After a bit of nudging from Maria Popova at Brain Pickings, neuroscientist Sam Harris selects:
12 Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read
“From Bertrand Russell to the Buddha, or why you should spend a weekend reading the Qur’an,” the subtitle says.
Illustration by Marc Johns
I don’t know. It all sounds a tad pretentious to me. “Every intelligent person”? By whose reckoning? I consider myself both intelligent and educated and I think I might have a problem reading something described, as one book is, “Brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence.” (‘Reasons and Persons’ by Derek Parfit: “A truly strange and unique document…”)
And then there is the fact that his original list consisted of only eight books, all written by men,
Popova asked him to correct the…unh, ‘oversight’ that not one of the books he deemed essential reading was by a woman so he added an addendum to the list. But it’s a ‘oh, okay,okay, okay have your flaming wimmin folk… lessee… how about THIS ONE?’
They certainly don’t get anything like the attention the guys got. Them wimmin don’t rate a descriptive paragraph — oh go ahead and read them if you have to, but this potentate will be DAMNED if time will be wasted by writing a word about WHY those books made the cut.
Forgive my rant but…
Honestly. Sometimes.
Anyways, take a look at the books
“Every Intelligent Person Should Read” HERE
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It turns out that too much TV might damage your brain and also raise the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, Fredrick Kunkle reports in the Washington Post.
Researchers who have investigated the association the risk of developing dementia found that people who watched a lot of television — namely, four hours or more per day — scored significantly lower on measures of cognitive performance in middle age.
Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at the University of California in San Francisco, said the results have important implications for children and young adults, who are more than ever glued to the screens of electronic gadgets as part of a sedentary life at home and in the workplace.
I keep telling you to read.
Read the whole story HERE
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A night under the stars with the world’s oldest trees
The Milky Way and an uprooted Bristlecone Pine
The rugged and remote White Mountains, just east of California’s Sierra Nevada, contain the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest, Stuart Palley reports at Mashable, “including the oldest tree in the world” at over 5,000 years.
Tangled in the gnarled roots of the specially adapted Bristlecone Pine are layers of annual tree ring growth so small that the trees become concrete like, allowing them to withstand heart rot and other afflictions that cause a shorter life span for lesser trees.
A living Bristlecone Pine in Patriarch Grove painted with light under the Milky Way
See more magnificent pictures HERE
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No Comment Dept.
Pub Chalkboard Of The Day from The Poke
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THIS n THAT
Data from the Kepler Space Telescope reveals a planet that hits the triumvirate of being just right: It’s the right size in the right place, and is circling a star similar to our sun.
The most earth-like planet yet
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You will rue the day you were born! RUE IT!
Distractify offers 25 cat expressions and what they mean
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Quote of the Day
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Alma Alexander My books Email me
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