Books

• What is Paul reading now?
  
  I tend to start a lot of books, drop a few as I go (sometimes picking them up later), and then spend a while cleaning up the backlog.

  The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel, Thomas L. Thompson

  Atmospheric Radiation, 2nd Ed., R. M. Goody and Y. L. Yung

  Tracers in the Sea, W. S. Broecker and T.-H. Peng

  A now-classic work.

  The Chemical Evolution of the Atmosphere and Oceans, Heinrich D. Holland

  The Ocean Circulation Inverse Problem, Carl Wunsch

  Climate Change 1995, The Science of Climate Change, John T. Houghton, et al., Eds.

  The Evolution of Life Histories, Stephen C. Stearns

  Understanding Fossils, An Introduction to Invertebrate Palaeontology, Peter Doyle

  Extinction Rates, John H. Lawton & Robert M. May (eds.)

  Satellite Meteorology - An Introduction, S.Q. Kidder and T.H. Vonder Haar

  This is very good.

  The Advancement of Science, Philip Kitcher

  Satellite Geodesy, Günter Seeber

  Ocean Circulation Theory Joe Pedlosky

  Three-Dimensional Coastal Ocean Models Norman Heaps, ed.

  Principles of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry Richard Goody

  A good general introduction, but pitched a bit high for persons who aren't already chemists or physicists.

  FORTRAN 90/95 Explained Michael Metcalf and John Reid

  Numerical Recipes in Fortran 90, The Art of Parallel Scientific Computing, 2nd Ed., Volume 2 of Fortran Numerical Recipes William H. Press, Saul A. Teukolsky, William T. Vetterling, and Brian P. Flannery

  Paleoclimate Analysis and Modeling Alan D. Hecht (Ed.)

• Recent Completions, or [mainly in the case of technical books] at least as much as I'm doing for now.
  
  

  The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza & Francesco Cavalli-Sforza

  Guns, Germs, and Steel; The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond

  Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Edward O. Wilson

  A Negro Explorer at the North Pole : An Autobiographical Report by the Negro who Conquered the Top of the World with Admiral Robert E. Peary, Matthew Alexander Henson, 1866-1955

  An account by Henson, who was, for many years, Peary's exploring companion and right-hand man. Henson reached the pole with Peary and 4 Inuits (Seegloo, Ootah, Ooqueah, Egingwah).

  Eyewitness Testimony, Elizabeth Loftus

  How reliable is eyewitness testimony? Not very, in many cases (and almost completely in the case of younger children.) Since the publication of this work, the author has become the Nemesis of, and a bête noire to, the horrific "recovered memory" and "Satanic ritual abuse" cults.

  The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Dinosaurs, Michael J. Benton

  The Physics of Climate, J. Peixoto and A. Oort

  Probably the best [graduate level] introduction to physical climatology. Assumes a good level of meteorological knowledge, but parts can be profitably read by amateurs.

  Good Natured, Frans de Waal

  Whenever I visit Audubon Zoo, the largest crowd is always in front of the gorilla and orangutan areas. The visitors are fascinated by the humanlike behavior and comment on it using anthropomorphic terms. We see a mirror of ourselves, albeit somewhat dim. The primate studies of the past few decades (many by de Waal) have shown that non-human primate societies, especially those of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, mirror many of the features of human behavior. Why are humans moral? Why are chimps moral? Any theory of ethics which does not take account of comparative primate ethology can no longer be considered useful.

  Creating Killer Web Sites, The Art of Third-Generation Software Design, David Siegel

  Chemical Oceanography, Frank J. Millero

  Just looked it over well. A good introductory text.

  Cadillac Desert, The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner

  The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a most precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster... [cover blurb]

  Global Physical Climatology, Dennis Hartmann

  This one I just skimmed, since it largely duplicates other material I have. It is a very well done book, and would serve as a great introduction to the science.

  The Dilbert Principle, Scott Adams

  Obviously, Scott Adams has bugged the organizations for which I have worked.

  Biogenic Trace Gases: Measuring Emissions from Soil and Water, P.A. Matson & R.C. Harriss

  Just the section on isotope tracers.

  The Biology and Ecology of the Mammal-Like Reptiles, Nicholas Hotten, et al., (Eds.)

  It has never been clear to me why dinosaurs are so wildly popular and have such a high profile, while this interesting group - which ruled the land in an earlier age - is almost totally unknown to the public, even though some members may be our ancestors (not true of the dinosaurs). Perhaps it's because the best fossil sites are in places like S. Africa and Russia, not W. Europe and N. America, so people from those areas don't see very many in museums.

  Principles of Geochemistry, B. Mason and C.B. Moore

  Just the introductory sections.

  Computational Fluid Dynamics, John D. Anderson

  This is an extremely good introduction to computational fluid dynamics. In spite of what the introduction says, I would say the reader should have a strong background in fluid mechanics first.

  Uncommon Sense: The Heretical Nature of Science, Alan Cromer

  Cromer takes the position that scientific thinking is a special mode of thought that is not particularly natural for humans and that the existance of large numbers of people who employ it (still only a very small percentage of the population) is very recent development in human history.

  Life 102: What To Do When Your Guru Sues You, Peter McWilliams

  The well-known pop psychology author recounts his involvement with, and subsequent disillusionment from, the John-Roger "New Age" cult. [This is the one conservative um...thinker and Newt protegée Arianna Huffington is a minister in.] The author's other books, such as Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, can also be found at the author's page.

  Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe, the Story of Blue Babe, R. Dale Guthrie

  This book is very good at showing how the author derives information about a past era from paleontological evidence. Review by Alwynne Beaudoin.

  A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, John Allen Paulos

  The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

  A Climate Modelling Primer, A. Henderson-Sellars and K. McGuffie

  Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel Dennett

  How Darwin's idea of natural selection destroyed teleology, perhaps the core idea of western philosophy up to that point.

  Who Wrote the New Testament?, Burton Mack

  I would recommend this for the general reader, although Mack does have some opinions that are not (yet, at least) entirely mainstream, such as Jesus as a cynic sage. Most of the material is old hat to modern scholars, but is completely unheard by ordinary citizens.

  At Home in the Universe, Stuart Kauffman

  A popularization of his big book. Order is inevitable in complex systems with the right level of interactions.

  Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett

  There is no "Cartesian Theater," where the mind sits watching everything going on.

  Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, Adrian Desmond and James Moore

  The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882, Nora Barlow, ed.

  This is the version that was not Bowdlerized by his son Francis.

  Paleoclimatology, T. Crowley and G. North

  The Physics of Atmospheres, John R. Houghton

  Mainly the parts on vertical structure and atmospheric radiative transfer.

  Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, Donald Redford

  Egypt before the Pharaohs, Hofmann

  An introduction to the prehistoric period.

  Journey to the Ants, A Story of Scientific Exploration, Hölldobler & Wilson

  Fossil Horses; Systematics, Paleobiology, and Evolution of the Family Equidae, BJ MacFadden

  A very good book, not just on horses, but as an illustration of paleontology in general.

  Toward a New Philosophy of Biology, Observations of an Evolutionist, Ernst Mayr

  The Diversity of Life, EO Wilson

  The Beak of the Finch, A Story of Evolution in our Time, Jonathan Wiener

  A popularization of the Grants' work with the finches of the Galápagos.

  After the Ice Age, The Return of Life to Glaciated North America, EC Pielou.

  A good book on Quaternary Science for Beginners.

  Vitus Bering: The Discoverer of Bering Strait, Peter Lauridsen

  Where the Sea Breaks its Back: The Epic Story of a Pioneer Naturalist and the Discovery of Alaska, Corey Ford.

  Georg Steller (as in S's sea lion, sea cow, and jay) and his doings on Bering's expedition.

Food

• CHILE-HEADS home page
• Favorite recipes

Hi Fi

• Dick Olsher's Audio Mecca
• Good sound for cheap FAQ
• Robert's Hi Fi pages
• The Speaker Building Page

Music

• Gilbert and Sullivan archive
• Whats playing?

  Great Tenor Arias, Ben Heppner

  English Renaissance -- Tallis, Byrd, The King's Singers

  The Anna Russell Album. (I'm not making this up, you know!)

  Sibelius, Symphonies 1 & 4, Colin Davis, LSO

  Chronicle, Creedence Clearwater Revival

  Mozart, Requiem, Christie, Les Arts Florissants

  Chopin, Mazurkas, Ashkenazy

  Puttin' on the Ritz, The Great Hollywood Musicals, Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops, various vocalists

Photography

• Olympus Zuiko lens page
• Olympus page
• Phil Greenspun's photo.net

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Paul D. Farrar

Last updated Tue Jun 29 1999