(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best us state & local history books

Read BadAsses

“I never felt it was us against the world; I thought we were better than the world,” Al Davis tells me, his voice soft but his words hard. His eyes turn to meet mine and bore right through me; they are not eyes to be defied, or questioned.

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“John competed in the golden era of great coaches,” says Davis. “In his 10 years he coached against many who are enshrined in the Hall of Fame: Shula, Noll, Brown, Tom Landry, George Allen, Weeb Ewbank, Bud Grant, Marv Levy.

“And remember now: this was John’s first professional head-coaching job, and he did what we could call the impossible. He won more games than he lost against every Hall of Fame coach. His total record against them was 36–16 and two ties.” I do not ask Davis whether he knew this by rote or had to look it up. I suspect the former. Just as impressive to Davis is Madden’s Monday-night domination: an astounding 11–1–1.

“Now, no question,” Davis concedes, “someone had to get those great players. But someone had to coach them. And you worked together.”

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“I was coaching at a time when you had to wear white shirts and ties,” Madden told me. “Well, you don’t have to wear white shirts and ties. Facial hair? That has nothing to do with winning or losing. Those things weren’t important to me. I didn’t give a damn. Some teams were making their decisions based on stuff like that. ‘I got to get rid of that guy because he has a mustache’? I always thought that was dumb.”

How could you not love a coach who let his players express themselves as individuals? Who saw the idiocy in thinking that conformity could instill pride or encourage camaraderie? That very freedom off the field bound the Badasses.

“Any rule or regulation on the Raiders had to do with nothing but winning,” says Mark van Eeghen. “Otherwise it was not a regulation.”

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Down in Oakland, the mantra was one for all and all for one. On Sundays, the revelry always started with the weekly post-game party, hosted by Davis, win or lose—in the earliest years, at a place called the Edgewater West Motel.

“That was one seedy place,” Villapiano says now. “I mean, this was a dive.” In a time when salaries were closer to minimum-wage than white-collar, a free, all-you-could-eat-and-drink meal was like manna from the gods. The party was as highly anticipated as the games, not just because of the generosity of Davis, but because of the chance for 40-odd families to hang and get to know each other: the neighborhood cocktail party writ large.

“But, remember, the NFL was just getting started, and these teams didn’t have a lot of money to spend,” Villapiano recalls. “The Raiders were the only team that threw a full-fledged party for all the players and their friends. And if you didn’t go, someone would be down your fucking throat. We all went, we all had a good time…and shit happened.”

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‘We want to take our first two picks and draft the best tacklers in college football. I’m tired of missing tackles.’ You can teach it and coach it, but you can’t practice live tackling. So if you can’t practice it, you better go get it. We drafted Tatum one and Villapiano two, and we never had a tackling problem after that. All you need is a couple of them, and everyone else feeds off them. He was a hell of a linebacker.”

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“I heard about Wolf long before I saw him,” Tom Flores recalls. “In camp, I’d walk by this one room where he hung out. It was always dark. All I could hear was the sound of this old Bell & Howell projector. I’d think, ‘Who’s that guy?’ No one knew what he looked like. You just heard about him. But you never saw him.”

“Ron Wolf was a one-man full-time personnel staff,” Madden says, in near reverence. “And he was the one man who could be a one-man staff. I mean, Ron Wolf knew every player everywhere. Ron Wolf’s mind was amazing. You could ask him, ‘Ron, there’s this junior wide receiver someone told me about at Alcorn,’ and he would know him. He didn’t have to go through notes and read stuff. He’d say, ‘This is who he is, and this is what he does.’ He truly had a photographic mind.”

“I was just one of those guys lucky enough to be along for the ride,” Wolf says now, and you are welcome to believe him if you want. But the consistent excellence of those Raider drafts, from the mid-’60s until he left in the late ’70s, suggests otherwise.

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“People said, ‘How do you draft a punter in the first round?’” says Madden. “Because every defensive guy wanted him because he helped the defense. Because every offensive guy wanted him because he helped the offense. And of course everyone on special teams wanted him.”

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Guy had been standing five yards deep in his own end zone when he kicked the ball. It landed somewhere around Ole Miss’s 20, then bounced through the end zone. Officially, it was a 93-yard kick. Unofficially, the football traveled more than 120 yards before it came to rest against a fence.

This was not just a punter; this was the Roy Hobbs, The Natural, of punting, although in college his talents weren’t limited to kicking. As a defensive back, Guy intercepted 18 passes in three years at Southern Mississippi. It was during his sophomore year that he began to gain notice with his punts, as he grew to 6'4" and some quirk of kinetic leverage kicked in. By his senior year, he was an All-American.

But if he’d had his way, Guy would have been starting at safety for the Raiders—or quarterback, a position to which he was named all-state in high school in rural Georgia, where he grew up on a farm. Ray Guy was a stellar small-town athlete who happened to be too good at punting to allow him to pursue his dreams of being a full-contact guy.

“Ron Wolf told him he could play safety when he signed him,” Madden recalls. “The first day we practice, I look up and we have Guy in at safety, and I tell him to get the hell out of there. He said, ‘But Wolf told me that if I signed with you I could play safety, too.’ I told him, ‘Ron Wolf lied.’ We never had another conversation about him being a safety.”

Madden would let Guy practice with the safeties over on the side, but not in a team drill or scrimmage. He was way too valuable. “See, he was a hyper guy. He couldn’t just stand around. He’d always want to jump in and help, play defense against the receivers when you were walking through practices. He could throw the ball farther and harder than any of our quarterbacks, so then we started letting him throw the ball, which was safe, and it got his energy out of him.”

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Irons vividly remembers his first exposure to the team, as a rookie in 1970: a seminar in the Raider way of doing things. He’d expected professionalism. He just hadn’t expected the level of commitment he encountered. “It was my first practice. Madden blew the whistle, calls the whole team up: ‘Great practice, guys. Go get some lunch. See you this afternoon.’ I felt good. I take off running to the locker room, and suddenly he called me back: ‘Irons, where you going? Turn around and look at where your teammates are.’”

None of his teammates had left the field. They’d all stuck around to get in some extra work. “Biletnikoff had his 20 or 40 balls with Stabler, working on his timing. Tatum and those guys are working extra on pass coverage. I was the only one going into the locker room.”

That was the day when Irons discovered another key to the Badass’ success at their craft: they took it more seriously because they seriously enjoyed the game. Football was far more than a job. The lesson stuck with Irons the rest of his career. “After that, I was out there with them, every practice, after morning and after noon, for 30 minutes at least, working on blitzing, working on shedding blocks, on wrapping up the tackle, on covering guys out of the backfield. Little things you don’t get a chance to work on during practice, right down to things like keeping your feet in bounds, tiptoeing on the sidelines. You’d always get a couple of other guys there to help you improve. That was just the Raider way.”

“Guys would always help each other out,” says Madden. “Branch would help Shell on speed rushes. Or if a defensive back wanted more work to prepare for a guy who had a good inside move, someone would stay after to help the DB get his inside foot up. During the regular season, you can’t get a lot of repetition, so that’s where they’d work on the extra stuff. Biletnikoff would stay out ’til no one was left to throw to him. Then he’d use the Jugs machine. But everyone did stuff like that. Guys would always practice after practice. They enjoyed it. They had fun doing it; that was the key. Because they were all friends. They loved each other.”

Irons would be a stalwart at linebacker until he was traded to the Browns. Eventually he would be named one of the top 100 Browns of all time. But today, it’s not Cleveland he wants to discuss: “Even if you go to the Cleveland Browns, you’re always a Raider. Once a Raider, always a Raider. That’s a beautiful legacy. We were the class of the league.”

I grew up in northwestern MD, so around the same area as you. I own and have used most of the guides folks here have mentioned. Most of them are good, but the guide I always find myself plopping in my basket is Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians by William Roody. The book itself is a little larger than other field guides (like Audubon's guide, for example), but the photos are MUCH larger and the descriptions of the mushrooms are informative without being overwhelming. I also found the layout of the book to be extremely intuitive.

Mushrooms Demystified is not a field guide. It is a large book and jam-packed with information. It is much more useful as an "after field guide" when you have your mushrooms at home and want to key them out. There a few color plates in the book but the book's real utility is in the identification keys for each genus.

I would also throw Mushrooms of Northeastern America as another "too big for the field" book. That book is massive. BUT, it is also the book I go to when I'm home from my mushroom hunting. It's a fantastic book to have.

All That the Rain Promises is a great little book. Very entertaining. But it's definitely a west coast guide.

I find the Audubon guide to have photos that are much too small to be very useful for at-a-glance ID in the field, and the breadth of material to be unnecessarily wide. The information contained within is definitely useful, but I have found other books that have a better layout and better pictures with the same or better information. The only real advantage it has over most other field guides is its size. If you're planning on shrooming around where you live, you're probably better off getting a guide for your specific region.

The Field Guide to the Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania And the Mid-atlantic is an alright book. All of the information it has is very good, but I did not find it to be comprehensive enough with the species it covered. Also, I hated the form factor of the guide itself (tall and skinny) because I could not keep it open by weighing down each side with a rock or just laying it on its spine, it had to be held open. I am someone who likes to fondle the mushrooms as I'm looking over the description in the guide, but it might not be the case with you. Just something to consider.

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide is a great guide if you're out for edibles. It is not a good guide if you are out and want to identify everything you run across just for the fun of it. But with that in mind, I definitely would recommend it. I have only tried a few of the recipes myself, but they have all turned out well.

I agree that having good, clear photographs in a field guide is important - I'm a visual person and photos are the first thing I turn to when faced with an unfamiliar fungus. All that said, please remember that photos alone are not enough to positively identify a mushroom. They're great for getting a general idea of where to start, but they are not end-all be-all.

And as a last aside, a book that I picked up on a whim (just because I'm a bit of a mushroom book magpie) called Common Interior Alaska Cryptogams: Fungi, Lichenicolous Fungi, Lichenized Fungi, Slime Molds, Mosses, and Liverworts actually has (in my opinion) the best overview of mushroom physiological variations. There is a line drawing illustration of the character in question (for example, gill attachment) and then the terminology used to describe each variant of it. Other guides certainly have all of this information, but it is laid out in an incredibly elegant and intuitive way in this book. It helps a lot to know these things when working your way through keys.

Anyway, hope this was helpful!

I'm glad you found the above useful, even though most of it is really peripheral to the international influence of The Wire. You may need to look into European TV critics' evaluation of the show, if only to get a sense of whether it was even on their radar at the time. The show had a devoted fanbase here in The US, but it was never a particularly large one. Overseas, I can imagine other American shows—even serialized, prestige dramas—would have gotten a lot more attention. You may have to hunt for references there to the show.

There are some other TV shows and movies worth reviewing; though they predated The Wire, they echo many of the same arguments. The 1989 miniseries Traffik immediately comes to mind, as well as its adaptation into Stephen Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning movie Traffic. Oh, and there's also The Corner, HBO's miniseries adaptation of the book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns. Of these, Traffik almost certainly had the highest profile in Europe. And again, all of these projects predated The Wire.

Oh, and this is a bit indirect, but I think that the way a show like The Wire demands long-term attention to something people either thought they understood or never cared about in the first place informs some of the "deep-dive" segments of something like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Most of those 10–20+ minute segments are available (with minor edits for language) on the show's YouTube page. Some of the topics also seem right at home in the context of ethos of The Wire: consider in particular segments on the wealth gap, prison, police militarization, civil asset forfeiture, municipal violations, standardized testing, bail, mandatory minimums, public defenders, prisoner re-entry, journalism, police accountability, and school segregation, among others.

On a related note, I think The Wire was effective at making you identify with criminals who aren't simply antiheroes like Tony Soprano or Walter White. I see echoes of this empathy for people who've done terrible things in shows like, say, Rectify. Maybe I'm just more attuned to notice that after having seen The Wire, but it still strikes me as one of the best examples of humanizing criminals without glamorizing crime itself. You see a bit more of this in some journalism, like that by VICE. Their TV channel VICELAND recently showed the news/real-life series Black Market with Michael K. Williams, the host of which you'll recognize from playing Omar. I'm sure it would be easy to overstate how much The Wire in particular is relevant to this, but I do think it showed that there's an audience for stories about the lives of people often ignored in or underserved by news or entertainment. And for The Wire itself, it's worth noting that the show cast Baltimore natives who'd never acted before. Among many examples are Felicia "Snoop" Pearson and Melvin Williams, a real-life drug dealer targeted by Ed Burns when he was a cop, who played the deacon.

If you're looking for international reaction elsewhere, I don't know what might be the most natural examples of influence might be. Netflix's Narcos, shot and set mostly in Colombia, is certainly "international", but that show's goals are very different from those of The Wire.

Oh, one other thing comes to mind, though it's not really influenced by The Wire so much as something whose rationale can be better appreciated after having seen the show. Namely, in 2001, Portugal widely decriminalized drug use, and there've been a lot of very positive effects attributed to this policy change. Imagine something like Hamsterdam done on a nationwide scale, but without the need for implementing the policy surreptitiously.

This sounds like quite an ambitious project. Best of luck!

>I don't know about brainwashing

Okay, then let's start with a definition of brainwashing: any effort aimed at instilling certain attitudes and beliefs in a person — beliefs sometimes unwelcome or in conflict with the person's prior beliefs and knowledge, in order to affect that individual's value system and subsequent thought patterns and behaviors based upon the brainwashing tactics and content.

When the rightwing repeats the same lies and distortions regarding liberals until people begin to believe them, then I would say that fits the definition of brainwashing. In fact the majority of Americans hold liberal beliefs but the right has so demonized the word that many liberals will only refer to themselves as "moderates." And what passes for a "conservative" today would be more accurately described as a political extremist.

>but isn't a lot of backlash against the Left's support of communism and socialism back in the day?

How far back are you going? Are you saying the Johnson administration supported communism? That's a stretch, to say the least, especially given their expansion of the Vietnam conflict... allegedly a "fight against communism." As for socialism, it is a word that has been stigmatized in this country to the point of absurdity, often with the ridiculous claim that it is a "stepping stone to communism." Again, repeat a lie often enough and loud enough and some people can be made to accept it without question (a good question being: where has this ever happened?).

>The idea that because they are "smarter" than us they can control our funds and dispense it more appropriately?

If you look at the "socialist" polices of Democratic administrations you find that they lead to some of the most productive periods in our nation's history. Out of the New Deal and the G.I. Bill came a robust middle class. Beyond the US if you look at other nations which have accepted socialism (that would be most of Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, among others) you'll find they are healthier, better educated, have better employment (higher wages and more time off) and overall are happier than the US. Has it occurred to you that allowing the "smarter" people control the distribution of wealth really is the best way to go? And what of the "conservatives" who balk at this notion of "helping the less fortunate" (actually, "helping everyone" would be more accurate)? Given the chance, they immediacy granted themselves huge tax breaks, shifting the burden to those least able to shoulder it, then ran up the greatest debt in history transferring the public wealth into the accounts if the the top 1-2% richest Americans. As a result the rest of us are becoming less educated, less healthy and working longer hours for less pay. The right has convinced Americans that "they" don't want a "welfare state" and effectively given them a kleptocracy in it's place. When the right claims they are against "socialism" and "New Deal policies" they are effectively declaring class warfare on the middle and lower classes. That they can convince people in those classes to fight a war on themselves either says a lot about the conniving shrewdness of the ultra-rich or the overall stupidity of everyone else... probably a degree of both.

>I think you paint a too simplistic, absolute picture.

You seem to be referring to the first sentence of my post... it's rather of difficult to make a detailed, non-simplistic analysis in a single Reddit post. If you want a more in depth analysis you could read something like What's the Matter with Kansas?... with shipping it will cost you a whole $4. There are a multitude of reasons why people vote the way they do, and Republicans have become very skilled at manipulating every human shortcoming they can find... greed, prejudice and religious superstition being chief among them.

>I think that someone being smart should neither be a reason to vote or not vote for them. Brains can be used for bad purposes.

While you've taken some down modding over this comment I think you have a point and I made a similar comment on Reddit about a month ago. Nixon was certainly smart but overall not a very good President due to his domestic corruption. Likewise I don't think the problem with Bush is his general lack of intellectual prowess but rather, like Nixon, it is his corruption that has most hurt this nation. I'd take honesty over raw intelligence any day, though ideally to be a good president requires both.

A Fan's Notes while not so much an in depth football book as it is a literary work, A Fan's Notes is still a brilliant read for any football fan. Deals with the authors alcoholism, nihilism, the bizarre relation a fan has to his team, and the fear of spending ones life on the sidelines of the action. An all around excellent read. It does have some nice insight to the 60's Giants as well.

Some other more traditional books I'd recommend would When Pride Still Mattered, Run to daylight, Instant Replay, and for one none packer book: Badasses. All four of those provide excellent looks into storied franchises at their best, and When Pride Still Mattered is the definitive book for the NFLs greatest coach.

Thanks OP, I've been meaning to make this thread for awhile now and I love reading books about football and sports in general. I really do heavily recommend A Fan's Notes though, that novel is excellent.

And while I'm still here I guess, even though it isn't football, I'll quickly recommend A Season on the Brink as one of the greatest sports books ever.

EDIT: On the off chance anyone takes an interest in this I have lots more I could recommend.

The Raiders.

They're just so cool. The uniforms, logo, and name are badass. I don't know what it is, but the fact their colours are silver and black just really sticks with me. I remember watching one of the NFL Super Bowl champ rundown and they mentioned Al Davis always checking the uniforms to make sure they were silver, not grey.

On the topic, Al Davis was such a badass.

> He remains the only executive in NFL history to be an assistant coach, head coach, general manager, commissioner and owner.

• He was also active in civil rights:
  
  > refusing to allow the Raiders to play in any city where black and white players had to stay in separate hotels. He was the first NFL owner to hire an African American head coach and a female chief executive. He was also the second NFL owner to hire a Latino head coach.
  
  
• His motto, 'Just win, baby'.
  
  
• John Madden coached them and reading his book was really fun.
  
  
• Raider nation.
  
  
• The Black Hole. Talk about intimidating.
  
  
• Howie Long is one of my favourite ever players. Started after I read Maddens book.
  
  
• Bo Jackson. I'm 21 and didn't grow up in the States much, and I had vaguely heard of Bo. Watching his 30 for 30 was beautiful.
  
  
• Seen as working class team with an aggressive play style (historically).
  
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  ^^I ^^also ^^think ^^the ^^ ^^49ers ^^are ^^cool.
  
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  EDIT: For those interested, John Maddens book is called 'One Knee Equals Two Feet'. Here's a link for it on Amazon. It's quite old, but still a stonking great read.
  
  Also that word reminded me of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Buy it as well.
  
  EDIT 2: "If you're buying any of the books mentioned in these comments, Amazon has a physical book sale today. 30% off, use promo code HOLIDAY30" - thanks to /u/Mandarinez.
  
  EDIT 3: If you're interested in some Raider history check out Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders by Peter Richmond. - thanks to /u/Imaygetyelledat.

I have three.

The first that comes to mind is an older book, called "Storm." It inspired my dad to become a meteorology major (sadly, the U.S. Air Force put him to use as a navigator instead of weather forecaster). The hero / heroine of the fictional story is a massive El Niño / atmospheric river event that rocks California, told in part from the perspective of a young meteorologist. It's an older book (copyright 1941), but despite being short on contemporary weather science, it's solid on the fundamentals, and the major criticism of it is that it's too technical. As a record of a storm pattern that often afflicts the U.S. West Coast (and historically has been catastrophic at times) and is only now coming to be fully appreciated, it's still relevant, even though it's out of print, but Amazon offers it used.

"Isaac's Storm" is a national bestseller about the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history, the 1900 Galveston hurricane, which killed 6,000 people. It talks a lot about the weather that created it and how meteorologists of the time failed to anticipate it (and why). It's a gripping, well-written account of a storm that shocked the nation and devastated a city that might have otherwise become Texas' largest. It's written by Erik Larson, who is one of the great nonfiction writers of our time.

You are probably familiar with the movie "The Perfect Storm" but maybe not with the book that inspired it, also a national bestseller, titled "The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea" which dwells a lot more than the movie on the weather science behind the storm. In fact, the phrase "a perfect storm of" didn't exist before the book. If I recall correctly, it talks about how three separate weather events converged over the NW Atlantic to create a truly wicked storm that caught a number of mariners off guard with deadly consequences for some of them. The movie is pretty good (certainly better than that joke "Twister" that someone recommended), but it's a little short on weather geekery.

Sorry, no colorful pictures in any of these books, but the stories in them are plenty colorful. Congrats on your awesome study choice.

This probably isn't exactly what you are looking for, but I did want to give you my three favorites that relate to self-sufficiency and off grid living.

• The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing.
  I really like this book as a sort of "what to expect" instead of "what to do." It chronicles Helen and Scott's decision and life to live a self-sufficient life.
  
  
• The Encyclopedia of Country Living. This is a great resource. It covers EVERYTHING from gardening to raising chickens. It also covers cooking and canning with what you raise. It is primarily a consolidation of 40 years worth of a homesteading magazine.
  
  
• The Foxfire series. This series is quite long and comprehensive. However, it is an attempt to chronicle the oral knowledge of rural Appalachia. Everything is essentially about self-sufficiency (including moonshining), homesteading, and living life "the old way." It is truly a fascinating series and a wealth of knowledge.
  
  I am not familiar with the books you listed, but I do love the three I mentioned above.

>I have heard some people wonder though how far along we are in technological and medical progress to know what will be possible in the near or distant future.

I really urge you to take a moment when approaching this topic and maybe educate yourself (not meant to sound arrogant or like I am talking down to you – you say you do not know much about this topic, and there is a lot to learn)

Why?

Quick... my degree was "Sign Language Peoples studies" (like European studies or Indigenous studies). Sign Language Peoples break down into three broad categories: Deaf peoples, signing Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous signing peoples. The last one is best exemplified in Martha's Vineyard after the expulsion of Wôpanâak resulted in the settle culture becoming bimodal where Everybody [There] Spoke Sign Language (I recommend reading this book! Fun and easy and enlightening!). Since everyone was bimodal, there was no concern about deafness akin to the lack of concern around handedness (left- vs right-handed): non-Indigenous signing culture

Then there are the signing Indigenous cultures like Blackfoot, Navajo, Cree, Crow, Anishinaabek who all speak variants of the same language "Hand Talk." Navajo actually have a family clan who speak a totally different language unrelated to Hand Talk/a language isolate all alongside Diné bizaad. There is also Secwépemc a historically signing people, Ktunaxa a contemporarily signing population and possibly other Cascadian plateau signers. Then there are Inuit who speak a totally unrelated language Atgangmuurngniq and Keresan Pueblo people(s) who also speak a totally different language.

Finally, there are the Deaf cultures. There are four to my knowledge across Canada. Deaf cultures are interesting because they parallel Indigenous cultures, but they are a bit opposite compared to Indigenous cultures. Whereas Indigenous cultures share the pan-Indigenous culture that was created, there is much more emphasis on individual nation and culture. In Deaf cultures, there are individual cultures/nations, but they all subscribe to the worldwide pan-Deaf culture encompassing Deafhood (in case you want to read more). As such, saying there are four Deaf cultures in Canada is slightly disingenuous

That being said, they are: ASL Deaf, LSQ Deaf, Atlantic Deaf (where they speak and/or a mix of ASL, LSQ and MSL) and DeafBlind. They each have different languages, different cultural customs, different traditions, different histories, but are all tied together by Deafhood

So, back to the urging...

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please try to not medicalise d/Deaf folks. Yeah, deafness can be a struggle and is actively disabled by society, but deafness is inherently not a deficit like left-handedness is not. It is just a different human experience.

Medicalising d/Deaf involves treating a trait that is extremely valued in multiple cultures as a primary trait wished to be passed on as something needing to be fixed. Again, seeking to fix and/or eradicate a culture's primary trait. Not a great way at approaching cultural relations. Something like 95+% of Deaf seek Deaf marriages, and over 90% of Deaf families asked say they want deaf children. Note: Deaf with a capital 'D' means culturally attached to Deafhood and deaf with a small 'd' means the trait of deafness. Not all Deaf are deaf and not all deaf are Deaf.

>I don't actually know what caused Esperanto to fail, but you seem to know your stuff. Might it have been caused by the tensions/competition of people's heritage languages and Esperanto itself?

It failed because it sought to be an world-bridging language while only deriving its system from Indo-European or similar languages, and it is an oral language which is inherently difficult to bridge linguistic barriers. Sign languages–gesturing–is a standard human way of bridging those language gaps, and oral languages just kinda fail at making that bridge. Esperanto failed for a bunch of reasons, these being just the surface level. But, importantly, International Sign is actively here, useful and not failing where Esperanto has

IS works because it is not a language, but a communication system. It establishes who is the audience and what languages they speak and adjusts the content to match the group being interpreted to. It simplifies languages, it uses classifiers heavily, it relies on international or more symbolic cues and overall is an extremely useful tool, one that I see no one aside Deaf talking about, which is a massive shame!

A new universal language is just a bid to make another world language amongst the 8000 others. International Sign is not a language, again, it is a communication system that bridges the gaps between languages, so try to pressure you and your friends to look into it and its applications! International Sign is not only a solution to a multilingual, highly connected world, but it is the solution (alongside, well, decolonisation geographically and linguistically)

edit: There will always be a need for gesture-based speaking. English and French use gestures extensively, casual conversation does as well as does every oral language. No matter what advancements or changes, there will always be a need for gesture-based communication. "Curing deafness" whatever that means will not erase the desire for us to give a thumbsup or okay-sign, tsé?

At this point in the US its kind of a feedback loop, the republican party made their bed with christians (particularly the powerful ones at the top) and they now lend their political influence to rightwing causes.

That being said, there are larger trends that show religious people, especially the very religious tend to be very conservative and this is a trend that has held for centuries. What is new is the hollowing out in America at least of the political middle of the laity.

One could and people have written whole papers and books on this very subject.

I will just say a lot of this solidified around and because of the Reagan presidency, he built the "moral majority" coalition and it still affects us.

More basically, those who are taught that an old book contains the greatest truths handed down by a divine being who is the ultimate source of authority tend to be more susceptible to accepting things that are and resistant to change, as well as having a susceptibility to authoritarian acceptance and worship (they already literally worship a god in this structure, so why not politically?).

These are also people who believe in absolutes, in an unchanging, perfect god and an unchanging set of perfect morals. Much easier that way.

 

> In its broadest sense…fundamentalism is a form of ideological intransigence, which is not limited to religion, but includes political or social positions…

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1369219/

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism

 

Here are some books of relevance:

One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America

https://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-God-Corporate/dp/0465049494

 

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

https://www.amazon.com/American-Fascists-Christian-Right-America/dp/0743284437/

(Note the author of this one Chris Hedges, has a background in theology, but a very leftist/liberal one. He isn't an atheist, but is very hostile to much of christianity in america)

 

What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America

https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/0805073396/

 

And here are some links to online free content that may be of interest:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalism

 

An overview of christian political affiliations, it also has citations and sources for those who doubt that increased religiosity correlates positively with right wing/conservative voting and views.

http://www.pnas.org/content/109/10/3616.full

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/10079-religious-and-free-market-fundamentalism-have-more-in-common-than-the-tea-party

Forgive me, this is a repost of a comment I made on the higher-rated comment recommending the wire, but I need to say it here, too, because I think more people need to see this:

If you are a fan of The Wire you absolutely need to check out the HBO 2000 Simon & Burns miniseries, "The Corner" - I felt like I was watching an undiscovered prequel season of The Wire, except in many ways it was even better. It focuses on one Baltimore family and their spiral into the world of drugs. It takes place in the same neighborhoods and same world as The Wire, only about ten years prior.

Experiencing this miniseries is about as fun as being kicked in the gut--completely devestating. You'll recognize a lot of actors who later would work with Simon in The Wire, Treme, etc.

I couldn't find a bona-fide trailer but here's a fan-made one that is decent. http://youtu.be/yaB_FN3j6x0

Edit to add: The thing that emotionally guts me about The Corner is that it's a true story. They take great care to treat the original story faithfully. The people are real, these are their stories, played out in all their shame and ugliness. It's from a book David Simon and Ed Burns wrote together in the 90's by the same name Amazon Link.

Oh - And after you've seen the miniseries, (ONLY AFTER) go to the following pastebin URL and copy the link there, and read the story, it's a follow-up of sorts from David Simon from two years ago. (sorry this is the only way I could think to post it in a non-spoilerey way): http://pastebin.com/7LgGjtkv

I'm going to use the terms Native, Indian, and Indigenous interchangeably here. There is fiery debate about whether this should be done among scholars. I also at times use the word "histories" instead of "history" and "peoples" instead of "people" to emphasize that Natives should not be talked about as one big group; they can be pretty culturally unique from one another, although much of their contact with colonists was similar. (Think about the difference between "I study Africans" and "I study Egyptians and Tutsi.")


I have a great deal to say about Native American histories and how we teach them here in the United States. If you want to get your feet wet, there are a few things you must know, and a few books I recommend.


First of all, you must understand that the majority of information we have about Native Americans was written by contemporary European colonists, and by modern academics (most of whom are white). I'm not suggesting white people can't teach Native history (I'm white and taught it after all), but I'm underscoring the fact that there are virtually no Natives in academia, and most pre-colonial Indigenous cultures did not write things down. They transmitted their history and culture via oral tradition. Thus, the majority of public history on the subject of Native Americans is filtered through what some people call a "colonial lens."


Second, and probably most importantly, Indigenous peoples generally have vastly differing conceptualizations of land, death, spirituality, property, family, and community from us (and by "us" I mean Western descendants of Europeans). The more you read about how some Natives imagine physical land or ownership of it, the more you realize how their cultures and histories are fundamentally difficult to examine, given that your entire framework for understanding reality does not map over theirs. Example: a Muslim can move from Morocco to New York and take his religion with him. He's still a Muslim in Times Square. The same is categorically not true for some Natives with regard to their understanding of theology.


Third, Natives are generally reluctant to share their culture with outsiders, at least historically, because their understanding of knowledge differs from ours. The European knowledge paradigm was to poke and prod and discover and gain knowledge at great cost; many Native cultures conceive of the concept of "protected knowledge" that loses its value and power if spread around too much. In some ways it's similar to the Old Testament Judeo-Christian belief that some knowledge is forbidden or obscured for a reason.


I tell you all of this because "understanding" Native histories is different from "understanding" French history or British history or Italian history. The barrier to entry is much higher for the above reasons.


But, if you want to begin learning, here are three books I recommend:


Wisdom Sits in Places - Keith Basso This is hands-down my favorite book on Native Americans. It is an analysis of Native land, and it will help you understand why forcibly removing an Indian tribe from one location to another completely fucks up their entire community and frequently causes cultural collapse. It's super short and moving. Written by an anthropologist.


Violence over the Land - Ned Blackhawk was written by one of the very few Native Americans in academia. He is considered a grandmaster historian and is hugely respected. This book explains what happens when you've got a bunch of Native cultures all living side-by-side, and then you introduce foreign influence/germs/weapons/money. It's a really big book so I'd skim it and know the arguments.


Ties that Bind - Tiya Miles Written by an Afro-Cherokee woman (who is also a professor). It examines the super complex relationships between the Cherokees, African slaves, and Euro-Americans.


All of these books will help you sort of "get" an important aspect of Native culture, belief, or experience.


Shameless plug: I am a horror author whose novel Stolen Tongues spends a lot of time elaborating on some of the points I made above, and attempts to represent Natives in fiction in a much more complex light. If you don't mind being kept awake all night, you might enjoy that book as an introduction to public history on Native Americans.


About me: I did my AA, BA, and MA in History, and during graduate school I specialized in Native American histories. I left teaching a few years ago and became a software engineer because although I loved my students and my job, it was financially unsustainable where I live (Bay Area, CA).

I would not recommend the Audubon guide it is very out of date (this can range from outdated taxonomy all the way to toxicology that has changed over the years). It is useful because it lists species other guides lacks but you'll learn to hate it.

Buy a location specific guide. It depends on where you live. If you get really into field hunting buy some specific guides that give you a more in depth understanding and help you not to die. Joining a local mycological society is also an extremely valuable resource in understanding mycology.

Here's a bit of everything

Regional guides

Alaska

Common Interior Alaska Cryptogams

Western US

All The Rain Promises and More
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest

Mushrooms Demystified This is an old book, while still useful it definitely needs updating.

The New Savory Wild Mushroom Also dated but made for the PNW

Midwestern US

Mushrooms of the Midwest

Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States

Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest

Southern US

Texas Mushrooms: A Field Guide

Mushrooms of the Southeastern United States

Common Mushrooms of Florida

A Field Guide to Southern Mushrooms It's old so you'll need to learn new names.

Eastern US

Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians

Mushrooms of Northeast North America (This was out of print for awhile but it's they're supposed to be reprinting so the price will be normal again)

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America

Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America(Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America)

Mushrooms of Cape Cod and the National Seashore

More specific (Advanced) guides

Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World

North American Boletes

Tricholomas of North America

Milk Mushrooms of North America

Waxcap Mushrooms of North America

Ascomycete of North America

Ascomycete in colour

Fungi of Switzerland: Vol. 1 Ascomycetes A series of 6 books.

Fungi Europaei A collection of 14 books.

PDFs and online Guides

For Pholiota

For Chlorophyllum

American species of Crepidotus

Guide to Australian Fungi If this is useful consider donating to this excellent set of guides.

Websites that aren't in the sidebar

For Amanita

For coprinoids

For Ascos

MycoQuebec: they have a kickass app but it's In French

Messiah college this has a lot of weird species for polypores and other things

For Hypomyces

Cultivation

The Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (If your home is a 50,000 sq ft warehouse)

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation: Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Mycology

The fifth kingdom beginner book, I would recommend this. It goes over fungal taxonomy Oomycota, Zygomycota and Eumycota. It also has ecology and fungi as food.

The kingdom fungi coffee table book it has general taxonomy of the kingdom but also very nice pictures.

Introduction to fungi Depends on your definition of beginner, this is bio and orgo heavy. Remember the fungi you see pop out of the ground (ascos and basidios) are only a tiny fraction of the kingdom.

NAMA affiliated clubs

We Are Our Language: An Ethnography of Language Revitalization in a Northern Athabaskan Community by Barbra Meek

If anyone has any interest in language revitalization, I think this is a great read.

Wisdom Sits in Place: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache by Keith Basso

A classic.

Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician's Craft by Graham Jones

Not nearly as heavy on the linguistics as the other two I mentioned (though he has a fair amount on language), but I thought it was a very entertaining and interesting read!

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Philippe Bourgois

He constantly uses large chunks of quoted text from his informants, so there's really interesting code-switching and discussions of dialects and language ideologies happening, but it's not something that the author really focuses on or analyzes (his focus is on political economy). But I enjoyed it as an ethnography.

Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories by Lila Abu-Lughod

Fantastically written, really recommend this one, though it's not linguistic at all.

I've actually read two books in the past couple of months. "Badasses" by Peter Richmond:

https://www.amazon.com/Badasses-Legend-Maddens-Oakland-Raiders/dp/0061834319

and "Just Win, Baby: Al Davis and His Raiders" by Glenn Dickey:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0151465800/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and I also have on my shelf 'Slick: The Silver and Black Life of Al Davis' by Mark Ribowsky. I have not started this one yet:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0026025000/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

Badasses covers the team mostly through John Madden's years up through 1976 and a few words through the '78 season, I believe. It was actually a really good book if you want to know more about how the Raiders established themselves and finally broke through after losing the eventual champions for so many years. I loved it. Absolutely one of the best football books I've ever read and a key to understanding the establishment of what it meant to 'be a Raider'. It was published in 2013, so it's certainly a bit more recent than either Al Davis biography.


Dickey's book is centered strictly around Al Davis with plenty of anecdotes, mostly from the viewpoint of an old beat writer. It felt a little light at times but makes for a great continuation from what 'Badasses' established. From memory, it really focuses on the more high profile incidents involving Davis including the feud with Rozelle around the Raider's move to LA and it does a GREAT job of highlighting the negotiations between Davis and Oakland and Davis and LA. You have to keep in mind that the Raiders wouldn't return to Oakland until 1995 and this book was published in 1991.


I believe Richmond cited Ribowsky's book quite a bit in 'Badasses'. As mentioned, I haven't read it yet, but it looks a bit more dense than Dickey's book. It seems like it was released at the same time as Dickey's book and perhaps was a bit of competition between book companies based on the fact they were both released about the same time.


As far as being 'hit' pieces, 'Badasses certainly isn't, as it is centered around the team more than Davis himself. Dickey's book was fair enough and reads like an Oakland beat writer wrote it. Nothing that really made me stop and think, 'Well, that was a unnecessarily harsh.'

my parents (and most of the deaf folks i've met) have a fairly dim opinion of these idiots.

yes, deafness is a big part of their identity and they've (mostly) never known what it's like to hear so the idea of suddenly being able to hear is somewhat frightening to them. it's a disability, regardless of the community having this disability grants them access to, and none of the deaf parents i talked to would wish the affliction on their kids if they had a choice. whenever we would talk about cochlear implants (when it was on the news or whatever), my parents were of the opinion that it was interesting technology but wasn't right for them...they're both in their 60s and pretty used to being deaf by now, so why bother. they also both said that, were this technology available when they were teenagers, they'd both be first on line to get the implants.

the deaf community is awesome because it's full of awesome people, not because it's full of deaf people.

source: hearing child of deaf parents.

p.s. you don't need to be deaf to share their language. there's a kickass book, that i highly recommend, called "Everyone Here Spoke Sign" that deals with this topic

For general ID there are three books I recommend for your area (linked below). I’ve used each of them and have many friends in the Mycology community that vouch for them. As what OP is saying, you will be limited no matter which book you get. There are thousands upon thousands of mushroom species and you’ll never get all of them. The way he pooh-poohed on books though is silly. LOL.
As far as psychoactive Mushrooms, you will definitely have better luck on the Internet. The one species I recommend you start out with psilocybe Ovoideosystidiata. It is probably the most common one in Virginia and you will have the best luck identifying it. I have been researching that one for quite a while and I can give you very specific indicators for location habitat and season dates. I’ll PM you those deets. Wouldn’t want them getting into the wrong hands 🙄.
Also I have much more active and recent threads for you to read up on for ovoids. The current ovoid season 2018 thread is very active. Actualy you will see me drop some bomber photos this evening. One of the first posts of non-cultivated specimen for fall 2018. Found some gymnopolus luteus also but it wasn’t much and far past prime. Problem with the other species the OP mentioned to look for is they are either not common or no potent or both. For gyms, you need to ingest a lot! Some people really like them and I recommend trying them once you find them, but unlike gyms, all you have to do with ovoids is find 2-5 caps and your already at an effective dose. We can discuss dosage in pm.
With caerulepes the issue is they usualy only fruit in fall and in smaller numbers than ovoids. Again, if you find them, try them. But don’t be bummed if you don’t find them first few seasons. I can give you a spot of two for ovoids I’m spring. It will be a sure fire harvest!
TLDR:
Get at least one book and learn the identification key. Look up ovoids.

Links-
Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians https://www.amazon.com/dp/0813190398/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_G5k4BbEB9FWRD

Mushrooms of the Southeast (A Timber Press Field Guide) https://www.amazon.com/dp/160469730X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_oCl4Bb9E1RQT7

Amazon only has hard covered for this one. That price is ridiculous. Search on eBay and you’ll find one for 20 or less and soft cover.
Mushrooms of the Southeastern United States https://www.amazon.com/dp/081563112X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KDl4BbFTCT9D6

And here’s the most current actives thread for your area.
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/25036526

There are a lot of options with this topic. The one I chose when I went through my program came from my own personal experience.

There are a lot of times that there are suggested topics about "living with someone who is deaf" or "deaf for a day" or "what is out there to fix deaf people" - the normal suggested topics made me ill.

This is what I did.... I went to doctors and audiologists and speech therapists and interviewed them about their attitudes to the Deaf community. I then went to the Deaf community and asked them what they thought about audiologists and doctors and speech therapists.

(Don't worry if you haven't jumped into this society - just look for a meet up and go ask questions - someone will interpret if you can't make do with the skills you have. GO ASK QUESTIONS of people in the Deaf community. They will let you know what they think!)

I learned a lot. I learned that there is a clinical view of deafness that views deaf as something to be fixed. I learned there is a cultural aspect that surrounds being Deaf that no one will ever really understand unless you've lived that life.

There are two points of view - a victim and a fixer - vs - a community member and someone who wants to "un-do a wrong."

If you want controversy? Talk to someone who is Deaf (and learn the difference between Deaf and deaf) and talk to someone who 'treats and fixes' deafness.

Deaf is an identity. It is like being born Chinese or Russian or American. It's a matter of fact. It is who you are.

Being deaf is an affliction - a medical condition - something that is wrong with you.

The people who 'fix' the Deaf are going into this with the best of intentions but often don't understand the culture and the community that exists.

The Deaf don't always understand this isn't about trying to 'fix' someone. It's about opening up another opportunity and another option.

Everyone goes in with the best wishes but the upbringing of the child decides which side will win.....

Need a starting point for Deaf culture? Check out a book Everyone here Spoke Sign It's in most libraries.

Are you near a major metro area? Are you near a "Deaf/deaf school"?

There are a lot of things you can explore with this.... welcome to a wild crazy passionate world. :)

Glad you had a good hike, and day for it!

Much better than the last time I was up there in winter. Got about 2/3 the way up Sunset Ridge, just past tree line, was pelted with ice pellets and 70+ MPH wind gusts that literally knocked me off of my feet. Needless to say, we turned around and went back to our start (forecast had not been so vicious for peaks that day). Winter hiking is always pretty and fun, but always respect the mountain and it's temper-tantrums lol. Just make sure to have the right gear, extra layers for warmth, a bivy, sleeping bag, backpacking stove, etc. A good read on how vicious these mountains can get: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-Peril-Misadventure-Presidential/dp/1934028320

I mean, to them, it is their defining trait that does not make their experience of the world better or worse. It just is their experience. The reason deafness is a "disability" is because society is set up for hearing, but that does not need to be the case. Read this.

Manual languages = oral languages in their abilities, they are just different. Can you communicate with your friends from the outside of a glass building and them up on the 7th floor? Can you communicate with your friends underwater? Can you communicate with your friends when you are on a bus and they are on the sidewalk? It is just differences, but our society is built by and for hearing, so it is obvious not being able to hear would be a massive disability, but many societies are built by and for deaf&hearing like Ka'apor in Brazil or Adamarode in Ghana or Martha's Vineyard in the States. :)

This really depends on what type of engineering you're going into. I'll put in my two cents for Civil or Structural Engineering:

Two books I've loved recently are The Big Roads by Earl Swift, and The Great Bridge by David McCullough.

The Big Roads shows the big picture perspective of how the US federal highway system came into being over the last hundred years or so, and is a great overview of how transportation planning and engineering fits in with politics and business. The Great Bridge is exactly the opposite; an incredibly in-depth narrative of the planning and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which is a fascinating story.

I have a suggestion for you then: read (normally archaeological) works about the civilizations that lived before, not the interactions with Europeans. This stuff is way, way more interesting that you would think, especially since the cultural differences are sometimes enormous. Reading some anthropology papers are also more interesting, and I'll put some links there, too; usually western history books gloss over these societies and make them out to be really insignificant, and that can't be further from the truth. Some non-historical texts can be just an important to lend an understanding of a very different culture (Wisdom Sits in Places and God is Red are really good examples of this; place and time are thought of very differently in many indigenous American societies, which puts a lot into perspective).


Here's a good reading list for you:


Medeival Mississippians

[An Iroquoian case study by Bruce Trigger] (https://books.google.com/books?id=MpJOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=maintaining+economic+equality+in+opposition+to+complexity:+an+Iroquoian+case+study&source=bl&ots=ZlY1S6JABK&sig=rZD4WxfM_CVIKwZ7SAeyJeR80gk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMvKTXv9nUAhWIMyYKHaqMBDsQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=maintaining%20economic%20equality%20in%20opposition%20to%20complexity%3A%20an%20Iroquoian%20case%20study&f=false) about Iroquoian culture using historical texts, which was really interesting. They had a totally gift-based economy, worth reading this; in this link it seems to be readable for free from Google books

In search of Chaco

Everything you know about Indians is wrong


Wisdom Sits in Places

God is Red

Oh, wow. When has Afghanistan NOT been at war? America turned Afghanistan into a warzone?

I'm all for peace, and if a country is doing fine then we should stay the hell away. But Afghanistan has never been in the situation you seem to think it is. I'm glad you're passionate about a cause, but make sure you understand what's going on before you spread information like that. You get tons of people reading it and taking it for fact and eventually you have this huge group of misinformed people. I don't think I need to give you modern day examples.

I won't comment on Iraq, but you have Afghanistan completely wrong, in every aspect. And what's more is, like the people in this thread who have actually been to the country can tell you, their people actually support the US being there. If you care about them the way your posts suggests then you should be willing to take the time to learn what's actually going on in South Asia. A great place to start is by reading Taliban by Ahmed Rashid.

Ooooh a question I can answer! Basically to build the foundations in the middle of the river, they built two massive caissons (think a giant wooden box with an open end overturned). They incrementally added weight to drive the ends into the earth, then had a system of manually getting the water out, lowering people down to hand-shovel the earth, then add more weight to further drive the caisson down. If I remember correctly, the caissons were ultimately filled with concrete and are still there over 100 years later (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Because of changes in pressure going up and down, many workers developed decompression sickness, a.k.a. the bends, or caisson disease, including the architect when he lowered himself down for an inspection. He recovered, but was left crippled afterwards.

Here is a pretty good summary of the whole process, and if you're really interested, you should read The Great Bridge by David McCullough. It goes into much more detail but really sheds light on what an engineering marvel that bridge is.

I don't care about downvotes, I care about saying what I know to be true at all times. What was irritating is that you just said no, meaning that what I said was completely wrong, and I know for a fact it is not. (I didn't get sick or die). The information I had on chanterelle classification was from [this field guide] (http://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-West-Virginia-Central-Appalachians/dp/0813190398). I loathe being denied and then not given a reason.

Secondly, re-read it and I didn't phrase correctly about the pattern bit... I do know how spore prints are done and their purpose, just didn't phrase it correctly. I had trouble originally with chanterelles because I had never seen them, and the most confusing bit was what the internet was saying about the gills. When I researched a [jack/false chant/golden chant] (http://theforagerpress.com/fieldguide/jack.htm) image, I was thoroughly confused because my finds had tight 'gills' like the topmost image but lacked forks and had the correct spore print color and interior cross-section. Mine also did not have a gradation in color and were more yellow than orange, but the margins were more rounded than wavy like most chanterelles... but since exterior characteristics are always tricky to rely solely on, I did more tests. So, those two tests made it clear to me that I had found true chanterelles I could eat. And I did. Since my comment does make me sound like a giddy girl, I will change it to be less...... naive.

On a more positive note, 'rustled your jimmies' made me giggle. Haven't heard that one before.

That's all, apology accepted and forgiveness asked; good night.

I suggest Justice by Sandel.

This one is quite specific, but is a fun and interesting philosophical look at justice. It's a really good read. Link below:

Justice

I grew up in the White/Green Mountain region and I have heard stories like this time and time again. It is imperative to follow certain precautions in the White Mountains as well with any type of hiking but with those mountains conditions can be much different around the summits than it is down in the valleys where you park your car especially during this time of the year.
A great book to take a look through if you hike in this area is:
https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-Peril-Misadventure-Presidential/dp/1934028320

It gives you a great history of the misfortune along the Presidential Range and what to consider for your own safety.

I would like to participate.

Here are three books that might fit the theme.

CJ Chivers "The Gun" - Well written and details the development of the AK-47 which has impacted men's lives for three generations now.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

Geoff Colvin "Talent Is Overrated" - We are all trying to change ourselves for the better. That takes focus and determination. This book is definitely echoing that view.
http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class-Performers/dp/1591842948

Dean Karnazes, "Ultramarathon Man" - Good biography about a man transforming himself. Lots of fuck yeah moments.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultramarathon-Man-Confessions-All-Night-Runner/dp/1585424803

*All three of these have audiobook versions availible from Audible so that could be a boon for the dyslexic amoungst us who have issues reading.



Of the three I would say Talent Is Overrated would probably prompt more discussion. The Ultramarathon Man might be good for a working out themed choice. The Gun is just a damn good book that combines politics, engineering and war.

I'm a 19-year-old boy from Ottawa, Canada (you may have heard of our little country :P ). While I was not homeschooled per se during my public school years (I went to regular English schools), I definitely learned more quickly, more thoroughly and more widely due to my parents' constant efforts to teach me things that went way above and beyond what I was "learning" at my high school.

My parents are both high school teachers, and have each spent roughly 30 years teaching their respective subjects.

My dad actually just retired last year, but he taught most of the Social Studies curriculum during the course of his career (History, Philosophy, Psychology, World Religions, etc.). He is a bilingual Francophone from Ottawa, so he taught at one of the French Catholic high schools in our area. He also happens to be somewhat skeptical of religion (not an atheist, but damned close). Odd combination, yes, but it has resulted in him introducing me to
military history, everything from the Roman legions to the Knights Templar to the Taliban.

My mother was born in Ottawa, to Greek parents who had left Greece after the Second World War; my grandparents are from a village about 20 minutes away from the modern city of Sparti (Sparta). During the war, the village was at some point occupied by Axis forces (I'm not sure when or to what extent, because my grandparents' English is not great and only my mother speaks Greek).

I decided to include a list (below) of works that I've found particularly interesting (I've never actually written down a list of my favs before, so this may be somewhat... sprawling and will be in no particular order :P ). Depending on the ages of your kids, some of this stuff might be inappropriate for them right now, but they can always check it out when they're older. It's mostly military/wartime history that interests me (it's what I plan on studying in university), but I've learned so many little tidbits about other things as well from having access to these works. Since your kids are all boys, I hope they'll find at least some of this stuff to be interesting :) .


Books

• http://www.amazon.com/Apache-Inside-Cockpit-Fighting-Machine/dp/0802144780/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375711529&sr=1-4&keywords=apache
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/American-Gun-History-U-S-Firearms/dp/0062242717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375712862&sr=1-1&keywords=american+gun
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375712990&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gun+cj+chivers
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Kill-Evan-Wright/dp/0425224740
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Fist-Education-Humanitarian-Making/dp/B0098RLDT8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375713827&sr=1-1&keywords=the+making+of+a+humanitarian
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Shake-Hands-Devil-Failure-Humanity/dp/0786715103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375713894&sr=1-1&keywords=shake+hands+with+the+devil
  
  
  Movies and TV
  
  
• http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/lovehatepropaganda/
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Military-Combat-Megaset-Dogfights-Seasons/dp/B002D1XJUW/ref=sr_1_6?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1375714091&sr=1-6&keywords=dogfights
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Tank-Battles-N/dp/B0055HK6V6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1375714235&sr=1-1&keywords=greatest+tank+battles
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Deadliest-Warrior-Season-Geoffrey-Desmoulin/dp/B0037TPIAI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
  
  
  This is all non-fiction. If you like this list, let me know, and I can expand on it further, and also include my favourite works from other genres, as well as my favourite fiction books as well :) . I left out tons of stuff that I'm too much of a lazy teenager to type in here, lol.
  
  
  
  
  

If you like this, you might also like this book:

• http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Gray-City-Love-Francisco/dp/1608199606
  
  49 short stories about San Francisco from different points in time. It helps give context to different years.. for example, in 1853, SF largely (I think 80%?) male workers who moved had here recently, and were living dozens to a room and surviving on the popular lunch special: free soup if you buy your beer there.

In addition to many of the other books that others have listed (namely Kissinger and Mearsheimer) I have listed a few other books that I would highly recommend reading.

And because you are interested in learning more about the Middle East, be prepared to read. A lot. The Middle East is a far more complex place than most people imagine and understanding the region requires a great deal of knowledge. I have been studying the Middle East for nearly a decade and I still feel like there is so much that I do not know. I would start by reading reputable news sources every day. Places like The Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, Financial Times, are the Los Angeles Times are good English language news sources that you should look at. Additionally, I have written up a suggested reading list for learning about the Middle East, though it is a bit more security-related since that's my area of expertise. I hope it helps. And feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

Books - International Relations, Theory and Beyond

• Daniel Drezner - Theories of International Politics and Zombies. A creative and humorous book that seeks to explain the major IR theories in a manner that is easy to understand. Good for establishing a base understanding of international relations.
  
• Bruce Hoffman - Inside Terrorism. Quite possibly the book on terrorism. Written by one of the field's best scholars, this books provides the best introduction and overview on what terrorism is and its history over the past century. Just be sure to purchase the 2006 edition.
  
• Graham Allison - Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. An examination of the different levels of how decisions are made, using the Cuban Missile Crisis as a case study. Another essential book for understanding how different states, agencies within a government, and even individuals, can have major impacts on foreign affairs.
  
• Carl von Clausewitz - On War. One of the most significant books on understanding war in world; its frequently listed alongside Sun Tzu's Art of War. It is essential reading for anyone interested in military affairs and how it plays into politics. Though you only need to read the 1st ,2nd, and maybe 8th chapter, everything else is unnecessary.
  
  

  Books - General History of the Middle East
  

  
  

• Albert Hourani - A History of the Arab Peoples. This is widely considered to be the definitive book on history in the Arab World.
  
• Eugene Rogan - The Arabs: A History. Another essential and critically acclaimed book on Arab history.
  
• Roy Mottahedeh - The Mantle of the Prophet. Role of religion and religious figures in Iran before and during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
  
• Mark Lynch - The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East. An outline of the causes, reactions, and consequences of the Arab Spring.
  
• Thomas Barfield - Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. Afghanistan is usually not considered a part of the Middle East in academic research, so I am including this one. It's probably one of the best overviews of Afghan History.
  
  

  Books - Middle East Military History
  

  
  

• Kenneth Pollack - Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991. Probably the best book on Arab militaries culture and effectiveness and warfare in the Middle East between 1945-1991. Very extensive and informative.
  
• Steven Ward - Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. A well-written history of Iran's military, from the Safavid Empire to the 21st century.
  
• Ahron Bregman - Israel's Wars: A History since 1947. A terrific book outlining Israel's strategic decision making for its military operations since its founding as a country.
  
• Bruce Hoffman - Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947. A look at the establishment of Israel and the development of the current Arab-Israeli conflict.
  
  

  Books - Middle East Terrorism and Substate Violence
  

  
  

• Daniel Byman - Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know. A terrific primer on al-Qaida, ISIL, and jihadism.
  
• Lawrence Wright - The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Probably the best book for outlining the history of al-Qaida and why 9/11 happened.
  
• Michael Wiess and Hassan Hassan - ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. One of several recent books on ISIL, this one provides an overview on the history and organization of ISIL.
  
• Barry Rubin - Revolution Until Victory?: The Politics and History of the PLO. Although a little old (published in 1996), this books does a great job chronicling the history of the PLO and its role in the Palestinian struggle.
  
• Ahmed Rashid - Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. One of the best books on the rise and fall of the Taliban.
  
  

  Books - U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East
  

  
  

• Bob Woodward - Obama's Wars. Outline of the U.S. foreign policy decision making towards Iraq and Afghanistan in the early years of the Obama administration.
  
• Kenneth Pollack - The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America. A good overview of tensions between the United States and Iran.
  
• Michael R. Gordon - The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. Follows U.S. strategic and political decision making process during the Iraq War and the U.S. occupation.
  
• Peter R. Mansoor - Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War. An extensive outline of the development and outcome of the Surge during the U.S. Occupation of Iraq.
  
• Steve Coll - Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. A widely popular and acclaimed book on U.S. covert operations from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan until 2001.
  
• Mark Mazzetti - The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth. An overview of the CIA's targeted killing program against terrorist organizations.
  
• Michael Morrell - The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism--From al Qa'ida to ISIS. Written by the former acting director of the CIA, this book examines U.S. counterterrorism successes and failures of the past two decades.

Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love is a history book by best-selling author David Talbot. The book captures the dark history of San Francisco from the 1960s to the early 1980s utilizing a “kaleidoscopic narrative” [1] and tells the story of how "the 1967 Summer of Love gave way to 20 or so winters of discontent." [2]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season_of_the_Witch:_Enchantment,_Terror,_and_Deliverance_in_the_City_of_Love


Cool, Gray City of Love brings together an exuberant combination of personal insight, deeply researched history, in-depth reporting, and lyrical prose to create an unparalleled portrait of San Francisco. Each of its 49 chapters explores a specific site or intersection in the city, from the mighty Golden
https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Gray-City-Love-Francisco/dp/1608199606

Looks like we have similar tastes. I also enjoy these same topics. I highly recommend the Foxfire books. My favorite is the first one, which I have linked below.

Don't blow them off because they were compiled and written by high school students. There are some excellent writings and accounts of many practices that no longer exist in the mountains of Appalachia. I don't think most people would even be aware of these experiences/stories/folk beliefs had it not been for Foxfire.

The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining, and Other Affairs of Plain Living

Can't recommend enough.

> what do you do with your creations?

Never made a thing.

I was bad at carpentry when I was a kid - the birdhouse and flowerbox I made fell apart quite quickly.

> do you destroy them or sell them?

Nothing to sell, or destroy.

> if you sell them, who do you sell them to?

Cant' sell something that doesn't exist.

> who is aware of what you are doing

Uh, most of my professors have actually taught me what I know. One of them is good friends with CJ Chivers, a renowned, Pulitzer-winning weapons expert - he's written a great book about the AK. My professor's specialization is nuclear weaponry. She's very good at wargames, she went to Cornell, and she's taught at Harvard and Stanford.

> and what is the security level on your workshop?

I have no workshop.

I have the internet, mainly Library of Congress links, or JSTOR documents for uni.

There's so much information on youtube, alone, that you can just use it to learn how to do anything.

If you haven't ever googled/searched on youtube for something you want to learn, then you really should - it's a great learning tool.

Oh, and Forgotten Weapons is an excellent youtube channel, that has a wealth of info about antique weaponry. I highly recommend it.

But what about the fact that people, the less educated most especially, will be persuaded by propaganda and will often vote against their own interests? There was a book published a few years ago, What's the Matter with Kansas? that shows how the working class in the United States does exactly this over and over and over.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but they would be better off today if they hadn't voted at all and had let the votes of the better educated, (and the better educated people are, the more left-of-centre/progressive their voting patterns are) have more weight as a result.

IMO the best resource for hiking in San Diego is Jerry Schad's epic hiking guide, Afoot and Afield in San Diego County. It has recently been updated with a new edition written by Scott Turner, who personally hiked every single trip outlined in the original edition since Jerry Schad passed away. He also added new trips, and most awesomely he has a fantastic companion website with maps, photos, and other goodies.

The hiking websites mentioned here are good, but I strongly recommend getting this book, it is worth its weight in gold to the San Diego hiker.

I've recently been reading Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel during my commutes and so far I think it's pretty interesting. It explains some of the basic theories of justice along with challeging those lines of thought using both theoretical and real-life situations. I think it would not only help you get an understanding of several ways of thinking but also help you develop your own. It's written by a Harvard professor too, so that's a nice bonus.

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I'm a fan of time-travel, and history, and I was completely sucked into it. She's got a number of books in the same universe- some comedic, some very dramatic, but The Doomsday Book is my favourite.

If you're at all interested in high fantasy, I'd recommend either Tigana or The Fionovar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. You either love his prose style or hate it, but if you love it, it will definitely take you away.

If you like SF and haven't read them, I'd try either Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, or David Brin's Uplift Series (I'd skip Sundiver until later, and start with Startide Rising.)

If you're looking for more light-hearted/quirky, I'd try Christopher Moore- either Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal , or The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. If you're into a mix of horror/sf/comedy, try John Dies at the End. They're not deep, but they're fun.

Non-fiction- if you haven't read it yet, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is very difficult to put down. If you're travelling with someone who doesn't mind you looking up every few pages and saying "did you know this, this is awesome, wow-how interesting", I'd go for Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants or Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. They're all very informative, fun, interesting books, but they're even better if you can share them while you're reading them.

I recently read The Perfect Machine which was a really excellent history of early modern telescope design and construction, and gets into the fundamentals, abilities, and limitations of large telescopes. It was very enjoyable!

Another fantastic book in the same vein is What's The Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank. Really does a great job explaining how conservatives have gotten people in the south and midwest to vote for them based on an ever changing idea of "conservative values" despite Republican economic policy being the opposite of what they should be voting for. Highly recommended.

Exploding Mangoes was the first book I read about Pakistan. Here's a list:

• Pakistan - Social and Cultural Transformations in a Muslim Nation
  A little dry for my taste but I couldn't recommend this more. This book charts the social consequences of state policies and economic factors over the whole time period from '47 to now.
  
  
• Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
  Very important book if you want to avoid the conspiracy theories floating about Taliban and our role in their rise.
  
  
• Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military
  Interested in Pakistan army's relationship with mullahs over the years? This is a must-read.
  
  
• Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding
  Title is self explanatory.
  
  
• Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples & Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey
  A very informative and interesting two part series on what joins the non-Arab muslims of the world, with a large portion about Pakistan. Written by Nobel Laureate for Literature Naipaul, behnoi of Maj. Gen. Ameer Faisal Alvi who was assassinated in 2008 in Islamabad.
  
  
• Pakistan: A Hard Country
  A good overview of what makes Pakistan run the way it does.
  
  
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist
  Haven't read it but have heard good things about it.
  
  
• The Army and Democracy; Military Politics in Pakistan
  Haven't read it yet.

I'm reading a great book right now it's called Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders by Peter Richmond, and it's fucking awesome and a great read. I'd totally recommend it.

My two favorites from recent times are the two books written by David Simon which sparked the HBO show "The Wire".

The Corner: A Year in the life of an Inner-City Neighborhood

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

The Corner follows a family, and others, in the streets of Baltimore. It's about drug addiction, the war on drugs, the welfare system, and the lives of families affected by these things.

Homicide is following the detective department of the Baltimore city police. I preferred this one to The Corner, but they are both great. They are both depressing, at times really funny, but always interesting and entertaining. Eye-opening too.

Don't forget the Justice class (video1, also an edx class) with Michael Sandel. I loved every minute of the lectures.

edit more links:

• Harvard Justice site
  
• The book that goes with the course, which is also excellent.

To amplify Wagamos's comment: it's heat. IIRC, when doing the final figuring on the 200" mirror in the Mt. Palomar telescope, they could only polish for a few minutes at a time due to glass changing shape as it warmed. Read The Perfect Machine for details. There's not much you can do to get around it: polishing creates friction which creates heat which changes the shape and properties of the glass. If you want a good mirror, you can only go so fast.

I really recommend afoot and afield in San Diego. It's where I find most of my hikes. Very informative and easy to go through. The absolute go to resource for San Diego hiking.
Afoot and Afield: San Diego County: 281 Spectacular Outings along the Coast, Foothills, Mountains, and Desert https://www.amazon.com/dp/0899978010/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1jSTCb68EZ7VP
The older editions are fine as well.

Dripping springs is pretty close and accessible and has a few different routes. It's a little further out, but I like doing San Gorgonio fairly regularly as well.

[Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire] (https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-Peril-Misadventure-Presidential/dp/1934028320/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469484204&sr=1-1&keywords=not+without+peril+150+years+of+misadventure+on+the+presidential+range+of+new+hampshire) by Nicholas Howe is a fascinating book filled with hiking and backcountry history, adventure, and misadventure.

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why by Laurence Gonzales is an interesting look at survival in the wilderness, which is always handy for those of us who spend a good deal of time in the backcountry.

He was a pioneer in establishing what we know now as the NWS so you aren’t far off. One of the best books I’ve ever read is called Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson(Devil in the White City) that reads like a firsthand account recreated with what’s known from the actual history.

It’s a relatively quick read and it really dives into interesting things like how poor communication(among other socio-political issues) between the US and Cuba prevented the news of the 1900 storm getting out in enough time to do much about it. The book was gifted to me when I lived in Houston, and interestingly enough also explains how Houston became the dominant port city as a latent effect of the 1900 storm’s effect on Galveston and any future it may have had as the big-dog port city.

Incredible shot! The book by the same name as the title, Cool Gray City of Love is an outstanding read! Highly recommended if you love San Francisco and learning about it's history and spaces, spread out of 49 chapters.

Sorry if this is rude of me to interject. You can just ignore this post if you want and hopefully the OP will respond to you, but I really like the book "Wisdom Sits in Places" by Keith Basso. It was required and recommended by a linguistic anthropology professor I had many years ago, whose wife was of the Mono people. The book itself actually discusses the Western Apache and a lot of it focuses on language. As you get further into the book, it becomes apparent how integral and central language is to culture.

As /u/rabidstoat has already recommended, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon is a fascinating read. One of the authors (Michael P. Ghiglieri) also co-wrote its sister book, Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite. Both books manage to not be overly morbid (tales of near-misses are included, so it isn't just one death after another) and actually seemed uplifting to me. I came away with a real sense of respect for the wilderness; if we are aware of the dangers and risks every time we venture out, however seemingly remote, our chances of survival in a "worst case scenario" improves.

There are other books in a similar vein that chronicle all (or most) deaths in specific wilderness areas, such as Not Without Peril: 150 Years Of Misadventure On The Presidential Range Of New Hampshire. These are good too, but often seem to be a collection of first-hand accounts and historical vignettes. Ghiglieri manages to weave all of his information into a larger overarching narrative with a satisfying conclusion. I'm really hoping he does another one of these books!

Here is a picture I like. Even cooler though are the sketches Russell Porter did of the telescope from the blueprints. If you are interested in learning about the construction of the telescope I would recommend The Perfect Machine by Ronald Florence

I second this, The Historic Pleasure Pier is fun for kids but no more historic than just standing on the Seawall.

You can't swing a dead cat without hitting something old or historic in Galveston. Most of which don't have websites, so until you go you just won't know. But when you get there you will have no shortage of things to do.

Read this, not super happy pregnancy material, but the best book about Galveston by far. This one is supposedly pretty good to, bit I haven't read it yet.

Freeway Rick Ross has a book. I haven't read it, so I can't really say how good it is. There is another book you might be interested in called The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. It's not exactly what you are looking for, but if you are interested in this subject I would highly recommend reading it.

You might like My Khyber Marriage and Valley of the Giant Buddahs. They are autobiographical reports by a Scotswoman who married a Pashtun and moved to Afghanistan in the 1920s. My Life: From Brigand to King--Autobiography of Amir Habibullah may also be of interest. It is an as-told-to autobiography of an Afghan brigand who briefly overthrew the King about ten years after the first two books were written. The Road to Oxiana is a bit clunky but offers a Western perspective on Afghanistan in the 1930s.

The more general Afghanistan of the Afghans, written by the husband of the woman mentioned above, focuses a lot of culture and cultural history, Afghanistan is a more general history and this Afghanistan claims to be more about the military history but I haven't read it myself to judge.

If you want something more contemporary, The Places In Between is a decent travelogue by an adventurer/preservationist/mercenary who walked through parts of the country. It didn't blow me away but it is interesting and most contemporary Afghan books from the West are such trash that this one shines in comparison. The author really did go to areas of Afghanistan about which most people know very little.

Ghost Wars is a popular book that focuses on the US involvement in the area during the Soviet Afghan war. Taliban is another popular book, and focuses on the Taliban in the 1990s and early 2000s. The link is to the second edition which I believe is updated.

The funny thing is that many of America's poor and otherwise marginalized people vote Republican, thus denying themselves benefits and helping the rich get richer. Check out What's the Matter With Kansas?.

Amazon links for books mentioned in this thread:

\/u/thetrueonion (OP)

• Digital Apollo, David A. Mindell    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• Eagles of Mitsubishi, Jiro Horikoshi
  
  
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants, John D. Clark
  
  \/u/llothar:
  
  
• Amazon.com's list of books authored by Richard Feynman
  
  
• The Martian, Andy Weir
  
  \/u/DallasGreen:
  
  
• Closest I could find was Engineering and the Mind's Eye, Eugene S. Ferguson
  
  \/u/gearnut:
  
  
• Slide Rule, Nevil Shute    -    Other books by this author
  
  \/u/frothysasquatch:
  
  
• Waterpower in Lowell: Engineering and Industry in Nineteenth-Century America, Patrick M. Malone
  
  \/u/Beefstyles:
  
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Ben R. Rich
  
  \/u/CalledCaptainHook:
  
  
• One Second After, William R. Forstchen    -    Other books by this author
  
  \/u/75footubi:
  
  
• The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, David McCullough
  
  \/u/Bradm77:
  
  
• The Soul of A New Machine, Tracy Kidder

Nonfiction books:

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century’s most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress.

A Brief History of Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism--the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action--has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Writing for a wide audience, David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism and The Condition of Postmodernity, here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage.

The Gun by CJ Chivers is a really excellent and thorough history of the Kalashnikov and its significance. One of my favorite books and authors.

This book is a great start: http://www.amazon.com/Taliban-Militant-Fundamentalism-Central-Second/dp/0300163681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427830695&sr=8-1&keywords=taliban+by+ahmed+rashid I have not read the updated edition yet, the one I read predated 9/11, but basically a lot of regional powers, not just the US had a hand in it.

TLDR(compared the the excellent book): The Taliban came out of Saudi-funded schools set up for refugees in Pakistan and were able to consolidate power since they had a uniting ideology and brought brief stability in the hellscape that was post-war A-Stan. The US provided money and secured some weapons (via Israel oddly) and funneled them through Saudi and ISI intel networks. It's tempting for Americans who are at least somewhat aware of US backing of the Muj to mix up Al-Quaeda, the Taliban etc. and have no concept of Pakistan or Iran's interests in the area, or the Saudi export of Wahabism as a counter to post-revolutions Iran's growing influence. I say blame the UK and BP in particular for duping us into installing the Shah. Most of our pseudo-imperial shitshows of the last century have been monkeying with other former European colonies or paranoia about Communism.

Tomas Frank wrote a book that answers all your questions. http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/0805073396 'What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America' Get it..read it. Now you'll understand how propagandists took over the government.

The best place to check out local hiking books is your closest REI.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Moon Guides: Camping CA, Hiking CA
These are the most general as they cover the whole state.

Robert Stone: Day Hikes Around Los Angeles
This is just one of many hiking books he has in CA.

Schad Afoot and Afield: Los Angeles County

Schad: Afoot and Afield: Orange County

Harris: Afoot and Afield: Inland Empire

Shad/Turner: Afoot and Afield: San Diego County

Casey Schreiner: Day Hiking Los Angeles
Casey is the new kid on the block. He runs the Modern Hiker blog

Robinson/Christiansen: Trails of the Angeles

Robinson/Harris: San Bernardino Mountain Trails

Since you are in Arcadia you should visit the Theodore Payne Foundation. They are a
CA native plant nursery. They have a short hike on their property. They should be able to hook you up with some good hikes in the area, and a hiking club.

American Rifle is a good introduction to US military rifles. The Gun is a fantastic introduction to automatic weapons (Chiver's blog is worth a read too). Wolfe Publishing has a deal where you can get PDF copies of their three Magazines for about the price of subscribing to one for physical copies. They are a bit old fashioned but aren't extended ad copy like G&A is. Shooting Times is worth looking at online.

Neither Afghanistan or Iraq relate to the September 11 attacks, if that was your attempted insinuation. In fact, the attackers were principally of Saudi Arabian nationality, our closest ally in the Gulf. Specifically, of the 19 September 11 hijackers:

• 15 were Saudi Arabian.
  
• 2 were United Arab Emirates citizens.
  
• 1 was Egyptian.
  
• 1 was Lebanese.
  
  Incidentally, the United States funded both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban during their respective inceptions:
  
  > A CIA program called Operation Cyclone channelled funds through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to the Afghan Mujahideen [Al-Qaeda's predecessor] who were fighting the Soviet occupation.
  
  Likewise:
  
  > The United States supported the Taliban through its allies in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia between 1994 and 1996 because Washington viewed the Taliban as anti-Iranian, anti-Shia and pro-Western. Washington furthermore hoped that the Taliban would support development planned by the U.S.-based oil company Unocal. For example, it made no comment when the Taliban captured Herat in 1995, and expelled thousands of girls from schools.
  
  Would you like to try again?

As other uses have pointed out, it didn't change things very much, but was more an adaptation to a battlefield that had already changed thanks to the increased deadliness of supporting arms.

I just wanted to add some supplementary materials you might be interested in.

The Gun is a pretty exhaustive history of the AK-47 and automatic weapons in general

On Infantry is a very dry study of infantry tactics from late 1890s through the 1970s. It is a bit out of date, but covers the period you are asking about.

There is also FM 3-21.8 which covers the US Army Infantry Platoon and squad organization and fighting style. It would be useful to understand exactly how a modern army expects its units to fight and how it organizes them to do so.

I LOVE points 20 & 21 regarding statehood for colonies. There should only states in the United States. No inhabited land, excluding international embassies, should be part of the country, unless it is a recognized state. Therefore, all current US colonies and territories should either be declared independent or be made a state. These include: Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Washington DC. Check out this fantastic book to learn more about our messed up imperialist history is.

Like...did you know that we almost annexed all of Mexico once we took Texas et.al? There were competing forces in the government, imperialism and white supremacy. The white supremacists didn’t want the rest of Mexico because it was full of non-whites, so they only took the northern half because those people were mostly white. It’s true!

Check this book out. I really enjoyed it. I'm from another tribe and our language does similar things, but the author does a fantastic job at showing the power of stories through Native languages. Here it is.

For those interested in the subject, this book: The Big Roads is a great read

Thoreau wrote a lot about New England. His Cape Cod is pretty good.

For New Hampshire adventure, Not Without Peril is fascinating.

Anyone interested in the story of building Brooklyn Bridge should read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Bridge-Building-Brooklyn/dp/067145711X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396038238&sr=8-1&keywords=the+great+bridge

I have the audiobook and it's fantastic:
http://www.audible.com/pd/History/The-Great-Bridge-Audiobook/B0080JBGZQ/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1396038268&sr=1-1

Its a bit of a doorstop admittedly, but The Great Bridge is also a classic.

It isn't an issue of some fuzzy "justice" or a "social issue". When Nobel Prize winning economists like Stieglitz keep talking and writing about it you should have noticed it is an economic issue (not to forget Krugman). It just does not work. Too supply-side heavy, and the economic decisions are way too centralized ("money" on economic scale is more a synonym for "control of resources", especially production - and politics too).

Oh and from a legal point of view read Sandel.

Your arguments are all fake - as are those of most people on "the other side". The reason to be against the inequality is because it does not work. That's all. Justice - who cares, too subjective, endless arguments without convincing one another because if you have different values there is no convincing and arguing becomes pointless.

For those interested in what the result would be, check out this book another redditor pointed me toward. It is a very good look at Kansas, it's history and politics from the 1800s through current days. It is fascinating and a bit disturbing:

What's The Matter With Kansas by native Kansan Thomas Frank

You might also consider Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians or Mushrooms of the Midwest as a good local guide, to go along with a more general North American guide. For a general guide, I'd add Mushrooms Demystified to those already mentioned. Even though it is a little biased towards the west coast, it is still a tremendously valuable resource. It's my go-to (out of the eight field guides I own), even though I am in the northeast!

fyi How To Hide An Empire is a great book that goes into some of that shady stuff, amongst other less well known historical tidbits about the US...the audio version is great

If you are really interested, I really recommend The Gun by CJ Chivers

I like the book Afoot and Afield San Diego County as it will cover access, etc and even where to park. Often trail heads are pretty well defined with parking lots.

https://www.amazon.com/Afoot-Afield-Spectacular-Foothills-Mountains/dp/0899978010

As for etiquette. I'm only ever annoyed by people playing music without headphones. I tend to say hello to people as we pass them. Just normal human etiquette will work.

this is a fascinating book on rats in NYC. It starts out like a nature guide, and quickly becomes a history lesson from a very unique perspective.

Just because you didn't need something in a single certain specific instance doesn't mean you don't need to carry it generally.

Washington is known for extreme weather at all times of the year. People die up there even in the summer- and in fact, you actually more frequently see unprepared hikers on the mountain in the Summer than you do in the Winter, because folks are more likely to underestimate the conditions during the warmer months.

There's a really good book about the history of mishaps on Washington and in the rest of the Presidential Range- Not Without Peril. Many of the situations described in the book took place during warmer months- and not all of them had happy outcomes. IMO, this book is a "must read" for anyone who hikes in the White Mountains frequently.

Rats are just awesome in general.

Recommended reading Rats

C.J. Chiver's novel The Gun is a fantastic read about the AK's conception and how it was designed vs. the M-16, which had parts with tight tolerances clearances, causing them to readily jam in harsh (think Vietnam) conditions.

edit thanks for /u/csl512 for the correction

Read Ahmed Rashid's "Taliban" and "Descent Into Chaos". He's the guy in the picture for reference. One of the few people in the world who have actually interviewed Mullah Omar (the founder of the Taliban) as well as many other ranking officers within the command structure, without a doubt he's the foremost authority on the subject. Yet he writes in such a simple and direct manner about the facts and figures as they evolved, without any of the propaganda or politics.

If I had to synthesize my undergrad in Pol Sci into a handful of books, these two would be at the top of the list. Truly an eye opener into this issue

Thanks for the recommendation; I've never heard of this book! Would also recommend Cool Grey City of Love for those simply looking for a diverse (and interesting/insightful account of the Bay Area in general—fascinating subjects.

I wouldn't be surprised if the rise of rats is tied to the homeless encampment problem, which is why homelessness really effects everyone. Almost every encampment is littered with excessive amounts of trash and almost always that trash has a lot of old food rats can eat. Rats absolutely thrive in messy trash filled environments.

I suggest reading a book about NYC's rat problem. NYC still has a rat problem, but it use to be much much worse. One of the most effective methods of rat control was to just keep the streets clean and pick up trash more often.

Hope we can solve this problem before the bubonic plague comes back...

https://www.amazon.com/Rats-Observations-History-Unwanted-Inhabitants/dp/1582344779

There are books like the Foxfire books that have very good instructions.
http://www.amazon.com/Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Building-Moonshining/dp/0385073534/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239564703&sr=8-2

If you are interested in this topic, I'd highly recommend a book by the name of What's the matter with Kansas, by Thomas Frank.

It details how the various political entities, seeking to dictate economic policy, took steps to keep the "masses" uninformed, and, subsequently, ended up tricking them into voting for individuals that represent the opposite of their best-interests.

There's a really old book out there, I wanna say it's called Foxfire? It's basically a manual on living rough. It's, like, all the things. From how to build a cabin, to how to grow food, what plants you can eat, stuff like that.

Found it!

Surprised I didn't see one comment about "The Gun" by C.J Chivers. Very interesting and comprehensive book about the AK-47 and it's variants and how they have shaped the world. Anyone really interested in the weapon and it's history should check it out.

Now this is something I'm into. We did a Western campaign with vampires, mythological creatures, magic, and all that a couple years ago. What system are you using? We used Edge of the Frontier, an Edge of the Empire reskin, for ours. Then we homebrewed the setting.

Also, have you read Issac's Storm? It is a non-fiction account of the Galveston Hurricane as framed around the U.S. Weather Bureau chief in town and his brother. It also dives into the history of the U.S. Weather Bureau and their relationship with other countries and organizations. Absolutely amazing read.

Nope, just the product of hours and hours of non-fiction reading.

Start with Ahmed Rashid's Taliban to some background on the region, then get his next book Descent into Chaos that covers the US invasion. From there check out The Interrogator by former CIA spook Glenn Carle that will provide a basic understanding of some of the "black" operations post 2001. Next you need to read Top Secret America to realize just how leaky even the most top secret compartmentalized operations really are and how easy it is to track them down with the right resources.

Not really Houston, but since you mentioned the 1900 hurricane, Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson is pretty damn interesting.

If you'd like to learn more about rats. I recommend this book.

Figures; I'd definitely classify it as such.

You might like the new book by Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide An Empire, which notes that right after WW2 ended, the US directly colonised or occupied enough foreign lands that at one point the population in the occupied/colonial territories exceeded those in the US mainland. Just like classic colonial empires!

On another note, just why was the US content to enforce double standards toward land reform in its Asian sphere of influence? Why enforce/push land reform in Japan or SK to the detriment of existing elites…but over here, why collaborate with our own existing elites at the cost of genuine land reform?

I get why they'd want to sideline elites in Japan since obviously they caused the war, but I guess I'm wondering why exactly would they, in a reversal of their East Asian "colonial policy", prefer to keep playing with the same old boys over here—many of whom obviously were treacherous enough (from the US' point of view) to side with Japan if it suited them?

(Not to excuse them from collaborating with the US, of course.)

Read Issac's Storm. A great story, even if you know how it ends...

Yup, I know South Carolina held out for a reallllly long time.

EDIT: Also, there's a book called The Big Roads which is a great look at building the system.

The Great Bridge

There's a great book about it: Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language by Nora Ellen Groce

The thesis of your comment is brilliantly expounded upon in Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas?

It's not common knowledge. More liek common lies. The 'source' you cite is hardly one. It appears to be a compilation of rumors and what 'some analysts believe'. Basically meaningless.

A good source to start with with is Ahmed Rashid, who wrote the definitive account about the origins of the Taliban called ... well, "Taliban". In his travels during the 1990s through Afhanistan he bumped into a certain hothead from Saudi Arabia with lots of money to throw around. Rashid is a Pakistani reporter who was on the ground, and appears to have attended the earliest meetings with these militants, that eventually led to the creation of the Taliban. Before that though, he was in and out of the Afghan war zone and clearly remembered seeing Osama Bin Laden before he became the world's bogeyman.

Rashid wrote - not too surprisingly - that everyone knew the source of the money that was putting weapons into the hands of these fighters. Everyone, of course, included Osama. Rashid went on to say that Osama was greatly offended by the idea that foreign western entities were paying for the defense of a Muslim homeland. In Osama's mind, there was no honor in fighting against one infidel (USSR) with the materials and funds provided by other infidels (US, Europe, et al). In addition, Osama had money. He was rich. He didn't need western handouts. Rashid goes into great detail about these visits and proves the lie that the US or any other foreign country provided any direct assistance to the creation of Al Qaeda.

Edit: The book - http://www.amazon.com/Taliban-Militant-Fundamentalism-Central-Edition/dp/0300163681

I also recently finished The Wire for the first time. Took me about 3 weeks.

Amazing.

Now I'm reading this!

http://www.amazon.com/Taliban-Militant-Fundamentalism-Central-Edition/dp/0300163681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396212194&sr=8-1

I haven't read it, but I trust the author, because I've read his more recent books.

It focuses more on Al-Qaeda, but Lawrence Wright's 'The Looming Tower', is usually the first book I suggest to people looking to learn more about the broader subject. My Trip to Al-Qaeda is a documentary that covers a little bit about the book, which I highly suggest reading.

Other authors I read about the Middle East:

Robert Fisk

Ahmed Rashid

Rashid Khalidi

Steve Coll

George Packer

Peter Bergen

Thomas Ricks

Dexter Filkins

Jeremy Scahill

This sounds a lot like, fittingly enough, the origins of the U.S. Highway/Interstate system.

I picked up this book recently...In the beginnings of the highway system in the U.S., many of the first carmakers/engineers/investors realized pretty quickly that without the proper infrastructure to drive your fancy new cars on, nobody would buy their cars. So they pushed--similar to Google's situation-- and found themselves trying to devise who would fund the initial road building. The result was a mishmosh of federal government, state government, and private funding (many of the aforementioned automakers themselves) that put money into the first roads.

I foresee the same thing happening here if Google's plan goes smoothly: more people see that we need faster internet and can point to cities like Kansas City as examples, the same people raise hell with their local area and demand better service options, and boom: we're all on the fast road of fiber.

Linking for anyone like me that needed a search to see what book you meant. Though I'd recommend buying from your local store if possible of course: https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Gray-City-Love-Francisco/dp/1608199606

It's not a video series but the series of books and magazines Foxfire are very interesting and break down old cooking techniques.

FoxFire is actually a fucking awesome series of books on back country living in the south. They have articles on everything from making moonshine to basket weaving, furniture making, and even old ghost stories from way back. My pop-pop has some cousins featured in it and I always used to enjoy reading the books when I was a kid staying at his place in Virginny.

Edit: Apparently they do more than just publish books now. Looks like they have field-trip programs and shit for younger kiddies. It was back in the mid-90s that I first encountered them.

Urban planning, especially roads, is one of my weird obsessions. It's one of the most fascinating things I've ever encountered.

I'm currently reading The Big Roads, a book about the history of the road system in the country. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Roads-Visionaries-Trailblazers-Superhighways/dp/0547907249

​

And after that, I move onto this: https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Average-Neighborhood-Systems-World/dp/1609611381

​

On The Grid actually uses Raleigh as the subject matter. I'm excited for it.

Two books related to upbringing and politics that you might enjoy: George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant and Thomas Franks' What's the Matter with Kansas?

Lakoff also has some youtube videos of his lectures.

Welcome!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061834319/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1BSE26R0JR2AT&coliid=I3BTG5YHLYPYXP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmVBeFmvvYk

How to hide an Empire: The history of the Greater United States

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson gives some background on hurricane dynamics while going through a case study from one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history. it is a fantastic piece of non-fiction for both the story and the science.

If you haven't read it yet, I think you'd enjoy What's the Matter with Kansas?

Right off the top of my head, I'd recommend the two books in our wiki that touch on the subject:

• Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil by John Ghazvinian does a great job looking at the importance of oil in Africa. Given Africa is the mid-to-long term future of the global economic engine (with China being the immediate and India being the near-term) it's worth the read.
  
  
• The chapter about oil in Ahmed Rashid's Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia does a great job offering another lens to see the current Afghanistan conflict through. It's also much shorter than the aforementioned piece.
  
  ---
  
  I would add that a better lens for understanding oil, and energy as a whole, would be to read up and understand supply chains.
  
  What's the saying... A good General is a master tactician, a great General is a master strategian, but a legendary General is a master logician logistician. While a little off-topic and admittingly anecdotal, I've always liked this story; one of the main reasons the Romans continually bested their foes is because they saw conflict through the lens of "how many bushels of wheat will it take to sustain X Legionnaires" while their enemies simply counted how many swords were raised against them. That mindset with a methodical, disciplined fighting style allowed the Legionnaires to grind out their opponents over and over again. (Google The History of Rome podcast if that last story peaked your interest.)
  
  That last story about the Romans may seemed removed from modern day, but a recent example of just that is NATO's Libya campaign in 2011. Started at the behest of France/Italy, the US had to take over operations because their European allies literally ran out of ammo within a month into the campaign.

If you like more modern stuff, The Gun by C J Chivers was an enjoyable read. It focuses heavily on development of the M-16 and AK-47, but I thought the most interesting bits were on how the automatic rifle has changed battle tactics over the last century.

I think you would enjoy reading this: https://www.amazon.ca/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

I'd get this if I were you, the more local the better
https://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-West-Virginia-Central-Appalachians/dp/0813190398

Yep. And liberals have been known to believe that at least as often as conservatives. To be fair, it's basic human nature: you construct your policies to help the people, and then the people reject you in favor of the other guy. So, is it easier to believe that you're just worse than the other guy, or that the voters are stupid?

Just want to take this opportunity to say anyone who lives here and is at all interested in hiking should own this book

Good book. Interesting how the Cuban weather people predicted the storm would hit Galveston but the US Weather Bureau didn't believe them and prevented their predictions from being reported.

http://www.amazon.com/Isaacs-Storm-Deadliest-Hurricane-History/dp/0375708278

I also recommend The Big Roads by Earl Swift. It's the history of the entire US highway system, from the days of cart paths to present day [2011]. It's a bit dry, but if you find "Georgia Department of Transportation Office of Environment/Location Project Task Order No. 94 Contract EDS-0001-00(755)" interesting, then I suspect you'll like this book too.

I've not read that one yet, but I did just finish "The Gun" by CJ Chivers, which covers a lot of the same ground. Also excellent in my estimation.

http://amzn.com/0743271734

This would be a good start then.

Right. I guess one the thing that makes deafness so interesting to me is the ways in which deafness is a transcendent disability. To be sure, it is a physical condition that renders individuals cut off from most other people. It is indeed a disability. Yet, we can imagine a world where deafness is not a disability. Suppose that all people--hearing, deaf and in between--learned and used sign language as part of daily life. Is deafness still a disability? This is an interesting book which illustrates this point.

Funny you should ask that way-

https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America-ebook/dp/B003J4VEM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494708066&sr=8-1&keywords=what%27s+the+matter+with+kansas

I hear this book is a good source.

It's also a popular survival guide

Read The Gun by CJ Chivers. Very interesting book on the history and people involved in the creation of the AK.

As a late-deafened person, I understand your point. But if you have never spent a significant amount of time with culturally deaf (i.e. born deaf or deafened early in life), you will never understand why some people in the Deaf community refuse to have cochlear implants.

Also, many deaf people do not consider themselves to be "sick" or disabled, hence the reason why they don't think they need to be fixed.

If you'd like a really good book to read about how deafness can be seen as just a trait and not a disability, read the book, "Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language," by Nora Groce.

In a nutshell, it tells of a time on Martha's Vineyard before it became a big fancy tourist/vacation spot. The island was populated by a small community, and about half the inhabitants were deaf. No one considered them disabled, and everyone on the island learned sign language and English. Therefore, no communication barriers existed, and they were treated like normal human beings.

Now, I challenge you moving0target to think of the Deaf (yes, with a capital D) as normal, functioning human beings and try to communicate with them.

http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Here-Spoke-Sign-Language/dp/067427041X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395707074&sr=8-1&keywords=nora+groce+everyone+here+spoke+sign+language

I am glad they are helping them out, but how about give them this and some seeds instead of some book of myths.

Looks like the book, What's the Matter with Kansas is going to need a second edition.

For more on this topic, I recommend checking out [The Big Roads by Earl Swift.] (https://www.amazon.com/Big-Roads-Visionaries-Trailblazers-Superhighways/dp/0547907249) It tells the story of the early American highways and how they evolved into what we have today. Read the wikipedia page for The Lincoln Highway,and [Thomas Macdonald] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harris_MacDonald) though and you have a quick summary of what the book contains. Thank you.

I recommend a book called 'The Gun'.

https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

I'm currently reading What's the Matter with Kansas? that looks into and attempts to explain why GOP voters keep voting against their own interests.

And then The Corner. Prepare to have your heart broken though.

This book has made rounds around my office and is highly recommended. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0547907249/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_maE5Cb8XGXGSY

I would think you're in exactly the right place for the Foxfire books to be interesting - I have an e-copy, but lots of the techniques and plants don't apply for my part of the country.

amazon

list of the books

Not a denier, but not a hypocrite either. I am sure Vice President Gore has flown many times around world to educated us all on the climate. He probably lies awake in his mansion ringing his hands about the damage I am doing to the environment.

A great book on the formation of U.S. Weather Bureau...
https://www.amazon.com/Isaacs-Storm-Deadliest-Hurricane-History/dp/0375708278

Recommended gunnit books?

May I suggest:

https://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

and

https://www.amazon.com/War-Flea-Classic-Guerrilla-Warfare/dp/1574885553

If you want to do some reading, I have a few recommendations:

FoundSF and their links page

Outside Lands — focuses on the western neighborhoods

Cool Gray City of Love by Gary Kamiya

The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld by Herbert Asbury

City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco by Chester Hartman — fairly dry political history, but it provides a lot of valuable context for the ongoing fights over housing and development.

I have all the Foxfire books so if I have to I can dress a hog or build a log cabin, even though at the moment I live in an apartment where I'm currently growing butter lettuce and herbs on my balcony.

Read the book Rats. So crazy interesting, I couldn't put it down.

Uh, no. A whole design/manufacturing team produced the AK and Comrade Kalashnikov was given the majority of the credit for propaganda purposes. He was possibly the most important contributor, but one of many.

source: the Gun by C.J. Chivers

I can't recommend the book THE GUN enough. Amazing story about the AK47:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734

That's the general subject matter of What's the Matter with Kansas?

that's a real ISBN number

https://www.amazon.com/Rats-Observations-History-Unwanted-Inhabitants/dp/1582344779

dude that's the weirdest reddit citation ever. it's like a weird alternative reality where hyperlinks never existed

nevermind that dogs are not cats

What's the matter with Kansas?

Ah, the Mr Burns of the NFL... Ever read Badasses? http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0061834319/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1404521045&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40

Also, read Ahmed Rashid's book on the Taliban.

Or the book Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane

Read this awesome book, http://www.amazon.com/Isaacs-Storm-Deadliest-Hurricane-History/dp/0375708278

Galveston used to be the larger city, but after the Hurricane of 1900, Houston took over while Galveston tried to rebuild. Source: Issac's Storm. The book also mentions the streetcar.

How 'bout this onethis one?

Isaac's Storm. Read the first few sample pages and see what you think.

YOUTALKING BOUT THIS

here is a link to it on Amazon

see I just have a few old foxfire books that talk about that kind of thing, plus they have a bunch of oral history written down from the people they got the information from.

It's also this

All of the Foxfire books
http://www.amazon.com/The-Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Moonshining/dp/0385073534

Checkout the Foxfire books.

https://www.amazon.com/Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Building-Moonshining/dp/0385073534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506462027&sr=8-1&keywords=foxfire

The Foxfire Books

Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language, a look at how hereditary deafness on Martha's Vineyard led to a situation where most hearing people were bilingual in English and sign.

Very likely The Corner, which was later adapted into a movie and then loosely adapted and expanded into the tv show The Wire

http://www.amazon.com/The-Corner-Year-Inner-City-Neighborhood/dp/0767900316

The Corner by David Simon.

Also, it's a slightly different take (bounty hunter in the slums of Newark; more mindset, less about action) but The Seekers.

The Corner