In being employed in and making use of libraries I have found some excellent books. These reviews are books and videos that I am recommending (I don't bother to review books or videos I don't find interesting enough):
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Book Reviews
Video Reviews
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My advice is to search all the libraries on the web to see if you can borrow the book to read. If you want to buy a book, you may like the web page:
bookfinder.com
addall.com
or
isbn.nu
Book Reviews
I am for voting and getting signatures for putting videos, CDs and DVDs out on the shelves and allowed to take out of the UC Libraries, like any other public library. Also I am interested in having drinks allowed in lectures and libraries of UC. To not allow drinks and not let videos and audios out of the libraries is barbaric. If you are interested in making a web page to petition the President and Regeants of the University of California, please contact me. Update! Drinks in sealed containers are now allowed in at least the Libraries of UC Irvine! Power to the people!
"Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness"
by James Haught,
ISBN 0879755784
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans on Earth in religion)
This is one of the only books I have ever actually bought ($20). There is one image on each page.
"The Dark Side of Christian History" by Helen Ellerbe
ISBN 0964487349
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans on Earth in religion)
Another book I actually bought (used for $5 with a coupon from half.com I think?).
"Holy Hatred" by James Haught
ISBN 0879759224
(Nonfiction, Religious groups of Humans on Earth)
"Women Without Superstition" by Annie Laurie Gaylor
ISBN 1877733091
(Nonfiction, Female humans on earth 1700-now
This book is a rare find. The past of atheism, and the past of female humans are difficult to find. This book includes images and stories of a number of female humans that questioned religion. I had no idea that people like Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Seneca Falls, NY) and Matilda Jocilyn Gage (Fayetteville, NY) lived hours away from where I lived for more than 10 years (Syracuse, NY)! I saw and toured both the Stanton and Gage houses, then told Gaylor and Gaylor did not muster a fart in reply. Sad that in the first page or two there is a reference to Hillary Clinton, in the first 10 pages, an average religious, cosmetic (although Gaylor also wears lipstick), and metal covered human. The rest of the book is nothing like the first 10 pages.
"Eyewitness Auschwitz : three years in the gas chambers" / Filip Müller
0812826019
the same book is also called:
"Auschwitz inferno : the testimony of a Sonderkommando" /, Filip Müller
071000138X
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans in Auschwitz, 1930-1950)
Philip Müller is a human that survived Auschwitz death camp. Philip was in the group (sundercommando "special command(?)") that burned humans the nazi people had killed. This story is absolutely amazing, and despite a some what antisexual (the word "impetent" is used two or three times for example) translation to english, the story is told with out any kind of fluff, mysticism, or religious inaccuracy. I read this book from start to end in less than 72 hours. Some parts of this story are how a Nazi human shot the daughter of a woman while the woman was holding the daughter, and then the woman threw the dead daughter at the Nazi human before being killed in front of the execution wall. Another memorable part was that one of the Nazi people (perhaps the lager füror or camp leader human) made a pit so that the fat from human bodies would run in to pans to be used to fuel the fire burning the dead bodies, Müller tells how this same Nazi person would throw humans under the age of 1 years old in to the boiling fat in the pans alive. The part that made my heart pound was after being moved from Auschwitz to a different camp (because of people from the Soviet Union were moving the Nazi people back) and in roll call hearing the person call out "all Auschwitz sundercommando fall out" (obviously to be killed). This book is in the University of California Berkeley and UCSD libraries (under a different name for UCSD). You can see Müller describing some of these stories (in a very entertaining way) in the movie "Shoah" by Claude Landzman.
Some humans in the Germany part of earth may feel responsible (or guilt) for what some Nazi humans did to other humans (in particular to Jewish humans, but also to other humans) in the death camps, and I say that the only humans that should be locked in a jail are humans that have caused pain and or damage to other humans with no consent and with intent. Only humans that caused damage to other humans should be locked in a jail and given a continuous democratic decision, all other humans should be free. Also, there were many German humans (like Max Plank) that opposed the Nazi opinions and popularity.
"I Cannot Forgive" Rudolf Vrba.
ISBN 0394621336
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans in Auschwitz from 1930-1950)
Rudolf Vrba is a human that escaped Auschwitz! With another human (Alfred Weczler) Vrba hid in a hole in the ground (?) under some boards and after 3 days ran thousands of meters to Slovakia where making a report on what was happening in Auschwitz (if only a person could do this for the brain imaging machines and camera network.but then what person would you tell? Ted Turner? ABC? those people are all in on it!). This story is amazing. Again another book I read in less than 72 hours. Again Vrba (like Müller) is not lost in religious mysticism. Going to school was not allowed for Vrba under the Nazi government, and after the people from the Soviet Union, England, France (perhaps Spain also), and the USA (Canada and Mexico also?) captured or killed all the Nazi supporting humans, Vrba went to a college and got a degree in chemical engineering (I am not sure of the degree name) and is now at a University in Canada. I sent Vrba an email but so far no reply. Vrba is also shown in the movie "Shoah" and has an interesting, entertaining story telling skill (I am of course not thrilled that Vrba wears part of a dead cow during the movie, but so does Landzmann). One funny part in the book is when some German prisoner humans were trying to find the two escaped humans and were pulling off the boards and were only one or two boards away (Rudy tightened the hold on a knife), then suddenly there was sounds from a different part of the camp and the two German prison humans ran to the other side of the camp saying "...they must have found them!..." and Weczler (also Wetzler) says to Rudy "you meet a quality kind of person here at Auschwitz" and I thought that was funny as can be. Think of these people in the camp, not even happy that a human may have escaped. I also wonder if some how the humans in the "resistance" (humans now could learn some thing from this idea) tried to make sounds to distract the humans pulling off the wood planks. This story is very interesting and was fun to read.
Asimov's biographical encyclopedia of science and technology : the lives and achievements of 1510 great scientists from ancient times to the present chronologically arranged", Isaac Asimov
ISBN 0385177712
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans in Science)
I recommend this book to people that want to learn the basic story of science on earth. Asimov was an atheist humans and gives a very clear telling of stories in science that are difficult to find in other places. Asimov has condensed these stories. Asimov shows a very good understanding or awareness of the stories of science (even in to the 1900s where most humans fall in to abstraction) despite wearing that idiotic "cowboy tie" (any tie is idiocy in my opinion). See the web page at http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/algbio.html to see that "cowboy tie".
I am telling you this book is good, and I think 9999 of 10000 books are crap. There is no other book that I am aware of that tells the story of the excellent humans in science as precisely as Asimov does here. Asimov was a smart human and except for the phrase "now left, now right" the wording is made with the future in mind. From Asimov I first learned of Lavoisier (a human in chemistry in France that was beheaded, during the time that every thing including pets were getting killed with the brand new guillotine). Also the story of Mendeleev, and a number of other humans I had never heard of, but that made amazing contributions to life of earth.
"The Last Two Million Years"
ISBN 0895770180
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans on earth)
This book has nice images and I am amazed at the smart text (by Reader's Digest humans no less - this must have slipped by the censor humans).
"Thread of Life", the Smithsonian looks at evolution / by Roger Lewin
ISBN 0895990105
(Nonfiction, Past of Life on Earth, Evolution of Life on Earth)
There is a nice (although no where near enough species listed) timeline in the back of the book.
"The genius of China : 3,000 years of science, discovery, and invention" Robert K.G. Temple ; introduced by Joseph Needham
ISBN 1853752924
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans in Science and Invention in China)
Like Russia, some how the stories of Science in China have been ignored in the USA. More later.
Atlas of Evolution, De Beer, Gavin, Sir, 1899-1972, 1964, isbn unknown
This book is from 1964, so is very old, but still has some interesting data on evolution. One thing that is sad to see is the use of the word "niggardly".
"The Epic of Man" by the editors of Life
LCCN 61017388 (library of congress control number)
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans on planet Earth)
Nice drawings of sapiens from tens of thousands of years before now. Plus, no religious embarrasment in showing nude humans and other nude species. not good that the word "man" is used in stead of "human"
"The Dawn of Civilization",1967
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans on planet Earth)
"The Light of the Past"
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans on Planet Earth)
"Mad in America", by Robert Whitaker.
This has some good data on the history of psychiatric hospitals and tortures. The "tranquilizer chair" is described, where humans were tied in a chair with a hole for shit and piss. Humans would be locked to these chairs for hours, days and even months. Some humans had "teeth pulled", a lobomoty is when humans use a drill or ice pick to make holes in human brains. Drugs like haloperidol, and thorazine were seen as a "chemical lobotomy" (again for humans that, no matter how unrealistic, never caused any pain or damage), and humans some times have no choice in saying no to the drugs. There is also a good telling of how eugenics (killing or sterilizing the "defective" humans) started in the USA and spread to Europe later, and reached a climax with Hitler and the Nazi humans in Germany.
"A History of Invention", Trevor Williams
11-22-2002
"Cause of Death", and also "Grave Secrets" by Cyril Wecht
I really enjoyed these two books. Cyril Wecht, one of the more popular forensic pathologist humans on earth describes the JFK, RFK, Nicole Simpson, and other killings. Wecht is a smart human, and more honest than most. Wecht uses carefully placed words to indicate what millions of humans may have learned thru secret camera and thought networks. In addition, Wecht is brave enough to give an unhidden honest opinion (for example that Thane Cesar was more likely the human that killed Robert Kennedy). I look forward to seeing more stories from Wecht. Sad to say that Wecht must be ~ 70 earth years old. When Wecht dies, like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, planet earth will have lost one more helpful human. One thing I can identify with is a part Wecht describes in the JFK part of the book. Wecht was the only one of ~9 forensic pathology people to disagree with the idiot "single bullet theory" during the House Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s. I am familiar with that feeling - being an incredible minority speaking truth against an overwhelming majority that purposely lies.
"Complete History of the World" ISBN 0760725756 <$10 hardcover bn.com
Exciting and excellent to find a summary of the rise of the humans from our origins in Africa to now, in a hard cover book for under $10.
History's Timeline" ISBN 0760703868 <$10 hardcover bn.com
I have found no summary of the evolution of life of earth (like "Thread of Life") in compact form for <$10. The evolution books are monopolized, and dominated by the same 5 humans, almost all with Steven J Gould contributing (to me Gould was long winded but did at least support evolution against creationism).
01-25-04
"Man Is Wolf To Man" ISBN 0520213521 1998 Janusz Bardach
and Kathleen Gleeson
I saw Janusz Bardach on the History Channel biography of Joseph Stalin. Bardach survived the Russian Gulags/prisons in the 1930's. Bardarch describes (on the History Channel) how a young girl was given 5 years for being late for work, people got 10 years for making a joke about Stalin, wives reported on their husbands, and hundreds of thousands of nonviolent humans were sent to prisons on ridiculous charges. I read this book from start to finish in 2 days. Bardach is Jewish and many of the people in his family were killed by Nazi people. They story is shocking. After reading the stories of Shoah, Rudy Vrba and Phillip Muller, of how Jewish people were killed under the Nazi people, the stories of the Russian prisons is not as brutal, but is still upsetting. I think that there are parallels that can be drawn to the modern day drug war, and psychiatric arrests. These arrests in Communist Russia under Stalin, are an example of how passive people are pushed into prisons by aggresive violent dishonest people. For example, most good, gentle, honest people, would not feel comfortable reporting to the police that they think that their co-worker uses drugs, or is a spy, a pervert or insane, etc....but stupid aggressive violent people will, they have no fear of lying, systems of comformity, etc...perhaps there is a feeling of kill or be killed, label a psycho or be labelled psycho, slut, fag, etc...One interesting part, was hearing how the people in prison did not exhibit the "brainwashed", sterile, mandatory pro-Stalin talk that dominated public talk, but were openly critical (since, I guess, they were already in prison) and honest. In the early chapters Bardach hints at hearing and seeing thought, and the frightening nazi-esque reality that exists today with the secret cult that watches people in their houses, and sees and hears their thoughts in a 100 year old secret infrared camera network. I have a million things to do, and probably should not be doing anything other than building my walking robot, and making a video telling the stories of science and evolution, but this book provided a nice divertion and is informative.
06-20-04
"Bodies of Evidence" ISBN 0762102950 2000 Brian Innes
Reader's Digest was involved with producing this book. This book describes forensic techniques used to solve crimes, and gives nice examples of more than 100 crimes, including the homicides of Nicole Simpson, Jon Benet Ramsey, and other famous homicides. The person that typed this story, Innes, is clearly English, refering to "America", and many of the cases are from England. Is a believer in psychology, using the phrase "psychopathic killer", as if there are some first strike killers (or humans that kill other humans, as I like to say), that somehow have a healthy universe view.
I am not a professional book reviewer or recommender human, so there are some good photos. There is not too much religion, but I did catch some religious words, like I think, the believe in a "god" is mentioned somewhere, or perhaps "angels" (rare for people in serious/real sciences like forensic pathology, but godders, like kristnas are everywhere). This is the only good book of this kind I could find, so I am mentioning it here. The person does not mention the balliscan camera, used to view the marks on bullets and see if they match, a basic, and excellent method of seeing if a bullet came from the same gun as another (although the possibility of people in police planting bullets also exists, like the stretcher bullet in JFK, although perhaps that person was not in police. More offensive, was no mention of infrared cameras, and massive tiny camera networks, using microphones, and even a hint of all the survailence going on. What I kept thinking when reading this book was, "hey forget, scraping for fibers (although the fibers part is interesting), we have video from the street that shows the person driving back to their house after the homicide!, Actually get the fibers and prints too, the more physical evidence the better." With all the cameras, seeing everything including thought, that a person that does homicides could go on for 2 or 3 years killing 10 to 15 humans is unbelievable. Also in this book, as I said, the person is a strong supporter of "psychological profiling", which in my opinion is a complete pseudoscience and fraud as ridiculous as paying a "psychic". There is even a photo of a proud psychologer with his book. The person claims that people can detect things like: "the bomber is not married, clean shaven, well built, lives with older female relative, wears double breastsed suits..." just ridiculous things, or learned from hidden camera networks. There is a real science in determining what kind of accent a person in a recording has, that expensive shoe prints indicate a wealthy person, etc... that is an actual factual science, but bizarre statements based on theories of psychology are useless.
Encyclopedia of Assassinations Carl Sifakis, isbn 0816043329 and 0816043590
A "Facts on File" book. I thought this book was going to be boring, but it is good. It goes though many killings of political people in particular although John Lennon is excluded, but Jesse James is included. Many of the stories of the Roman emperors are described, in addition to JFK, MLK, RFK (although no mention of Ted Charach...Charach made the big effort of all peopole, a feature film called "The Second Gun" that was nominated for a Golden globe, that is the only major work on the RFK killing to correctly identify and explore the truth that Thane Cesar is (is still alive unlike Frank Fiorini who died from old age, can you believe that?) the person that actually killed RFK. What is the deal on ignoring the work of Ted Charach and Gerard Alcan?), the Ghandis (amazing that Mohandas Ghandi was 74 years old when killed, and then the person that did the kililng only got something like 19 years in jail, then got to vacation in Aruba drinking pina coladas for the rest of his 70 years of freedom), that is like the right wing judge that gave Chapman 20 years to life, already Chapman is up for parole, what a miscarriage of justice. The book describes the killing of Abe Licoln that I think, explains how people on earth have been completely negligent in stopping violence, or even caring to make first strike violence the number 1 taboo. Also, the attempts on Reagan, Ford, and Clinton are described.
07-22-2004
A short history of freethought, ancient and modern, by John M. Robertson, isbn 0405038046
The copy of the book I am reading was printed in 1899, before even WW2, but, with the exception of a very few English phrases like 'on all fours', still reads like a modern book. The history of atheism is such a smart topic, and is futuristic to begin with. In addition, humans accumulate the stories of the past, for example how Martin Luther rejected his contemporary Corpurnicus and the sun centered theory on biblical grounds, and opted for a belief in withcraft. This book tells about many people that were killed by religiously intolerant humans, like Giordano Bruno, and many other people I had never heard of. This may be a tough book to find, the copy I am reading is from the UC Irvine Library.
Update: 02/03/2010 Now this book is on books.google.com at:
A Short History of Free Thought vol 1
and volume 2:
A Short History of Free Thought Volume 2
It's interesting just to quickly scan Robertson's quick history of the collapse of ancient science and the rise of Christianity. Perhaps there is something interesting about shocking and large scale stupidity - like the rise of the Nazi's in Germany, the keeping neuron reading and writing a secret in 1810, etc.
03-29-05
I probably should organize these into catagories, but this will have to do for now:
History of Life, by Richard Cowen, isbn 1405117567, 2004
Great book, and one of the few detailed histories of the entire story of evolution. There are images but they are all in black and white, so nice color photos would be a future improvement. The info is good, but told from a geology perspective, for example, in ULSF, I will be explaining the evolution and function of every system, digestion, nervous, reproductive, etc. Cowen grazes over the inventions of the eye, stomach, heart, etc. without much detail. The book is not very organized in terms of attention to chronological detail, Cowen takes a chapter to talk about plants, tetrapods, etc. In ULSF, I want to go strictly chronological, and detail the oldest fossil of each species with dates, and also molecular clock dating.
I have not read this book entirely, but I plan to. It is almost impossible to find a modern book detailing the history of evolution in this much detail. I highly recommend the book, but I recommend going through the library, because the book is priced at $70.
Prehistoric past revealed, by Douglas Palmer, isbn 0520241053, 2003, $27
This is an evolution book too, but with much less detail, but some time lines are given. I have not fully read this book, but there are some beautiful color pictures in this book.
This book is no where near as detailed as "History of Life", but is a nice book anyway and at $27 the price is not as bad. I haven't read it all and so perhaps my review is lacking.
Early Life: Evolution on the Precambrian Earth", Lynn Margulis, Michael Dolan, isbn 0763714631, $37, 2002
This is a good telling of much of early life. There are some speculations, and many new smart ideas I had not thought about before. This is only the first few billion years, and there is nothing here about the evolution of reptiles, and later, etc. For $37 this is a good telling of the evolution of photosynthesis, and several other basic processes in terms that most people can understand. I kind of doubt the theory of symbiosis for the first nucleus, but clearly the first mitochondria and plastids were symbiosis. I have trouble accepting that merged archebacteria DNA would grow cytoplasm outside the outer wall of a eubacteria that becomes the nucleus, more likely the cytoplasm would grow inside the nucleus. Margulis doesn't mention planctomycetes or a virus as the origin of the first cell nucleus which are to me both important opinions. I think the planctomycetes is the most likely, in particular because a nucleus could evolve with pores, where a virus would have to have pores to begin with, in addition to the problem I just mentioned of a virus taking over a bacterium DNA and having that DNA grow cytoplasm outside of the virus, to me is unlikely.
Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth, Andrew Knoll, 2004, isbn 0691120293, $16
This book is good, many photos of the photos are in black and white, and it is very wordy, where I (but others are different) like more detail and less Shakespeare. This is a criticism I would give of books by Steven J Gould too, who perhaps Knoll is emulating. I like to skim past the fluff stuff and get into the data, but some times it is nice to read about Knoll's Indiana Jones-like adventures for scientific and paleontological gold. There are many references to me (like "bewildering", and "teepee") which is nice for me and shows that Knoll recognizes that some of the things I am saying are of value, at the same time there is a part where Knoll refers to bacteria as "bugs", which I think is kind of old-worlder, like calling prokaryotes "microbes", but "microbes" is certainly less old worlder than "bugs". Like Margulis, Andrew Knoll is recognized in science (although an unknown to most people, because science is no where near as important as acting and sports to this group of people on earth), unlike Margulis (who probably was not published in major magazines because of genderists and religious) Knoll is published in both Nature and Science and is very knowledgable on microfossils. I want to read more of this book and the price is good at on $16. I have not read all of this book and I am going to read more.
(continued on 3/20/05). I have read more and Knoll has travelled to many different places, and comments on the oldest fossils from Warrawoona, claiming that they appear to be minerals, which I kind of doubt even with his expert eyes, for one reason because he goes on to say that they have found similar fossils in South Africa from the same chert, plus the tests for carbon that Schoff did to verify that there is carbon material in the fossil. Finally I lean on the side that the circles in Warrawoona are stromatalites, but clearly more evidence would be nice. One thing that is intersting about both Knoll and Margulis is that even though both books are recent, they ignore the idea of the first eukaryote coming from Planctomycetes, a budding prokaryote, in addition to the idea that the first nucleus was a virus, which I think is a serious omission. There is some good data here about the first bacteria (although not the first cell). One thing is that Knoll claims (as far as I can understand) that nitrogen fixing bacteria probably evolved before any metabolism like glycolysis or fermentation. One other important thing in this book is that the first bacteria were probably eubacteria and anarobic, heterotrophic, thermal bacteria. Both those pieces of data will help me in putting together ULSF.
I find the parts with details about the science of archeology for microfossils very interesting. I still have trouble understanding how radioactive dating can be accurate (Knoll explains that the amount of atoms decayed is always by a percentage of the amount there, not in terms of number of atoms. How can that be? Don't people have to know the initial amount of matter in some sample? What if there is more of the atoms in some other sample... for example, of 100 atoms 50 decay, but the sample contains only 10 decayed atoms and no original atoms? Perhaps both the original and decayed atoms are both in a zircon inclusion, but I have a tough time believing that a person can measure any sample of uranium and know how old the rock is because or the percentage of Uranium to Lead without knowing the size of the full Uranium deposit. Perhaps the decay works locally and uniformly so that any uranium a person would ever find also has lead mixed in with perfect uniformity.
04-13-05
Although I think much of the data in this book is very useful, and in particular I appreciate the trees with dates of earliest fossils, some of the data is presented out of chronological order, and kind of mixed together in a confusing way. More things to note are that, Knoll questions the explanation of the Warrawoona fossils being cyanobacteria (labelling a starts for cyanobacteria at 2700 as I remember). Knoll puts forward an interesting idea that the first bacteria were thermophile (heat loving, lived in hot water) because most of the earliest bacteria in DNA studies are thermophile. The date of the first water photosynthesis supported by the Warrawoona, Mojzsis Carbon-12 papers, Cowen in Life on Earth (which supports an early origin of photosynthesis of at least as old as the oldest BIF, stromatolites, and sedimentary rocks of earth 3.6 billion years) is in conflict (by 1 billion years no less) with other people (including Knoll as far as I understand).
04-25-05
I finished this book and there is some good data, but the most offensive part is, like David Attenboro, the use of the word "crazy" (to mean illogical) twice. How much money did they get to say that? I think people gain some money for using words like "niggardly" (i.e. the 1964 "Atlas of Evolution"), ultimately they lose money for supporting such a brutal, elitist, shallow view.
This book has some good details about various parts of early evolution, and some good data, for example on Hox genes in fruit flys. This book focuses on the fossil record as opposed to molecular clocks (but does look at molecular clocks too), so that is very helpful to me, because I think we should really organize and explain to the public what important fossils there are, their anatomy, etc. Both this book and "The Ancestor's Tale", and perhaps many other an evolution book have the Jonathan Swift poem that has "and so mites have other mites on their back to bite'm and so on it goes ad infinitum".
There is a part where Knoll says a person has an interest "in their heart" which is kind of old worldy. There is a photo of Knoll on a web page, to his credit, but he has two wrist watches. The wrist watch, I think may be a thing of the past, like the neck tie (which he doesn't have on again to his credit). hand held computers, cell phones, walking robots will eventually replace watches, and nobody will want to wear such an uncomfortable device.
The Ancestor's Tale,Richard Dawkins with additional research by Yan Wong,2004,isbn 0618005838, $20
This is a good book, Dawkins is not tainted by religion, and I find refreshing reading what people that are opposed to religion type. The book is chronologically done from now to the beginning of life on earth, with each "concestor", or common ancestor identified, 39 in all. I like the idea of looking closely at each branch in the tree of life. Each change is important. There is a large amount of rambling and the book is 673 pages long (but for $20 and hard cover, that is a good deal, but ofcourse you can always browse at your nearest public libraries). But, I find many of the rambling asides to be very informative and interesting. There is more detail about Hox genes in drosophila than in the Andrew Knoll "first 3 billion years" book. There is a kind of negative (although I think within the bounds of comedy, but could easily be misinterpretted negatively) view expresses in an image of Condoleza Rice, Colin Powell, Bush, and Rumsfeld with the words "Wouldn't a Martian split them three against one?", implying that Colin Powell does not have dark brown skin as people with less interracial mixing do. I think that a Martian would put them "against" each other is negative, but there is perhaps some comedy in an uninformed Martian having to make quick decisions. It is important to note that Dawkins goes on to speak out against racism, and expresses clearly a view against racism. Dawkins also exposes how HG Wells was an extreme racist, writing "how will the new republic treat the inferior races? ..the black? .. the yellow man?..the Jew?...". It is really shocking to read that Wells was a believer in those backwards and elitist views. A number of people believed non white races and women to be inferior in the 1800s. Darwin thought that negroid humans were inferior, Sanger is reported to have had a similar view. Sad that such progressive people had such an inaccurate view. Dawkins wisely wonders about what future humans will look back at us and find brutal, supposing our cruel treatment of the other species (I would add the secrecy of the eye networks, the drug arrests, the psychiatric jailing w/o crimes, trials or sentences, the unthinking devotion to idiotic religions). My impression so far, and I have not finished the book, is that this is a good book detailing evolution (although no color photos), and Dawkins is a knowledgable person. The book is interesting to read. Watch out for the use of words like "the odd beetle", "I would be mad to ...". On the same page (near the end) that Dawkins uses the phrase "I would be mad" (promoting support for the illegal psychiatric establishment) he uses the word "10 million". Perhaps it is an admitting that he received $10,000 from right wing people to print "I would be mad". Maybe he got $10 million from the Christian religious reich?! I doubt it, but it is nice to see that he perhaps is hinting at some accountability for the public that lives unaware of what is happening in the camera networks behind the scenes. On the same page he bravely admits to using hallucinigens once. Now if people can stop shilly shallying and end the drug war, perhaps we can learn about photons, eyeball networks, and all the rest.
It is important to note that this is one of the few books that describes the details of evolution. All the books I have found so far are listed on this page, there are almost none. ULSF, is going to make these books look very long winded. I am just going for the bare bones facts. The longer versions may go into more details (and potentially asides), but I am going for a super condensed telling of evolution, history of science, and the future.
Dawkins doesn't talk about Planctomycetes, or virus origins for first eukaryote. Dawkins uses the word "world" to refer to the universe, kind of a small, old worldy view.
04-28-95
Dawkins describes people that think there was an immediate increase in the number of phyla at the beginning of the Cambrian (543 MYBN) as "bonkers". This reminds me of my interview with Reggie Finley, the Infidel Guy, when I say "If Carl Sagan is saying 'bonkers', I think we're in trouble...". In other words, if Sagan is far from questioning the practice of locking people in hospitals without a charge, trial, defense, jury, or sentence, based on the theories of the dubious science of psychology, I think we are in trouble, and there is no doubt that we are in trouble as a species. Leaving such an open door to massive jailing of nonviolent people without trials, charges, sentences, or consentual "treatment", is not something I am supporting in any way, and am actively vocally opposing. There is no evidence that Carl Sagan ever seriously questioned one theory or practice of psychology, and that is a disappointment for such a smart person. Dawkins expresses a minor amount of crudeness (and perhaps I do too), in using the word "bonkers", and a kind of antisexual giggly boy's club or tavern humor when using double meaning words like "childrearing". There are other examples of this subtle kind of brutality, which colors the book in my mind as a lessor work, and Dawkins a lessor person, than I had originally thought, but still a good book, and fine person. This appeal to humor (in this case the humor and elitism of making fun of people with innaccurate (or simply different from the majority) views - I admit I do this to religious people in parodying the ridiculous stories of Jesus rising from the dead, etc.) is a technique people used to convince people, many times without any actual evidence. In looking at the section on the so-called "Cambrian explosion", I find the only actual evidence against the geological record of a very fast increase in organisms that natural section takes a long time and is gradual. A different part has the idea that not all fossils have been found (for 65 million years no coelacanth was ever found, and places like ChiangJiang where soft parts were preserved are, in Dawkins harsh language "freak" occurances, or less harshy stated, "very rare"), and many species don't leave fossils. Those are actual pieces of evidence, saying people that claim a fast radiation "crazy" is not physical evidence and is a waste of very limited time to me. For myself, I think the geological record is a good piece of evidence in favor of a fast radiation, molecular clocks (also mentioned by Dawkins) are evidence against. I think Knoll has a good opinion that perhaps the first animals were like mammals that got an opportunity to diversify and expand after the catastrophe that made the dinosaurs extinct happened, the catastrophe for the first animals may have been the snow or slushball earth ice age at the end of the proterozoic (beginning of panerozoic and cambrian). So the molecular clocks are correct in that animals evolved, but only small animals that did not leave any fossils. Simply that all vertebrates have evolved in the last 1/8 (543/4000) years is evidence of a recent radiation relative to the evolution of life on earth. Dawkins takes the view that in the absence of more fossils the cambrian radiation was relatively fast, which to me is not very different from the view he was arguing vigorously and in my opinion angrily against.
I think the "bonkers" is an example of another phenomenon I recognize. When a new theory gains popularity, there is a massive oppression and rejection of the new idea (this happened for evolution, relativity, photon is matter, psychology is pseudoscience, etc.). A new exciting theory gains popularity, the establishment cracks down overwhelmingly to oppress and discredit it, but within a few years, the majority accept the theory as truth (although, as with evolution, the theory is still gaining a majority, and I would check for the sun centered theory. For relativity, I think the few of us in science are struggling under the shadow of the myth of time dilation and confusion of complex math). So I think the purposeful use of the psychology words like "crazy", "psycho" (a remade major motion picture to discredit me funded by repubs and psychologers, a classic mixup of delusion versus homicide), "insane" are examples of this massive oppression, supression and rejection of new exciting popular ideas, that will eventually be heard, given fair and wide observation, understanding, and acceptance.
I think the final word on "bonkers" is that when people use these words and support such a system, never critising any aspect of psychology and psychiatric hospitals, they will probably get criticism from me, but praise from the establishment with is certainly mightier and richer, and the opposite is true too.
Dawkins is also an example of a person that may not be aware that evolutionists form only 30% of the people (at least in the USA), we are a tiny minority. Dawkins has a part where he claims that creationists like the idea of a Precambrian radiation, and my thought is that, most creationists deny evolution alltogether, and care nothing for specifics or generalities. Many people get very involved in the tiny group of people in their field, not thinking of the majority of people that do not follow every tiny argument.
I don't doubt that this book and other tellings of the complete story of evolution are partially the result of my ULSF project, and I am glad, if true or not. We need a thousands books and videos like this.
update May 18,2005: I have read more, and I must say that this book may be the best book on the entire story of evolution of life on earth made in the last 50 years. That there are no color photos is one source of improvement, but as of yet, I have found no other book as comprehensive and up to date.
05/18/06: I am reading more, and this is a very good book indeed, but let's don't not explain why. I bought a ocpy for myself, which is rare, and it's only $5-$10 used on amazon.com. Dawkins opens up some small truths about sexuality which I find brave and interesting saying that wanting to have sex with somebody is different from wanting to impregnate somebody, in other words there are some women Dawkins would like to fuck and others he would like to impregnate, I agree for myself, but perhaps I am misinterpretting his statement. "The primatologist Frans de Waal put itneatly: 'The chimpanzee resolves sexual issues with power; the bonobo resolves power issues with sex...' ... [Bonobos] use copulation, or copulatory gestures, to appease, to assert dominance, to cement bonds with other troop members of any age or sex, including small infants. Paedophilia is not a hang-up with bonobos; all kinds of philia seem fine to them." which is interesting that such a living example of open sexuality exists among a group of relatives so closely related. The examination of sex, sexual reproduction, etc for all species is lacking because of antisexual ferver and erroneous beliefs. There are some color photos in the paperback version which adds to the value of the paperback.
The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The Flowering of Early Animal Life,Hou Xianguang, Jan Bergstrom, Richard J. Aldridge,2004,isbn 1405106735, $95
This is basically a book with photos (b&w) and explanation about fossils that have been found in the Chengjiang rocks, and cover a time in the early Cambrian 520 million years before now. Similar, but with early fossils than the Burgess Shale. At $95, better to get from a library. There is a nice quick summary of the basic understanding of early evolution of life on earth in the beginning. The authors take (what I understand is) the mainstream opinion of early photosynthesis and cyanobacteria in Warrawoona.
Life Before Man, Zdenek V. Spinar, Zdenek Burian (Illustrator), 1995, isbn 0500277966, $10 used
How many people do you meet named Zdenek? and then two in one book! This book is kind of old now at 10 years old, but still, if you are looking for a basic telling of evolution this book is ok, although I still need to look at it more. It has some wonderful drawings of early hominids, and is basically all drawings which I like. There are only used copies available. Where are all the decent low cost books describing the details of evolution chronologically? I may send a letter to Simon and Schuster, Random House, TimeLife, National Geographic, NSF, requesting that such books and DVDs be funded.
Bye Bye Big Bang: Hello Reality, William Michell, 2002, isbn 0964318814, $18
The first thing I want to say is that unbelievably Michell actually questions whether there is "ether" between the stars, that is without much doubt false. Having said that, the 80 year old Michell has some good info on flaws with the Big Bang theory. I want to say that, ofcourse, there must be galaxies we can't see with the Hubble, that not one photon reaches the detectors that detect the background radiation. Any photon that reaches the background radiation detectors has to be close enough to reach us, farther galaxies, are too far for even 1 photon to be going in our direction. So having stated my main arguments against the 15e9 year old universe (and to some extent the exapnding universe). As I said there is some good data here that the big bang establishment, a Stalinesqe type of group that excludes any other theory, or any questions of doubt, neglects to publisize. Michell could have summarized his views in 20 pages, and there is a lot of repetition and extra fluff text, but I find the book a good reference to see what the Big Bangers are claiming and the history of physics that many today want to bury. Michell lived through the 1900s and so spreads light on the BS that was slung in the past that is now accepted as unquestioned fact. In addition, the book is told from an atheistic view point, this is not a book that appeals for a christian creation, etc., and really the exact opposite, Michell argues that religious people like the idea of a big bang, it adheres more closely with and are prejudiced by their historical biblical interpretation of the universe.
Stars and Planets, Ian Ridpath, Wil Tirion (Illustrator), ISBN: 0691089132, 2001, $13
ok this is unbelievable. I want to make a $10 book called "The Messier Objects", with all the free public domain Hubble pictures of each Messier object in it. But until then, this book will have to do. Maybe some body can tell me what book has nice color photos of all the Messier objects. This book does not have color photos of all the Messier objects, but has some color photos of some of the Messier objects, in addition to some text describing various kinds of telescopes. It goes through each constellation in a logical way. This is a good reference for those with a telescope trying to find what there is to see. I have a certain amount of awe in seeing globular clusters and in particular elliptical galaxies thinking that they may be made by advanced life. KStars is a free program that runs on Linux that is quite good too.
update 10/26/05: the author(s) use the word "crazy" in the text, to me that is kind of offensive, in particular when purposely done for money...or at a minimum a poor view of the sciences, the history of psychiatric hospitals and stigmas, and intolerance of unusual ideas, thoughts and speech.
06-27-05
"Major Events in the History of Life", J. William Schopf, ISBN: 0867202688, 1992
Although this book is 13 years old, it still includes most of the major recent findings (with the exception of the Cheng Jiang, and perhaps the many rRNA and amino acid molecular studies that have been done in the last 10 years) and evidence to support an accurate telling of the history of life on earth. It is interesting that there are so few reports of ancient microfossils and >3,000 million year old sediment around. I like the summary given by Stanley Miller in Chapter 1, and Schopf summarizes clearly and concisely the early history of prokaryotes (although he does not mention many cellular or metabolic details). The feeling I get from Chapter 2 is the pwoerful evidence that there is no doubt that most, at least the vast majority of BIF was made by photosynthesis, and that BIF is continuous back to the oldest 3850 myo sediments of Akilia Island west of Greenland is evidence that photosynthesis was responsible for the BIF too. There is the possibility of uv light converting the surface H2O into H2 and O2, but according to Cowen in "History of Life" that can only account for a small percentage. In addition, the C12 to C13 ratios of the odlest sediments indicate that photosynthesis was occuring. The clear picture is as Schopf says in Chapter 2, that these early cyanobacteria have remained the same for billions of years (but does the DNA reflect that? This has still yet to be answered). It is awesome that Schopf shows photos comparing cyanobacteria like (2 billion year old fossilized) Paleolyngbya with modern lyngbya. I found in a letter to Nature that Schopf thinks these oldest Warrawoona fossils are closest to Osilleratoria or Lyngbya, but I have yet to find any rRNA and or amino acid molecular dating of these organisms. It is interesting to think that the oldest sediments ever found on earth show the evolution of life at a relatively late stage, after the origin or the first cell, after ribosomes, after the awesome ribosome protein construction machinery had already evolved, after sophisticated autotrophic photosynthetic metabolism had already evolved, etc. and then that those 3.5 billion year old bacteria are more or less the same as they are now. One thing appears clear, that everything after photosynthesizing bacteria, like the first eukaryotes (and obviously all bilaterians, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals) most definately evolved on earth and the fossil record should help to show that with actual fossils, in addition to molecular trace fossils.
update: 10/26/05: Schopf never returned my email asking about any rrna evidence for lingbya that puts them as ancient as 3500 MYA (million years old), because most rrna analysis has cyanobacteria only at 2700 MYA, but the experiments I have seen do not use lyngbya or oscillatoria, which Schopf has identified in this book as being fossilized in 3.6 GYA BIF. Hello elitest and frigid?
"Asimov's chronology of the world", by Isaac Asimov, isbn 0062700367, 1991
I definitely recommend the book "Asimov's chronology of the world", by Isaac Asimov, isbn 0062700367, as being a very smart brief summary of history in an entertaining way, full of clever insights that I had never heard before. One example, of these clear insights is what I read last night: that around 800 BCE, the majority of people in Israel were polytheists, not believers in only one god, in fact, the one-god only Yahwahists were viewed as puritanical and extremists, but when, in the future, the single-god believers became the majority, they portrayed the King at that time, "Ahab" and his wife "Jezabel" in the old testiment writings in a bad light, while the two early Yahwayists (I forget their names) were written as positive figures. But there are many other insights made by Asimov, some probably inaccurate, but many that may probably be true. One exciting insight is Asimov telling that the Phoenetians people, the major traders and sea explorers of the time, who had Cuneiform to the north and Egyptian hieroglyph, developed the first alphabet where symbols could be used to represent any language, so the invention, in that context makes sense, being traders that need to communicate with people of different languages...that scribes were needed, because without an alphabet, there were many accumulated symbols for each object that only a person trained could read...all excellent points that I have never heard before. That, while written language evolved independently at least 3 times (Asimov sights The Tigres-Euphrates, China, and Mexico...although I think we should really put together the evidence and think about this, because there was probably a large amount of intercommunication), the alphabet evolved only once, and all other alphabets evolved from that first phoenecian alphabet. Each page has some interesting insight like those.
11/17/05 ok, Asimov used "perverted" and "crazy" after 100 pages...kind of low-brow, antisexual and brutal, but then that was 1991. Asimov made an earlier point that with the rise of Christianity, punishing sexual immorality was more of the focus; a brave, interesting and truthful statement.
"The Thought-Reading Machine", by Andre Maurois, 1937 (French Edition), 1938 English translation by James Whitall.
Publisher: New York, NY, U.S.A.: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1938, New York, NY, U.S.A.
no ISBN number, I think this must have been printed before ISBN.
"This is the book to end all books Alex" (parody on Borgnine in "The Black Hole"). If you are excluded (you don't hear thoughts) then I desparately encourage you read this book. Shockingly it is being sold for around $10:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?y=0&tn=the+thought-reading+machine&x=0
and alibris.com.
I know I have said this before, but this book will be remembered for hundreds of Neptune Years to come, and I do not doubt will be worth some money after the secret of hearing thought is out.
I already did a review on this on bim.htm so here it is:
I found an excellent book "The Thought-Reading Machine" written in 1937 (in French) and translated to English, published by the Harper Brothers in 1938. I usually don't like fiction, but this book relates actual facts in a fictional setting. The author, Andre Maurois, died in the 1960s, what a hero he was. I bought a copy of the book for myself and my excluded mom. The author is very smart, he talks about transmutation, because there has been a lot found that is secret there. He hints that people might buy up every copy of the book and destroy it [which, interestingly has not happened...it is a modern real-life true story of Fahrenheit 451...evil could have and still could buy up these books...they have certainly made sure no images of thought have reached the public...it must be a brutal and bloody price being paid to maintain the damn against information...the same can be said for "The Second Gun" video. On a positive note, they have not suceeded in buying up these books, as they did the Zupruter and many other films...it shows that there is some play...there is a line out there which they have given up trying to cross so far]. The Harper Brothers were notorious for being smart, honest, decent people, which most people would think not a big deal, but in this century, it is a very big deal, since decent people (as I define decent) are very very rare. Harper Brothers was eventually bought by Rupert Murdoch the ultra conservative media magnate, so obviously that put an end to there ever being a clear unblocked pipe to the public, but Harper was bought again by Arco and a different person...see wiki for details. But I bought this book for $10 and it is like Fahrenheit 451...I think the book has historical significance. I want to get the Frech version just to see if there is more good info that was lost in the translation (like the names of people...why was nobody named something like Michael Idvorsky Pupin?). This book is definitely known to those in the included, one person I work with months ago nefore I had ever heard of this book, asked "can you sing a note in your mind higher than you can actually sing?", and that question is asked in this book. There are many interesting references in the book, references to them burning all their "psychograms" (which are thought recordings...probably a play on "marconi-grams" which is what the first wireless telegraph messages were called). One of the most amazing sentences is when Maurois says that one thing he learned from hearing many psychograms (thought recordings) was that most people believe that they are meant (or perhaps fated) to a more noble position (or something similar), (I would add...the feeling of self sympathy for being martyrs and for self sacrifice...it's a phenomenon of Christianity), and the second thing he learned was how many potential murderers there are, which I thought was very revealing and I can relate to that too...it's amazing to me how violent many people are...look at the people who they elected...people that care nothing about casual murder, who have protected Thane Cesar, Frank Sturgis, the killer of Bonnie Bakely, Jam Jay, I mean the list is long. Where can you go when the president and those who elect him are cold blooded criminal killers? It's beyond a police problem it's a massive 40% escaped violent criminals, and they own the government, including the courts, the media, the military and police.
I want to add important parts (actual scanner OCR text) of the book here later. The part where the professor first reveals that he has a device that can hear thoughts. Maurois' summary of what he has learned from the "psycho-grams". The part about seeing thought. The part about atomic transmutation.
Let's look at some facts:
1) This person is writing about hearing thought in 1937...that is very very early...I mean that is 69 years ago. I challange people to find a book that talks about the possibility of hearing thought before then, and then as explicitly as is done here (I mean Maurois describes actual physical technology).
2) This is a fictional book by an author who only wrote autobiographies/nonfiction. To me, that is unusual...why out of the blue would he write one fiction book, and as he says (paraphrasing) "had I done this earlier it would have hurt my career". Hurt his career, how? Only if he was "ratting" or basically releasing confidential secret information...how else could a fiction book ruin a person's career? (I suppose if it was bad, people might not buy other books by the author....but I think in any event it is a double-meaning).
3) The hearing thought machine and details are so vivid and clear...most people who would write such stories would not mention the mechanical parts of the devices, they would not have thought that far into it.
4) It takes place at a university...Pupin, the supposed initial inventor of seeing and hearing thought, was at a university, Columbia University.
5) Maurois goes the extra kilometre...he says (paraphrasing) "some thoughts are images, not sound. I didn't want to tell him [the professor that invented hearing thought] that, for fear he might invent a machine that could see thought images too!" I mean, how revealing is that? I want to put the actual quote, but it is something like that. Here he clearly defines the two separate aspects...one of hearing audio and the other of seeing the images of thought. There are no references to sending sound and images that I remember.
6) The tone is very curious...the way he says of hearing thought machines (called "PSIKI" in the book) "as all of you reading ofcourse know", and "you all reading are familiar with these machines by now". Really, in a way reaching out to those included that already hear thought perhaps...or trying to tell the reader that many people are already included in this secret network of shyte masters.
Alpha Centauri, the nearest star //Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.,,New York :,c1976.;
A small book by Isaac Asimov that talks about Alpha Centauri, just a fun thing to read.
Protozoa and other protists / Michael A. Sleigh
For those who are interested in protists there are very few books, this has some stunning images (from a SEM [electron microscope]) or one protist eating a second one. Plus, this book just has some good info on protists.
Free-living freshwater protozoa : a colour guide / D.J. Patterson ; drawings by Stuart Hedley
Another protist book with some good images
Biology of plants / Peter H. Raven, Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn
Just a well done book, although only describing eukaryotes, still there are good images of various life cycles, and just a smart text.
Chemistry : an introduction to general, organic, and biological chemistry / Karen C. Timberlake
For those interested in Chemistry, this is a good starting point. You can buy this for $1 (+$4 shippin) hardcover thick textbook of basic chemistry knowledge, on amazon.com
"Porphyry's Against the Christians: the literary remains", by Porphyry and R. Joseph Hoffmann, 1994 Prometheus Books.
I think a good book for members of the Jesus cult to deprogram themselves from the massive brain-washing of lies about Jesus and the universe, like so many mislead people in the "Moonies" or even godders, people in the cult of Muhommed or other religions, is this book I've been enjoying "Porphyry's Against the Christians : the literary remains"(1994) (there are a few others still legal and sold on what remains of the open market, "Holy Horrors", "The Dark Side of Christianity"). In this book it tells the stories that many people don't hear about Christianity, that Peter, one of the early founders of the Jesus cult, was openly described as having murdered a couple...and the reason for this murder? Because they would not donate the money from the sale of their land to the cult. It's right there in the bible, as far as I understand. Beyond that, the story, again, rarely heard, that Jesus' mother's real name was Miriam. If Jesus existed, he definitely had 2 parents and was made of DNA. In addition the rarely heard story that Jesus was born without a marriage, and his father was a Roman soldier named "Panthera". And to counter that story, the early Christians probably invented the "immaculate birth" story, to explain, against all basic logic how Jesus did not have a father. And this brings me to a point that is frighteningly true, if a massive group of people is willing to believe that a person had no father, what else are the willing to believe? And the answer is absolutely anything and everything. And that is why murders go unpunished, lies go unexposed, etc. This book describes how Judeism probably originated from the Canaanite religion of Baal, which I had not heard before. It's amazing that the people in the cult of Jesus burned all books criticising Christianity. The writings of Kelsos (Celsus), Porfurios (Porphery), Julian, all are lost, except for fragments quoted by Jesus cult authors. Then look at John the Baptist and Barkokba. Here John the Baptists, the teacher of Jesus was beheaded and he was then promptly viewed as the Messiah. Jesus more or less replaced John the Baptist as a newer Messiah. Then along came Barkokba also murdered (people were murdered in bulk in these times and up until modern law and what there exists of democracy, even now the laws are only for show as people murder with impunity in the name of war). But the point I want to make about Barkokba, and as an aside, this book reveals that Circumcision was more the exception than the rule, as far as I understand, all of Rome was uncircumsized. It was only a small sect of people in Judaism that were circumsized, now ofcourse most people are circumsized and uncircumsized (unmutilated) regular penises are the exception. So about Barkokba I just want to say that look how stupid Barkokba was...to violently take on the Roman army. And he was ofcourse easily defeated caught and murdered (or ended his own life I don't know, but clearly lost). And then for what...what did Barkokba fight for? For some bogus religion crap...the right to be circumsized, and other trivial issues. Nothing is more stupid than religious fanaticism, people throw away their lives for the most trivial causes. It's amazing to me that the Christians are so intolerant, and such a group of, like some kind of Moonie cult, that any person who rejects all the lies about Jesus is excommunicated from the herd, it's brutal.
The Loeb Classics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loeb_Classics
What is nice about these books are the introductions, then the fact that the original Greek or Latin is on the left hand side with the English on the right hand side, and finally that they can easily fit into a person's pocket, they are that small. They fit perfectly on my scanner, and the vast majority are public domain since Harvard decided not to renew the copyright.
I have only read the Eunapius translation in it's entirety (get the free ebook below if you like), and what an interesting and shocking story, in particular to hear how one Pagan emperor (actually Traditional Hellenic religious emperor, is more accurate) routinely had virgin women murdered (sacrificed) when creating new cities, then they would stand around and try to read the future from the way the victim fell, I mean it is a gross example of the idiocy of religion and religious murder.
As an aside, on the Christian side, I am reading from Orosius who has similar stories of shocking idiocy, how Jesus could bring people back from the dead, and how people routinely brought people back from the dead.
I currently am trying to make time to read the:
Pliny (Roman writer of an encyclopedia), Diogenes Laertius (describes all the philosophers), Julian (emperor that changed from Christian to Hellenic religion, book 3 ends with "Against the Galileans"), Ammianus (Roman historian), Galen (Greek doctor, but only one of his works, there are many not part of the Loeb collection...in particular Galen's writings about the library of Alexandria). I may want to read Livy (Roman Historian), Caesar (Roman emperor), Herodotus (Roman historian), Homer (Greek poet), Eusibius (Christian historian), Cicero (Roman Senator). I need to increase my reading speed to get through these but I think it's worth it to know what they wrote and what their lives and those times were like.
History Begins at SumerSamuel Noah Kramer (1959 edition, and 1981 edition)
I am not going to write a review for this, other than to say this is a good book. The truth about the Sumerians, their invention of writing, which may have stimulated a revolution in thought similar to the printing press, is an important story. There are other good books I want to add to this, such as "history of writing" books which are very interesting, but this is a good starting point, easy to read and wisely written. Kramer died back around 1990.
09/18/07 More book reviews. I have worked in a library for 9 years, and so have perused many book shelves, and these are books that I thought upon first inspection were interesting enough to check out and read more. I have learned to recognize somewhat by quickly scanning a book if it is worth looking at in more detail. (Many of these older books you can read for free at books.google.com). Most of these are for research into ULSF (and so might not appeal to a person looking to the future or trying to understand the universe):
"History of science".
Translated by A. J. Pomerans 1957 french, 1963, vol 1 ancient science egypt, meso, indian, chinese, greek, arabic. To Middle ages divided by subject
"A short history of freethought, ancient and modern", by John M. Robertson
1899, no images, but good references to persecuted atheists, still being published from 1915 edition
"The illustrated history of the world"
J.M. Roberts nice photos, nice timeline, vol 1 of 10, summarizes w/o many details, 1999, might be good to check against my telling of prehistory
"The world's history : combined volume"
Howard Spodek 2001, good source for later history of earth
"Workbook for historical linguistics"
Winfred P. Lehmann 1984, small book, but good topic=historical liguistics, it goes back even to letter sound origins and families (this book does not explore sound families)
the only book I could find on historical linguistics.
Simon and Schuster's guide to trees
[drawings by Francesco de Marco] 1978, 2 photos for each page
Hugh Johnson's Encyclopaedia of trees : completely revised and expanded to include a newly illustrat
1984, somewhat older,
Atlas of evolution
evolution of sex, 1964, origin of plants
Life before man
Zdene(k V. Špinar ; with illustrations by Zdene(k Burian ; consultant editor, Michaevery nice drawings, 1995, somewhat older, depictions of earth at various times, extinct species
Bye bye big bang : hello reality
William C. Mitchell 2002, gets infinite universe, red shift from gravititational redshift (but from source galaxy only not others), misses that no new matter needs to be created, misses elliptical galaxies+globular clusters=advanced life (claims elliptical from colliding galaxies), correctly rejects expanding universe, , red shift explained as hydrogen in intergalactic and intersteller space, and gravitational redshift (which is just on its own, which implies from any matter), misses background radiation from galaxies too far to detect. It's amazing that the big bang is clearly false, because imagine the arrogance of thinking the universe just ends as far as our telescopes can see, but yet this one person who correctly expresses some doubt is an unknown.
Major events in the history of life
edited by J. William Schopf 1992, older but reject genetic and supports geological, scan or buy, still in print
How to identify birds
John Farrand, Jr 1988, many photos
Asimov's chronology of the world
Isaac Asimov 1991
got to p152, 1100 to 1150, to 1945, I would like to use this as reference for, history of earth summary video
The forgotten revolution : how science was born in 300 BC and why it had to be reborn
Lucio Russo
Nicholas Alexopaulos recommended on the Infidel Guy show
"From immigrant to inventor"
good info from pupin himself, talks about memory being erased, by 1922
"Chemistry : an introduction to general, organic, and biological chemistry"
Karen C. Timberlake
2003, read up to osmosis, $1 hardcover thick textbook of basic chemistry knowledge, on amazon,
Biology of plants
Peter H. Raven, Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn
good desc of fungi reproductive cycle, 1992
Free-living freshwater protozoa : a colour guide
D.J. Patterson ; drawings by Stuart Hedley 1996,
just color images and diagrams of protists
Protozoa and other protists
Michael A. Sleigh 1989,
few books on protists, cool photo of ciliate eating parameceum
Symbiosis in cell evolution : microbial communities in the Archean and Proterozoic eons
Lynn Margulis 1993,
margulis has symbiosis as origin of undulipodia (eukaryote flagella), and nucleus of protists (of course and mitochondria, plastids), good phyla trees, one tree separates by repro method (conj, mitosis, meiosis), appendix has useful tree of life
Evolutionary history of the primates
Frederick S. Szalay, Eric Delson 1979,
somewhat older but comprehensive, anatomical brain analysis, tooth, goes through entire primate orderskeletal images, extinct species info, scanned trees
Primate evolution and human origins / [selected by] Russell L. Ciochon, John G. Fleagle 1987, somewhat old, but does give explanations of human evolution, walking, sex
A history of great inventions / James Dyson ; edited by Robert Uhlig
more for entertaining read, not for research, many interesting photos
A history of invention : from stone axes to silicon chips / Trevor I. Williams
2000, 1987, 2000 goes to year 2000 with updated info
The Library of Alexandria : centre of learning in the ancient world / edited by Roy MacLeod
various authors, 2000
The golden age of Alexandria: from its foundation by Alexander the Great in 331 BC to its capture by 1971,
331bce-642ce,
original sources may be better, good contextual commentary, nothing about end of museum
The chronicle of John Malalas / a translation by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, and Roger Sco
small sentence on hypatia, chronology of 0-560ce
Ammianus Marcellinus; with an English translation by John C. Rolfe .. loeb, red, book 1, roman history ~350-380CE (The LOEB books are wonderful, I wish I had read these instead of Nancy Drew and other "adolescent" books, nonfiction and history are more interesting and important in my view)
Ammianus Marcellinus; with an English translation by John C. Rolfe .. loeb, red, book 2, p303,
Ammianus Marcellinus; with an English translation by John C. Rolfe .. loeb, red, book 3, actually one part at endgoes to 474-526ce
Lives of eminent philosophers (books 1 and 2)
loeb, diogenes laertius, many obscure greek philosophers, primary source for many greek scientists (also anaxagoras, etc)
Plotinus, with an English translation by A. H. Armstrong loeb
Works. With an English translation by Wilmer Cave Wright Loeb, Julian III, includes "Against the Galileans", I got to p 367
Galen On the natural faculties, with an English translation by Arthur John Brock loeb, green, galen compares atomists and vitalists
Plutarch's Lives ; with an English translation by Bernadotte Perrin loeb,
Light waves and their uses 1961, still published
Studies in optics michelson, took notes, 1962, theoretical, chandrasekhar comment attempting to remove all doubt about relativity
The principles of physical optics; an historical and philosophical treatment (by Mach). Translated by John S. 1926,
many diagrams of prism experiments, grimaldi image, still printed, only limited on google, mach, scanned much of it
Opticks; or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections & colours of light. Newton, Based on the 1952, dover, notes to page 11
A treatise on electricity and magnetism 1955, vol1+vol2,
This is highly mathematical and only as a reference. This is the origin of what I think is an inaccurate theory, of light being a 2-part electric and magnetic cosine (or sine) wave, which still exists today and which I was taught in high school.
maxwell is the origin of the light as a two-part sine wave, so this is important (but perhaps I only need original paper?) It's good to know what actual lingering contributions Maxwell may have if any.
Theory of light; being volume IV of "Introduction to theoretical physics", by Max Planck.
Translated I think I want his first quantum paper, does planck understand that light is a particle or does that wait until einstein? Difficult to understand, quantum statistics, probability, no simple language or clear explanations from just perusing it, not even in beginning where authors tend to be most simple and clear. planck builds on maxwell's view, presuming light to be a (sine/cosine) wave, viewing in x dimension/direction, creates y-z magnetics and electric field, main points: 1) light not electrical/magnetic 2) magnetic is electric effect probably
Theory of heat, being volume V of "Introduction to theoretical physics", by Max Planck.
Translated
same as light
An introduction to infrared spectroscopy took notes, 1957/62, translated from German, quantum bohr model explained. For those interested in shasiastafb (seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds to and from brains
Investigations of infra-red spectra coblentz, 1905, took notes, good history of ir before 1910
Alexander Graham Bell books for those researching phone company recording all phone calls, microphones, cameras, etc.
Genius at work : images of Alexander Graham Bell / Dorothy Harley Eber 1982, many photos
Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the conquest of solitude [by] Robert V. Bruce 1973, rare photos
Sounds out of silence : a life of Alexander Graham Bell / James Mackay has eugenics section,
The detection and measurement of infra-red radiation, by R. A. Smith, F. E. Jones and R. P. Chasmar took notes, good history on ir, 1968, some electrical circuits, again for those interested in shasiastafb
Elementary theory of nuclear shell structure [by] Maria Goeppert Mayer [and] J. Hans D. Jensen 1955, took notes. I'm looking at the non-spherical dual nature of atoms.
The literature of ancient Sumer / translated and introduced by Jeremy Black ... [et al.]
2004, many sumerian stories translated to english, image of ancient sex
Archaic bookkeeping : early writing and techniques of economic administration in the ancient Near Ea
A basic grammar of the Ugaritic language : with selected texts and glossary / by Stanislav Segert 1984, ugarit is a semitic language, many good details about structure of sumerian
The Sumerian language : an introduction to its history and grammatical structure / by Marie-Louise T 2001, red book has details about sumerian language
A history of writing / Steven Roger Fischer good comparisons of alphabets (refers to rebus), 2001
The alphabet : a key to the history of mankind / by David Diringer ; foreword by Sir Ellis Minns 1947, useful details about chinese language, 214 keys which depend on num of strokes 1-17
Reading the past : ancient writing from cuneiform to the alphabet / introduced by J.T. Hooker took notes, 1990, uc, good history of writing
The exact sciences in antiquity 1957, neugebauer is a good source of ancient science, still being published
How Greek science passed to the Arabs / by De Lacy O'Leary 2001, nestorians, monophysites, india,
Lost discoveries : the ancient roots of modern science--from the Babylonians to the Maya / Dick Tere again, for ulsf, people may not want to bother reading about ancient science, since things are backward enough in this stone age. took many notes, 1991,
The last man who knew everything : Thomas Young, the anonymous polymath who proved Newton wrong, exp 2006, tells how Young used Newton's data to get a wavelength of red light as .0000256 inches, describes criticisms of Henry Brougham, good section on light as electric field which I think is an erroneous theory. I am interested in understanding the most convincing aspects of a wave theory of light, because I doubt the wave theory of light highly (the idea that light cancels out in particular).
Ismaelis Bvllialdi Astronomia
First person on record to theorize about an inverse distance squared law for planets
De rerum natura / with an English translation by W.H.D. Rouse
This contains one of the few references to the theory of light as a particle
Thomas young works, again to find transition from corpuscular to wave:
Miscellaneous works of the late Thomas Young .../J. Murray,,London,,1855.
Kind of an interesting point that George Peacock edited vol 1 and 2, and Peacock was particially responsible for the transition from Newton's fluxion notation for calculus with that of Leibniz. Perhaps a coincidence or good reform, but could be anti-Newtonian prejudice in a time near the rise of anti-Newtonian sentiment which still exists today.
Thomas Young's Lectures on natural philosophy and the mechanical arts //Thoemmes,,Bristol :,2002.;;
Physico-mathesis de lumine, coloribus et iride : aliisque adnexis, libri duo //Dawsons of Pall Mall,
This book has never been translated into English, so far as I know, and contains the origin of the concept of light "diffraction" which is the theory that light is a wave and bends around objects. I accept that photons are influenced and change direction because of gravity, but reject the wave theory for light because there is no medium. If light does follow a sine wave shape, it seems more likely to be made of particles to me.
Sex and eroticism in mesopotamiun literature, gwendolyn leick
good photos, didn't read much of, somewhat abstract and psychological sounding, still a good topic. Sex and prostitution are in the oldest writing but people today are shocked and at a minimum not familiar with it, but violence they dispense by the truck load.
02/08/08
I found some helpful books on religious history:
The Lost Gospel, by Burton Mack
This is about the gospel "Q" and is very informative. The thing that is convincing to me is that scholars theorized that there must have been a list of Jesus' sayings before any kind of list like that was found, but then in the 1940s the gospel of Thomas was found in Nag Hamadi which is basically a list of Jesus' sayings. So I think the truth of the gospel of Thomas shows that it is possible that much of the story of Jesus being murdered, might be a lie created by the authors of Mark or perhaps even earlier. I think Mack should address the mention of Jesus in Josephus which some people contest as a later forgery. Other than that, this is a good starting point for learning about the early Christian history, there are some very subtle and intelligent points, conclusions drawn from context and text analysis. As a criticism, there are some abstract and what seem to me weakly supported theories or suppositions. But most of the book is informative and concise. Mack is of the view that Jesus was a cynic if he existed at all, like a homeless person, that criticizes society and societial traditions. Diogenes was a well known cynic, Diogenes lived in a bath and wanted a minimalist life, throwing away his water cup when seeing somebody drink with their hands. Socrates had characteristics of a cynic. I think there is compelling evidence for this view being true, if you look only at the statements of Q. In particular Q1, the earliest text.
Who Wrote the New Testament?, by Burton Mack
I haven't finished this, but what I did read is good. This is similar to the other book "Who Wrote the Bible" for the old testament which I recommend too. Again Mack's view is that Jesus was a Cynic that was not executed on a cross. I think it is in this book or the above book (or below book) that I first read about the story of how King Herod supposedly had children of Galilei murdered after hearing that there was a Messiah, and how that story was recycled from the Old Testament, how a different king ordered the murder of children. Once a person starts seeing lie after lie after lie...Jesus performing miracles...etc...you start to realize that the people who wrote the gospels cared very little for historical or scientific accuracy, and perhaps that was typical then, and is still a phenomenon today.
The Origin of Satan, by Elaine Pagels
I was surprised to learn from this book that the concept of a Devil is a recent phenomenon, originating only after 600BCE in Hebrew scripture starting with the book of Job. In addition, to find that Origen's comments on the work of Celsus indicate that Celsus and other Platonic philosopher so-called Pagans, accepted the idea of monotheism, but viewed Christianity as having a duality by introducing the idea of a devil. A book like this probably would, like the works of Celsus and Porfurios been destroyed if not for this less violent (if you can imagine) age. I'm sure for many people the topic of the history of the idea of a Devil is scary and unpleasant. I have doubts in my own mind about putting this on my web page, I am demonized enough already without providing more fuel for the fire. This truth about the Satan not being created until 600BCE is astonishing, and it shows how when a topic is taboo, vast ignorance is perpetrated. This is also the case for other taboo subjects such as sex. When people try to hide or cover up history, massive injustice can happen. Imagine a person basing their entire value system on the claims of a religion, and then they don't even know the history of the religion. There is some good info about early Christian groups which I think is a very interesting period of history since the idiocy of Christianity has dominated human thought for 2000 years and it all started there. This book is a good read, however, as a criticism there is a slow part around the time of Justin Martyr that goes on in kind of psychological powder-puff philosophizing talk, but then comes back to a more atheistic scientific historical viewpoint for the end. In addition, there is no discussion about the history of the idea of Hell, which I had added the idea that possibly the word "Hell" was used to place a bad connotation on the science of ancient Greece, since Greece is named "Hellas"...it seems beyond coincidence. I first heard of Pagels from "From Jesus to Christ" on PBS which is illuminating, but a little too long winded in the middle. This is my complaint with much of writing is that it is not concise enough and fails to mention important points, mainly because of the Pupin secret and just an overall lack of logic and science that pervades the planet. This is a good and interesting book, and it leaves me more interested in the history of religions, and in particular the rise of the concept of angels, daemones, deities, etc and their origins. Isn't it interesting how the Judaism line of philosophy has dominated over the Helenistic polytheistic philosophy? Ultimately, I think the tradition of atheism and science will prevail, but what a long run the monotheism that grew from Judaism and perhaps originally from Amanhotep has had on Earth. It still shocks me that the majority of the public was never told that the idea of a devil was created around 600BCE...it's a simple historical fact...but yet...they've never been told that. It's no wonder there is so much idiocy and unpunished violence on the Earth, when such simple truths are kept secret. I have to say that Pagels is a brave person to take on the history of the myth of a Satan, and like the illogical injustice that surrounds people's rabid and violent antisexuality, the opening up of the crypt on taboo history, can only help to solve these problems of anti-logical and inaccurate beliefs and terrible crimes.
Some early science historians made an effort to expose the Pupin lie:
"The Rise of Modern Physics", Henry Crew (1859-1953), 1927, 1935
I like the early history of science books, because many times, minority opinions which are lost to history are documented. A good example, is Crew's views on the wave theory of light and Thomas Young. Crew states that there was an experiment that disproves Young's theory for reflected light off the inside of the aperture or something...but then does not cite the experiment, but the key point is that light reflected off the side of a small hole does cause lines of light as my computer simulations have shown. I am just going from memory, but Crew uses phrases like 'how something was kept for a very elite few'. It is rare to see a person go through and summarize modern science. Clearly something happened in 1927 that prompted this book to be published. Calvin Cooledge, a Republican was US President. Pupin died in March of 1935, so is it a coicidence that a second edition was printed in 1935? This is a very good source for ULSF.
04/24/08
Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, edition 2, (2000). ISBN: 0684806312.
This book, can be read from start to finish, but really, it is best as a well done resource of scientists. I would probably say that this may even be the most authoritative source on scientific biography, although the Encyclopedia Britannica, Oxford Dictionary, Asimov and others (I have not done an extensive search) have very well researched info on scientists and scientific discoveries. In addition there are the "timetables of science", Sarton's books, however, there is, currently no major movie dedicated to science, or even to evolution...and that blows my mind...that is just shocking to me. On a hopeful note, the National Science Foundation contributed funding to the making of this concise edition. This book sells used for $25, and new for $160(damn!). The copy I have is marked "discard" by the Phoenix Arizona public library system (perhaps they have the online edition, otherwise I can't see why somebody would toss out a rare and important resource like this). This is the concise version of the massive 1981 16 volume scientist biographies. The biographical info, to me, is of less importance than the interpretation of scientific findings. For example, in the entry for Pupin, there is mostly biographical info. I'm glad I found this resource, and happy that it was produced. It's a valuable resource, and from the few articles I have read it seems to be very concise tackling very abstract and corrupted science and what very well may be shown to be inaccurate or pseudoscience in the future, clearly and concisely.
05/18/2009
Hugo Gernsback, "Ralph 124C 41+", (1911) 1927.
This book contains a machine that hears thought, and one that plays movies in people's brains while they sleep. There are numerous clues. Near the end the main character "sees an image in his mind", and is "galvanized". Like "The Thought Reading Machine", definitely a major effort to reach the outside excluded class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_124C_41%2B
05/03/2010
More good books I want to add, if only for my own memory and reference:
E. Newton Harvey, A History of Luminescence, From the Earliest Times Until 1900, 1957
-This book is comprehensive and includes a lot of interesting stories most people have never heard of in terms of research into the beautiful phenomenon of luminescence - the way many materials glow by emitting particles of light - in fact humans and all matter is luminescent in the sense that we emit photons in radio and heat.
Swenson, The Ethereal Aether,1972
Interesting history of the theory of the aether - in particular the fall of the aether theory.
Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th & 18th Centuries, 1979.
Interesting history that traces the many theories behind electricity in the 1600 and 1700s - many of these issues are still not really resolved to my satisfaction - for example - if electric current is a single fluid - what explains both positive and negative static electricity repulsion? It seems still to be an open question, although the vast majority of belief is in favor of electrons and "holes" (empty spaces where electrons used to be) moving in different directions.
Hertz, Electric Waves 1893, 1962 - Hertz's papers on radio translated into English - potentially helpful to those trying to learn more about neuron reading and writing.
10/26/2010
Recommended Reading: "The Invention of Telepathy", Roger Luckhurst.
This book contains some useful historical information on telepathy, including the very notable quote by Crookes which I also had identified as being a very special paragragh before finding it in this book too- specifically mentioning x-rays as a possible method of telepathy.
also: "Hans Berger on the electroencephalogram of man.", if only for the introduction and first, second and last reports. The last report talks about Cazzamalli and the idea of alpha and beta brain waves emitting and detected remotely.
Video Reviews
Videos:
"Cosmos", [13 1 hour parts], by Carl Sagan (with Ann Druyan and Steven Soter).
(Nonfiction, Past of Humans in Science on Planet Earth)
"The Incredible Machine", [1 hour], National Geographic, 1985.
(Nonfiction, Human Anatomy)
"Cycles of Life", [10? 1 hour parts],by Coast Community College District
(Nonfiction, Past of Life on Earth, Evolution of Life on Earth)
"Diary of Anne Frank", [2 hours]
(Nonfiction, Past of Life on Earth in Europe 1930-now)
12-30-02
WGBH "The Longest Hatred: The History of Anti-Semitism"(Boston PBS, probably the leading and most controversial of any PBS)
History Channel: "Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History" (The History Channel has 10 to 20 videos that I have enjoyed. I have seen every brown box History video that is available in the Newport Beach Public Library, and enjoyed all except one I can not remember)
"Shoah", [9 hours]
7 hours of this video are great, the other 2 are not great. Still, this includes some good video of Vrba, Müller, and other smart humans. There are interviews with humans that lived near the death camps (Treblinka, Auschwitz, Sobibor, Belzic, and one other).
"Black Fox, The Rise of Adolf Hitler" (I have to check the title), [2
hours]
This is the only video (although done is a 60s beatnik style) that shows images of the main humans in the early Nazi group, and says that Eva Braun took poison, and then Hitler shot he self in the head thru mouth, and both were burned by some unnamed humans. May be there were video cameras there, or perhaps microphones. But to pursue that kind of thing a human would not be viewed as a human interested in truth, but as a human that was supporting Nazi.
"Architecture of Doom", [2 hours]
There is some good data here, some amount of Huntington hysteria, but for the most part is positive.
"Universe" with William Shatner
"Life on Earth" with David Attenboro.
Although Attenboro does not speak out against religion, violence, nude or drug arrests, and used the word "crazy" in a different video to describe one mammal species (what is next describing a beaver as "lezzy" or "molestor"? probably with the god based humans money and anger in stopping pleasure), still this video has some good images of the species of earth, and some good typing (obviously not by Attenboro).
"People Vs. Larry Flynt"
I normally do not like acting, but this is acting of a story that actually happened. The story of Larry Flynt is a great and sad story of a human that stood up for nudity and sex, was not protected but was shot. After seeing "Kurt and Courtney", I have to wonder why Courtney Love was accepted for the part of Althea, that is like supporting the person that paid for Flynt, MLK, JFK, etc... to be shot.
"Films of Concentration Camps Made at the Request of Dwight D. Eisenhower"
I am glad that Ike had these films made. Perhaps humans were different then, and thought humans should see what is happening on the earth.
"Frontline: Snitch"
"Frontline: Innocense Lost"
"Frontline: American Porn"
This was shown on Feb 7, 2001 and I have only seen 5 minutes. Nudity and sex on earth, healthy, good, wanted for pleasure, and needed to survive is some how viewed as bad, with out much doubt because of religion.
"Kurt and Courtney", Nick Broomfield
There is some question as to if Kurt Cobain was killed or not. This video shows how many people try to stop information from being shown and/or seen, proof that they have something to hide from the public. I enjoyed seeing and hearing comments from the people that grew up with Kurt. Listen for words that start with "M" and "D", because I think the people in the camera/thought networks saw what happened and perhaps that Michael "Cali" Dewitt (I spent most of my youth in a town named Dewitt, like the Lana Clarkson killing/suicide proof that a name is of almost no value in determining what is true) killed Cobain somehow. Almost all the people interviewed drink Canadian beers and smoke cigarettes. Kurt was in a minority of people that "evolve", change from day to day. A good example of this is how Cobain appears to reach for the word "insane", but pulls back and uses a different word, and also uses the word "mate" in one of the interviews. An example of this change is like comparing the Beatles through the years with the Beach Boys. Neither had to change, but the Beatles did and stayed popular, where the Beach Boys became somewhat stagnant and did not challange popular opinion or tradition.
(8/25/06 Some text clearly got deleted here, but I don't have time to figure out what)
n that Kurt and Nirvana rose out of the swamp of groups in music, because Kurt expressed some amount of wisdom, and gained popularity for that.
BBC videos - The people at the BBC have really shown high quality science material in some videos I have seen.
06-23-2005
"In Plane Sight" (DVD)
A very good look at the 9/11 mass homicide. Key points:
1) Hole in Pentagon is too small for 757
2) The second (and probably the first) WTC Tower plane has a non-commercial (military) bottom with an object, most likely some kind of missile that causes a flash of light. The object is cylindrical, has a round nose, and was on the right side of the hull. A person reporting live for Fox reports that the plane was blue, had no windows and a circular emblem towards the front. The big question is then what happened to the 4 commercial planes? A person can go through a series of if-thens. Those planes and people existed, not a massive media lie=probably yes. They are actually dead, and not being held in Guantanamo=probably yes. If those two questions are true then perhaps 4 planes were shot down, and the Pentagon missile and Pennsylvania missile (or whatever it was) were basically used to explain why all the people on 4 commercial planes are dead.
3) Bush says "Let us not tolerate conspiracy theories...". What a suspicious thing to say, a theory does no harm, it's just a bunch of words and speculations, at a minimum it is covered under the first ammendment, and concept of free speech (in particular non-violence-threatening speech).
4) The BBC (no less) reports that 8 of the alledged hijacking humans are alive, meaning that either there were no hijackers (no bodies of the hijackers were recovered, or at least listed, what explains that?), or that the people at the airport, FBI, etc. got the wrong people, but some people were there.
I never realized how many problems there are with the official story of 9/11, I basically believed the media version (with the exception that I thought Bush may have coordinated it, or at a minimum allowed it to happen, as I have said, these violence and war loving humans couldn't go 9 months of peace without starting a war and a major catastrophe), until I saw this.
"JFK II" (DVD)
A very good look at Bush Senior's connection to the killing of JFK.
"Loose Change" (DVD)
A very good look at the 9/11 mass homicide. The music is very good in this DVD. Plus there is good video of what might be explosive charges in the World Trade Center buildings that hint that the buildings may have been pulled, killing the majority (probably I am guessing) of those killed in 9/11. This DVD shows that a company Marvin Bush is a principle (I am not sure what that means exactly) of did security for the WTC and Dulles (what a criminal Allen Dulles was) airport (where 1 plane alledgedly took off from), and that the power was turned off for a long time just before 9/11...see the video. If the 9/11 plotters (Bush, right wing religious USA military, etc.)
09-27-05
"Kinsey" (DVD)
The documentary has more info, but both the documentary and the drama are good videos and very interesting and educational to see. Surprisingly neither mentioned that idea that masturbating with the non dominant hand might be a good idea, still there are many other good pieces of info, like the way many people in Italy get aroused by religious motifs, nuns, preists, while in england and the USA it is more puritanical, the school teacher, etc. I can't remember, but it is certainly good and interesting info.
"History of God" a basic primer on the 3 major religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Free web videos:
Since I gave up digital cable and Forensic Files, I watch the free videos on the web with SBC Yahoo high speed DSL. So far, there has been enough video to watch while I am eating which is usually when I like to watch videos.
Frontline
"An Ordinary Crime" (winner of 2003 RFK award).
Ofra Bikel, has another great video. This one is unbelievable. Who of the "excluded" can figure it out? What was the motivation to jail an innocent man for 30 years? There are lots of "F and S"ing. I concluded that, it was probably 1) incompetence, and then refusal to admit error or 2) for some reason they wanted the actual assaulter free and the nonviolent guy in jail...there were hints that the innocent person was involved with marijuana, maybe he was an activist of some kind. It's shocking that...this guy is still in jail and will be for 30 more years. It was shocking how the woman identified him, and insisted it was him...was she paid? Was she simply supporting the republican party line? Impressive were the people in the one police department that told the truth, and then the 2 reporters. That the 2 reporters did their job in reporting the truth to the public, to me is like the 2050AD justice system, where, the public is still excluded from seeing anything as basic as a street camera (which again, would have enabled even a low-level security person with only street camera privledge to solve this assault and theft), but that the people in the media (the "included") accurately report the truth (not ..."we say their eye images", etc...but hint heavily that a person did the crime or not), so that if the public ever did get to vote, they would have probably done the correct thing.
"The Torture Question" is enlightening.
"The Last Abortion Clinic" is interesting and informative.
"The OJ Verdict" is ok.
Nova
"Mars Dead or Alive" - good...it give an inside look at the two Mars rovers (but has a weak conclusion...there should have been more follow-up and images from Mars).
01/31/2008
The God Who Wasn't There, Brian Flemming
This is a good video about the history of Jesus, that questions if Jesus actually existed. This is one of the few videos to explicitly tell the history of Christianity from a non-religious historical perspective, and so is a rare find. I see this as harbinger of the future where history is more closely examined, in particular early Christian history. One good point in the movie is how very few people know anything about the spread of Christianity. For myself, I am more interested in the historical information typical of people like Robert Price ("The Bible Geek"), others not in this video include Elaine Pagels and Burton Mack, that have researched the history of Christianity, in particular the early Christian history. So I am less interested in stories of personal transformation, although the story of this author is interesting...it's a little ...perhaps over emotional...to sound like a robot for a minute...to reject the "holy spirit", but then probably the development and learning which evolved in this filmmaker must have been an emotional experience. My view is that there are no spirits in general, nor ghosts, etc...I view the universe in terms of only accepting the existence of material objects. It's kind of edgy to see the author confront a Jesus cult "educator", but is infomative. I think the best approach to people, is a non-aggressive, non-angry informational educational approach to simply tell them the history of science, religions, etc. knowing that some people, even myself, are more than happy to learn about this history, and simply have not ever heard, and once they do, they have a better understanding of the universe, history and religions. Of course, some people are going to reject any such info, and that is natural and I think it's a waste of time to persist in trying to reach them when there are so many others who are more than happy to learn about history and are receptive to this kind of message. There is a good analysis of the bloody violence content in the multimillion dollar making "Passion of the Christ". The sound track is very well done, and David Byrne of the Talking Heads is involved, which clearly shows his genius. This video can be seen for free by installing the veoh.com player from the above link. Other additional interviews including with Richard Dawkins are on the DVD which is available at the webpage the godmovie.com and Amazon. Brian Flemming graduated from UC Irvine, and it reinforces the truth that, for all we know walking around in the University of California, we might be walking past the next Galileo, Marie Curie, George Carver, Lavoisier, Annie Gaylor, Newton, Alfred Kinsey, Tsai Loon, Tom Noguchi, Elizabeth Stanton, Razi, Al Haytham, Ramon y Cajal, Jerry Garcia, another young Goeppert-Meyer, etc. New humans are shackled by the terrible traditions such as religion, anti-pleasure, anti-science, etc...and we spend much of our lives trying to throw off those unpleasant inaccurate beliefs and traditions.
Psychiatry: Industry of Death
One of the few video histories of psychology, I wish there were similar videos to expose the truth about religions, the drug war, the prostitution war, anti-democracy, the Pupin lie, anti-science, history of science, anti-evolution, probable future of life of earth living on planets of other stars, violence, there are so many important truths to be told. There is some very nice analysis of the psychiatric industry. Even if this is made by people in scientology, a fact is true no matter what source the fact is from, and to their credit, presumably those in CCHR and their funders have adopted these principles of opposition to forced treatments and coercion which the American Medical Association and no other groups do. They also made the first anti-psychology museum to my knowledge which I am interested in seeing. I am surprised at how many professors and professional people speak against the methods of psychology, I can't remember all the schools but there are many. One statement I had not herad before which is very clear that much of psychiatric theory is based on conditioned response to torture. THere is rare video of psychiatric tortures and interviews with people who have lived and families of those who died in the psychiatric system. The simple idea is making psychology treatment consensual only, and I think that is the future of the psychiatric system. I am shocked that we need to address this issue, that unlike the issues of slavory, and women voting, people before us didn't recognize the basic brutality of unconsensual treatment enough to stop it.
The Birth of Modern Psychiatry
Very nice analysis of the pschiatric industry.
Simply searching for videos at: video.google.com,youtube.com,video.yahoo.com
Free eBooks
The copyright laws in the USA are shockingly lengthy. Unlike Patents which only last for 10 years or something, copyrights now last for 100 years on average. This happened mainly under US President Bill Clinton in the passing of the Sony Bono extension. Ofcourse, my own vote is for an end to copyright, and for any and all reducing of that copyright time. Because many publishers do not renew their copyrights, or did not put a copyright symbol on their work, their works are in the public domain. This is the case for most if not all of the Loeb classics, because the copyrights have not been renewed. At least the US copyright office has made electronic all of their current records so searching for copyrights is now possible. Here are some books I borrowed from libraries and are in the public domain. I am sorry that some of the file sizes are large, but I finally figured out that for my scanner, black&white pdf scanning produces the smallest size files, and then I had to figure out some open source routines using "gs" (ghost script) to rotate them and put them all in one file.
293MB Orosius "Against the Pagans"
Orosius talks about how Jesus could bring people back to life, and if a person can believe that, they can believe anything. Orosius describes how the books shelves of the temples are all empty, emptied by people in their own time as Orosius puts it.
150MB Philostratos (Philostratus) and Eunapios (Eunapius) Loeb Classic
Philostratus mentions that under Trajan (or Hadrian I can't remember which one), people got free meals in the Museum. Eunapius describes how an emperor sacrifices a virgin woman and then they stand around and mystically interpret the future from the way the victim falls, and other shockingly brutal stories of the idiocy of religious beliefs. Eunapius describes the sacking of the Serapeum from a non-Jesus cult perspective.
211MB Synesios (Synesius)
Synesios was a student of Hypatia in Alexandria, and in his writing on baldness he writes about paintings of philosophers in the Museum (chapter 6), which is a solid piece of evidence that the Museum was still in existence even as late as 400 CE. Check out letter 4 (a person on the Internet frustratingly omits this letter), Synesios talks about the Lemnians having huge breasts, how they find one of Synesios' slave girl to have attractive breasts and how this slave girl gains alot of grain by willingly being passed around to all the rich people's houses freely showing off her naked body.