You’ll notice that I’m reviewing bird books. (Don’t worry, not all will be US based.) Please feel free to chime in with your suggestions and comments.
The ultimate bird book for North America has always been two books: both Peterson’s field guides, one for the East, one for the West. Now, the new Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)
Anyway, even though I find myself not liking the publisher too much, the book is a standard and you need to have one.
This is a repost of an earlier review.
This is a new offering written by Bill Thompson III and published by the same people who give us the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds and many other fine titles. The book includes excellent illustrations by Julie Zickefoose.
A birder since childhood, Thompson says he would have loved a book like this one when he was just getting interested in birds. Now a father of two, he spent many hours over a two-year period with his now eleven-year-old daughter’s class getting their advice on what to include in the book.
Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, a bimonthly magazine with 70,000 subscribers and the author of Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges. He lives with his wife, author and illustrator Julie Zickefoose and their two children on eighty birdy acres in Ohio.
Continue reading The Young Birder’s Guide: A Bird Book for the Middle Schooler
OK, not so new, but still relevant. The following is a repost of a review of this book.
Having said that, I do think there is room for improvement in this product, so do please read the fine print:
Continue reading A New Field Guide to the Birds from The Smithsonian
It’s out! Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction Second Edition
This is the newly revamped edition of Genie Scott’s essential reference supporting the Evolutionist Perspective in the so called “debate” over creationism vs. evolution. The original version of this book was excellent, but this updated version is essential. There is quite a bit of new information in this volume reflecting the fact that quite a few things have happened since the publication of the prior edition.
Scott’s book provides both an overview of the basic evolutionary biology that is under attack by creationists and the creationist arguments themselves. The discussion of the creationist arguments and how to deal with them is especially important, as it is written from the perspective of a very experienced individual, and in in the most useful possible way for a teacher or school administrator.
From the press release:
What’s going on here? Why is the United States the only country where teaching evolution is so controversial? Why are scientists so sure that evolution is good science? Are people of faith truly unable to accept the central principle of modern biology? Is it really “fair” for creationism to be taught alongside evolution? What have the courts said? And will attacks on evolution ultimately undermine not only American education but American competitiveness?
These and many other questions are answered in the 2nd edition of Evolution vs. Creationism, Dr. Eugenie Scott’s lucid and comprehensive look at this ongoing debate. Dr. Scott, one of the leading promoters and defenders of teaching evolution in the schools, dissects these ever-changing efforts to undermine science education. Praised for its balance and comprehensiveness, the book places the issues in today’s headlines into historical, cultural, religious, educational, and scientific perspective as no other book does.
At some levels, the tactics used by creationists to force the teaching of religion in public schools are always the same, but pragmatically they change enough that one must always adjust the counter tactics. The revised edition of Evolution vs. Creationism is updated to take into account recent adjustments to the Intelligent Design strategy. Also, there are always new challenges, court decisions, and other legally relevant outcomes all across the country, and this new volume covers several things that have happened since the first edition.
Just as important are the resources outlined in the book are updated and expanded. If you are a school administrator, teacher, or parent with a child in a public school you need this book as a basic reference. A typical chapter may have legal cases and references for handy reference:
The book has a foreword by Judge John Jones, the federal judge who presided over the Dover case, which in turn is fully covered in Genie’s new book. One gets the impression that Judge Jones was just a little smitten with Genie. In fact, it is rather remarkable that he agreed to write this second foreword (the other is by Nils Eldgridge, by the way). Obviously, Genie Scott is capable of making things happen.
This book is essential for anyone involved in this debate.
Continue reading Evolution vs. Creationism by Eugenie Scott, Second Edition
Birds: Nature’s Magnificent Flying Machines
This is a well done and highly recommended book. Continue reading How birds fly (Book review)
She was a church lady. I could see it a mile away. Her hair cut, her clothing, her way of standing, and as I got closer, her way of speaking and, eventually, the things she said. I will call her Joan.It is not that surprising to find a church lady like Joan at Har Mar Shopping Mall. Har Mar is a unique phenomenon. From the outside, it is a strip mall, and from the inside, it is a regular “inside” mall. Some of the stores are only on the inside part, some open on both the inside and outside part. None are only outside. So you park, walk into a store in the strip mall, like into the LeAnn Chin’s Chinese Food place, and you go to the back of the store where the bathroom or emergency exit might be, and instead of a men’s room you find this full blown shopping mall. Like the cabinet in Narnia but instead of a fantasy world run by a big lion, you’ve got a kinda run-down but quaint Midwestern style shopping mall. Continue reading The Vampire, the Church Lady, and the Wardrobe
I very recently reviewed Carl Hiaasen’s novels. Among his fiction are two books that are written explicitly for kids. Looking just at Hiaasen’s titles it may be hard to pick them out from the pack, so I’m making a special reference to them here. They are called “Hoot” and “Flush.” Details follow: Continue reading Hiaasen For Kids
I have not read this book, but I’m interested in finding out more about it. Has anyone out there had a shot at it?
It utterly shocks me every time I make a reference to plastic alligators, Macy’s bags with poisonous snakes in them, a guy named Skink or my favorite Bass Lure …. the Double Whammy …. and people look back at me with blank stares. Like, don’t you get it? “To be or not to be” jokes or allusions to Sherlock Holmes are always understood. Or at least, people pretend to get them. But does no one read contemporary literature?
Continue reading Summer Reading
Giant Dinosaurs of the Jurassic
Continue reading Two Dinosaur Books for the Kiddies
A birder since childhood, Thompson says he would have loved a book like this one when he was just getting interested in birds. Now a father of two, he spent many hours over a two-year period with his now eleven-year-old daughter’s class getting their advice on what to include in the book.Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, a bimonthly magazine with 70,000 subscribers and the author of Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges. He lives with his wife, author and illustrator Julie Zickefoose and their two children on eighty birdy acres in Ohio.
Continue reading The Young Birder’s Guide: A Bird Book for the Middle Schooler
When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact sixty-five million years ago, which killed half of all species then living.Far less well-known is a much bigger catastrophe – the greatest mass extinction of all time – which occurred 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period. In this cataclysm, at least ninety per cent of life was destroyed, both on land, including sabre-toothed reptiles and their rhinoceros-sized prey, and in the sea.After the event the Earth was a cold, airless place, with only one or two species eking out a poor existence. What caused destruction on such an unimaginable scale, and how did life recover?Michael Benton’s book about this catastrophe – When Life Nearly Died: the greatest mass extinction of all time – has been published in paperback this week. Michael Benton is Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol.James Lovelock said of the book: “Michael Benton’s book brings back to Earth Science a sense of adventure … it is both a wonderfully good read and a valued reference”.When Life Nearly Died documents not only what happened 251 million years ago, but also the recent rekindling of the idea of catastrophism, after it was seemingly extinguished in a great battle of ideas in the early nineteenth century. Scientists have at last come to accept that the world has been subject to huge cataclysms in the past. For the end-Permian event the killing models are controversial – was the agent the impact of a huge meteorite or comet over ten kilometres in diameter, or prolonged volcanic eruption in Siberia? The evidence has been accumulating through the 1990s and into the new millennium, and Michael Benton gives his verdict at the very end of this book.
Old books can be wonderful sources of information, ideas, and even inspiration. I collect them and sometimes even read them. Reading a 100 year old book in your field of interest is a challenge and can be a rewarding experience.It is a challenge because it is dangerous. I worry that I might accidentally learn something that is no longer true. What if I remember it at some later time, like at a cocktail party or while giving a lecture, but don’t remember the source: “… As is well known, flies spontaneously generate from certain forms of mud …” Continue reading Jolly ol’England
There are two books called “Icons of Evolution.” One is by Jonathan Wells. The best way to learn about Well’s Icons of Evolution is to watch Randy Olson’s Flock of Dodos. It is an anti science piece of dreck.The other is a more recently published is Icons of Evolution [Two Volumes]: An Encyclopedia of People, Evidence, and Controversies (Greenwood Icons)
Students and the general public are frequently confronted with contradictory and confusing claims about the people, ideas, and artifacts that were essential in the development of the science of evolution. Where can they find accurate and understandable information on these important concepts? Icons of Evolution comprises twenty-four in-depth essays on the most famous ideas, artifacts, people and places of evolutionary biology. Dinosaurs, Neanderthals, Charles Darwin, peppered moths, carbon dating, the fossil record, and more, are explained by some of the most respected scientists, historians, and philosophers of evolution in the world. Icons of Evolution dispels some of the myths and confusion about evolution and answers questions like:
What do all those horse fossils mean? Was Archaeopteryx the first bird?What is a missing link and is it missing?Did Peking Man really disappear?Where did the word fossil come from?What does ‘survival of the fittest’ really mean?Why does the idea of evolution seem to scare people so much? While written by technical experts, Icons of Evolution uses non-technical language that explains these icons for readers new to the field and for those seeking more depth. Taken together these icons tell a story that is sometimes fascinating, sometimes puzzling, always thought provoking. It is a story billions of years in the making, and one that everyone needs to know.
Icons of Evolution
Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
… a no-holds-barred commitment to particular, parochial religious beliefs about the history and fabric of the world … This variant has eliminated brilliantly the obstacle of rational opposition to ideology … The new strategy is wonderfully simple. Here is how you implement it: exploiting that modern, nearly universal, liberal suspicion of zealotry, you accuse the branch of legitimate inquiry whose results you hate, in this case the evolutionary natural sciences, of — what else? — zealotry! … Crying “viewpoint discrimination,” you loudly demand adherence to the principle of freedom of speech, especially in teaching, insisting that such freedom is being denied your legitimate alternative view…This bold strategy is working, not just with religious fundamentalists, who do not need to be convinced anyway, but with people who have no such fundamentalist commitment and who are in principle well-enough educated to see what is happening. …This lusty new variant of creationism is advancing rapidly by means of a strategy called “The Wedge.”
Continue reading Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design