about slavery, why he kept slaves, or why he didn't free his children by Hemmings. (A big reason was that it was illegal in VA & if he'd sent them across the border to MD, they stood a good chance of being captured & returned to slavery.) It does get into Hemmings & her relationship to him & his dead wife.
It also fails to mention how he was personally opposed to both the US expanding its territory & getting involved in foreign wars (The LA Purchase & the war against the Tripoli pirates.) yet he did both as president when the country needed it.
He was a practical man in many ways. The book does describe his issues with money towards the end of his life, but not his wine collection. It does mention him selling his book collection to start the Library of Congress & to help pay his debts.
This is a side of the Colonel that isn't seen too often or properly. Yes, he's known for establishing many parks, the Smithsonian Natural History museThis is a side of the Colonel that isn't seen too often or properly. Yes, he's known for establishing many parks, the Smithsonian Natural History museum, & such, but his love of natural history goes back to his childhood. Even better, Lunde, a natural historian himself, explains exactly what the job entails, the sub-types, & how the job has changed in the past couple of centuries. He also makes a good point about how hunters are often good conservationists. Sure, they're shooting the animals, but they know & respect them. A decent hunter isn't going to kill off every animal. That's mostly the domain of commercial hunters & fools. True hunters want to the species to thrive.
The book lagged a bit at times & was a bit repetitive, but overall very good. The biggest complaint that I have is it stopped after his African safari which he paid for by writing a series of articles. Roosevelt killed a couple of hundred animals specifically for natural history museums. He brought along a large team of naturalists who killed thousands, but those were mostly small critters & birds so no one cared. That safari basically set up the Smithsonian's collection.
The book stops, but Roosevelt didn't. He was invited to lecture in Argentina & wound up trying to make a similar journey up the Amazon again with some naturalists in tow. By all accounts, it was a disaster & wound up killing him, but I would have liked to have read about it in this book. This is a pretty good, short article about the "River of Doubt" but it's a bit too short. Still, I don't really want to read The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey which is probably too detailed. It has 25% more pages than this book & covers a much shorter time. Anyway, I'm taking a star off an otherwise excellent book for this lack.
All in all, I was quite pleased at this look at Roosevelt. He was a remarkable man. I really want to read more of his books since this book provided too few examples of his writing, just a few of the more poetic phrases. It looks as if Gutenberg.org has a few dozen of them & I have a few in my collection.
I was also disappointed in the way this author presented The Naval War of 1812. No, it wasn't a big hit when it was published, but a few years later, the Navy put a copy aboard every vessel & it is considered a seminal work in the field. It's still very well regarded & is often required reading. Quite a feat for a 23 year old.
I definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in natural history or Roosevelt in any format. This was an audio book & very well narrated....more
The book description is perfect, but it doesn't evoke the depth of the story. Aldred's adventures in the trees were incredible & he makes it clear howThe book description is perfect, but it doesn't evoke the depth of the story. Aldred's adventures in the trees were incredible & he makes it clear how much & why he loves it. Climbing trees isn't for everyone, especially not in the environments where he's been. The sights he's seen, the dangers endured, & the mistakes he's made are fantastic.
The sights are great. I recognized several of the trees from other books. I've always been more interested in them from a woodworker's point of view, never really thought about climbing them or what could be seen within them. He tells of entire worlds, unseen by most of us. Of course, to get there sometimes means enduring travels into remote locations, bad food, worse weather, & dangerous wildlife. Jungles suck to spend any time in & I can't imagine climbing by myself in them, but he did. I hadn't thought there was much worse than a bad case of crotch rot until he started describing the maggots that were erupting from his skin. Imagine climbing a tree armored against the attack of an eagle that you can't allow yourself to hurt. He did that not just once, but twice!
I've always realized that a lot of work goes into filming nature. I've taken a lot of pictures without ever coming close to getting a great shot, but Aldred takes this to a whole new level when he describes the weeks of preparation that went into a 20 second shot of David Attenborough. Incredible! Much of the book was like that.
My edition was very well narrated by an English voice actor. He fit the voice to the part perfectly. Highly recommended in any format, though....more
Fleming's quick tours & essays of 13 cities in 1959-60 is really enjoyable. The 7 cities of the around the world trip was done in a month, so was someFleming's quick tours & essays of 13 cities in 1959-60 is really enjoyable. The 7 cities of the around the world trip was done in a month, so was somewhat light in details although he had great connections. He managed to find his way to people & areas that the normal traveler would never think of visiting while still seeing major sights. The 6 cities of Europe had far more depth since he'd visited most of them for decades.
While this is 60 years old, that is great in a lot of ways. His discussion with a high police official in LA, CA about the growing drug problem & US courts is illuminating. He got to meet Lucky Luciano & go to places that no longer exist. He describes how tourism is ruining places. He can be quite acerbic describing some of the sights & trends, but is always interesting. There were some really quirky finds & bits of history, too.
Each city tour winds up with a section entitled "INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE" in which he describes the best hotels, nightclubs & restaurants. While some of the names were familiar, the only thing I found of interest were his comments on them & the prices.
You'll find plenty of prejudice, sexism, & other signs of the time in here, especially if you look for them. Fleming was not particularly bad in any way, quite good in most. He freely acknowledges many likes/dislikes & prejudices, but he always drives, never his wife. If you don't like it, you probably don't like the original James Bond books either, so this isn't for you. If you do like them, I highly recommend reading this. I found his description of the Hamburg mud wrestling match between a couple of bathing beauties quite interesting & agreed with many of his observations.
Here are some quotes. I won't say they're the best, just a few I grabbed from the online text to show his style.
...my guide, philosopher and friend in Hong Kong, and later in Japan, was 'Our Man in the Orient', Richard Hughes, Far Eastern correspondent of the Sunday Times. He is a giant Australian with a European mind and a quixotic view of the world exemplified by his founding of the Baritsu branch of the Baker Street Irregulars—Baritsu is Japanese for the national code of self-defence which includes judo, and is the only Japanese word known to have been used by Sherlock Holmes.
He concludes his section on Las Vegas with After paying all overheads, I had hammered the syndicates for one hundred dollars and three stolen ash-trays!
He describes Berlin's efforts to rebuild housing as the 'packet-of-fags' school of architecture - hideous concrete bunkers which pack people into merciless cubes.
It is certainly not what it used to be in Berlin, though there is still the emphasis on transvestism—men dressing up as women, and vice versa—which used to be such a feature of prewar Berlin. Now, at the Eldorado, for instance, and the Eden (where a home-made bomb went off, wounding three guests, ten minutes after we had left) some of the 'women' are most bizarre. The one I particularly took to, a middle-aged flower-seller such as you might see sitting beside her basket of roses in Piccadilly Circus, is known as the 'Blumenfeldwebel'. 'She' had been a corporal in a Panzer division and has an astonishing range of Berlin/Cockney repartee....
I am allergic to almost every form of international agency, conference or committee. Having worked briefly in the League of Nations around 1932, I believe that all international bodies waste a great deal of money, turn out far too much expensively printed paper, and achieve very little indeed. So it was with a jaundiced mind that I made an appointment to visit the Atōm Kōmmission, as the Viennese call it, with the secret intention of making sharp fun of it. Unfortunately I fell into the hands of Dr Seligman, ... is one of those intelligent, humorous, liberal-minded scientists (he reminded me of Sir Solly Zuckerman) who makes science understandable to the layman, and, with a nice mixture of irony and enthusiasm, he completely convinced me that the Agency, which has a modest budget and staff, was doing something really important very well.
Not for me. Well narrated, but she assumes I know something about her life besides that she was in Star Wars. I don't. I had no idea what singer/song Not for me. Well narrated, but she assumes I know something about her life besides that she was in Star Wars. I don't. I had no idea what singer/song writer she was talking about when she said she married the guy & I'm still not sure who fathered her kid.
I was mostly interested in this because I thought I'd hear a story of getting sober from drugs. Adding depression & being happy about having your mind scrambled by electroshock therapy holds no interest for me. I can understand her joy in getting clean, but I have a horror of such fiddling with the mind. That's not the kind of cure I want to understand no matter how illustrious the company it puts her in. Seemed to me, most of them died young & crazy....more
Between 1967 & 1971, Mike went to college & paid for it by working on an ambulance. He didn't really want to do either, but he had a low draft number Between 1967 & 1971, Mike went to college & paid for it by working on an ambulance. He didn't really want to do either, but he had a low draft number & Vietnam was waiting. Each chapter of this book is one memorable call. There are a lot of chapters. The writing is terse, but he still manages to fill in his thoughts, feelings, & enough background to draw each scene fully. Some are funny, but it isn't a pretty picture overall. Still, I'm really glad I read it.
I was given this book by the publisher without strings. I didn't ask for it, just received a PM here on GR asking if I'd be interested since I'd read some similar books. I was interested, but found it even better than most of those. Wow.
The book wasn't entirely without flaws. The pictures didn't do a thing for it & I really wish he'd used question marks. I believe he left them off because they were rhetorical; an artsy move that slows up my reading without adding anything. Otherwise, it was pert near perfect.
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