Stumbling Into The Great Experiment
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Glenn Beck said, "It is God's finger that wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution." Beck's childlike view is either malarkey or God has a multiple-personality disorder because developing the Constitution was a cacophony of different opinions. It would be nice to think that handing a copy of Mr. Rakove's 'Original Meanings' to believers in Beck's dreck would help them see reality, but the author's writing is too dense for the average citizen to understand. The work is a dissection of the various viewpoints in the evolution of the Constitution. There is no real drama to the thing. It's a straight academic undertaking. 'Game of Thrones', it is not. You need to have a keen interest in understanding how the Great Experiment was put together to wade through the dry writing.

I believe it's worth the effort. This is the second time I've read 'Original Meanings'. The first time was back in 1997 when it was released in paperback. It was very helpful in putting the Constitution into proper perspective. James Madison, the main architect and proponent of the document, believed that time venerated everything. The longer the Constitution was applied, the more people would view it with respect. He was right. Heck, it's gotten to the point now that the darned thing is viewed by outspoken boneheads like Glenn Beck as guided by the Man Upstairs. Mr. Rakove's book is for people who still have a grip on reality. It covers how the toothless wonder called the Articles of Confederation was supplanted by Madison's brainchild. The hypothesis went through a great deal of debates and manifestations before they settled on the document we see today. Nothing got a free pass. They argued about the presidency, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Bill of Rights, slavery, proper representation, state and federal rights, religion, economic rights and constantly worried about one branch attaining too much power. Mr. Rakove also shows how Anti-Federalist's resistance to its ratification helped usher in the Bill of Rights which by no means was a foregone conclusion.

The Constitution is far from a perfect document. Ambiguity permeates it and unintended consequences were common. Almost immediately after the first Congress convened, everyone started arguing about the original intent. For crying out loud, and these were the guys who wrote the friggin' thing! Mr. Rakove also shows how today's Originalists, who believe the Constitution's meaning was fixed as of the time of enactment, are peddling an illusion... Huh... I just heard Justice Antonin Scalia roll over in his grave.
4601134
The prologue in An Ocean of Air recounts Captain Kittinger's extraordinary parachute jump from the edge of space to the desert in New Mexico. The epilogue describes the ascent of a weather balloon in Greenland. Sandwiched between these two accounts, the reader meets the scientists who devoted their time to discovering complexities of the air surrounding us.

The spectrum spans from Galileo (who tried to measure the weight of air when he was in his seventies) to Van Allen, after whom the radiation belts are named. In between, the reader meets several other personalities that come from all walks of life. The common bond tying them all together is that they all worked to understand the atmosphere, had to challenge notions of their day, and ultimately refined our knowledge of the atmosphere.

What is intriguing is that the reader is introduced to the prevailing notion of air, the questions that these scientists posed, the empirical methods they used to satiate their curiosity, and the knowledge they bequeathed to humanity. There are no equations, just details of these scientists' lives that make their quest personal and high-level overview of the prevailing wisdom. Thus readers are invited to shares in the trials, tribulations, and eventual successes that these men experienced.

Air is often thought as "nothing" (an "empty" glass for example). Galileo sought to "weigh" nothingness. In turn he could pose the question that if air has weight, could it really be nothing? Thus the question's underlying assumption challenged the prevailing notion that air is nothing. From the time of the Ancient Greeks, air was thought to be an element (and hence indivisible). Priestley's work (which separate the gases in air) challenged this notion and the theory of "different airs" developed. Walker presents these and many other notions that eventually bring the reader to contemporary theories. No doubt as scientific work progresses, our notion of the atmosphere will evolve.

While Walker is a scientist, her writing style is akin to that of a novelist. The descriptions are vivid, the prose is fluid, the text unassuming - making the book a page-turner (if there ever could be a page-turner science book)!

Armchair Interviews says: Some interesting information.
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A story of an unmarried Jewish woman in a man's world of science.  The biography of Rosalind Franklin opens the book on a well-to-do Jewish family in the UK, revealing some of the deep-seated pressures and motivations driving this remarkable experimentalist.  As a Biochemist, I now appreciate the fact that there is more to the discovery of the double helix than you will read about in The Double Helix.  Indeed, the discovery of the double helix may be a 50 year-old example paralleling today's insider trading.  The discovery of the double helix is the story of how someone is presented with the unpublished data of Rosalind Franklin (the acknowledged key to the structure of DNA)and "sells" the product to the world without her permission or knowledge.  Warning: this book may change your perspective.  I could not put this book down.
4865127
The book is a fascinating journey into the world of quantum physics. Leading experts provide their opinions into the bleeding edge research being conducted. Some of the answers are somewhat technical but can be comprehended with careful reading.
4891523
Great book, by great writers and great podcasters. The book and the experiment, shows that looking at things from a different prospective is worth the effort and the scrutiny.
3167794
Carl Sagan and Richard Feyman both had that unique personal quality, a likability that was contagious and made you want to learn what they knew.  They emphasized all that was positive about science, the wonder, the beauty, the process.  Lawrence Krauss has that special spark in his eye too.  While Krauss doesn't quite match up to the likes of Feyman (who can?), he does demonstrate the excitement behind the discoveries and in the way those discoveries are made.

It is 20 years since the publication of this book and yet this book was dated from the start.  As it often is with science.  The Texas-based Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) he hoped would some day answer some of the most pressing particle physicists' questions was abandoned in the same year this book saw publication.  Yet, many of the fundamental observations will unlikely diminish in applicability.  Krauss, for instance, explains how most major, ground-breaking insights and developments in science rarely, entirely replace what was known before, but rather perfect our understanding of it.  Newtonian physics for example has not been discarded, but augmented.  In perhaps the most notorious example, you learn how you really can adequately solve a bovine-related problem by imagining the cow as a sphere.  In another, even seemingly wild estimates of universal measurement are shown to be practical and sensible when they are within the correct order of magnitude.

Not for the absolute science beginner, but a popular science book that isn't just another in a long line of those exclaiming, yet again, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it".  Fear of Physics aids in that understanding of not just what physics is, but how it is done.
2049064
I am so glad I opened my mind enough to do a few of these experiments myself. My reality is blown. The earth is flat. I was deceived by the system. Bring an open mind and  make these observations for yourself.  Free your mind!
3974088
E Squared by Pam Grout

Pam Grout is my new favorite author. I enjoyed reading this book so much that I would love to read and know more from her. E Squared is easy to read, fun, all the ideas are scientifically supported, credible and something that sets this book apart from the others is that Pam gives us experiments to prove that our thoughts really do create our reality. I tried the experiments, and I was blown away by most results I had; this is my experience:

Experiment #1 The Dude Abides Principle: I got a ticket to see Eckhat Tolle and Deepak Chopra at the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. How cool is that!!

Experiment #2 The Volkswagen Jetta: I didn't see any sunset-beige cars, but I saw lots of yellow butterflies while watching Baby Einstein with my kids.

Experiment #3 The Alby Einstein: I got rid of all my wire hangers in my last Spring Cleaning, so I couldn't do this experiment.

Experiment #4 The Abracadabra: What I learned from this experiment is that you have to be specific when asking for something to manifest. I focused on getting $ 5,000 but I didn't specify if I wanted them in cash of check, so what I got was a spam e-mail with a picture of lots of bills a huge sign " Win $ 5,000" in the bottom of the e-mail.

Experiment #5 The Dear Abby: I asked God and my Angels for guidance on how to make my business more succesful, and what I got at the next morning was a bunch of creative ideas, and something made me yell YES!!

Experiment #6 The Super Hero: Haven't started this experiment yet.

Experiment #7 The Jenny Craig: I lost 1 pound by just thinking every zip of water would clean my organism.

Experiment #8 The 101 Dalmatians: The friend I was thinking about and sending lots of blessings and happiness, rarely posts comments in Facebook, however at the second day of my experiment, she posted a picture of her beautiful growing vegetable garden and expressed how happy she was about it. That same night I was watching a movie and it turned out it was filmed in Verona,Italy; the city this friend is from.

Experiment #9 The Fish and Loaves:  My favorite gesture of gratitude was a little happy dance a homeless man did when I gave him a dollar bill in my way to work.
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From the very beginning of E-cubed, literally the first page of the first chapter,  the reader gets the distinct impression that this book will be a lot of fun to read and it will certainly turn our static views of the world, indeed the very way we see the world, on its head (no, I won't say specifically what the author, Pam Grout, does - that would spoil the fun).

In E-cubed Pam Grout continues from her previous book, E- squared with ...nine new experiments and more tips on how to keep the gates of the worlds largess and abundance wide-open... The experiments are easily understood, simple to implement and won't cost the reader a thing, other than the loss of old belief systems.

The central idea behind all of the experiments is to demonstrate that our traditional views and beliefs systems can be very limiting and by expanding our awareness into the quantum field, or the field of potentiality (abbreviated as FP in the book), we can make use of latent, universal powers to help create a better reality for ourselves and for the world as a whole.

When we recognize The fact that your thoughts are energy waves being broadcast out into this giant field of infinite potentiality is something you should be aware of and deploying on a moment-by-moment basis we can break free from the traditional memes in which we have predominantly lived our lives. For those that are not aware, dictionaries define a meme as, An element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation or An idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. The nine memes that are discussed in E-cubed are then associated with the nine experiments (funny how that worked =;0) and the reader is encouraged to see that our reality can actually change when we overcome our memes.

Regardless of the results we obtain from each individual experiment, and judging from the huge success of the experiments from the first book I expect the positive responses from readers of this book will also be equally amazing, my main take-away from this book is that we don't have to stay victims of our past or be limited by our social programming. By moving from the conditioned memes to Worldview 2.0, as Pam refers to it, we start to realize our real potential.

Although readers of other books in this genre will recognize some familiar themes: the power of gratitude, the interconnectedness of all things in the universe, the importance of happiness and, perhaps the most important idea, that thoughts are things and create our reality, I can say that Pam shares these concepts with an unparalleled sense of humour. Indeed, I have yet to find any book in the self-empowerment/self-help/personal awareness genre that was as fun to read as E-cubed.
395952
Ah! The wonders of our universe -- from the physics of the big to the small. You can't help but be intrigued by the world around us. The show was great with the exception of a couple lame analogies in the shows. Science isn't a belief, it is only what we have learned thus far to hold true. Note the key work "learned."
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Yes there is static and hissing and rude interruptions by the narrator announcing chapter sections, but you get to hear one of the worlds greatest physicists and perhaps the greatest physics teacher in his prime!

Once you get over the somewhat roguish Brooklyn accent, you start getting into the physics. I listened driving to and from work daily; without lecture notes, textbook or the visuals Feynman had available for the actual lectures. He is such a good instuctor that I was able to visualize the concepts he was discussing and actually came a way with a little bit of understanding of these complex principles. If I was in high school I would devote more time to these trenchant tropics and perhaps test my mettle in this difficult field of endeavor. For Feynman exudes such love of his field and curiosity for the mysteries of our universe (and human existance) that he fills one with motivation to join him in the quest.
1803742
I enjoyed this book with its mixing of fiction with non-fiction.  Experiments performed on humans for the sake of science is not new.  Neither are the multitude of experiments inflicted on animals.  Crossing the line combining the two makes for interesting reading and a frightening future.  A great read and an awesome adventure!
4931144
I am currently headed deep down the rabbit hole of Graham Hancock's consciousness, and there is no turning back.
A true delight of a headtrip that will expand your understanding of history, geometry, time, precessional motion of the earth, astronomy, myth and mystery.
There is so much we don't know. Best to collectively roll up our sleeves and start digging.
Fingerprints of the Gods is a great place to start.
4653394
This was great. I loved that Amanda Gefter and her father were on a quest to get to the bottom of these questions, and they wouldn't let anything stop them. I learned some new physics along the way, and now I'll have to track down a more rigorous treatment of some of these new concepts. Lots of fun!
1334994
Kumar's masterstroke is giving us just enough information to understand each significant discovery as it occurs. First we see quanta in energy, then the photoelectric effect, then the evolution of the concept of the atom. Kumar expertly balances descriptions of experiments and challenges to conventional thinking with the payoff of new ideas, generating suspense and wonder in equal measure.

This eminently readable book also reminds us that even geniuses can be trapped by their own ideas. In tracing the development of quantum theory, we see great physicists fail to accept the evidence for everything from atoms to electrons to the probability clouds of quantum theory. For instance, the great experimentalist Max Planck, who first quantized energy when studying blackbody radiation, was never able to fully accept the implications of his discovery - and this despite the equation flying in the face of all established  "truth" up to that point.

So we can forgive Einstein for never being able to accept quantum theory (despite his contributions via the photoelectric effect). Maybe it was because he was a theorist rather than an experimentalist, and quantum theory at the time did not easily lend itself to top-down theorizing. Maybe it was because he was old. He certainly didn't like the look of all those probability clouds. In any event, Kumar's description of his thought experiment that (temporally) rocked Bohr and the experiment's surprise resolution is pure gold - and one of the book's great payoffs. Highly recommended.
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The author presents a grand overview, and interlink, with learned conjecture of the best ilk, of the lives of four great men of science.

This book follows the unbelievably intertwined lives, for almost sixty years, of a number of the brightest and best pursuers of knowledge in the United Kingdom, and, perhaps, most of the world.  Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell and Richard Jones were drawn together while attending college.  They were, typically for their era, somewhat a group of young college "hell-raisers."  That would be, excluding, the fact that these four students and scientists, and their friends and associates, had among them about half of the brain power of the entire planet, at the time.

Among them, they developed the first computer, and the first "software", mapped  the stars of the southern hemisphere, created the very word "scientist", created a new and towering method of conducting science and helped invert modern photography.  A stunning array of other innovations dropped around the world almost as casual afterthought to their primary concerns.

The only thing that was bothersome was that their enemies, real or imagined, had most of the other half.

The list of their goals and achievements, their contribution to science (including coining the word "scientist"), their struggles, their failures, their private and public lives makes a fascinating "read."

Laura Snyder, the author, is a Fulbright scholar, past president of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, and, associate professor of philosophy at St. John's University  She has woven a marvelous narrative that reads, very technically, but, yet, like an adventure story.

We follow the main protagonists and the people that they encounter on their journey, from Davies Gilbert to Ada Lovelace.  From Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Benjamin Disaeli to Fakers and the Queen (Victoria).  And a stunning cast of hundreds of the great minds of many centuries.

I enjoyed this ride (or read) and I heartily recommend this book to all with an interest in science and/or the history of the Victorian Era in Great Britain.  Immersion in this work is near the same as actually being present in the time and space described.

I could only wish that someone of this author's stature would write a book about Paris and La Belle Epoque!

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Philosophical-Breakfast-Club-Four-Remarkable-Friends-Who-Transformed-Science-and-Changed-the-World/dp/0767930495/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World</a>
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I was with a class that went to Nepal with Professor Gamow.  Under him, we studied the effects of altitude.  I learned about his invention the Gamow Bag.  He provided us a Nepalese family to live with.  I ate Nepalese food.  I hiked beautiful country.  I explored Kathmandu.  I met inspiring people.  Professor Gamow guided me on an experience I'll remember always.  He is a great professor.  I've have seen his new science tutorials: The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins.  Basically, they are lectures and stories of the lives of scientists together.  Professor Gamow understands the science and personally knew some of the people who studied it.  The learning pace is comfortable.  I enjoyed it because I make connections with the personal stories.  Madame Curie and her husband were quite a pair and they were experimenting with very dangerous materials. Einstein was creative to the core and had a sense of humor.  The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins allows the viewer to dream alongside the greats.