The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

Cognitive Scientist and Harvard Professor, Steven Pinker's revised edition of The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (P.S.)  Provides a thorough treatment of his argument that humans are hard wired for the acquisition of language in the early stages of life.  Learning spoken and signed language after this early stage is difficult and the person will often be not as fluent as a native speaker.

Children will also improve on a language such as pigeon English developed by their adult parents. The children will develop a creole of this language incorporating more sophisticated parts of speech.  And parents should avoid beating themselves up over the way their children talk.  They have very little influence other then controlling their child's exposure to their peers.

He describes as failures the attempts at teaching other animals American Sign Language. Assessments of the animals by hearing individuals were much more charitable than the assessment of a deaf person who is more familiar with the signs.  We should not expect these other animals to adopt our form of communication as it would be difficult for humans to communicate using the natural communication style of a non-human primate.

He singled out parrots and dogs as being fairly good communicators. My dog listens well to specific commands and communicates his desire to go for a wall by picking up his lease and dragging it to the back door. My cats adopt there own style of selective listening, but are fairly clear in communicating their demands.

Professor Pinker dismisses many urban legends about language acquisition and expresses boredom at the pronouncement that indigenous people of Northern Canada have multiple words for snow.  That is the equivalent of saying that a typesetter has many words to describe fonts or that a mycologist has many words to describe different types of fungi.

Linguistics as a tool to understanding the brain - 50 minutes 

He offers up a sharp critique of the grammar mavens. He criticizes the group for not having a deep understanding of language development.  He is also quite comfortable with all of the spelling quirks of the English language.  It is meant to be read and not said.  A dog bites a man.  A computer stores bytes of data. 

Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven (USN - retired)

Admiral William H. McRaven's book, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World expands on his 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas -Austin.  His pithy book of life lessons can be read easily in one sitting.  The lessons are hard yet familiar.  Never give up. Life is not fair. We grow stronger through adversity. We need other people to help us be successful. Stand up to bullies. Start your day by accomplishing one thing - Make Your Bed.

At the start of 2017, I have been completing at least one an unpleasant task a day. This has now become a habit. My day is lighter with one less thing to worry about. Curiously, making my bed has not been one of them. After reading this book, I will now add it to the list.

The admiral covers some of the most painful situations in life including, dismemberment, death, facing bullies (sharks and Saddam Hussein).  He also talks about rising to the occasion and giving people hope when others are giving up. He encourages us to be brave and give strength and comfort to others. As all of us experience loss we can use that experience to help others in similar circumstances dig in and do as the man who had lost parts of both legs did.  He used sign language to indicate that he was okay. This brought the Admiral to tears.

Texas commencement speech - May 17, 2014 - 19 minutes

None of us are immune from adversity. With determination and help from others we can face the misery that life with no thought to fairness dumps on us.

Mel Brooks - Bird scene from High Anxiety - Approx. 1.5 minutes

Geology - The story of Earth by Dr. Kate Zeigler

The Modern Scholar: Geology: The Story of Earth by Dr. Kate Zeigler covers the basics of geology over eight lectures.  She provides very clear and understandable description of the most important aspects of geology including research showing how scientists determine the make up of the earth's core.

Her discussion of the geomagnetic variability at the divergent plate boundary in the Atlantic Ocean was very clear and easy to understand.  I also have a better appreciation of how rocks are formed.  The minerals that make up the rocks in the earth are of a surprisingly small number of elements.  Learning that marble is a metamorphic version of limestone provides a good reason for not exposing marble to acidic liquids.

Which prehistoric creature would you choose to ride into battle? (approx. 1 min.)

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

Steven Johson's book focuses on Joseph Priestly and his influence on science, faith and politics during and immediately after the American Revolution.  A contemporary and friend of Benjamin Franklin, Priestly conducted many observational experiments discovering that plants produced a chemical (later determined to be oxygen) that was necessary to sustain life in animals.

The free swapping of ideas without specific need for monetary gain provided benefit to society. Also the coffee shop meetings provided two benefits.  It was a meeting place to share ideas and the coffee provided more mental stimulation than the usual morning beer.

Priestly's friend, Lavoisier (the co-discoverer of oxygen) also had a hand in ensuring the victory for the American's in the Revolutionary War. Lavoisier's death in the French Revolution provides a cautionary tale of the dark side of revolutionary fever.