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In response to your request for recommendations: B. Traven, "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre." Great movie, even better book. The vignettes in italics at the beginning of each chapter are alone worth the price of the book. Mary Austin, "The Land Of Little Rain." Time well-spent with a great...

Thanks for re-opening this thread just before I checked in on BookandReader for the first time in years. The “Stone Reader...” sounds interesting, I checked it out on Amazon and was pleased to note that some of the essays are reply/rebuttal exchanges among authors. In the early Eighties I was...

The question, "Do we learn from history", is a bit ambiguous. It seems to be pointed at the problems arising from human greed for wealth and power, and the fact that there is a limited number of identifiably foreign people an established population will tolerate without backlash. Since human...

If you have not heard her before, here is an introduction to Kathleen Ferrier, the British contralto who wowed the classical music world in her ten year career. She died young of breast cancer. In the clip below she sings Schumann's song, "Widmung".

Are you smarter than a 1912 eighth grader in Kentucky? Below is a link to a test given to eighth graders in Bullitt County, Kentucky. It is humbling. Funny how well students learned in old-fashioned, frequently one room, schools. Farm kids such as my parents, rarely went to "high school", and...

"How The Movies Are Preparing Us For Our New Robot Overlords." Below is a link to a Washington Post article having the above title, using a review of four movies to discuss the growing unease over "strong AI" machines. The movies are "Ex Machina", "Chappie", "Interstellar", and "Her". Worth...

The Senate is getting ready to vote on fast-track authority for Obama to finalize the TPP and present it to Congress on an up-or-down vote, with out debate or amendment. Obama spoke this morning on why he should get this authority, and why the TPP would be good for Americans. He is obviously...

Santana- "Black Magic Woman", with a sensational belly dancer.

It is not hard to imagine scenarios in which we would come under serious threat from our machines, if only social and economic upheaval (leaving genocidal wars with robots to science fiction for now). The social/economic systems in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere appear to be moving toward...

Belated entry re best of 2014: 1. THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir. 2.THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY, by Hans Reichenbach. (Re-Read.) Beautifully lucid exposition. Some credit for this is probably due to his wife, Maria Reichenbach, who did the translation from the original German. Anyone who doubts...

Here is a clip of George Lewis and his New Orleans band in concert in Tokyo, 1954, blowing the house down with "Ice Cream". This should get your feet moving and your butt shaking. As usual, the Japanese crowd was considerate in waiting to the end to applaud. Recordings can't put you in the...

It appears that progress is being made in the development of artificial intelligence software programs to operate machines that can learn from experience and modify their software to improve their performance. Below is a link to a report on some recent research. This may start to get scary...

The L.A. Times had a front page article today on how the GOP is impeding, if not stopping, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act through actions by state legislatures to reject the expansion of Medicaid to provide coverage for the poorer people in those states. We are still hearing...

If I were asked to recommend one mystery to a non-mystery reader, it would be 'DRINK TO YESTERDAY', by Manning Coles, because: 1. It is my all-time favorite spy story, but is a spy story wrapped in a whodunnit/whydunnit. 2. It is a novel with psychological depth, the characters are...

LESSONS OF HISTORY, by Will and Ariel Durant (Smon & Shuster 1968). I read this book some time ago. Perhaps I was not in the right mood. It was a bit disappointing. I found it to be somewhat pedestrian. Somehow I expected more from a purported distillation of what the Durants had learned from...

Colinglithero, I second your opinion re the Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis. I just listened t some Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell numbers. Here is one to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOuFZ9NXPHo

"Looking For Chet Baker", by Bill Moody. This is a book which I had to read. Chet Baker was my favorite trumpet player in the Fifties. I enjoyed his playing on numerous occasions, first with Gerry Mulligan’s piano-less quartet at the Haig, a jazz club across from the Ambassador Hotel, at the...

As we enter the new year, and a new Congress which appears bent on undoing whatever regulations are left on Wall Street is about to go into session, here is a a look back on the mess we were in in 2009 when Obama took office, and proved to be the wrong man for the job. Below is a link to...

Among the problems with the omnibus budget spending bill passed by the House last night in spite of a revolt by a large majority of Democrats against the White House, is a provision written by Citigroup which will repeal (assuming that the Senate caves and passes the funding bill as passed by...

"Have You Met Miss Jones" by Rodgers and Hart. Art Tatum and Ben Webster Quartet, from a 1956 or so Pablo record. The album has an autumnal feel to it, with Art Tatum at his most accessible, and Ben Webster in a mellow mood. http://youtu.be/wDoXbz3lQ6M