(Part 2) Best arts & literature biographies according to redditors
We found 3,934 Reddit comments discussing the best arts & literature biographies. We ranked the 1,642 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
I feel for the guy. Mick Foley. He's not traditionally marketable.
Most people don't know that after diving, getting actually hurt, then getting back up onto the top of the cage. Mankind also got choke-slammed through the top of the cage (a scary, unplanned accident that he said hurt him worse than the 30 foot dive he took earlier), in which he fell 20 feet, and the metal fence/cage flipped over, and knocked out his two front teeth.
I shit you not, Mick Foley wrote a book about his 20 year career, didn't use a ghost writer, and it is fascinating, heart wrenching, heart warming book.
It's called, "Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks". I can't recommend it enough. Easy read. Simply amazing. He's actually a damn fine storyteller.
==============================
You can see a pic from the back cover of his book that lists just a FEW of his injuries in his career, like a ear got ripped off, and 200+ stitches.
Here's a more complete list of his injuries:
Go to a community college for 2 years before university, get a job, save every cent, get scholarships, sell your stuff, borrow textbooks from friends, find a cheap room to rent, and eat nothing but ramen. That's how i did it.
Here's a book by a student at Duke who secretly lived in his van to escape debt. If you're interested, I recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X/ref=la_B00CHGS5YI_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398049979&sr=1-1
Nasties were reckless and unsafe as fuck
> I had one more match before the surgery-a Chicago street fight (an anything-goes, falls-count-anywhere match) that would team me and Maxx in a war with the Nasty Boys. I knew it was my last match, but I just couldn’t get up for it. I wondered, “How am I going to get through this without stinking the place up?” The answer was simple. Survival. Jerry Saggs broke a pool cue over my head, and Brian Knobbs nearly dented my skull. The Nasties were sloppy as hell, and more than a little dangerous, but they knew how to brawl. About a minute into this thing, I realized that I’d better start fighting or I was going to get killed out there. About three minutes in, I realized we were in the midst of something pretty special. Saggs attempted to piledrive me on a table for the finish. The table buckled under our weight and we crashed to the ramp. As I got up, Saggs pushed me and I fell backward off the five-foot ramp and onto the cold, hard concrete below. I didn’t land flat, however, and I knew that my shoulder was injured. But at least I’d earned the right to rest, right? Not quite yet. Saggs hopped down off the ramp, and I winced when I saw Knobbs throw him a scoop shovel. It was plastic, but I knew with this crazy bastard swinging, it would hurt just the same. He raised the shovel high overhead, almost like an axe. I remembered what DeNucci had taught us about protecting our teeth and nose, and I turned my head to the side. Saggs proceeded to hit me about as hard as another human being could, but at least I’d be out of WCW.
Have a Nice Day!
speaking of which, have you ever read Boys will be Boys about the Cowboy's Dynasty team? Holy shit did they party!
I just read the article and I want to go back to bed: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/we-need-new-science-progress/594946/
Peak liberal ideology right here, folks
Edit: I just looked up the co-authors and found that one of them, Tyler Cowan, is the author of a book titled The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.
Cowan's fundamental argument is that America's astronomical wealth rests on certain forms of """low-hanging fruit"""" such as """free land""" (which, he generously notes, "was often stolen from Native Americans, one should not forget) and that the benefits of that """low-hanging fruit""" have now ceased helping deliver the same rate of exploitation as it used to.
Simply put, his argument vindicates Marx's argument about the falling rate of profit, and this article with his co-author Patrick Collison is really about how to grasp this pseudo-object called "progress" in order to return us to past rates of profitability.
In conclusion: these fuckin liberals will drive a comrade to drink
Edit 2: This has to be one of the saddest sentences I've ever read lol:
>Along the cultural dimension, the artists of Renaissance Florence enriched the heritage of all humankind, and in the process created the masterworks that are still the lifeblood of the local economy.
What I read: Death of WCW
My review: Having conducted the Wreddit census and finding that a small number of users had never read a wrestling book, I envisaged a 'book club' type idea for the sub since even I myself hadn't read a wrestling book for over ten years. I picked up the Death of WCW wanting to explore the Monday Night Wars. Given the alleged revisionist history-filled WWE Network series covering the battle between WWF and WCW, I wanted to explore a more reliable source. From the offset, the Death of WCW features annecdotes and history lessons featuring wrestling personalities big and small with a fun, comedic undertone. I've been a regular visitor to numerous social media platforms including wrestling message boards and so arrogantly would have expected to know of a lot of funny annecdotes and angles within different promotions in the 90s - how I was wrong. The Death of WCW is still incredibly informative to even the most hardcore fan with a reasonably unbiased perspective throughout. Facts and statistics throughout, there is no room for bias in Death of WCW. I was taken aback by the number of times I found myself putting the book down and doing further research into stories within the book itself and angles executed by the wonderful mess of a circus that WCW was. A clear, concise view of the events that led to the death of WCW with a fun, easy reading style; the Death of WCW is a must for every wrestling fan, particularly those interested in the Monday Night Wars.
Rating (out of 5): 4/5
The Professor and the Madman tells the story of one contributor very well. I loved it at least
The Gulag Archipelago, Vol. 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0061253715/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_2ktOBbAE97JP1
Go read that. Then tell us all how the Soviet Union doesn't compare to the third reich.
The latest Chuck Klosterman book deals with this a bit near the beginning.
Read the book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby.
It's pretty much a blueprint on how to be an Arsenal fan (and how to deal with the inevitable heartbreak that entails).
In the book by Ashlee Vance, Musk says that he thinks smart people should have more kids and was startled to learn that many successful CEOs have, at most, one kid.
Of course the book by David McCullough is excellent.
https://www.amazon.com/Pimp-Story-Life-Iceberg-Slim/dp/1451617135/ref=nodl_
Currently reading this. Basically his mom ruined him for life starting at a young age, destroyed any semblance of a family to chase after dangerous dudes. Man grows up with deep hatred to punish women and manipulates them for his stable of hoes, furthering the cycle of ruined families.
A good book for anyone interested in this post: https://www.amazon.com/But-What-If-Were-Wrong/dp/0399184120
>Many arguments from people like Noam Chomsky against capitalism is that real wages (ie inflation adjusted wages) have gone down in the US in the last 50 years. Is this actually true? Is it only true for certain sectors of the economy? Does anyone have any good links?
It is certainly true that real wages/compensation "peaked" or "plateaued" around the early-to-mid 1970's (the previous century plus they had pretty much risen at a regular and somewhat phenomenal rate).
The reasons for the plateau are arguable. It is almost certain that the US defaulting on the gold-exchange standard (unilaterally "breaking" the Bretton Woods agreement) in late 1971 was a big part of it. (And even "stickiness" played a part -- employers were VERY reticent to give across the board 10% wage increases, even when inflation was running HIGHER than that during the previous year. Government propaganda falsely attributing "inflation" to greed and high wage demands {and thus denying it's own role on the monetary devaluation side} certainly fed into that reticence.)
Elizabeth Warren makes a pretty solid case that the en masse addition of WOMEN into the workforce also had a dramatic effect (and a definite backward one in terms that previously women had worked on farms as hard as men -- but a chief difference is that as salaried/wage earning workers, their incomes were now fully taxed).
But I think Tyler Cowen makes a pretty good case in his recent "Great Stagnation" that another reason for the plateauing (and perhaps one underlying the monetary problem) was the fact that we we running out of low-hanging fruit on which to build that increasing wage (and you could add in that while innovation/productivity HAVE continued in basic things like food production, the law of diminishing returns applies).
And of course, people like Chomsky are in total denial about the role of "socialist" spending (welfare state) in all of that -- seeking to lay all of the blame on the "warfare state" side (even though economically speaking, both are non-productive governmental consumption factors).
The writing of the dictionaries is an interesting time period in European history. There were several attempts at dictionaries during the 17th century, as well as several attempts at encyclopedias. This also coincides with the highly formal and stylized Baroque period in music, all of which reflected the culture of the time. There's a fascinating book on the creation of the Oxford Dictionary titled The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary, and is a must read in my opinion. (As a side note Simon Winchester is fast becoming one of my favorite popular historians due to the breadth of subject material he writes about.)
> Not to mention they had a guy listening to his dog, who told him to kill people.
According to Ressler (coined the term SErial killer, worked for FBI for 20 years, interviewed hundreds of incarcerated Sks) in his book, Berkowitz admitted to him that he was lying when he said the dog was speaking to him, in an attempt to plea not guilty by reason of insanity.
Well, Dahmer was homosexual, and his victims were all young men to whom he was physically attracted. Most of them were ethnically non-white; however, Dahmer did hold that race was not a factor and considering that his interest was primarily in corpses and bones that may be true. Regardless, he wasn’t robbing graves or mortuaries, but rather selecting men he found attractive and murdering them in order to have sexual contact with their dead bodies. Bundy had a clear preference for attractive young women with long dark hair. He was not exclusively or even primarily a necrophile, but he would often return to dump sites to groom and dress the corpses or engage in necrophilic acts. There's lots of books and articles written about both men; I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the mindset of serial murderers.
As far as pedophiles go, this is an interesting book regarding the mindset of sexual predators. Again, it seems like many people with a sexual proclivity towards children have a "type"--i.e., girls in their early teens, or prepubescent boys, etc.
Pimp: the story of my life by Iceberg Slim, read it before but its a great read
link
It's actually total transportation costs that gets me upset with modern agriculture. If you're part of a CSA, the farmer portions out the food into boxes, and transports it to the customers. If you buy a banana from Ecuador, the bananas have to be carefully handled, boxed, transported in a gigantic refrigerated ship, stored locally in appropriate storage. All of this time and material uses a great deal of energy, and also wastes a good deal of food, since not everything makes the trip in an edible state.
Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book about five years about her family's year-long experience of living as locavores. She writes very persuasively about obtaining greater quality of food, feeling more connected to the community and the food it produced, etc. Her choices are definitely not for everyone, as she and her her family were totally committed.
You mention local employment, but I think that's a wash, not really worth mentioning. You could argue both that people like Kingsolver took work away from farmers that could have supplied their needs, but also that the family gave their money away to other local businesses for supplies, advice, and services, all adding to local employment.
Some memoirs... would probably fall under "practical."
You need to read the book "Pimp" by Iceberg Slim.
https://www.amazon.com/Pimp-Story-Life-Iceberg-Slim/dp/1451617135
https://www.amazon.com/Come-As-You-Are-Nirvana/dp/0385471998https://www.amazon.com/Heavier-Than-Heaven-Biography-Cobain/dp/0786884029/ref=sr_1_1?
crid=2ZFTTXPN7SYMA&keywords=heavier+than+heaven&qid=1557248468&s=books&sprefix=hevie%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C239&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Serving-Servant-Remembering-Kurt-Cobain/dp/0062861506/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cobain&qid=1557248502&s=books&sr=1-1https://www.amazon.com/Journals-Kurt-Cobain/dp/157322359X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=kurt+cobain&qid=1557248532&s=books&sr=1-2
https://www.amazon.com/Nirvana-Complete-Illustrated-Charles-Cross/dp/076034521X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Nirvana&qid=1557248588&s=books&sr=1-3
https://www.amazon.com/Cobain-Unseen-Charles-R-Cross/dp/0316033723/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=cobain+unseen&qid=1557248615&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull
Honestly?
Nick Hornby.
What I Read : the Death of WCW
MY REVIEW:
Having grown up as a channel switcher during the Attitude Era, the selling point of "week to week analysis" of WCW's rise and ultimate fall intrigued me. But from the very start, I kinda knew this book wasn't for me. While there are a few funny bits here and there, I am left with disappointment of what could have been.
I was pretty taken a back by the tone of the book. It sounded like a Reddit commenter had written it. The 3 intros where he virtually said the same thing was the one of the most narcissistic things i have ever read. It read like an amateur. If you are going to beat your chest and tell the reader that you told them so, that you had better go down into the finest details why that is the case. The book failed to do so. Instead resorting to the refrain which comes up way too often in this book: It's shit.
WCW is never given a fair chance from the outset. Even as it's rising the author goes to great pains to point out how shitty it is. Even when it is selling out shows, the author points out how shitty it is. Even when it is killing it in the ratings, the author points out how shitty it is. So that when it is actual shit, you are no longer left with feeling that may have been the downfall of WCW.
Speaking of actual shit, for a 456 page book, I was expecting the big moments in WCW to be examined and critiqued. Instead they are passed off in a sentence or two. Or even dismissed outright as the author chooses not the explain it. Now, I thought I was reading a book about what led to downfall of WCW but it seems like anything but is discussed.
Instead of exploring the big moments, it takes more time talking about the authors nitpicks over booking. Like he complained nonstop about short matches and matches that ended with interference. Well anyone who was watching WWF during the Attitude Era could tell you the same thing was happening over there.
Anyways, the book gets funny when Russo arrives because how could it not. Russo gets thoroughly destroyed from beginning to end for his tenure and it is well deserved bro. But how can you dismiss the Judy Bagwell on a pole match!?
I also liked the Lesson Not Learned inserts in the book. It does at least give some perspective back on how current WWE is making same mistakes WCW was. I also liked how it served as callbacks fro things said earlier in the book.
Anyways, I wrote too much already! Death of WCW is a good overview of what happened with WCW during the Monday night war, but it lacks the details and insight that really could have put it over.
My Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-Eventually-eSpecial-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS
You can find pirate PDF copies with a bit of google-fu.
The comparison to the gilded age is totally laughable, we're in such a period of stagnation, with people fleeing any type of risk (and the associated growth) by any means necessary.
The gilded age, and it's "problems" were all pretty much a consequence of breakneck, unbridled, explosive growth.
They were at a rolling boil, we're not even at a simmer.
There's a book called Walden on Wheels by a guy who went through graduate school at Duke doing this.
You might be interested in read The great Stagnation.
First off, Okun's law is partly observational (though it can be derived through IS-LM), and because of that it is really only tested for "normal" situations, and there are no completely fixed economies in the real world, even Japan has a certain level of churn even when the aggregates hover around zero. Like most economic theories, the predictions are strongest at the margin.
To address the main question, to a certain extent the answer is implied in the question. When dealing with mathematical (textbook) macro, we simply assume that GDP is equivalent to welfare, because on a micro level it is impossible to aggregate utility. From a theoretical standpoint, assuming GDP growth equal to zero is equivalent to assuming welfare change equal to zero.
Now, from a societal standpoint this becomes more complicated. As mentioned, even when the macroeconomic aggregates are relatively steady the underlying real economy can experience tremendous fluctuations. For example, US inflation over the last few years has been overall rather moderate, even though food prices have risen and technology costs have fallen. Similarly, if Consumption falls by a trillion dollars and Gov't Spending rises by a trillion dollars, it is possible (though not necessary) that this could represent a fairly large decrease in consumer welfare even though the aggregate figure is static.
Further, there are socio-economic reasons to assume that stagnant GDP would hurt welfare. Tyler Cowen theorizes that US economic growth is due for a drastic slowdown in the near to mid term, and that because so many contracts and expectations are based on the idea of continuous economic growth this will cause a great deal of disruption. If we wish away these fairly high transition costs, a society that was organized and expecting zero growth would be so very different from what economic science typically studies that it is hard to say what would happen, though leaning heavily on IS-LM equations seems like a reasonable first estimation of what would occur.
Boys will be boys. Such a great look back on what being a football superstar was like before the age of social media and before when everyone had a phone.
I kinda even hate the cowboys but I still really enjoyed it and think back on it from time to time. Some of the stories stay with you.
Dude, do yourself a favor and read [Boys Will be Boys] (http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Be-Cowboys-Dynasty/dp/0061256811), your team was delightfully fucked up in the 90's!
Fever Pitch
Amazed no one has mentioned it. Really helped me see fandom in a different light. Great Arsenal book!
Inverting the Pyramid
Soccernomics
Fever Pitch
Alex Ferguson
I am the secret footballer
The numbers game
Have A Nice Day, a Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley
I don't know if it's what you're looking for, but Boys Will be Boys is an entertaining read. It's about the cowboys in the '90's and their crazy shenanigans.
http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Be-Cowboys-Dynasty/dp/0061256811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426266643&sr=1-1&keywords=boys+will+be+boys
Adams was CHRONICALLY cantankerous and constantly hung up on everything. He nearly derailed trade and alliance negotiations that Benjamin Franklin had been working on for years during his time in Paris by being a "puritanical complainer" (as reported by Ron Chernow in his biography of Benny F) and was so inconsolably morose and snippish during his time as president that he frequently stayed away from the Presidential mansion in Philadelphia when he was cheesed off and would half-heartedly conduct business from his home instead (David McCullough's book on the man).
​
A lot of his complaining ends up coming off as accurate just because he did SO MUCH OF IT, it's great.
John Adams by David Mccullough is an EXCELLENT book that really describes the life and times of our second President, as well as the people and places of the revolution. John Adams was a key figure in the times, and his experiences are a great lens with which to view the whole of the time period.
I would most highly recommend this book, it is a great read and genuinely a page turner, which is most rare for a historical biography.
>Add to that the fact that he's a gangsta rapper and named himself after a delicious summertime beverage.
Fun Fact: Street-names that contain 'Ice' pay homage to the original macdaddy pimp, Iceberg Slim -- a reformed pimp-turned-writer who authored his most famous book in prison, PIMP: The Story of My Life
Yes. I can say the same.
I simply choose to be honest;
I do things and I don't need to use mind altering drugs to be happy.
I like doing things while smoking weed, and I enjoy the way it makes me feel.
> sober underachievers just sitting around being useless already.
That's the irony of all this; the reason pot being legalized is such a priority for me is because I believe many other aspects of our economy are going very well.
The top youtube question is:
>"Mr. Prime Minister, so much focus is placed upon the Boomers and the Cdn. middle-class family. How does your government plan on helping me, a hard-working, single and poverty-stricken 20-something who can't seem to find more than part-time work?"
I AM a single 20 year old, and I actually have the option of full time employment (and had no difficulty finding it) at the moment if I choose to take it; I simply choose not to because I'm a University student.
Underachievers are going to exist in society, and they're going to smoke weed whether it's legal or not. What I believe the most immediate result of legalization is going to be, however, is massive investment through tourism and smoking lounges being built.
edit: and again, why is it acceptable that we allow lethal pain killers like tylenol, and lethal drugs like alcohol instead of a non-lethal, low impact drug like marijuana?
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448
There is a book for only $13 or so on amazon if you really want to read into the fixing train wreck they became.
Not a direct reply to you, but anyone who is interested.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary was very interesting, if a little thin.
From the Amazon review, 'When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.'
I recommend these all the time, they are great:
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Its by John Douglas who founded the profiling unit for the FBI. Jack Crawford from the Silence of the Lambs was based off of him. Goes into all sorts of gory details and psychological analysis of well known and lesser known serial and spree killers.
Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI Written by the guy who coined the term "serial killer." Advised Thomas Harris when writing the Silence of the Lambs. Similar book with a different perspective. Has a few more first hand interview accounts with other serial killers.
Klosterman
https://www.amazon.com/But-What-If-Were-Wrong/dp/0399184120
You will have more time to study. You may want to read: https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X
I'd suggest you live in your current car before you go to university if you can, even if only for a couple of weeks. See how you like it, and don't cheat. If it is OK but you just need to make a couple of tweaks, good to go. If it is miserable or stressful and you think somehow a pretty van with high tech gizmos will make it work -- I'd caution against going forward.
Well the Rebirth event going on right now is a great place to start for buying ongoing comics, if you aren't intimidated. Here's a longer post I've written for someone else.
If you just want to get your feet wet... Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories. It is written and illustrated by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, who created those animated series you love and the main story of this comic eventually became an episode.
The book that was the impetus for me to walk in the door of my local comic book store is Dark Night: A True Batman Story, also written by Paul Dini. It's a true story about Paul Dini being mugged back in the 90's when he was working on Batman: The Animated Series. I don't think I could have asked for a better entry into comics.
Added a new chapter to Five for Iron, set five years before canon. (Here's the ff.net link, for anyone who prefers that site.) Anywho, this chapter is my first from Winter's POV, and I'm hoping I did an OK job with that, while still keeping the premise engaging.
Reading:
I finished Cadillac Desert this week, and I've gotten about 100 pages into Animal, Vegetable, Miracle since then. Both are brilliantly written and wonderfully subversive, but considering my line of work I may be a smidge biased.
Yes it's possible. Though the current economic climate gives me pause. Peter Jenkins did it in the early 70's and wrote two books about it, A Walk Across America covering his route from Alfred, NY to New Orleans, LA, and The Walk West, covering the rest of the route, to Florence, Oregon. A 5 year trek (mostly because he kept staying with folks he met along the way for weeks or months at a time). So it can be done.
He basically did it by taking on temporary jobs along the walk whenever he ran out of money. For him, it became less about the walk, and more about the people he met along the way. That was really inspirational for me. I did a shorter version of it, a 3-week bicycle tour through 11 mountain passes in Colorado on less than $100 total, on a $10 thrift shop bike. Best three weeks of my whole life. I wish it lasted longer. I've done long walks too though nothing as spectacular.
On my bike trip, I found even going over mountains and up all those passes was a lot easier and faster on bicycle than walking. Instead of carrying 50-100 pounds on my back I put all that on my bicycle and pushed it up--then coast down the other side.
p.s. There are portable folding bicycles, that you can fold up, strap to your back, and carry, if you wish. But if backpacking is what you most want to do--then do that, and forget the bike. It's doable. :)
This probably is not what you are looking for, but it is an interesting read:
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester.
Chronicles the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and the curious case of the most prolific contributor.
While many will say that dictionaries have always been aggregates--and even the history of modern dictionaries are questionable--to simply say that language is fluid strikes me as both i) inconsiderate to its rich history and ii) an excuse for reckless abandon. That is, at least, for most people.
Sure, you'll get some strange regional abstractions like nonplus, but when you have words like Iregardless which serve no purpose--well, that's just stupid. If somebody like Oscar Wilde or E.E Cummings is employing wordplay that's on a different level than a sufficient number of people incorrectly using a word.
My issue with this isn't just diction. I'm actually quite forgiving on diction and spelling mistakes (as I make a tremendous amount of them). Words have a rich history; which means they have deep connotations. To imply all synonyms are interchangeable would be a great insult to the quality of language. I doubt anybody would make such an argument. So, on a certain scale, people acknowledge that words are more than majority-accepted diction (i.e. connotation).
So, as I implied earlier, certain people can shape language with the greatest of care and mastery. My argument extends to the impact things have on literature and maintaining a standard (whether it is to be used in the vernacular or not is not the point). So, when people say, "language is fluid", I am certainly not disagreeing that it is; I am, however, disagreeing that that is free license to not form it to mean whatever we would like.
If I felt people, by and large, were receiving stronger education given their unprecedented access to it (internet, not working in coal mines, etc)--perhaps, I would be more willing to say the masses should shape language. But, as anybody can tell you that has graded college papers in the past 10-years, emoticons are becoming more prevalent. Should we then accept these in formal writing? They are simply pictographs, no? Perhaps that person wrote that emoticon wishing to embeds it with profoundness of the entire volume of Ulysses? I certainly know what they meant to say--at least in the ball park thereof.
(That wasn't so much a refute as an elaboration. I'm not going to refute the claim "language is fluid" in and of itself. I will display my frustration at how it is used though.)
Hamilton was a controversial figure to say the least. During his time in Washington's cabinet, he was fundamental to the creation of the policies of the Federalist party. He was frequently reviled by the Democratic-Republican press, accused of being a secret monarchist, enriching himself at the expense of the government, and poisoning the mind of the otherwise perfect George Washington. He also did not have positive relationships with either Jefferson or Adams. While Jefferson thought his policies were dangerous Adams disliked him for much more personal reasons. During the elections of 1792 and 1796, Hamilton secretly lobbied against Adams, ostensibly so that Washington would be elected unanimously. Not surprisingly, Adams took that personally, and never forgave him.
One of the frequent criticisms that was lobbied against Hamilton was that he was too ambitious. During the quasi-war with France (1798-1800), Adams placed Washington in charge of the army in case of a French invasion. Due to Washington's age, he appointed Hamilton to be his deputy, meaning that he was essentially in control of the army. When it became clear that France was not going to invade, and the army would not be needed. Hamilton began to suggest various other military targets that he could attack (Florida or Spanish Louisiana). Southern Democratic-Republicans also spread rumors that Hamilton planned to march on them, placing himself at the head of a coup.
While he may have been interested, Hamilton never really had an opportunity to run for president. Of the 4 elections he lived through (he died in 1804), two were unanimously won by Washington, and John Adams was the Federalist candidate in the other two.
As to whether or not he could have won - probably not. He was despised by the Democratic-Republicans and distrusted by some members of his own party. Additionally, after Jefferson's election in 1800, the Democratic-Republican party controlled the presidency for the next 30 years. So even if he had not died in 1804, he may never have had a good opportunity.
Finally, another strike against Hamilton was his involvement in the 'first American sex scandal.' Democratic-Republican newspaper editor James Thomson Callender published that Hamilton had been making secret payments to James Reynolds. After Reynolds was jailed for a financial scheme, Callender insinuated that Hamilton was involved. Hamilton responded by stating that he wasn't involved in any such scheme, he'd just been sleeping with Reynolds' wife. (He even issued a pamphlet saying such.) This scandal, combined with the general dislike for him throughout the country would almost certainly have kept him from ever being elected President.
Further Reading
Sorry, that is kinda snowflake education there and I do understand, I work in EdPub so I know what they're teaching you.
Natural LAW is stated and spelled out as the rights each human are inherently born with. Those rights shall not abridged by any means as the 2nd amendment states.
What you're getting confused with is The Law of Nature. It's kind of sad I have to explain this to you. It's not your fault.
I just finished a college text that was so horrifically biased and inaccurate I came very close to uploading it to Wikileaks. On page 346 it even had a lovely bit on Hillary being elected the first woman president of the US..and a feature on the Ferguson thing...that was called PEACEFUL protests and failed to mention the facts in evidence...it was bullshit from stem to stern...and that is a college fucking textbook on government. It had less than 3 pages on the Rev. War...and the formation of government COMPLETELY ignored the process by which the US gov was founded. You can learn about it on your own...by actually reading the letters (unedited) in books like John Adams https://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-David-McCullough/dp/0743223136
and you will be able to read for yourself the absolute amazing process by which our form of government was created. The discourse, the fights, the ...it was amazing. If you want to learn the truth about Lincoln and read UNEDITED things...read DiLorenzo's work.
Seriously there is so much fucking asshattery being taught today to shape this helpless feeling I get from your words. I was forced to edit a feature I wrote on Lincoln...because you can't tell black people the Civil War wasn't about slavery...even though I was quoting Lincoln.
The Civil War is so horridly taught now...that there's no recovering. It was STATES rights. And greed. Each state that joined the union ONLY DID SO with the express agreement they could leave if they didn't like it. This is not a discussion about the morality of slavery...they could have and would have ended slavery naturally by forbidding new states joining the union from having slavery. The Civil War was the FIRST illegal war. It was about state's rights and the slaves being freed was incidental. Each time some uneducated tard tries to argue that I ask one question...explain to me why thousands upon thousands of dirt fucking poor white folk would fight to hold on to a system that did not benefit them for a second? Less than 1% of the US population owned slaves. Second point...how is it possible that the people who suffered the most and lost everything were the dirt poor crackers? Sure Sherman did a lot of damage...but oddly anyone can drive down south and see endless intact plantation homes...it was the punishment to the poor for daring to fight for the right of self determination.
And you can go right now and read endless shitposts on the Internet saying I'm wrong...without getting an answer to those two questions. So if you really want an education read DiLorenzo...LINCOLN unedited and you just might start getting angry at how horrifically you've been manipulated.
The truth is out there...but you have to go looking.
The most read book in the history of black American culture. I am certainly not kidding. Now that urban redditors know, they will notice it in people's hands on the subway/street.
http://www.amazon.com/Pimp-The-Story-My-Life/dp/1451617135
That is the most read book in the ghetto in history. Sales schmales... every copy has been read until it resembles a wad of crumpled toilet paper.
Passed from generation to generation.
Ice T recently made a film about Iceberg Slim. It was seen by and discussed by the bulk of black American folks, and written/talked about in every single black American news or culture media outlet.
Not one other US mass media outlet has mentioned it. >EDIT. I retract that sentence.<
It was specifically marketed to black people ONLY.
http://www.icebergslimmovie.com/
99% of white people will go to the grave without ever hearing of Iceberg Slim. Every, and I mean every single solitary person in the black ghetto ,over the age of 12, knows exactly who Iceberg Slim was, and have seen his books being passed around or read. There's no escaping the influence of Iceberg Slim on modern urban black culture.
White, Asian, and Hispanic folks have never heard of him, and most never will.
Every rapper who is black that has Ice in their name is paying respect to their Pimp hero Iceberg. Fact.
Ebony, the black US Time Magazine shoe in, applauds wildly!
http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/portrait-of-a-pimp-uncovers-iceberg-slim#axzz3Ji6CLJ1P
How glorifying!
I can't imagine any other kind of US main stream media holding a rapist pimp heroin dealer up into being a hero of the black community.
His books are cheap as fuck to buy used, so have at it folks! Actually learn and see what kind of culture we are talking about.
I, old white dude, have read all of his books, due to my twisted sense of curiosity. Weird, huh?
Edit for serious clarity:
More black Americans have read PIMP, than have read the Bible. I will confidently stand by that assertion.
Oh and Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby is required reading.
If you want to learn a little bit of context and history of what English football is all about Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch is a great book written from the perspective of a growing up to be life-long Arsenal fan. Good sense of humor and excellent writing, not some boring paean to sports-fandom. Even my mother like the book and she doesn't know anything about soccer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever_pitch
http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1254612517&amp;sr=1-1
Note: I am not an engineer, but I do have some suggestions of things you may like.
Books:
Videos/Games/Blogs/Podcasts:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVI76ZS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a sort of memoir written by her, her husband, and their daughter (they take turns with different chapters) where they discuss a year of eating locally, sustainably, and growing/making their own food. It is a great book (both in audio and in print!)
I really like Putting Food By for preservation guidance.
If you are looking for less how to, Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable Miracle is a wonderful read.
This isn't so much of a homesteading book, but Sara Stein's Noah's Garden is one of my favorites. It's about rethinking the way we garden so that we are doing it in harmony with ecology and nature.
I've been a fan of Ben Falk for a long time and he put out his first book not that long ago, The Resilient Farm and Homestead which is awesome particulary if you live in a colder climate. I have a feeling he will be putting out a new edition though soon given how he wrote the first one so you might want to wait on a purchase of that one.
Again, if you are a cold climate person, almost anything by Elliot Coleman is really great. He does a lot of extending the season kind of stuff that is good for shorter season growers.
Edible Landscaping is more for people with yards (as opposed to acreage I guess....) but I think the book is brilliant and well written and very inspirational with lots of resources.
Gaia's Garden, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are two great ones. Gaia's Garden regards permaculture and making your garden more in touch with what occurs in nature. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, while it is not a "Gardening" book, is a great read and was what inspired me to start a garden as soon as I moved out of my apartment to the country.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's about being closer to the food you eat - eating seasonally, being conscious of where your food comes from and what goes into it. It also had tons of resources for eating locally, seasonal recipes etc.
Kind of related, A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins was a very enjoyable non fiction read. Check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Across-America-Peter-Jenkins/dp/006095955X
Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
http://www.amazon.com/Have-Nice-Day-Blood-Sweatsocks/dp/0061031011
They don't get much more harrowing and twisted than Mick Foley's first autobiography. It's a great read even if you're not really interested in pro wrestling.
Wrestling's as real as theater or opera; instead of verses or arias, they do spots and promos. The latter is one of the reason the indy scene gets a more passionate following, as they understand that they cannot push the product as a con or rigged show; the only reals marks are kids until they figure it out, which, with the Internet, is quite easy.
Their history as a whole is quite intricate, from a carnival attraction in the late 1800s to a "legitimate" sport in the 1930 (at the time you had to be a real wrestler to hold the title, as you either could be betrayed by the opponent, the referee, the booker, the territory or the wrestling institution). It's only when you get to the 70s that we get a glimpse of the perverse effect of sensationalism had on the squared circle, which we see in full effect in Natch's article, such as cocaine, steroids, ring rats, ludicrous contracts, alcohol, etc.
We were lucky to have a solid 20 years of awesome wrestling, such as the WWF and NWA in the 80's and the WCW/WWE feuds in the 90s which prompted the consolidation & the end of the territory system across North America. However, it was a steep price: Natch is only one of many troubled performers that, when everything settle down, became a lost asset; and that's without including roster attrition to drug & physical abuse and crime-related incidents, which are at an all-time high in the sport's 150 year existence. Moreover, there is the lost integrity of the martial art, which at the time was for self-defense and competition, that, if performed correctly (e.g. Piledriver or chokehold) can be devastating for an opponent; most wrestlers today cannot wrestle efficiently to fully compete with another martial artist.
If you want to learn more, I can easily recommend the following books:
I'm still looking for books regarding: Eddie Quinn and the Quebec territory from 1950 to 1980, The Japan scene from the NWA days to today and The indy scene from 1990 to today (including ECW).
There is a lot of interesting material for such a fake show. :)
Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gulag-Archipelago-1918-1956-Experiment-Investigation/dp/0061253715/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1494613184&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=gulag+archipelago
Nää kun lukee niin tulee vähän paska housuun. Ei välttämättä näitä ennen edes osaa paskoo housuunsa. Silmä ei nää asioita, joita aivo ei ymmärrä.
>Why serial killers that are caught are allowed to live until they die of old age?
Simply put, in states that have (and still use) the death penalty, they are often put to death, although many plead guilty or make deals to avoid the death sentence.
In states or countries that don't have the death penalty, they stay in prison until they die.
Now, although these people are horrible human beings, keeping them alive is a much better alternative than killing them. Why? Because normal people don't become serial killers. A serial killer is the result of multiple childhood traumas (lack of love, humiliation, violence, absence of a mother during the first years of life, etc.) that, left untreated, can evolve into full blown mental illness, and allowing medical and law enforcement professionals to study them by interviewing them at length is considerably more useful than just pulling the switch.
This has nothing to do with the validity (or lack thereof) of the death penalty, it's simply a practical conclusion.
Special Agent Robert Ressler, the father of the modern FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (popularized by the Silence of the lambs movie) interviewed many of the most notorious serial killers in the US and abroad (Ted Bundy, Jerry Brudos, David Berkowitz, Richard Chase, Juan Corona, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein, Edmund Kemper, John Wayne Gacy, Sirhan Sirhan, etc.) and this helped him and his colleagues understand serial killers much better, which has in turn enabled the FBI to train law enforcement forces all over the world to better deal with them, and this includes educating the medical profession on how to better recognize the signs in troubled offenders that an indicators of potential future crimes.
If you're interested in serial killers, there's two books you need to read that will educate you in no uncertain terms about how these people come to be, what triggers them and the different types of killers.
The first one is Robert Ressler's "Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI"
The second one is Gavin de Becker's "The gift of fear"
Edit: by the way, if you have a wife, a girlfriend, a daughter, a mom or a female friend, the book by Gavin de Becker is one that could genuinely save their life one day. Seriously. You'll thank me later.
Hi Susan, and thank you for doing this AMA!
Many years ago, I read Robert K. Ressler's book "Whoever Fights Monsters" and I never forgot the warning (borrowed from Nietzsche) that "he who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster, and when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
My question for you is: are you cognisant of "the abyss gazing back", and do you think writing about crimes such as these has an effect on other parts of your life?
I read this.
https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X
Not a bad read. It might include some thoughts you had not considered. The author was at Duke. North Carolina is considerably warmer than chicago.
I grew up in Alaska. You can effectively draw a line from Anchorage to Buffalo NY and pull that middle section way down into Chicago and Gary and get approximate winters. Chicago is arguably worse than Anchorage because Anchorage has mountains between it and the arctic circle. The midwest has a whole lot of nothing.
Anyways...The reason I drone on and on about that is that winter can really exhaust you. And it is a slow attrition. Picture this: Its january. You are tucked in a library study carrel. The library is about to close. And soon you have to leave. To walk across campus. It is 20F out. And thats before taking the wind into account. You will walk a mile in that deep freeze to arrive at home...where everything is just as frozen as the outdoors. The only difference is the wind. Inside you wait for the van to warm up. your hands are stiff and clumsy.your feet ache. much of what you own is wither frosty, or when it warms, wet. This is day 60.
Okay I do engage in a little hyperbole there. Worst factors all at once and all that. But this is the sort of thing that leads to Cabin Fever which you really dont need when you are studying. I'm not trying to scare you off. Just offer some thoughts to consider. Do the research and if you decide its what you want, then jump in with both feet
Digital version
Physical version
I'll throw in another recommendation - "Dear Leader" the story of Jong Il's personal poet who fled. Unbelievable tale of how the top 1% lives in NK versus the abject poverty of the other 99%.
It has a lot of info that was new to me, as an example, there are people whose job it is to look for attractive girls in junior high schools who are sent (their consent is never asked for) to special resort hotels as slaves. A depressing fact for sure, but if you listen to Robert Evans you probably will appreciate the book.
&#x200B;
https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568
This book https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568 written by a defector has a part where he mentions that the common speech of Chinese Koreans is pretty much the same dialect as that of the northern North Hamyong province of DPRK.
https://www.amazon.com/Journals-Kurt-Cobain/dp/157322359X
I don't happen to own this, but I believe it might be what OP is referring to!
> When America rapes the Olympics every 4 years and embarrasses the athletes of other, lesser countries (often on their own turf)
Only a recent phenomenon. The gold medal run from 1996 to 2004 was impressive, but the Soviets have long been dominant in that field.
> the country is allowed to enjoy its superior sports on its own time.
How does one define superior?
>America doesn't give two shits about soccer.
TV ratings and attendance says differently.
>Soccer is a boring
Personal opinion, but I must ask, why do you find it boring? Lack of scoring? Then I assume you consider a perfect game or a defensive battle in American football to be an affront to nature. Perhaps you lack the intelligence to understand the overall tactics of the game to fully embrace it. People overseas find American football incredibly boring because it lacks fluidity, but upon learning the game grow to respect it.
>simple minded game
Pitcher throw, hitter hit and run, players catch
Put ball in hoop
Put puck in net
etc.
> designed for poor Europeans
Then what was American football designed for? The two sports had very similar rules and roots deep into the 1890's.
>feel a sense of belonging and purpose connected their respective clubs
Incorrect, soccer was encouraged as a recreational game between organizations. Some were athletic clubs filled with influential individuals, some were universities, others were clubs at manufacturing plants created by workers to utilize their day off. Over time people became willing to pay to watch.
>Which is why they have sing a songs
I assume you refuse to applaud and cheer when a pitcher is on the second strike with two outs in an inning. Or make noise when your American football team is on defense.
>get drunk as fuck with each other while absentmindedly watching grown men
So I assume you don't watch college football
>flail and flop along a grass field
Happens in every sport
>cheering their beta hearts out when they manage to draw a card.
I would recommend not using a phone to post, autocorrect can be so silly. In the sport of soccer a draw is worth one point. Now if a club is vastly overmatched by a superior opponent, but that club manages a draw on the road, the fans would be happy has the draw is worth one point. In the NHL it used to be similar until they introduced the ridiculous shoot-out. But that's what's nice about soccer is that the match is less than two hours long. Extra-innings and extensive overtime periods can be incredibly boring.
>There is no strategy
Ya.....no
>no heart
Ya......no
>no skill
I assume you have never heard of Messi
>it will never be embraced in United States
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1312130148&amp;sr=1-2
This one is the best IMO.
Does The Death of WCW count? It was written by RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez.
There's a book called Panzram: A Journal of Murder and it's partially an autobiography of a serial killer and rapist from the early 1900's. It has his candid correspondence with one of his guards. If you can stomach it, he talks at length about how he became who he was, and the justifications he concocted for his evil deeds. You almost feel sorry for the guy. But then you read that he raped over 1k men and you lose that pretty quickly.
>As income disparity rises, the majority of people must work harder to maintain their standard of living.
That is not obviously true. It would be if we lived in a world with a pie of fixed-size. If the pie were fixed, then a bigger slice for me necessarily means a smaller piece for someone else. But that's not the world we live in. The pie is growing, so there is at least the mathematical possibility that, although the distribution is changing, the size of everyone's piece is growing. So in order to show that's the case, you would need to show conclusively that the super rich are getting so much of the growing pie that the middle class and poor are actually losing out. There is very little data to support this. The best that some people have been able to do on that front is claim that wages have stagnated since the 70s. But even this isn't clear. First of all, it's hard to measure, because today if you're poor you have a colour TV and a computer and an iPhone and in the 70s you did not. Does this make you richer? It must, in some sense at least. So the whole thing about income disparity is actually a lot less clear-cut than people think. I'm not saying it's not an issue. I'm saying that I haven't been convinced that it's an issue. I don't mind if a millionaire becomes a billionaire and my income stays constant. I'm perfectly content with that, and not because I am convinced that I will become a millionaire, but because I live comfortably enough to be happy. I'm not rich. I just don't need much more than what I have.
So, summing up, it'll take more than blind assertions that income disparity will destroy civilization for me to believe it. I'm open to being convinced but you can't just assert it. And I am definitely sure that the art gallery stairs are not the place for debate on this. It's not an open-and-closed issue, and people behave as though it is. "Occupying" should be reserved for times when something needs to be done immediately but if we're not even sure if there is a problem, or what that problem is, I think protesting is entirely misplaced.
Vindicates it to a certain level yes. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-Eventually-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS is a great book mostly talking about America's economic decline but also speaks a little to China as well. China has seen impressive growth by the numbers and in some real world cases but that doesn't mean the system is incredibly corrupt and inefficient. A state managed system can work wonders when all you have to do is do the simple things all the other developed countries have done already (build infrastructure, factories with cheap labor, open up borders). This is especially true seeing what China was coming from in the 1970s, there wasn't much room to go but up. Now in the coming decades we will see how well this development approach will work into the future.
yeah, no. try this http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Vegetable-Miracle-Year-Food/dp/0060852569/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk
Have you already read Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver?
I actually read a book by a guy once who did exactly that (walk across the country and write a book about it). He even met the woman he later married on the trip!
But I think he got hit by a car, too.
It's been so long since I read it, I'm unsure if the link below is to the same thing, but the author's name seems familiar.
http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Across-America-Peter-Jenkins/dp/006095955X
In the US, it's titled The Professor and the Madman. In the UK, it's titled The Surgeon of Crowthorne.
It's non-fiction, by the way.
Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman
Yes. A brilliant work!
Gulag Archipelago (Volume one , Volume two , & Volume three ) – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
These books are quite long. There is an abridged version by the same translators in the links above. The abridged version is all volumes in one book. In my opinion, his experience and the effect he had upon this world is too great to only read the abridged version.
I should read more.
There's a great book you should read about the 90s team. Double-check with your dad first, though, okay? It does address somewhat mature themes. (I know, 17, but.)
Boys Will Be Boys.
Great read
https://www.amazon.com/Whoever-Fights-Monsters-Tracking-Killers/dp/0312950446
The following list are books from retired members of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit - Jack Crawford's real-life equivalents:
Sexual Homicide - Patterns and Motives
Journey Into Darkness
Mindhunter
Anatomy of Motive
Whoever Fights Monsters
Dark Dreams
All of them go into detail in describing how cases were analyzed to develop profiles of unknown killers, the different categories of killers, and how the thought processes of a serial killer work. It's not that they are evil incarnate or unpredictable violent beings - there is usually some kind of logic there that makes perfect sense once you realize that they just aren't playing with the same set of rules as everyone else.
If you just want to talk about manipulation:
Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking
Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John Douglas
The Anatomy of Motive : The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals by John Douglas
Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI by Robert K. Ressler
Signature Killers by Robert Keppel
You know, I used to read a shit ton of books from people who worked at Quantico about serial killers and the like. Ressler stated that serial killings were usually preceeded by those exact types of break-ins. Stealing shoes or underwear
EDIT: They are called "Fetish Crimes"
But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman
Currently enjoying But What If We're Wrong?
Super interesting.
Its been done before, and he wrote a book about it.
http://smile.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1413762133&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=walden+on+wheels
Here's a book about a dude living in his van on campus because of college debt.
This book actually began my red pilling, I saw the intent and sacrifice of the founders for the first time. One of the most well written books ever and it is based on true precise history. All the letters written between Adams and others were a key part of the historical picture. The HBO series is also great but read the book first.
https://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-David-McCullough/dp/0743223136/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487202896&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=john+adams
George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson
Those are my suggestions to get you started.
John Adams
This guy lived an amazing life first off. Second reading his Bio is a really good way to learn about the American Revolution and 18th century Europe. \
http://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-David-McCullough/dp/0743223136
Dark Knight a True Batman Story is a book based on a real event that happened in the famous Batman author Paul Dini's life and how batman helped him get through a huge crisis. There is a lot of batman history involving random comics and the animated series that is really neat as well.
Basically Dini gets his ass beat really bad and the problem he faces at his job is that how does someone get inspiration to write about a hero who saves the innocent when he experienced what he did. This book will answer that.
It's surely not your average superhero crime fighting book but its a pretty quick read that is really well written. I couldn't put this down and I cant recommend this enough to anyone.
here is a amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Night-True-Batman-Story/dp/1401241433/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1469871215&amp;sr=8-11&amp;keywords=dark+knight
This one? If so, I'm adding that to My Cart.
If your friend is a fan the Batman The Animated series, it might not be exactly what you are looking for but you might want to check out Dark Night: A True Batman Story
It's about Paul Dini, one of the writers for TAS (and later comics and the Arkham games) and his mental struggle after he was brutally mugged. It's written as a graphic novel, mixing in real events and characters from the show.
On Amazin it is listed for June.
https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568
Great book.
Dear Leader by Jang Jin-Sung
Well, thanks for the advice then!
I just wish that the particular subset of Western society that considers young men like yourself who have grown up with a strict, fundamentalist family as having ideals fundamentally opposed to their "western values" had a chance to meet or interact with you.
Here you are, living in a place and surrounded by values that are so unlike anything many of us in the Western world have experienced and you're cracking jokes about 'fursonas' on Reddit. If you didn't tell us in this TIFU post, I doubt anyone would be able to tell that you're not some 20yo from New Jersey.
I know the world is unfair, but it seems to be almost cruelly so when -- based on your interactions with people on this site -- someone like yourself, who clearly would fit perfectly into a society whose values align with your own is not in a position to actually become a part of that society.
I've enjoyed our conversation and not to harp on this point, but please continue to consider leaving your country. Any other place would be lucky to have you. I know that family ties are strong, but you didn't pick your family and ultimately you do not owe your life to them.
You truly do not need to live the rest of your life unhappy, feeling like you don't belong, married to someone you have to "learn to love." There is so much shit in the world but there is a lot of good too. I know it seems impossible to leave, but that's an illusion. It would be hard and dangerous as fuck, but not impossible. (Edit: as I wrote here, claiming asylum is absolutely something you can do and your situation is exactly the kind of thing it was designed for)
There is a fascinating book I read some time ago called "Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea", written by a high-level North Korean official who does something like what you've done: he accidentally gives a prohibited magazine that he signed out from a "restricted" NK library to a friend who then forgets it on the subway, leading to the magazine being turned into the secret police and the author interrogated. He talks his way out of the interrogation for the moment, but knows that his life as he knows it is over and that he'll be re-arrested and likely killed the next day.
He ends up on the run and eventually ends up in China, with no money, no family and no friends. It's an absolutely fascinating read and I highly recommend it.
I figure it might be difficult for you to purchase books online, so I've uploaded my epub copy (and a PDF conversion if you have trouble opening the EPUB). I'll PM you the link so the mods don't delete my comment if they stumble across it.
Have a good life and like I said, if you ever need anything feel free to PM me.
Journals
https://www.amazon.com/Journals-Kurt-Cobain/dp/157322359X
The Journals, if you're looking for a Jagstang, they've been discontinued, but you can usually find one of the 2002 reissues on ebay.
Read Fever Pitch for one. Also Arsènal: The Making of a Modern Superclub is helpful. Going back through Arseblog's archives and the matchday threads on r/gunners couldn't hurt either.
http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882/
http://www.amazon.com/Arsenal-The-Making-Modern-Superclub/dp/1907637311
Also Fever Pitch by the same author. http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882
The #1 best place would be this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1310014932&amp;sr=8-1
All of the studies are referenced and the book is both objective and fair.
As far as the cancer thing, here is the link to the U.S. Government's patent on cannabis as a neuroprotective anticancer agent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;d=PALL&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;s1=6630507.PN.&amp;OS=PN/6630507&amp;RS=PN/6630507
But seriously that book is well worth it.
Edit: Pubmed is an incredibly reputable site, and here is the link for the search term "cannabis cancer"
Notice how all of them have to do with it's therapeutic applications. If you do a similar search for tobacco, alcohol, or even caffeine effects it's a whole different story.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=cannabis%20cancer
I am also a girl, best friend and I both love marijuana. Its the only thing that keeps us grounded and stable. No matter how bad our day gets, we always have something great to look forward to. So many people have hard lives and sometimes its hard for people to deal with reality or its hard to think about your past. Many people have different ways of relief. Some drink, smoke, gamble, cut them selves, and much more but to each their own. And if its NOT an uncontrollable habit, or screwing up your life or family then why would it be bad? At the least, its just so you can unwind and chill out.
If she's worried about the health aspect I recommend that you buy the book Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we Driving People to Drink?. If she isn't convinced that marijuana is a safe drug then theres no hope for swaying her opinion. It's a true argument on why Marijuana is safe and how it has saved peoples lives.
I'm surprised that nobody in this thread quoted [this book](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603581448/"Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?") yet.
This is one of the most interesting books I have read in the last year or so, and it definitely changed my opinion about marijuana (I used to be against decriminalization, because the governement was constantly telling me it was the Devil's weed).
Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? is, surprisingly enough, very objective in its comparison of alcohol and marijuana. I think that marijuana smokers and non-smokers alike will learn interesting facts by reading this book.
As a matter of fact, there is: https://www.amazon.com/Death-WCW-Anniversary-Bestselling-Revised/dp/1770411755
The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez
National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling by Tim Hornbaker
The Rise & Fall of ECW (though it's basically just the DVD in written form)
Can't agree more with the people suggesting Hesse, DF Wallace, Camus, Orwell, Huxley, Borges and Bulgakov. I think most of mine are taken, but I want to throw one more out there:
Killer: A Journal of Murder, which is finally back in print under the title Panzram: AJOM, is a tremendous and disturbing memoir about the darkest parts of the human mind. Carl Panzram was a man capable of almost unbelievable cruelty and hatred, and reading his justifications and explanations for his detestable mindset and actions is something that, while perhaps not totally relate-able, reveals a dark truth about life. The fact that, in the end, this monster reveals itself as a human - capable of fear, pain, and even love amidst all that hate - is something that elevates this book beyond the typical True Crime fare.
Agreed. Here is a link to the book. I have read many SK books and this one has always stayed with me. Also, 2nd I would recommend this one of Albert Fish. Crazy all this guy became and did in his old age.
Maybe try Carl Panzram's book He's an absolute monster of a human being, but a surprisingly decent writer.
Fun note: Have you ever tried The Last Podcast On The Left? They do a lot of true-crime stuff that you might like!
Carl Panzram wrote a book piece by piece when he was in prison.
https://www.amazon.com/Panzram-Journal-Murder-Thomas-Gaddis/dp/1878923145
"Panzram: A Journal of Murder" Thomas E. Gaddis & James O. Long https://www.amazon.com/Panzram-Journal-Murder-Thomas-Gaddis/dp/1878923145
It's a highly interesting read, very thought-provoking. The reviews I've seen often put it in about the same way; The story of Carl Panzram truly is one that you would never think of yourself, and once you read about it, it never really leaves you.
The book "Panzram: A Journal of Murder" is well worth the price if you're interested in his story.
http://www.amazon.com/Panzram-Journal-Murder-Thomas-Gaddis/dp/1878923145
Biografia do Elon Musk. Só tenho a dizer que o cara é um mito.
yes, there is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVI76ZS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I'm in the same boat as you and just started reading a lot of science stuff.
It might be a good idea to pick up an edition of The Best American Science [and Nature] Writing for lots of topics all at once.
I also second the Brian Greene books, early Dawkins, and The Red Queen. But I don't really understand all the Hofstadter hype... I really didn't like I Am a Strange Loop--I found it extremely poorly written, off-topic, at times pretentious, poorly constructed, and overall not a very pleasant experience.
Most of my interest is in biology and evolution, so my recommendations would be:
My favorite animal rights book: Created From Animals - Rachels
A really fun read about poisonous plants: Wicked Plants - Stewart
Another Stewart book about earthworms: The Earth Moved - Stewart
Also anything by Michael Pollan, and to complement that, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
That's just wrong that Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle didn't even make the list... it was one of the top 3 imo. (I loved the audiobook, her whole family reads their chapters)
A Walk Across America
Not exaclty what you're looking for, the author walked, didn't run. I read the book in high school and I enjoyed it at the time, although I couldn't really tell you much about it now.
Years ago we enjoyed A Walk Across America
Need a book to read? My English teacher read this to us in grade school. http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Across-America-Peter-Jenkins/dp/006095955X
Gracias for the answer. I'd love an AMA too. This reminds me of A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins, who set out to find 'America' in the wake of the Vietnam War. He came through Alabama, and even had our infamous Governor Wallace invite him to his office to wish him well.
Whether it's walking across America or just the Appalachian Trail, I hope to do the same some time soon (esp. since I graduate from AU this May). Both Peter and Anthony remind me of how possible it is.
Reminds me of a modern day version of Peter Jenkins, "A Walk Across America".
Walk Across America it is a fantastic book.
Will Oregon do?
This is my favorite story about crossing america on foot.
The Professor and The Madman
If anyone is interested, the lexicographer that wound up in the insane asylum in Chapter 7, had a book written about him, that's pretty darn interesting.
...and where the fuck is Chaucer?
The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything. Both are about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, the latter about the actual making, and the former about the specifics of one of the most prolific contributors to the OED: a US Army officer and civil war vet in a British insane asylum. Great reads, the both of them.
I really enjoyed the Professor and the Madman: http://www.amazon.com/The-Professor-Madman-Insanity-Dictionary/dp/006099486X
If you are even remotely interested in prowrestling, I would recommend Mick Foley's autobiography (Have a Nice Day!). It is very funny and gives a great insight into the life of a professional wrestler.
Mick Foley is one of my favorite authors.
[Have a Nice Day] (http://www.amazon.com/Have-Nice-Day-Blood-Sweatsocks/dp/0061031011)
Have a Nice Day:A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley
Yes, it is about wrestling, but it is more about life, and it's hilarious.
Several years ago, I had a co-worker that was really into wrestling. So into it that I had to get into it myself so I'd have something to talk about with him on Tuesday and Friday mornings. He'd order all the pay-per-views and invite me over to watch them. Anyway, this was around the time Mick Foley's book came out. He ordered it and read it over a weekend, then shared it with me. The stories he tells about wrestling in Japan are sometimes too much to believe. Wrestling matches with thumbtacks or nails or broken glass, super sadistic stuff and very little of it was fake.
Gulag Archepelago: required reading for any USSR/Soviet/Gulag fanatic.
http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-Archipelago-Experiment-Literary-Investigation/dp/0061253715/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324333692&amp;sr=8-2
https://www.amazon.ca/Gulag-Archipelago-Experiment-Literary-Investigation/dp/0061253715/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1478276699&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+gulag+archipelago
Here you go, have a read and then try to justify authoritarian rule.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gulag-Archipelago-1918-1956-Experiment-Investigation/dp/0061253715/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1480510002&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=the+gulag+archipelago
I don't need an echo-chamber to be anti-government, just a basic understanding of history. Have you ever read about the 20th century? 100 million people were murdered by their own leftist-totalitarian governments - you know that right?
There are a lot of stupid people hellbent on making the same mistakes in current year.
I bought Volume I, this edition.
The works of Solzhenitsyn are a good place to start, for those unfamiliar with just how far down the rabbit hole to Hell statism can take us. The Gulag Archipelago is actually three volumes but the first one will be enough to get the point across.
Another book I thought was worthwhile was Ma Bo's Blood Red Sunset: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution.
There are plenty of others but those are the ones that impacted me the most as a kid. (Edit: The East German Stasi would be worth looking into if you're not already familiar with it. The Lives of Others is awesome; I understand it was based on some real characters and events.)
Union Carbide didn't actually think they were carrying the banner of human progress when they gassed Bhopal. Dow Chemical didn't manufacture Agent Orange in the service of the CEO's personality cult. Phillip Morris and General Motors? Hell, they just want your money. If you're stupid enough to set some chemical-soaked leaves on fire and deliberately inhale the smoke, or drive yourself into a tree at 100 MPH, then yeah, I guess they're your worst nightmares.
But a statist regime wants everything you have, everything you are, everything you will ever be. You have a tough job ahead if you want to convince me that the evils of berserk, out-of-control governments are in the same league as the worst crimes perpetrated by for-profit corporations. Not saying it can't happen, just saying you have some hard work ahead of you.
https://www.amazon.ca/Gulag-Archipelago-Vol-Experiment-Investigation/dp/0061253715/
We have way better technology now than they did in the Soviet Union. Read that book and then imagine what they could do when every single phone has a far field microphone, satellites can see every hair on everyones head everywhere, and every transaction you make is recorded and analyzed with AI.
The argument I used to hear growing up about why our loss of privacy wasn't such a big deal was that "what do you have to hide?" Well, when your data is all out in the open you can program behaviour. That's what was such a big deal.
One day people will see.
I'm in the middle of https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061253715/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1 and it's meaty but thorough
I'll love my Jets until they inevitably kill me from a combination of high blood pressure and other stress related illnesses.
But the reasons I like those two teams are pretty simple:
I LOVED the Dallas teams of the 90's, if only because they drove my Giants fan relatives crazy. But Jay Novacek was also my favorite player, and I played TE in school. Plus I saw them beat the Giants in overtime at the Meadowlands, and Emmitt absolutely dominated despite hurting his shoulder in the first half. If you ever get the chance you should check out Boys will be Boys by Jeff Pearlman, it's a great read.
I loved the Saints ever since I visited NO when I was 10. Fell in love with the entire city really. Those teams in the early 90's Dome Patrol years with Swilling, Walsh, Hilliard, Heyward, Wilks, Martin, Fenerty, Johnson, and all the rest were awesome. I loved using them in Tecmo Super Bowl. Plus they have the coolest unis in the NFL...
Here's the book from Pearlman
You should read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Be-Cowboys-Dynasty/dp/0061256811
Where to start....
You're OK It's Just a Bruise - A Doctor's Sideline Secrets About Pro Football's Most Outrageous Team by Rob Huizenga. As a team doctor for the Raiders during the 80s, Huizenga has access to Al Davis, Howie Long, Lyle Alzado, and others. Another in a long line of books that shows player medical treatment is poor.
Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football by Dan Moldea. Eye opening stuff about the connections between the owners and the mafia. It raises suspicions on rigged games in the history of the NFL and also goes into the gambling connections.
Bringing the Heat by Mark Bowden. A great book about the Eagles of the early 90s. It goes into the lack of injury treatment, follows Reggie White and Buddy Ryan, and touches on Jerome Brown's death and it's impact to the team.
Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty by Jeff Pearlman. I grew up hating the 90s Cowboys, but it was nice to read about the inside of that team. The book goes into the personalities, the Jones-Johnson clash, the Irvin - McIver stabbing, and the cocaine houses.
The Dark Side of the Game by Tim Green. Another great book that goes into detail about drug tests, injuries, treatment, and everything that goes on in an NFL locker room. One of my favorites.
Happy to Be Alive by Darryl Stingley. This is an autobiography of receiver Darryl Stingley chronicling his life before and after the paralyzing hit by Jack Tatum.
Meat on a Hoof by Gary Shaw. It talks about college football at UT in the 70s. The treatment of the players was pretty shocking to read. This is one you can find cheaper in a used bookstore.
About older times:
Slingin' Sam
Instant Replay
Boys Will Be Boys
Newer Releases
Driven: From Homeless to Hero, My Journeys On and Off Lambeau Field
The New Orleans Saints Story: The 43-Year Road to the Super Bowl XLIV Championship
self pimping here.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/resonanteye/collections/191441-serial-killer-and-true-crime-portraits
nonself pimping: encyclopedia of serial killers, or http://www.amazon.com/Whoever-Fights-Monsters-Tracking-Killers/dp/0312950446
A book that sounds relevant to your class that might interest you (full disclosure: haven't read it yet) is Chuck Klosterman's But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past.
Coincidentally, Chuck Klosterman just released a new book like 2 days ago - But What If We're Wrong? So that's an option.
In that vein, I also really enjoyed Gene Weingarten's The Fiddler in the Subway, which is a collection of his features and columns for the Washington Post. The headline story is about a stunt where they get a world class violinist to play in a DC Metro station to see if anyone will notice, but the other stories are quite good as well.
But What If We're Wrong
It came out like 3 days ago
I'll just leave this here... Enjoy
https://www.amazon.com/But-What-If-Were-Wrong/dp/0399184120
I know you were just proposing an example, but I just want to say that the earth is in fact round and we do orbit around the sun. We have sent so many people into orbit, and so many probes into space that give you such a clear view of the earths shape that I personally can't take the idea that the earth is anything but round. I would also urge someone who believes the earth to be in another shape that isn't round to take some time and look at the science of satellites, GPS, and time keeping. They all run on precise measurements based on the earths round shape. If the earth wasn't round, these systems just wouldn't work.
A simple way to prove yourself of this, is to tie a gopro to a weather balloon and launch it. In the footage of the gopro, you will see the curvature of the earth. Now, I digress...
> Does it make me crazy in "your" opinion that I believe it is "possible" that there is a great conspiracy concerning the truth of mankind that we are taught versus what is reality?
It really depends on what you believe and the basis of that belief, along with how quickly you're throwing away the basis of our current understanding of what our reality is. If you're basing your theory one some headline you saw in a tabloid or a small article buried deep in the web, I am going to consider you crazy until you can present to me a lot of facts on why you believe.
I really don't think that providing facts is too much to ask.
> Why do some people think it is insane to question the "facts" that are fed to us?
I highly believe its our education system and how we teach people along with how the scientific community works. We essentially teach people that once you graduate college you know everything, or at least that what people think, that these are the facts. They are taught this is the world, there is where we are, and now go add to it. So people come out with a sense of entitlement when it comes to their knowledge and education. People are rarely ever taught to think for themselves, but rather that the answer is in the back of the book.
I think there is a good number of scientist out there who do question everything. But the problem they find themselves trying to balance is their own credibility while trying explore new findings. So much of what the science community does is based on things they already view as fact. If you introduce a new theory that disrupts all of that, you best have a pretty solid basis to do so. Otherwise you will find yourself discredited and it will make it harder to find funding. On the other side of that you also have scientist who have worked their whole life on a particular subject matter. So when someone comes along and says, "well, what about this?" there can be a lot of push back. Some people just don't want to loose their authority, or loose their life's work from someone who is on the outside.
If you propose questioning science in a public forum to a scientist, they are going to tell you that the science is sound due to peer review and the scientific method based on multiple experiments. That really is the key, multiple experiments that have been peer reviewed. So it can be pretty understandable when someone comes from the outside and says "well, what about this?" that it is immediately met with skepticism. I think you would be pretty hard pressed to find a scientist who doesn't question something. Its what they do for a living. If they don't question it, and scrutinize it, they are probably not a great scientist.
I might suggest to you a great book called But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman. In it I think you will find a pretty deep book that examines our current understanding of the universe and questions what would happen if there was found a fundamental aspect to knowledge, that if discovered, would cause us to rewrite everything we currently know.
Give them a copy of Walden on Wheels?
https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=054402883X&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl&amp;tag=yahfin-20
Ken ilgunas' book Walden on Wheels is a great read about just this.
https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X
Adams deserves more credit then they do. Adams was the key figure in pushing for independence. Strongly recommend https://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-David-McCullough/dp/0743223136
Great book about the man.
John Adams by David McCullough. Amazing book. Such an interesting journey with so many interactions with historical events. And it was real... which is easy to forget.
Yeah. that and there were at least four shows shooting for my demographic with similar "partners who come to love each other" crap main lines. Warehouse 13, that spy show with the blond chick and blind techie (covert operations?), Bones, NCIS does it from time to time...
So I turned off the TV and haven't looked back. I can thoroughly recommend John Adams' biography for intrigue, world travel, duty, rogues, and romance.
I picked up Dark Knight: A True Batman Story by Paul Dini. This was a damn good read. I highly suggest you buy it. More so, if you grew up watching the Animated Series and Mask of the Phantasm.
I also got a new t-shirt from WeLoveFine
For whoever dons this shirt, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR
Paul Dini has an upcoming book out titled Dark Night: A True Batman Story that tells about that incident.
I don't get paid for a week and a half, but when I do I'm buying Paul Dini's new Batman book in hardcover
The book Pimp by Iceberg Slim should of had this for the definition page.
First of all, I would like to state that before mentioning my additions that books should be thought of like classes in college. Yes, you need the basic knowledge to go do what you're going to do, but you also need to get off your ass and apply it.
Without further ado, here are my recommendations in addition to what was mentioned.
Pimp by Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck). It's a nice introduction to the psychology of gaming women on top of an interesting exploration of race, gender and intersectionality. It's smarter than it's rep.
The Mystery Method by Mystery (Erik von Markovik). It's not a great book, but it gives you immediate actionable steps to apply immediately. Then, once you read the theory and get experience, you can apply what you learned.
The Red Queen by Matt Ridley. This should be read with the next book to up your fundamentals in evo-psych.
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan. Written as a critique of the first book, these two will give you some deeper theory of evo-psych.
Aint happen to me. Jus an example.
If u wanna learn more read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Pimp-Story-Life-Iceberg-Slim/dp/1451617135
On a side note, if you're interested in this form of writing, there's an autobiography of a pimp - Iceberg Slim - that's almost impossible to read (I have to google every other phrase). Terribly interesting, though.
Let me cross check my library when I get a little more awake but off the top of my head you HAVE to read Dear leader by Jang Jin-sung who now runs New Focus international. He was a poet laureate with access to outside media and let one of those pieces get caught on a citizen who shouldnt have had access to it. It led to both them fleeing and ill leave the rest for you to read. I STRONGLY suggest you get it. Most NK books are hard for me to put down, but this was one so hard to put down I believe it was read over 2-3 days.
The rest of your list seems close to mine, I know I have read 15 books on NK, so let me cross check and see what we have read jointly vs. the differences and we can compare. I also have (like the Hidden Gulag) various reports written that may or may not interest you.
This is an incredible book on this exact subject. The author worked in the heart of the propaganda machine and was responsible for coming up with the stupid, mythological stories about the amazing feats of the Dear Leader that are taught to North Korean kids as fact. He knew it was all nonsense but his life was relatively great so it wasn't in his interest to rebel. He did start to doubt the regime though, inevitably, and eventually escaped.
I read this book in about two sittings - I couldn't put it down, it's so gripping! What was incredibly fascinating was how he explained the ascent of Kim Jung-il, the son of Kim il-Sung. Kim Jung-il hated his father and wasn't actually chosen to succeed Kim il-Sung, as it's commonly believed. Kim Jung-il orchestrated a power grab before his father's death using his relatively low-level job in the propaganda office. In his job, he realised the true potential of propaganda and how it could be used to manipulate and control. He used his position to control the flow of information to his father before eventually cutting him off completely. This allowed him to set up an alternative centre of power around himself, the real power, alongside the pretend power of his father. Fascinating stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492589026&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Dear+Leader%3A+My+Escape+from+North+Korea
Amazon link to the book. If you "look inside" and search for the word "paper", on page 3 it says,
> After [Kim Il-Sung's] death [...] the status of novelists changed. Poetry became the literary vogue. This was not due solely to Kim Jong-Il's preference for the form. The phenomenon was reinforced, if not triggered, by a shortage of paper when the North Korean economy collapsed and people scrambled just to survive. When there wasn't even enough paper in the country to print school textbooks, not many people could afford to own a hefty revolutionary novel. With poetry, however, the necessary tenets of loyalty to the Kim dynasty could be distilled potently into a single newspaper page. Thus poetry emerged as the dominant literary vehicle through which Kim Jong-il exercised his cultural dictatorship.
Of course, it's probably not easy to independently confirm Jang Jin-Sung's version of events. Someone with more knowledge of North Korea than me should probably answer that.
China would likely move south in order to expand their borders and create some sort of buffer zone. They would also secure their border to contain refugees. They are not fond of North Korean civilians. This book talks about it, as the guy escaped and travelled through China to get to South Korea, all while being hunted by authorities who would have sent him straight back to the North.
Here is the mobile version of your link
I think you should write about someone who meets their doppleganger, and soon after they have bad luck and terrible things begin to happen. So they have to find their doppleganger again to ask to stop all of these bad things from happening but their bad luck keeps preventing them from meeting their doppleganger again. haha i dunno.
Oh what a lovely tea party
linkkk
Cobain Unseen is a great book full of cool stuff like replica notes, sketches, tour tickets, etc from the band and Kurt. Kurt's Journals is a cool one too that is like reading his journals. Pretty much any Nirvana/Kurt book is a good read.
hi, I apologize for getting back to you so late. I used amazon to get it, you can too.
http://www.amazon.com/Journals-Kurt-Cobain/dp/157322359X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377210808&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=journals+kurt+cobain
Here it is
I'm transcribing the handwritten letters/journal entries, so people can have an easy-to-read text version of Kurt's writing. If you want the full experience, I would recommend buying the book as it's got some of Kurt's artwork and comics, and much of the journal pages are best appreciated in the original handwritten format so you can get a sense of his thought process through what he puts in margins, what he crosses out/re-orders, etc. There's some pretty neat stuff in there, like cover art and T-shirt designs, Kurt's hand-drawn designs for the JagStang, and lots of fun little doodles in the margins. The Journals aren't for everyone, but I personally enjoy the book very much, and find that a good 90% of the material isn't too personal to not be comfortable reading.
But that's just my review, others on the sub have lots of differing opinions on the book. There's been some good discussion in the past.
Definitely Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson
It's a bit dry, but it's a great history of the tactics of football, and how they & the game in general spread across the world.
Even though it's about Arsenal, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby does a good job describing what it's like to be a fan.
I haven't read this yet, but have heard very good things about Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer by David Winner
Those are the ones that jump to my head immediately.
http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882
A nice read it's a book about the authors life as an Arsenal fan. Talks about the games and supporter life in the stands.
A must read for all football fans imo.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1573226882
Warning: this will make you an Arsenal fan.
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448
I'm sure there are some other good books out there, but I just finished this one and it makes some very good comparisons about the dangers of alcohol vs marijuana. For those who don't know a whole lot about the subject, i think it would be a good place to start.
Read the book Marijuana is Safer:
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1331844655&amp;sr=8-1
That's all you need right there. Unless you're arguing for medical marijuana, in which case you would probably want to start at NORML's website.
someone send this book to this kids parents.
Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are They Driving People to Drink
r1b4z01d said it first, but I'll say it again. The book, Marijuana Is Safer, is a sensible discussion of why marijuana deserves a better reputation, and why it should be legalized. It's all based on good science and history, and is an overall good read. Check your local library for a copy, and leave it on their night stand.
Booker T and Mysterio are the only main event talent in that bunch that you just listed. That list is more of an indictment of the level of talent that they were able to hold onto than anything else. I bet if you spoke to Booker or Rey about their time in WCW, they probably wouldn't have many nice things to say about the way the company was managed, except for the fact that they were paid good money.
Look, I don't consider myself to really be a pro-WWE guy at all. I'm actually bummed that they bought the company. As a fan of WCW, it sucked to see all the real talent flee the ship as it was sinking. Even guys like Nash and Hall, the supposed "saviors" of WCW in it's heyday, just kind of waited for their contracts to expire. It was depressing.
I would definitely recommend you check out The Death of WCW by R.D Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez if you haven't read it yet. It's a very well-researched and detailed description of what was happening there at the time. WCW was hemorrhaging money due to their contractual practices. They were not doing good business.
There are some WCW fans who believe the real death knell of the WCW was moving away from the NWO storyline, which apparently was still making good money, for other stories and pushing other stars which failed one after the other. I mean the story lasted three years with WCW eclipsing WWF/E at its peak.
I think that regardless, the clock was ticking on WCW and unless it could have created another Goldberg type wrestler, another top-tier talent to help carry WCW in to the future that it was only a matter of time. Maybe you stop guys like Jericho, Benoit, and others from jumping ship but it was reliant on aging stars nearing the end of their careers and there was not a lot of potential for replacing that.
Personally I thought the nWo storyline dragged on, and what followed it was even worse. Is that Russo/Ferrara? I don't know what you can pin on them specifically. I think people often critique the whole Arquette storyline, and rightfully so, but it was an aggressive cross-promotion and IMO Ready to Rumble has always been a 'cult favourite' of mine personall but goddamn that was 'darkest timeline' tier bad. It was worse when he booked himself to be the champion. Russo, or anyone else, could have made worse choices when moving on from a story that had lasted 3+ years and what... who was a future face of the franchise?
Wrestlecrap wrote a book about the demise of WCW and it was a very interesting read. Gives a good insight in to the kind of decision making that was being made within the company and really the death of WCW is due to a cacophony of poor choices, not just taking a desperate chance on Russo when it was already too late. There's a chapter about the final year of the company and the staggering amount of money it was bleeding out... it really stood no chance thanks to those who were in charge.
https://www.amazon.com/Death-WCW-Anniversary-Bestselling-Revised/dp/1770411755
Here's a pretty good book about it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1770411755/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418087501&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SY200_QL40
I recommend two books.
Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World by Jeffrey Burton Russel
Panzram: A Journal of Murder (A detailed memoir and self-analysis by a mass murderer himself)
Don’t know if it check’s your „serial“ requirement, but „Panzram“ is written by a mass murderer himself if I‘m not mistaken
Panzram: A Journal of Murder https://www.amazon.de/dp/1878923145/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_yLQrDbD34KHQ9
Try reading A journal of murder, telling the messed up story of Carl Panzram in his own words when he was on death row.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1878923145/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_qpLGDbZZQA851
"Panzram - A Journal of Murder" by Gaddis & Long.
From the sleeve: "In my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons and last but not least I have committed sodomy on more than 1.000 male human beings. For all of these things I am not the least bit sorry. I have no conscience so that does not worry me. I don't believe in man, God nor Devil. I ahte the whole damn human race including myself"
This dude lived a life full of rape and murder and when he finally was on death row he started writing about his life. This book goes through these writings and gives you context about the things he is describing (he lived between 1892 and 1930). He was a huge and powerful dude full of malice. Not only is it remarkable how anyone could grow to be that monstrous but also how lucid and (considering his lack of education) well spoken he was. No delusions here - he was fully aware of what he was doing but he did it anyway because that's how much he fucking hated the world.
Panzram: A Journal of Murder
I highly recommend The Great Stagnation to you. It sheds some optimistic light on the role of the internet while simultaneously stressing that we need gear up America again for the new century.
Oh I've seen this argument before in pop culture form. Personally, I don't think it passes the sniff test for a couple reasons but I'll read these resources and check it out!
Economists don't agree about much, but there is almost universal agreement that free trade deals like GATT and NAFTA are good for society. They make most of society much, much better off than they would be absent free trade. That goes for people as well as corporations.
The problem is that there will always be some people who lose out and find that their skills are no longer necessary. I don't remember anyone ever saying that wouldn't happen, at least to some extent. I think what's been unexpected is the extent to which we haven't been able to find productive things for those displaced workers to do. Tyler Cowen calls it "The Great Stagnation." And again, I think that problem is largely due to broader changes in the nature of our economy. If globalization had occurred fifty years ago, the displaced workers would just have shifted over and applied the same skills to make different products. But because manufacturing in the U.S. has become so specialized, there's just not much need for low-skill people. I don't see how "corporate interests" are responsible for that trend, except to the extent that they've decided -- rightly, I would argue -- to adopt efficiency-enhancing technologies.
If you're interested in learning more about the conversations held between Musk, Tarpening, and Eberhard check out this book by Ashlee Vance. It's a good read and goes into detail about the relationships between Musk and the founders of the various companies that he has worked with.
Kindle
Book
Yes he ended up having to risk it all as the companies invariable ran into issues along the way. Ashley Vance wrote about this in his book. https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future-ebook/dp/B00KVI76ZS
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVI76ZS/
Elon Musk ebook!
fascinating, i'll have to find the ebook
is it this?
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future-ebook/dp/B00KVI76ZS
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
Fast Food Nation is one of the books for the course, but not the one you are asking about.
The short answer is: you need to save more of your salary, 15%/year isn't enough. At 100K a year, you could feasibly save $50k a year or more if you really tried, even in New York. Instead of an apartment downtown, rent a bedroom in someone's house to bring rent down to $6-700 a month in rent (can you move in with a sig. other?), cancel all extraneous costs (expensive cell phone plans, CABLE, internet too - use starbucks wifi or work). Take your whole bonus and don't spend any of it. Put it into the 401k, which you'll then draw down on to buy your house. If you live frugally for two years you'll have your down payment by the time you're 33.
To buy my house, I spoke with my parents and lived at home for about 14 months at 26 years old, socking away every penny of my $51k salary (I contributed 36% of my salary to my 401k, and paid off almost $15k of student loans - in a year!). I only drove to work and biked everywhere else. I inherently saved on groceries since food was always around. Work paid for my phone plan. I NEVER carried money, just so I wouldn't spend it. I tutored and picked up odd jobs on weekends. When I bought my 4 bed, 2 bath house for $185k (for 3% down taken as a loan from my 401k), I immediately rented out rooms to cover the mortgage plus some. If I couldn't have lived at home, I would have bought a van and a gym membership near my work (no shit). I'd live in the van for a year and keep myself clean at the gym (ask yourself: what is being a homeowner worth to you?). I think if you're like me, a year or so of discomfort is more than worth it to own your own property.
You can do it, you just need to be dedicated to the cause and do what it takes, regardless of what people say. Everyone told me that I was crazy for living with my parents again and that they "couldn't do it". Most, and maybe all, of them do not own where they live.
It's a lot easier to spend less money than make more, esp. at $100k/year (that's a shit-ton of money)! I recommend these sites and resources - they are a constant source of motivation for me:
mrmoneymustache.com
"Walden on Wheels" by Ken Ilgunas http://amzn.com/054402883X
Making $100k, you can easily do this. Find a way to save at least half of your salary for 2 years and you'll have your down payment and set yourself up with good habits as a homeowner. Easy, you can do it!
The gullibility and smarmy naivete in this thread is just pathetic. Yes. War is bad. What a revelation. Why hasn't anybody else thought of that before?
If you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside go buy a Hallmark card or go browse /r/aww.
People living in the real world understand that geopolitics is a game of advantage that you can't circumvent by pleading for everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. When you appease dictators and cede ground to them you simply enable and embolden their behavior. Furthermore, the South Korean president is hugging and holding hands with a mass murderer who has enslaved over 20 million people, condemning them to a live a life of near starvation and physical/psychological imprisonment. You're the leader of an extraordinarily prosperous, democratic country; have some dignity. You're meeting a piece of human excrement who is feeling on top of the world right now. You shake the man's hand for diplomacy's sake. You don't hug and caress him.
It's just so god damned pathetic how naive people are. What's happening here is that South Korea learned to live under a nuclear DPRK a long time ago. What they can't abide is constantly ratcheting up brinksmanship that is eagerly stoked by a senile reality tv star with the strongest military in the history of the world at his beck and call.
China, RoK, and DPRK have cooked up this appeasement scheme to dupe Trump into thinking he's quelled the DPRK threat. DPRK will keep its nuclear weapons (the announcement that they've completed their nuclear weapons program and no longer need the facility they're shutting down should have been a good indicator of DPRK's intentions for people that were too blind to them up until now) and as we can see here, the Kim regime gets boatloads of photo opportunities, diplomatic prestige, increased security internally, increased legitimacy externally and inevitably sanctions relief. China will benefit from further DPRK stability and increased trade opportunities (and leverage on Trump as well). And South Korea gets to see the sabre-rattling cease and they receive the same benefits China does from prolonged security for Kim regime. They don't want to deal with that humanitarian crisis either. Trump gets a plaque on his wall that says "Best Negotiator Ever" and a polaroid of a North Korean testing facility with a "closed" sign on the gate.
But don't let me get in the way of everyone "awwwwww"ing over this like it's a picture of a cat hugging a golden retriever. Bunch of rubes.
edit: Can't wait to see all the memes come out of this. Kim Jong Un is gonna have his image rehabilitated the same way GWB did lol... But I don't want this to just a useless rant yelling at silly people. So, before you guys start memeing up KJU let me give you guys a short reading list of DPRK books I've greatly enjoyed (I've been fascinated with DPRK for at least a decade):
So yeah, check any of those books out then come back here and see if you're still inclined to "oooo" and "awww" and talk about how sweet this is.
https://www.amazon.com/Gulag-Archipelago-Experiment-Literary-Investigation/dp/0061253715/ref=asc_df_0061253715/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241916856624&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18415687716287272169&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031536&hvtargid=aud-800703102928:pla-489316922087&psc=1
I'm reading this book right now: can't say if the whole thing is great, but the first chapter and half are (although he uses a thesaurus a little much for my tastes) excellent; it's about his adventure from to independence. Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilguskas
http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372982298&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=walden+on+wheels
>The only piece of shit who should be ashamed the guy narrating. What kind of empty, soulless, cruel person would attempt to humiliate women who are already in the direst of circumstances.
I'm not sure if you've had the privilege to live in such a shitty place. However, I assure you, these women for the most part, are there of their own free will and accord. With the exception of the women being trafficked. However, those women are typically kept under lock and key. I know, it sounds blunt and cruel, however in my experience, having cousins themselves as street walkers, are lucid of their actions.
>It’s not funny at all to laugh at the cruelty of this sociopath.
You probably aren't aware, that this may be the pimp or a local pimp observing his surroundings through a pimp's perspective. Pimps are sociopaths, they don't give a shit about anyone's opinion. It is their business to profiteer off of willing women. They are inherently sociopaths.
> I’ve never read the accounts of women on the street who were happy being treated worse than garbage, being used, being a mans blowup doll with as much respect given to one, and being battered and abused.
You should REALLY read or listen to
Pimp: The Story of My Life>Shame on this garbage for amusing himself over such misery. I’m so disgusted at the absolute depravity and soullessness of some people. Who the fuck is he to judge these women? He’s a nothing and a nobody sociopath, so fuck the fuck outta here!
We all live in a dimension of our own creation. It will exist even if you don't approve of it. Unfortunate truth.
This is a classic case of framing the situation the wrong way.
What you did was kick ass and get out of debt! There is another person that did the same as you and wrote a book about how awesome it was. http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X Walden on Wheels.
Where is living in a Van illegal? Almost nowhere. Keep on keeping on.
check our r/vandwelling for more people doing what you did.