Recently I had the opportunity to edit and publish a Kindle book, Poems of a Survivor by Scott Murphy. His collection of short poems follows a path from a dark past into a place of hope. I took the cover photo early one fall morning at a rest stop on 35W near Goose Creek rest stop in Minnesota. The image captures the emotional range of the poetry.
The book, Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye describes the evidence for evolution. He relays a debate he has with a creationist and proceeds to poke holes in the theories laid out by the gentleman.
It is interesting to see the emotional frustration of a scientists attempting to respond to critics who are not open to their own critical self assessment. It is a lesson for all of us holding on to specific beliefs that may need to be adjusted to accommodate new information. The new information does need to be held up to critical assessment. We've had many studies where the belief of scientists caused them to cherry pick data with negative consequences for society (vaccine scares, early studies on health effects of cholesterol).
Bill Nye suggests that the Theory of Evolution is useful because of its utility. We can predict outcomes. We can see evolution in real time as bacterial colonies mutate to become resistant to antibiotics. The book is an excellent text on helping all of us become critical thinkers, helping us make decisions based on the best evidence available, and adjusting our beliefs so they are built on solid rocks of evidence and not the random sands of chance.
Bart D. Ehrman's book, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why provides a history of the development of the New Testament and the
transition from volunteer scribes to professional scribes who copied and
occasionally altered the text either by accident or intentionally.
The author was originally a born again Christian who believed that the Bible was the inerrant word of God. His studies of the histories of the Greek text in the New Testament found numerous variations in the copied manuscripts. The errors were either through carelessness as a person skipped a line in writing the text or willful as a scribe may try to make one account square with another gospel or if there was a current heretical discussion that needed to be addressed.
The original Greek text suffers from lack of punctuation and sometimes sloppy handwriting. Some of the more ancient texts were not copied by professional scribes but by amateurs who were doing their best but were more likely to commit errors.
Trying to figure out which version of the text is correct can be problematic and in some cases not resolvable. As the authors of the gospels were working from other source documents some editorial control was used in the creation of these documents.
The author concludes that the New Testament is a very human document where individuals did their best to describe the life of Christ and the early formation of the the Christian church.
Misquoting Jesus in the Gospel of John - 4 min. (warning strong opinions)
The authors provide a perspective on different aspects of the U.S. government from the founding to the present day. I was fascinated by the discussion on the problems and merits of the patronage system in New York. The current merit based civil service system assumes some level of academic competency for the position. The patronage system rewarded people based on relationships and allowed individuals from all ranks of society to work in government with respect to affiliation and not competency. This last method allowed for a bit more mobility through different classes of society. The first method was based on a meritocracy.
The back and forth between the two speakers was respectful and enlightening. I would highly recommend the lecture series to someone trying to get a better perspective on how our government is actually run and to understand the two major ideologies on US government operations.
Charles A Coonradt's book, The Game of Work, puts work and work rules in the context of sports. According to the author work should provide the challenge, fun and specific rules set out in sports. The same people that will put in extra time to excel at a sport in less than desirable conditions will complain about doing work under the same conditions (eg.: skiing vs. working in a snow storm).
One of the interesting comments involved reward for performance. During a football game a touchdown is still 6 points no matter how easy or hard it was to achieve it. Companies often change the rules of incentives if employees appear to reach the goal too easily. This reduces the incentive for employees to strive for success. In a more devious scenario the markers for success are hidden from employees and rewards are given out based on changing criteria known only to those with the purse strings.
The author advocates allowing employees some flexibility in adjusting their time schedules to accomplish production targets. Before hunting season, one company allowed workers to shift their schedules to work more hours earlier in the week and for the employees to leave on Thursday to allow them to hunt if the production target was met. The motivated workers completed the task by Wednesday at noon.
The boundaries of the field of play also reflect the boundaries at work. These behaviors or activities are listed as not acceptable with specific penalties listed for infractions similar to those penalties in a football game.
This book provided a fresh perspective on work and offers managers guidance for keeping employees motivated and treated fairly.
The Game of Work - Autobody repair shops - 2 min. 2014
Using the rules of sports for the game of work - 18 min. 2013
by Scott Murphy. His collection of short poems follows a path from a dark past into a place of hope. I took the cover photo early one fall morning at a rest stop on 35W near Goose Creek rest stop in Minnesota. The image captures the emotional range of the poetry. 
is now also available in paperback. 
by Bill Nye describes the evidence for evolution. He relays a debate he has with a creationist and proceeds to poke holes in the theories laid out by the gentleman.
provides a history of the development of the New Testament and the
transition from volunteer scribes to professional scribes who copied and
occasionally altered the text either by accident or intentionally. 
, covers the function and disfunction of government from the progressive and neo-liberal (more conservative) perspective. 
, puts work and work rules in the context of sports. According to the author work should provide the challenge, fun and specific rules set out in sports. The same people that will put in extra time to excel at a sport in less than desirable conditions will complain about doing work under the same conditions (eg.: skiing vs. working in a snow storm). 