Undeniable by Bill Nye

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.

The earth is not really 6,000 years old - 7 min. 

Misqouting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

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)

Rules of the Game: How Government Works and Why it Sometimes Doesn't by Phillip W. Magnus and Paul Weissburg

Authors Phillip W. Magnus and Paul Weissburg's series of lectures titled, The Modern Scholar: Rules of the Game: How Government Works and Why It Sometimes Doesn't, covers the function and disfunction of government from the progressive and neo-liberal (more conservative) perspective.

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.

Private Sector vs. Public Sector 2 min. 

The Game of Work by Charles A. Coonradt

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

Reflections on Pareidolia

Weisman gates -  N. Carlson

The book, Reflections on Pareidolia: Mirrored images at the University of Minnesota  takes the reader on a reflected visual tour of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus.  At each location a photo of the location is included with information about the building's architect and its current use.  Mirror images similar to those above and below follow.   Most of the images were taken in 2015 and 2016. Please visit, Mirror image photography for more examples.  An Amazon Kindle version of Reflections on Pareidolia is also now available.

Weisman Robot - N. Carlson

The Art of Public Speaking by John R. Hale

John R. Hale's series of lectures on The Great Courses: Art of Public Speaking - Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History offers sound advice for constructing and delivering a speech to a wide variety of audiences.

He suggests that you do not use words but only images in power point presentations.  The words displayed on the screen interfere with the audiences' ability to understand what you are saying.

You don't have to start out your speech with a powerful beginning, instead use it to get a sense of the audience and create some room to maneuver.  Keep the attention of your audience by avoiding being too predictable. Finish strong with a memorized conclusion and avoid immediately asking for questions upon completion of the speech.

Use triads to deliver messages.  Churchill said I only have to "offer you blood, sweat, toil, and tears."  Audiences have chosen to forget the word toil to make the phrase more memorable.

Professors Hale 's background as an anthropologist gives more depth to his suggestions as he is not only an expert in giving speeches, he also conducts field research and lectures on the results.

John R. Hale - Why do civilizations fall and flourish? - 12 min.

Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss

In Lynne Truss's book, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door, the author describes the current state of rudeness in society.  In Lynne's previous book, Eats Shoots and Leaves, she suggests that proper punctuation helps make clear the intentions of a writer. 

In my experience people generally respond favorably to having a door opened for them, but Lynne has often encountered indifference which is troubling.  People do need to exchange phatic phrases ("Thank you. Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you.") that acknowledge that we are not in our own bubble but are interacting with the rest of the world.  

How do we confront bad behavior in social situations.  We have to weigh the risks.  Is this person likely to do me physical harm or will my failure to correct the bad behavior cause harm to myself or others? Enforcing the no smoking rule on campus can be dependent on the situation with safety taking priority. While I was on an emergency response, a man walked up to me, took a drag from his cigarette, and asked, "So where's the natural gas leak?" I firmly but politely told him to extinguish his cigarette.  I then pointed them towards the gas leak and told him that's why my meters was beeping.

High end table manners with some arbitrary rules about which way to eat peas with which utensil are used as methods of class distinction rather than assessing if some one has good overall manners. Reducing the tendency to tell people to "eff off" as Lynne puts it would go a long way to increasing civility, as would decreasing those behaviors which elicit that response.   

Punctuation at English School with Lynne Truss - 19 minutes