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Michio doesn't do the best job keeping present circumstances and his far future predictions from mixing anachronistically: e.g. the frequently repeated "...when we carry around our own genomes on a CD-ROM" for a "2030-2070" range prediction. I worry that Michio Kaku is just paraphrasing some of the ideas without really thinking about them any more critically, like a mediocre science journalist or sci-fi writer.

This is occasionally so superficial in it's treatment of the technologies that it reads like painfully outdated sci-fi from Michio's childhood in the 50's. The book is written to be highly accessible, but he does uninformed readers a disservice by giving equal weight to illogical and 'improbable but not impossible' possibilities. So far not much new for anyone keeping up with current science.

Good course introducing literary theory, from my professor of choice

Cool, Drout personally advocates Dennett and memetics :-). Uses it as foundation of theory of Tradition.

Tons of extra material in the audiobook version! Though the last hour is, literally, entirely consisting of Hodgman reading 700 moleman names in a row.

Another neat tidbit: Luggage carts in Athens are labeled "metaphoros" (in Greek), and metaphor literally derives from that meaning, "the moving of one thing to another"

Neat trivia tidbit: the letter "w" has been preserved through the history of written language from the Egyptian hieroglyphic for water, written "w" as a representation of the wavy surface of water, and subsequently maintaining that meaning and shape in alphabetic languages in words like... "water".

Enjoy this professor's courses

Good sociological commentary on English in the final lecture, on accents & identity and cultural communication.

English refresher, probably especially great for non-native English speakers

Short and sweet, pretty engaging throughout, not bogged down easily and full of practical advice

Course is a great reminder of grade school and high school English material, compressed to the essentials and actually newly enlightening with the benefit of hindsight and experience, understanding the reasoning behind the words and rules.

Trying to remember the Latin names of the logical fallacies

Audiobook is a bit long (ie bit too slow), but PDF guidebook is nice

Interesting to consider the lectures on rhetoric in contrast to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Into the page-a-day audio calendar. It happened today... IN THE PAST!

The direct brain to brain interfacing is creepy... and awesome

Much as I find the methods and results intriguing, the experimental details and technically heavy chapters in the middle here killed the momentum for me

Good read so far! Liking it better than I liked Damasio's Self Comes to Mind, though not entirely comparable. I'm glad Audible included a PDF guidebook with the diagrams from the physical book.

Support for the neural correlates of consciousness. All conscious thought is based on emotional context (i.e. there is no possibility of a purely detached observer)

I wish this audiobook were read by the author, accent be damned. This reader, who adopts a generally pleasant but non-conversational tone, just doesn't fit with Damasio's writing. Besides the fact that he reads every declarative sentence as if equally critical (something I don't think Damasio intended as it tends to dilute), the occasional non-American phrasing would sound much better from an appropriate dialect.

I trust Damasio's expertise here and I'm interested in the core topic, but something about his style and flow just isn't always keeping me engaged