It’s definitely a little disturbing, but a lot of crazy stuff in this country no longer surprises me. The author clearly did a lot of homework. Makes me wonder how my own teachers treated or glossed over the subject.
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A couple of Naomi Klein’s books are on my reading list. I used to be a bit of a climate change skeptic until I read more and more science on it. It’s definitely a huge issue that will come to a head in our lifetimes.
I finished Metabolical by Dr. Robert Lustig. I highly recommend it for anyone on the forum here interested in nutrition. It delves into a lot of detail on how big food and sugar companies have co-opted our health through processed food. It is scary crazy how much influence food and drug manufacturers have on our government through campaign donations.
It also goes into the huge role that insulin and insulin response plays in metabolism (as I have suspected anecdotally). He makes the claim that a calorie is not always a calorie relative to the body and that it depends on the structure of the calorie how much of that energy our body actually stores.
I am likely not telling anyone here anything really new, but it’s a good read anyway.
He makes the claim that obesity is in fact a symptom of metabolic issues and not the cause in many cases. I.E. one gets fatter because your insulin response changes first which changes the hunger signals to your brain causing you to eat more food, and since junk food is addictive you eat more of that.
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I’ve never been skeptical, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I had been. According to the book, I am privileged to have taken an earth science class in eighth grade. I still don’t remember that class mentioning climate change even once. I did not take an environmental science course in high school. My parents’ political stances also did not help the cause. It was really interesting to learn how this topic is covered in different states and how such wishy-washy language ends up in textbooks.
I am pesimisstic about it all. Even if we decide to radically change things in the next few years, I fear what what life will look like in 10-20 years.
Such denialism disheartens me as someone who does science, even if that attitude is not rampant in my field. Another Naomi has written about this mistrust in several ways, so I recommend the book Why Trust Science? if you are interested in the philosophy of science.
I am surprised how much denial exists in my field for this topic. I thinks it’s healthy to maintain skepticism in science, but eventually overwhelming data needs to sway one’s mind.
Yeah, that’s what the author emphasized in this book. Nothing is “certain” in science, but it is disingenuous to young people when the community has reached a consensus a long time ago. Students should be encouraged to discuss natural phenomena rather than simply memorize facts. But something has really gone wrong if human-induced climate change is still framed as only “possible” and debatable. The author suggested that students could instead try to predict changing bird migration patterns and other effects of climate change, and this is even more effective when the examples can be applied to their own communities. And of course teachers and textbooks should focus on “solutions” to the problem rather than simply what it is.
Sorry, clearly I liked the book, and it is still fresh in my mind, hahaha.
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Reading The Late Show by Michael Connolly, going to finish his Bosch/Ballard books before moving on to anything else as I’ve got another 3 series of books I’m in to and need to focus on one and getting them finished.
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I just started Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult. I’m not usually into her stuff, but have heard good things about it, so we shall see!
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His writing never disappoints.
Now I’m starting So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport and Gardens by Robert Pogue Harrison.
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I love these all of his books! Just finished The Night Fire (also Bosch & Ballard) which was excellent.
Just started this, got through The Late Show quickly, really enjoyed it.
Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wisława Szymborska. I’m trying to broaden my reading horizons this year. I never read poetry. This seems up my alley.
Just finished The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon and am starting Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter which is apparently being made into a Netflix series. I figure if it’s good enough for Netflix then there’s a chance that it’ll be good enough for me…
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This was stunning.
Now I’m starting Know My Name by Chanel Miller.
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Oh my god, how did I not read this sooner. I devoured this. A must-read.
Starting In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.
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Finished audiobook of Buddhism for Beginners.
Just finished “A Letter Marked Personal” by JP Donleavy.
Great start, but then it ran out of steam. It was his last novel, he wrote it in his 80s, so I guess that’s understandable.
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Finished “56 Days” by Catherine Ryan Howard.
Started “Getaway” by Zoje Stage.
On book number four of the Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne. @punnyguy
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Thanks CL!
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