George Carlin skewers a wide range of targets in this compilation of humor. As usual some of the material is for adults only and not for those easily offended. His mastery of the increasingly euphemistic world we live in make it worth reading. I've included a section of his speech to the National Press Club below on the phases of a political scandal. It it a helpful primer for predicting the inevitable path of future events.
I enjoyed going from Odysseus and Beowulf to James Bond and Harry Potter. Each of the 24 episodes covers a different style of hero. Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings is not a typical hero. He comes ill prepared to the task and grows into his role as an unlikely hero.
The Icelandic poems of Thor reveal the human and often humorous side of a hero with tremendous strength. Lesser know characters such as the colorful Wife of Bath by Chaucer are discussed alongside Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett.
Each of the stories is put in historical context to give a better understanding of the character and the author. The series is a useful overview of the types of heroes available to authors creating their own memorable characters.
Writing to the gaps in literature from Tolkien by Thomas Shippey 5 min 30 seconds
The book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character), covers the life of this physicist from his early days devising more efficient ways to answer the telephone at a hotel front desk, his encounters with Einstein and Bohr, to his consternation at receiving a Nobel Prize.
Professor Feynman is up for adventure. He spends a year in Brazil, at
first working to convert the Spanish he just learned into Portuguese and eventually moonlighting as a pandeiro player for a local samba band. He offers up a
critique of the Brazilian educational system that is applicable to flaws
in the US system. We learn by memorization but don't know how it applies to the real world.
Leading up to World War II, he works for the military and then is pulled into the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He is sent off to Oak Ridge Laboratories and discovers a storage problem with the nuclear material. It is being stored too close together and could result in an explosion. He helps them redesign he plant even though he's never seen a blueprint before.
When he returns to Los Alamos, Mr. Feynman learns how to become a safe cracker combining physics with psychology and illustrating lapses in the security system.
The book celebrates the joy of saying yes to an adventure and yes to continually learning new skills to live life to its fullest.
Richard Feynman - The Great Explainer -Sci Show - 10 min.
The book, More Reflections is available from Amazon. It continues the study of a reflected world started in Reflections on Pareidolia. Photos from the University of Minnesota and from Silverwood Park are included in this edition.
Images similar to this reflected image of the Rokker V sculpture near Williamson Hall are included.
The book, The Sultan and the Queen: The Untold Story of Elizabeth and Islam by Jerry Brotton covers the embrace of Islamic trading and political alliances by the protestant Queen Elizabeth at the end of the 16th century. The Catholic dominance of Spain and France limited the trading options available to England and the country sent emissaries to Russia, Persia, Morocco and the Ottoman Empire.
The English representatives attempt to understand the different forms of Islam and the Shia and Sunni officials also attempt to make sense of the divisions between Catholics and Protestants. Neither one fully understands the other. The author gently makes the comparison to current circumstances in the world.
The author also covers the cross cultural exchange and its affect on the Elizabethan theatrical productions of Marlow and Shakespeare culminating with Othello. The escapades of the Shirley Brothers (Wikipedia) is also the subject of a play. One brother in particular, Sir Anthony Shirley, is a colorful character who ingratiates himself with many individuals and them proceeds to wear out his welcome leaving a trail of debts behind as he changes his original mission on the fly.
Jerry Brotton - Islam and Shakespeare - 3 min.
Tsars Sultans and the Shakespearian World - 22 min.
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.
, is also available through Amazon Prime Great Courses Signature Collection. 
, covers the life of this physicist from his early days devising more efficient ways to answer the telephone at a hotel front desk, his encounters with Einstein and Bohr, to his consternation at receiving a Nobel Prize. 
is available from Amazon. It continues the study of a reflected world started in Reflections on Pareidolia. Photos from the University of Minnesota and from Silverwood Park are included in this edition. 
by Jerry Brotton covers the embrace of Islamic trading and political alliances by the protestant Queen Elizabeth at the end of the 16th century. The Catholic dominance of Spain and France limited the trading options available to England and the country sent emissaries to Russia, Persia, Morocco and the Ottoman Empire.
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.