BOOKS AND
FILMS
(being a listing of some books and films on my shelf)
Biography |
Culture
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Education |
Environment
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Fiction
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History
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Religion
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Science
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Films
| DataBase
The Dragon's
An amazing story of how the Thai
military government after World War II decides to send two children to
live in
The Revolutionary
King by William Stevenson (Robinson, 2001)
The author is none other than the
same Stevenson who wrote The Man Called Intrepid. The biography
is an insider look at a King brought up in
Josiah the Great: The Man Who Would be King by Ben Macintyre (Harper Perennial, 2004) The biography of an American egotist who decides to serve Indian and Afgani potentates with the aim of setting up a domain of his own. Unbelievable, but true biography of Josiah Harlan, a sometime Quaker and adventurer. Quite possibly the orgin of Rudyard Kipling's story and the movie version of same.
In His Majesty's
Footsteps: A Personal Memoir by Vasit Dejkunjorn (Heaven Lake Press,
2006) Vasit was the chief of the
Royal Court Police in Thailand, and served the present King Rama IX. A
book maybe only of interest to those who want to know more of the inner
workings of royalty in
The King Never Smiles by
Paul M. Handley (Yale University Press, 2006)
Paul Handley provides an extensively researched, factual account of the
king’s youth and personal development, ascent to the throne, skillful
political maneuverings, and attempt to shape Thailand as a Buddhist
kingdom. Handley takes full note of Bhumibol's achievements in art, in
sports and jazz, and he credits the king's lifelong dedication to rural
development and the livelihoods of his poorest subjects. But,
regrettably, he indulges in a political analysis rooted in gossip to
portray the king as "an anti-democratic monarch who, together with
allies in big business and the corrupt Thai military, has protected a
centuries-old, barely modified feudal dynasty". However, his own
researched facts do not support this latter conclusion.
Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God by Jonathan Clements (Sutton Publishing, 2007) A well researched and annotated biography which examines not only Empress Wu herself, but the many commentaries, both Chinese and Western, which have appeared as biographies, movies and statements dating from Wu's own time to present day.
Henry VIII; Reformer and Tyrant by Derek Wilson (Constable and Robertson, 2008) A biography that takes the common perception of Henry and his motivations from an emphasis on his wives to a man who waivers from acts of tyranny to a drive to please and be seen to care about those around him. Certainly a new interpretation.
The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (Harper-Collins, 2008) The story of Joseph Needham, a British academic, who decides to explore China and its history, particularly the history of science and technology that was filled with discoveries long before they were part of Western knowledge. He went to China during WW II to serve as an advisor to Chinese academics, and travelled extensively always researching the historical documents for knowledge not hitherto reported in the West, and, strangely lost to the memory of the Chinese themselves. His contributions to China and the world has been recognized by both China and the West, in China being named along with Canada's Norman Bethune as one of China's great foreign friends.
A Brilliant Darkness by Joao Magueijo (Perseus Books, 2009) Joao tells the story of the theoretical physicist, Ettore Majorana, who disappeared mysteriously after having been so successful. We learn of his family, his friends and his work to reveal an intriging character and mystery. Not satisfied with the peripherals of the life, the author chases down the intimate details of his accomplishments (nuclear fission: the Majorana neutrino)) in the thirties, his family life, and, of course, his mysterious disaapearence.
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
The Proper Study of Mankind by Stuart Chase (Harper & Brothers, 1956)
A review of the social sciences by
a former advisor to presidents of the thirties and forties. Everything
from anthropology and the culture concept to politics and the economists
is described in layman's terms always with the test as to whether
there is in the making a "science of man".
An insightful view of all aspects of Japanese culture as seen through
the eyes of an author who arrived with the American troops and stayed to marry
into and study a culture often quite beyond understanding in the West. That
Japan has changed much since the book was written does not make most of Seward's
observations as valid today as they were in 1972. The persistent inferiority
complex of the Japanese persists in spite of all their technological
accomplishments, with only the outward trappings having changed.
Reflections on Thai
Culture by William J. Klausner (The Siam Society, 1981)
Klausner, who has resided in
Thailand since 1955, has written articles about village life,
Buddhism, legal studies, Thai culture and customs. His findings
regarding social relationships, and village life are particularly
revealing. A good first book for those planning to work or live in
Korea: a Walk through the Land of
Miricales by Simon Winchester (Prentice Hall Press, 1988)
Winchester decides to walk through Korea leading the
reader on a cultural study of the people, the ways and beliefs. His
insights, as usual, make things quite real.
Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond (Vintage, 1997) A
wide-scoping history of humankind which explores the idea that societies
became what they are mostly because of environment and not because of
differences in the people themselves. Diamond's unique analysis of how
societies became different as they were confronted with the physical
differences they found when moving east across the Pacific to establish
themselves on the various islands they found. How some people's were
luckier than others when they found foods and animals that could be
domesticated, particularly those in the
Collapse: How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (Penguin Books,
2005) A book which describes how
the destruction of a supporting environment, or of a insistence upon
retention of entrenched destructive values, beliefs and ways; has led to
the collapse of such diverse societies as that of the Norse in
Greenland, of the Khmer in Cambodia, and of Maya in Central
America. Our present-day failure to perceive the signs of the impending
collapse of our own society is, of course, the main object of Diamond's
book. His lesson is well made.
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
Toward a Theory of Instruction by Jerome Bruner (Belknap Press, 1966)
Bruner and many others in the 1960's examined not only how learning takes place
in children, but how the methods of instruction might be changed so as to more
effectively teach children. Their advice has for the most part has gone
unheeded. Now we find huge percentages of youngsters are thought to be afflicted
with some sort of disability or the effects of social discord requiring
"experts" outside the classroom and even medication to suppress behavioural
"disorders". Teachers wanting to take a second look at what they think and
do, would do well to read Bruner in this new decade so that they might see how
teaching can again become "fun" instead of something with which they "can barely
cope".
The Hyperactivity Hoax by Sydney Walker III, MD (St, Martin's Press,
1998)
This book is a good example of how a "set of misbehaviours" can be grouped into
an "illness", and then be subject to "treatment" outside classroom bounds, even
"medicated" to the detriment of children. If a child is seen to be "hyperactive"
in the classroom and not "hyperactive" in front of the television, then maybe
the "diagnosis" is faulty. A few, very few, children are indeed hyperactive
(have spontaneous firing of nissel granules in the brain), but the number is
minuscule compared to those being medicated with Ritalin. Dr. Walker has good
reason to be concerned, and so should classroom teachers who have "bought:" the
nonsense. Apologists who have identified so many children as having afflictions,
resort to "research" purporting to show physical identifiers in the brain itself
when there is no evidence to clarify which came first, the physical result or
the behaviours. Such research is highly suspect until something of more
substance is found one way or the other. Both hyperactivity and attention
deficit disorders fall into this category of "manufactured illnesses".
"Energy Resources" by M. King Hubbert in Resources and Man by
National Academy of Sciences (W.H. Freeman, 1969)
Hubbert's original findings regarding fossil fuels and other energy
possibilities as reported to the Ameruican Congress in 1956.
Hubbert's Peak by Kenneth Deffeyes (
An oil geologists careful analysis of M. King Hubbert's 1956 predictions
regarding the impending peak in oil production and supply. The story behind
Hubbert's work, changes in extraction methods since, and the conclusion that
Hubbert was quite correct, and what this means to an economy based on an energy
supply that will be difficult to replace in time to prevent a short-term
catastrophe.
The Hydrogen Economy by Jeremy Rifkin (Putnam Books, 2002)
Rifkin heads up a
Rifkin suggests that our heavy reliance on oil will lead to its replacement with hydrogen. He, as well as others, point out that there is not enough land to support all the wind turbines needed, nor enough undeveloped hydro sites nor even enough solar cells to do the job, and only portable hydrogen is an answer. He sees large hydrogen cells entering the economy through the "back door" when maintaining buildings with necessary energy becomes too expensive using existing sources. He even postulates an "internet-like" connection of one building to another when surpluses are generated to create a distributed system as oppose the present network of power lines controlled at central locations.
Beyond Oil by Kenneth S. Deffeyes (Hill and Wang, 2005)
An update of Deffeyes' Hubbert's Peak brings the stats current as well as
postulating some of the calamitous outcomes, and possible belated measures to
turn things around. As he concludes, "Business as usual is not in the cards.
Whether we like it or not, there will be major rearrangements of the
global economy." His view is that the consequences of ignoring the problem will
derange the economies to such a degree that near chaos will likely result. He
suggests, too, that the lead in to alternative energy sources is too little and
too late to prevent such catastrophic outcomes.
Smelling Land: The Hydrogen Defense Against Climate
Catastrophe, by David Sanborn Scott (Canadian Hydrogen association, 2007)
Although the formal title is sort of mystical, the subtitle is right on track in
these times when we need more than just the mumblings of environmentalists and
politicians. Scott deals directly with the question of how might we produce
energy without carbon emissions. He tackles the myths of atomic power dangers,
and the superficial little moves that have consumers running around thinking
they are actually contributing to environmental improvement (his light bulb
calculations that show replacing high wattage light bulbs with fluorescent ones
actually increases carbon demands instead of reducing them is typical). He says,
and proves that only hydrogen can replace fossil fuels needed to be portable for
transportation. And it is only atomic power stations that will do the trick.
He substantially proves that the fear mongering about the dangers of atomic
stations and waste storage is a bunch of nonsense. A must read by those who want
science and not politics and sentimentality.
The Winds of Sinhala (1982), The Founts of Sinhala (1984) and The Fires
of Sinhala (1987) by John de Silva (
A trilogy which takes the reader from the Buddhist kings of 77 B.C. to the
times of the Europeons who intruded into the country to dominate
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Anchor Books, 1994) (a borrowed book). A 50th anniversary edition of the story of life in an African village at the time English churches were appearing on the scene. Not that the intruding culture is the main story, which is a description of life in villages, of the cultural ways before the intervention of Europeans. The hero who is a successful farmer must deal with social errors which lead to his banishment and his accommodation to the consequences of his mistakes .
Uther by Jack Whyte (Penguin, 2000)
A historical novel based in post-Roman
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (Anchor Books, 2001) A charming first novel by a writer who suffered through the Chinese "cultural revolution", and uses his first-hand experience to create a believable scenario where romance and literature are the featured motivations. The two heroes have been sent to the countryside to be reformed by the peasants, become enamoured by a "little Chinese seamstress", and obsessed by Chinese translations of foreign literature they believe to be in a suitcase owned by another similarly exiled student.
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor books, 2001) A title in the "Number 1. Ladies Detective Agency" series. Mma Ramotswe gets involved with a case of poisoning and with an investigation into the morality of girls entering a beauty contest. That all this happens coincidently with a move of her office to the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motor's building, keeps her life and the agency interesting to say the least.
The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa (Vintage, 2004) Set in Japanese occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, a sixteen year old girl with a talent for the oriental game of Go becomes involved with one of her captors, another Go player. The relationship shadows the game itself with its attacks and counter attacks. Shan Sa, a poet and novelist, writes in French although born in China.
Shantaram by Gregory Roberts (St. Martin's Griffin, 2005) Written by a New Zealander who is an escaped Australiahe drug seller who now lives in the slumsevryday of Bombay, one suspects the novel and its hero are, indeed, the author himself. A wondrous description of Bombay slum characters and their lives, mostly lives of crime.
Empress: A Novel by Shan Sa (Harper, 2006) Translated from the French in which Shan Sa writes, the novel tells of the infamous Empress Wu maybe to give her a softer edge than writers heretofore have seen fit to do. Shan writes in almost poetic form making the read unusual as a historical derivation, yet her historical research is impeccable The facts are all there.
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Simon and Shuster, 2008) Set in modern-day India, the hero, a driver for the very rich examines life possibilities and eventually decides to murder his employer, take money and set up his own car rental business to become one of the privilege ones himself. That the reader is all but sympathetic to the murder, tells a lot about the author's ability to read not only his audience, but what India in a cultural transition offers.
Between The Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (Free Press, 2008) Aravind offers more insights into everyday India, this time in the fictional town of Kittur. The assassinations, the rich, downtrodden, poets and crooks as they struggle for their piece of life at this time in India.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson ( Viking, Canada) One of four popular novels which, in this case has been made into a movie. Larsson died recently after building quite a following. The girl in this novel is a computer hacker who works for a security company and is called in to assist a writer hired by a dying man to find out where his neice is to be found, she having disappeared under mysterious circumstances years before. That the old man receives a gift of framed flowers from many different world locations as his neice did in the past, adds to the mystery: was she murdered as he thinks or does she still live?
Roman Britain by I.A. Richmond : Pelican
History of England: 1 (Penguin Books 1955)
From the year 43 through to the fifth century,
Britain was a province of Rome. Richmond tells of the life of those times: the
towns, economics, Roman military, and the countryside are described in accurate
detail.
The Travels of Marco Polo, Editor: Milton Rugoff ( Signet Classic,
1961)
That the journey of the Polo family was an amazing,
and almost unbelievable feat in 1271, there remains no doubt,
and thus is more than adequately portrayed by Marco himself in this record of
his journeys.
A History of Japan, Malcom Kennedy (Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, 1963)
Compehensive examination of the last 100 years of Japanese history
emphasising the influence of the past on the present.
Daily Life in Ancient India from 200 BC to 700 AD (by Jeannine Auboyer, 1967) Translated from French, this history tells of life in an India guided by the Brahman and Buddhists traditions. The details of commerce, family and religious life show how India was influenced by various conquerors including the Greeks, and, on the other hand influenced most of Asia including China through the spread of Buddhism.
The Great Moghuls by Bamber Gascoigne (Robinson, London, 1971)
Life in 16th and 17th century India in the courts of the moghuls. From the Taj
Mahal to court intrigues, the arts and sciences as well as the ways of the
people.
The Kingdom:
The history of how obscure Bedouin tribesmen rose to wealth and power just
a little over 50 years ago, and how the riches of oil keep them in power. And
how their religion of Islam is deeply imbedded in the rituals and actions of the
Sa'ud family. Particularly relevant to an understanding of current machinations
in the middle east.
Calcutta by Geoffrey Moorhouse (Penguin, 1983)
A history of the city from the time of the British Raj who founded the place, to
current times. The people: the aristocrats (both English and Indian), and the
poor who die in the streets, are all part of the complex landscape Moorhouse
describes. A facinating read.
The Evolution of the Medieval World by David Nicholas (Longmans, 1992)
The world meaning
Reporting Angkor: Chou Ta-Kuan in Cambodia 1296-1297 by Robert Philpotts (Blackwater Books ,1996) The report by a Chinese emmissary to the Mongol Emperor of China who had been sent to Anchor in the year 1296. Possibly the only realistic view of life in the Cambodia of those times otherwise so lavishly described by the artwork of the ancient city of Anchor.
The Tutor Age by Jasper Ridley (Robinson, London, 1998)
A brief history of life in the Tutor Age of England. From food, to jobs, to
royalty to roads and buildings: a wonderful immersion into another time.
Pakistan: Eye of the Storm by Owen Bennett Jones (Yale University Press,
2002)
the difficulty its leaders have had in its fifty-five years of independence
as they try to confront Islamic extremists and three wars. Located
strategically next to Afghanistan with its current difficulties means that
Pakistan is difficult and maybe impossible to rule in modern terms.
Krakatoa by Simon Winchester (Perennial, 2003)
Particularly interesting in the light of the recent tsunami in the same area.
Largest volcanic explosion in recorded history, and the first "world event"
known world-wide in only a couple of days because of the telegraph. Stories of
not only the geological event, but of the people as recorded by those on the
spot.
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Orion Books, 2003)
An interesting account of Stalin and his cronies as revealed in recently
released documents and testimonials. The ruthless and personal use of absolute
dictatorship are revealed even to the point where the wives of close associates
are sent to
Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford (Three Rivers Press, 2004) Sub-titled "and the Making of the Modern World", Genghis, the world conqueror, is revealed to be the spur which brought on the European renaissance. Improved cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming civilization, followed every of his conquests. We discover that instead of the brutal hordes usually portrayed in the West, that Genghis abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. That his grandson, Kublai went on to conquer and remake China walking in similar shoes says a lot about how history often needs new research so as to be freshly understood.
1491 by Charles C. Mann (Vintage Books, 2005) A long needed revision of the history of North and South America as the Europeans really found it when they arrived in the famous Columbus year of 1492. A comprehensive view of the two continents and their peoples at the time of contact. The contents must now be taken into our schools as revisions to the nonsense now offered as "history
A History of
A history of contemporary
The Friar and the Cipher by Laurence and Nancy Goldstone (Broadway Books,
2005) Roger Bacon as found in the history of the people and history of his
times with emphasis on an as yet undeciphered manuscript. The working of the
church and the various academics surrounding Bacon.
Failed States by Noam Chomsky (Metropolitan Books, 2006) A history of
the political record of the
Kublai Khan: The Mongol King Who Remade
Treason by the Book by Jonathan Spence (Penguin Books, 2006) A fully documented history that reads like a mystery novel. A young dissident hands a letter to a governor of a southern Chinese province advocating that the governor lead a revolt against the Emperor. The correspondence generated by this event reveals not only the nature of government under the Emperors of the time, but how the written word controlled the state. Fascinating stuff, and a book that you will have trouble putting down until you have finished it. History at its best!
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Knopf, 2007)
The Real History Behind the Templers by Sharan Newman (Berkly Books, 2007) Newman has done her homework and provided documentation to prove her point. The twelfth century is the period, and the knights templers the topic: what could be more fascinating?
The Indian Mutiny by Julian Spilsbury (Phoenix, 2007) A detailed history of events that led to the mutiny and what happened during the uprising in English India of 1857. Eyewitness accounts of the slaughter of innocents.
Return to Dragon Mountain by Jonathon Spence (Viking, 2007) The writings of one Zhang Dai of the Ming Dynasty who reminisces about his life, family, and the life ways under the Mings from his much diminished life under the new regime, the Manchus. A poet and historian whose writings only became known in the 1990s. Really an autobiography: poetic and revealing.
The Age of Steam : the Power that Drove the Industrial Revolution by Thomas Crump (Robinson, 2007) A comprehensive history of steam from invention to the many railways on the continents of the world. The changes wrought by their introduction and the people involved are treated on the vast canvas of the planet and its continents.
Khubilai Khan's Lost Fleet by James P. Delgado (Douglas & McIntyre, 2008) About the Chinese armada of Khubilai Khan sent against Japan in the year 1281 which was accosted by a great storm and and sunk at Takashima where the author and Japanese archeologists are attempting to reconstruct the event with remains they find on the ocean's bottom. Delgado is a noted maritime archeologist.
The Sixties Unplugged by Gerard J. DeGroot (Harvard University
Press, 2008)
Marco Polo from Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen (Vintage Books,
2008) An update of the Polo story with insights into the young man, Marco,
as he becomes enamoured by other cultures and other religious philosophies. The
evidence that supports most of the details described by Marco, yet previously
tainted by suspicion. A fascinating
and necessary rewrite that puts Marco Polo into a new perspective.
1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance by Gavin Menzies (Harper Perennial, 2008) That a Chinese emperor decides that the whole world should know and pay tribute led to the building of a fleet of 100 ships and the appointment of an admiral whose job it was to establish contact with all the peoples of the world, to provide them maps and navigation tables so that they may make their way to the "centre of the world" to China. That the evidence the Chinese not only visited Europe, but the western shores of Peru and even New Zealand is overwhelming and grows daily, and might even require that our Western history books to be rewritten as will what we teach in our classrooms.
Henry VIII Reformer and Tyrant by Derek Wilson (Robinson, 2009) Using new material, Wilson takes the common image of the man who delivered the Reformation to England.
A Brief History of Khubilai Khan, Lord of Xanadu,
Emporer of China by Jonathan Clements (Robinson,
2010) A comprehensive look at the rise and eventual fall of the
Mongol conquest of China and most of the rest of Asia. The abortive
attempts to conquer Java, Indo China and Japan using fleets of ships is
documented, as is the European reaction to the events, and the unusual
incorporation of foreigners in the Chinese government as well as the
tolerance of other cultures and religions; all new to the world of men
at that time.
RELIGION
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula (Grove Press,
1959)
The classic explanation of Buddhism especially suitable for the rational
Westerner. Covers most questions a Western student might want answered: Do
Buddhists believe in a God? Did Buddha believe in reincarnation? Is the Buddhist
expected to make his own path or is he expected to follow a predetermined one
like other world religions? Etc., all of which are answered from the Theravada
point of view. The Theravada school of Buddhism preceded all others and is still
practiced in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other Southeast Asian locations, whereas
the Mahayana School is found elsewhere (Japan, China, etc.,).
Non-Christian Religions edited by Horace L. Friess (Grosset and Dunlap, 1963) An A to Z encyclopedia from Pre-Columbia America to Zoroasterism. Comprehensive overview of the subject with numerous authorities writing the article.
Bohinyana by Venerable Ajahn Chah (Wat Pah Pong, Ubon Rajathani,
Thailand, 1982)
A translation of talks given by the famous Thai monk who founded a monastery in
Northeast Thailand which has attracted many Westerners who find what he has to
say especially appealing to them. It might be his quite simple way of presenting
the Buddhist point of view, or it might be the simple form of monastery life
that has appealed to Westerners so much so that branches of his temple are now
found in
Chaos: Making a New science by James Gleick (Penguin Books, 1987)
A comprehensive treatise for the non-scientist by a popular science writer.
Although maybe the improperly named "chaos theory" has been picked up by other
disciplines to mean that there is no predictability in scientific methods, the
truth is that the unpredictability is limited to systems where the starting
conditions are unknown. That some problems are presently "intractable" because
of the limits of our computing science does not mean that predictability might
not one day follow. Complete randomness has as yet to be found in the universe
in spite of what some disciplines would have us believe!
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh (Viking, 1997)
Over 300 years ago, Pierre de Fermat, as was his habit wrote to a colleague
telling of an equation he had found, and apparently solved. Apparently, a simple
equation (X to the nth power plus Y to the nth power equals Z to the nth power),
the problem was to show that there was no whole number solutions to the
question. That Fermat died before explaining what he meant by the annotations in
the margins of his treatise led to years of agony for many mathematicians all
intent on getting a solution and the prize that eventually was offered. Some
thought they had an answer and suffered public shame when it was found they did
not. Others committed suicide, and all became frustrated with what appeared to
be a simple problem. Eventually solved in 1993 when mathematics had advanced
enough to do so, the story reads like a novel filled with eccentric and
masterful characters.
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch (Penguin Books, 1997)
A journey into our growing understanding of the universe. David Deutsch is an
The Quest for the Quantum Computer by Julian Brown (Simon & Shuster,
2000) The limitations of our present computing machines mean that
systems such as weather can not be fully explored because of the intractability
of the computations (existing computers might take 100 years to fully explore a
weather system). A computer based on quantum mechanics has not only been
postulated, but has all but been designed and merely waits solution of some
physics presently outside our ken. While this author and that of David Deutsch
who writes the forward speak of such a machine decades away, recent studies in
the area of cluster quantum computing suggests the quantum computer might be
right around the corner.
Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin (Perseus Books, 2001)
Although Einstein's gravity thesis has been useful in calculations outside the
quantum mechanical world, a new thesis which incorporates quantum factors is
needed. Smolin suggests three possible areas of study.
Science as Seen Through the Development of Scientific Instruments
(Robinson, 2001)
Amir takes the reader through the history and intricacies of quantum
"entanglement" whereby subatomic particles act on each other through great
distances. The conclusion is that "God does play dice with the Universe" and
that Einstein was wrong on this one point. Fascinating stuff!
On the Shoulders of Giants by Stephen Hawking (Running Press, 2002)
The orginal papers of Copernicus, Galileo, Kapler,
The Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper (Routledge Classics, 2002). The classic attempt by Karl Popper to better define how science should proceed. First written in 1933, and first published in English in 1959, Popper's definitions have become the test all science ideas must now meet. He particularly took on the definition of induction and probability.
Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in The Universe, Nature and Daily
Life, by Steven Strogatz`(Hyperion Books, 2003)
Strogatz takes the tendency for orbital patterns, sleep cycles, firefly
flashing, brain waves and all sorts of natural phenomena to synchronize as a
pervasive phenomena that leads to organization in nature. Strogatz is a leading
mathematician in the fields of chaos and complexity theory and uses sync
theories to explain how enormous systems can synchronize themselves. That
millions of fireflies can with no apparent signal decide to synchronize their
flashes, that the human brain appears to momentarily synchronize its particles
to grasp a moment of awareness, and that quantum particles do the same has been
a mystery which only now is being unravelled.
The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzwell : When
Humans Transend Biology (Penguin Books, 2005)
Kurzwell, a futurist-inventor, postulates the melding of human and
machine thought in the near furture based on his thesis that there is a
logorithmic acceleration of invention taking place, an
acceleration that implies a much earlier invention and application of
human-like computation than has been realized.
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
A concern that the way string theory is being developed is distracting from more
rudimentary studies with maybe more substantive knowledge results. That the
theoretical approaches to string theory lack substance, and that money and young
physicists are being invested in somewhat untenable thesis is Smolin's concern
Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd (Vintage Books, 2006) A rational application of quantum physics suggesting that the universe arose through the natural processes of quantum mechanics whereby the chaos of particles order themselves into a structure which can then propagate rules which maintain it: that the universe is, in fact, a large quantum computer with rules of existence.
Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality by Alastair Rae (Kindle Edition) An examination of the various attempts to find a theory consistent with quantum facts. Quite philosophical in approach, and the least conclusive which, of course, fits the topic at this phase of our understanding. Rae apparently quite conservative with the Copenhagen thesis the main idea with which ideas are hung.
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Green (Kindle Edition) Brian Green's writes for the layman, but always supports those with scientific knowledge as well which give credence to what he is saying. Being a string theorist himself does not stop him from thoroughly examining other perceptions of the cosmos.
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FILM REVIEWS
United States | Canada | China | Europe | India | Iran | Japan | Korea | Morroco | Thailand UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CANADA HERO KUNG FU HUSTLE SHAOLIN SOCCER AGORA WATER SLUMDOG
MILLIONAIRE
AMAL OUTSOURCED
IRAN
JAPAN
SPRING, SUMMER, FALL,
WINTER AND SPRING
LE GRAND VOYAGE
THAI RENAISSANCE OVERTURE ONG BAK TOM YUM KUNG ONG
BAK 2 SURIYOTHAI
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