Herculodge

Stand on Zanzibar Is a Sci Fi Novel from 1969 That Predicted Today

Gary has apprised us of a novel, written back in 1969, with some rather impressive "prophecies." 

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The Weird 1969 New Wave Sci-Fi Novel that Correctly Predicted the Current Day

So What Tell-All Lance Armstrong Bio Is the Must-Read? Cycle of Lies or The Secret Race?

 

 

 

One can wait for the upcoming Circle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong by Juliet Macur (being made into a movie) or one can read the already published The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle. 

I wonder if one is much better than the other. 

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When Your Sports Idols Fall Short of Your Ideal

Hard to Fathom the Emotional Effects of Joblessness

 

I heard DW Gibson on KPCC's The Story last night talking about his book Not Working, a collection of interviews with people who've been laid-off since the 2008 Great Recession. 

Losing money and a house and relationship, Gibson says, is devastating, but he points out that there is an even deeper trauma of lost identity and being uprooted that presents the greatest existential challenge of all. 

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Scientific Study Proves Once and for All That Paper Towels Are Better Than Hot Air Dryers On Every Count

Lesson 2: The Pathology of Being Tethered and Phone Fatigue, Chapters 9 and 10

A Psychologist Taps Into Our Brain's Codes to Help Corporations Find Out What We Really Want

Author of the fascinating The Culture Code (in which he says our Reptile always wins with the battle against our Cortex), Clotaire Rapaille was the one who came up with oversized bathrooms in hotels and restaurants because these latrine palaces became hideouts, a need deep in our "codes." His ideas have proven so successful that he gets paid millions to consult dozens of corporations. His work is featured in the documentary The Persuaders. 

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Like Sailing the Seven Seas Without Leaving My Head

Few Things Make Me Feel Older Than My Not Transitioning to a Cell or Smart Phone

Funny Essay on Pseudo-Intellectual Pop Writers in The New Republic

Even if you just read the first paragraph, a pungent morsel for the day. I especially like the line about people who "eat ethical chocolate."

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Pseudo Element Animations/Transitions Bug Fixed in WebKit

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Pseudo-science, proto-science, pre-science or just plain science?

I don't want to be a pseudo-writer....

Thomas Berger's Novel Meeting Evil Teaches a Chinese Proverb

 

 

My students from China taught me this Chinese  proverb or idiom: "Wu ji bi fan": "Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme."

This statement applies to a Thomas Berger novel Meeting Evil in which the protagonist, a repressed ninny who tries to follow the rules, succumbs to his evil side. One of Berger's more tautly written novels. 

I may want to teach this novel in my critical thinking class. There are compelling lessons on the Jungian Shadow, the alter ego, the Id and the Super Ego, the morality of conviction vs. the morality of convention (think Kafka who said we must reproduce the truth inside of us or perish), the Last Man as articulated by Nietzsche, wish-fulfillment fantasies

 

The Danger of Psychotherapy Is That You Give Your Therapist a Narrative That Becomes a False "Truth"

 

Author of Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety Daniel Smith was on a recent WTF Marc Maron podcast and he said he was skeptical of the narratives patients give their therapists. These narratives, and I paraphrase, become dogmas and mythologies that obscure us from a messy truth that defies the tidy, cohesive narratives we churn out to make sense of ourselves to ourselves. Something to think about. 

Political Tribalism Could Kill Us

 

 

Whereas we used to be a country who could find common ground to achieve greater strength and improvements, we've fragmented into a bunch of petty-minded tribalists, competing with one another to show who's right.

I heard about this book Time to Start Thinking on PRI's The World and it addresses America's abrupt shift to political tribalism. This sounds like a must read. 

Is Willpower a Muscle You Can Strengthen?

 

 

 

 

For my critical thinking class, I'm exploring the possibility of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister. We often discuss the tension between free will and determinism and this book appears to show ways people can strengthen the former. Of course, some will argue the interest in strengthening willpower is predetermined. Looks good. I'll be reading it over the next few weeks. 

So Far So Good with Justin Cronin's The Passage

 

 

I've read the first 50 pages of Cronin's 900 plus page novel The Passage and so far find it riveting. I'm getting the same rush I get from watching HBO's Game of Thrones or Showtimes Homeland. A guest on Luke Burbank's podcast TBTL recommended the novel. Now to find time to get through the next 850 pages.