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What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

Collaborate in choosing our next NON-FICTION book for group discussion within this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is necessary to participate here!
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Dexter

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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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Chris OConnor wrote: Book Description
China is now the #1 danger facing America. Best-selling author and economist Peter Navarro exposes every form of "death by China"—from lethal products to espionage, imperialism, and nuclear proliferation through China's relentless attack on the U.S. economy. A must-read book for every American, by the best-selling author of The Coming China Wars.

China is now the greatest threat to America.
Maybe I'm one of those China apologists and appeasers, but I'd be interested in a more serious book rather than the fear mongering and apparent economic ignorance about China "winning" (it's not a zero-sum game)

Just came across this, regarding goods "Made in China":
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/econo ... ource=home
Last edited by Dexter on Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Robert Tulip

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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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Having succeeded in my nomination of our current book, I hesitate to nominate another one, but here goes anyway.

Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
amazon.com/Structure-Scientific-Revolut ... 0226458083

Thomas S. Kuhn's classic book is now available with a new index.

"A landmark in intellectual history which has attracted attention far beyond its own immediate field. . . . It is written with a combination of depth and clarity that make it an almost unbroken series of aphorisms. . . . Kuhn does not permit truth to be a criterion of scientific theories, he would presumably not claim his own theory to be true. But if causing a revolution is the hallmark of a superior paradigm, [this book] has been a resounding success." —Nicholas Wade, Science

"Perhaps the best explanation of [the] process of discovery." —William Erwin Thompson, New York Times Book Review

"Occasionally there emerges a book which has an influence far beyond its originally intended audience. . . . Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . . . has clearly emerged as just such a work." —Ron Johnston, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Among the most influential academic books in this century." —Choice

One of "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World War," Times Literary Supplement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Struct ... evolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), by Thomas Kuhn, is an analysis of the history of science. Its publication was a landmark event in the history, philosophy, and sociology of scientific knowledge and it triggered an ongoing worldwide assessment and reaction in — and beyond — those scholarly communities. In this work, Kuhn challenged the then prevailing view of progress in "normal science." Scientific progress had been seen primarily as a continuous increase in a set of accepted facts and theories. Kuhn argued for an episodic model in which periods of such conceptual continuity in normal science were interrupted by periods of revolutionary science. During revolutions in science the discovery of anomalies leads to a whole new paradigm that changes the rules of the game and the "map" directing new research, asks new questions of old data, and moves beyond the puzzle-solving of normal science.[1] For example, Kuhn’s analysis of the Copernican Revolution emphasized that, in its beginning, it did not offer more accurate predictions of celestial events, such as planetary positions, than the Ptolemaic system, but instead appealed to some practitioners based on a promise of better, simpler, solutions that might be developed at some point in the future. Kuhn called the core concepts of an ascendant revolution its “paradigms” and thereby launched this word into widespread analogical use in the second half of the 20th century. Kuhn’s insistence that a paradigm shift was a mélange of sociology, enthusiasm and scientific promise, but not a logically determinate procedure, caused an uproar in reaction to his work. Kuhn addressed concerns in the 1969 postscript to the second edition. For some commentators it introduced a realistic humanism into the core of science while for others the nobility of science was tarnished by Kuhn's introduction of an irrational element into the heart of its greatest achievements.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Synopsis
2.1 Basic approach
2.2 Historical examples
2.3 The Copernican Revolution
2.4 Coherence
2.5 Three phases
2.6 Incommensurability
3 Kuhn's opinion on scientific progress
4 Influence of SSR
5 Criticisms of Kuhn and SSR
5.1 Concept of paradigm
5.2 Incommensurability of paradigms
5.3 Incommensurability and perception
5.4 Eurocentrism
Last edited by Robert Tulip on Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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We have a handful of great book suggestions now. Is anyone else interested in participating in this process? Please suggest a book or two if you have yet to suggest any. We don't need more suggestions from the same people that have already suggested books. We need additional people to jump in here and make it known that they fully intend to participate in the next non-fiction discussion.

As of right now I am most interested in "Infidel."

Would anyone else like to suggest a book?
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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Here is my top suggestion.

God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette

Book Description
Not only can the man rant, he can write.

From the larger, louder half of the world-famous magic duo Penn & Teller comes a scathingly funny reinterpretation of The Ten Commandments. They are The Penn Commandments, and they reveal one outrageous and opinionated atheist's experience in the world. In this rollicking yet honest account of a godless existence, Penn takes readers on a roller coaster of exploration and flips conventional religious wisdom on its ear to reveal that doubt, skepticism, and wonder -- all signs of a general feeling of disbelief -- are to be celebrated and cherished, rather than suppressed. And he tells some pretty damn funny stories along the way. From performing blockbuster shows on the Vegas Strip to the adventures of fatherhood, from an on-going dialogue with proselytizers of the Christian Right to the joys of sex while scuba diving, Jillette's self-created Decalogue invites his reader on a journey of discovery that is equal parts wise and wisecracking.

Praise for God, No!

"People who say that libertarians have no heart or atheists have no soul need to read this book. Because Penn Jillette has a lot of both." -- MATT STONE and TREY PARKER, creators of South Park and the award-winning Broadway musical The Book of Mormon

"There are few people in the country who question more boldly, brashly, and bravely than my friend Penn Jillette.

"This planet has yielded exactly one mutual friend for Glenn Beck and me and that friend has written a brilliant book called God, No! Penn reveals 'the big secret of magic,' tells you why tattoos are perfect expressions of atheism and exactly what to eat when you know you're going to vomit later." --LAWRENCE O'DONNELL

"Penn Jillette is a twenty-first-century Lord of Misrule: big, boisterously anarchic, funny, Rabelaisian, impossible and unique. There isn't--couldn't be--better not be--anybody like him." --RICHARD DAWKINS, bestselling author of The Greatest Show on Earth and The God Delusion

Here is an interview of Penn Jillette by Piers http://youtu.be/UH9mx6odQR4

I'd love to interview Penn Jillette or do a live chat with him.
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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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I'd be up for "God, No!" :3
Big bright accent, catty smile
Oscar Wilde confrontation
Ah, live like it's the style.

Shelfari!
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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I don't think we have enough people involved in this process to do a poll and select a book. This is a bit discouraging. Maybe it is because it is summer and people are too busy for talking about books. I'm not sure.
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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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Well it is the 150th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War. I don't have a specific suggestion at the moment, but if the topic is too radical, we can probably select one that includes religion. :?
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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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I'm still interested in anythingother than Quantum Physics.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: What non-fiction book would you like to discuss next??

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I almost think sticky topics get less activity. I'm going to unstick this now and see what happens.
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Chris OConnor

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Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145550 ... 1455502774

The first new book of essays by Christopher Hitchens since 2004, ARGUABLY offers an indispensable key to understanding the passionate and skeptical spirit of one of our most dazzling writers, widely admired for the clarity of his style, a result of his disciplined and candid thinking. Topics range from ruminations on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men to the haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard; from the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell to the persistent agonies of anti-Semitism and jihad. Hitchens even looks at the recent financial crisis and argues for arthe enduring relevance of Karl Marx. The book forms a bridge between the two parallel enterprises of culture and politics. It reveals how politics justifies itself by culture, and how the latter prompts the former. In this fashion, ARGUABLY burnishes Christopher Hitchens' credentials as-to quote Christopher Buckley-our "greatest living essayist in the English language."
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