The University of Minnesota has an Open Textbook Library as a substitute for standard text books. The authors of these text books are typically paid a flat fee to produce
the book by a foundation. The author waves royalty rights and the
books are made available for without cost. For introductory subjects
that change very little (algebra, physics, and statistics) these
resources can be a real help to cash strapped college students.
There are good introductory books for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. I did not find any open text books listed for Microbiology or Mycology but they had a good Elementary Algebra Textbook.
David Ernst - CIO - College of Ed and Human Dev. - U of Minnesota - 20 min.
Henry Kissinger's World Order provides an in depth perspective on the geopolitical balance of power in all regions of the world. Starting with the doctrine of Westphalian Sovereignty (Wikipedia) developed after the 30 years war in 1648 the author uses it as a point of comparison for each country or region of the world. Do countries respect boarders and not interfere in the internal domestic affairs of another country?
In Europe, the consolidation of the separate German states with Prussia created a political imbalance in Europe that led to two world wars. The largely unabated quest for land by Russia was only halted by the outbreak of World War I. If left unchecked the natural inclination for Russia is continued expansion to the Atlantic.
I came away impressed by the resilience of two countries in the book, Japan and India. Japan for it's flexibility in taking in new approaches to technology, trade and governance without sacrificing its cultural heritage. It also has responded with resilience to end of World War II and the recent Tsunami.
India became a unified country indirectly through the efforts of the United Kingdom to organized the region. The colonial rulers provided enough education for India to develop an awareness of being a nation and eventually cast off British rule. India's rich intellectual heritage allowed the country to take an unaligned path through the cold war. The splitting of Bangladesh and Pakistan made it much easier to maintain the balance of power in the region although conflict periodically flares up between the countries.
Mr. Kissinger covers the messy implications of the Arab Spring. The moderate secular uprisings were quickly over run by groups with singular visions for the need to make sure they were the ones in power. These groups could not accept a pluralistic society where they may not be in charge.
Iran emerges as a principle agent for the destabilization of states in the region in favor of religious rule. As Persia/Iran has a long history of statehood of over 3,000 years the recent turn toward a fundamentalist rule is perplexing.
Countries in SE Asia learned from the United States involvement in the Korean War that it is willing to accept a stalemate over victory. During the Korean War, the Chinese killed more Americans during the two year negotiation for the end to hostilities than died during the active phase of fighting. The Chinese applied the lessons from the Art of War and attacked the American Army ordered to hold defensive positions.
This sobering book provides a clinical dissection of origins of the current World Order. I found it alternately fascinating and stomach churning.
The audio version of the book has a good question and answer format with a reader posing the question and a different person providing the answers. It was a good book to listen to while commuting to work. The author confesses to not being a very good student while growing up. He had lots of questions and didn't like the format used for instruction in school. His natural curiosity led him to write this book and a series of other books with similar titles.
Ken Davis - Don't Know Much About Anything Else - 3 min.
Ken has written a sequel to the book with more fun facts and information helping us know more about our world.
Isaac Asimov's Words of Science had been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 20 years. I just completed it reading a couple definitions at a time starting from the back of the book. My version of the book was published in the late 1950's. It has an outdated reference to DDT as a chemical treatment that worked well to control malaria and other insect related pathogens.
I was surprised at the liberal borrowing from many different languages for scientific vocabulary, including many Arabic words. The alkali metal category for the water reactive potassium, sodium and cesium has an Arabic origin.
The Hg initials for mercury combine letters from words that literally mean quick silver. The known planets were originally named after the known elements only mercury survived the initial cut as it was the planet that moved quickly like the element mercury. The later radioactive elements of Uranium, Neptunium and plutonium were named after the last planets/dwarf planet in the solar system (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).
provides an in depth perspective on the geopolitical balance of power in all regions of the world. Starting with the doctrine of 
covers a wide range of topics with enough depth of provide a good general knowledge review. 
had been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 20 years. I just completed it reading a couple definitions at a time starting from the back of the book. My version of the book was published in the late 1950's. It has an outdated reference to DDT as a chemical treatment that worked well to control malaria and other insect related pathogens.