(Part 2) Top products from r/todayilearned
We found 148 product mentions on r/todayilearned. We ranked the 6,417 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.
21. An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 7
Penguin Books
22. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)
Sentiment score: 5
Number of reviews: 7
memoir and outrageous observations of physicist Richard P. Feynman
23. All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 7
24. Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
Sentiment score: -1
Number of reviews: 7
Encounter Books
25. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond
Sentiment score: 4
Number of reviews: 7
26. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution
Sentiment score: 3
Number of reviews: 7
Food of the Gods The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants Drugs and Human Evolution
27. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 7
Legacy of Ashes The History of the CIA
28. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 7
29. A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 6
Used Book in Good Condition
30. Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 6
Used Book in Good Condition
31. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety (ALA Notable Books for Adults)
Sentiment score: 5
Number of reviews: 6
Orders are despatched from our UK warehouse next working day.
32. 10 Little Rubber Ducks Board Book (World of Eric Carle)
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 6
HarperFestival
33. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
Sentiment score: -2
Number of reviews: 6
On Killing The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
34. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 6
Spiegel Grau
35. Damned to Eternity: The Story of the Man Who They Said Caused the Flood
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 6
36. A Village Lost and Found
Sentiment score: 4
Number of reviews: 6
NewMint ConditionDispatch same day for order received before 12 noonGuaranteed packagingNo quibbles returns
37. Viper Pilot: A Memoir of Air Combat
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 6
William Morrow Company
38. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Sentiment score: 3
Number of reviews: 6
Lamb The Gospel According to Biff Christ s Childhood Pal
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
It's more fictionalized (and satirical) than precisely what you're describing, but it's one of the best books I've ever read, as well as one of the most hilarious.
For anyone interested to learn more than this wikipedia article about Iran. I recommend All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. It is an excellent book that talks about how exactly the coup happened (In detail) and some of the leadup to the 1979 Revolution. (Also great in Audiobook form!)
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the book Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton. An amazing book by a Wild Weasel pilot who flew the F-16CJ. Although it is packed full of information from how one becomes a pilot in the Air Force, the Wild Weasel mission, to fighter pilot culture, it reads just like a novel. The audiobook is also excellent - the recitation of some of the comms on the 1st night of the Gulf War is alone worth the price of admission. I can't recommend either highly enough.
While looking up the book again, I discovered that the author also released a new book, The Hunter Killers, last year about the original Wild Weasels in Vietnam. I obviously have not read it yet, but I bet it is excellent if you want to dive into the history of the mission.
Feynman was the fuckin man. I strongly suggest that everyone read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" if they haven't already. It's filled with memoirs and great insight to how he viewed the world. It's a fantastically good read that I couldn't put down until I finished it.
Hello, my name is Levi who is called Biff, Joshua's childhood friend, whatever you need to know can be found in the book I wrote:
https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
(Seriously, both a funny and very well written book, I recommend it to anyone of any religion who knows about Christianity)
They weren't just dosing citizens for experimental purposes - they would regularly dose each other just for shits and giggles. It began as a search for a mind-control drug.
Acid Dreams is a great book about the history of the CIA's interactions with LSD. You'll also find appearances by the likes of Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey and their kin. It gives a nice contrasting view of the two (or three, or thirty) different ideologies present amongst the assorted Acid taking groups of the 60's in regards to what they could all agree was a chemical that was going to change everything.
read all about it -- and the whole CIA corruption of Planet Earth -- https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-History-Tim-Weiner/dp/0307389006 -- still ongoing running our foreign policy for the good of Banksters, Multi-national Corps, and Military Industrial Complex ... under the guise of freedom & democracy until US rules planet earth's people and natural resources
On a sort of related note, here's a hilarious fiction/comedy novel involving cargo cults:
http://www.amazon.com/Island-Sequined-Love-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060735449
A bunch of this author's other (old) stuff is good too, like "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal":
http://www.amazon.ca/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
There's an informative book titled All the Shah's Men that tells the story. It's been a while since I read it, but it was very engaging and well written. It is slanted towards the American involvement, but discusses in some detail Britain's coercion of the U.S. to join resources.
This is mentioned in a great book called "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser that goes into this stuff a bit more. Definitely worth a read.
Terence McKenna.
Wikipedia has a little bit of info on it, dubbing it the "stoned ape" theory. Extremely fascinating. If you're interested, definitely read Food of the Gods - I think he talks about the Mushroom and the Cross in it actually.
supplementary links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304
Feynman was one hell of a character. Brilliant man.
Someone did a graphic novel biography of him, if you're interested. Awesome book. And I've never laughed more from a book than from Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman
For the love of all that's holy, read his book:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
It's utterly fascinating. Feynman is the only person I have ever wanted to be.
Early excerpts that hit the press already gave Schlosser's book some good buzz.
The good news is that it really lives up to its advance billing. And Schlosser's telling of the Damascus incident that's mentioned in the subtitle will leave you rapt.
Here's an excerpt from the publisher.
And here's a helpful review by Louis Menand at The New Yorker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHl1JnQoIWQ
There is Micheal Scheur, former head of the bin Laden unit in the CIA
He puts it in very clear terms why support for Israel is untenable by Americans. And you can see our extremely ignorant politicians get eviscerated for their unfounded beliefs.
There is no economic benefit, we are perpetuating a conflict that we may not lose but we certainly can never win. Over some meaningless sand.
Ever heard of the butcher of Beirut? There is no such thing as an innocent soldier in an apartheid state that maintain an open air prison.
Iran is a rational player, thus your hindering of their nuclear program is irrelevant to me. You have pleased the Saudis and yourselves, not me.
US clandestine services has a long history of ineptitude. The idea that Mossad has done anything but use us for their own gains is pretty ridiculous. If there is one things you Israelis you do better than us, it's intelligence work.
http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-The-History-CIA/dp/0307389006
You run a blockade on the Palestinians, and promote sanctions on Iran. You don't help free trade
And let me assure you Jewish money in the US economy scares me. When you have a billionaire like Sheldon Adelson throwing money at terrible candidates because they are Zionists that is a problem.
Ya I don't know why this is the top voted comment, it is pretty ignorant. The study of "mushroom" cults is an academic study with ample evidence and it's an interesting field which is actually fairly popular. It was probably the word "Jesus".
References :
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sacred-Mushroom-Cross-Christianity/dp/0340128755
http://www.amazon.com/Persephones-Quest-Entheogens-Origins-Religion/dp/0300052669
http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/wasson/BIOG.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Shanon
http://www.artepreistorica.com/2009/12/the-oldest-representations-of-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-in-the-world-sahara-desert-9000-%E2%80%93-7000-b-p/
this goes on and on and on
If you find these kinds of stories interesting, definitely check out Acid Dreams.
http://www.amazon.com/Acid-Dreams-Complete-History-Sixties/dp/0802130623/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334110187&sr=8-1
There is a great book on this subject, Called Better Angels of our Nature, which actually discusses this in depth.
This slideshow is essentially the same thesis as Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature. A great book.
Just what was described in Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature was good enough to make it clear that humans can be extensively and creatively despicable.
There is a pretty good book about this that goes over what causes the disease, as well as the history of a family that has been stricken by it. It's well worth the read.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-That-Couldnt-Sleep-Medical/dp/081297252X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342803272&sr=1-1&keywords=the+family+that+couldn%27t+sleep
See if you can find The Science of Interstellar at your local library. I bought it and found it rather interesting that Kip found some genuinely clever ways that the physics could "work" for what Nolan wanted to achieve. Yes, creative liberties were taken, but not as many as you probably think.
There's a great book called Acid Dreams:
http://www.amazon.com/Acid-Dreams-Complete-History-Sixties/dp/0802130623
Highly recommend the book The Science of Interstellar The whole idea behind the movie started with science. Science is the shit, btw.
These reviews are pretty compelling regarding his innocence:
http://www.amazon.com/Damned-Eternity-Story-Caused-Flood/product-reviews/0306815273/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
And if you like stories about Richard Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" has this story and many more. Him talking about his time at Los Alamos was particularly entertaining.
In Viper Pilot Dan Hampton talks about his time in the air directly after 9/11. He does a good job conveying how much confusion there was. He was actually given the green light from the ground to take out a SEAL team helicopter. Luckily he stayed cool and called everyone off before that chopper was downed.
right... just like in the 500 page book, legacy of ashes or this lovely book, the main enemy. Argghhh! I wish we had books we could refer to!
That's a Cornellian for you.
/year 2000 grad
Plug: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman is one of the best autobios I've ever read.
Acid Dreams covers the history of LSD and the CIA's involvement. Lots of time, money and reckless experimentation went into finding a substance that would consistently allow interrogators to influence the minds of captured spies.
Definitely worth a read - some very, very interesting stuff.
So did Aldous Huxley. There's an interesting book, Between Heaven and Hell comparing the three's ideas using a fictional discussion in the afterlife. It was written by a Lewis scholar, so it might be a biased.... I've only read the first couple of chapters.
This is a fun little read imagining what their conversation in purgatory might have been like
If you like the concept but not delivery, you may like Christopher Moore's comedic book Lamb, about Jesus lost years in which he visits & learns in China and India.
There is a really cute kids' book called Ten Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle that he wrote after reading about this news story. In some of the versions of the book, he includes the original newspaper clipping he read about it.
Viper Pilot is a great read about the Wild Weasels. http://www.amazon.com/Viper-Pilot-Memoir-Air-Combat/dp/006213034X
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Psychological-Cost-Learning-Society/dp/0316040932/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324610209&sr=1-1
Here's a great book about that.
On Killing is a great book on this topic.
Great book on the subject called The Family that Couldn't Sleep.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-That-Couldnt-Sleep-Medical/dp/081297252X
there's a great book specifically on this disease (and other prion diseases) called The Family that Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery. It's so well-written, not too medically/scientifically dense, and had me hooked.
The Amazon reviews of this book are great.
The reviews on this one are great too: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates
Highly recommended: Acid Dreams by Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain.
> "The book is a promising reference concept, but the execution is somewhat sloppy. Whatever generator they used was not fully tested. The bulk of each page seems random enough. However at the lower left and lower right of alternate pages, the number is found to increment directly. "
The reviews on Amazon are amazing: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Random-Digits-Normal-Deviates/product-reviews/0833030477/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Ten Little Rubber Ducks. My two-year-old loved it.
You can read the actual book this idea is based on rather than assuming he presents none. Not concrete proof (that would be basically impossible) but supporting evidence and ideas.
Brian May also has a very good book about a lost collection of stereoscopic photos that he and his co-author reassembled. It also goes into detail about stereoscopic photography and includes a stereoscope so you can view all the pictures. It's amazing!
A Village Lost and Found
Not breaking the law is pretty difficult. Not getting caught breaking the law is fairly easy most of the time for most people.
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
He's also an avid fan of stereoscopic (aka "3D") photography and has a published collection of Victorian stereoscopes.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Amazon Smile Link: This book
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.
Yes. Those in power are well aware of this, and if you piss them off, they know how to take advantage of it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1594035229?pc_redir=1395214629&robot_redir=1
I just finished reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, what an incredible person. Makes me sad he's still not alive. Recommended you read it too if you haven't already:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344831089&sr=8-1&keywords=surely+you%27re+joking+mr.+feynman
Makes me respect Bill Gates even more than I already did.
He also makes these sweet 3D Victorian historical picture books
Funny, my little boy has a book about this.
This is a good read about N Korea for those interested:
There's a good book about it:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Family-That-Couldnt-Sleep/dp/081297252X
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290687205&sr=8-1
It's incredible (ly depressing). You should read it. I live in Seoul so scary to think this is only like 60km away.
It sounds like a decent book, but with this quote at the bottom of the review
> "The problem is that Krauss – also a theoretical physicist – concentrates a little too heavily on the science, rather then the life, of Richard Feynman"
I would recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman as an immediate companion.
If you're feeling brave you can try reading his 1994 book on black holes and time warps. I suspect that the book he wrote about the science of Interstellar is more approachable.
There's actually 311 pages of evidence and "scientific merit". Why don't you thumb through his book and tell me exactly which parts of his argument you have issues with, considering your hardcore claims and his reputation as a well respected ethnobotanist.
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304
May also co-authored a stereoscopic book called "A Village Lost and Found" which depicts scenes from a small English village ca. 1850. The cool thing about the book is that it uses a stereoscopic viewer to make the scenes appear to be 3D. http://www.amazon.com/Village-Lost-Found-Brian-May/dp/0711230390
He's an interesting guy
For those interested this book is about that and other prion diseases.
ht tp://ww w.amazon.com/gp/product/0833030477?ie=UTF8&tag=danlewissspor-20&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=0833030477
interesting
Read: The Food of Gods. Magic mushrooms were quite cultural all over South America, and still are. A fascinating read, even if it isn't scientific or anthropology driven it does contain a fair amount of history on mushrooms and other drugs pre "drugs are bad m'kay."
It might be outdated. Time reporter Adam Pitluk published this one in 2007, and it makes a good case this guy is a genuine shithead who happened to be involved in one of the larger miscarriages of justice in recent history:
http://www.amazon.com/Damned-Eternity-Story-Caused-Flood/dp/0306815273
jumping on your comment to say how much that book engrossed me and that anyone who has read Escape From Camp 14 might also be interested in reading Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. Out of all of the books I have read about life in North Korea this is the one that made me realise how dire the situation is out there right now due to the many stories from the different walks of life in NK.
There is a great book written in dialogue featuring C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, and JFK. They are in purgatory talking about life, religion, politics, and whatnot. It is called "Conversations in the Afterlife".
Edit: I was wrong on the name. Anyway, delivery: http://www.amazon.com/Between-Heaven-Hell-Somewhere-Kennedy/dp/0877843899
Don't lots of random generators sample atmospheric noise to generate random numbers, things like that? ISn't the problem that something being apparently random is one thing, but a lot of "random" things are, perversely, predictably random.
*Or for a thrilling read: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Random-Digits-Normal-Deviates/product-reviews/0833030477
Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton is a great read about F-16s on Wild Weasel missions in both Iraq Wars. These guys had balls of steel.
Read Dan Hampton's Viper Pilot: http://www.amazon.com/Viper-Pilot-Memoir-Air-Combat/dp/006213034X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1462823120&sr=8-5&keywords=dan+hampton
Awesome book. 10% of what is written here is folksy bullshit.
Read Escape From Camp 14
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Also, Nothing to Envy is another good book that gives a lot of insight into the insanity.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0385523912/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1457025906&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=nothing+to+envy&dpPl=1&dpID=514Fj%2BBddhL&ref=plSrch
Here's the Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912
And a Prezi review that includes a reading level assessment:
Reading level: middle school students to adults
few parts more appropriate for older middle school students
Interesting for: people who are curious North Korean way of life and how North Koreans reacted to an economic crisis, as well as struggles in society
https://prezi.com/5bq1azo7n2rj/nothing-to-envy-presentation/
From what I understand, the CIA had been running operations to assassinate Castro without Congress' consent and they thought/think that the Kennedy assassination was retaliation. They tried to cover up those operations, in part because the CIA was already in hot water with Congress and Robert Kennedy played a large role as AG in directing those ops.
See here for a good history of the CIA and this incident in particular -- https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-History-Tim-Weiner/dp/0307389006
As far as lay public goes, start here: https://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0143122010
Possibly the best researched book around violence directed to lay people... His sources especially are eye opening...
Check out the book Acid Dreams . It's fantastic, and it covers this and all the other totally wild things that happened in the early days of LSD. It also includes information on the weaponized hallucinogens that were used against enemy troops in Vietnam.
Just wanted to point out that there are real books on this stuff, and not just websites.
So is 10 Little Rubber Ducks, by Eric Carle
Eric Carle did a book about those duckies:
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Rubber-Ducks-Board-World/dp/006196428X
Eric Carle did a book on this:
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Rubber-Ducks-Board-World/dp/006196428X
Check out the book Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton. Story of F-16 Wild Weasels in Iraq in 2000s.
One of the seminal works in the field of collective nouns was written by James Lipton from Inside The Actors Studio.
Some of my own favourites: "an unkindness of ravens" and "a parliament of owls"
If you're way into this kind of thing, James Lipton (of Actor's Studio fame) wrote a whole book of them, An Exaltation of Larks.
This book represents the largest collection in print for these terms:
https://www.amazon.com/Exaltation-Larks-Ultimate-James-Lipton/dp/0140170960/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493395628&sr=1-28&keywords=Of+larks
Actually, an exaltation of larks
Relevant book about James Scott's life and trial
There's actually a book on this
https://www.amazon.com/Damned-Eternity-Story-Caused-Flood/dp/0306815273
Read this book and you'll learn a lot more.
You should read Legacy of Ashes . This story, and many others are included.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
Kip Thorne wrote a book on it:
https://www.amazon.com/Science-Interstellar-Kip-Thorne/dp/0393351378
More is accurate in that movie than first appears.
He actually came up with the idea for the movie back in 2005 and spent 9 years working on it, with several different directors and writers before Christopher Nolan. Check out his book The Science of Interstellar, it's full of information about the physics in the movie and the production of it.
He even authored a book called
The Science of Interstellar
This is common knowledge.
All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
Everyone should check out this book
He also co-authored this book.
download numbers (.zip)
list of all the numbers (.pdf)
buy the book on Amazon
Peter Kreeft actually wrote a book about the dialogue they all have together in purgatory: http://www.amazon.com/Between-Heaven-Hell-Somewhere-Kennedy/dp/0877843899
Somebody wrote a book about them: https://www.amazon.com/Between-Heaven-Hell-Somewhere-Kennedy/dp/0877843899
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
70 feet into swamp according to this interesting book:
http://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/1594202273/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397668041&sr=8-1&keywords=command+and+control
This book asks that very question:
http://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/1594202273
Not sure where you read it, but this is Mckenna's book
Well, lets see, here's one book you might want to read sometime. Or this article. Or this one.
> “There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime. … That is not an exaggeration.” -- John Baker, a retired Louisiana State University law professor, in a comment to the Wall Street Journal.
This doesn't surprise me at all. The CIA is a notoriously horrible place to work, and has been plagued with extremely serious morale and management problems for decades. They have a tendency to focus on their slick covert operations part of the organization to the expense of analysts. You know, the people who actually provide...intelligence. Also, on more than one occasion the CIA has gotten news about a major development in world affairs from CNN.
Extremely good book on the subject.
Iiiiiinteresting..... they did do a lot of prison experiments.....
If you haven't already, read these books:
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond
> I meant it (slavery) was a moral crime/atrocity/evil, then and now.
I agree.
> I'll be the first to agree the ancient Greeks and Romans shouldn't be thought of as beacons of enlightenment...They were, on the whole, brutal warrior/slave societies in a constant state of warfare with everyone and everything around them.
And so was most everyone else. Humans are an obviously violent species and for the simple reason than that violence is supremely effective. Humans have been abusing both other humans and other forms of life since there was a thing called humans. The idea that you will find a human community free of violence is an absurdity because if a society like this existed, they could simply be dominated by a more violent society.
However, I for one am comforted by the fact that the human species as a whole has been becoming less violent as civilization moves forward and I am confident that this trend will slowly continue. All the steps forward in civilization from Sumerian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Egyptian, Arab, and so many other cultures should all be considered beacons of enlightenment, or perhaps better thought of as ladder rungs, in our ever expanding circle of ethical progress.
Of course my time in existence is vanishingly small but there is good reason to think that there will be less suffering 5000 years from now just as there is less suffering now then 5000 years ago.
If this sounds surprising, I suggest people read the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea"
Amazon linky
It's nice because it doesn't just focus on what is horrible but also speaks about the people's lives, their thoughts, feelings, dreams, etc. It's very humanizing, especially when some of the people written about talk about how much they loved their leader and worked to meet the party's desires.
I think the thing that kind of surprised me was how, after the death of one of the Jongs, everyone basically competed with each other to appear sad and distraught in their public mournings. After all, someone who didn't express this might be seen as subversive. Her description of it all is far better than mine, it's a good book.
By the way, his name is Joshua. I have no idea what the H stands for.
It's called Between Heaven and Hell: http://www.amazon.com/Between-Heaven-Hell-Somewhere-Kennedy/dp/0877843899
Fun fact -- we know a lot of these terms because some guy researched them and published a book. That guy was James Lipton (yes, that one from Inside the Actors Studio), and here's the book.
Note: Lipton found some of the terms and made others up, and the two have become permanently intertwined -- so "pandemonium of parrots" was probably made up by Lipton, while "a murder of crows" was not.
Can't forget about the CIA sponsored coup in Iran! Probably the biggest mistake in American history.
The CIA blackmailed Martin Luther King.
Propagating the myth that killing is easy even for trained and well-regimented soldiers.
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Psychological-Cost-Learning-Society/dp/0316040932
There is actually a book written by a former TIME reporter in this man's defense. Its called Damned to Eternity: The Story of the Man Who They Said Caused the Flood.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0306815273?pc_redir=1405231807&robot_redir=1
I suggest reading All the Shah's Men. It goes into detail about the conspiracy to remove Mossadegh.
I have a book that names different groups. It's called An Exaltation of Larks . Apparently a group of cockroaches is an "intrusion of cockroaches." "disagreement of statesmen." "explosion of italians."
An unofficial source has told me: "a carton of retards" .. unsure of veracity
Sure, and how about the overthrow of the democratically elected Mosaddegh in Iran in 1952? Or how about the countless meddling in Central and South America? Speaking domestically, why is it that they always infiltrate peaceful groups of citizens and then play the role of provocateur?
The U.S. federal government should basically never be trusted and yet it seems each generation falls prey to their lies and propaganda - especially with regard to foreign policy. WMD's anyone? The American citizenry should always view everything the government says with an inherent distrust. That should be the default position of the citizenry. They have lost the privilege of being trusted. They don't work for or serve the interests of average Americans in the least. When the corporate/MIC/establishment elite want to meddle in another countries affairs or start a war, they will do whatever lying or black bag operations they need to in order to achieve their objective. They've done it plenty before and they will continue doing it until we refuse to allow it any more.
The U.S. government has put down so many populist movements and meddled/overthrown so many governments in the name of "making the world safe for capitalism" it's crazy. No other country even comes close. Yes, that's right, not democracy - that is the biggest lie of them all. The U.S. couldn't give two shits about democracy. Not even here at home. They just want to keep us believing that we live in a democracy and keep us participating in their rigged system so that we won't revolt.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh
http://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-Americas-Century-Regime-Change/dp/0805082409/ref=tmm_pap_title_0/191-0374213-3312233
http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/047018549X/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321374076&sr=1-1
It is referring only to the levels of violence in the US. Of course, your questions are excellent. It is often argued that violence worldwide overall is decreasing as well (including wars, etc.). The most prominent piece on this is probably "The Better Angels of our Nature" by Steven Pinker.
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0143122010/
There is a family in (I want to say Ireland) but they had a gene that wouldn't allow them to sleep but they would feel the fatigue. Eventually they became Zombie like and died. I will try to find the source. I learned about it in psychology class.
Here is the link to the book about it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/081297252X
"Almsot happened" is by no means a stretch. This book goes into a bunch of different times nuclear war was almost started.
You need to read http://www.amazon.com/On-Killing-Psychological-Learning-Society/dp/0316040932
"The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. And contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques, and, according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of murder among the young."
This book gives you some perspective about the science behind making people to kill and that way "part of the group" - and why it is thought to be necessary. I would not be surprised if same kind of "science" would be part of intelligence "training". Which is quite scary thought.
Meanwhile, a Time reporter wrote a book claiming the guy is innocent.
Consider the convicted guy's idiotic criminal history, and the sheer idiocy of boasting to numerous people that he committed the crime. He obviously saw such a crime as boast-worthy, which then raises the question of whether he boasted about a natural levee break in order to take credit and raise his profile among his idiot friends. That, coupled with the experts saying it was a natural levee break, provides me reasonable doubt.
http://www.amazon.com/On-Killing-Psychological-Learning-Society/dp/0316040932
It's a very interesting read and I suggest you check it out. Very few soldiers in combat even, actually take a life. The psychology of warfare and killing in particular is not so cut and dry ESPECIALLY when dealing with conscripts who perhaps didn't want anything to do with the war in the first place.
That's just it: people who the cops like get "put that away"; anyone they don't like get arrested.
And I don't say that to criticize the police. In the abstract, people the police don't like are generally people who need arrestin'.
But you can see how the situation degenerates. If everyone is guilty of, say, three felonies a day, then each one of lives totally at the sufferance of the people in power.
> There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kinds of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of lawbreakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.
> — Floyd Ferris
Actually, I think you've got it a bit mixed up. Soldiers in Korea and WW2 statistically were pretty likely to fire over the enemies' head. The military remedied this by making rifle training in later wars training in firing your weapon as a quick reflex rather than solely an exercise in accuracy and discernment.
At least that's how it was explained to me by a professor, who cited Dave Grossman's 'On Killing', which I haven't read yet. However, the description seems to agree:
Drawing on interviews, published personal accounts and academic studies, Grossman investigates the psychology of killing in combat. Stressing that human beings have a powerful, innate resistance to the taking of life, he examines the techniques developed by the military to overcome that aversion. His provocative study focuses in particular on the Vietnam war, revealing how the American soldier was "enabled to kill to a far greater degree than any other soldier in history." Grossman argues that the breakdown of American society, combined with the pervasive violence in the media and interactive video games, is conditioning our children to kill in a manner similar to the army's conditioning of soldiers: "We are reaching that stage of desensitization at which the infliction of pain and suffering has become a source of entertainment: vicarious pleasure rather than revulsion. We are learning to kill, and we are learning to like it." Grossman, a professor of military science at Arkansas State University, has written a study of relevance to a society of escalating violence.
That section on Video games makes my stomach turn, but I can't judge til I've read it.
While the cardinality of the set of prior arrests may correlate with the probability that an individual belongs to the set of those of an increased destructive nature, it, too, is not immune from inflation from prejudicial arrests.
If you can prejudicially arrest someone once, you can do it again, and even bolster your argument by claiming the first invalid arrest justifies your second one, ad infinitum.
That is not to say that the majority of these people were innocent. But under a legal system that has moved almost entirely away from its roots as a common law practice and toward a nigh proscriptive system, with an ever growing body of precedence, we now live in a country where the average citizen commits Three Felonies a Day; our definition of "innocent" ought, really, to shift when discussing this topic.
We did not truly vote for the laws that incarcerate us, we inherited them, from our parents, and their parents before them--never revisiting the topics under the faulty assumption that they were correct in their decision making.
So, since we are all guilty, the decision of who the cops arrest is almost entirely an application of discretion (though not necessarily by the arresting officer). Therefore, the subjective guilt of a suspect plays, in their arrest, a heavier part than their objective guilt.
Unfortunately, there are not a terribly great deal of accurate studies on these things, since the data is almost entirely impossible to gather. Few police officers are going to submit themselves to psychological experimentation unless mandated to do so--most people in general wouldn't for that matter. The evidence in the case, too, must be subpoenaed.
However, I think the above logic suffices to show the potential for damage well enough. The fact is, you can't particularly prove the claim either way. But I think you ought to ask why it is that race, rather than culture, seems to dictate the subpopulation distribution in our prison system. Especially when normalized for actual population distribution of the nation as a whole.