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a dinosaur is a book which has been turning heads throughout the paleo blogosphere since its initial publication last year and for good reason though many reviewers including yours truly initially feared that horner and gorman s latest literary escapade would prove itself to be little more than a compendium of pseudoscientific twaddle it s turned out to be no such thing instead how to build a dinosaur is a concise comprehensive and quite readable introduction to evo devo and the fledgling science of molecular paleontology the piece de resistance however is the book s excitingly plausible central thesis this idea maintains that given the ancestry of modern birds from small nonavian theropods one could theoretically isolate the developmental routes which emerge during embryonic growth and separate the former group s gross anatomy from the latter s just like their mesozoic forebears all present day birds such as chickens begin to develop long tails early in their ontogeny however the accumulation of subsequent mutations during the course of their evolution has resulted in the acquisition of molecules which switch off the maturation of this tail reducing it to the mere stub with which poultry farmers have long since grown familiar were the precise location of these deactivation molecules unearthed their functionality could be neutralized resulting in a chicken with an extensive tail similar measures could be taken to create chickens with clawed hands toothed mouths and scaly bodies ultimately through this ingenious technique a little creature nearly indistinguishable from a nonavian theropod could be brought into the world needless to say i ve elected to grant this volume my fullest endorsement such as it is a definite must read snakehead a fish out of water by eric jay dolin my thoughts those turning to snakehead a book dedicated to the public frenzy surrounding the 2002 discovery of a population of namesake chinese fish scientifically known as channa argus lurking about a secluded maryland pond in search of a quick biological read are bound to be amused but ultimately disappointed for it s most informative commentary is instead reserved for the mainstream media and its regrettable habit of instilling undue panic throughout the populace while this is most assuredly an issue worthy of further discussion dolin tends to dwell upon journalistic irresponsibility at the expense of addressing the worldwide pandemic of invasive species although his book has an irritating tendency to reprint articles satirical sketches political cartoons and panel discussions about the 2002 c argus infestation in their entirety without regard for redundancy its prose dedicates a mere handful of pages in the introductory and concluding chapters to examining the larger issue at hand still for those in search of a light yet evocative summer read snakehead is a good place to start zeno and the tortoise how to think like a philosopher by nicholas fearn my thoughts zeno and the tortoise purports to be an introduction to philosophy equipped with a pronounced emphasis on developing an appreciation for the thought experiments and formulas created by the discipline s greatest minds from ancient greece to the twenty first century unfortunately however fearn has here succumbed to the widespread literary pathology of poorly executing an exquisite idea this regrettable situation is chiefly the result of his vague and often impregnable prose which manages to inhibit clarity at nearly every turn a style whose marriage to an explanatory book concerning a subject as complex and all encompassing as philosophy spells disaster for the novice reader additionally zeno and the tortoise gives virtually no mention of any sort to eastern philosophers and thus does a great dis service for those attempting to widen their knowledge of this magnificent field on the global level nevertheless fearn s individual chapters often serve as an impeccable review of philosophical concepts to those who had previously encountered their individual concepts i for example was able to absorb his declarations concerning relativism rationalism utilitarianism falsifiability and the limitations of reasonable doubt with comparative ease given my prior exposure to all five notions elsewhere the book s greatest asset to the completely clueless reader or partially clueless reader such as myself however is unquestionably its further reading section which prescribes a handful of external sources through which one might obtain additional information about each chapter s content at length this segment notwithstanding zeno and the tortoise should be viewed as a study guide for dedicated students of philosophy rather than a venue through which beginners may gain exposure to its various teachings dinosaur odyssey fossil threads in the web of life by scott d sampson my thoughts despite this blog s well documented bias towards cenozoic mammals my initial fascination with the field of paleontology was as with many of its other enthusiasts initially sparked by an impassioned love of dinosaurs which persists unhindered to this day dinosaur odyssey is a book which captures the essence of this infatuation by expressing a reverence for the romanticism of these incredible beasts throughout an easygoing venture into the remarkable and frequently humbling discoveries of their study the explanatory power of each chapter s analysis into a plethora of such intricate paleontological ecological and evolutionary topics concerning this most remarkable group as their emergence predator prey relationships metabolic rates sexual displays and near extinction is rivaled only by its exuberance and ardor furthermore sampson s concluding segment about why paleontological science matters should be considered an absolute must read for anyone who professes to care about the discipline and its future dinosaur odyssey is that rarest of books which i can honestly recommend to everyone ranging from those in possession of so much as a hint of interest in dinosaurian paleontology to the discipline s seasoned veterans and practitioners a sand county almanac and sketches here and there by aldo leopold my thoughts last february i reprinted aldo leopold s on a monument to a pigeon a humbling and awe inspiring essay concerning the philosophical implications of the passenger pigeon s ectopistes migratorius infamous extinction at our hands during the late eighteenth and very early nineteenth centuries the exquisite nature of its prose and arguments inspired me to seek out a sand county almanac a congregation of several dozen such ecological and environmental essays which homogeneously maintain an underlying philosophy of reverence and appreciation for the natural world and our fellow inhabitants therein of particular intrigue are january thaw thinking like a mountain and the land ethic for their magnificent exemplification of this worldview my only true criticism of a sand county almanac stems from no fault of leopold s but rather its posthumous publication due to the fact that these essays were compiled merely a year after the death of their author they ve been subjected to little if any editorial supervision which enables the book s content to grow redundant when read from cover to cover however this is but a microscopic blemish upon the face of a truly epic volume whose effects upon the american conservationist movement rival those of rachel carson s silent spring in proportion and durability the second bill of rights fdr s unfinished revolution and why we need it now more than ever by cass r sunstein my thoughts in the words of lester ward those who denounce state intervention are the ones who most frequently and successfully invoke it the cry of lassiez faire mainly goes up from the ones who if really let alone would instantly lose their wealth absorbing power this most divisive of contentions is magnificently defended by sunstein an eminent constitutional scholar and historian the second bill of rights was the informal name bestowed upon a series of in sunstein s words constitutive commitments that is ideals protected by the day s prevailing interpretation of the nation s constitution rather than the document itself designed to domestically heed fdr s famous observation that freedom from fear is eternally linked with freedom from want in other words if america were to avoid descending into a pitifully uneven state that could easily fall prey to the likes of totalitarian forces such as those which had previously swept hitler s germany and stalin s russia roosevelt maintained that every citizen must be guaranteed an additional set of unalienable rights such as the right to adequate medical care a decent home and a good education among others sunstein also examines the international effects of this second bill and reveals beyond any doubt that those countries which incorporate its essence into their political landscape are currently far better off than its nation of origin the making of the fittest dna and the ultimate forensic record of evolution by sean b carroll my thoughts much ado has been made about sean caroll s highly readable writing style and for good reason in the making of the fittest he effortlessly guides the reader through such notoriously complex evolutionary topics as endosymbiosis evo devo and gene fossilization furthermore while most authors of such introductory popular science texts tend to shy away from examining their field s most unusual constituents in the fear that their added complexity would thwart the progress of the reader s emerging comprehension caroll highlights a plethora of bizarre and thoroughly engaging biological nonconformists to the delight and awe of the enthusiast and layman alike furthermore in a scathing and unapologetic chapter towards the book s conclusion that can only be described as a work of sheer brilliance the licentious and decietful tactics of intelligent design proponents are brutally unmasked whether you re an evolutionary devotee or a curious non expert the making of the fittest is sure to both enlighten and entertain why beautiful people have more daughters from dating shopping and praying to going to war and becoming a bilionaire two evolutionary psychologists explain why we do what we do by alan s miller satoshi kanazawa my thoughts since it s earliest exposure to the general public via darwin s the descent of man and selection in relation to sex the field of evolutionary psychology aka e p has maintained the dubious honor of arguably being the most controversial subdiscipline of any scientific domain for nearly a century and a half having managed to simultaneously divide the general public and scientific community throughout this time in why beautiful people have more daughters miller and kanazawa do an impeccable job of forcing the reader to understand that e p s routine political incorrectness is merely an examination of the way things are and not necessarily the way they ought to be however the authors are far more careless with regards to the headings given to various segments of discussion for instance their twin declarations that human nature stopped evolving 10 000 years ago and our brains are stuck in the stone age while not entirely devoid of truth are misleading and frankly somewhat reckless fortunately what miller and kanazawa lack in diplomacy is made up for in fairness these men certainly aren t shy about the limitations of evolutionary psychology despite their shared passion for the subject and this willingness to acknowledge the young demesne s imperfections alongside its achievements and contributions is most admirable a confederacy of dunces by john kennedy toole my thoughts although i don t read fiction with the frequency of the average bibliophile my comparatively limited exposure to the art form has nonetheless instilled within me a conviction that its most interesting characters are invariably those which the audience loves to hate in this sense i ve yet to encounter a literary figure more captivating than a confederacy of dunces s protagonist one ignatius j reily while the routinely deplorable escapades of this verbose malodorous lackadaisical delusional pompous gluttonous discourteous self righteous anachronistic hideously clad and morbidly obese medievalist should ideally repulse the reader the extravagant outlandishness with which he executes such mundane activities as job hunting and moviegoing is positively endearing while reily is unquestionably the novel s star attraction toole s supporting cast is miraculously devoid of virtually any character which could be truthfully cited as stereotypical and these eccentrics bounce flawlessly bounce off each other to create a beautifully unorthodox plot beneath this satirical masterpiece four reasonable men marcus aurelius john stuart mill ernest renan henry sidgwick by brand blanshard my thoughts in this delightfully original and for the most part brilliantly executed narrative the reader is presented with a quartet of miniature biographies about four men whom he believes to have been great for the same reason the government of their lives by a quiet habitual reasonableness in blanshard s view reasonableness is defined as the possession of such admirable and as renan often noted in a secular sense christlike qualities as discipline restraint fairness tact open mindedness and respect for one s opponents while four reasonable men does an impeccable job of explaining why all of its subjects deserve to be cited as possessors of these most honorable traits it does harbor a tendency to make relatively bold declarations concerning each man s character and values without adequately reinforcing these contentions fortunately however the offending passages are relatively rare and fail to detract from blanshard s ingenious approach to enriching life and addressing the ethical concerns of the human condition itself a sea without fish life in the ordovician sea of the cincinnati region by david l meyer richard arnold davis my thoughts despite my lifelong captivation with vertebrate paleontology i must admit that the sister science of invertebrate paleontology isn t nearly as engaging in my view this fact largely stems from the latter discipline s comparative disregard for functional morphology in favor of stratigraphy while both are highly relevant fields to each study i simply find the former to be immeasurably more interesting consequently i had essentially assumed that a sea without fish would conform to the general trend of emphasizing the geological aspects of its spineless subjects over their physiological and ecological makeup thankfully i was pleasantly surprised for meyer and davis have balanced both topics seamlessly to provide a thorough and captivating analysis of the cincinnati region s world famous ordovician denizens in what is perhaps the finest example of a regional paleontology book i ve ever come across of...