(Part 2) Best biographies according to redditors
We found 39,726 Reddit comments discussing the best biographies. We ranked the 14,241 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.
There aren't as many very large, highly organized gangs as there were in the 80's and 90's. Those functioned more like a black market business. The goal was to make money, gain territory, and move up in the hierarchy.
Now that a lot of the head guys were taken down, the gangs splintered and are much smaller, and less organized. In Chicago where I live, gang territories are very small and gangs run a corner, but the whole south side or north side isn't split between the People and Folks, across the line. There is tons of infighting between cliques that are technically affiliated with the same larger group.
Gang leaders are not as often powerful black market CEOs, but more than likely an 18 or 19 year old kid running a group of 20 kids.
Dismantling the gangs in the 90's actually really increased violent crime in the city, because the focus is no longer on making money. There aren't level headed guys at the top telling people to quit it with petty violence, because body counts are bad for business.
Most homicides in Chicago are not related to the drug trade, but to some little slight or disrespect, a $20 loan, someone flirting with someone else's girl.
If you'd like to really learn what gangs today are like I'd suggest Gang Leader for A Day
To understand some more of the structures of violence and gangs I really highly recommend The Interrupters
If you want to understand what gangs were like at the height of their influence, in the 80's and 90's, there's nothing better than The Wire. But that shows a reality that no longer really exists.
The exception is the Latino gangs that are trafficking drugs into the US. They are HIGHLY organized and very disciplined in their use of violence. If you'd like a snapshot of this, I'd recommend Sin Nombre
And if I may briefly stand on my soapbox, please be aware that if you buy your (illegal) drugs from anywhere but a legal pot dispensary, it's very likely that you ARE supporting the highly organized Latino gangs that are ruthless and violent. It's difficult to harmlessly buy black market drugs, unless you personally know your grower.
Yep, kids on the way; had to sell his home and move in on the couch of another silicone valley investor to finish the first rocket launch that landed his first contracts. Said he was days away from being negative. This is an amazing read <EDIT harmless joke out> https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X
Completely correct. Every detail described is classic psychopath behavior. It's not treatable and the kid is only getting started on a long career of harming and manipulating people without consequence because of his ability to retain control over every situation.
http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
Avoidance of responsibility is a primary characteristic of psychopathy. He ticks off all the other checkmarks, too. Only libel laws are protecting his ass from being called a psychopath openly. Educate yourselves about psychopaths -- I recommend these books I have read to understand my own lifelong contact with psychopaths, starting with my mother:
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work
Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
The Inner World of the Psychopath: A definitive primer on the psychopathic personality
He is commonly called a narcissist, but here's a handy rule of thumb. Not all narcissists are psychopaths, but all psychopaths are narcissistic. It's easy to understand why -- they don't see humans as humans, only objects to be manipulated for fun and profit. They, themselves, are the only conscious being, so nothing else matters. Their brains aren't wired to understand we have minds and memories, which is why they lie constantly to achieve their immediate needs. Strangely, the inability to experience emotions (and that includes fear, which is why Trump seems to never give a fuck about consequences) comes with no sense of past or future. There is only the "now."
1% of the population are psychopaths. You know more than one. Some say it's an evolutionary adaptation that exploits humans with emotions and morals, and that they are "intraspecies predators." There are professions that rely on psychopathic behavior, and you can draw your own opinions on them:
The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success
It is also commonly said that psychopaths are experts are reading people. This is false (because, to them, there is nothing to read). They are simply experts, from lifelong experience and practice, at putting people into situations with predictable reactions. For example, Trump likes to insult people because he knows it distracts them and takes them off their game as they try to defend themselves. Psychopaths like to do their manipulating in the background and behind peoples' backs (and in Trump's case, behind NDAs and hush money), thus Trump's biggest problem -- he's the world's most watched person and nothing goes unnoticed, so his previous tactics aren't working. He is thrashing more and more as he gets more desperate to deceive. He is not losing his mind or getting senile. He's a psychopath who can't understand why his old tricks are no longer working.
His apparent "humanness" is a practiced façade, as is true for all psychopaths. They learn, starting in childhood, how to fit in. Some learn how better than others. Trump is good enough at it to fool a large number of voters.
BTW, there's nothing saying a psychopath can't also be dumb as a brick or illiterate.
And why?
Because left wing dissidents wanted to break away from US patronage and nationalize US property in their country and forge their own destiny. This would basically infringe on US corporations rights to exploit poor South American countries for their own profit. US didn’t like that much and engaged in a systematic terror campaign aimed at attacking any grassroots resistance to US backed dictators. The result was essentially a war on peasant populations not just inEl Salvador, but in several other Latin American nations.
Important to note that this is par for the course of US intervention in the third world. I encourage every American to read up on it.
Edit: a word
Edit2: A good book on US foreign intervention
There's a book written by the man who this facebook post is to, Marcus Luttrel, who is the sole survivor of Operation Red Wings in which Michael P. Murphy is killed. It's called Lone Survivor and though I don't necessarily agree with all the politics, it's a harrowing account of persistence and survival.
EDIT: Since I'm recommending books, anyone who has read or may be interested in Lone Survivor should read the book Unbroken about Olympic runner and WW2 bombardier Louie Zamperini's struggle for survival after being shot down over the Pacific Ocean.
NY, Conn, Mass, and NJ are infested with low low overheads, engineered specifically, in accurate historical terms, with no doubt or theory, for roads to not fit buses. All the original NE ''parkways'' were to serve the nice people with their own cars ways to get in and out of bucolic non urban splendor. They literally openly made sure buses filled with undesirable city negros could not follow.
The taconic. The Saw Mill. The Merritt. The Palisades. The cough cough ROBERT MOSES parkway, the Sunken Meadow, The Grand Central, the Northern State, the Southern state, The Bethpage., the Loop parkway,
All ''parkways'' were carefully planned to ensure that no buses followed the ''nice people'' to the parks. There's a whole book about it, that is probably the book with the highest critical praise of any 20th century non-fiction book.
''The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York Paperback – July 12, 1975'' https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245
''Robert Moses wove enduring racism into New York's urban fabric'' http://boingboing.net/2016/08/22/robert-moses-wove-enduring-rac.html
https://www.longislandpress.com/2013/11/30/robert-moses-the-last-master-builder/
''Argument Without End
That Moses was highhanded, racist and contemptuous of the poor draws no argument even from the most ardent revisionists. But his grand vision and iron will, they say, seeded New York with highways, parks, swimming pools and cultural halls, from the Belt Parkway to Lincoln Center, and thus allowed the modern city to flower.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/thecity/06hist.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses
I would imagine Genghis Khan. The man did pretty much kill, rape, a lay siege across the world. If you're Iranian, you REALLY don't like him. But he also instituted the Pax Mongolica.
His legacy is mostly negative from western perspectives but he and his empire are much more nuanced than the typical portrayal of him as a simple warlord that wanted nothing more than death and destruction.
I'm also going to include a comment by /u/AlienJelly that might get buried:
> If you're interested in Genghis Khan, you should read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. It paints him in a different light than we are used to seeing him in . At the end of the book you can decide for yourself what kind of guy Genghis Khan was. The author came to give a talk at my school.
> I also like listening to Dan Carlin - he has a Hardcore History podcast on Genghis Khan that gets mentioned when he is brought up.
> And if you still can't get enough on Genghis Khan, there's a good movie on available on youtube worth watching.
http://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1395870102
"If I did it: Confessions of the killer"
which like, come on..
Jack Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
> I think a large part of why I'm so unhappy with myself is that I'm so deprived of physical... intimacy.
www.cuddleparty.com <-- Ive never used them, but have heard good things about them.
> It seems like every week you read a new study on how loneliness has highly negative effects on mental and physical health, and it's not something I have control over
Stop reading this shit. You are using it to reinforce your victim complex.
> I can't remember the last time I talked to a girl outside my job.
This is entirely your own fault. Go sign up for a cooking class. Or join a book club. Or go on a wine tour. Or do anything that gets you off the fucking internet.
> I don't see how I could possibly not feel undesirable given my circumstances.
Once again, this is entirely your own fault. The good news is that since YOU are the problem, YOU can also be the solution as soon as you get your head out of your ass.
> Also, I do 99% of my complaining on the internet, because I know it makes me look bad but I also need something to do with those thoughts aside from let them swim around in my head all day
You're so full of shit. That is only part of why you do your complaining on the internet. The real reason is because you feed on the doting of strangers.
I dont hate you, kid. In fact I used to be a lot like you. So I can say with confidence that you are being a total bitch. And the longer you act like a total bitch the longer you will be a total bitch and be seen as a total bitch by others. You are your own worst enemy.
Read these:
Do these:
Good luck
>This is just a minor story,
Ummnn...no.
This is not a minor story.
This is what I'd call a "75 cent discrepancy". There's a great book from the 1980's called The Cuckoo's Egg. It tells the story of how tracking down the reason for a 75 cent accounting error on a university computer system led to the discovery of a team of West German hackers breaking into U.S. military and defense contractors' computer systems at the behest of the K.G.B.
I suspect that for many ACONS, the first place where we can sit up and say, "This isn't right. This really doesn't make sense, and it's NOT me," is something seemingly small like this.
Your nmom's whackadoo insistence that you fit into HER mold for you, and the lengths she went to in order to force her version of "reality" onto to not just you, but everyone around you is significantly abusive, involving gaslighting, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect, among others.
It's not cute, and it's not funny. It's enraging. I'm not surprised you're still angry about it. It's the tip of an iceberg...
>And his endorsement speech was not nearly as full-throated as previous candidates. Stuff like that matters. Sanders misled his supporters for 36 days into thinking he was contesting the convention. That foments division, which was and continues to be a huge problem.
One, Sanders offered to campaign for HRC in rust belt states and was denied. You know, those three states that cost us the electoral college. Two, Sanders campaign staff worked hand in hand with HRC staff to quell the revolt at the convention which could have been far worse than it was. Three, the Sanders camp took down ads that the Clinton campaign thought were too damaging in certain states. Seriously read Shattered and you will get a pretty good feel for the relationship between the two campaigns. Hillary took Sanders campaign personally and therefore wasn't able to put her anger aside and team to campaign in any meaningful way. That and the decision to completely give up on grassroots organizing were huge blows to her campaign in MI, PA, and WI.
The idea that politics begins and ends at a nation's borders is ridiculous on face. The idea that the national politics of a country, hegemonic as the US is, should begin and end at a nation's borders is really fucking stupid.
Why do you think Puerto Rico is a territory?
Why do you think the Bay of Pigs happened?
Why do you think we funded the Contras in Nicaragua?
Why do you think we overthrew the queen of Hawa'ii and installed a military base?
Why do you think we "purchased" Alaska from Russia?
What do you think the Monroe doctrine was?
In the period since 1945, America has, "carried out extremely serious interventions into more than 70 nations..."
source https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526
There are plenty still there, but they did remove thousands of reviews that gave 1 star and said something along the lines of "Fuck off Hilary". I can see their point - reviews like that aren't massively useful.
In 1954 a US backed coup in Guatemala overthrew democratically elected liberal president Jacobo Árbenz. Though not communist, the US feared Arbenz's communist ties, as he enacted land reform and strengthened workers rights. It's notable during this time that the United Fruit Company held incredible power in Guatemala and it's a matter of debate exactly how much the US intervention in Guatemala was a response to direct pressure from the UFC on US officials. Through operation PBSUCCESS the CIA sponsored a coup putting into power a right wing military dictatorship which resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 Guatemalans. This also brought about a civil war which lasted from 1960-1996. After the war, a UN sponsored truth commission found that CIA-trained paramilitaries were responsible for over 93% of the human rights violations during the war including the torture and dissapearing of tens of thousands of people, overwhelminging rural indigenous Maya, many of whom were also displaced by the destruction of their villages.
Jeez I'm really starting to tire out despite having planned to detail several more countries. I can give more details on any of the following if you'd like but to keep it brief here are a few other examples I won't go much into otherwise, El Salvador (especially notable for the violent death squads which came out of the School of the Americas, in particular the Atlacatl Battalion which was created by the school in 1980 and responsible for the El Mozote massacre in which 800 civilians including women and children were brutally raped and murdered), the Dominican Republic, and Honduras (also notable for it's military death squads, like Battalion 3-16 commanded by Luis Alonso Discua another School of the Americas graduate). Honduras has suffered in multiple instances over the last 100 years as a result of US intervention and the overwhelming power that US fruit companies have held over their government (hence the creation of the term "Banana Republic"). Although I can't talk about it without breaking the 20 year rule, you can look into US intervention in/after the 2009 coup on your own to see how this is ongoing.
Another somewhat different example to what I've described above is immigration spurred by economic harm caused by trade policies. Many Latin American economies and their workers, have suffered greatly under NAFTA which allows capital to move across borders freely, but not people. The idea behind NAFTA is that farmers in a country like Mexico would benefit from being able to sell their corn internationally, but what happened is that instead of moving into new markets, they we're merely pushed out of their own. As NAFTA flooded the Mexican corn market with much cheaper US corn, Mexican farmers couldn't compete as large US corn companies profited. As a result many have been forced to follow agricultural jobs to the US since they could no longer make a living in Mexico.
Well let me know if you'd like anymore information or want specific citations. Please keep in mind that even within the countries I talked about in detail, this is only a fraction of US intervention episodes in Latin America. Not only are there countries that I didn't get to at all, but in some countries mentioned here there are multiple instances of intervention that have occurred in the last 100 years despite me only mentioning one. Additionally there were some modern non-Latin American refugee crisis spurred by US intervention that I would have liked to discuss but had to leave out because of the 20 year rule. Killing Hope, one of the books cited below, is probably the best compilation of all of these events up until the late 90's. If you look at the chapters list in the book preview on Amazon, there are 55 different instances listed many of which are in Latin America, this gives a great place to start for further research. One last thing to keep in mind is that most all of these instances I've described are characterized by absolutely brutal torture, the likes of which a normal person probably couldn't imagine, and which I glossed over because it really is too much for me to handle and manage to present in an academic fashion. But it is important to understand the gravity of what these civilians suffered when I say "torture," the sources below and other online resources can provide more info on that, suffice to say I wish I could un-know the things I've read and accounts I've heard from survivors of these regimes.
Sources:
Reading books like Hillbilly Elegy and Between the World and Me back-to-back suggests that kind of defensive thinking is pretty universal.
"Getting too big for your britches" among poor white folks is pretty similar to the pressure to "keep it real" among poor black folks. Crabs in a bucket, basically.
To be fair, it seems like they're just removing the reviews of most non-verified purchases.
3/3 of the (verified) 1 star reviews in that snapshot are still up, and at least one unverified titled "She really makes you feel like you want to die. . ."
Where as 5/5 of the 5 star (unverified) reviews from this snapshot were deleted
I would recommend reading a biography of the prophet (sawa). I think reading about the prophet's life is one of the best ways to understand Islam.
As a note, if the Qur'an translation you have is proving difficult to get through, try a different one. Not all translations are the same. You can go to quran.com to compare some translations or search this sub for some recommendations.
What about Islam's beliefs do you find difficult?
"Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous." 2:177
Jesus (as) is a revered, respected and beloved prophet in Islam. He is mentioned a lot in the Qur'an, particularly in chapters 3 (Ali 'Imran) and 19 (Maryam).
On the off chance there is a mosque somewhere near you, try getting in touch or going to a visit just to check it out, ask some questions, etc.
Last but not least: Ask God for guidance. At night before you sleep, face the qiblah if you wish (north east), and ask God with a sincere intention to guide you to truth, to peace, to what is right and better for you, whatever it may be.
Top Reviews HERE show a number of low scoring reviews that do not reflect the overall score shown
I really wish the state would use the money planned for widening I-35 and other 'improvements', and buy up 130/45 and change that to I-35, making the current I-35 into a business highway -- this would force all through truck traffic out of downtown.
Expanding highways and making these improvements will not only (further) destroy walkability and split the east side and west side of town from each other, but it only encourages more sprawl and doesn't improve traffic in the long run. I mean, I-10 west of Houston is 8 lanes each way, and still has major traffic during rush hour.
If you want to learn more about how more highways mess up cities and don't do anything for traffic, please read The Power Broker.
This notion of "Elon Time" is actually discussed in his biography. To determine the amount of time something will take, Musk asks himself, "how long will it take me to code a line? How many lines will there be?" Then, multiply to get an estimate. These are the values we see in his tweets. His secretary then goes back to customers and gives them a more 'realistic' timeline.
But you have to look at what they have now and extrapolate. The ITS will not come by magic. If developing the FH is this difficult, why should the ITS/BFR or the V2 be any better right away? SpaceX will get there, it will take a lot of time, but we need to be patient.
Genghis practiced a meritocracy form of government which means that Genghis chose those to be in positions of power based on merit not blood or obligation. The main body of this government was the Kurultai a council of Mongol chiefs headed by Genghis himself. All people within the Empire had to adhere the Yasa which were the laws of the Mongols that Genghis had modified and enforced in the Empire. The citizens of the Mongol Empire were free to practice any religion that they pleased, which helped people accept his rule more rapidly. The infrastructure of the Empire was amazing, it was an infrastructure that may have inadvertently triggered the Italian Renaissance because of the spread of knowledge and technology throughout Asia and Europe. Word traveled quickly thanks to the Yam, genghis' horse driven messenger. Traders of the Silk Road were protected and allowed to travel easily from country to country (though the golden age of the Silk Road would not come to pass until the rule of Kublai Khan). Genghis had an almost laissez faire approach to ruling he knew that if he tried to change too much in the lands that he conquered he would have constantly had to keep ruled lands in check. There's was no need for this of course, genghis launched many of his territories forward economically and even those whose economy was crippled because of them, i.e. Baghdad, were still pacified completely thanks to the military genius of Genghis Khan.
Edit for clarification: The Yasa was not created by Genghis only modified. I was referring to Genghis' war with the Caliph not Hulagu Khan's sacking of Baghdad, should have made that more clear. And I know it's only a theory but in my opinion the spread of technology because of the expansion of the Mongol Empire was one of the causes of the Italians Renaissance due to the combination of Asian and European influence that helped start the Renaissance.
For more information please refer to this book.
u/packattacks if you want some examples of non-authoritarian communist and socialist attempts at government, check out William Blum's Killing Hope. It's a great book and shows many examples of democratic leftist movements that the CIA tried to destroy
From the author's own website promoting his book:
"Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions since World War II" (William Blum)
https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list
The book is around $15 or you can get a copy from TPB.
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526
Ela deveria ter aprendido com o OJ Simpson. Primeiro você é inocentado em julgamento, depois você escreve o livro '[If] I did it: Confessions of the killer'.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
10/10
Dystopic, Science Fiction.
A deep, sometimes disturbing dystopic sci-fi novel from an author that generally doesn't write in the genre. Definitely not an easy read on an emotional and literary level either but I couldn't put it down in grade 11 when I read it for a class.
Amazon - Oryx and Crake
I worked for OFA as well as the DCCC and a few other national candidates as well. I can 100% tell you her campaign was significantly worse than average. No matter what you think of Clinton as a person her campaign structure fucked up over and over again, from refusing to campaign in the midwest, to ignoring the server issue until it was too late (she literally had no response or apology for like 6 months), to running a base turnout campaign that somehow focused on moderates instead of the base, to wasting way too much money on ads (ad money that her campaign workers got a cut of just for buying btw), to not having any central vision, and having a completely undefined message and a super obscured political structure. There was like a one month period where she just chilled and didn't campaign publicly at all. I've worked with multiple presidential campaigns and I've NEVER heard of a situation where paid staff can't get through to the candidates inner circle to tell them things like "We're losing our state" or "You need to poll now and stop relying entirely on analytics".
If you haven't read Shattered, I highly recommend you do. The authors are former staff of Debbie Wasserman Shultz. It's not a hit piece on HRC, it's people who were on the ground with HRCs people and saw the same disorder and disarray that was in her 2008 primary campaign as per Game Change. The similarities are STUNNING. Her hating the media and them returning the favor. Her refusal to make decisions when staff disagreed resulting in constant power struggles. Her hiring multiple staff to do the same thing resulting in them working against eachother. The guys who wrote it like HRC but they saw a massive clusterfuck and wrote it down. Much of it was corroborated by the leaked emails.
She's the Tony Romo of the Democrats. She should do amazing, but she always trips over her dick right when she needs to do well.
Trump getting elected required everything to go his way, and many of those things the campaign had direct control over.
Other countries try to interfere in our politics all the time. Nixon and China, Reagan and Iran. For it to work though the other person needs to be fucking up.
Also check out Endurance: Shackelton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Another travel/adventure/survival piece and one of the best books I've ever read.
It's this one. To be honest, it's not that great of a book. It's not very well-written, and its explanations of the actual space and engineering aspects go beyond ELI5 into like ELI3 territory. It's a great book for the jokes and anecdotes about the astronauts' lives, not so much for the actual history.
I'd instead recommend Failure is not an Option by flight director Gene Kranz. Amazing book, that.
William Dunham has a great book,Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, about this.
There is a great first person memoir about this topic long the Kentucky-Ohio border, JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis It is a great read and sheds some light on the psyche of the poor white working class.
You absolutely can. The Goldman's sued for the rights to the book and won back in 2007. They published it under the title If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. You can buy it pretty much anywhere. Here's an Amazon link.
Oryx and Crake. I didn't expect to like it much but I loved it.
Edit: Just finished Unbroken which is an awesome tale of survival in WW2.
Very well organized post - covers a lot of sensitive material concisely.
For those interested in understanding the decidedly NOT explicitly-racist motivations of many Trump voters, I recommend J.D. Vance's book Hillbilly Elegy.
I'm currently reading the 7th Harry Potter book with my kids, and we just last night got to the bit where Ron Weasley just can't believe anybody would stand by while the Muggle registry laws were rolled out. At time of writing, the inclusion of this exchanges was clearly meant to evoke good Germans just being glad the trains were running on time, but here we are again. To quote Professor Slughorn, these are mad times we live in.
> Any good schools, manuals, insight or resources to truly know how to big-picture Army for a reforming shammer
Since you're in S3.. I've heard this is a great manual to keep at the desk.. Teaches you how to shift blame for any wrong doing/mishandling/issue S3 encounters with soldiers' paperwork
Last time I went to the page, the top comments are always something along the lines of "why does my review keep getting deleted?"
Even people who have expressed voting for hillary are giving the book bad reviews, but Amazon is pretty obviously deleting negative reviews for some reason.
Check out the page here:https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
Link to reviews: https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501175564/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewopt_rvwer?ie=UTF8&amp;filterByStar=one_star&amp;reviewerType=all_reviews&amp;pageNumber=1#reviews-filter-bar
Lets fight fire w/ fire. Please report abuse on all that you can.
Alright kids, we are going to go see Mein Kampf at the theater tonight, who's in?!
You are spreading misinformation to be honest. You know what one of the hallmarks of sociopathy is? That they are charming. That's right...if you are talking to someone and feel charmed that is a red flag that you could be talking to a sociopath. They're your instant best friend. You have so much in common.
Yes, sociopaths are also impulsive, but that doesn't mean they don't understand image management. In fact, they understand it better than the average person.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1463940400&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=robert+hare+without+conscience
Edit: Personally I wish society thought of psychopaths as con men, instead of axe murderers. Con men seems far more of an accurate description. Movies like American Psychopath reinforce this myth. I think better movies are Catch Me If You Can, Gone Girl, and especially I Love You Phillip Morris. A huge component of psychopathy is their ability to appear to you what you want them to be (conning).
You haven't heard about his book?
A) This is what you sound like
B) Having Putin vouch for you is not a good look.
> Didn't the US support the Colonels? I think I remember hearing that they were locking up communists (possibly what this guy is??) and the US supplied them with arms despite the fact that they overthrew a democratically elected gov.
>
You should maybe read this. The defining factor on whether or not the US decides to overthrow a government has nothing to do with how ethical or supported the government is, just whether or not it's left of them on the economic spectrum.
The biggest part is that he wrote a book called "If I Did It" which outlines how he "would have done it". As for why everyone thought (and thinks) that he was guilty:
There's more, but all that is why people think he did it.
Edit: While I was refreshing my memory on this stuff, I read that the Goldman family got the rights to the book from OJ in the civil suit, and have reprinted it. I first read most of it when it was leaked online. It's pretty fascinating stuff - and it has a forward by the Goldmans which is hilariously titled "He Did It". Only $10 on Amazon.
You bring up a solid point, however you're falling into the just world fallacy. Not everyone that can't put together a 1000 dollars 'deserved' it. My guess is that at least 50% of that 63% number are hardworking americans working multiple jobs that simply can't break out of the paycheck to paycheck trap. The cost of living has been outpacing pay for 30 years.
I agree that some people simply don't budget properly or are miss appropriating or aren't using their time to get skills etc. but that's simply not the entire story at all
There's a good book on this called Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
This is not coming from a bleeding heart liberal either. I'm a libertarian that wants to see welfare reduced but that doesn't mean there aren't some serious problems with the economy right now.
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037
If you want more, there's a 1300 page Pulitzer-prize winning book about Moses
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245
Failure is Not an Option, A Man on the Moon, and Rocket Men all cover Gemini.
Read my other comment. You clearly don't understand how white supremacy works. You should also read this book or at least the reviews that do a good job of summarizing it. http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/. In list form https://i.imgur.com/OMawpLS.jpg
edit: updated link.
There are about 50 instances of such shenanigans since WW2. Overthrowing democratically elected governments -that were derided by the US as communist because those governments wanted control over their own nation's resources, and support for the US-friendly military dictatorships that replaced them- is the rule rather than the exception.
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-Military-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526
http://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope/
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Ling |
PDF
| Audiobook Part 1
The Sealed Nectar by Safi-ur-Rhaman Al-Mubarakpuri
Lings book reads like a story, and it's pretty good.
The Sealed Nectar won 1st place in an international competition held by the Muslim World League in 1979 for best biography of the Prophet pbuh.
There's a historical basis to the accent you're hearing in Dayton.
We've talked about this on the local subreddit.
From the 1920s to 1940s there was a massive migration from Eastern Kentucky to Southwest Ohio. This is mentioned in the book Hillbilly Elegy.
What you're hearing is an Appalachian accent. It's extremely common in our part of Ohio, especially in working class white neighborhoods.
Edit: Pasted the wrong link.
There was an amazing book called Nickel and Dimed that discussed this. Basically a decently well-off woman took a bunch of minimum wage jobs to see what it was like to live off minimum wage. She wrote about how difficult it was to make ends meet and how hard she worked, but in the back of her mind she always knew this was temporary. She'd signed up for this "experience" and at then end of it she'd go back to her easier life. It helped her mentally push through a lot of the bullshit she had to deal with, and she said she couldn't imagine how terrifying and exhausting life would be for someone who didn't have her fallback.
The Cuckoo's Egg is one of my favorites!
Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!
Here are your smile-ified links:
Here's a "quick" primer
---
^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly&nbsp;bot
You guys are being disingenuous. For such defenders of Hillary you really don't seem to know much about the campaign. That very specific phrase didn't come from Hillary, it came from her staffers, another show if the incompetence of her team and her campaign in general. I strongly suggest you read this book. https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
Simultaneously a post-apocalypse and a dystopian novel, the final novel in the trilogy was just released, so this might be a good chance for those of us (like me) who have never read this modern classic to catch up.
If you're interested in Genghis Khan, you should read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. It paints him in a different light than we are used to seeing him in. When I read this book for a college course, it was the first time I realized how amazing learning about history can be. The author even came to give a talk at my school.
Now to get my history fix, I listen to Dan Carlin - he has a Hardcore History podcast on Genghis Khan that gets mentioned on reddit when he is brought up.
And if you still can't get enough on Genghis Khan, there's a good movie available on youtube worth watching
Journey Through Genius is an excellent book that I read when I was an undergrad. If I remember correctly, it focuses on ten (or so) major results and goes through in detail the motivations behind them and the work leading up to them. I found it really interesting. As an undergrad, I took a course on Philosophy of Mathematics (which basically amounted to the history of Math). The prof had written his own textbook for the course and it's available here (scroll down the page until you get to "6. The Art of the Intelligible: An Elementary Survey of Mathematics in its Conceptual Development. Kluwer, 1999." and then click the links below). You may also want to spend some time browsing the extensive MacTutor History of Mathematics website - not a book, but incredibly thorough.
Maybe you're a history professor who wants to teach about about hitler's ideological progression.
Maybe you want to make some edgy YouTube video where you burn this book, the Bible, and the Quran
Maybe you just want to read the fucking book.
You're not going to be put on an NSA watch list. Nazi's and Communist aren't America's rally cry to war anymore
link
> Bust: Bernie’s 30-Year Plan to Destroy the Democrats
I wager that Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign is going to be a bit more popular than a Sanders hit-piece.
Having spent the last five years on related subjects I feel your anguish.
I spent a full year being chronically depressed. I did graffiti on banks, went to every protest around and yelled at people who just didn't get it (I used to call them sheeple). Essentially I was an asshole. Then again, I was an asshole with a real feeling of unease in relation to my society.
I still have a lot of those same feelings.
I would encourage you to look into 'psychopathy.' This will teach you more about the self-appointed rulers than any Zeitgeist movie (Peter Joseph is kind of a tool - my opinion is based on four years of research). Psychopathy is a fucking game changer. My current model for the U.S. Federal government is the Charles Manson family. You have a psychopath interested in personal glory at the top and a lot of dupes, rubes and true believers following orders.
How do you deal with them?
You cannot combat them directly. In fact any engagement is a waste of time and energy. They are the ultimate energy parasites. They will come after you with guns, lawyers, assassins, police and whatever else they can find. They want attention. Engaging them in any manner is attention. Which is what they want. Ironically you have to ignore them to death.
In order to side-step a rattle snake you must know the behavior patterns, beliefs and values of a rattle snake. With knowledge they're no less dangerous, but you can deal with them in a way that minimizes hazard. Study them.
http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
I sleep at night because I'm designing a personal life style to disengage from the current psychopathic government system. I don't give a shit if some are Masons, Illuminati, Zionists, Jews, Satanists, Republicans, atheists or whatever. I just don't fucking care. I want to live my life and I want to be left alone. This is the exact tactic you must employ with a psychopath.
I've personally known a total of eight psychopaths - this is actually kind of a big number. Anyone that I identify as a psychopath is dead to me. I will not give them audience, I will not discuss them [unless it serves education purposes] and I will destroy anything in my life that has anything to do with them directly.
The life plan is to be a good human.
By being the best human you can be you help others to be good too.
If you are a part of the world and you make yourself better -
You are the world, itself, making itself better.
Do something small.
Plant a garden, help someone and learn as much as you can so you can pass it on to others.
Baby steps.
To: Cersei
From: Secret Santa
If I did it:Confessions of a Killer by OJ Simpson
You should read his autobiography.
It was quite interesting to see what the space race was like behind the scenes, so to speak.
http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813
*Edit: Reading the passage about the death of the Apollo 1 Astronauts was very difficult to read.
Mission Control could here them calling for help and screaming wothout being able to do anything in time to rescue them.
Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo Egg is an absolutely fascinating insight into tracking a computer hacker transnationally. Well worth a read if you like hearing about hacker stuff.
I would say the list is pretty well compiled right here.
I love reading and hearing about model cities. Here's some other media if you like this sort of stuff.
[Book]
One of the most engrossing biographies I've ever read, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is the story of a power hungry paperclip maximizer but instead of prioritizing paperclips over everything, Moses prioritizes wildly expensive highways. His fall, around the late 60s, lead to renewed interest in public transit and a counter-revolution articulated in Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Seeing Like a State A condemnation on the central planners infatuation with the top-down and observable over the bottom-up and functional.
[Article]
Reports of the death of China's vacant cities may be [greatly exaggerated.](
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-16/china-s-manhattan-sheds-ghost-town-image-as-towers-begin-to-fill)
Seeing Like A State: Book Review A fun review of the book mentioned above.
[Podcast]
Every city planner has a plan until they get doused with a squatter's bucket of piss.
For those further interested in charter cities, see recently-ousted world bank chief economist Paul Romer's conversation on charter cities.
On Usonia, Flank Lloyd Wright's stab at an affordable model US town.
If you can afford it, please do yourself a favor and buy a copy, I got this one from amazon for $1 (with prime), $1! It is always in my bag with me.
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World states that each Mongol had multiple horses. I believe the number was closer to three or four.
EDIT: Here is a direct source for the 3-4 horses claim: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/conquests/khans_horses.pdf
You cannot judge history through the standards we hold today. If you are going to place Genghis Khan on the mass murderer list, I hope you're putting every other major ruler who participated in any major military operation prior to 1700. Alexander The Great, Julius Caesar, New World Explorers, any ancient Chinese emperor, etc.
For those interested in a good read.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0609809644/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1465043989&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=SY200_QL40&amp;keywords=genghis+khan
Another childhood friend defriended me on FB. She posted Meryl Streep's speech tonight. I told her Hollywood is out of touch with average Americans and she and Hollywood should read a great book called Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. De-friended. I wish more people would stop playing the victim and try to find understanding. It's going to be a long 8 years playing the victim. Believe me.
Seriously though, it's a great read.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062300547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XzZCybGTXRFAK
First, u/Flewtea, please understand that I am not attacking you or your opinion or experiences, I am simply offering some thoughts from my own personal experience.
Also, to avoid derailing your post u/throwawayisnotgreat, I have tried to make it informative for your perspective. I am not sure I have succeeded, and it did get long. My apologies!
If I'm remembering my reading correctly, this book and/or this book (I'm sorry, it has been a while since I cracked them open) state that welfare's original purpose was to allow mothers to stay at home to parent their children effectively when other options became untenable. This purpose has been twisted and tangled over the decades through laws and interpretations into a dungheap of epic proportions which is used to negatively influence public/political opinion toward the poor and further constrain their ability to function effectively within our society.
A welfare queen, in my humble opinion, is someone who utilizes and abuses the system for her own benefit, without concern for her children's upkeep and well-being.
In this instance, OP is being instructed to utilize the system under the original intent of the Welfare system - in order to care for her child - because other options are not apparent, and it would be a viable solution. However, within the system that currently exists, OP would need to understand that the red-tape and political atmosphere of today would make it as difficult as possible for her to "go on the system" and find a comfortable solution.
OP should know that the process itself can be humiliating and degrading. The solutions provided are not intended to provide for anything beyond basic means and support. It is not a matter of waltzing down, getting a hug, and being handed a check. They make you beg.
Additionally, OP should exhaust every option before applying, and be advised that the answer may still be "no."
OP would then be advised to remember that, upon qualification, retention of assistance is not guaranteed. In fact, the system has been engineered in such a way that a qualifying individual or household can be denied or suspended from the system at any time without any forewarning. There is an appeals process available. It puts the burden of proof on the applicant, who generally does not understand the system. The people who work there have trouble understanding it.
OP should also be aware that getting off the system is even more difficult than getting access to it. The difference between allowance and affordability is a hard line which leaves empty bellies and unpaid heating bills, and no more help - unless one falls below the line or becomes homeless. Then, you have an existing file and new circumstances, and they can just plug in the new information and the dance resumes.
People who use this system more than prove that they need it. Is it possible to work the system for personal benefit? Of course it is. People who live by working any system exist in every system, not just welfare and assistance. They are present in government offices, school buildings, retail stores, corporations, banks, prisons, food suppliers, casinos, union halls - if it exists, someone has figured out how to work it for their personal benefit to the detriment of others. I am going to say "Bernie Madoff" to make this point. There are dozens of others whose actions have been untested in a court of law, or tested and mildly punished or unpunished altogether (think Enron, cigarette companies, the banking system) or even rewarded...
The main differences between these individuals and people on assistance of any kind is the amount of money involved, and the ability to hide or fight back.
I (personally) think "welfare queen" might be a bit strong for this occasion.
____
edit, fixed typos, tried to address better, and further apologies to u/Flewtea and u/throwawayisnotgreat because I'm not trying to attack anyone or any position, and as usual I mucked it up.
I don't see why this should be strange. Psyochapathy is a condition that inhibits feelings of empathy. It doesn't mean those afflicted cannot experience joy, or have fun at a party. Something like 1 in 30 people are diagnosed with mild or moderate psychopathic behaviour. The serial killers that are portrayed in the media are a tiny, tiny fraction of this population. The destructive behaviour of most of these psyochapaths is much more subtle, usualy in the form of emotional abuse. Psyochapaths are usually master manipulators and have really good social skills.
I'd recommend this book to read more about it: https://www.amazon.ca/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
The Power Broker by Robert Caro. Humongous and incredibly compelling biography of Robert Moses, the guy responsible for the bulk of infrastructure projects you just mentioned and many more.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERYA6D0/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_11?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=A1EF3XZB4ZXIHL (esta se pasa un poquito pero hay algunas por $10)
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496652240&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=meditations+marcus+aurelius
That book is incredibly interesting for anyone concerned. Really sheds a ton of light on how much modern civilization owes to the Mongol empire.
Highly suggest it
A fascinating read: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Someone posted a comment on the yahoo page that was a good main reason why this is an issue, at least in my opinion. Basically, troll reviews have been around forever, and a lot of times people want these reviews to be removed. Why do they only step in and take down the ones for Hillary? Why isn't this a site-wide policy of just immediately deleting negative reviews from people that haven't received the authorized purchaser logo or whatever? Yeah there's other places to bash her, but it's funny they just decide to enforce this for her.
For example, here is a link to Donald Trump's book, looking at 1-star reviews with verified purchaser only option turned off. Hmm, I could scroll through 40 pages of people that give it 1-star and haven't purchased the book. Then here's Clinton's book with the same search parameters. At the time I'm looking at it, there's literally 3 1-star reviews from people that don't have the verified purchase indicator. So 40 pages of 1-star reviews from non-buyers, versus 3 reviews. I'm not pro-Trump in the slightest, I just picked that as an example because it's very easy to bash him. Seems to me they're blatantly playing favorites...
>ReviewMeta is a site that helps customers figure out how credible a product’s Amazon reviews are. It looks at 15 data points, including the number of verified purchases included in the reviews and the number of customers whose history shows they’ve never written a verified review, and determines how sketchy a product’s overall rating is.
>What Happened gets a big ol’ fail. It had a 3.2-star rating on Amazon at time of writing, but adjusting for ReviewMeta’s metrics, it should have actually been 4.9 stars. The average rating for reviews from unverified purchases was a 2.3, while the average from a real purchase of the book was 4.9.
https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/1501175564
This book caused a lot of stir this year when it was released in June. It explains the culture of the areas like Leah's where the poverty is generational. I grew up in an area in rural PA. It was thriving farming community in the 80's but now is run down and trashy, nothing like when I was a kid. I imagine the kids are a lot like Leah and her cousins.
It stuck a huge chord with many because this is a group of people largely ignored in America. If anyone likes reading this kind of thing, I linked its Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
It’s a memoir about why poor white people vote against their own self interests, and how trump’s rhetoric motivated disenfranchised poor people to go to the polls and vote him into office.
Hillbilly Elegy
The Grubstakers podcast did two different episodes about him, I definitely remember this anecdote but I can't remember where the timestamp is. Ep1 Ep2 and they attribute this book as their primary source along with this Rolling Stone profile.
There are no Children Here
Gang Leader for a Day
Hoop Dreams - Also a very good documentary film.
For intro sociology, I'd recommend some preachy nonfiction. They are written for laymen but introduce the sociological style of approach. Something like Fat Land or Uninsured in America.
Freakanomics is not exactly sociology, but could be an interesting read for someone interested in social economics / group behavior. Jonathan Kozol is a reporter, not a sociologist, but his stories mix investigative reporting with a human element to focus on topics of interest to the field of sociology. I remember Nickel and Dimed also being a good read.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is not a book about sociology, but rather a specific example of culture clash within the context of medical care. That being said, it is a big reason why I decided to become a social worker (which is a profession in line with the two fields mentioned in your post).
A Place at the Table is a movie that might fit the bill.
Note: I'm American. I imagine other places would have different topics of interest.
Edited: add movie and fix format
/u/cm362084 already recommended The Millennium Problems by Keith Devlin, which is literally exactly what you're looking for. If you're interested in other great books about math, 2 I'd recommend are Journey through Genius by William Dunham and Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh.
Journey through Genius is organized such that every other chapter is some important proof (detailed out step-by-step), and the remaining chapters provide the historical/biographical context for those proofs. There are some interesting stories included in the book such as how mathematicians in the middle ages would keep their techniques secret, since there was a chance that another mathematician would come to town and challenge them to a math duel.
Fermat's Enigma tells the story of how Andrew Wiles was able to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, which states that there are no integer solutions to the equation a^n + b^n = c^n for n>2. (This one was a century problem last century, but since it was solved, there was no need to list it as a Millennium Problem.) This is a bit more storytelling than actual math, though Singh doesn't shy away from going a little bit into detail about the underlying math.
The last book to consider is The Poincare Conjecture by Donal O'Shea. The Poincare Conjecture was one of the Millennium problems and was recently solved. I should point out that I can't recommend this book personally because too much of it went over my head. That says more about me than the book, though, so I don't want to leave it off the list just because I was too dumb to get it. :) I never took any classes in topology, so I may want to read up on that and give this book another shot.
Feed is incredibly relevant: the internet and constant advertising in your head from birth, the northern hemisphere overrun with consumerism, and various companies fighting to maintain your brand loyalty while the rest of the world is rapidly poisoned.
Oryx and Crake is another good one, though the bogeyman here is genetic engineering and effective class warfare by segregating company workers from the pleebland masses. Multiple nefarious entities at work throughout this trilogy, mainly with conflicting goals.
rPhilippines is like another rChina - a hangout for ESL sexpats and pedophiles. They are irrelevant. Duerte has high public support. The West loves whoever sells out their countries and hates anyone who fights back. This is not new. http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/
>Am I missing much here?
Ignorance, racism, and hypocrisy. Their precious bible is sexist. Their ownership, control, and exploitation of Native Indian, Black, Asian, and even White women is sexist - during imperialism, slavery, before the civil rights movement, Native Indians in reservations, mass rapes in wars over seas, and even now at their foreign military bases. After they rape you, they blame you. Here, take a look.
&nbsp;
Here's BEFORE:
"White women were encouraged to be chaste, while slave women were pictured as outlets for men's sexual desires...Despite the violent or coercive mistreatment of slave women, they were considered promiscuous. Their high birth rates and skimpy clothing--both consequences of their status as property--were used to justify the creation of negative imagery."
"This practice remained the status quo until 1967"
Gender and Legal History Paper Summary
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/library/collections/gender-legal-history/glh-summary.cfm?glhID=9737A959-C21A-47D3-75CF5754015C05F9
&nbsp;
Here's NOW
>Racism and sexual harassment could lie behind the higher incidence of suicide attempts amongst teenagers adopted from foreign countries.
>Adopted teenagers from foreign countries are more than four times more likely to attempt suicide than other teenagers.
>The research team believe they've detected a pattern following interviews with young adopted women of Asian descent. 'People have preconceptions that [women of Asian descent] are promiscuous, prostitutes, have a strong sex drive and are considered to be exotic,' said Frank Lindblad, who believes that such sexual prejudices can be difficult for the women concerned to understand.
Racism behind suicide attempts - The Local
https://web.archive.org/web/20121006195710/http://www.thelocal.se/2942/20060126/
&nbsp;
But, because white people tell the world they're great and egalitarian and simultaneously spread lies about Asian men (who are far less criminal across the board), the world ignores these inconvenient facts and goes along with their story - kinda like how "America is spreading freedom" even though they're the world's #1 terrorist group http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/ and http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-State-Guide-Worlds-Superpower/dp/1567513743/, and #1 drug traffickers http://www.amazon.com/The-Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global/dp/1556524838
&nbsp;
Here are some more areas where they are the world leaders in.
● World leaders in murdering their own families
>In almost all of these cases, the killer is a white, non Hispanic man. n most cases, the man exhibits *possessive, obsessive and jealous behavior.
Murder-Suicide in Families | National Institute of Justice http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/intimate-partner-violence/pages/murder-suicide.aspx
&nbsp;
● Pedophile profile: Young, WHITE, wealthy | ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/article/pedophile-profile-young-white-wealthy/
> That's the sad thing, people say "it's the FBI leadership, not the rank and file!" this wasn't Comey and co. This was the rank and file.
A problem, though, is that the leadership generally sets the tone and emphasis of an organization. And since J. Edger Hoover, the primary focus has been political, especially on stuff that generates good publicity. That's why when I was growing up their emphasis and reputation was still based on bank robberies and kidnappings, which are both notorious and particularly easy to solve crimes, because of witnesses in the former, and the need to pick up a ransom in the latter.
If you're into computers, and, heh, this is another "Russia" thing, read The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage. The one organization that wouldn't give Cliff Stoll the time of day in tracking down the West German hackers who were being run by the KFB was the FBI, because the crime didn't satisfy their $100,000 or more threshold.
Hoover did seriously care about counter-espionage, but it was always a red headed stepchild in the organization, and he of course was long gone by then. That the FBI started exerting itself so much about claimed Russian espionage and the like last year just by itself makes it very suspicious, they wouldn't do it without a political angle, which we now can be pretty sure was the "insurance policy" they had in case Trump got elected.
He even wrote a book about it called "If I Did It." https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
Cliff Stoll doesn't recommend metal openers for his Klein Bottles.
Fun fact: Cliff wrote one of the first investigative books on overseas espionage/hacking in the 1980s "The Cuckoo's Egg" and has a lot of other neat topological glassware on the site.
Neat question. The two obvious big names from Urban Planning are Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. They epitomize Modernist planning and Post-Modern planning, respectively.
Robert Moses was one of the most important non-elected officials in the 20th Century, with the most popular account being Robert Caro's massive biography, The Power Broker. He was a fantastically smart legal wiz who came to power in the 1920s in New York and was the standard-bearer for sweeping top-down government approaches to development. He used his knowledge and authority to gain more and more power, creating some of the first modern highways in bridges all over New York City and state that helped influence the Interstate Highway Act and the urban car-centric model.
He can be viewed as quite a villain these days (think the unbridled power of Mr. Burns on the Simpsons), especially as academic planners now generally recognize the huge negative impacts that Modernist American planning had. There was massive economic and social displacement where things like the Cross Bronx Expressway ripped working-class immigrant neighborhoods in half, allowing commerce to escape urban centers and help create mid-century ghettoization. In short, the modernist approach can be seen as paternalistic at best and willfully concentrating power at the expense of the masses at worst. That said, depression-Era New York had huge problems (dilapidated housing and political corruption, to name two) that Moses' public works projects helped alleviate, and he was one of the country's most powerful advocates for public parks even in the face of massive growth and sprawl.
Moses sat on countless commissions and authorities for decades, his power only finally waning in the 1960s as the top-down modernist approach of (Post) World War II America faced its loudest criticisms with the related Civil Rights, Hippie, Environmentalist, Anti-Vietnam movements: Americans were finally scrutinizing the "Build Build Build Cars Cars Cars Roads Roads Roads" model that had driven cities for decades, which brings us to Jane Jacobs.
Jacobs (who got herself a Google Doodle last week for her 100th birthday), was a Greenwich Village liberal and fierce critic of the Moses-type technocratic planning. She was a community organizer who helped stop Moses as he tried to push through plans for highways in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. For those unfamiliar, these are two of the economic and social cores of New York City - she argued that roads are supposed to serve us, not destroy our important urban spaces.
If you ask a city planner what sole city planning book to read (myself included), the overwhelming favorite will be Jacobs' 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the most important critique of modernist planning to date. Instead of sprawling highways and engineering projects, Jacobs saw the healthiest urban spaces as walkable, intimate, friendly and inviting and on a human-scale. She advocated for small city blocks, much wider sidewalks and mixed-use spaces instead of the classic Sim City "Residential/Commercial/Industrial" segregated zoning.
While there has since been plenty of critique of Jacobs' post-modern model, today's planning leans much closer to Jacobs' vision (at least in academic settings): Planners are more focused than ever on the post-modern walkability, mixed-use, high-density, equal-access, participatory planning model. Although this seems like a healthier place for planning than the Moses model of old, the academic ideals clash with the huge legacy of the Modernist planning approach (We can't just up and rebuild cities every time a theory changes, after all), along with the neoliberal financialization and privatization of so many of our spaces over the last few decades, so it's still as muddy as ever.
Anyway, that's a slight oversimplification of some of the history, but Moses and Jacobs were certainly the biggest avatars of the Modernist and Post-Modernist planning movements and have been as influential in the field of planning as anybody.
Journey Through Genius, I couldn't put it down, it goes through some of the greatest/most well known proofs in math. It is a book that goes into detail and while one may need to reread a section a couple times to comprehend, it does a great job of explaining what is going in
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=undefined&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=journey+through+genius
For realities, except not so much about 'mother'.
The Power Broker
Meditations is 112 pages, at least, according to Amazon. It depends on your reading speed.
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
The audiobook is on youtube, but I dislike audiobooks greatly.
Anyone going to buy Hillary's explanation for the 2016 campaign 'What Happened'?
Looks like it'll be really great to read, I'm sure it'll be completely honest and not at all a blame fest.
Better is Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign.
Actually discusses some of the hubris and poor strategy employed during the campaign. Would recommend reading, even if you're pro-Trump (which I think a good portion of this subreddit is, or at least conservative-leaning) it's a good look at what actually happened.
Genghis Khan. He came from nothing, was kidnapped multiple times as a kid and promoted free religion and science. This is an EXCELLENT book.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1292968337&amp;sr=8-1
He's often demonized because he's really the only person to push into the west from the unknown East
Endurance by Alfred Lansing, a history of Shackleton's doomed polar expedition, which ended with him leading a party of sailors hundreds of miles through the snow.
The Martian by Andy Weir, a Robinson Crusoe story about a scientist stranded on Mars trying to survive by jury-rigging various things together.
Read the book Unbroken, it's about Louie Zamperini, a US airman who's planed crashed in the Pacific. He spent six weeks surviving in a raft (which is quite a survival story itself) before being picked up by a Japanese patrol boat and sent to a POW camp for three years. It's an unbelievable story.
If you have not read The Cuckoo's Egg, definitely do. In fact you can read pretty much anything Clifford Stoll writes and it's just what you're looking for.
Are you in the publishing industry? That book doesn't come out until next week. Journalists have only got excerpts from the book.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1504844874&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=what+happened+hillary+clinton
I got it on audible and listened to it in about 2weeks. If we were going to have a "book list for the resistance" I'd say this one is crucial. Also, maybe think of these as prerequisites, I think everyone should read or listen to The Warmth of Other Suns and Hillbilly Elegy because, in my opinion, they describe the past in way that informs the present social strife that Trump used to divide and conquer to win the Republican primary and general elections. If the Left is going to have a political answer in 2 and 4yrs for the people who either declined to vote altogether or who voted Trump, we have to understand and have compassion for their plight.
I understand the emotional need to point the finger at Trump voters and say "Ha! You get what you voted for!" when their healthcare is taken away or their jobs are automated without a proper safety net, but that's such a vindictive and shortsighted outlook that isn't going to help with coalition building.
Edit: the hardcover edition of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible is in stock
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459/ref=nodl_
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America https://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=nickel+and+dimed&qid=1566530665&s=gateway&sprefix=nickel&sr=8-1
While I'm busy expending my fifteen minutes of fame here in /r/mvis, this is the book that the author referred to: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Elon is a pretty amazing guy, and I think Ashlee did a pretty good job of capturing what makes Elon tick. Highly recommended.
I’d highly recommend reading the biography by Ashlee Vance
It’s really quite fascinating, and confirmation that Musk isn’t just all hype.
You can order it here: https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1538941423&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=mein+kempf+by+adolf+hitler+english&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=21vWUE2t23L&amp;ref=plSrch
http://www.amazon.it/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037
E comunque dalla legge Scelba:
>4. Apologia del fascismo.
>- Chiunque fa propaganda per la costituzione di una associazione, di un movimento o di un gruppo avente le caratteristiche e perseguente le finalità indicate nell'articolo 1 è punito [....] Alla stessa pena di cui al primo comma soggiace chi pubblicamente esalta esponenti, princìpi, fatti o metodi del fascismo, oppure le sue finalità antidemocratiche.
Pigliare per il culo e' un po' diverso dall'esaltare, il segno sul braccio e i 'nazisti dell'Illinois' dovrebbero rendere chiara la differenza anche a un idiota. Ma non alla Digos a quanto pare.
Your most important job as a parent is to instill morals & values in your child. All the morals and values that a child needs to be successful in life can be found in this book.
My advice is to pray to God to guide you to the truth. Then read a translation of the Quran and a biography of Prophet Muhammad(pbuh). I recommend this biography.
He's a psychopath. That's fucking classic, that is. Read this book if you want to understand why the entire planet's financial systems appear to be managed by total assholes...hint...it's because they ARE:
http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
Is anyone else super excited for Hillary's book!??!?!?!
https://www.amazon.com/Untitled-Memoir-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501181422&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=hillary+clinton+what+happened
This thing is already #1 best seller on Amazon, I was laughing. I literally saw the tweet like two seconds after it was posted, pressed the Amazon link, and it was already #1 best seller in civics. Now it's just #1 best seller period. Hooray!
This does not remotely surprise me. Expect much more of this.
On another note, there's this very strange parody book.
Endurance is the most incredible story I have ever read. Seriously, you will not be able to put down this book. Hardship after hardship, these men went through hell. And I mean the most horrible hell and chose to survive. Absolutely incredible.
Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll. Well worth $10.
These:
How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.
Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.
Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.
You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.
Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.
Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.
No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.
Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.
Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.
Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.
The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.
Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.
Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.
Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.
Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.
Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.
Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.
Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.
The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.
The Martian by Andy Weir.
Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.
The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.
Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.
The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.
Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.
International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.
How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.
This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.
The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.
Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.
The end
What Happened
Martin Lings "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources" is constantly recommended to me by friends.
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1292415986&amp;sr=8-1
I recommend these books:
and Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
Side note on Quran translation:
Stay away from
Try:
Misc:
Movie:
Martin lings: Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Tariq ramadan: In the Footsteps of the Prophet
http://www.amazon.com/Muqaddimah-Introduction-History-Bollingen/dp/0691120544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1324898349&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/History-God-000-Year-Judaism-Christianity/dp/0345384563/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
http://www.amazon.com/Islam-History-Modern-Library-Chronicles/dp/081296618X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_5
Chicago gang life is essentially a shadow government keeping its own brand of order in the ghetto, its pretty scary in some ways, but also actually really interesting to read that there really are "rules" and people enforcing the rules....
here's an interesting book about a university of chicago sociologist who hung out with them for a while.
good read
https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X
I highly recommend Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
https://www.amazon.com/dp/048629823X/ref=sxts_sxwds-tsp_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_p=3139988802&amp;pd_rd_wg=Rmyuk&amp;pf_rd_r=P0E7H074KRHGHSAAHQ0R&amp;pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-top-slot&amp;pf_rd_t=301&amp;pd_rd_i=048629823X&amp;pd_rd_w=RKLOw&amp;pf_rd_i=meditations+marcus+aurelius&amp;pd_rd_r=K0HEDGDGSNKGMWMGXA01&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501599712&amp;sr=1
$1 + free shipping if you have Prime
Yep. This is what it looks like.
My go to reading list,
Killing Hope, by William Blum
America's Deadliest Export Democracy, by William Blum
Who is William Blum?
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner
Enemies: The History of the FBI, by Tim Wiener
Who is Tim Weiner?
The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth about Economic Hitmen, Jackals, and How to Change the World by John Perkins
Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins
Who is John Perkins?
We assassinated leaders. We supported the overthrow of a number of democratically elected leaders financially and militarily. We installed despots who sold their peoples' birthrights. Some of those despots received IMF loans which went straight into their Swiss bank accounts. Some of those countries continue to carry the burden of this debts to this day! We built alliances with drug lords and armed and trained their protectors. The CIA was caught flooding inner cities in Californa with drugs from our 'friends' in Latin America. This is all well known and here Obama acknowledges at least some of it and apologizes. He must if we hope to do business with the emerging nations. China is encumbered with no such legacy. Hillary says she will look to Kissinger for advice! This is why Hillarys glorification of Kissinger is so apalling to Bernie. He was objecting to these criminal policies vigorously back in the day. The books below are a must read. It will help you understand the Hillary Hate.
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458068896&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=killing+hope+u.s.+military+and+cia+interventions+since+world+war+ii+by+william+blum
And Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire http://www.amazon.com/Blowback-Consequences-American-Empire-Project/dp/0805075593/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458841254&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Blow+back+Chalmers+Johnson
And The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman http://www.amazon.com/New-Confessions-Economic-Hit-Man/dp/1626566747/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458841994&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=confessions+of+an+economic+hitman+by+john+perkins
A few graphic novels:
A couple more books that are on my wish list, though i haven't read them yet, are:
I think it's a two-part process:
Taken together, these things build confidence in your ability to spot and respond to threats, and to recover from them when we inevitably make mistake and let one through. And that's the best you can do: Not invulnerability, not perfect safety, just resilience.
Without conscience. It does a great job of describing how some serial killers operate. The book primarily discusses psychopathy (not all serial killers are psychopaths) but its a good read.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1572304510/ref=mw_dp_mdsc?dsc=1&amp;qid=1371050283&amp;sr=1-1
Journey Through Genius: Exploring the Great Theorems of Mathematics. - William Dunham
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics https://www.amazon.com/dp/014014739X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_uOd3CbD8DH8CN
A great read that does walkthroughs of proofs and breakthroughs. Highly recommended.
Eh. One of the most debilitating things about poverty is the feeling of despair. They're not going to have any of that.
Btw, you should check out Nickel And Dimed
http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681 where Barbara Ehrenreich did this experiment for a year. (But she never forgot all the advantages her privilege still afforded her)
Give him something sneakily socialist yet normie af like Nickel and Dimed. A teacher gave me that in High School when my politics consisted of nothing beyond "fuck bush" and it was a very good read.
I highly recommend the book Endurance. I'm normally not particularly interested in history, but this was a very engaging and compelling read.
http://www.amazon.com/If-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934 read the description of this book.
I think you mean Unbroken
Sort of off the top of my head:
Not Supernatural:
Supernatural:
Often times books about survival don't need to be fiction to be amazingly interesting, so I'll add these:
Go get the Verizon DBIR for 2016, and then start reading back issues. Consider also Silence on the Wire which talks about all the ways that information leakage attacks can be launched -- it's really easy to understand. And if you haven't read it yet, The Cuckoo's Egg is one of the first public accounts of a computer system administrator discovering, hunting, and eventually catching a hacker.
The Sealed Nectar is one of the most popular.
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources is another one that people like.
In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad
More power consolidated into one position, not possible to recreate in today's circumstances...for worse...and better.
Here ya go.
But if you really have to
>Open up your eyes. Then you'll realize they want Genocide.
>Tell em' once again. No-ones trying to blend out the Africans.
>Africa for the Africans, Asia for the Asians, White countries for Everyone.
>There's no place in modern Europe, no chance for ethnic purity.
>No-one ever says this, bout' African or Asian countries.
>There is no justification.
>Open up your eyes, then you'll realize they want genocide. Anti-Racist is a code-word for Anti-White.
>Tell em' once again, no-ones trying to blend out the Africans.
>Anti-Racist is a code-word for Anti-White.
If you read it in public, you will probably get some dirty looks, but honestly who cares
Read it in your home, if it comes up in the conversation, just tell people the truth, you were curious about it
Be advised, it's not a light read. It has great value when you consider the context, but as a book, it's underwhelming. Hitler was a great orator, but as a writer ...
Beyond the anger, hatred, bigotry, and self-aggrandizing, Mein Kampf is saddled with tortured prose, meandering narrative, and tangled metaphors (one person was described as "a thorn in the eyes of venal officials"). That said, it is an incredibly important book. It is foolish to think that the Holocaust could not happen again, especially if World War II and its horrors are forgotten. As an Amazon.com reader has pointed out, "If you want to learn about why the Holocaust happened, you can't avoid reading the words of the man who was most responsible for it happening." Mein Kampf, therefore, must be read as a reminder that evil can all too easily grow. --Sunny Delaney
Regarding polling, you're right, it doesn't give a complete picture. Often people will answer polls but not vote, or not answer polls and vote, many polls focused on the PV as opposed to the EC. They're useful tools, no doubt, but they're not perfect.
I haven't read the book Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign but from reviews of the book and other analysis, an overemphasis on campaigning based on data relative to campaigning on message, internal campaign politics to stifle constructive change, ignoring calls by Bill to focus on white blue-collar workers were issues, broadly, with the campaign.
And I agree that it's difficult to determine how much of an impact things like campaign mismanagement or Russian interference or whatnot had, but the Comey letter is something you can create a more accurate image of, regarding its impact on the election.
Yes! Margaret Atwood is, in my opinion, one of the modern greats. I suggest Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale. I think this despite the fact that she insists she doesn't write "science fiction." Who did you read in that course?
Very much agree about Card. :) Speaker for the Dead ftw.
Yep. Btw these are two great books that talk about how the physical structure of cities, a.k.a. urban planning, has brought about the changes that we see in OP's picture, and that we can pretty much blame one person for making cities super car-centric: Robert Moses.
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394720245/
The Death and Life of Great American Cities https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HWKSBDI/
722 Miles - is about the Subway system
Fat of the Land: Garbage in New York
The New York City Museum of Complaint - 300 years of actual complaint letters from the Municipal archive
The Power Broker - How Robert Moses shaped the city. Edit: of the ones I've listed, this one is required reading.
My non-fiction pick -
My Fiction Pick. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to give two different recommendations, but tough titties, because this novel is one of the best I've ever read.
The novel follows the Mason family as they travel the country trying to find their particular place in the world. I won't say more than that. If you liked The Grapes of Wrath, or East of Eden, you should check this book out.
It is absolutely the best book I've read in the last year, and immediately threw my "top ten list" into question.
you can get it here
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Also add him as historical figure, man was as close to stoic as you can be.
Hey Hillary, I have some reading for you in your retirement https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
Actually, you're pretty much on point with that. Though he came from an even lower rung in society's ladder. For about 4 months (i think) he was literally a slave. Then he was a fugative. Yada yada yada: Leader of the largest contingent empire ever to exist. Read this or anything by Jack Weatherford. It's a really quick read and details how much of a major BAMF Genghis Khan was.
He wrote a damn book about it...
http://www.amazon.com/If-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934/
Pretty sure the answers are here: https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
The Cuckoo's Egg, by Cliff Stoll: the hackers in that book used this day in and day out.
https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787
Fantastic book, highly recommended.
I'd also recommend Failure is Not an Option, by Gene Krantz, a flight director during the Apollo missions.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/1439148813
> He’s right: altimeters measure height above sea level, but mountains and flatlands at high elevation can be hundreds or thousands of meters above that.
Gene Kranz addresses this in his truly awesome autobiography. He talks about how the parachutes on the capsule would open automatically at a certain altitude, but if your re-entry was off course and over a mountain, you could slam into the mountain before the parachutes had a chance to deploy.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
> but are nothing in comparison to the 4million of the holocaust, the 3 million of stalin or the 1 million of cambodia.
Cambodia is actually interesting, because it's not exactly certain if all the killings were by Pol Pot. Many people argue (including Chomsky) that many of the deaths were the result of US carpet bombing in the region trying to genocide the Vietnamese who lived there. (What people don't actually realize as well is that Pol Pot was funded and supported by the United States also more bombs were dropped on Cambodia and Laos than were dropped in WW2)
But the US has committed horrid crimes, people have put the death count of the US in the tens of millions that that's ignoring the native Americans.
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-Military-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=19T8W9ADVMC2QEMTDE8B
People should really read this book. It shows how absolutely fucked up the US has been over the past 70 years.
no need to apologize Johnny, some of us get it despite your apparent lack of upvotes ..... that what we do have is evidence of a multi decade, multi national pattern of behavior, attitude, policy and direct action by the US using overt and covert means to overthrow democratically elected leaders of nations, including funding terrorism, using corporate hitmen, waging wars in the NAME of democracy, eatablishing kangaroo courts as a victors veneer of justice being served, aggressively and forcefully wrestling nationalized industries from sovereign nations, effectively robbing countries of their natural wealth, to make way for US corporations, etc etc.
ALL of this is described in a book by a former CIA agent William Blue, called Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since WW2
I'll do the gentleman a favor and leave a link
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526
so just cause this dude is on his high horse and in his personal world absence of evidence = evidence of asbence (of CIA et al. involvement, which is secretive by nature, but well leave that gaping hole alone) demanding that YOU take significant time and effort out of your day to present to him an itemized list of evidence on a silver platter. don't work like that. was some of Venezuela's undoing partly theirs? I'm sure it was. but given their natural wealth, "undemocratic governmental system" and unwillingness to bend the knee to US interests, Venezuela would have been a PRIME target, and it is silly to think that there was 0 foreign involvement in regards to their fall from grace on the world stage.
It's easy to call that period peaceful from the comfort of an armchair somewhere in the USA. The problem is that the civilians of many countries experienced much upheval. Mostly the fault of the CIA and American imperialism.
Probably worth a read : https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1497851226&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=killing+hope
If its too long, try wikipedia for just regime changes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change
The position is that military members of a number of 'friendly' dictators in the area received training by US Forces at Ft. Benning which in turn were used to violently put down resistance movements in their home country - El Salvador (one of my best friends escaped that conflict), Nicaragua, Panama (we overthrew our ally Noriega because he wasn't onboard the Nicaragua plan), Brazil, Chile, Bolivia - my aunt was a very early PeaceCorps volunteer in Bolivia in the 60s who ended up becoming a CIA asset after inadvertently marrying one.
This was the first item I ever bought on Amazon back in 1997 which lays out military and CIA interventions from Korea to the first Iraq war, primarily. [tangent: I fought with my dad for days over buying this because he didn't trust giving his CC out over the internet]
Here's an interesting GAO report from 1996 It looks to only cover 1990-1995, but they admit a lot in there.
Interesting excerpt from a book I found on googlebooks about pre-1963 and the official creation of SOA by Kennedy.
This last one is specifically about El Salvador and comes off very, "look how great we were stopping them commies." Like I said, one of my best friends escaped that country with one of his brothers, trained it through Mexico and hopped the US border at 12 because that conflict was so great and amazing to live through. FREEDOM!
edit: that last link just downloads directly as a pdf for me which is why it might be formatting oddly. I Can't get it to open directly in a browser)
You seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy a book like Journey through Genius, by William Dunham.
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346777582&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=william+dunham
Or read the book they were talking about: Gang Leader for a Day.
Except that's not true. Health care for catastrophes is far more expensive than most people think it is. Hell, this is the entire reason obamacare is a damned good thing, and will really pay off for our country in the next 10-20 years if the republicans don't rape it.
I mean, for colon cancer, you're talking 50k/yr average. I don't care many months of emergency money you've saved, it's not enough. You're talking 2-3 aggregated lifetimes worth of 'emergency funds' to get through something like this.
You're still sitting here with the idea that it's poor choices that drive poverty, and you couldn't be more wrong. There are entire books written on this. There are scientific studies on this. Poor decision making is such a small factor. You are claiming that they make up a majority, but quite frankly, every piece of data out there disagrees with you.
Republicans love to froth at the mouth about poor people with cell phones -- how else are they supposed to get a job? And who is going to hire an unwashed street person? Without access to a phone, mailing address, and showers, you're unlikely to get a job. That's nothing to do with laziness or poor decision making, that's a self-reinforcing cycle. Also you leave out the mental toll that being poor takes on people. You also ignore the time costs of being poor.
If you want to actually get more educated about the situation with poor people in America, there's a few books to read: Nickled and Dimed is one of the best books out there, and it's a great first book to read in this arena. It gets into all the decisions and constructs in society and government that prevent poor people from getting ahead on their debts and breaking free of poverty. Any book of this type is going to get mixed reviews, and of course all the 1 and 2-star reviews on amazon are basically entitled people who think like you do -- the poor are poor because of moral failings, not because of any external factor.
Then, read One Nation, Underprivileged. From the description itself: "the fundamental causes of poverty are to be found in our economic structure and political policy failures, rather than individual shortcomings or attitudes." The top reviewer states:
> Two important points stand out in my mind. First, poverty isn't something that just happens to other kinds of people, as the author demonstrates through careful analysis of several large, longitudinal data sets; second, poverty is not the result of personal deficiencies, neither moral, motivational, or intellectual weaknesses (as conservatives would claim) nor educational Rather, poverty is a necessary consequence of the current structure of our economic and social systems. His data sources are much more recent as well, so I find the logical arguments from him more compelling.
If you have an open mind and actually care about being informed, I'd highly recommend these two books. There's a third I've heard a lot about, called Poverty in America: A Handbook. I'll admit I haven't read this one yet, but his message is nearly identical to the other two:
> The persistence of poverty in the United States reflects more than just an aggregation of individual failings. Structural factors, such as the way we understand and define poverty, [and] the inherent features of our economic system that produce income inequality
The idea that the poor are poor because of their own decision making, and that they can just stop making stupid decisions and get out of poverty, has been thoroughly debunked for the last 30 years. But, it's such a simple argument that lets somebody think they understand the world (and of course, such a world has them as a moral paragon for not being poor). The idea that even a majority of people are poor because of bad decision making is, frankly, not true. It's a straight up ignorant statement in this day and age.
Get Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich out at the library. There's an interesting chapter or two in there about the way housekeeping agencies make it hard on their crews. I think it was Merry Maids in the book.
She is definitely better off working as an independent cleaner (and can make her own hours.) I mean, if a homeowner is willing to pay $125 for three cleaners for two hours, one very efficient person can probably do the same work in a few more and pocket 100%. Well, minus materials, etc.
Even if that doesn't appeal and she's busting her hump for less than minimum wage, a different job might be a better way to go.
>I must admit this challenge has opened my eyes in so many ways I could probably write a book.
You would really like Nickel and Dimed
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. You are both probably getting into your college/post HS planning stage, and as smart younguns, would see all the allusions to modern-day life taken to the extreme (and now 10 years after it was published, not so extreme).
Maybe a long shot, but try Margaret Atwood's MaddAdam trilogy? I've read only the first so far Oryx and Crake and it definitely has a story with biology and the cultural impact. Give it a try! It's one of my favorites.
Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong
Muhammad by Martin Lings
Islam: Empire of Faith (documentary)
Sorry, I'm fresh out of brickbats but here's some advice:
> Imagine a country in the real world had this kind of secret service, an agency not even the leader of the country could control... What politician, party, council or leader would accept such a thing? If they have no power over this agency, what's to stop said agency simply taking over?
This is exactly how real world deep state Secret Security organizations operate. Politicians know very little about what organizations like MI5, ASIS, CIA, FSB etc operate. All their information is compartmentalized (meaning nobody in the org has a full picture) and they act largely autonomously. Politicians don't want to know what they get up too because of deniability. Iran–Contra affair is a good example of this. Politicans got off scott free from absolute astronishing crimes because they just didn't want to know.
There have been a lot of times Security agencies have basically gone rogue from their Government completely. ASIS secretly worked with the CIA to overthrow Chilean President Allende, when the Australian Government found out, they were furious that ASIS helped install a Fascist dictatorship, ASIS then simply just threatened the Prime Minister at the time and continued to work behind the back of the Australian Government with US interests.
Very good book on CIA and Intelligence Agencies and how they operate. Seriously, its terrifying.
My understanding is that a sociopath's lack of empathy is rooted primarily, or completely, due to environmental factors while psychopathy is an innate personality defect present from birth, most likely due to genetic or other biological factors.
Here's one site that expands on what I just said above. I've also read Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us which summarized the difference this way (this book focuses on psychopathy rather than sociopathy, obviously)
Read Robert Hare's (arguably the world's foremost expert on psychopathy) book Without Conscience. It's a not-too-long, easy to read book on the basics psychological underpinnings of real psychopathy, written by a medcial expert who has been studying the topic for a long time and created the best tool we have to diagnose psychopaths, the Psychopathy Checklist. It's a fascinating read with plenty of real-life scenarios spinkled in to give insight into what it's like to deal with real psychopaths.
The defining (and scariest, to me) characteristic is an inability to connect to others, the inability to feel emotions like shame, love, guilt or empathy. It's almost unimaginable. Can you picture using others as mere pawns for your own selfish goals and be completely unattached to your actions? It's kind of terrifying. To be able to ruin a person's life and feel no more emotion about it than you would, say, washing the dishes? It's a mind fuck.
The sad thing is that being one of those guys is a winning strategy. That might be why as many as 4% of the human population are psychopaths: evolutionary argument for psychopathy
Also, Without Conscience
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
I'm literally reading a book right now with this conceat. It's a fantastic read. I thought it was too technophobic at first, but as it goes on I see how the author may be making some terrifyingly valid points...
What is your particular interest? I can offer you some general suggestions, but if you are interested in a certain era or neighborhood or person I can point you in that direction too.
For a succinct history going up until the 2000s, look to The Restless City. If you are more interested in power politics of the 20th Century, The Power Broker is the definitive source (boo Robert Moses). Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning is a great look at the city in 1977, a tumultuous time both politically and socially.
Much of the history of the city after the mid-19th Century centers around the development of railroads, elevated trains and the subway system. 722 Miles and A Century of Subways are both excellent books about the growth and evolution of the transit network. I picked up Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America for the 100th Anniversary of the Terminal, and it was an informative and lively read.
As to the "collective" being an extension of one's self to the immediate family, I can see that, and fair enough. The rest of your explanation... well, where do I start?
You essentially agreed with me that morality is subjective, because you gave me a problem statement of : Why is stealing a car wrong? You did this with the intent of showing me that rules have to be black and white. I provided you with possible context that in my subjective opinion, would make stealing a car the ONLY morally correct thing to do. So, you contradicted yourself. Is stealing always wrong, or is ok in certain context?
The golden rule is essentially that you should treat others as you wish to be treated. I use this as my primary moral compass because I, unlike you, do not claim to know what is right or wanted by each individual. I am only aware of my stream of consciousness, desires, and moral standpoints, so again, unless explicitly informed by the individual how I should act, I revert to this as the best way to maximize good and minimize the harm I do in day to day life.
As for sexual promiscuity being morally wrong, that's just such an arbitrary value, and before I do any sort of in-depth reading on the subject, I'm going to need a lot more of a justification for doing so. I use my time to read about useful information that provides me valuable insights, not learn about all the different ways religion wants to control you due to what was put in some ancient tome. Again, tell me how sexual promiscuity is relevant at all to morality writ-large.
You shouldn't stab a baby because it creates unnecessary suffering for the infant, as well as those that care for said infant. Golden rule again. I wouldn't want someone to stab my baby, so I would not choose to inflict that pain on another individual. Now, if I could travel back in time, I would stab Hitler as a baby, and that would be the morally correct thing to do. But in most cases, you don't know whether a baby will end up committing genocide, or write awful justification for arbitrary moral codes on the internet, so I refrain.
So, you hate Jews because of what's in the text? How about the Bible's prescription for how to handle your slaves?
As an aside, you're very clearly an Fi user, and my guess would be ESFP based on the Te cherry-picking and the Fi attachment to a lot of really broad, baseless claims that do not stand up to any sort of Ti examination. Thank you for the personal attacks by the way, they make me happy.
Also, it makes me a bit unnervy when you start scapegoating Jews as morally inferior, and speak about race in regards to morality. I think I can save you some time, because I'm pretty sure this book was already written.
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037
Edit: Apologies to any INTJs who read that I originally typed this guy as INTJ. He's clearly a very confused ESFP as someone else pointed out in another thread (Not that all ESFPs are bad, just the Nazi ones.)
here you go
https://www.amazon.ca/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Check out Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations is probably his most famous work. I think it's a collection of various works of his throughout his life.
And he links to a book on Amazon, but embedded a "breitbart" referral tag. What's with that? Does he really work for Breitbart?
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084?tag=breitbart035-20Fer real this time: Endurance
May not be what you are looking for but Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing redefines what it takes to be a leader when faced with the worst situation possible. A band of men stranded on ice in the middle of the ocean, trying to survive. One of the most amazing stories I've ever read and Sir Ernest Shackleton is now one of my heroes.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing.
Adrift by Steven Callahan.
> It If I Did It
Now available in paperback...
Unbroken by Laurel Hillenbrand is fantastic. The book is really a biography of Louis Zamperini and is not solely about being a POW, but a large portion of the book is his experience as a POW during WWII in Japan.
Link to the man: an Olympic track athlete, POW, and all-around inspiration.
Link to the book.
> "It is outrageous and reprehensible to deny what happened to Louis Zamperini.
There is plenty of documentation of cruelty towards allied prisoners if war. But, I have seen comments online that question certain details from his book, which do seem slightly exaggerated.
For example, from a non-Japanese reviewer on goodreads.com:
> Now, far be it for me to disparage war veterans, especially POWs who’ve endured the kinds of crushing abuse that Louie and his fellow service men have, but how is it that we are able to get such detailed minutia over 50 years after it all went down? I’ll bet you can’t describe the full details of the days of your wedding, your first child being born, your first car crash, your first date, getting your driver’s license, etc. These were all life-changing, and in some cases traumatic, days in your life and it’s a safe bet that most, if not all, of these events took place more recently for you than 50 years ago. Most of us remember scant bits and pieces of events and many of these memories have “drifted” from reality in our fallible brains. Even polling spectators who were there at the time and cobbling together all of the recollections won’t make for a fully fleshed-out memory. This thought kept rattling around my brain as I made my way through the book. How on earth could these things be recalled so clearly and precisely after all that time? I’ve read other POW accounts that say that all days start to blur together and the extreme horrors the soldiers endured are blocked out of memory. Some soldiers, as Hillenbrand herself says in the book, forget the war entirely. The sneaking suspicion (and you can’t help but feel like a total shit for thinking it) is that a lot of the filler put in the book to string the anecdotes together is fabricated to puff up the story to appeal to a broader audience.
> These suspected filler bits are nothing compared to some of the fantastical events scattered throughout the book. Zemperini is cheapened and the readers are dared not to roll their eyes as he is elevated from a man to a superhuman demi-god. He can withstand plane crashes, hourly beatings for over a year, prolonged starvation, backbreaking physical labor, diseases, and anything else that can be dished out. Consider his scenes of fist-fighting sharks in open water, meeting Hitler after his Olympic race, running a 4:12 mile -- in the fucking sand(!!), surviving violent dysentery for weeks on end with only scant handfuls of polluted water to drink (not to mention the “death sentence” disease beriberi that was left untreated), blacking out as he’s tangled in wires in his sinking bomber only to wake up untangled and able to swim freely to the surface, self-repairing a broken nose and leg while at prison camp, and living through 40+ days at sea with practically no water or food then having the patience to wait offshore overnight once he reaches an island -- of course, just in time for a typhoon to hit them in their raft, no less. These personal achievements are apart from his sufferings in a group setting like enduring over 220 punches in the face during one camp thrashing and moving 20 – 30 tons (yes, TONS -- 40,000 to 60,000 U.S. pounds) of material at a rail yard in a day. Why the author stopped there and didn’t throw in a cage match with a couple of T-Rexes I’m not sure.
And Another:
> I found Unbroken to largely be a hyperbolic and sensationalized rendering of a true story. Yes, I believe there is truth lurking among the pages but ultimately it was a poorly written fish tale. I mean no disrespect to Louis Zamperini (he passed away just as I finished the book) or the other men detailed, I think ultimately the issues lie with the author.
And another:
> so 3 guys are drifting in a raft, then are being strafed by a japanese bomber, the main character goes over the side and fights off dozens of sharks by baring his teeth and using his hands. this happens 4 times. after the bomber departs the sharks start jumping out of the water to attack the men in the raft. really Hillenbrand? plus you would think the main character was a cross between einstein and macgyver with all the ingenius tricks he comes up with. im not sure if this was a non-fiction book or science fiction
And another:
> It reads like a book you might find only sold in a church bookstore. I'm sure Zamperini was a dedicated individual but some of the stuff is just over the top. They shot down three Zero fighters while wounded in their heavily damaged plane? Do we have any independent confirmation? He killed sharks with his bare hands? A whole third of this book is a litany of beatings, starvation rations, and mistreatment. Oh, and of course his mother knew he was alive the whole time because of that special sixth sense that all mothers have. Then, tortured by his experience, he becomes a raging alcoholic, only to be saved after hearing Billy Graham speak. He immediately pours out his alcohol and dedicates his life to saving troubled kids. Just one maudlin cliche after another
From Amazon:
> There is no way an individual -- especially a frail, sick, malnourished, fever-ridden individual -- can absorb 220 successive hard blows to the head and not end up with severe brain damage, if not death.
I tend to avoid pop history books, so I admittedly haven't read it. Still, it appears one doesn't need to be a raving Japanese nationalist to feel like the book goes a bit overboard. Especially when it is based mainly on largely unverifiable personal recollections recorded half a century after the fact. It looks like the book's tendency to exaggerate is going to distract Japanese viewers from accepting the reality of large scale abuse of prisoners.
No, this one is a real-life account of how a large (German?) hacker group got caught due to a $.13 (or something like that) account difference in the 80's.
It's probably been 10 years since I read it, so I'm a little rough on the particulars, but it really was a fascinating book, and still ends up being surprisingly relevant to computer security these days.
Edit: was a $.75 error. https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787
just finished reading http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813 very cool insight into the entire space program, really puts into perspective how much they were making up as they went along!
Does anyone know the difference between these two versions of What Happened:
Apparently, the photo cover version has a couple of pages less, at least according to my local book store.
Which one did you get?
I'm familiar with that history. (Examples: Iran 1953, Chile 1973) Here's the tome on it.
What does that have to do with anything we were talking about?
Does it make the Russian election subversion right?
Are you arguing this is specific blowback? If so, from what operation?
I can definitely recommend America's Deadliest Export: Democracy and Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II by William Blum. The latter pretty much has every intervention by the US since WW2. Really nice for referencing.
> Can't make the living here? There are tons of other places in the country which are less expensive and where a barrista's salary-to-monthly average rent is far, far more attractive.
Have you ever moved across the country, or even to a neighboring state? It's really expensive. If you're in debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck, it's nearly impossible.
If you haven't already read it, I recommend Hillbilly Elegy. Vance does a good job of explaining why the "get your butt to another part of the country" plan isn't feasible for many.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
The first book that comes to mind is Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. As an entrepreneur, I found it very inspiring—it's all about hard work, perseverance, and doing something that hasn’t been done before. I like to think that’s what we’re doing at 1933, developing unique products for the cannabis market that help people live better lives. I also enjoy reading anything by Ed Rosenthal or Jorge Cervantes, as both taught me how to care for the cannabis plant.
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Great question!
His relationship with his second wife Talulah Riley still seems to be extremely friendly and supportive? As far as I can tell she’s had nothing but quite lovely things to say about him and their marriages, and vice versa.
“Elon and I are best friends. We still see each other all the time and take care of each other. If this could continue indefinitely it would be lovely. When you’ve been with someone for eight years on and off, you really learn how to love them. He and I are very good at loving each other…”
Link
She also rejected the idea he was the ‘alpha’ in their relationship:
“Elon’s ex-wife Justine has described how, while dancing together at their wedding reception, he told her, ‘I am the alpha in this marriage.’ Given his extraordinary power, wealth and the fact he’s 14 years Talulah’s senior, you might guess that this has been the case with her, too. Talulah bristles and for the first time fixes me with a stare. ‘Alpha is a phrase that gets bandied about in America but it’s not something I really thought about before I moved there. I wouldn’t apply it to Elon or myself.’”
Link
ETA: I also found this quote from Riley taken from a Musk biography:
”Elon doesn’t have to listen to anyone in life. No one. He doesn’t have to listen to anything that doesn’t fit into his worldview. But he proved he would take shit from me. He said ‘Let me listen to her and figure these things out’. He proved that he valued my opinion on things in life and was willing to listen.”
I have not read many books explicitly devoted to the history of mathematics, such as those recommended in this math.stackechange post #31058, so I will refrain from recommending any of them. Instead, I'd like to mention a few books that do well discussing aspects of mathematical history, although this is not their main focus.
Hope this is helpful!
If you want to teach probability or statistics, take a look at Gelman's Teaching Statistics: A Bag Of Tricks. I've used material from there to good effect.
Edit: Maybe also take a look at better explained.
Edit2: Also Dunham's Journey Through Genius. Very inspiring and fun.
https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X this is about a sociology student who had the opportunity to follow gangs around in the ghetto and lead them for a day
>Tak, men det er ikke helt rigtigt. Der er lande der håndterer det fint. USA, Canada osv. Jeg kan ikke tage hele kreditten alene.
1 ud af 3 sorte amerikanere vil ryge i fængsel i løbet af deres liv. Sorte og latino bander der får LTF til at ligne spejderdrenge. L.A. urolighederne med 53 døde. Ghettoer i alle storbyer. White flight. Gated communities. Osv. Ja, det går sgu rigtig godt i USA.
Det går lidt bedre i Canada, men de har også store problemer med ghettoer hvor de etniske minoriteter bor.
>Der kan sagtens blive bygget boliger til 100.00 mennesker på et år
Ja, lad os bygge en masse store bygninger hvor vi kan placere alle disse udlændinge. Vi kan kalde det Gellerup v2.0. Det har vi jo gode erfaringer med.
>Det er ligesom med alle andre varer, mangler er altid et resultat af regulering.
Fordi finanseringen er noget der kommer fra gud?
>http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X[1]
>Bandekriminalitet er bare business, og hele levegrundlaget afhænger af salg af stoffer.
Ja, fordi 1 sociolog har gået rundt og snakket med et par bandemedlemmer og derefter skrevet et par bøger om det, MÅ det jo bare være sådan. Er hans bog og påstande blevet peer-reviewed? At tro man kan udrydde bandekriminalitet ved at liberalisere narkolovgivningen er dybt naivt. Tror du virkelig at Jønke og Lille A vil opgive deres kriminelle levevej, droppe de store biler, dropper magten, droppe pengene ved kriminalitet og i stedet for få sig et arbejde. Kriminalitet vil altid eksistere, og det samme vil bander.
Og hvis man er fræk, kunne man jo spørge, om det var stoffer der fik denne sociolog til at fuske med bilagene som han nu engang gjorde.
THANK YOU. Holy hell there is so much "I got mine" un-constructive circle-jerking going on in this thread. People with under-utilized degrees arguing over scraps. You aren't a better person who deserves a living wage more just because you got a degree. Everyone deserves the right to be able to work hard and put food on the table. Working retail may not be fulfilling work or mentally challenging work but it is still work and it isn't easy. Your head shouldn't explode because the OTHER HARDWORKING PERSON is making a comparable wage to you.
People in this thread need to get off their high horse and read a book (like Nickel and Dimed).
I ain't so good at book descriptions but here's some stuff I really enjoyed -
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-A-Novel/dp/0307887448
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: http://www.amazon.com/The-Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/1597801585
The author would argue with me about this being SF - Atwood prefers the term "speculative history" I believe - but the entire Oryx and Crake trilogy is very good.
http://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676/ref=la_B000AQTHI0_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1397411558&amp;sr=1-2 the first book in Oryx and Crake, followed by Year of the Flood and Madaddam
Oh boy have I got some books for you:
The editor of National Review Online argues the path to a better conservatism lies in a marriage with libertarianism.
National Review's Roving Correspondent argues that the American government is collapsing under its own weight and that's a good thing.
A former marine and Yale-educated lawyer gives a powerful account of his upbringing in a Rust-belt town and his family's connection to Appalachia.
The Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the House of Lords describes how spontaneous order is behind a great many advancements of the modern age and why centralized "design" is ineffective and prone to failure.
The popular freshman senator describes the crisis of America's youth, and how the solutions lay beyond the realm of politics.
One of America's leading constitutional law scholars explains why Americans would benefit from a renewal of our Republican Constitution and how such a renewal can be achieved.
A curated collection of Buckley's best eulogies, A Torch Kept Lit provides invaluable insight into both the eminent twentieth century conservative and an unrevised conservative account of the great lives of the twentieth century.
This volume of Justice Scalia's finest speeches provides intimate insight on the justice's perspectives on law, faith, virtue, and private life.
Maybe Hillbilly Elegy?
If you don't understand someone, it's easy to call them stupid. There's a couple of books written specifically to help people understand those who voted for Trump:
Hillbilly Elegy:
>Now, along comes Mr. Vance, offering a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump. Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans.
White Working Class
>White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters.
From what I understand, there's always been a tension between the colonial frontier states and the more coastal centers of wealth and political power. Without getting too long-winded, colonial America was populated in several waves that each laid claim to different geographical areas. The last wave was largely made up of poor, uneducated, war-ravaged people from the hinterlands of northern England/Scotland/Ireland. When they arrived they weren't accepted with open arms and given housing/jobs in Philadelphia and Boston so they could acculturate. No, they headed west into the wilderness and, more or less, carved out their own 'nation' up and down the Appalachians (living close to the bone, fighting natives, and mostly being left alone). The common thread in this culture is a more pronounced tribal instinct, bellicosity, skepticism toward highfalutin concepts related to Social Contract, and pride.
I don't want to unnecessarily piss people off by painting with too wide of a brush. I'll just say that there's a lot to admire about the Appalachian culture/nation. However, there are also a lot of flaws too. Most fundamentally, I think it's the pride that is the toughest to overcome. It's hard to convince one struggling person to swallow their pride and try an alternative approach. How do you convince millions?
EDIT: Shit! A whole paragraph got fat-fingered. Anyway, what I typed out was something like:
> Today the culture has adopted a contrarian stance using the confederate flag as an emblem of resistance/antagonism designed less as an honest affinity toward the Confederate mission, but more as a statement that they're unique and don't identify with the urban cultural centers. Sure there are hard-line organized and principled racists in the mix too, and they may be exploiting the current milieu. But (in my experience) the initial attraction that an average West Virginian might have toward the confederate flag is more about thumbing their nose at moralizing Yankees while signalling their membership in an alternate club. In short: librul tears.
Sources and references:
I can do better than tell you some, there's a whole book of them!
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/006230125X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_J5OEAbQBEMRDA
Been loving the responses so far! My own preferences have been changing, and I've been reading a lot more non-fiction than I used to. It has really opened the doors to a lot of books I would not have considered reading before!
On my reading list:
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley - this is what I'm almost finished with now. It has been a really insightful read on how little prepared society is for disasters, and the steps we should take to help fix that.
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker - I've seen this mentioned on reddit a few times and it's in the same vein as the book I'm currently reading.
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - I'm currently working in the startup industry, and have read similar books to this.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - same as the book above. This is currently going around my office right now so I should be reading it soon!
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - this was recommended to me by a friend when he learned I was reading The Unthinkable and The Gift of Fear. Honestly really looking forward to reading this one!
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
Books I'd recommend:
Blink by Malcom Gladwell - all about the subconscious mind and the clues we pick up without realizing it. Pretty sure reading this book has helped me out in weird situations.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance - amazing read about how Elon Musk works and the person he is.
The Circle by Dave Eggers - just don't watch the movie :)
One of the best books I've read that places mathematical discoveries in their historical contexts: Journey Through Genius. Dunham tells the story of math through different great theorems - why they were historically important, why they are important today - and then walks you through the proof. My copy is at school, so I can't say anything more tonight, but give it a shot.
Good luck!
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics is also good too, with many historical mathematicians and their contributions. The author William Dunham, actually gave a lecture on Newton and Euler at my university a few weeks ago too.
I am currently reading a fantastic book which might be interesting for you. It is called Journey through Genius. The book starts from the beginning of math and presents hand picked theorems in a very engaging way. Background information on the great mathematicians and what drove them to come up with these proofs in the first place makes the information stick long after reading. I also second PuTongHua who recommended Better Explained.
I think that you, like many people, have a lot of engrained beliefs about poverty that aren't fact-based but learned from a lifetime of media angles, biased and anecdotal accounts, etc that you haven't questioned yet. If you'd like some good reads to expand your education on the poor in the US, $2 A Day and Nickled and Dimed are great reads.
I hesitate to say you should feel bad per se, but gentrification is becoming a major issue in urban areas. It's nice when upper-middle class white people take it upon themselves to "renovate" areas, but the people who were there need to go somewhere.
If you're still on the "the homeless are only homeless because they are lazy" train, let me suggest Nickel and Dimed. It's a great exploration of poverty in the United States, although it's a bit dated now.
Here's a "quick" primer
I'm also reading this cool Wolfenstein fanfiction right now. Also thinking about doing some nice The New Colossus cosplay by modifying some of my beed sheets like this. Boy, I'm such a fanboy. HEIL HITLER xD
Nerves of steel come from confidence and being above fear. Confidence comes from practice and competition. Being above fear comes from a lifestyle of conquering fears.
If you want to be more comfortable on the street, figure out exactly what you're afraid of and get better at it. Are you afraid he's going to hit you? Learn boxing or muay thai or bjj. Are you afraid he's going to yell at you? Learn debate skills.
My dad was a firefighter for a decade. His dad trained WW2 bomber pilots. I asked my dad how he kept calm on intense calls. He said he would rely on his training and took every problem as it came. You have no idea what the scene is going to look like on your way there, but you can trust that you're the best prepared one there, so everyone's depending on you to take charge and lead. Planning ahead is very important, but more important is staying in the moment.
Meditation works out that muscle. Staying in the moment is a muscle in your brain that you have to work out. What fear and anxiety is is you living outside of the moment. Fear is you trying to bring the past into the present. Anxiety is you trying to predict the future. Live in the moment and take shit as it comes. The more you can do that, the more you can relax into chaotic situations with confidence. Just do your best and know that that's all anyone can do in life. We can only do our best.
Another thing is your mindset for life. Always do your best. Always give your fullest. Figure out your core values and live to them every day of your life. If you can say every day that you did your fucking best, then you are going to be able to say "I am ready to die today" and you won't walk around terrified of death. Death is the root fear of all the fears. If you can conquer the fear of death, you will be very strong.
.
There's a lot more to this, I'm just kind of rambling off what comes to mind before I go to work. But this will get you started. I wish you all the best and I hope I've helped some.
Some good resources are Shambhala, The Art of Learning, On Becoming a Leader, Better Under Pressure, Leading at the Edge, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and then this interview with Rickson Gracie (one of the greatest fighters to ever walk the Earth).
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign
It's got a 3.5 star on Amazon because BernieBros don't like how the authors call out the desperation of Bernie to hurt Clinton, even when he had mathematically lost.
Another really good book though is Chasing Hillary. It's a bit less in depth about the campaign but also is very readable and shows what it's like to work in the media chasing an election campaign.
I read it in Shattered, I will see if I can find an article saying the same.
> Yes it is
> Here's a great example
> Like did you just not pay attention to the general election at all
This is a single campaign ad. It's not the overarching strategy or theme of the campaign. This strategy I mentioned is spoken about heavily in this book that was written over the course of the campaign. I'm not going to dig through the book again to find an exact source for it, but I found an article that discusses this point about the book here.
> That's less of an assessment and more of a talking point
It's an actual assessment. There were multiple focus group studies conducted of Bernie supporters and the results were abysmal. They couldn't even run ads Bernie did for the campaign since they performed so poorly.
> Is this why they continued to fight to push the DNC to include genuine progressive reforms into the official party platform (literally all of which were summarily voted down by Clinton's committee majority)
This is being misrepresented a bit. Bernie's share of representatives on this committee was disproportionately large in comparison to what the runner up nominee got in prior elections. Your views on this seems a bit odd as well. You're acting as though it's an outrage that the Clinton team did not agree with everything the Bernie people put forward. It's their right to disagree and propose competing ideas, that's not some type of injustice or scandal.
> Like, you can't say that there's nothing that Clinton could have done to court genuine progressive liberals when she not only avoided any attempt whatsoever to do so, but further remained continuously dismissive at best, often reaching the point of blatant condescension for the entirety of her campaign.
This was a leaked outtake of something she said in a fundraiser, not exactly a campaign strategy they implemented. In context I don't disagree with anything she said here.
>Policy was irrelevant
>Are you insane
No, I'm not. The electorate votes on how candidates make them feel and which of the candidates they like more. The reality is policy is utterly irrelevant, the people who care about policy are usually partisan voters that follow politics closely and even those people aren't capable of determining what is a good liberal policy or bad liberal policy.
>Yeah I uh
>I think I already covered this kind of thing
>You seem to be generally out of touch with members of the party over here on the left end of the spectrum, but if you have an authentic desire to reach out in the interest of understanding, and in working towards figuring out how the center-right portion of the party might be able reach some actual, meaningful compromises with the genuine left, then I am more than happy to engage in such a discussion
I've worked with the Democratic party and I've also worked with local grassroots movements like indivisible. I'm not out of touch at all, which is why I know it's hopeless. Your entire post is a great example of why it's utterly hopeless.
I remember a book that was recommended to me that sadly I never had time to read: Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. I don't know enough about it to say if it includes other horse cultures or not.
Read this
On top of Twenty-Three Years and Life of Muhammad, I also suggest http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537
Check out this YouTube playlist. It's quite comprehensive.
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed (S)
In terms of books, you could read Martin Lings , or Tariq Ramadan , or Meraj Mohiuddin
Also, you could watch this as a primer on Islam.
But that was not all. Oh no, that was not all.
Read William Blum’s Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II. It’s comprehensive.
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
Sounds apt to me. I recommend reading that book, knowing your enemies helps you be on the lookout for people that will put a knife in your back the first chance they get.
>I'll just say that there must be a hell of a lot of maniacs running around.
There are. Also you can see that the number of 21,000 you quoted doesn't require a 1:1 ratio of murderers to victims.
>A 2008 study using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) found that 1.2% of a US sample scored 13 or more which indicates "potential psychopathy".
If you're interested in this subject I have some suggestions:
Killer In Clowntown: Joe Doherty,The IRA and the Relationship by Martin Dillon
The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study of Mass Murder
also by Martin Dillon
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D. Hare
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
Them by Jon Ronson
The Baader-Meinhof Complex by Stephan Aust
The Demon Lover: The Roots Of Terrorism by Robin Morgan
AMEN. this is such bullshit pop-psychology crap.
I know quite a bit about psychopathy and know at least 2 true psychopaths that tested quite high on the Hare Assessment - PCL-R.
If you want to know more about psychopaths start at the beginning. Robert Hare's book - "Without Concscience" It's fantastic. It will tell you what psychopathy is about, and how to identify it.
Without Conscience
then read - "Snakes In Suits - When psychopaths go to work" - which talks about how psychopaths do VERY well in our corporate structure, where acting without remorse can run parallel to acting on behalf of the company.
Stop reading crap like this. they couldn't even say what the whole "no feeling, uncaring" thing is actually called - its called "shallow affect"
One thing that is of interest is true psychopaths lack "anticipation" - they don't "ramp up" to prepare for something - it happens, they react, its gone. there is no rise or fall to the moment.
I've always had a personal theory that at some time in the past psychopaths made fierce powerful warriors, giving them the ability to do what others could not. when the mind has a psychotic break it actually physically alters itself and never changes back. Its as if this horrible state of no feeling was there to continue the species on some level.
A psychopath views you as a person as a means to an end. How you feel about a mailbox, or garbage can, or wooden door - is how they often can feel about people and living things. Image looking at your world that way - where these things around you are just that..."things". why not kick one? that thing is in the way? - move it out of the way. so on and so on.
here - this is a interview with Tommy Lynn Sells - considered a "perfect" psychopath. they estimate he's killed 70+ people - he's chilling.
Tommy Lynn Sells
The psychopath will try to manipulate the INTJ like they do everyone else. The INTJ will be too self-absorbed and/or uninterested, and brush aside the psychopath with a lot of "no's" and "that's nice" (LOL). The psychopath will get angry and frustrated. The INTJ at this point will still not know they're dealing with a psychopath. They just think this person is perhaps a little strange.
If the INTJ is lucky it will end there. These psychopath "things" are unbelievable. Horrific. They are like viruses or alien beings. If the INTJ is unlucky (if they are in a vulnerable position, are weak, or insecure) the psychopath will devastate their lives. A lot of people who are psychopath victims will suffer lasting psychological trauma and deteriorate physically. They are so good at mimicking humans it can take years to detect one.
Here are some books I recommend from best to least best (they are all good):
https://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next-Door-Martha-Stout/dp/0767915828/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1467947734&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=martha+stout
https://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1467947736&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=psychopath+hare
https://www.amazon.com/Mask-Sanity-So-Called-Psychopathic-Personality/dp/1614277826/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1467947784&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=mask+of+sanity+cleckley
Yeps. Staying single is going to be the best option. Try to find happiness inside yourself. It helps you a lot through life.
I'm sorry you had to go through all that to get to that point. There's a psychopath.free website in case you're interested. I'm really, really sorry.
I hope at least you are cleared of the infection now and physically healthy. It's a good idea to build yourself up first. But, as a part of the build-up, I recommend you to read this:
Website (wonderful):
https://www.psychopathfree.com/
Books:
https://www.amazon.es/Psychopath-Free-Emotionally-Relationships-Narcissists/dp/0425279995/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=581FVXY7XHNKKZ253RSN
https://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
https://www.amazon.es/Sociopath-Next-Door-Ruthless-versus/dp/0767915828/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=N54Z9CMYAWS29Z7Z85CB
https://www.amazon.es/Empathy-Trap-Understanding-Antisocial-Personalities/dp/1847092764/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=N54Z9CMYAWS29Z7Z85CB
Sorry if I am meddling. I hope you get better, and I hope at least your body is OK now. I really wish you a good return to physical and emotional health. And yes, best thing you can do is learn to live on your own and be happy that way. Maybe when you get to that point someone worthy will appear but... don't count on it. Not everyone is worthy, not everyone is marriage-material, or even long term relationship material, so not everyone can get a married happy-ever after. BUT, everyone can get a happy-ever after if they focus on getting it without depending on other people's decisions.
This is a great book by Robert Hare who is a leading expert on Psychopaths.
He says psychopathy is entirely genetic. The type of psychopath you end up with however varies on intelligence. Some are smart enough to know not to break the law, and learn instead to work within it. They may end up your neighbor or the CEO of your company. Others may be stupid like this kid, and resort to violence. But whats similar about both types, is that they see you ultimately as a means to an end and nothing more. They can emulate empathy, but they don't actually have any.
Shackleton had a hell of a trip too. Here's a great book on it if anyone is interested.
This excellent book tells the story of Shackelton's attempt on the South Pole.
Graphic novel, if that's more to your liking.
Endurance. Everything you've gone through or are going through pales in comparison to what Shackleton and his men went through. But I hope things get better for you, anyway.
Good list and some new reading material for me!
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyag covers Shackleton's 1914 Journey. I don't have anything to compare it to, nor am I a Historian expert, but I found it enjoyable and engaging.
Not all of these have cannibalism, but most:
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Poe, The Boat, In The Heart of The Sea (this is a really awesome book, as are the authors other works), Endurance, Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls, The Wreck of the Medusa, The Wreck of the Dumaru, Life of Pi
A couple non-fiction (with a legal focus) books about the Mignonette incident and the resulting famous case of Regina v Dudley and Stevens: Is Eating People Wrong?, and The Custom of the Sea
Hahaha, well said! Around January I got into adventure non-fic. If you're interested you might enjoy:
We Die Alone about Norwegians commandos doing batshit crazy stuff during WWII,
Farthest North about Norwegians doing batshit crazy stuff for the sake of exploration, and
Endurance about British adventurers in the Antarctic.
"If I did it" by OJ.
http://www.amazon.com/If-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1414501965&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=if+I+did+it
The Practice of System and Network Administration, Second Edition by Thomas A. Limoncelli is a great place to start for mindset. Guess that counts as a "textbook" to you however.
For non-fiction/memoir grab The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage for a great walk-through of what it is like to find an anomaly and track it back to the source and then figure out what to do about it.
Yes this. This is by far his most interesting book (although I haven't read his most recent one yet). Did you know that tri-color vision is unique in the mammals to howler monkeys and apes? And that we know it evolved separately in the howlers and the apes due to geographic separation and fundamental differences in the color-sensing mechanism*? That blew my mind. You learn stuff like that almost every page in The Ancestor's Tale. And the way it traces human lineage back through time makes you appreciate the immense scale, scope, and power of evolution.
My other suggestions would be:
*This is from memory - so I might be slightly off, but you get the point.
Here's two, although they're not mission-specific:
Moon Machines is a series of really good documentaries that highlight alot of the tech and engineering on the Apollo missions.
Failure Is Not An Option has been on my to-read list and is written by NASA's flight director during the Apollo missions.
2 books I've enjoyed that together give a pretty thorough view of things:
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts - All the Apollo missions, and a source for the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon"
Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - A memoir that's a look at the technical stories and folks supporting the astronauts, starting at our space program's early days.
Both these books are in-depth and not over-dramatized.
I think that’s just Amazon’s excuse.
“I wrote a verified purchase review and it has been deleted 3 times. If Amazon doesn't like what we have to say, don't ask for input.”
Endurance - true story about Shackleton's miraculous year on ice in the race to be first to the South Pole
Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Well this isn't exactly what you are looking for but there is a book called Endurance which is the diary of Ernest Shackleton and others from his crew during an expedition in 1914 to cross over the Antarctic overland. As you would expect, things go horribly wrong and they get stuck. It's a fascinating look into the world of those early 20th century world explorers as well as a very tense story about being stuck in that frozen wasteland without any help.
Hmmm... fiction? Non-fiction? First-person meaning told through a first-person narrative style, or just generally following a single person fighting for survival?
Fiction-wise, I'm a fan of To The White Sea by James Dickey. I've also always heard universally good things about the young adult novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, but have yet to read it myself.
In the realm of non-fiction, Touching The Void is a pretty incredible story, and was made into a stellar documentary film. Also, anything about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica is worth checking out, so there you've got Endurance by Alfred Lansing, as well as Shackleton's own account, South: The Endurance Expedition.
I thought of you when reading about Shackleton's hiring practices in Endurance. He never interviewed candidates longer than 5 min, and hired completely based on what is now known as a "blink" impression. He hired an anthropologist as his meteorologist because he "looked funny," a surgeon because he wore fake glasses to look smarter, and a physicist for his singing skills. Anyway, I figured those would probably send you into an apoplectic fit, so bookmarked them for future use :-)
If you haven't read it, I highly recommend reading Alfred Lansing's Endurance. Phenomenal book. I don't know how those guys made it through that journey. At one point, they're literally just stuck in an ice sheet for months, waiting to drift north enough for the ice to melt. I would have lost my mind.
(Ninja edit)
He already did
This one.
Yes, but is legally unable to have a second trial.
No they did not. The "If" is still there. They just had it printed really, really small. If you magnify the picture, and look really close at the "i" in "I did it" you will see the word "if" printed in red.
https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934#reader_0825305934
EDIT: they did add the subtitle "Confessions of THE Killer"
Read away!
I have mostly nonfiction recommendations, but hope the following are of some use to you! I used these in my classroom in the past year with much success.
I can edit and add more fiction later when I get home, and look over my bookshelf as well.
World War II
"In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin" by Erik Larsen - highly recommend, especially if you are familiar with Larsen's previous book, The Devil in White City
"The Monuments Men" by Robert M. Edsel - highly recommended, especially if you are interested in the juxtaposition of art, war, and espionage.
"Unbroken" - by Laura Hillenbrand, highly recommended. Hillenbrand's command of the language and prose coupled with the true story of Louis makes this a compelling read. Even my most reluctant readers couldn't put this done.
Vietnam War
"The Things They Carried" and "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up, and Ship Me Home" by Tim O'Brien are quintessential war canon. Must reads.
Iraq/Afghanistan/Modern Military Operations:
"The Yellow Birds" by Kevin Powers was called "the modern AQOTWF" by Tom Wolfe. Pretty poignant book. Absolute MUST READ.
Don't think you can go wrong with Unbroken. A best seller, it's a "military story" more or less, but more importantly about personal growth, resilience and gives the reader a different prospective of life afterwards.
For a higher calling. It's not just about the encounter but about the life of both the German and U.S flight crew leading up to and in the war.
"Four days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a 21-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly, a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber’s tail—a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would defy imagination and later be called the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II. This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day—the American—2nd Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17—and the German—2nd Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II.
A Higher Call follows both Charlie and Franz’s harrowing missions. Charlie would face takeoffs in English fog over the flaming wreckage of his buddies’ planes, flak bursts so close they would light his cockpit, and packs of enemy fighters that would circle his plane like sharks. Franz would face sandstorms in the desert, a crash alone at sea, and the spectacle of 1,000 bombers each with eleven guns, waiting for his attack. Ultimately, Charlie and Franz would stare across the frozen skies at one another. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as “top secret.” It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search for one another, a last mission that could change their lives forever."
and
Unbroken as all too often, the book is a thousand times better than the movie. Same for this book it doesn't just talk about the incident and what happened after but there's some really interesting contextualization that helps you empathize with the characters.
"On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will."
&#x200B;
If you at all like aviation you'll love either of these books.
Somebody in another comment mentioned Kevin Mitnick.
In addition to Mitnick's book, I'll also recommend:
Steven Levy's Hackers. It's a classic exploration of the birth of the computer age and hacker culture, with a lot of insights into the mindset of computer people, both white-hat and black-hat.
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, which is an account of him tracking down some serious hackers waaay back in the day. It's kind of vintage now, but I remember it being very well written and engaging. It's more like reading a novel than some dry academic piece.
In similar vein is Takedown, by Tsutomu Shimomura, which is Shimomura's account of pursuing and catching Kevin Mitnick. Also quite good, as it was co-written by John Markoff. There's a whiff of Shimomura tooting his own horn in it, but you definitely get a feel for the chase as it was happening, and learn a lot about the details of what Mitnick (and others in the underground hacking world) were actually doing.
Weird fact: I had no idea at the time, of course, but during some of Mitnick's last days before they nabbed him, he lived in an apartment building in my neighborhood in Seattle, right across from the grocery store where I always shopped. And about a year later, I ended up dating a girl who lived in that same building at that time, though of course she had no idea Mitnick was there either or even who he was. Still, I always wonder if I ever happened to stand next to him in line at the grocery store or something like that.
Anyone ever read the book "The Cuckoo's Egg", by Cliff Stoll? It deals with mid-80s cybercrime (true story) but there was something kinda similar to this, where early on he tracked the bad dude down to the country (but didn't realize it yet because the answer initially sounded so ridiculous to him) by figuring how long it took for data to travel.
Fantastic fantastic book. I'm on my second copy--read the first one literally to pieces.
I can't recommend this book enough: https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787
This is basically the story of one network admin tracking someone attacking his (and the military's) networks. Takes place in the late 80s. If you'd really like to see a description of the "wild west period of the internet", this is it.
Have you read The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Espionage/dp/1416507787
The call he made to the Los Angeles Air Force Base when they were getting hacked bad is one of my favorites. To paraphrase, he was tracking hackers, and they got into LAAFB's computer. He called the duty officer. He told them someone had broken into their computer, duty officer said "impossible, it has a password". And Stoll said "yes, the password is "sysop", the default, it was never changed". The duty officer yanked the connection out of the wall as I recall, or something like that.
If you have not read it, it is a GREAT book, and well ahead of its time, highly recommended.
These are not exactly books about computer science, but rather about the various human aspects (both are non-fiction):
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll. This is about one of the first computer hackers (in the black hat media sense of hacker). The author stumbled onto the intrusion due to a 75 cent billing discrepancy, and went on to invent honeypots and other creative means of tracking the hacker.
The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder. Written in 1981, it follows two competing teams in a Massachusetts computer company trying to build a 32-bit minicomputer under intense time pressure.
Hackers: Heros of the Computer Revolution
The Cookoo's Egg
Both non-fiction, both excellent. Both cover a unique period in computing history, the understanding of which is worthwhile.
Does Cuckoo's Egg ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416507787?pc_redir=1395427486&amp;robot_redir=1) count? I remember reading this and writing a report on it back in middle(?) school. Made me want to be that one day...
In the forward to The Cuckoo's egg Clifford Stoll mentioned his oral defense of his dissertation. At some poiint one of the gravelly old profs said "I only have one question. Why is the sky blue?". So Stoll starts talking about the scattering of the light and get's interrupted "okay, but why?". Before he knew it they were deep into physics and he said it was the hardest part of the defense by far.
TL;DR - Science is hard
His book is excellent and is full of them. I read it on a cross-country plane ride. It's riveting enough, particularly during Apollo 13, that you'll breeze through it fairly quickly.
http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813
A Man on the Moon by Andy Chaiken is considered THE text on the Apollo program. If formed the basis of the mini series From the Earth to the Moon
Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz is a wonderful first hand account of life in the trenches from Mercury thru Apollo.
And my personal favorite space book - Roving Mars which was turned into a great IMAX movie as well.
Okay, for sci-fi, you have to get The Culture series in. Put Player of Games face out.
I don't read a lot of space books, but Asteroid Hunter by Carrie Nugent is awesome. I mostly have recommendations for spaceflight and spaceflight history, and a lot of these come from listeners to my podcast, so all credit to them.
I very highly recommend Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz for an insider's view of early spaceflight, and I'm currently reading How Apollo Flew to the Moon by W. David Woods, which is an extremely in-depth technical overview of the entire Apollo program written for laymen.
Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz is an excellent memoir of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
Read Kranz's book. This scene is frisson defined.
EDIT: Here's the link -- http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813
Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz. Your question mirrors the scope of this book so closely that I actually wondered if you'd already read it and wanted some stuff to follow up with.
http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813
Available for the Kindle!
Yep!
Denial? She wrote a book about it. You can get in on Amazon
For those interested in keeping tabs:
Trump
Clinton
As of this writing Clinton is #1 in books, and Trump is #84.
All things considered, having Trump's book crack the Top 100 all from a relatively minor concentrated effort from The_Donald and /pol/ is quite impressive. They are competing in theory with a sizable national population.
The Art of the Deal (which I remember some memes said people should buy instead) is #362 as of this writing
Spez: Great Again is #16 (15:44 EDT)
this might help https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564/
What Happened is the third best selling biography on Amazon (the audiobook is #6 and the Kindle version is #9), and the best selling political book in any category.
It's the highest selling women's biography (with the Kindle and audio versions coming in at 3 and 4). The book is all 3 of the highest selling political memoirs and also the highest selling civics book.
What Happened is also the #1 bestseller in any category.
Bernie's new book is claiming the high number of..........#714. His last book is #13,503.
You want a source? OK
SOURCE
About $17.99 on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
Did Amazon make it verified reviews only? I saw it at 3 stars yesterday.
Also how is it? I'm about to finish the book I'm reading soon, so I'm thinking about potential reads. I also have a copy of Hyperion as well, but I wanna weigh my options before committing to a new book.
I am Catholic and learned most of what I know about Islam though university classes and independent research. I can give you a list of books I have read about Islam that will get you started.
Oxford English Koran
Obviously the primary text is important to have and the book is pretty small. Much smaller compared to the bible.
Hadith of Bukhari: Volumes I, II, III & IV
Half of Islamic law is derived from the Koran and the other half from the Hadith. The Hadith is the collection of events, and quotes by Mohammad and his followers. This book is huge and you shouldn't try to read the whole since it is just list quotes and who they are by. But it is a good reference source and something to page through.
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Biography of Mohammad using historical sources. Good reference.
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
Brief 350 page run of Islamic history until now as told by a Muslim. I felt the book was a bit preachy and accusatory towards the end but I read it 6 years ago so my memory might be hazy. Still a good read if you want to try to understand how mainstream moderate Muslim scholars see things. It has a good bibliography too.
There are probably a bunch of other ones I am forgetting. Take a look through Amazon and see what else they have. I would only buy books from university presses or published by academics though. They can be dense and difficult but they are peer reviewed which is important since there is so much anti-Islam, pro-Islam publishing out there.
Martin lings: Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
The Path of Muhammad: A Book on Islamic Morals & Ethics by Imam Birgivi (Spiritual Classics)
Martin Lings' Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources is popular for good reason.
But the best history book I've seen is the work of Dr. Ali M. Sallabi.
It's two volumes and like 2000 pages but it's fascinating read.
I have it on PDF if you want it.
**
For understanding context, Dr. Jonathan Brown is an excellent resource. He's got several books, including his most recent Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy (he's already working on 2nd edition lol...)
Interesting.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062300547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_AkidAb2T3C5JM
Recommend Hillbilly Elegy for insight into this phenomenon.
What I get out of this is that Rush:Conservatism as Jon Stewart:Liberalism--considering, analyzing, and mocking both the other side's attitudes--and particularly the other side's preferred media.
But no one serious on the left yields the discussion to the talk-radio or television. Ten years ago, the left was reading Robert Putnam and Thomas Franks; now, in an increasing show of empathy, they're reading even more serious authors.
Where are the Arlie Russell Hochschild, the Katherine Cramer, or the JD Vance of the right? Where are the calm, serious, extended analyses--the book-length treatments, and the informed, sober book reviews?
Sorry, poor WHITE working classes.
>Trump essentially won by just 80,000 votes in three states, maybe that, along with issues like the opioid epidemic and poor health outcomes, was enough to put him over the top. But the analysis also shows that a bulk of support for Trump — perhaps what made him a contender to begin with — came from beliefs rooted in racism and sexism.
It's important to note that the poor white working class was not integrated--they didn't work alongside poor blacks and Hispanics at the same jobs. They were surrounded by other white people.
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1522176550&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=hillbilly+elegy
A good read.
I was painting with a broad brush, yes. It's probably better to say that Rosanne Connor is representing a very specific, individual person.
Edit: The three states being Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
This year I read all four of Chris Guillebeau's books, Hillbilly Elegy, and Hand to Mouth. I enjoyed all of them.
I also often recommend books by Eckhart Tolle and The 5 Love Languages.
>It didn't really change anybody's mind, and one's view on it was 99% shaped by what they were already thinking.
These books are about why they think that way. Hillbilly Elegy is about communities (mainly the non-urban communities that gave Trump huge support) that feel left behind and the recent history and thinking of those groups. The Big Sort is about the homogenization of social groups and thinking in the US, leading to why people feel comfortable throwing "grenades". The Righteous Mind is a book on the psychology of morality and politics in the US and why the ideologies are so different.
Trump may have won big with white voters of all stripes, but he also did better among Latinos than Romney, so it's obvious that it isn't just "poor uneducated whites", but if people don't try to figure out why the division is so strong and where the other side is coming from, what chance do we have for uniting and restoration?
I live in the most liberal district in one of the most liberal cities in the US. I have no difficulty in understanding that perspective and its driving forces. The other view is not so well illuminated
Edit: though I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. This is the one place I can go to avoid all the cross-talk about politics and ideologies. I like all of you guys and our light conversations about shoes. I'd rather not ruin that for myself.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance is on Google Play Books and Amazon, but if you don't mind Piracy you can also get it on Library Genesis
Yes, that is a good point. That was also detailed in the book I read.
If anyone cares, I think it's this book (I read at least two so I'm not 100% sure): https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1475082388&amp;sr=8-5
You can read more in depth on all of this in Elon Musk's biography which he actually cooperated with. Like how his first son died of SIDs, his companies were close to bankrupt way more than once, how many arguments there were in the PayPal days, and how absolutely incredible the feats of Tesla and SpaceX really were given the small time frame they were working with.
Check out some pop math books.
John Derbyshire's Prime Obsession talks about today's most famous unsolved problem, both the history of and an un-rigorous not-in-depth discussion of the mathematical ideas.
There's also Keith Devlin's Mathematics: The New Golden Age, which, to quote redditor schnitzi, "provides an overview of most of the major discoveries in mathematics since 1960, across all subdisciplines, and isn't afraid to try to teach you the basics of them (unlike many similar books)."
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott is an interesting novel about dimension and immersion. An absolute classic, first published in 1884.
You should also check out the books on math history.
Journey Through Genius covers some of the major mathematical breakthroughs from the time of the Greeks to modern day. I enjoyed this one.
Derbyshire wrote one too called Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra which I've heard is good.
And finally, you should check out at least one book containing actual mathematics. For this I emphatically recommend Paul Halmos' Naive Set Theory. It is a small book, just 100 pages, absolutely bursting with mathematical insight and complexity. It is essentially a haiku on a subject that forms the theoretical foundation of all of today's mathematics (though it is slowly being usurped by category theory). After sufficient background material is introduced, the book covers the ever-important Axiom of Choice (remember the Banach-Tarski paradox?), along with its sisters, Zorn's Lemma and the Well Ordering Principle. After that it discusses cardinal numbers and the levels of infinity. The path he takes is absolutely beautiful and his experience and understanding virtually drips from the pages.
Oh yeah, there's an awesome reading list of books put out by the University of Cambridge that might be of interest too: PDF warning.
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics Mathematics opened up the world of math for me like nothing else did.
The Illuminatus Trilogy perhaps
Really it all depends on your goals, though. Do you want to be eclectic? Read 'quality' literature? Be the campus ideologue? Have a good idea about the classes you might be taking?
One thing I would suggest is, if you have a subject you are interested in...find a good textbook and start reading. This has helped me get a more balanced view of things (I think) than reading 'what's hot' in the field's popular literature.
Working your way through a beginning discrete math class is kind of an overview of the history of math. But here are some stand-alone books on it. Writing quality varies.
The World of Mathematics
A History of Mathematical Notation. Warning: his style is painful.
Journey Through Genius
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics. A reference book, but useful.
Another great book that will hone your math and your vocabulary is Journey Through Genius.
https://smile.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X?sa-no-redirect=1
This book was like a revelation to me.
Introduced me to non-Euclidean geometry and all other kinds of crazy shit.
I highly recommend Jouney Through Genius by William Dunham. It covers the great theorems in history from Euclid to Cantor, and the writing style is very engaging and accessible. It has a perfect five star record on amazon with over a hundred reviews which is pretty rare.
I read a book called Journey Through Genius for a math history class. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it matches what you are looking for.
Not a book, but I can share a few videos that I've found inspirational during some rough times with mathematics...
Fermat's Last Theorem -- This is a documentary on Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's last theorem. It's also probably the most emotional video I've ever watched about math. Highly recommended.
Fractals -- This is a neat NOVA documentary on fractals. In particular, it provides some inspiring history regarding Mandelbrot's discovery and journey with this subject.
Everything is relative, Mr. Poincare -- Another exceptional and inspiring documentary.
The only book I can recommend is Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, which provides an excellent treatise on the history of mathematics. From the book description
> Dunham places each theorem within its historical context and explores the very human and often turbulent life of the creator — from Archimedes, the absentminded theoretician whose absorption in his work often precluded eating or bathing, to Gerolamo Cardano, the sixteenth-century mathematician whose accomplishments flourished despite a bizarre array of misadventures, to the paranoid genius of modern times, Georg Cantor. He also provides step-by-step proofs for the theorems, each easily accessible to readers with no more than a knowledge of high school mathematics.
It's a very good read, and not too gigantic. Good wishes your way, mate.
>Gangs are for adults who never grew up
If you have any interest in actually understanding the composition and function of gangs I recommend reading Gang Leader for a Day. Here is a brief article about the book.
For me, it was a hipster friend of mine. We would debate politics and I had an answer for everything but really I was just repeating things I had heard my whole life. He finally said "You know what, you are a horrible person!" I was like wtf and he just walked away. Rather than feeling like I had won the argument, my feelings were hurt and I went home and thought for a long time about why he would think I was a horrible person. I started to notice things that I did and the way I treated people. I really was an asshole. I started to question my view of the world. I had traveled half way around the world and had seen a bunch of things that I now realized didn't really jive with what I had been taught.
Before that I had never questioned what I had been taught but the more people I met (especially educated people) the more I realized that my ideas of people and cultures and race were totally fucking wrong. It took a lot of effort to "reprogram" myself. You have to pay attention to your thoughts and question them and analyze them. It was a bitch at first but you get used to it. That was about 11 years ago and I still have to check myself sometimes.
Edit: A friend of mine in grad school recommended a book. It was the first chip in the wall for changing my view of black people. I realized that people, regardless of their race, are just going through their life and trying to make the best of their situation, just like me.
Gang Leader for a day
I'm going to respond to this in pieces.
> What I mean by that is when someone has an addiction or commits a crime, they want to blame society instead of themselves. It's always someone else's fault.
I'm not sure which way to interpret this. Are you saying that the criminal is blaming society, or that the liberals are blaming society for that criminal's behavior?
If it is the criminal, then yes, that's an issue, but that's an issue regardless of party.
If you are saying that the liberals want to blame society, then I don't think that is quite correct. If someone commits a crime, then they should be caught, evidence gathered, and if found guilty they should be punished and then rehabilitated. There's argument over the ratio of punishment versus rehabilitation, as to an extent those are separate things.
If there is an upward trend in crime, particularly among a particular group or area however, then we need to ask the question of why. All to often society is a factor here - poverty increases crime in two ways:
Neither of those points releases the individual who committed the crime from responsibility, but it's also important to acknowledge that so long as the factors exist that promote crime within that group/community/area, then it will continue to be a problem.
I strongly suggest reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X - it gives a very in depth view of how poor urban economies work, how it promotes crime, and really highlights the balance behind that issue.
> If someone tried breaking into your house and you shoot them, they seem to want to blame you for something.
I've seen a few cases of this, but really not many. Most of the time it seems to be more of a people thing than a particular party thing - for the flip side, any time there is a police shooting of a black male, the conservatives try to paint him as a thug, a criminal, or a gangster.
> If there's a shooting, people want to blame the gun and not the person wielding it.
For this one, the only response I can make is OH HELL NO. This is pure NRA/FOX News pandered bullshit, and not the view of anybody but the outside fringe of the left.
Guns, like all weapons, are a force multiplier. Nothing more, nothing less.
For a mass shooting to happen, three things need to exist:
If one of those things does not exist, then there can't be a mass shooting. Both of these break down further into different factors:
can mitigate it without infringing on the rights of citizens is to keep relationships between the government and various communities positive - most would be terrorists who are caught are caught because of tips from their friends or family.
The force multiplier thing is another "Where do you draw the line" issue. We can pretty much all agree that random people on the street shouldn't have easy access to ICBMs with nuclear warheads - that would be both absurd and insane. Likewise, we can all pretty-much agree that we don't want to live in a world where kitchen knives have regulated maximum sharpness and require licenses to own. That would also be absurd. The question is, between those two absurd extremes, where do we draw the line?
Another factor to consider is, where it makes sense to draw that line? Varies regionally. Particularly, urban versus country.
Mental health issues are similar between the two, but terrorists are going to be more drawn to urban environments (Bigger targets, more impact), and likewise there is more opportunity in urban environments. So intent and opportunity are both bigger factors in urban environments (which run liberal), and there's little we can do about that (We're trying). Therefore, the Effect is what is getting attention. This is why the point that makes sense differs between urban, suburban, and rural - and where I feel the biggest national divide on gun issues lays.
Policies that make sense in urban environments make little sense in rural environments, and vice versa.
We know that there will always be bad actors, there will often be intent, and there will almost always be opportunities - so we want to mitigate how effective these mass shooters can be. You have to get pretty close to the left fringe before that line is "ban all guns".
...
Ah, sorry to talk your ear off here - but I think you are operating under a misapprehension about what the liberal stance actually is in that regard. I know we get portrayed that way, but it's no more accurate than the "All conservatives hate women's rights" stereotype.
Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets is a great book. It focuses on a Chicago gang.
Check out Gang Leader for a Day
While it might not get in to specifics for your project, you may find more resources. If you do have the time, it's a great read.
good book on this general topic
he asked people and families that, their answer was that the projects are what they know, where their friends and family are, where they fit in. some tried moving to the suburbs and didn't like it.
I think you'd really enjoy this book then; it's about a grad student who spent some time observing the gangs at the Robert Taylor homes for his research.
There are many reasons for the higher crime rate in the US versus most other countries. One of the biggest, which ties into income inequality, is the fact that we have a very harsh probationary system for people who have been released from prison as well as a very weak social safety net. People who have been convicted or have taken a plea deal have an incredibly difficult time finding work in the US, and when they do it is typically part time and low income work. Not only are ex-convicts denied most social services like food stamps, but they are also required to pay "probation fines" which can be ~$50-$90 a month while they are under probation. On top of that Obamacare now requires that all Americans purchase insurance, or are forced to pay penalties, adding further financial burden. Add to all of these things the fact that America has a larger incarcerated population than any other country on the planet. So in many of these poor communities people end up in a cycle of incarceration, where they are jailed for a minor offence, lose their job, serve time, are released and expected to fend for themselves while not provided with a means to do so, and then are forced into crime and gangs in order to survive.
Hopefully I provided a decent summary about why America has such a disproportionally high crime rate compared to other developed countries.
Though it doesn't directly deal with crime, the book Nickel and Dimed gives an incredible picture of how difficult life is for poor Americans. Mind you the research for the main portion book was done in 1998-1999 when America's economy was significantly better than it is now, the 2011 version of the book adds an even more bleak picture of the situation of America's poor.
I came here to say this, he could have saved himself a week. Here's a link for those who are interested.
Here's a Wikipedia entry on the book.
Get this book from the library:
http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681
Read author's AMA
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/23d7n9/
If your library has it, watch the documentary Paycheck to Paycheck by HBO
Keep in mind that you are 18 now but your opportunities for better jobs are significantly stymied without postsecondary education. And your opportunities for postsecondary education are significantly stymied by isolating yourselves from the parents.
well, duh, but if you remember that servers are human beings trying to live off what you give them, you probably already tip well so the change in price wouldn't be as much as you might think, or might be close to zero. feel free to read some more about it here,
here, here, or here. and those sources were just what I found quickly searching.
an interesting read on minimum wage in the US in general is Nickel and Dimed, although anecdotal, it is robustly filled out with facts and statistics.
Okay, thank you. I've added it to my reading list. However, I do not see that I can spend the time reading this book in the near future (or have the money to do so). I was hoping you would have some more immediate answer.
Jack London lived like poor people in London around 1903 (People of the Abyss) and Barbara Ehrenreich did the same in the US in the late 90's or early 2000's (Nickle and Dimed: On not getting by in America). Both proved there is virtually no way to get out of poverty by your own efforts when you cannot get a job or can't get one that pays about subsistence level. When people can't escape poverty playing by existing rules, some asshole inevitably comes along and says they have no right to basic necessities. In my opinion, that's why uprisings happen.
I think you know next to nothing about "the system" nor the people who are part of it. Who, exactly, do you think of as "the poor"? It's not just lazy trailer-park dwellers or single parents anymore. Being poor can mean being a full-time student working multiple part-time jobs. Or not being able to work due to mental or physical health issues. Or even having a job and making so little that you can't make ends meet. It's nice you and your wife have fairly good jobs but I bet you couldn't begin to identify the actual poor among you. This is a good look into how one can work and still be destitute: [Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America] (http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376894758&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=nickel+and+dimed+on+not+getting+by+in+america)
When I was working full-time making what I considered to be a quite good salary, I still qualified for yearly fuel assistance and I was damn thankful it existed. Now I'm thankful that I qualify for EBT. They know all the details of my situation and they made the decision to give me assistance. I don't get unemployment and I don't get disability...not that it's really any of your business.
I have the internet because I pay for it.
You don't know me, my life or my situation, and I honestly couldn't care less what you think about me.
> Any money they saved up
What money? How much money do you expect someone earning ~$290 a week (minimum wage) to be able to save? And even if they could save money, do you really think it will be enough to afford a down payment and a mortgage and a car payment?
>sell their unnecessary stuff
What unnecessary stuff? And to whom?
>Moving with friends/family
So now we're only talking about those people who are in a position to move AND who know multiple other people who are in a position to move AND who want to move to the same small town? And even if they did, what about anti-brothel laws that in loads of municipalities prevent multiple unrelated people from living together?
>Small towns dont have gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants?
Sure they do, but not many. And even if our would-be relocator could find a job in one of them, what makes you think they would be treated any better just because they are now in a small town? And don't forget, now they have a mortgage and a car payment and have been drained of any savings they originally had.
>Presumption of racism is a bit of a stretch, especially when theres laws agains that
There are laws against it, but racism is still pervasive in the workplace. Here is just one small example of how that manifests.
You seem like you mean well, but you also have demonstrated a lack of understanding about the reality of life of urban poor. And that's okay--unless you've lived it or specifically gone out of your way to learn about it, there's no reason you shouldn't lack knowledge of the subject. But I really encourage you to go out of your way to learn about it--and keep an open mind. It's kind of boring, but I strongly recommend starting with Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.. She defintely has an angle, but the factual narratives are elucidating, and it provides a good foundation for further learning. If you're comfortable PMing me your e-mail address, I'd be happy to buy you a copy.
Edit: formatting because dumb
Compare Brunner's epic The Sheep Look Up with Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. (If Sheep Look Up proves to hard to find reasonably, substitute Shockwave Rider, also by Brunner.)
Or, if you're feeling really froggy compare Mark Twain's Letters From the Earth with one of his more popularly acceptable works like Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer.
Check out Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, if you haven't read it. One of my favorites.
A few somewhat different fantasies, with some scifi -
Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber
Jasper Fforde's [Shades of Grey] (http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Grey-Novel-Jasper-Fforde/dp/0143118587/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1449631553&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=fforde)
Margaret Atwood's [Oryx and Crake] (http://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1449631735&amp;sr=1-5&amp;keywords=Margaret+atwood)
John Crowley's [Little, Big] (http://www.amazon.com/Little-Big-John-Crowley/dp/0061120057/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1449632089&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=little%2C+big)
May I point you to these series of books written by Robert Caro that goes into detail about how one obtains, keeps, and uses political power?
Once you read them you'll understand how 'the system' works. "The Power Broker" is especially illustrative. One man, Robert Moses, pretty much remade NYC between the 1920's and the 1960's. Never was elected to anything.
Not OP but you should totally read Robert Caro's The Power Broker. It's a ~1,500 page tome but it's a fantastic breakdown of the history of Moses specifically, and Jacobs as well.
Then follow it up with Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities for the counter argument. After that you can decide if you want to get into City Planning as a career. Lots of politics unfortunately...
Here's the Amazon link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses
If you want something (a lot) more detailed, read "the Power Broker"
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487431274&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+power+broker
You can blame Robert Moses for that.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/0394720245
The Power Broker by Robert Caro is supposed to be excellent. Doesn't really fit in the architecture / food / pictures criteria.. but hey
Probably the most influential urban planning book ever was written as a response to trends in 1960s development: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Along the same lines, the Pulitizer Prize winning The Power Broker by Robert Caro is the definitive biography of Jacobs-nemesis Robert Moses who was super important in the planning decisions made in New York City in the 50s and 60s.
Witold Rybczynski's Makeshift Metropolis includes a pretty good summary of urban planning throughout the 20th century in America, which is helpful for putting trends from the 1960s into context.
I don't have a specific book to recommend here, but also look into the design of Brasilia, since it was by far the biggest and most complete project designed on the sort of modernist principles that dominated the 50s and 60s urban planning scene. It's obviously not an American city, but many of the planners and architects who worked on it worked on American projects as well, and the ideas that influenced it were very important in American thinking on urban design also.
These are all sort of general interest recommendations, though. Sorry if you were looking for something more technical.
Be sure to visit these links too, to make sure it shows up on the "customers who viewed this item also viewed these"
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037
https://www.amazon.com/Build-Backyard-Brick-Oven-Scratch/dp/1505611814/
https://www.amazon.com/Mil-Tec-German-Style-Folding-Shovel/dp/B00PUMDV4K
Trump is a true businessman indeed.
Bannon already has his strategy published and available for purchase on Amazon.
The Bannon Years
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
You realize that almost two thousand years ago there was an emperor of Rome that was going through some of the same things that we do and has some wise words on a lot of subjects.
I read this (and others):
https://www.amazon.ca/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Meditate as well.
Personality isn't easy to change. Identify what you don't like about yourself, when you do it, why you do it, and then pay attention to yourself. Shut up when you're about to say something you don't want to say. Half the time you'll say it before you can stop yourself. Takes time.
That's what I did anyways.
off the top of my head:
Meditations, with The Inner Citadel as a reader
Letters from a Stoic
A Guide to the Good Life by Irvine
Do The Work by Pressfield as well as The War of Art by Pressfield
Managing Oneself by Ducker
Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl
What Predicts Divorce by Gottman
Nicomachean Ethics
Models by Manson seems to be popular on reddit
So Good They Can't Ignore You by Newport, as well
I'm currently reading Triumphs of Experience by Vaillant and find it insightful.
I'm sorry about my ignorance, I'm new here. Is this book: Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions) https://www.amazon.com/dp/048629823X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_wTlPDb1PQS3R0
?
First and foremost, 48 Laws of Power. It will show you 100+ ways other people have tried and where they failed and succeeded. It's a great introduction. Get this first.
A lot for these are free on gutenberg.org
Meditations - On being ethical and virtuous in a position of power.
33 strategies of war - A great companion to the 48 laws.
Art of war - Ancient Chinese text on war and power. All but covered in 48 laws.
Hagakure - Japanese text on war and power. All but covered in 48 laws.
On war - Military strategy from Napoleonic era. All but covered in 48 laws.
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Amazing book.
Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger - Abstract thought models and logic patterns of highly successful people.
The Obstacle is the Way - Not labeled a book on power, more like thriving during struggle, which is important to a leader.
Machiavelli: The Prince - Pretty much the opposite of meditations. All but covered in 48 laws.
Also, here's a good TED talk on why power/civics is important to study: http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_liu_why_ordinary_people_need_to_understand_power?language=en
If you've gone over these and want something more specialized, I can probably help.
Are you planning on taking us over with force or charm?
Meditations is an awesome read! The version on my pictures, though, is an old translation and kind of hard to follow. Dover Thrift offers a contemporary English translation that makes it orders of magnitude more understandable. http://amzn.com/048629823X
Read "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign"
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
>Yeah... i haven't anything said about the khans except about the brutality.
Right, except for this book, which Reddit often slavishly praises:
>The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. From the story of his rise through the tribal culture to the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed, this brilliant work of revisionist history is nothing less than the epic story of how the modern world was made.
Yea, and Hitler built the Autobahn!!1! \s
Read an American or European history textbook and tell me that Genghis Khan is viewed in the same light as Hitler.
>Liking. The swastika is different than naming your shop Hitler. Slick.
Are you just inserting random periods now?
Here is a restaurant called Genghis.
Here is a MongoDB app called Genghis
There's this movie on Genghis Khan, which, while very well produced and made, still glorifies a bloodthirsty barbarian.
>I have a different.view, i view any admiration of a mass murderer as insane. Deal with it.
insane- in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction; seriously mentally ill.
Then I must disagree. Indians who glorify Hitler are merely acting from within their cultural contexts. They're not insane; maybe ignorant, but definitely not insane.
I get it: To Westerners, Hitler is the end-all and be-all of Evil. He is the Worst, with a capital W. You find it literally unfathomable that anyone before or after him could be remotely as Bad. That's because that's what you're taught in school. Indian textbooks don't really stress that as much. Is that a bad thing? Of course. Is that worse than Western textbooks glorifying Churchill, Genghis, etc.? Not particularly.
>And putting. Churchill. In the same ballpark shows how much you know. It's not much
Then you haven't heard of the Bengal famine
I was a huge fan of:
https://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Although Genghis Khan did possibly kill up to 40 million people, the lasting impact of the Mongolian empire and subsequent Great Khans effectively changed the world for the better in the long run. Before him, China and Europe had almost zero knowledge of each other's existence, his empire was one of the first without a nationally imposed religion, and he changed warfare completely.
Source:
40 million deaths: http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-genghis-khan (I know this is a terrible source but whatever.)
Effects on the world: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World https://www.amazon.com/dp/0609809644/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_u1LFwbEW9C5SP
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is a fascinating and relatively quick read on his life and the history of the empire he created. I highly recommend it.
Killing hope is an absolute must read. You can't really have a grasp on how many countries the USA has ruined without reading this
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500405284&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=killing+hope
America: The imperialism of ignorance.
This ones brilliant. It details a lot of the countries it invaded while also explaining the wider context.
https://www.amazon.com/America-Imperialism-Ignorance-Foreign-Policy/dp/1849541043/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500405339&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=imperialism+of+ignorance
I was confused at first when I read your post. You seemed to be saying that Juice_lix was using a rhetorical deflection (which is true -- it's called the But What About Gambit). But instead, you're saying that the people he's talking to have diverted the subject.
But that is not even the case. The original point was about rich countries versus poor countries. Which rich country do you think of first? For most people in the world, it's the United States.
So when someone points out the things the United States has done, your friend pulls out the Gambit and you accuse his opponents of changing the subject.
Repeatedly reminding people of the crimes of a person or group of people is not a rhetorical device, nor should it be considered overused. The fact is, someone is saying something that you don't like. Because meanwhile, Matt Taibbi is doing the same thing to Wall Street, and he's practically a folk hero because of it.
You can't just declare something as a rhetorical device because you don't want to hear it, disagree with it, or are uncomfortable with its implications. Truth is not a matter of personal choice. It has to be countered with facts, not accusations.
Besides, there's no such thing as an objective history book. Your friend is setting up an impossible standard so he can easily dismiss all comers. But if you want some stories on the subject, you'll find plenty of that to go around.
> Washington will never approve q coup like this not in a million years.
That's absurd. The US routinely supports coups and overthrows democratic gov'ts -- we've done it dozens of times since WWII. For a short/partial list, read the book Killing Hope by former US State Dept. historian William Blum.
The US gov't might prefer a democratic gov't, but that is only if that gov't does what the US wants it to. If not, the US destabilizes and replaces it -- it's that simple.
Last year I became obsessed with the concept of psychopathy.
I read Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us which is more of a general look at psychopaths. It talks about what makes them tick, how devastating an encounter with them can be and psychopathic children. It showed the more horror-film version of psychopathy.
Without Conscience was a scary book but the next book on psychopathy I read, Snakes in Suits, had more terrifying implications by far. Snakes in Suits suggests that the vast majority of psychopaths are not like Dahmer or Hannibal Lectar but are actually in major positions of power in large corporations at a greatly disproportional rate to psychopaths in the general population.
In short, SiS suggests that the most intelligent psychopaths are drawn to white collar jobs with extremely high stakes, earnings, power and prestige. They excel in these jobs because they're extremely intelligent, utterly unscrupulous, manipulative, able to read people's body language and they're smart enough to hide any tracks of ill deeds to avoid trouble with the law.
I couldn't help but think of that book when I saw this article. Sure, he might have just been having a bad day and taken it out on his dog but maybe it's something more sinister.
Psychopaths, in addition to not having much of a conscience, also tend to be impulsive and not that interested in long term planning.
There's an interesting book on the subject "Without Conscience" by Robert Hare. Here's the link if you're interested.
Yes, I disagree.
I have met and had dealings with a couple of individuals of this sort, and they are incapable of change - psychopaths in short
Its actually not that hard to make that judgement - previous criminal record, how many prior attempts have been made at rehab, but most of all the Hare Psychopathy Checklist which is a good diagnostic tool and coupled with the other information I would have no compunction about making judgements based on that whatsoever
I suggest reading this
Not exactly ... US, just like any empire in the past, lives partially on the incomes form the colonial taxation. It can take many different forms & shapes, but it's there by this very day. If you interested in mechanisms that make such taxation possible, please read e.g. this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526/
USSR, in it's turn, tried to bring other nations into it's umbrella by sending doctors, teachers and tractors - hugely expensive. They were no saint, of course. But they never used dead squad’s tactics to promote themselves.
The main reason for the difference I think is that US never had a good real war on its territory. We just don't get it - what the war is really about. E.g. do you know the warm smell of guts ripped out by the artillery shell? That's why fellow americans are sort of "OK" with killing more than a half million of Iraqis in last few years. It's just a game, right?
For russia, and USSR, they had to fight so many wars, that they know that smell all too well. That's why were somewhat reluctant to kill but still were making soooo much good weaponry - to protect themselves.
Amazon link to the book he's referring to.
And might I suggest another book on the topic? This one is written by a former US State Dept. historian: Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II.
[Killing Hope] (https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1505166085&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=killing+hope) by William Blum
These are good points, especially regarding the mask of sanity. I have 5 decades of experience with these individuals, so I can say this with confidence: You will never be able to rationalize with these individuals, make gains, or be able to reform them. You can expect a life of endless abuse, manipulation and exploitation if you engage with them long term and privately. They do not get better with psychiatric intervention, in fact, they get worse. This book is a good primer: https://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
I highly recommend that people extricate themselves as soon as possible from psychopaths in their family. We don't fully understand this disorder, but we know it is highly genetic and until we can figure out a way to fix these genes, we won't be able to have safe relationships with them. There is no medication for this disorder. There is no therapy for this disorder. There is simply currently no fix.
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. He has a more recent book focusing on white-collar psychopathy ("Snakes in Suits") and lots of books for academic audiences. It was about fifteen years ago that I read it, so fingers crossed the passage is close to what I remember ;)
Recommended book: Without Conscience, by Robert Hare
Sorry for the delay. Whatever you want to call them, trolls, bullies, con-artists, terrorists, etc, people with aggression issues make up at least 10% of the population.
Wikipedia: Warrior Gene
http://saferelationshipsmagazine.com
bullyonline.org
Love Fraud
neurologicalcorrelates.com
psychopathfree.com
C. Nathan DeWall, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Social Psychology Lab
Director
Books:
Snakes in Suits, Paul Babiak & Robert D. Hare
Without Conscience, Robert D. Hare
The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout
Just Like His Father, Liane Leedom
edit: fixed link
Like succeeding against white culture is hard.
Have you read Hillbilly Elegy? https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
The author grew up in Appalachia and went to an Ivy League law school. He writes about how unfamiliar the social terrain was, the way his classmates talked down about poor people, and how he made his way. It's one of the best books I read last year.
In Columbus and Cleveland, absolutely, by a 2 to 1 margin. The rest of Ohio loves Trump and fits into every stereotype of Trump country you see in the media. Hillbilly Elegy was written in large part about Ohio outside the major metros.
>...while violent crime is still a problem in urban areas, many of them are in fact safer now than they’ve been in decades. The violent crime rate in rural areas, meanwhile, has climbed above the national average for the first time in 10 years. In Iowa, the overall violent crime rate rose by 3 percent between 2006 and 2016, but shot up by 50 percent in communities with fewer than 10,000 residents. Violent crime rates have doubled in rural counties in West Virginia over the past couple of decades, while tripling in New Hampshire. “Rural areas, which traditionally have had lower crime rates, have seen dramatic increases in incarceration rates,” says Jacob Kang-Brown, a senior research associate with the Vera Institute of Justice. “We see them now having the highest incarceration rates in the country.”
http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-crime-rural-urban-cities.html
More articles describing the problems in rural America:
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/29/magazine/the-alchemy-of-oxycontin.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/white-working-class-poverty/424341/
https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/politics/election-2016-white-working-class-donald-trump-kaiser-family-foundation/index.html
A series of Washington Post articles examining the myriad causes for the social problems among the rural working class:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/unnatural-causes/?utm_term=.ab7b22c86e2d
And I would recommend this book for a more comprehensive overview of this situation
> Do you think this extends to disgracing people who migrate for work?
I don't know about "disgracing," but in my experience there is definitely a stigma about "leaving your people." Also when someone starts to get "above his raising" you can start to hear that "you think you're better than people. Well let me tell you... you ain't."
I don't think it's ubiquitous, but I have seen it. The education can also be resented, particularly if you now question or have moved away from the religion of your community, or even interject unwelcome information into a conversation. Your outside experiences and education have changed you, which means you're now different, and being different in these small rural communities is not easy.
Granted, I grew up in the 70s and 80s, so the culture might have changed. But from reading Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, I don't think my experiences were all that unique.
Regarding how the culture of honor ties in, I think it predisposes people to be hyper-sensitive for any perceived slight. If you come back from school or your city job with airs or big ideas, that can be seen as disrespectful and arrogant.
> It seems to me like we have two 'extreme' personality types in America, one which looks back to the struggles of their parents and grandparents and idealizes it, and one which learns the lessons of those struggles but attempts to apply it to new experiences.
This is refreshing, and came up in a discussion I had recently. The book I was recommended is Hillbilly Elegy about this exact thing. I drove through a few states in New England and most of my drive was through dilapidated and forgotten towns where more than half of the buildings in the town center are boarded up and the main building is a huge church, which is typically their community center. Imagine growing up in a town like that as a member of a family that is a part of the church and a member of a family that hates the church. Imagine growing up either in a house that's close to town and well-kept vs a house that's a little further outside of town with rotted siding and extra appliances and car parts strewn about your lawn.
Also, imagine growing up in a household where your dad beats everyone in your family into submission vs a household where your parents work together to expose you to the arts and other parts of the world. It's all about that early programming.
(Before I get into this, I want to say that I love you and I hope we make it through the next four years. You feel shitty now. I feel shitty now. But the only way we save this is to work together and be optimistic. Don't give up, you beautiful prince. And with that said, watch my tone shift very abruptly because that's the kind of day this is.)
You honestly think she lost because a few Bernie people refused to vote for her? As I understand it, it's a whole heckuva lot more complicated than that, Foxy.
I bet there's a ton more, too. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, though. Listen. I voted for her yesterday. It fucking hurts. But you know what? The people have spoken. And you know what else? Somehow, I'm not mad at Trump. I'm mad at Clinton, the DNC, her campaign, and those of her supporters who have vilified Sanders supporters since the beginning. We tried to make an argument for our candidate and instead many of your fellow Clinton supporters decided to call us names and treat us like we were stupid. We understood that Bernie was tapping into a feeling that Hillary had no hope of grasping. It feels weird because democrats are now the party of diversity but the truth is that working-class whites of Greater Appalachia and the Midwest have suffered for a long time, and they're fucking pissed. Trump recognized that (somehow), and Hillary didn't (unfortunately). Trump didn't even need to provide a fucking plan. He just needed to identify that this group of people are hurting because no one else had the balls or understanding to do that. It sucks, but that's how it happened.
I highly recommend reading Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance.
Anyway. Like I said in the beginning... I love ya. We're all hurting today, and we're all pointing fingers (naturally; it's a necessary stage). I recognize your points and don't really refute them. I listed my points, some of which may be wrong... I guess I'll find out when the comments start piling on.
Has anyone interviewed that right wing apologist, soi-distant polemicist JD Vance?
Huh?
This guy.
While you do need a college education in this day and age, it doesn't have to follow a strict formula. My little sister just graduated with her PhD in Math at Rutgers at 36. Her road was a pretty long one. She got married to an asshole at 18, divorced him five years later (thank god no kids), went to community college, then a state school, and then got a fellowship for her PhD. She has ZERO debt. Her bachelor's took longer, because she was working full time and taking night classes at first, but then she scaled down the work to part time and college full time. She was just offered a position by her former employer at $150/hour for 10 hours a week and she has a fully funded post doc at UPenn for another 10-15 hours a week starting mid June.
My point is, you have time. Yes, you do need to get a degree, maybe more than one, but it's also not a race and if you get creative you can do it with a minimum of debt. She's pretty special. I mean, to get a PhD in math you have to be, but she is also EXTREMELY frugal and that made an astronomical difference.
If you have to take a year off to work full time and save money, then that's what you have to do, but SAVE THE MONEY! Don't get sucked into just making that your life, because a lot of people do. Ultimately, you want that degree so do whatever you need to, even if it's just putting inspirational quotes on your mirror to remind yourself of your ultimate goals, no matter how long they may take.
My little sis, who I am so fucking proud of, called me many many times wanting to quit, because she was used to being first in her class and now she was in the bottom third. I finally told her, if she quit now she would forever regret it, because she would never ever know if she could have made it or not. I told her that quitting was the same as failing and that if she just kept going they would either kick her out and she could go back to her corporate job or she would succeed. Even as incredibly smart and talented as she is, she had to face down reality and work hard hard hard and save save save and forego many little pleasures, but she fucking did it and she did it all by herself and you can too. You may not get a PhD in math, but if you get creative, don't spend a dime you could possibly save, and work as hard as you can, you will achieve so much. You will find out who you are in the process, what you want, what you can achieve through hours of hard and often tedious and drudging work with people you don't like very much, but you will come out the other side a complete and whole person. Not many people can claim that, but you have taken the hardest step, which is to be your own person and escape a mind numbing cult, even when it meant forsaking your own parents. That is an experience not many people can claim and it will make you stronger than you could possibly know. You will meet people in college and university who have NEVER had to grapple what you have had to grapple with and that experience will be a strength to you for the rest of your life.
No one can tell you exactly what to do and based on what you have said, it sounds like the road is going to be long and difficult, but that's okay, because when you get out there in the "real world" you are going to find that this experience is an asset, not a disability.
/u/olsh gave some great practical advice. You are in a very tough spot, but you can do it. It will take more than courage. It will also take a lot of endurance through many difficulties. I would urge you to read or listen to Hillbilly Elegy before you do anything else.
I read this biography about Elon musk. He is definitely an interesting person. While I respect him in many ways and he is certainly going to either directly or indirectly change the world, he is an asshole. For example, there was a story about an employee that was asked to take on an impossible task. The employee came back in defeat. Musk fired him and did the job himself. Musk's mind is amazing, his personal skills are surely lacking.
I read the biography about him, which is quite interesting. (https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X)
I don't recall the exact circumstances, but the author describes Musk as experiencing horrific bullying as a child, including one incident in which he was assaulted and thrown down a flight of stairs, resulting in him being hospitalized. One would think that the experience would predispose him to be sympathetic to us.
The biography paints him as a man on a mission to save mankind and the planet thru his business ventures. That's why he's so into electric cars and solar energy.
My previous comments here were kidding, but in all seriousness, if there is some reason I should hate him, please do inform me because as best I can tell, he's an astute businessman who is working hard to push innovation that the established players have been resisting for years.
His biography
For books that will help you appreciate math, I recommend Journey Through Genius by William Dunham for a general historical approach, and Love and Math by Edward Frenkel and Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire for specific focuses in "modern" mathematics (in these cases, the Langlands program and the Riemann Hypothesis).
There's a lot of mathematical lore that you'll find really interesting the first time you read it, but then it becomes more and more grating each subsequent time you come across it. (The example that springs most readily to mind is how the Pythagorean theorem rocked the Greeks' socks about their belief in numbers and what the brotherhood supposedly did to the guy who proved that irrational numbers exist). For that reason, I recommend reading only one or two books that summarize the historical developments in math up to the present, and then finding books that focus on one mathematician or one theorem that is relatively modern. In addition to the books I mentioned above, there are also some good ones on the Poincare Conjecture and Fermat's Last Theorem, and given that you're a computer science guy, I'm sure you can find a good one about P = NP.
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics.
Livro bem maneiro, explica alguns pontos com profundidade, contudo de uma forma que você consegue seguir o raciocínio sem maiores problemas. Achei um excelente livro pra vc descobrir algo para se aprofundar.
Na minha experiência a física é o melhor caminho para você aprender matemática, pois dá um "contexto" interessante na aplicação do conhecimento (incidentalmente, sou advogado, contudo leio sobre física há uns 15 anos).
Mas tem alguns detalhes: i) certos pontos de matemática não estarão na física (quem sabe no futuro, como certos aspectos da simetria, que eram tópicos de matemática pura até descobrirem ser uma ferramenta na física quântica) ; ii) certos campos da matemática são muito profundos quando aplicados a uma física (sendo esta passível de adaptação para leigos); ou seja: certos livros de física que vc não terá dificuldade alguma em compreender omitem a maior parte da matemática por ser bem hardcore (muita dedicação para um autodidata, embora possível de ir atrás).
Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham. It's currently US$10.14 in paperback on Amazon.com. It includes plenty of interesting mathematics, as well biographical profiles of a number of mathematicians. It's also definitely suitable for someone your brother's age and with his current mathematical background.
I highly recommend "Journey Through Genius" by William Dunham for people with an interest in math, but maybe with not much background yet.
Each chapter talks about one of the great theorems in math, starting with the ancient Greeks and ending with Cantor. The chapter explains some history behind the problem, and provides motivation for why the question is interesting. Then it actually presents a proof. It's a great way of getting exposure to new ideas, proofs, and is a nice survey of a wide range of math. Plus, it's well-written!
Personally, I don't think learning something like, say, category theory makes sense unless you've had some more higher math that will provide examples of where category theory is useful. I love abstraction as much as the next mathematician, but I've learned that it's usually useless unless you have a set of examples that help you understand the abstraction.
> You can do it with one triangle, but it's ugly ugly algebra.
This is the example that came to my mind. From William Dunham's Journey Through Genius:
> So, Heron's formula provides us with another proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Of course, this proof is incredibly more complicated than is necessary-rather like traveling from Boston to New York by way of Spokane....
An ugly proof, and a great line.
I've always liked Journey Through Genius. It's pretty small, ~280 pages of paperback novel size, but it covers a nice selection of mathematical history and thinking. It's not comprehensive, but it's a very good introduction to math history. It starts in 440 BCE (Hippocrates) and ends in 1891 CE (Cantor).
Paperback version is only $12: http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X
For a pretty good introduction to a lot of different mathematics, try this book. Journey Through Genius is one of my favorite books. I learned a lot in high school about proof and the history of mathematics and mathematicians. It does a wonderful job of introducing the counter-intuitive concept of countability and sets of infinite numbers.
I think looking at the history of math is a great starting point. Where did all the ideas come from? How were they formed? Who were these people that came up with them? What inspired them?
A good read (I thought) on this subject was Journey through Genius:
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X
Yeah, I think I read that one. About 180 degrees from our situation here, at least my building/neighborhood. At least as far as I know - I just might be a blind idiot, but I don't think I could be quite that myopic.
>So he failed to consider that those crack dealers or drug dealers or gangsters are trying, in some twisted bumfuck way to try and get themselves out of the situation by slinging crack at the corner. Nobody was born with a desire for a hard life. When your whole family is in tatters and there is no generational wealth to inherit except bloodshed and poverty and undereducation, when the only option to get out of the hood is via a body bag or peddling dope, when the only heroes one has growing up is either in jail or absent and the whole neighbourhood is a fucking ghetto spliced with the thunderdome, how does one expect to have upward mobility?
I seriously think people fail to understand that for many people who grow up in these situations, selling drugs and a life of crime has more opportunity in it then going to school and getting a job. The book [Gang Leader for a Day] (http://www.amazon.ca/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X) by [Sudhir Venkatesh] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudhir_Venkatesh) has an in depth description of a man who grows up in the ghetto, goes to college, gets a white collar full time job and then comes back to his home because he see's no opportunities for him to make real wealth at his full time job. More importantly, his book shows you how fucked up and intricate gangs are to both supporting and bringing down these communities. I really suggest anybody read it who wants to have a better understanding of why a life of crime looks like a better option for so many young people.
Ultimately this video, and anything that says "if black people just stopped _ then __ wouldn't happen" is simplifying something that is so much more complex. Life is not black and white (no pun in intended).
chicago has been shit like this for decades
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sandifer
its like fucking mad max with a quasi criminal warlord state in the ghetto there. if you want to read an interesting book about the batshit insanity of it, check this out
https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X
If this interests you, then you should read Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, the book written by Sudhir Venkatesh (the sociologist from the article) about the Black Disciples (the gang from the article.) I just finished it a month or so ago and it was fantastic.
With your question framed specifically in the context of a totalitarian state, not sure how different you'd want it to be from North Korea. For what its worth, you might want to check out the works of Sudhir Venkatesh for a more academic treatment of illegal economic systems. Here is a short TED talk from his academic co-author, Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame, talking about what its like to be a drug dealer in an inner city gang.
"Horns"is a terrible movie, but not as bad as "Tusk". "In the Name of the King is the worst movie I've ever seen, derivative drivel of plot craters and just terrible storyline, script, acting, and directing. I was so disappointed. It's kind of funny how both Ray Liotta and Jason Statham started their careers in awesome movies and then just couldn't maintain consistent quality.
Sorry for the rant.
"Gang Leader For A Day" gives a glimpse of life in a gang controlled project tenement in Chicago. A sociology student at University of Chicago befriended the gang leader and got unrestricted access to the inner workings and daily life.
It's not just about the gang, although the author led the gang leader into thinking he was doing a biography on him. The book is also about the day to day lives of people living in poverty in the inner city.
This book may interest you: http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X
No affiliation with it, other than I read it a few years ago and it was really interesting.
I'm going to recommend Gang Leader for a Day. It's a memoir of a sociology PhD student studying the Chicago projects. His highly personal interactions with its residents -- who ranged from drug dealers and prostitutes to store owners and mechanics -- allowed him to gain unprecedented access to a world that those outside of it barely understood.
His anecdotes brought his cast of characters life: JT, the regional head of the Black Kings gang who justified his crack-cocaine deals were good for his community because he was taking money from society's dregs and redistributing it to the project; or Autry Harrison, a former pimp who severed his formal gang ties to become a Boys & Girls club director; or Officer Jerry, the crooked cop who stole from the project's residents and even threatened Sudhir on numerous occasions if he ever published his research; or Taneesha, who attempted a career as a model while attending college at night before her jealous "manager" beat her badly for signing a contract with a legitimate agency. Although I felt like I was reading the script to a movie at times, this highlighted to me my ignorance of what life in the Robert Taylor Homes project was like.
My primary issue with the work was a lack of discussion about his research itself. He would write, a few times, something like (I'm paraphrasing here) "everything about sociological theory says X, but what I've witnessed is Y" without delving into the details. These moments peppered throughout his narrative would have allowed for a somewhat more formal discourse by introducing some interesting ideas about what sociologists think and how his research differs. His published research must discuss these issues at depth, but an informal, less pedantic approach could have been incorporated into this book.
There is a great book on this topic. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich granted she is a liberal journalist as opposed to a conservative, but the concept is the same. Can a college educated female make it on her own, working menial labor jobs (waitress, hotel maid, and Walmart associate) without any help from personal contacts.
> I feel like not defining yourself by your work can definitely make it easier to deal with.
In that regard, yes. I have very few memories of my parents every talking about work or complaining about their day. I knew they went to work but that was about it.
I was first asked that question by an old therapist of mine who was really big on environment: home, family, work, etc. I have never defined myself by what I do and sometimes others equated that to "lack of ambition". Sorry, there is more to life than 80 hour work weeks. My parents were always home in the evening and seldom worked OT.
Several good books if you have time:
You scrimp and you save five dollars here 10 dollars for mowing a neighbors lawn maybe 20 bucks because food was cheaper one week... then bam a part on your car fails you have the choice of letting the car go or paying 200 to fix it and you need that car to get to work. You could take public transportation but it would be an hour one way and 60 bucks a month so you swallow your pride and put that 200 into the car praying hoping that it does not break again. This is just one example of why being poor is so expensive and makes it nearly impossible to save. If you want actual books on the matter http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1454131226&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=nickel+and+dimed This is a good one.
you mentioned being a fangirl; i've been reading some amazing, recent sci fi works written by women authors lately, maybe you'd find them interesting? all 3 of these are among the absolute best sci fi i've ever read:
the time traveller's wife by audrey niffenegger
^ forget about the movie, the book is fantastic
oryx and crake by margaret atwood
^ nice and dark
lilith's brood by octavia e. butler
^ amazon reviews calls it "profoundly evocative, sensual -- and disturbing", which sums it up pretty well
Hmmm. I JUST got the Maddadam trilogy (delivered on Sunday by Amazon, huh?), so I'm beginning Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood today. I also got Issue 49 of Lightspeed, the "Women Destroy Science Fiction" special edition, but that may be a choice for another time. I'd rather focus on the book than the controversy.
Open to suggestions, what's on your short list?
This was almost super hard for me until I thought about my grandmother and aunts. My mom is a distant mom. I feel like it is hard to explain in a few short sentences. She never seemed involved in my life. She was very much all about herself. My grandmother did a lot to raise me when I was a small child, well up until 4th grade and then times when I really needed her. My 3 aunts have always been there to bond with me over my moms actions. They help me realize that it isn't me, it is her. This can be hard when you think you aren't worth the love/time because your own mother doesn't want to be involved. I still struggle with those feelings in other areas. I'm glad you had a mom you can be proud of, and I'm sorry for your loss <3
Everyone in my family loves books :)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385721676/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_.5Jhtb0PA280C
Hey Bean!
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. No joke, every American household has 3 copies of this book lying around. It's a book about an arctic exploration where pretty much everything possible goes wrong.
Oh definitely check out Endurance. It's harrowing!
Any book by Mary Roach- her books are hilarious, random, and informative. I like Jon Krakauer's, Sarah Vowell's, and Bill Bryson's books as well.
Some of my favorites that I can think of offhand (as another poster mentioned, I loved Devil in the White City)
No Picnic on Mount Kenya
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Collapse
The Closing of the Western Mind
What is the What
A Long Way Gone
Alliance of Enemies
The Lucifer Effect
The World Without Us
What the Dog Saw
The God Delusion (you'd probably enjoy Richard Dawkins' other books as well if you like science)
One Down, One Dead
Lust for Life
Lost in Shangri-La
Endurance
True Story
Havana Nocturne
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Which could also be titled, Nothing is so Shitty, it can't get Shittier.
Sup homie,
Now firstly before I get into the actual books I am going to recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast - He's effectively doing audiobooks via podcast these days (I'm actually re-listening to "Prophets of Doom" at the moment, it's about 4 hours 30 minutes of excellent storytelling of historical events) - Really, really recommend that. (you can also buy all the old episodes).
Now onto the History Nonfiction books themselves:
Michael Pollan - The Botany of Desire - While somewhat more of an analysis of how plants have become and evolved according to human cultivation the book does an excellent job of historically breaking down each major event and process involved.
John H. Mayer - Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign - Title says it all. Pirates. Open seas. History. Strong recommend.
Alfred Lansing - Endurance - Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - If you love an amazing story of stoicism, heroism, and amazing leadership then anything about Shackleton should be on your list. This epic tale follows Sir Ernest Shackleton's voyage on the Endurance with the aim to cross the Antarctic - which failed. What happened next throughout the following months is an monument to the incredible spirit of a man, his crew, and the desire to get everyone home.
If you need more try looking into the below:
Niall Ferguson - The War of the World
William L. Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich A History of Nazi Germany
Andrew Roberts - The Storm of War
Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Ernest Shackleton did that on an exploration and ended up spending two winters in Antarctica. He and his entire crew survived. He wrote an excellent book about it.
The article reminds of the excellent book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.
"In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and his crew survived on drifting ice packs in one of the most savage regions of the world before they were finally able to set sail again in one of the ship's lifeboats. Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage is a white-knuckle account of this astounding odyssey."
http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/078670621X/
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. It's the most amazing true story (that doesn't involve cannibalism) you'll find.
>In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and his crew survived on drifting ice packs in one of the most savage regions of the world before they were finally able to set sail again in one of the ship's lifeboats. Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage is a white-knuckle account of this astounding odyssey.
>Through the diaries of team members and interviews with survivors, Lansing reconstructs the months of terror and hardship the Endurance crew suffered. In October of 1915, there "were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, no suitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out--they had to get themselves out." How Shackleton did indeed get them out without the loss of a single life is at the heart of Lansing's magnificent true-life adventure tale.
Endurance is a great read.
http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/078670621X
I have recommend this to many and never hand anyone say anything other than "This is the best book I have ever read." Short read too.
He didn't just want to write it, he did.
If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer
Casey Anthony should buy OJ's book, If I Did It. I'm sure she'll be able to relate.
http://www.amazon.com/If-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
I think we already did.
I mean, he literally wrote a book saying he did it. I think it's about as settled as it's going to get.
wE WoNt SlEeP uNtIl We FiNd tHe ReAl KiLLeR
What's next, you working on a book called "If They Did It"
https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
lol, reading this post's title I was instantly reminded of this: https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
"If I rigged a nomination, this is how I would do it"
Not many innocent people who are free from double jeopardy would write a tell all of "This is how I would have done it" book.
I was gonna guess OJ Simpson
Unbroken is the most recent book that I've read, it's fantastic!
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
Unbroken. It's phenomenal. Basically a plane crashes and the survivors are forced to try to survive on a raft for an indeterminate amount of time. Great story of resiliency.
Flags of our Fathers. The book before the miniseries. Also phenomenal.
If you like really really detailed historical accounts, you can't do much better than The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich although I would probably recommend the audio version. It's available through audible. I got about half way through it before I had to stop, but man, it was detailed. DETAILED. If you ever wanted to know the minutiae of Hitler's daily life in part, this is it.
A memoir from a female perspective, perhaps? Well, A Woman in Berlin is your book. It's harrowing. There are things talked about here that most history books gloss over.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is the best one I've read so far. Nonfiction account of an American bombardier in WW2, built with superb writing and an almost unbelievable story.
check out the book, its a great read
It's certainly possible. I would suggest you look up the story of Louis Zamperini, he and another man survived almost 47 days at sea during World War II with few rations and no water. Wikipedia link and a book written about him.
I don't have time to read all the comments, but if anyone is interested in reading what was like to be on a plane fighting in the Pacific in WWII read
"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
(http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1333913387&amp;sr=1-1)
You can read the first chapter free on Amazon. I guarantee you will be hooked. There is a reason the men who fought that war are revered.
I know it sounds like you're embellishing a bit, but these are all 100% possible depending on what else is on OP's network. All because of a 'tiny little website' and an open ssh port.
Check out The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, it's a good read.
> I feel similarly about computer security, in broad terms. The scary thing isn't that "hackers" can do the cyber equivalent of teleporting into your neighbourhood and trying the lock on your front door; it's that we live in a culture where people habitually don't even metaphorically install locks (despite the fact that they're often absurdly effective and trivial in cost), and also the part where people habitually have no understanding of the value of their metaphorical household goods (often many times the value of the property itself).
The book The Cuckoo's Egg is, by the way, an excellent nonfictional account of an early computer security case that has strong echoes with many of the security issues we are facing today. (And is also a damn good read, highly recommended.)
You can try Cuckoo's Egg: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Espionage/dp/1416507787
And if you like it, here's the movie about the book: http://youtu.be/EcKxaq1FTac
It's one of my favorite books of all time.
If you haven't read Mitnick's other work, he has the Art of Intrusion which is pretty nice.
Fatal System Error is also a nice read: http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-System-Error-Bringing-Internet/dp/B004NSVENM
If you're into fiction, read this: http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Day-Jeff-Aiken-Novel/dp/1250007305/
You're not going to want to read things that make you wish you had a computer with you, trust me. You have no idea how many times I have tried to force myself to read stuff like that when traveling or on vacation. Never works. So here's some stuff geared more towards the philosophy of development and programming that will be fun to read and will probably make you want to slow down, relax, and think about the concepts.
And for fun:
The Cuckoo's egg. I started learning unix by trying commands in this book. I haven't seen a lot of similar books since that owning a network series... aparently there was some trouble with the fact that some of them were a little too real. I also haven't really been looking though.
Are they into learning about this stuff? If not, no amount of training material will make a difference. This sort of thing is what got me hooked:
The Cuckoo's Egg
Takedown
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll.
Since you mentioned modern technology, I would recommend this great documentary about the history of the United States Space Program, called When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. It is a six-part documentary made by the Discovery channel that is extremely accurate while following the accounts of former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz. Check out the links I posted, you won't be disappointed.
Get Ben Rich’s book about Lockheed’s Skunk Works Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XzLDAb7GJBNX2 also Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439148813/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xALDAb3C5Q08N has excellent stories and Brian Shul has some excellent stories and photographs in his books but I don’t think they are in print any longer.
OP, you reading this?
If not, you should. The 4 inch flight is one of the very first things in the book. The rest of it is awesome as well.
I’ve read a lot of the early moments of space flight, and how they wrote all the procedures. I’m pretty sure it’s been around for ever, together with a million other scenarios.
I can highly recommend “failure is not an option” by Gene Krantz
Gene Kranz is the quintessential Steely-eyed Missile Man and a complete bad ass. If you get a chance, read his book "Failure is not an Option". He provides a lot of insight and back story that is rarely discussed anywhere.
Edit: If you want great info specifically about the Apollo 13 Mission, "Lost Moon" by Jim Lovell is a fantastic book.
If you haven't already read it, Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz is at the top of my "space book" list.
Here's one I have just ordered:
100 Years of Spaceflight: A Chronicle of Aerospace History
Another I have in my library and hope to read soon:
Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
Only that there are verified purchases reviews right now for the book complaining their reviews were deleted multiple times
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1505503101&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=hillary+clinton+what+happened
US foreign policy throughout the world from the 40s to the present day - keep the guy who makes the money in power, even if this means committing any number of atrocities to stamp out all (democratic!) attempts to move towards a fairer society.
Read Killing Hope by William Blum - https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526 which outlines some of the truly appalling things done by the CIA to keep their man in power around the world.
It's an utter disgrace and continues to this day.
William Blum has interesting book on the topic. Careful - although it's informational - he does have a slanted narrative.
> Capitalism has been consistently proven to raise the standards of living wherever it has been tried.
Google the word neoliberalism sometime, and spend a day researching it.
> Meanwhile, every single attempt at socialism - the USSR, the PRC, the DPRK, Venezuela, Cuba - has resulted in disaster, and has lowered the standards of living wherever it has been tried.
In what sense are these socialist, apart from what they call themselves in name? An anarcho-capitalist can have some actual, justified criticisms against socialism in practice (I've seen many), but when people like you plow forward with such an elementary misunderstanding, believe me when I say you look bad, even to your own camp.
The Zapatistas? The Paris Commune? The Ukrainian Free Territories? Revolutionary Catalonia? The Israeli Kibbutzim? That is your actual target.
> There is a reason why every single country that was once considered communist has transitioned towards capitalism...
Because they were bombed to hell in the interest of the capitalist class?
> ... and it should be no surprise to anyone that the standard of living has raised in these areas.
Like the four asian tigers did through State intervention? (And like the US did, also). Nothing even close to a free market prescription, albeit a quasi-capitalist one nevertheless.
Yes, I do!
The 3 best ones that I have ever seen are:
The Sealed Nectar
Muhammad: His Life Based On The Earliest Sources
In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad
The last one is by Tariq Ramadan. It would probably be the easiest one to digest/read for someone not too familiar with Islam or Muhammad peace be upon him.
Are you contending that Muhammad never existed? Simply because you can't find historians who are not Muslim that mention him? Maybe you should read this book. It's by Martin Lings, who was the curator for oriental manuscripts and printed books at the British Museum and at Cambridge.
edit: He did convert to Islam by they way. If that matters to you.
That's not wholly fair--several of us have provided good information, not faux scholarship or atheist reactionary rants!
I do want to throw in a few extra points to go with yours. I agree that pre-Islamic Arabia was not as barbarous as is sometimes assumed, however the reforms that Muhammad ushered in were often welcome and needed--giving women rights for example, and forbidding female infanticide.
It is true that we have no proof of Muhammad's illiteracy. Indeed, the first word of the first Qur'anic verse (in terms of chronology), 'iqra (أقرا) can be translated either 'read' or 'recite' so it sheds little light on that (source--Dr. Jamal Badawi's writings and classes).
The Qur'an was written down and compiled under the aegis of Uthman ibn Affan, as we've discussed elsewhere in this thread.
I also agree that many joined the early ummah out of a desire to improve their lot. This wasn't limited to Arabia; when Islam began to spread out from there it was originally meant to be an Arab religion and conversion was discouraged, however many converted in order to enjoy the same benefits as the Muslims did.
A lot of this is made very clear in the best seerah (bio of Muhammad) available in English, which is Martin Lings' Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. A caveat on this book: Lings was a faithful Muslim and wrote from a faith-based position, so it does lose some scholarly objectivity. However its a great read and its easy to maintain your own objectivity as you read it.
Also, Ira Lapidus' A History of Islamic Societies has a good section on pre-Islamic Arabia, as does Albert Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples IIRC.
I recommend all three books to anyone wanting to pursue this subject further.
I found this book very factually based.
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348206415&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lings+muhammad
Let me start with the basic. We love all of our Prophet's like you love Jesus Christ, but we do have a special place in our heart for Muhammad. He was a man who was deeply worried about peoples soul. He told people to avoid the temptation of Satan and to worship the god of Abraham. No one can be a Muslim and reject Jesus Christ at the same time. So when Jews become a Muslim they accepted Jesus. He was very compassionate and caring
I had a Funny conversation with a christian once. He came up to me and we talked about religion. He then concluded that I didn't worship his God. I replied thank goodness.. Because I worship the lord who created the heaven and the earth and everything in between and then I asked him who he worshiped ( BTW the conversation ended with him telling me who I worship, because he refused to let me worship ' The one true God, God ' )?
Start with lectures to actually see what Muslims lecturer teach their general population (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLVPT3bB9nk).
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1449867261&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=prophet+muhammad
Where are you getting your sources from?
Here are a few book suggestions:
Martin Lings - Amazon Books
The Sealed Nectar - Amazon Books
Karen Armstrong - Amazon Books
If you are interesting in some audio, here is a detailed breakdown of the Shama'il of Imam Tirmidhi (which describes mannerisms and characteristics of the Prophet) by Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar (a well know Islamic scholar and well known medical doctor)
http://sacredlearning.org/shamail-of-imam-tirmidhi?layout=category
You asked for everything really, but here is a selection I personally like that is more focused on the biography of Muhammad.
For Muslim books on the biography of the Prophet, I highly recommend:
A Biography of the Prophet of Islam: In the Light of the Original Sources, an Analytical Study
In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
On the more academic side of his life and following centuries, I recommend:
Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction
Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World
In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam
For the four best primary sources of his biography translated into English:
The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi's Kitab al-Maghazi
The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya
The Life of Muhammad
The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad
>Religion is a creation of mankind to keep people in line and to explain things that over time science has been able to explain over and over again.
This is an unfounded claim. If you read about Muhammad's life (peace be upon him) you will see that your theory does hold apply at all. That was not his motivation for "inventing" Islam (as you might call it) whatsoever. Rather, his actions testify that he truly believed he was a messenger of God. Nobody who would lie about such a thing would go through the trials and tribulations (him and/or his followers getting boycotted, murdered, kidnapped, ridiculed constantly, exhiled, etc) that he did for no worldly gain.
There are so many great books, but I try to focus on ones the cite the earliest sources. For English speakers I found the combination of Martin Lings book along with Haleem's Qur'an translation to be the best two sources.
Found it
This is an excellent, but pretty long source, by Yasir Qadhi. You can use it to look up whatever controversy, or topic (for example, muslim wars), to see their context in detail.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAEA99D24CA2F9A8F
This is a well praised book, yet I didn't read it to be honest:
https://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=zg_bs_12532_1?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=1E7EFS62ZE6WF9E67CPR
I have really liked the maddaddam trilogy.. the third book comes out this september!
Also if you dont mind YA.. you might want to try the Birthmarked trilogy or the Divergent trilogy! =)
Oryx and Crake
It really is an awesome book.
I'm reposting something I posted a couple of years ago:
Well, perhaps the most famous recent post-apocalyptic novel was McCarthy's The Road. Quite a bleak book, and very characteristic of McCarthy's spartan prose, this became a huge international best seller and a successful Hollywood movie. I certainly recommend it, but it's not really an uplifting book and has several confronting scenes. Still, very good.
The other obvious recent "literary" PA novels would be Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" trilogy. They start with Oryx and Crake, are followed by Year of the Flood and conclude with MaddAddam. These are very good books with strong feminist and ecological themes (a good thing!). Highly recommended.
The Dog Stars is yet another recent PA novel which garnered a fair bit of praise (I picked it up after hearing a segment on the novel on NPR's Fresh Air). I enjoyed it, despite the cliched "Survivalist" aspects and occasional far-fetched coincidences. A good, fun read; especially if you're a dog lover. :)
Other recommended titles (which I won't link to directly for time reasons) include Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy (kind of a mash up between post apocalypse and horror), Stephen King's The Stand (ditto), A Canticle for Leibowitz, Earth Abides and Alas Babylon (the triptych of classics of the genre).
Good luck. I love these books even though I'm a positive optimistic guy! :)
EDIT: I overlooked Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven (fun, action packed but accused by some of racist undertones), The Postman by David Brin (so so so very much better than the movie it spawned. So much better), The Year of the Plague by someone I forgot (rather original PA novel with nano-technology rearing its head) and even Blood Music by Greg Bear (though most people consider this full on science fiction, it does feature an apocalypse... or a sort. :)
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Since then, I've thought of (or read) a few more. Perhaps one of the most famous is Station Eleven. It garnered a fair bit of media attention and mainstream critical acclaim a couple of years ago. It's a bit of a slow burner, and whilst it's not my favourite post-apocalyptic novel, it's certainly worth picking up. The Girl with All the Gifts was a recent hit. Set in the UK, it tells the story of a band of British scientists and soldiers searching for remaining survivors, as they bring along a very strange and very dangerous survivor of the recent plague. It's great fun and was made into a movie recently. I believe the author recently published a sequel (The Boy on the Bridge?), but I haven't read this.
Wastelands is a collection of short-stories. Some really good stuff here, and if you're not feeling up to a full length novel or comptemplating the end of humanity, it's well worth a look.
Let me know if you want more. It's a favourite genre of mine. :)
Orxy and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Read it my senior year of high school for a random book group. It was awesome!
Faulker wrote:
> "Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.
That said: I'd recommend Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. It's a fun story, and she represents several different styles of English writing and speech between the different characters.
This may not be what you're looking for but its along the same line:
Oryx and Crake
It's a post-apocalyptic novel that takes place in a world destroyed by bioengineering.
Okay - then to start, I will recommend Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood, both by Margaret Atwood. They're part of a trilogy, the third book is due out this fall. Atwood defines them as speculative fiction; they're set in the not-to-distant future, and follow the downfall of civilization. I like Year of the Flood better, but both are pretty awesome.
For fantasy, I really like The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a blend of celtic mythology, fantasy, and arthurian legend. Some people don't like that it's basically an homage to LOTR, but it's one of my absolutely alll-time favourites.
For YA dystopian fiction, I'd suggest Divergent and Insurgent - also a trilogy, not sure when the third one is due out, off-hand.
One of my favourite sci-fi series is Phule's Company and the following books, by Robert Asprin. I also love Time Scout by him and Linda Evans. His writing is ridiculously clever and witty, and he's one of last century's greatest writers, in my opinion.
And finally, I love anything by Terry Pratchett - his Discworld series is amazing. So very very British and hilarious.
Get a copy of this book and read the chapter on former New York Governor Al Smith. It will serve as an excellent primer on leadership. This is a loose paraphrase and it may not be correct, but Smith's motto was "You will identify the issues, and I will fight for them." Also, ask questions to take the group's temperature often. I like the question "What are the issues?" It served me well when I had to supervise a group of older men. (You will not be able to resolve most of these issues, but it will allow your group to vent and let them know that you are listening to them, both of which are extremely important.)
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edit: They don't make leaders like Smith any more. As proof, here is another quote from him:
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>No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace, is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.
Clearly this right-wing libertarian dude doesn't have to commute through Penn Station.
He's just wrong. Honestly, if there was a reasonable argument against historical preservation, it is not present in this blog post. Does he really think that Grand Central would still be standing if it didn't have landmark status? GCT was bought for a measly $80 million in 2006 because it's worth nothing to real estate developers as a train station (contrast that with the tiny footprint of 432 Park Ave. which has >$1B in value), but it has an incalculable benefit to New Yorkers.
He doesn't even make the case that landmarks increase rent prices (which could be worth discussing). He just wants to build things faster and without obstruction. Which is EXACTLY how they built things between the 1920's and the 1960's.
Thank you!
My favorite book is probably the most boring book to alot of people: The Power Broker by Robert Caro. It's all about how one man basically created the New York that we know today, and was the most powerful man in the State even though he was never elected to any position.
My favorite movie is probably Caddyshack. Because... it's Caddyshack!
Here you go
Your book link broke somehow. Here is the link fixed:
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037
Amazon got rid of the flag, but you can still buy Mein Kampf.
Because...? Oh yeah, their entire movement is based on whatever they get angry about that day.
[Oh look, its in a book so it has to be true] ( http://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037)
I doubt very much we live in the same society. In my society, America, even if an idea is wrong, it does not simply get deleted, it lives on so others may learn from it. Some quick examples:
Here is the mobile version of your link
For design engineers whose job requires creativity
(Book 1)
(Book 2)
I infer that you are looking for a secular handle on a normative ethical theory.
Right Conduct: Theories and Application by Bayles and Henley provides a basic outline of essential philosophical thinking from an academic perspective.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, while authored by a Mormon, doesn't have any religious content that I recall and outlines some very useful heuristics for living a moral life. It's targeted at a general audience.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius does contain some religious content (though here he's not referring to YHWH), but still has a lot of useful ideas with secular application.
You may also be interested in The School of Life and The Greater Good Science Center.
Good luck.
Alright bro, I'm not gonna sugar coat it... so don't get offended as I am trying to help.
First grab the book meditations: it is ONE dollar,
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Then subscribe to /r/howtonotgiveafuck
https://www.reddit.com/r/howtonotgiveafuck/
Stop letting stupid people ruin your day, people will be stupid, but that doesn't mean you should get upset. You can't control people being douchebags, but you can control how you react to it.
It doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right, what matters is that it is making you unhappy.... some of the situations you described above you were in the right, and others, maybe not so much... but it doesn't matter.
And lastly, sorry but I think you should find another girl, why do you let her treat you like that? I say this with love, please grow some balls. You don't need to convince anyone of anything, if your girlfriend doesn't believe you, it is not because you didn't explain yourself properly, it is because she doesn't respect you enough. I suggest the book "way of the superior man"
I think I answered most of your questions. To answer your last question, why do you even want to continue hanging out with these people, just find people you like and surround yourself with them.
Get reading! sounds like you are young and still have some time to form yourself into the man you can be!
This is the one you're looking for:
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496588594&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=george+long+marcus+aurelius
So what you're saying is the book hasn't helped you as much as you hoped? :P
I don't know any books about that specifically, but I think Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Marcus Aurelius's Meditations have a lot of really good stuff in them. Kierkegaard's book is about the abstract life of faith, while Marcus Aurelius's is a more down-to-earth practical guide for day-to-day life-- if I didn't know he was a pagan I could almost swear he was a Christian (I think a lot of the Stoics became Christians in the first couple centuries).
Ok, two different categories of recs that arent exactly what you asked for but you might want to put on the radar:
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South by Java Head: https://www.amazon.com/South-Java-Head-Alistair-MacLean/dp/0006172482
The Guns of Navarone: https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Navarone-Alistair-MacLean/dp/0006172474
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Some quotes from #2 to give you a sense. Crazy this was just a roman emperor's diary 2000 years ago:
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
Many monk mode books are available as audiobooks on YouTube, or PDF files through torrents.
It's actually great that you're on a low budget for monk mode. Living frugally is a great activity for building a sense of self-efficacy.
Absolute essentials may be:
A notebook to plan, journal, record exercise, etc.
One or two books that you refer back to often enough, or work through slowly (Meditations by Marcus Aurelius comes to mind: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X)
Maybe some camping gear or other stuff that gets you into nature more often. Tent/sleeping bag/lantern/firemaking supplies.
Outside of that, you don't need anything, and tbh, it's monk mode.. monks don't need anything and that's part of the experience. Good luck man!
P.S. second u/Dr_D1amond on supplements
My preference is the Long version, just for the style (which somehow feels most appropriate for a Stoic philosopher-emperor to have written, at least to me). Be aware that the language is somewhat archaic; if you prefer a more modern-English version (which does paraphrase and summarize quite a bit), try Hays. But you can check out the Long online, so no risk in trying it. Online version.
There are several book versions available on Amazon. This one isn't the version I own, but I was satisfied with my copy of Enchiridion from the same publisher. (Note that, while an editorial review mentioned on the page refers to the Hays translation, the book preview shows the Long translation).
You can get a paperback version of Meditations on Amazon for $1.78 right now.
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign
A quote from the book:
> That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech. Mook and Podesta assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.
Also regarding Comey leading the investigation, was he actually leading it?
Peter Zeidenberg was recently quoted by the AP as saying "It is an ongoing investigation; there is no possible way that Comey could a) know that Trump was cleared of any misconduct at this stage of the investigation..."
If Comey couldn't even know whether or not Trump was cleared of misconduct, how closely was he actually involved in the investigation? Similarly why was he out flying around giving speeches to law enforcement recruits if he was so directly involved in these important investigations?
Additionally , the new acting director has said there is "No effort to impede" the Russia investigation. And said that the investigation will continue.
If you want to see how f'ing dysfunctional the HRC campaign was you should read Shattered it is a great book and will scare the hell out of you that the people that advise and run our country are incompetent. https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
I'm pretty sure it's from this new book:
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign
start here
https://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1466216491&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=mongolia
The Mongols were anything but savage. That's a preeeety racism belief. Read this book for a better perspective:
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644
Another source along the same lines:
"Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford is a wonderful history book for light and fun reading. It has tons of great reviews and is available for audio book as well.
Amazon link
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=pd_sim_b_4
The Mongols are worthy of anybodies time!
• "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" (Jack Weatherford) is my all-time and all-categories favourite. Temudjin is a turbo ENTJ, the books reads like a thrilling novel and provide great insights at every page, and there is wisdom in every episode of the Khan's life and even after his life (the chapters of how and why the Mongol empires collapses are a serious lesson to be considered at all times). This book just has everything in it: a catching history, a great writing, emotions, lessons for life, insights of a great man who happens to have been "like us" and even if it's quite long, you dread for the end to happen every page you turn, and that is a feeling I rarely had.
• "How to Make Millions Without a Degree" (Simon Dolan) is the best fuel for my confirmation biases. Basically an anthem to self-made people and believing in yourself. Dolan is a funny guy and his motorsport career is more than acknowledgeable. Another proof that when there is a will, there is a way, inspiring guy and inspiring book. Only book so far I bought twice (physically and on Kindle).
• "To Hell and Back" (Niki Lauda) is my model for being bold and having balls, which I
cruelly lackwork toward developping. Lauda is the definition of boldness. The guy is crazy and the book relates a very unique story of a career. If you enjoy everything with an engine, it's a must-read. For all others, it's a lesson on boldness.• "The Power of Habits" (Charles Duhigg) made a lasting impact on my life. I believe it's the best "neurosciences for everybody" book ever. It crunches a ton of important concepts and informations about our brains into the "simple" idea of habits.
• "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think" (Brian Wansink) is actually a scam. Wansink was dismissed from his university for falsifying researchs and his "food psychology" thing was recently debunked for having little or no academic basis. This book is full of these made up stuff, most information it contains are probably wrong or manipulated. But... it works. It worked for me. It triggered little changes in my relationship to food (mostly about quantity and not tricking myself into eating stuff I'll regret later) and I can see my fat diminishing from these newly formed habits. So I don't know, this scam book was the one that made me end up bad habits with food when some more academic works didn't help a lot. I'll let that to your own judgement.
Yeah, I was just making a stupid joke.
As for the Islamic view of Genghis Khan, it depends on perspective. Genghis Khan was tolerant of Muslims and even sought after their intellectuals. But he also destroyed their populations. A lot of the estimates of the deaths caused by Genghis Khan's conquest are exaggerated, but that doesn't really affect the perception in much of the Muslim world. There are also a lot of dubious claims as to Genghis Khan's brutality.
It's true, from any perspective, that the Mongol conquest put an end to a long period of Muslim prosperity. Since the days of Mohammed, they had seen very few serious military losses. The common belief among Muslims prior to Genghis Khan was that their prosperity and military success was undeniable proof of the validity of their beliefs. They felt that Allah had blessed them with the ability to win battles and spread their religion. So Genghis Khan turned their world upside down.
All of my understanding of Genghis Khan and Muslim history come from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, both of which I highly recommend.
As taken from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
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> The Chinese noted with surprise and disgust the ability of the Mongol warriors to survive on little food and water for long periods; according to one, the entire army could camp without a single puff of smoke since they needed no fires to cook. Compared to the Jurched soldiers, the Mongols were much healthier and stronger. The Mongols consumed a steady diet of meat, milk, yogurt, and other diary products, and they fought men who lived on gruel made from various grains. The grain diet of the peasant warriors stunted their bones, rotted their teeth, and left them weak and prone to disease. In contrast, the poorest Mongol soldier ate mostly protein, thereby giving him strong teeth and bones. Unlike the Jurched soldiers, who were dependent on a heavy carbohydrate diet, the Mongols could more easily go a day or two without food.
Veganism made for weak men.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
It's about how overpopulation coupled with bioengineering ruin the planet from the view of a man called Snowman (his real name is Jimmy) who survived the plague along with a new human species he calls the Crakers. Seriously awesome book, and its a 3 book series. Just finished the second book and am dying waiting for the third.
Margaret Atwood already did it in two of her books.
But I'd also love to see different renditions of the same kind of scenario.
Linky...
Margaret Atwood has two companion books, both of a dystopian nature. I prefer Oryx and Crake, but The Year of the Flood is a nice afterword. The Handmaid's Tale is her most popular work. She calls it speculative fiction instead of science fiction.
She's one of my favorites, obviously.
Hmm I really don't like most scifi covers, especially the retro pulpy stuff! I have to say I do love all the iterations of Orxy and Crake by Margaret Atwood, like this one, this British one or this other British one.
Unfortunately, I don't own any of these editions!
'Oryx & Crake' by Margaret Atwood (Trilogy, I've only read the first one.)
'Viral Nation' by Shaunta Grimes (Upcoming series, I've only read the first one.)
Yep. It's[ this one ]
(http://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1342129015&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=oryx+and+crake)
If you haven't yet read Oryx & Crake, you might really dig it. At any rate, you've described it very well here.
Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.
Some of the better/more popular ones:
Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.
On The Beach by Nevil Shute is probably the closest I've read to that level hopeless apocalyptic scenarios.
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is another one. It's not as dark, but it has some key things in common that you may like.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood No sci-fi or apocalypse thread is getting very far without me recommending it.
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro
A bit more recent than the other suggestions already posted, but a riveting read (especially if you're a New Yorker).
One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.
Sooo good. The Power Broker
Sincer nu știu dacă sunt destule persoane cărora le pasa ca sa dau un răspuns complet.
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Dar pot sa dau o referința despre cum s-a realizat aproximativ inversul.
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https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245
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Despre birocratul din umbra care a transformat NY in oraș automobilistic prim măsuri ceaușiste.
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TLDR in capitalism/liberalism automobilistic redezvoltarea urbana nu este nici fezabila nici dezirabila.
I've been reading The Power Broker. It's an interesting look into corruption in government, and public works projects, and it's also very well written. It's a bit long but I'd recommend it.
It might not be so much a book on conspiracies but if you wanna know how true power functions behind the scenes I can think of no better book than
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
greatest biography ever written imo
the powerbroker https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245
I'll do you one better this is one of the best books I've ever read. Will completely change the way you think about politics and infrastructure.
Unfortunately a grossly overblown transportation system focused far to heavily on car and truck traffic, especially in cities. I'm no expert but having read The Power Broker ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0394720245/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/186-5344940-1539417) certainly puts an interesting historical perspective on this statment.
Got it
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GB9565CEPFND&amp;keywords=mein+kempf+by+adolf+hitler+english&amp;qid=1565921237&amp;s=gateway&amp;sprefix=mein+k%2Caps%2C176&amp;sr=8-1
Like this one? https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037
http://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037
>I don't. I have multiple Muslim friends.
Can you read?
>No. Conservatives are actually pro free speech, the absolute enemy of Fascists and/or today's left.
Fascist are extreme conservatives dude? Maybe pick this book up if you need a refreshing look at it
Also the left isn't against free speech, liberals are
Turner Diaries & Mein Kampf are on Amazon too. If you're going with deflection as a defense you're doing it wrong. The book is just a French version of the Turner Diaries.
https://www.amazon.com/Turner-Diaries-Andrew-Macdonald/dp/1733648127/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=turner+diaries&qid=1573660783&sr=8-2
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037/ref=sr_1_2?crid=15256J83HSMPR&keywords=mein+kamphf+english&qid=1573660803&sprefix=mein+ka%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-2
And apparently some copies have neo-nazi publishers' marks. Disgusting. You can report it here, I did:
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037 - Giant "Send Feedback" link at the bottom of the page.
Please provide a valid source on how amazon uses contracts and intent for its platform. They were just a online bookstore. Granted, they've evolved since then but, their basic concept is the same. I would guess that it is more of a "Hey. Tthese guys gave us money to use us. Is it illegal?" then they just allow them.
Your point is not different then boycotting your public library for having Mein Kampf or...
Wait a moment! It is also on Amazon... :/
MacDonald? Really?
Well, then, here's another ClicketyClick you might enjoy.
For everyone else: Kevin MacDonald.
>The courts never ruled such a thing with On the Jews and Their Lies because it never came up
Considering you can buy a copy of it on Amazon, I'd guess it's probably legal.
There are plenty of other hideous texts on Amazon. So either you're right and Amazon is breaking the law and is profiting off hate speech, or you're wrong and these texts aren't hate speech at all.
"Read a Book"
Which book? Will this one suffice?
I'm not upset about it, but USA certainly does tolerate National Socialist videos, since they're protected by the 1st amendment.
You can even buy National Socialist books like "Mein Kampf" on Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf/dp/0395925037
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Highly recommend giving this a read.
Try the ice cube trick if the anxiety ever hits and you have a drink handy. I just hold an ice cube in my left hand until it melts. Can still shake hands and everything but the ice cube seems to force my heart to slow down a bit. My best guess is that it triggers the Mammalian Diving Reflex and turns off whatever is derailing.
That trick came from a Viet Nam Vet, has been a huge help as time has gone on.
As for things sticking around, now that I'm well into my 40's the flashbacks and nightmares seem to have slowed to almost nothing - though they can still get triggered by trauma anniversary and other surprises. I have one trauma around a car accident so anytime the brakes squeal behind me I get to have a fun day.
Totally agree that basic Meditation is necessary to get through, can't see it ever being accepted in the public school system here in the US though - hell some places refuse to teach Evolution.
I also think that Philosophy has helped me cope some - Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius have been incredibly helpful reading to sort of adjust the way I see the world these days. I highly recommend the two following books:
http://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Dover-Thrift-Editions-Epictetus/dp/0486433595
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Books regarding how to build your online business / extract value out of an email list come from people who collected their online offerings.
For example: Ryan Levesque "Ask" on how to build products through email lists are a compilation of user stories from what he's done online.
With that said if you're looking for general entrepreneurship books here are a few I would check out:
The best books to read to get through the thick and thin however are not business books. For example, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is excellent
Buy this book asap: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1409378436&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=meditations
/r/mgtow
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
wiki
amazon
Local library might be worth checking out.
I prefer to buy paperbacks so I can fill up my bookcase. Girls are always impressed when they see it because it seems like nobody reads anymore.
**Off topic but Mediations by Aurelius is $1.00 right now. I picked it up last week because I was sick of reading it on my Galaxy.
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492454670&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=meditations+of+marcus+aurelius
hi! you commented a long time ago, but hopefully you have a dollar to spare (and a prime membership: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1420595333&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=marcus+aurelius
I found this copy of MA's meditations for a dollar.. and when I went to check out, my final bill came to $.33 after some discounts, and the fact I have amazon prime. Check it out and order this if you want to!
This book changed my life. Im sure anyone on this sub will recognize themselves and the situations Donovan writes about.
How to become powerful, seductive and master yourself.
This book helped me overcome my fear of death, which made me give less fucks. Because in the end, nothing matters.
I dont have anymore than that at the moment, but i would suggest reading biographies of great men. Right now im reading Seven Pillars Of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence(of Arabia)s first hand account of the Arab uprising during the First World War
I'm not Jeff, but I've struggled with this as well. Some books that have helped me were Way of the Superior Man, 50th Law, and Meditations. They're worth a read.
Seems like the body is great, but if you think your mind is lacking, you have to train that too! Mens sana in corpore sano, you know. I will like to support the idea of meditation; guided meditation is great, and it really helps you put things in perspective and create the self-awareness that you need to know where you stand. Also, I'll recommend you read Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. Seriously a good read, and it's cheap (or free online)
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
https://www.amazon.ca/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
For Canadian Amazon.
I love reading biographies, I find them more inspiring and enjoyable to read than self-help books. Currently I'm reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. I highly recommend this book to anyone, prior to this book I only knew what they taught us in History class, this explores so many more aspect of his life, some of which we can all relate to (like his constant drive to improve himself).
[Meditations by Marcus Aurelius] (http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X) is another great book I just finished. Written by a former Roman emperor who ruled during the time of frequent war, disease, and natural disasters, it's about how he dealt with it all as a leader by following the stoic philosophy. Amazing book and helped changed my outlook on the world.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This is one of those books that isn't geared to self-improvement, but to updating your view of the world. In it Taleb talks about how highly improbably events happen all the time, but we only see them as probable in hindsight. I think it's a great read since we tend to think in cause-and-effect ways, when in fact the world works more in a probabilistic way.
Hm, I bought this one just because it's the best seller. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/048629823X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
I put the one you mentioned on a list for later if I decide to read it again. What makes the Hays' version better?
If you really want a physical book there's a budget one on amazon.
I bought it when it was only $1 and now it's $1.78
Here is the mobile version of your link
The book isn't even mentioned in that Vice article, what the fuck. It was published by Crown on 4/18/17.
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
&nbsp;
The article you linked is from July...Crowdstrike retracted several portions of their findings since then, making it complete bullshit:
Thanks for taking the time to put this together and continue the discussion. I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of the precise sequence of events regarding the discovery of Clinton-related emails on Weiner's laptop is very shallow, your comment from pre-election raises strong points to consider.
I checked out your sources (minus the NPR episode) and I think the ProPublica piece in particular offers a great, balanced account. I want to respond to a few of the points you brought up by countering with my take on Clinton's (far greater) role in these events compared to Comey.
There is little question in my mind that Clinton is completely culpable for the repercussions of the email issue, although I concede that the FBI could have handled large aspects of the investigation in better ways. There are two aspects that I feel strongly affirm Clinton's responsibility for the issue and its repercussions: 1) her willful decisions to mishandle data, and 2) her misleading statements on the issue, whether they were intentional lies or not.
> "The final arbiter of what's public or what's turned over to Congress shouldn't be private staff working for Hillary Clinton. It should be State Department employees who are bound by duty to the public interest."
There was a fundamental conflict of interest in having her privately hired lawyers review the emails before turning them over to the government. By doing so, she created a situation where on the surface it was impossible to determine whether or not she broke the law, leaving an investigation as the only means of making that determination. This is an outcome that Clinton could have easily anticipated and prevented by being more forthright with the data.
I take the opposite position as you and argue that the burden on Clinton to account for unintended consequences and take adequate precautions is greater than Comey's burden at every step of the way. From her decision to use a single blackberry and store emails on a private server, to her withholding of emails, to her handling of the fallout, the burden was on her to take responsibility for her actions and control the narrative.
I'd encourage you to read Shattered if you haven't already. The book is extremely thorough and well-vetted, and comes from authors unbiased on the issue who had written positively about Clinton in the past. The accounts from her associates and campaign staff of her conduct as candidate leave little doubt as to her complete responsibility for the outcome.
If you wanna talk about Occam's Razor:
You somehow find the first scenario more likely. Despite insider testimony supporting the second scenario. (here's an archive with direct quotes [link])
And before you ask (because of course you will): no, Shattered was not written by right-wing conspiracy theorists, the authors write for the NYT, The Hill, and Politico.
Speaking of conspiracy theories: relevant xkcd.
Links about the book "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign":
• http://time.com/4747256/hillary-clinton-shattered-book/
• https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/books/shattered-charts-hillary-clintons-course-into-the-iceberg.html
That's wikileaks twitter account, tweeting an excerpt from a book.
This is the source:
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
Written by Jonathan Allen.
"Jonathan Allen is an award-winning political journalist and New York Times bestselling author. He is the head of community and content at Sidewire, a columnist for Roll Call, and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University. He is also the host of the DC/BS podcast and can be booked for speaking engagements through the Bright Sight Group."
I prefer my reading material lightly salted.
The only book about the election I have read thus far is Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. The authors are sympathetic to Hillary of course, but it comes across as an even-handed account of the Clinton campaign and its operators. I don't know that I'd recommend it, unless you're genuinely interested in all the ways they screwed up. I read it because it's the one aspect of this whole election voracious consumers of news like me were not exposed to. Throughout the campaign, there was nothing in the media coverage about the dysfunction in Brooklyn. I don't need to read a book about the Trump campaign apparatus or why people voted for him. I already know all that.
>I disagree strongly. I voted for Clinton because I liked her platform and I thought she would have been a great president.
That's great and all, but that doesn't exclude the fact that when asked why she would make a good president, she said it was because she was a woman. Not only that, but the multiple comments degrading people who were voting for Trump as deplorable. There were even admissions within her own campaign staff that she didn't seem like she stood for anything, and that the only real thing to go on was the fact that she was a woman. But all we really have to look at is the fact that you didn't even bother to list examples of why you supported her.
>but memes aren't a great start to a respectful conversation so I decided to not respond.
Then why are you talking to me now? It's really clear you didn't have a proper answer for it.
Because this book came out today
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam
Ah! I didn't see it at first but here you go!
>BLATANT lie right here. Fucking slimy.
Did you read the book Shattered? It's in the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
>How do you know? We know they tried. But NO ONE HAS EXAMINED THE VOTING SYSTEMS.
Actually, there were audits done after the 2016 primary and they found that if you counted the paper ballots and compared them with the machine count the machines always erred in favor of Hillary Clinton, almost like the voting machines were rigged to guarantee she won. But don't worry, the board of elections for that state promised they would look into it after the November election.
But don't take my word for it, let the video speak for itself.
https://youtu.be/TmYYvZASoks?t=44s
If anyone was cheating for anyone, it was the establishment cheating for Clinton and that makes her defeat even more embarrassing.
https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084
Sigh, the way Hillary's campaign ran like after reading the book Shattered(by Jonathan Allen and Arnie Pines, https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084 ), I'm convinced it was THAT bad. I really don't know why she didn't campaign harder in swing states like Michigan, Wisconson, etc.
Another Redditor said Democrats often are notorious for screwing up general election campaigning, and sadly I'd say that's true.
>Just look at how the Democratic party is blaming their loss on Russia.
>The first sentence I disagree with. I don't see anyone besides some off-kilter people using this as an excuse.
WashingtonPost - Hillary Clinton Blames Russian Hackers and Comey
Hillary Clinton and President Obama increasingly pointing to Russia to help explain her loss
New book where Hillary staffers reveal that the DNC Chair Podesta & Hillary campaign manager Mook devised a plan to blame Russia within 24 hours of her loss. [Shattered:Inside Hillary's Doomed Campaign]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0553447084/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1498631657&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&amp;keywords=shattered+inside+hillary+clinton%27s+doomed+campaign&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51yTq5B34JL&amp;ref=plSrch)
It's just how the game is played. Politics is all about reputation. You never see a politician offer up any confession or say sorry. Even when some evidence surface, they say things like "I did not inhale" or "I'm not a crook". Just look at the refugee crisis caused by the bombing of Libya. Hillary says Obama made the decision, while he said she went there and did all the negotiating. They blame each other and no one admits fault, so I don't see why Trump should be held to a higher standard. Would I like him to be able to admit fault? Yes. But because he didn't, doesn't make him any worst than Obama or other past president.
&nbsp;
>I mean, I don't think I can convince you to consider Trump negatively nor do I necessarily want to.
I agree, that's why this sub exists to discuss to come closer to the truth. I'm not here to convince you, but to provide you some of the information I've come across and to hear what you've come across. I'm not here to win a debate, but to find out things I didn't know.
&nbsp;
>It may be easy for you to lock this away in the back of your mind and say he was just "doing what he needed to do,"
That's not my thoughts at all. I always try to put myself in Trump's shoes, and figure out what his thoughts were. I personally haven't come across any evil or ill-intent message. I don't believe he was "doing what he needed to do", as in the end justifies the means. If you have any specific quote you're referring to, let me know. To give you an idea of my thoughts. Here's a doctor's blog. He dislikes Trump, but admits that his campaign rhetoric actually was "feel-good pro-diversity rhetoric", he wrote this blog to get people away from false accusations against Trump, and focus on real things to be upset at Trump. Btw, some of the things the doctor writes about, he doesn't have the full picture. For example, he believes Trump was really mocking a disabled reporter, but after my research, that's most likely not the case. Let me know if you want more details.
&nbsp;
>Regarding how Trump is with staff and people who he doesn't need to necessarily cozy up to for his own benefit
I read through the sources:
>Trump, trying to mind his manners, ate the whole salty, soggy breakfast. “I thought that was pretty impressive,” said Goldberg.
>“He’s a billionaire without being elite,” said Stone
Honestly, the third Article made me like Trump more. To summarize my thoughts on the three articles - they are mainly hit pieces and don't really show any mistreatment of staff. You can start seeing why I started liking Trump. I initially trusted these types of articles, didn't like Trump, but after I started doing deeper research, I started to find out how misleading they were and Trump's not that bad of a guy. They want you to hate Trump. From my experience, first two news sites are heavily anti-Trump, last one tends to have an Anti-Trump lean. They found people who has some type of grudge or something to gain (they represent Democrats), or twist something to try to paint a negative picture of Trump.
&nbsp;
>Either way, Trump shows a history of dehumanizing people he doesn't need on his side
I have not found this to be true. There's an abundant history of him treating many people with dignity, from his senior execs down to low level staff like his driver. The media cherry picks people who've been fired or Democrats running for office. I've already given you examples of many neutral sources, people who don't stand to benefit in any way. Like askReddit, those people have nothing to gain to tell us that Trump provides them with free room and treats them with respect. When Rosie O'Donnell got a heart attack, he even wished her well dispite their feud. She said she was shocked and thanked him. There are tons of stories like this. Like the salt in the cereal. He's willing to eat salty cereal, would you be willing to do that? Can you imagine a billionaire doing that?
&nbsp;
>Interestingly, I trust a lot of Trump's cabinet
Even John Kerry said Trump was very thoughtful in his cabinet selections. I like Tillerson and Sessions alot. I know Devos has experience with education, but I have no personal opinion. I've read some articles that says she's actually a good pick, but most articles say she's bad.
&nbsp;
>Anyway, I can tell we'll probably never reach an agreement about Trump
Personally, I don't think that's the point. I feel it's about digging for truth, and based on those truth, everyone will have their own opinions. Let me just throw out a wild example. I think Trump never killed anyone, and you think he's killed many people. Obviously what we think of him will be different. But let's say, after we both presented facts, we've come to the conclusion that Trump fell asleep at the wheel, crashed, and killed his passengers. We still can have different opinions, but at least we both are working off of the same information now. I might think, he didn't mean to kill. You might think, driving while tired means he purposely put his passenger's lives in danger.
That's why I want to get the information you've been viewing, to see if we have the same information, and if not, how does it affect my views.
I read a book on the Mongols that was very interesting. One of the ideas that the author tries to convey is that the Mongols wanted everyone to think of them as some hideous destroyers so that their enemies would be more willing to surrender rather than to battle.
Or read a book. Carlin is a great dramatist of history but, being a podcaster, he focuses on dramatic quotes, visual events, and the broad brush.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644 is quite good with the facts but is clearly a revisionist apologia for a man who was a genocidal maniac. And whether or not Genghis Khan wanted to create a wondrous peaceful "New World Order" after killing a quarter of the world's population is something from the author's imagination entirely.
I like this biography of Genghis Khan. It's maybe not exactly what you were looking for, but I thought it was pretty cool to read about the truly breathtaking extent of he and his sons' conquests and the complete obscurity from which he and the Mongols emerged.
I enjoyed reading ["Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford] (https://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1475041949&amp;sr=1-1-fkmr0&amp;keywords=Genghis+Khan+and+the+Making+of+the+Modern+World+Written+by%3A+Jack+Weatherford)
For those who want a fuller picture, check out Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. It covers the entire history of the Mongol Empire, from Genghis Khan's formative years to the eventual collapse of the Empire.
Read this and decide for yourself.
read a book
Read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. Paints a much more nuanced picture of the man, and is an absolutely fascinating read.
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Awesome book about how basically a homeless orphan who is forced to eat rats rises to go from that to slave to conquer more of the world than any man in history ever has. Fascinating book.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1335449951&amp;sr=8-1
I don't really think that you can compare the two. Genghis Khan and his descendants implemented many policies that we view as progressive like religious freedom,promoting a meritocracy, immunity to diplomats, and a codified code of laws. It also could be argued that he had no will to conquer beyond Mongolia before the trade incident with what was the Khwarezmian Empire. With all that said, he was a man of his time. He used terror as an effective weapon and he generally only destroyed the cities that resisted him and forced him to siege. If anyone wants to know more they should read Jack Diamond's book. When I said that he was a man of his time, I meant that other leaders were just as cruel like in Europe and China, because it was the Middle Ages you know.
I kind of view Hitler a bit differently. Any person in the West of Victorian sensibilities would have viewed what he was doing as evil even if they were Jews. He just killed them because they were Jews. Not everyone in Germany thought it was right either. I remember reading a book of a first hand account of a Jew in a concentration camp where he saw an old Jew enter and take up residence in the camp. He was respected by the camp guards, because he was a former officer in the former Imperial German Army and was awarded an Iron Cross.
Book recommendation:
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644
hmmmm... well, not much that Ive read fall under that price range. Do you like in the USA, can you use Amazon?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786884517/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1495585796&amp;sr=8-6&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&amp;keywords=pirate+biography&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51-foWCviEL&amp;ref=plSrch
That one is 9-10 dollars, the story of Captain Kidd. If you dont mind used editions some of the stuff by Robert K Massie is under 5 dollars for print.
Dreadnought is about Britain and Germany gearing up do WW1
Peter the Great was one of the most famous Tsars of Russia
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/0345298063/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=all
Ghenghis Khan and The Making of The Modern world was fascinating
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/0609809644/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=all
The republic of Pirates was pretty interesting too
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/015603462X/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=all
i linked to used books, so be aware of that - i buy almost all of my books used in "good" or "great" condition and have no complaints so far.
A potpourri of questions.
Those two are on my to-read list; but if we're recommending these, I want to chime in with two books I've read that I think would fit in well: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage and Lost Moon, what's been since rechristened "Apollo 13" after the movie made the book even more well-known.
I remember seeing this picture in this book, so he must be one of Shackleton's crew.
Ernest Shackleton was a beast of an explorer. After his boat was destroyed by the ice flows in the antarctic, he lead his crew back to safety with ZERO deaths. I fully recommend reading the book, based on their journal entries. Amazon link
Endurance by Lansing
http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/078670621X
Incredible. Life changing adventure read. Really. Go seek it out.
In the Heart of the Sea tells the true story that inspired Moby Dick, and is a great read.
If you like non-fiction, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage and The Perfect Storm are also very good.
Endurance
Reminds me of this
Oh, no wait, here's an inspiring book, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.
>The astonishing saga of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as "Time" magazine put it, "defined heroism". Alfred Lansing's scrupulously researched and brilliantly narrated book--with over 200,000 copies sold--has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the "Endurance's" fateful trip.
It's the end-all be-all of getting-lost-in-the-wilderness-and-surviving-against-all-odds stories. My coworkers and I took some solace in it while working under an abusive, criminal boss who later plead guilty to nine felonies. That time period required endurance to come to work each day.
It sounds like you're off to a good start. You sound pretty close to the right height/weight ratio, so it'll probably be pretty hard to see any big weight changes even with a lot of effort. I had a lot of good luck on a bicycle, largely because running would tear my body up, so good luck to you.
There's some good (and conflicting) advice in this thread already, but working out with friends can help you stay at it. In a similar vein, I started playing pick-up basketball at a park a couple nights a week, made some friends there, and my team of 5 would expect me to be out there so we'd have a full team on those nights. That way I'd be sure to be out there since I knew if I wasn't they'd be upset. It really helped on nights where I could have easily packed it in and stayed home, any almost never did I regret actually going. Another thing you can do is train for an event with someone; maybe a mini-triathlon, half-marathon, century bicycle race.
But I actually came to answer your audiobook question. I had some good luck with This American Life (you can get all of the MP3s for free) for awhile but burned out on it a bit. Then I made myself a musical bike helmet and I'm in freakin' heaven with that thing; it's the perfect amount of split attentions for me. I like fitness cycling to adventure/survival non-fiction, I could manage to push myself since the characters had it so much worse. How can you refuse to go balls out for another 3 minute interval when you're listening to a story where someone's starving to death?
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing was my favorite of that genre, had a brilliant reader.
I also liked Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
And out of that genre, I've recently listened to Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and Moneyball by Michael Lewis and I can't stop talking about either of them.
Good luck and keep at it. I got a lot of silver-bullet advice from a lot of well-meaning friends, but what really helped was finding stuff that worked for me and then ignoring them. I'm down about 50lbs over the 16 months or so.
I encourage everyone to read Endurance, about his amazing trip to the Antarctic. The man was a badass like no other.
Excellent. If anyone's interested in some of the history of this place, read Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. It's not really about South Georgia, but Shackleton ends up here after an arduous journey.
If you are interested in shackletons journey and the tenacity of human spirit i suggest reading this gem of a book.
http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/078670621X
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing.
https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1484330812&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=if+i+did+it+by+o.j.+simpson
Just watched this. As someone who's old enough to remember the shitshow media circus of the trial, the part of the vid showing Nicole's body was pretty shocking to me, I wasn't expecting it, and I actually had to stop for a minute. Of course the crime scene photos are easy to find online... her family deserved better, but ultimately, OJ had more money - USA, best justice money can buy. They did win a civil suit against him for wrongful death and battery, but his sorry ass still stayed out of jail. His cocksucker lawyer died in 2005 from a heart attack, so that's a positive.
Simpson published a book in 2008 titled, "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer", guess what that shit is about. The Goldman's won the rights to the book in 2007.
https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
http://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934#
The rights to the book were awarded to the family of one of the victims.
Perhaps writing an eyewitness account would be enough? If I Did It
Remember the time he wrote that book, "I totes didn't kill my wife, but if i did, here's how i would have done it."
EDIT: Oh dear, it's still for sale: http://www.amazon.com/If-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1396920966&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=oj+simpson+book
Do you mean this?
Just don't know
http://www.amazon.com/I-Did-It-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
He kinda already did.
Idk. IF he did it, here's how https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1
The movie just covers the war stuff, but especially if you don't care for war stories, the book is a full portrait of the man, warts and all. It made me cry.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
American POW held by japanese survival - 67%
German POW held by American survival - 98.85%
source
Yeah, you know, pretty close conditions.
I read Unbroken the awesomest real WWII story ever. If they made it a movie it would be completely unbelievable. Complete with jumping in and out of a life raft avoiding great white sharks and eating their livers (apparently the only edible portion) after punching them to death and THEN surviving Japanese death camps.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Armor by John Steakley
I forgot, I have also started Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Read by Stephen Fry), and it is well done as well.
I remembered a couple more that I liked:
Unbroken - good (true) story about WWII pilot who was captured by the Japanese
Water for Elephants - Good book (fiction) about a circus in the depression era
Anathem - I really like Neal Stephenson, and this was a good book, but it was very long, and I'm sure I would have had a much harder time if I had to read it, instead of just listen to it
Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book 1) - Good book, but very long and if it weren't for the different voices by the narrator, I would have gotten lost pretty easily.
Hope this helps, and hope you find some good ones!
If you've read the book Unbroken you should understand why i cringe whenever i hear the name Watanabe. If you haven't... Do
This book I just read is amazing. I couldn't stop thinking about it after reading it. An incredibly remarkable and TRUE story. I love reading books!
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372565499&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=unbroken+a+world+war+ii+story+of+survival.+resilience.+and+redemption
http://www.amazon.in/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit, is the story of a World War II American P.O.W. It's very well written and gave me a whole new perspective of how World War II was from the Japanese perspective. I'd also go with Into the Wild, which Captain suggested. I love that book.
For anyone interested in a similar and quite extraordinarily well written, thoroughly documented story of WWII, may I suggest Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. The book will confirm everything The0 states and add even more insight both to the war and it's aftermath effect on the POWs like "Edmund and Hap".
The book you're looking for is called "Unbroken", by Laura Hillenbrand. You can buy it here.
Unbroken, By Laura Hillenbrand. One of the best and most amazing true stories I've ever read. Read it before the movie comes out!
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
The hivemind reccomends: Unbroken. awww yiss. I was reading a snippet while at the bookstore last night. it's a good read.
this one is new and on my must read list
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Not only the best I read this year, but easily the best I've read in the past five years.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163 I listened to this during my night shifts and was so drawn into it I'd listen to it on the way home from work. I also felt shitty about how easy I have it in life afterwards.
this story has nothing on the movie they could make of Unbroken: http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
For biography - Unbroken. For only having two books under her belt Laura Hillenbrand is a great biographer. I also highly recommend Seabiscuit. She does a great job of recreating the time and place. Unbroken is an incredible story about an incredible man's life. Amazing he made it through with his humanity intact.
Unbroken is great. It non-fiction that reads like fiction. So good!
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163
Unbroken. Great book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/25/days-adrift-teens-rescued-s-pacific/
And badass of the CENTURY goes to: http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/product-reviews/1400064163
Some reads you may enjoy, OP!
Flags of our Fathers
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Both books moved me to tears while reading, and clung to my mind for weeks after.
Archives for the links in comments:
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I love this book!
https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787
I don't even want to say anything about it, and spoil the story
Cuckoo's Egg is a good read, but High-Tech Heretic should be compulsory for anyone doing CS past bachelor's.
I would recomend you to read Future Crimes by Marc Goodman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Crimes-Digital-Underground-Connected/dp/0552170801?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&amp;tag=duckduckgo-ffab-uk-21&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;camp=2025&amp;creative=165953&amp;creativeASIN=0552170801 mostly deals with the non existence of electronic security though and how it is and can be exploited
Information and Corporate security is a very big subject, so it kind of depends where you intend to take your story. But you can start by reading the Wikipedia article about InfoSec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_security and then see how each area fits into your story and work out from there.
Some realisim in how difficult it can be to track down a hacker, read The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500888747&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=clifford+stoll very different from what you see in the media
IMHO the most interesting area in Information security is Social Engineering, it requires cunning and skill, and sometimes you can't stop admiring the talents and genius of some of these people. Read Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking https://www.amazon.co.uk/Social-Engineering-Art-Human-Hacking/dp/0470639539/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500889212&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=social+engineering+the+art+of+human+hacking
Each year Verizon release their data breach report http://www.verizonenterprise.com/verizon-insights-lab/dbir/2017/ it is free to download (don't have to register, just click the download only button) I think that is possibly the best insight you can get into corporate security challenges in 2017
Technology related would for sure be The Cuckoo's Egg, and Ghost in the Wires
Not tech related, Junky, American Psycho, and Kitchen Confidential
The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
Here's something similar.
I liked both books a lot.
I'd also recommend the book "Failure is not an option" which is by one of NASA's first flight controllers:
http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/1439148813/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1323206490&amp;sr=8-2
The amount of stuff that happened like this is pretty crazy. There's no way it'd ever go over now.
Gene Kranz’s book is absolutely fantastic: Failure is Not an Option
If you want incredibly in-depth Shuttle details, T. A. Heppenheim’s books can’t be beat:
Check out "Taming Liquid Hydrogen" for a great history of the Centaur upper stage and "Failure is not an Option" which is Gene Krantz memoir as Flight director for NASA.
There's a lot of great books on the subject. One in particular I would recommend is Gene Kranz's book "Failure is Not an Option." It's from the perspective of his seat in Mission Control, and touches on almost every aspect of early spaceflight. If you're not familiar with him, he's the white-vested Flight Control Director in the Tom Hanks Apollo 13 movie, and the inspiration for KSP's Gene Kerman in the Mission Contol building.
If you're looking for something to watch, I can't more highly recommend anything than the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon."
Hmmm... a leader type?
Pick this one up too! Probably the best ever personal account from the space industry at large.
Apollo: Race to the Moon by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly
and
Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz
You should read a book written by Gene Kranz
Failure is Not An Option
In any redditors want some fresh inspiration I definitely recommend reading "Failure Is Not an Option" by Gene Kranz to see probably the greatest engineering perspective of the start of the US space program.
If you've not read this book yet, I highly recommend it: Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 by Gene Kranz.
I couldn't put it down and it really puts you in the middle of everything and makes you feel like you're right there with them at NASA mission control.
>I want something hopeless and unrelenting.
here ya go
It as 3 stars yesterday and 5 stars today. Stop buying from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/1501175564/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_show_all?reviewerType=all_reviews&amp;pageNumber=1
They aren't being censored, it's just like a company posting a bunch of fake reviews to make you believe you're getting a stellar product. I'm pointing out that the average rating is 4.5, but click on the reviews tab and that's literally the front page. Here's an analysis of the product.
Note how it specifically says 1,290 reviews have been deleted with an average of a 2.3 rating.
> I want a source that isn't some randy's blog. How do you know he's an ex-CIA "official?
It's not some blog, its from a well-known and well-researched book. Actually, he worked for the Department of State, not the CIA.
> Even if he was in the CIA, how do you know he wasn't just a custodian or a courier?
That would be very useful too. Even a custodian and courier can be in possession of damning evidence. Just look at Bradley Manning. Another American hero.
> What are his sources?
If you want his sources you can go to a library, borrow his book and look them up. Do you want me to personally reproduce all the evidence and sources he's compiled over a timespan of several decades and from several continents? You want me to do that?
> I'd like a detailed explanation of the map in words.
Ok, the US bombs and terrorizes most of the planet in it's campaigns of imperial domination. This is why most of the planet hates the US. This is why the US makes ISIS look like a bunch of hippies.
> And what's so bad about a government source? Do you not trust the National Weather Service?
Because government misinformation and propaganda? Does the US government have a known history of pushing propaganda through the National Weather Service? If so, we should be highly skeptical of it too.
I don't know whats more sad, that you support terrorism thinking you are fighting it, or that you think its ok for a nation to just occupy another, because a small minority of people have committed violence.
Maybe by your logic the whole world should invade the United States and Occupy it since America has had CIA and military interventions in just about every country in the world since WWII.
You are just an old geezer who is too stuck in his brainwashed mentality to admit to that you have been used as a fucking pawn.
You really should watch that video so you know what you are supporting. Just because I don't support an occupying nation, doesn't mean I am taking sides. Seriously you are a dumb old fucker stuck in duality. There are more colors than red and blue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DduUcPSU_TM
Come back here when you actually know the history of the fucking nation you live in you ignorant fuck.
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407458175&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=killing+hope
Maybe after actually reading something of value you will know why America created Israel and supports it no matter the cost.
You are capable of choosing books and reading them on your own yes? Or does it have to be on CNN/FOX approved readers list?
Do you even read educational material anymore?
Indeed, yea I'm sure Russia was using social media and such to influence voters but thus is free speech and its a bit different than US election officials using software to change votes .
That said, it's hard for America to get up in arms with regards election interference.
The chapters of "Killing Hope" by William Blum point to a certain "pattern" of US behavior in this regard;
China - 1945 to 1960s: Was Mao Zedong just paranoid?
Italy - 1947-1948: Free elections, Hollywood style
Greece - 1947 to early 1950s: From cradle of democracy to client state
The Philippines - 1940s and 1950s: America's oldest colony
Korea - 1945-1953: Was it all that it appeared to be?
Albania - 1949-1953: The proper English spy
Eastern Europe - 1948-1956: Operation Splinter Factor
Germany - 1950s: Everything from juvenile delinquency to terrorism
Iran - 1953: Making it safe for the King of Kings
Guatemala - 1953-1954: While the world watched
Costa Rica - Mid-1950s: Trying to topple an ally - Part 1
Syria - 1956-1957: Purchasing a new government
Middle East - 1957-1958: The Eisenhower Doctrine claims another backyard for America
Indonesia - 1957-1958: War and pornography
Western Europe - 1950s and 1960s: Fronts within fronts within fronts
British Guiana - 1953-1964: The CIA's international labor mafia
Soviet Union - Late 1940s to 1960s: From spy planes to book publishing
Italy - 1950s to 1970s: Supporting the Cardinal's orphans and techno- fascism
Vietnam - 1950-1973: The Hearts and Minds Circus
Cambodia - 1955-1973: Prince Sihanouk walks the high-wire of neutralism
Laos - 1957-1973: L'Armée Clandestine
Haiti - 1959-1963: The Marines land, again
Guatemala - 1960: One good coup deserves another
France/Algeria - 1960s: L'état, c'est la CIA
Ecuador - 1960-1963: A text book of dirty tricks
The Congo - 1960-1964: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
Brazil - 1961-1964: Introducing the marvelous new world of death squads
Peru - 1960-1965: Fort Bragg moves to the jungle
Dominican Republic - 1960-1966: Saving democracy from communism by getting rid of democracy
Cuba - 1959 to 1980s: The unforgivable revolution
Indonesia - 1965: Liquidating President Sukarno … and 500,000 others
East Timor - 1975: And 200,000 more
Ghana - 1966: Kwame Nkrumah steps out of line
Uruguay - 1964-1970: Torture—as American as apple pie
Chile - 1964-1973: A hammer and sickle stamped on your child's forehead
Greece - 1964-1974: "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said the President of the United States
Bolivia - 1964-1975: Tracking down Che Guevara in the land of coup d'état
Guatemala - 1962 to 1980s: A less publicized "final solution"
Costa Rica - 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally—Part 2
Iraq - 1972-1975: Covert action should not be confused with missionary work
Australia - 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust
Angola - 1975 to 1980s: The Great Powers Poker Game
Zaire - 1975-1978: Mobutu and the CIA, a marriage made in heaven
Jamaica - 1976-1980: Kissinger's ultimatum
Seychelles - 1979-1981: Yet another area of great strategic importance
Grenada - 1979-1984: Lying—one of the few growth industries in Washington
Morocco - 1983: A video nasty
Suriname - 1982-1984: Once again, the Cuban bogeyman
Libya - 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan meets his match
Nicaragua - 1981-1990: Destabilization in slow motion
Panama - 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991: Teaching communists what democracy is all about
Iraq - 1990-1991: Desert holocaust
Afghanistan - 1979-1992: America's Jihad
El Salvador - 1980-1994: Human rights, Washington style
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II-Updated/dp/1567512526
> The chinese want to do it, and that represents a serious long-term security risk to the US.
Where is your proof?
according to the entire world, it's America that is the biggest threat to world peace. http://nypost.com/2014/01/05/us-is-the-greatest-threat-to-world-peace-poll/
and it's not surprising why they would think that... http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
> sen·sa·tion·al·ize: "(esp. of a newspaper) Present information about (something) in a way that provokes public interest and excitement, at the expense of accuracy"
Oh, look. Amoricon knows how to look up words in a dictionary. WOO!
> Yes the map is shit. It's almost a perfect example of something that has been sensationalized. Why would Australia and Vietnam be colored the same?
Because they're both countries that have at one time or another suffered the brunt of Americam imperialist interference. Like most of the fucking planet that happen to be colored the same. The map is trying to get across the truth, that far from standing for freedom and democracy, the USA is devoted to terrorizing and enslaving humanity. The USA is just another evil empire cut out of the same cloth as the Soviets, Nazi and Britshits. If you weren't an Americon dipshit apologist jingoist cretin you would have grasped that.
> What exactly was the "intervention" in Australia, or all of Europe for that matter?
You want me to give you a fucking history course on a huge subject as modern American imperialism on Reddit? Am I your own fucking personal internet tutor here? Is my name cojackass22s_tutor? No? Then stop being foolish, you Americon morans. Here are two excellent books dedicated to the subject of American tyrrany and hegemony:
Learn to fucking read and educate yourself. Stop demanding to be spoonfed like an Americon oaf.
> Uhh, I'm not saying the BBC is completely impartial and free of bias, but there is really no comparison here. At least the BBC acknowledges the fact that opposition to the government even exists...
No, you like the BBC because it's an organization run by an allied state. You dislike PressTV they're run by a society that resists American imperialism and hegemony. You dislike PressTV because they stand up for freedom and democracy against Americun tyrranny.
> You mean the news source that has to photo shop extra missiles onto images to make Iran look more threatening? The news source that not once has given any air time to any Iranian opposition leaders or speakers? "Opposition political figures such as Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have not appeared on Press TV since the June 2009 presidential election."
So what? They lost the election. I don't see Mccain and Sarah Palin prancing about on Smericon TV much either.
> The news source that is state owned?
Just like the BBC except more reliable and trustworthy on world events.
Killing Hope. EDIT: Just wanted to add this. "Far and away the best book on the topic."—Noam Chomsky
So are the DNC/Podesta/StoneTear/Guccifer/Veritas leaks all fake? If they are I need to see better evidence that a now taken down AP article that [to my knowledge fails to name sources in all the agencies mentioned.
Sure Russia shouldn't be trying to interfere with elections. Neither should the USA/CIA.
Anyways, where are the Trump leaks? Who's sitting on data, JA has repeatedly and exhaustively claimed he hasn't received any. If anyone reading this knows for a fact he has I want to know your source. We've seen his tax returns [legal, and disappointing], we heard him say he could "grab her [any woman] by the pussy." We've seen his shitposting. But still, even when considered critically all of these pale in comparison to any of the individual leaks against Clinton and her accomplices.
We have no ground to tell russia not to interfere in our elections, when we have 6 decades of the USA doing just that to many nations. The USA terrorizes countries that try to stand against the will we oppose of them. It is well past time that we acknowledge just how fucked up US foreign/military policy is and have rational/non-partisan discussions about how to interact with the rest of the world.
https://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
Here is a link to the book without all the Amazon tracking crap.
archonemis: ^^original ^^reddit ^^link
I believe you are ready for the next step:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy#Psychopathy_Checklist
http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
http://youtu.be/DU7LKAsjt4k
Another great book on the subject is Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
I studied Psychology in my undergrad, with a focus on psychopathic qualities with hands on research at a local prison!
These two 1 and 2 are some that I have enjoyed reading!
Shaynoodle is damn sexy
A bad popularization of sociopaths. This book is much much better: http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343705177&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=hare+psychopath
Read [here] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist) and get [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510)
Burgeoning psychopath
I remember trying to process this about a year. I'm still not quite there, but a couple of chapters of Hillbilly Elegy and time spent on knowyourmeme should help...
Good book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547 -- lots about the struggles of addiction and the decline of WV, KY, and OH
If you want individual thoughts, try reading the book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. It's a first-hand account of what life as one of the people perpetuating the stereotypes you're talking about is like.
Maybe Hillbilly Elegy? https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
i just got a book called Hillbilly Elegy which claims to explain that answer. https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1483442945&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=hillbilly+elegy
edit:havent read it yet so i cant answer
Absolutely. Many of them don't want to learn a new skillset, which puts the Dems in a tough spot (versus just lying that you'll bring the old jobs back). But in the end, that is the only possible answer. Coal isn't coming back. Towns that were built around factories, even if those factories came back, due to automation they would employ only a small fraction of the people they once did, and those jobs would be higher-skill jobs than the old ones.
Recommended: Hillbilly Elegy.
I haven't experienced this first-hand at all, but I did enjoy reading J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy which gives the topic and the people a wide-ranging and somewhat sympathetic treatment.
Hey, have you read Hillbilly Elegy? You really should. The author is getting a lot of fire underneath him for a political run, actually, based mostly on the arguments you're raising in our conversation.
And I currently live in a new england suburb of a large city, so I finally landed among my tribe, but I spent many years in the rural, deep, bible belt south and in the extremely rural west (western Idaho). I know what you're talking about because I was raised around a lot of great "salt of the earth"-type people, but also a LOT of people who literally bragged about never reading a book.
That is WILLFUL ignorance. It's not an attitude that should be treated as just some sort of cultural peccadillo. It is WILLFUL. IGNORANCE. There's no excuse for that shit. Fuck those people.
Have you read Hillbilly Elegy?
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
Exactly.
This sort of article is written by someone simultaneously educated enough to put together a decent thought piece while staying completely detached from the reality of how uneducated most people are.
Hillbilly Elegy speaks to this sort of (unintentionally) elitist thought bias.
Hillbilly Elegy is a great book that deals with the culture. Tom Woods had the author on: http://tomwoods.com/ep-706-hillbilly-elegy-self-destructive-ideas-and-behaviors-among-the-white-working-poor/
General
Conservative - I'm keenly interested in the intellectual history of American Conservatism and could make this this list could go on forever. I'll keep it to three, but if you want more suggestions feel free to ask.
Liberal - You may get a better liberal reading list from another user, but I'll give it a shot.
I have always kind of went back and forth with the same thing. I recently moved from a larger city to a small southern Illinois town and it's insane the amount of racism that stems from a very large, uneducated and poor population. I feel bad that it comes from a long lineage of just being ignorant and passing it along to family but that's also not really an excuse. I've known plenty of people who come from a racist background and even people who grew up very poor and they made the conscious decision to be different and compassionate towards all people.
You should read "Hillbilly Elegy" (link here ) the author grew up in what most call "white trash" household - poor, uneducated, drug use etc. he made the decision to change his future and end up differently and he went to Yale and became a lawyer ( and also a liberal) The book is good too because it goes into depth into that demographic of poor, uneducated and racists, how it all started and how it keeps continuing (and probably will continue forever, unfortunately).
Speaking of books... have any of you read Hillbilly Elegy?
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
I've been meaning to pick it up but keep forgetting to.
Have you read Hillbilly Elegy by J.D Vance?
Hi, I’m a Buddhist in the US. And I can answer this.
First of all, the US is a massive country. One state is larger than most European countries (and we have 50 of them!). The majority of our residents live around the coasts, but plenty of people still live in rural and remote places. This makes things complicated when it comes to national politics as there’s not just one type of American. We are incredibly diverse in background, values, morals, life priorities, etc, and that’s what makes most of our elections on the state and national level challenging.
When Trump was elected I woke up and couldn’t believe it. Hundreds of thousands of Americans felt the same way. How could this happen?
In my view there are three factors that led to his election:
(1) After the 2008 economic crash, many rural areas didn’t recover. Factories closed and moved overseas; coal mining jobs evaporated as new EPA rulings came down limiting the use of coal and other dirty energy sources; people lost their homes due to the mortgage crash. The rural areas were by far the hardest hit, and these realities in people’s lives were the “proof” for their anti-immigrant and anti-EPA sentiments for example. When rural whites say “immigrants are taking our jobs!”, some of them actually meant it since the only factory in their tiny town outsourced to India. Or when someone from West Virginia says “EPA is over regulating our rights!” they really mean that the coal mining job, one of the only viable careers in West Virginia, is making cuts due to new regulations.
(2) As the presidential election neared, it was clear the only democratic contender worth representing the party was Hilary Clinton. As much as I liked Bernie Sanders, he would have never one, as he was too left for most moderate Democrats, and we couldn’t risk splitting the party vote. Many people in my parents’ generation (age around the 60’s) loathe Hilary. The reasons are complicated, but she’s been tarnished since the Bill Clinton presidency. Some hate her for the way she acted during the presidency, others hate her for her political decisions she made as Secretary of State. So there was no way many people in my parents generation and older would vote for Hilary. That cut out a large number of possible Republican moderate votes that the Democrats could have gained in order to win.
(3) Trump is a businessman used to getting what he wants through bullying and switch and bait tactics. He also is very experienced with television. This makes him incredibly skilled at telling people what they want to hear in order to garner support. During Trump’s campaign he spent billions of dollars traveling in rural midwestern and southern areas. He would say things like “Immigrants are taking our jobs and I’m going to stop that and build a wall!” in towns where factories where outsourced. In towns feeling a loss of jobs from new EPA rulings he’d say things like “I’m going to bring back coal!” Of course there are more than these two issues happening in rural areas, but you see how he realized that a large body of American people were still struggling after the 2008 crash and he found a way to prey on them for his own political gain.
These three factors led to overwhelming rural turn out in the vote and he was elected. The sad thing is that Trump made promises to these people that he largely hasn’t kept. The Democrats saw that coming, but many Trump supporters were straight up duped. He said he’d find a way to get more jobs, but towns are still collapsing. He said he’d find a way to bring back certain industries, but they are still dying. He said he wouldn’t cut Medicare/Medicaid (what most rural people rely on to get health care), but he has.
I am a Democrat and very anti-Trump, but I understand why he was elected. He was the “hope” that a lot of ignored Americans needed. I don’t agree with him, or many of their values, but I empathize with their situation. Living in rural places right now in America is very bleak.
Source: I am a Soto Zen practitioner living in Washington DC. I am originally from the rural south and frequently travel home and I see first hand what these places look like.
Edit 1: If you want to understand the mindset and experiences of rural white people living in America, I suggest reading [Hillbilly Elegy] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0062300547/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1511706844&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=hillbilly+eulogy)
Personally I value how much of an effort he makes. Many CEOs just find one good company, make it as profitable as possible and just sit on their fortune. With all the companies he is creating, to me it really feels like he's trying to do good for the world. SolarCity and Tesla are trying to help the environment. Tesla, The Boring Company and Hyperloop are trying to revolutionize transport. OpenAI and Neuralink are trying to be a safeguard to make sure that computers don't kill us. SpaceX is for when the world can't fix it's problems and needs to go somewhere else.
Elon Musk has problems. Period. Anybody who tells you otherwise is an idiot. He sucks at relationships, he can be practically sociopathic at times, and he frequently sets unrealistic timelines for his most important projects. But on the other hand, his laser-like focus and drive in his companies which makes him practically sociopathic at times results in frequent success in them (albeit not necessarily on the original timeline but still,) which in turn allows them to bring newer, better technology into public knowledge (Who gave a shit about electric cars before Tesla? Practically nobody. Who gives a shit now? A lot of people + car companies). But most importantly, he tries. He truly believes that everything he creates could work, and some of it will. However, I believe that he has already succeeded. Even if his companies go bankrupt in the future, he has already inspired many people, and in doing so he has insured that more people will try to help the world just like him. And even if many of them fail, eventually someone will succeed and then maybe, just maybe, we can start to fix some of our problems.
Just a few notes before I end:
If you want to learn more about Elon Musk, this book is a very good biography.
Alternatively, this (free) blog series by Tim Urban is a great in-depth look at him and his companies, part 3 is all about SpaceX
yes.
It was shortly after he left Paypal if I remember right. He went overseas there with some people, met with them to try to buy rockets, they said he was crazy. The thing to keep in mind is, for that moment it was crazy. Spaceflights like this were always pioneered by governments because of cost, not companies, let alone individuals looking to make a company.
He pulled something off that is absolutely tremendous. He has his flaws... But I think we needed Musk; I bet he has inspired a whole new generation of scientists and engineers.
If you want to read more about this, check out the biography written on him, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. It was very good, and it puts into perspective some of his bigger goals.
In Cluj am vazut un model X, superb, culoarea nu prea, maronie/cacanie, dar e ok si asa.. are ECO la numar. Model S am tot vazut pe ruta Cluj-Alba-Cluj.. Si ca sa iti infrumusetez/ocup toata ziua: enjoy watching these videos
Edit: iti recomand si cartea asta, ca sa iti faci o idee cum au luat nastere companiile lui Mr. Musk :) Mie mi-a placut
> esqueci o nome
X.com
Recomendo a biografia do Musk, muito interessante.
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518191826&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=elon+musk
Explains a lot about him
> I highly recommend his Biography.
Are you referring to Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future? Or do you have a different recommendation? I haven't read a bio about him yet but I would like to.
in addition to waitbutwhy - imho the best (and slowest) blog on the internet - i'd also recomend reading his biography written by ashlee vance
The basis for his case is that earth will not be able to continue supporting humans b/c we will exploit all of earth's resources. If you read Ashlee Vance's biography, he gets into the topic pretty well since it's essentially what's driven Musk to do everything he's done with Solar City, Tesla and Space X. It's a fairly quick, easy read.
The episode recommended this book for more information about Elon Musk.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
>If there is less work to do, everyone can split the work up and work less. Those who work more or do more important work should be compensated accordingly.
How do you fairly define what is 'important work'? How is compensation determined from different types of of work?
>and decide in some democratic way in how to implement it and how to share the wealth. Unlike the totalitarian structure we have today.
What if the janitors in a big company collectively refuse to take any less pay then the highest payed scientist there? You can't get them out, it's collective ownership. Speaking of ownership, is it a 1:1 ratio by person? So said janitors would be the biggest voting block at Google? Is the ratio determined on prestige, skill, or even raw intelligence? How is that fair to those not endowed with said advantages?
>The space program has been driven by public institutions from the beginning. In fact it was the Soviets who started the space race by sending the first satellite and people into space. And we had to create a government program and plan our education around math and science to catch up with them. Capitalism wasn't going to cut it.
Yes! I am for this control of the market. Many pivotal technologies would not have come to exist were it not for government investment. But do you know what companies do to win those contracts? Compete. The government has an abundance of choice when choosing contractors, or simply investing/subsidizing sectors of the economy. While you could recreate this effect in a public system, why not let capitalism do what it does best? Competition.
>I mean, even at SpaceX, people know about Elon Musk but not Thomas Muller, who is the actual brains behind the company. He's an actual rocket scientist and its his work (along with his fellow engineers) that made re-usable rockets possible. Not some billionaire throwing his money around. Labor, not capital, gets things done.
Here is Musk's biography. While he undoubtedly gets help from others, he heads a lot of the technical development there.
>Labor, not capital, gets things done.
The new labor is robots, and the goal is to make people obsolete. Thus, day by day, as technology grows more powerful, human labor grows weaker. The very nature of technology implies immense existing capital. Look at semiconducters, where do you think most of them are built?
Thus, with a democratic means of production, where the labor is mostly robots, how do things even get done? With capital ideally being evenly distributed, everyone would have some of these labor saving machines, but organization into an economy would have to be run by the government.
Why not keep the free market system and give citizens a substantial monthly dividend? While $1000 is a start, I envision it getting much higher as automation truly comes into its own. Strong enough, the dividend would prevent massive capital accumulation, while still allowing all of capitalism's benefits such as inherent market efficiency, automatic, dynamic supply/demand adjustment, and innovation to manifest automatically.
We dont need to tear down the old. We just need strong adjustments to the existing one.
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X
Either you don't understand Elon's objectives for any of his businesses, or you just don't care to see them through. Everything he's taken on he tries to find new efficiencies. Boring Company goal, improve tunneling efficiency, SpaceX goal, make a better, cheaper rocket. Tesla goal, make a more efficient vehicle that doesn't require as much maintenance, make production more efficient through new manufacturing techniques. Yes, the Tesla goals are extremely ironic at the moment.
Of course it's obvious the hell that they're in is of their own making - that's the cost of trying something new. He doesn't want business as usual, to just nibble away market share from other companies, he wants to change how the whole system works.
I really feel like people here should read this book about him: https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X
It is not overtly pro Elon, not even close. The book does a great job showing where he's screwed some things up, including being a dick for a boss. But I think it'd shed a lot of insight to his mindset on his businesses and why he is choosing to run them this way.
Marci Bianco writes: "billionaires' atmospheric ambitions are a 'desire to colonize' tinged with patriarchal undertones... The impulse to colonize, she writes, 'has its origins in gendered power structures,' including the 'entitlement to power, control, domination and ownership.'" But are these traits exclusively linked to men? Is entitlement exclusively a man-thing? Is she implying that these traits (power/control/domination/ownership) are positive or negative?
Bianco is very highly educated (with various degrees from prestigious universities, including an undeniable master's degree in women's studies) so I wished to give her a benefit of a doubt that maybe she's onto something. However, it is immediately obvious that she has not read Musk's biography (by Ashlee Vance) where it was made clear that Elon was interested in space exploration from early childhood (probably before he understood the meaning of the word "patriarchy.") Besides the usual extreme feminist rants about patriarchal pigs, I'm not sure what Bianco's point is. Is it a call for action for more women to get interested in the space program, and for billionaire women to start their own space exploration companies? Or for men to stop being interested in things that women are generally less/not interested in? In either case, Bianco's article appears to be tinged with feminist undertones.
In the case of space exploration companies (like Space X, or Virgin Galactic) the risks (financial, and operational) are enormous; so much so, that many people (regardless of gender) are not willing to invest in these programs. Women generally take on less risk in life (this is also evident in financial trading, where on average, women typically outperform men) and thereby would be less interested, and less likely to pursue such investments. But Bianco only considers three possibilities why someone would be interested in space exploration; and since it' not the "'nationalist' fervor of the Cold War nor 'the American spirit of invention'" (even though Musk is a naturalized American, and a long-time resident) it must obviously be the patriarchy. God forbid someone would think it would be really cool to go into space, and or feel that it's important for humans to have an escape plan.
Richard Branson's autobiography Losing my Virginity, Elon Musk, Shoe Dog.
There’s a book for that
https://www.amazon.com/dp/006230125X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_uycYCbRK1NCA3
Yes. There's a book written by Ashley Vance on Elon Musk's companies in large part dedicated to the subject: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/006230125X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1511139448&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=elon+musk&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=5112YFsXIJL&amp;ref=plSrch
Besides that, the information has been largely available as Tesla is a public company and the roadster and approach to that/volume initially is not hidden. If you have not been following Tesla but still plan to invest, that's really a problem of not doing due diligence (not to be a dick but if you do plan to invest in a company, you should not put the cart before the horse and try to gather as realistic a picture as possible which takes into account positive and negative -- part of that is simply paying attention to the company's history).
It has been widely reported on. You're also commenting on an article that spelled it out in the article.
"In the Elon Musk biography by Ashlee Vance, it was revealed that Musk and Larry Page, the head of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), had a deal for the latter to purchase Tesla:
In the first week of March 2013, Musk reached out to Page, say the two people familiar with the talks. By that point, so many customers were deferring orders that Musk had quietly shut down Tesla’s factory. Considering his straits, Musk drove a hard bargain. He proposed that Google buy Tesla outright — with a healthy premium, the company would have cost about $6 billion at the time — and pony up another $5 billion in capital for factory expansions. He also wanted guarantees that Google wouldn’t break up or shut down his company before it produced a third-generation electric car aimed at the mainstream auto market. He insisted that Page let him run a Google-owned Tesla for eight years, or until it began pumping out such a car. Page accepted the overall proposal and shook on the deal.
It was during a brief difficult time for Tesla to ramp up Model S production and deliver cars to customers, but things turned for the better and Musk reportedly dropped the deal."
I like Journey Through Genius. It is completely elementary, requiring nothing beyond perhaps a semester of basic algebra. It presents some amazing theorems and emphasizes both the creativity and the logical rigor required to achieve them. I can't remember every theorem, but I know it includes Pythagorus' Theorem, the irrationality of the square root of two, Euclids geometry, the infinitude of the primes, some number theory of Fermat, Isaac Newton on the Binomial Theorem, the quadratic equation and the solution of the third and fourth degree polynomials by radicals and why this requires complex numbers, an exploration of complex numbers, and some non-Euclidean geometry. All that whilst requiring, as I said, no mathematical maturity whatsoever, and being quite easy and enjoyable to read. I highly recommend it.
To answer your second question, KhanAcademy is always good for algebra/trig/basic calc stuff. Another good resource is Paul's online Math Notes, especially if you prefer reading to watching videos.
To answer your second question, here are some classic texts you could try (keep in mind that parts of them may not make all that much sense without knowing any calculus or abstract algebra):
Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell
The History of Calculus by Carl Boyer
Some other well-received math history books:
An Intro to the History of Math by Howard Eves, Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, Morris Kline's monumental 3-part series (1, 2, 3) (best left until later), and another brilliant book by Dunham.
And the MacTutor History of Math site is a great resource.
Finally, some really great historical thrillers that deal with some really exciting stuff in number theory:
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Sigh
The Music of the Primes by Marcus DuSautoy
Also (I know this is a lot), this is a widely-renowned and cheap book for learning about modern/university-level math: Concepts of Modern Math by Ian Stewart.
Dunham, Gleick, Pagels, Bell
I got halfway through your post and immediately thought of Journey through Genius. It really is an excellently-written text which presents precisely what you're looking for. I'd definitely check it out.
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics - Willian Dunham
Very accessable walk through of about a dozen famous proofs from Euclid to Cantor.
The Christian Bible, the Quran, and the Torah. Don't read them as though these are hostile texts that are trying to impose upon you, read them as though they're mythologies that can be enjoyed, and appreciate their content, as you will have a better understanding of culture and the people around you. You might be surprised just how much of the common and mundane is actually in reference to the bible in our lives. You need to understand people and this is how you do it.
Outside that, I recommend a few good books on math history, not necessarily math education books. Try out Flatland (and it's sequels by other authors) and The History of Pi. I particularly enjoyed Journey Through Genius.
I read this book https://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X and programming helped!
If you are interested in the history of mathematics I highly suggest reading Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics. It's a wonderful book that gives you insight about the persons behind the maths we take for granted today and what tools they had available at the time.
Your specific questions about ellipses and hyperbolas is not covered but parabolas and cones are mentioned.
Journey through Genius, by William Dunham
I highly recommend Journey Through Genius.
/u/tick_tock_clock's list includes Euclid's Elements, and I second that recommendation. I read the first couple books of that when I was taking Geometry in 9th grade and found it very interesting.
If you would seriously like to learn something of the mindset and daily life of a Chicago gang member I would recommend the book, Gang Leader for a Day.
It is basically a sociologist who spends time with a black gang on the south side of Chicago and details the environment and mindset.
Ghost in the Wires - The story of famed hacker Kevin Mitnick
Any Mary Roach Book if you like Science
In the Heart of the Sea - The true story behind Moby Dick
The Omnivore's Dilemma - A great walk through our food landscape
Gang Leader for a Day - Behavioral Economist embeds with a Chicago Gang
Shadow Divers - My first audiobook. It's a thriller about a scuba discovery of a Nazi Submarine on the Eastern US coast.
The Devil In The White City - A story about a serial killer at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893
Nice! I am glad they are not fronting with it. The chicago book was written by a sociologist who spent time with a gang that was deling crack. Very interesting. Glad you don't see it. In his case the whole neighbour hood knew about it and you couldn't really separate their lives from the crack gang.
Edit: This is the book im referring to: Gang Leader for a day
Crime has been down so far this year, but that's due to the weather, not policing. In Chicago shootings are correlated to temperature. It's unfortunate, but immediately after thinking about how nice the weather is, "how many people will get shot tonight?" is in the back of your head.
There are a few programs/organizations that temper the violence. [Cure Violence] (http://cureviolence.org/)(formerly known as CeaseFire) and Blocks Together both try to intervene to prevent escalation. But this problem is too big for any not for profit or politician's pet project.
The violence in Chicago is one of the many layers (or symptoms) to systematic social inequalities. Chicago politicians have been very good at throttling money going into developing these neighborhoods (the CPS school closings for instance), and draining any money that does go into these neighborhoods. Chicago is a microcosm of the relationship between the IMF and "developing" countries.
edit:
Check out these books if interested in learning more -
Great American City by Robert J. Sampson and Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh
Random books off the top of my head...
'The Movie Goer'
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
Gang Leader for a Day
Ender's Game series
Pre-order Mindy Kaling's book
For some reason, reading this and the comments/questions below made me think of the book Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. Some really interesting insight on the sociology of gangs in Chicago and it reads really fucking well for a non fiction book. I felt like I was just reading a story instead of some dry set of facts. I highly recommend this book.
Gang Leader for a Day is now on my must-read list, but it's not the book I was thinking of. This was 2003-4 that I took the class.
The cover is brighter. Like a vibrant contrast-y orange/yellow and bright lighter shade of blue.
Maybe this doesn't fit, but if you're looking to learn more about it Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets provides some really great insights into the gang community and how the day-to-day is run as well as the community efforts the gang bring in an effort to deter being reported to the police
> Hope the elders of those cliques squash this shit soon.
Seriously, even the gang leaders that ran robert taylor homes and cabrini green understood that shootings are no good for anybody.
edit: for chicagoans that haven't read gang leader for a day, I suggest it. Good read of how an understaffed Chicago PD and gang members used to work together to make a "uneasy pact" of sorts.
If I recall correctly, Sudhir claims that 54% of users he observed in the South Side of Chicago back in the 1980's were actually functioning. https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Sudhir+Venkatesh+gang+leader+for+a+day&qid=1571162955&sr=8-1
These and lots more questions are answered in a very interesting book, Gang Leader For A Day whose author literally went through the account books of a gang. Fun fact: they often pay for the funerals of people they've killed.
Most of the commonly cited problems caused by "immigration" in our country are, in actuality, caused by the drug trade.
Reduce the country's reliance on drug importation, you reduce the influence of the cartels and the gangs.
As sociologists have pointed out, gangs exist, not to form some sort of mythical "hispanic/black menace", but because the gang system mirrors the McDonald's franchise model for supply and distribution (with the cartels standing at the top of the c-suite).
If Mexico is failing to "send their best", it's because of drugs. Take care of the drug problem, and you take care of most of the problems with "bad immigration" (i.e., drug mules and drug runners).
As others have said, the primary reason is gang violence. There are areas where you have no choice to NOT be in a gang. By simply living on a particular block, you are associated with a certain crew.
To get a better idea of what it is like in some areas, listen to This American Life, Harper High School
Also, try reading There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America by Alex Kotlowitz and Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to The Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh
It isn’t exactly the same, but “Gang Leader for a Day” is fantastic: https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X
If you're really curious about gang life in Chicago, a UofC professor basically embedded himself with Chicago gangs for seven years to observe them and wrote a book about his observations.
Good that you could jump to a new job. Some cannot. You might find Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America of interest.
It would be nice if corporations did not exploit their workers, but most seem to eager to cut costs and increase profits, and frequently that comes out of the hide of employees. That's why unions arose and that's why so many laws and regulations are required. Most recently, we've seen many reports of wage theft by corporations.
You might want to look into it a little more.
> how can one live in a tiny, filthy, rundown apartment with 3 kids and hardly have any food to eat and no disposable income?
I suppose it depends on what your options are. If your choices are between that & death, then that might not sound so bad.
> How much does upbringing have to do with it?
My guess is a lot. Though on the opposite end; Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a great book called Nickel and Dimed. She basically researched how the other half lived for a book. The terms were simple, she could use all of the intelligence, skills & mindset that she had developed over the years of excellent upbringing. However she couldn't use the status. She couldn't tell anyone that she went to college, call in favors from friends outside of her new life, use her savings, etc. It's pretty nauseating how far she didn't get in society.
Barbara Ehrenreich did a book about her experiences doing just this. It's called nickel and dimed. It is an eye-opening read, even though she complained a lot.
This book, Nickle and Dimed, presents a good account of American working-class poverty in the 90's.
http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681
I can't help at all on the ancient slavery side but Nickel and Dimed is a really interesting look into modern day minimum wage labor.
If your mom likes books buy her this:
http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681
The entire book is about how difficult it is to pay basic expenses while being on minimum wage.
Also, can she borrow the balance from her parents (your grandparents)? If that was the case she could pay "rent" to pay them back. You are right to be concerned. She is on a path to potentially lose it all. It's a story of many Americans.
You're almost correct on that statement but because I'm actually focusing on the rich, it doesn't exactly work.
The SJW term is a pejorative used by the Right, but I embrace it as Social Justice Worker. Since the very wealthy 1% tend to work against any social safety nets (the social part), if we all worked to even the scales more (that's the justice part) so the average joe on the poor end of the scale had a better shot at achieving the American Dream (instead of being nickeled and dimed to death), then we'd have a strong middle class and a much more robust economy.
But you're right about the fact that we're always pitted against each other. The difference is where you have your sights set.
If you have your sights set on crushing your Left or Right brother in the street, the the rich have won. If you have your sights set on the rich then that's what they don't want and you'll find yourself beset on all sides by the conservative poor that have been endlessly brainwashed by AM radio hate jockeys, right-wing bloggers and media pundits on Fox to hate Progressives, Democrats, Demonrats, The Left, Commie Pinko Socialists, SJWs, Obummers, feminazis, Ivory Tower/Limousine Liberals, etc, etc.
Easy, bumper sticker labels are essential propaganda tools to keep the masses fighting. The question that you alluded to is best put this way: How do 30 guards control 3,000 prisoners?
The answer: Race baiting and increased rations for the winners giving them a false sense of power. You can keep this up indefinitely by rigging the game to switch "power" between the two factions every few intervals.
I understand the game that's being played and I'm trying to explain it to you. It serves no purpose if some rich prick like Trump or Hillary gets in office and we scream "we won" to people in coffee shops. That's a false sense of power and about as useful as feeling elation because the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl. Does it help you? No.
Does the average conservative working joe "win" anything if a gay couple in another state is refused the right to marry? Nope.
Why would he then cheer when this happens? Is it some kind of moral victory even when he loses so much personally?
The more we can all agree what's worth fighting for, then we can all unite and demand our taxes and our efforts be put toward things that help all the working joes, right and left. First though, we have to get our brothers to see how they've been duped and direct their energies to making real progress.
This book if you have not already read on it, might give you some insight.
http://www.amazon.ca/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681
Check out Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
Centuries of impoverished citizens in western civilization proves you’re wrong. That “boot straps” myth is just that: a myth. Go read more books and sources you’re uncomfortable with. I’m not saying that repeatedly to be insulting. You are terribly insulated from the economic realities of the world.
https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2018/03/never-ending-war
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0312626681/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1522847832&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=nickled+and+dimed&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51QEgBHveyL&amp;ref=plSrch
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/poverty-united-states.html
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1558497250/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=QYDWWCF2WYSP63MCCD0C&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51eux6Du6SL
Anyone who's read this book will be very hesitant of embracing it https://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676
Leaving aside the Mars part, it's similar to Oryx and Crake by Maragret Atwood: http://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676
I'd suggest this book!
It's great for beginners and easy to read.
>source.
Sources abound for each of your requests. Here are but a few for each that should keep you busy for a while if you actually choose to read them:
Caravan Raids:
Ibn Ishaq - Life of Muhammad Search "Caravan"
Ibn Kathir - The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, Vol. 2 Search "Caravan"
Quranic reference justifying caravan attacks during the holy months:
>They ask you about the sacred month - about fighting therein. Say, "Fighting therein is great [sin], but averting [people] from the way of Allah and disbelief in Him and [preventing access to] al-Masjid al-Haram and the expulsion of its people therefrom are greater [evil] in the sight of Allah . And fitnah is greater than killing." And they will continue to fight you until they turn you back from your religion if they are able. And whoever of you reverts from his religion [to disbelief] and dies while he is a disbeliever - for those, their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the companions of the Fire, they will abide therein eternally
The slaughter and enslavement of the Banu Qurayza:
Ibn Ishaq Search "Qurayza"
Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources Unfortunately not available in PDF or TXT files
Encyclopedia Judiaica - Non-Islamic historical source
Watt, Encyclopedia of Islam
See also Al-Tabari Vol 8, Sunan Abu Dawud 38:4390, Sahih Bukhari 5:58:148, Tafsir Ibn Kathir - The Campaign against Banu Qurayzah*, etc
Quranic reference:
>(26) And He brought down those who supported them among the People of the Scripture from their fortresses and cast terror into their hearts [so that] a party you killed, and you took captive a party. (27) And He caused you to inherit their land and their homes and their properties and a land which you have not trodden. And ever is Allah, over all things, competent.
Started Wars:
*See Caravan Raids above, the robberies that forced military response from the victims of the raids, the Quraysh, leading to the battles of Badr, Uhud, the Trench, etc.
Torture people in pursuit of wealth:**
>Kinana b. al-Rabi', who had the custody of the treasure of the B. al-Nadir, was brought to the apostle who asked him about it. He denied that he knew where it was. A Jew came (Tabari says "was brought") to the apostle and said that he had seen Kinana going round a certain ruin every morning early. When the apostle said to Kinana, 'Do you know that if we find you have it I shall kill you?' he said Yes. The apostle gave orders that the ruin was to be excavated and some of the treasure was found. When he asked him about the rest he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave ordrs to al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam, 'Torture him until you extract what he has,' so he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head in revenge for his brother Mahmud.
>Kinanah b. al-Rabi b. al-Huqyaq who had the treasure of B. Nadir was brought to the Messenger of God, who questioned him; but he denied knowing where it was. Then the messenger of God was brought a Jew who said to him, “I have seen Kinanah walk around this ruin every morning.” The Messenger of God said to Kinanah: “What do you say? If we find it in your possession, I will kill you.” “All right,” he answered. The Messenger of God commanded that the ruin should be dug up, and some of the treasure was extracted from it. Then he asked him for the rest of it. Kinanah refused to surrender it; so the Messenger of God gave orders concerning him to al-Zubayr b. al-‘Awwam, saying, “torture him until you root out what he has.” Al-Zubayr kept twirling his firestick in his breast until Kinanah almost expired; then the Messenger of God gave him to Muhammad b. Maslamah, who beheaded him to avenge his brother Mahmud b. Maslamah.”
Etc.
Killed Poets:
List of those slaughtered with references, including a mother of five:
>Then (occurred) the sariyyah of
Umayr ibnAdi Ibn Kharashah al-Khatmi againstAsma' Bint Marwan, of Banu Umayyah Ibn Zayd, when five nights had remained from the month of Ramadan, in the beginning of the nineteenth month from the hijrah of the apostle of Allah.Asma' was the wife of Yazid Ibn Zayd Ibn Hisn al-Khatmi. She used to revile Islam, offend the prophet and instigate the (people) against him. She composed verses. Umayr Ibn Adi came to her in the night and entered her house. Her children were sleeping around her. There was one whom she was suckling. He searched her with his hand because he was blind, and separated the child from her. He thrust his sword in her chest till it pierced up to her back. Then he offered the morning prayers with the prophet at al-Medina. The apostle of Allah said to him: "Have you slain the daughter of Marwan?" He said: "Yes. Is there something more for me to do?" He [Muhammad] said: "No. Two goats will butt together about her. This was the word that was first heard from the apostle of Allah. The apostle of Allah called him `Umayr, "basir" (the seeing).Sorry for the late response! I had a very busy week at work.
> Devils may be swift but it is not reasonable that they possess the ability to be all-seeing and all-present. Those can only be attributed to God. If a devil did to the sun what appeared to happen, this would have been a phenomenon reported all over the globe and would have had measurable impact on temperature, gravity, tides, etc. That did not happen. If it was a devil that worked via the mind, then this would have to have been done to everyone there. Such a feat is less credible than it happening to a single person or a small group of persons because of the finite number of devils available. So I'm not saying it is impossible but if we take the expected value of a situation, the situation with vastly larger numbers becomes more believable, ruling out delusion and making less credible the possibility of a devil.
> > And we haven't even consider what if there's multiple demon working together.
> This is possible but in the history of humanity, I'm not aware of any recorded demonic activity on this level. I am aware of many such cases with one or a small number of individuals.
The scenario I'm imagining is more like a magic trick, the real sun behind a curtain while a demon conjures a sun like disk and perform the show. So it still only need a single apparition. If the sun really did dance, it would've been observed everywhere, not just from a specific location. I actually even think that for a mere human, with a enough funds, those things are achievable with our current level of technology.
> Well we can add to the list that they lack a corporal body. Really, we should brainstorm this list. I'd also include that the devil hates God. If you have any input on this, let's have it. It seems relevant to the question of if Mohammed was under influence of a devil.
I don't agree that they lack a corporal body, actually. They main essence maybe non corporeal, but they seem to have the ability to shapeshift into a corporeal form. Off the top of my head, doesn't the Devil appear in the garden as a snake in the book of genesis?
I don't have much else to brainstorm.. sorry! If you want to read more of the Islamic view, see the wikipedia articles for Devil in Islam and Jinn (demons are basically an evil jinn). Likewise, I'll use Demon in Christian for reference. Unless you have a better source, which then please share.
> The devil wants you in hell. I think he will attempt to get a person there any way he finds possible. I once was told a sermon about a man who used sorcery to conger the devil. He asked the devil, "Are the 10 commandments true?" The devil replied, "Yes, every one except the 6th." This was enough for the man to fall into sin and build a wall around his heart.
> If what Christianity teaches about Jesus is true, then the message of Mohammed would be enough to ruin a vast number of souls. If the devil says, worship one God and do not steal or kill, but that Jesus is not God, then the devil has a small victory. There are also differences in teaching about what constitutes a moral family life (or sins related to family relationships) between the two religions -- and I think we could both agree that the devil would desire to seek the ruin of man through an attack on the family.
> Likewise, if Islam is true, then Christianity may be a tool of the devil (or corrupt men) to ruin souls. Or it could be that they are both false and the truth eludes us both.
OK, I'll try to go along with you on these 3 possibilities. No, actually lets ignore the possibility that they're both false, that won't go anywhere. Christian or Islam, I think we can agree that either is a tool of the devil as possible.
My argument for Islam's validity would be that Islam theologically is the most consistent with the previous revelations(eg. Judaism). All the previous prophets before Jesus preach about the absolute oneness of God. Given that Trinity is the central belief of Christianity, I would expect that such an important concept would be covered by the previous messengers of God. I know Jesus technically isn't born yet, but the Holy Spirit should still be mentioned as God. The Trinity tenet itself isn't officially adopted until the Council of Nicaea 3 centuries later, right?
My premise is that since God has revealed a string of revelations from various prophets, a corrupted one most likely be one that deviates the most of the others. The Muslims believe that actually Jesus is a prophet, born of virgin that preaches the absolute oneness of God too. But over time, his message got corrupted. So then God sends down another revelation by another prophet, Muhammad PBUH to straighten it. Some even claim that Muhammad PBUH coming was foretold in the bible
Please tell me and forgive for any factual errors btw, especially regarding the Christian ones. I'm not a scholar, just a guy that sometimes read stuff on the internet :)
> If Islam has any possibility of moving me, it needs to address the question of angel Gabriel to Mohammed as being delusion, devil, or true and then it needs to establish for me why God cannot be said to be humble (unless Muslims who've told me this is false were wrong).
For the question of Gabriel -> Muhammad PBUH, I'm having trouble finding an argument that would 100% convince you. We know that the event is, like most other prophets, occurs in relative isolation and personal fashion, with no outside witnesses. That's just how it's done. The people then judge the message authenticity by the contents and the messenger's character.
I would suggest to just read the Al Qu'ran, and a biography about the prophet so you can get a better understanding of his life to make a conclusion. His life are fairly well documented, and not just the rosy bits, some of his mistakes are even recorded in the Al Qu'ran! The most popular ones are The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Noble Prophet by Safi and Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings, or if you prefer a secular author you can checkout Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong
For the "Prove that God is not humble".. well actually I don't even know until now that Christianity teaches that God is humbling himself to us. Please give me a source about this, I want to know more.
In Islam, as far as I know, God is not humble, but pride. And it is actually sinful for us to be prideful of things cause everything we have(wealth, knowledge, even our own virtues), it is all thanks to God and He can give or take it away at any time if He wills. He is the only one worthy of pride.
He gave us free will, but what we do that God let it happen doesn't mean that He submits to our will, He just let it and gave us the time for now. But everything that we've done would be held accountable at judgement day.
> Thank you for your writings so far. You have shown to be reasonable and not emotionally reactive. I find that conversations like this sometimes get nowhere because an adherent finds a question of theological principles to be also a personal attack, which it is not, but some have a hard time distinguishing. So thank you.
Thank you too! I also try to question your principles but so far you're level headed and doesn't get too emotional. It's great that we can have a civilized discussion on the internet. The other users in this subreddit are actually also pretty cool too! Some of them are actually much more knowledgeable than me. They just doesn't seem to want to engage in a discussion that at first glance, would go nowhere. This sub are riddled by trolls on a regular basis, and a tendency of trolls is to dwell stubbornly on a single point so I'm afraid some may mistaken you for one. Sorry!
Maybe you should learn a little bit about our Prophet's life before you spout Christian missionary invectives upon him.
Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Salaam Sbadiglio. Thanks, but the important thing to remember is that there are other Muslims just like me all around the world, and I'm not even that good. I'm not a shiek/imam, and I do sin, whether I know it or not. However, I do ask Allah for forgiveness for the sin I do. Alhamduallah Allah knows best.
Are there sins so great that could get someone beyond redemption? The most dangerous sin is shirk, that is idolatry or polytheism. It is important to emphasize that in Islam, there is no God but Allah. Can shirk/murder/fornication/etc be forgiven? It is up to Allah. However, it is important for Muslims to quickly recognize that if they are sinning to quickly stop doing the sin and ask forgiveness and to prevent themselves from sinning again. Intention is also important; what is in your heart is the true intention.
are you free to read it and take "lessons" from it by yourself or is there only one way for everyone? A couple of things: 1) Translated versions of the Quran are not the Quran. The Quran is only the Quran if it is in Arabic. In addition, the Quran is an -immensely- complex and logical book. True scholars in Islam do not just read the Quran, they read the hadiths (stories of the Prophet Muhammed peace and blessings to him) associated with the sura (chapter), they study for years and years the scholars before themselves, they spend incredible amount of time, wisdom, and energy deriving lessons from the Quran. But you might ask yourself, if the book is so complex, then how is it supposed to be a manual for humanity? Well, at the same time, the Quran lays out simple laws for the common man to obey. Do not cheat on your wife, do no injustice to your fellow man, do not oppress, eat halal and spend your money on charity, pray 5 times a day, fast during Ramadan. These are simple laws that everyone can follow. So, in essence, yes you can read the Quran, but -understanding- it is a different thing. To understand the Quran, I highly recommend going to a mosque, watching Islamic videos (the good, authentic ones with sources), taking classes, talking to fellow Muslims, reading Islamic books and really diving into the history of Islam. I really recommend you read this book. It is about the Prophet Muhammed, peace and blessings upon him. It's a good first step.
do you think that muslim face discrimination in the world nowdays? No doubt about it. Somewhere around the world, there are people being discriminated for their race, belief, ideas, religion, etc. One of the worst sins is oppression. Oppressing others/not treating them fairly is very bad. We must be mindful and proactive about stopping this discrimination/oppression. If you see a child treating another child unfairly, we must teach them the right way to treat one another.
Yes, well media is media, they have their own agenda and their own intention. But alhamduallah there is no greater force than Allah, and I would rather be a bum who is a devout Muslim than the King of the finite world
who is not Muslim. It is this inner serenity, this peace that Islam has that cannot be brought or challenged.
Salaam friend!
Please read more from the sources that MUSLIMS claim to be authentic. Read Muhammad by Martin Lings.
Get to know him and his family and companions. This is the most rigorously and authentically documented and biographized life of a human being in history. We know how he drank, ate, dressed, we know how many white hairs he had by the end of his life. We know how he recited the Qur'an to the level of how he moved his tongue...
We know he preferred to sit when he drinks, and when he'd drink he'd do it with his right hand, on 3 separate phases, not all at once, so as not to shock the body. We know he entered (what is the equivalent of bathroom at the time) with his right foot and exited with his left. We know how he cleaned his teeth and how he flossed, how he cleaned himself to the very detail. How he moved his index finger in prayer, where he placed his eyes. What he said when he saw the moon, in its different stages.
We know what he did when it rained. He'd go outside, expose his shoulders to it, welcoming "A most recent companion of its Lord".
I can go on forever ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
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Let me know if you have any questions or sources :) ʾinshāʾAllāh I can help!
Thank you for giving me opportunity to write this. I benefitted from it a lot!
Salām
Well i gave you a dictionary definition of lying. If you define "lie" to mean something else, then go ahead. But Islam does not permit lying according to the definition i gave ("saying something incorrect"). So if someone were to ask me if i was a Muslim and i don't respond, then that's not a lie using the definition i gave.
The problem with your definition is that it leads to interpretive problems (which i think you hate). If i assume your a Christian this whole time, and you are an atheist, then i can claim that you lied to me. You deceived me by not being open to me about your lack of faith. You could claim that you weren't trying to act Christian, but i could claim the opposite and there is no objective measure that we both could agree on to always determine who in fact is right here.
> Can you recommend some? From what I've seen, most of Islamic history is an expansion of conquest and subjugation that makes the British Empire look like the Salvation Army.
More like the opposite. Here's a highly recommended biography:
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537
A complete defense of the character of the Prophet is a bit of a tall order for a reddit comment, and I'm much too underqualified to provide it given that I myself am a recent convert still learning the seerah.
If you'd like, you could bring up specific claims and I could do my best to point you to answers, but frankly, though I know relatively little about the life of the Prophet, his family, and his companions, what I do know about him couldn't be further from the barbaric, power-hungry sexual deviant that people might try to portray him as.
In 1928, Mohandas Gandhi is recorded as saying the following of the Prophet in Young India:
>I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet and the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.
As far as I can tell, this is the best English language resource on his life. I think all serious thinking people owe it to themselves to honestly investigate why this man is held dear by almost two billion people. Instead of dismissing his followers as poor souls misled by malevolent forces, he should be approached without the biases of a religious agenda.
As a Muslim I sincerely believe the same God had sent the New Testamentm but it was distorted throughout time. 'Klansmen' could misinterpret the testament in a wrong way similar to ISIS guys. Interpretation is an important issue. I suggest you not to drown yourself in ISIS interpretation of Quran, but to learn from the verily source.
https://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1488215469&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=martin+lings+muhammad
But it is just a suggestion. I am not a preacher, not a great debater, or something like that. I am just a regular muslim, who wants to live peacefully, and wants others to live in peace.
Thank you for your kind answers.
This should be sufficient:
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1292668572&amp;sr=8-1
Muhammad by Martin Lings is a biography of the prophet. Very well written, authentic and clears alot of misconceptions. I would advice you to read it as well, I promise you'll enjoy it yourself and learn alot about Islam.
You can start with biography of the prophet .
And then perhaps the Quran.
Good luck.
P.S. Personal opinion. Not an expert.
I would recommend reading the biography done by Martin Lings.
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537
I prefer to shed my liberal tears instead: https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1511229463&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=hillary+clinton+what+happened
Amazon deleted 1000 negative reviews on her book. Lucky the internet doesn't forget. https://web.archive.org/web/20170913103130/https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
> except a Clinton
If you bothered to check your sources, you'll note that Clinton blames herself many times for the results of the 2016 election. Rightly, she doesn't claim that she's solely to blame--that'd be absurd.
It's in the first few pages of her book where she takes responsibility: https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501175564
But hey, don't let facts get in the way of some good old evidence-less Dem-bashing!
While I agree with you on some subject I must tell that this one isn't crazy. Just look at the amazon page. The 5 stars reviews I saw there seems too partisan too me and she indeed has 5 stars while she has so many 1 star reviews.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501175564/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&amp;reviewerType=avp_only_reviews&amp;sortBy=recent
Good book on the subject, written by the author of the test used to diagnose psychopaths: http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510
As I said, it's a pet subject.
And then I was asked for my take on it, which I gave.
And you didn't entirely read it, because I said that there aren't that many sociopaths but it doesn't take many to make a mess.
Also, what is that I am an "outsider" of, exactly?
And your grammar sucks.
You live up to your Reddit name.
>This is a false equivalence.
Your honor, I rest my case.
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People like to compare this to Watergate because they want the same end result: to have the current president out of office ahead of schedule. That is very unlikely, but it was made to seem so because two things (one real and one fake) were conflated as being just one thing: Russian Manipulation and Russian Collusion.
As Comey himself testified, the actual investigation the FBI began last year was into Manipulation, and by Comey's own statements Flynn's contact with any of that was vaguely tangential and came up clean, and Trump wasn't a part of it at all. The Collusion narrative (not real) was tacked onto the Manipulation investigation (real) to provide convenient ammunition to try to salvage the disaster of November 8th for the DNC. In fact, it's even remarked on in a NYT Bestseller. It's no secret that the Collusion narrative was fake, it's just that a lot of people desperately want it to be true or at least to not have been so wrong. Sort of like how some people react after falling for a prediction of the Rapture.
edit:
>Besides, these two investigations are happening 40 years apart. Investigative methods for the FBI as well as resources available to a special counsel and their team are vastly different from the Nixon era. Thus, to use the Watergate timeline as an exact match for the investigation in the present day is a fool's errand.
You're right. They can work faster today, which puts yet another hole in the story.
>The article provides no evidence, and little reason to suspect that this was the case... The article provides no evidence of this claim either.
But it does refer you to a book on Amazon with a Breitbart affiliate link[1] generating them referral fees for anything you buy after following the link.
Hmmmmm.
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[1] https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Inside-Hillary-Clintons-Campaign/dp/0553447084?tag=breitbart035-20 , in case they change it.
It's in the book Shattered. Go and read it for yourself