Books of Interest

River Out of Eden, by Richard Dawkins.

This was one of the most exciting books I've read in years. It had me laughing, and marvelling, and incredulous at the incredible details of life. Dawkins helps the reader get beyond many common misconceptions, while deepening the appreciation for both science and the wonders of the natural world. Actually, I happen to believe that science is the study of the wonders of the world...


Philosophy in the Flesh, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

An incredible book! A bit wordy in places, and sometimes hard slogging. But if you are familiar with philosophy and rudimentary biology, then you may appreciate the clarity that this book brings to many of the great philosophical questions of the ages. In fact, the discoveries of cognitive science are so profound that most of the ideas we take for granted (consciously or unconsciously) have to be completely abandoned and replaced with new knowledge! As I've been doing this, a lot of things that have puzzled and frustrated me for decades are suddenly making sense... Lakoff and Johnson are doing for philosophy what Copernicus did for astronomy. Changing the way you look at things can sometimes make it all fall into place.

Brent's Current Interests

Some of the things I'm currently interested in Owen, so we can get this thingy going! :) Just a start... we can potentially create new blogs for each of the topics? What do you think?

1. Proteins and what they are doing... they are crazy beeaaatches

what is it about proteins you are interested in? i may have some goods for you...

2. The immune system... very crazy.

indeed

3. The coordinated conservative agenda and that group of individuals

see http://www.pnac.info/
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

4. Interested in some history these days and in particular WWI and WWII because they really do set a lot of the scene for today's political climate

5. The brain... some of the stuff you were talking about regarding the brain was really neat.

i have a great textbook called "cognitive psychology" that has a few really great articles/papers in it. scientific american has a whole journal devoted to the mind now "mind" and i recommend it highly. also, i especially recommend Philosohpy in the Flesh by George Lakoff.

pros and cons of political metaphors

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/

some more stuff