I’ve been catching up on book reading recently, Bill Bryson‘s ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything‘ is a fascinating book full of all those facts that you ‘have’ to keep telling to the person sitting next to you!
Its a long time since I went to school and how I wish that we had had information books like this to read instead of the boring text books in use in the 50’s and 60’s (that’s the 1950’s and 60’s before anyone thinks otherwise). DNA, E=MC², Paleontology, Cosmology, Geology, Evolution and many other easy to follow subjects crammed into a ‘page-turner’ that oozes information. Just how small is a quark?
It’s interesting how books seem to connect with one another, as inside Bryson’s book is a reference to another that I read in 2004, ‘The Seven Daughters of Eve‘ by Bryan Sykes, where the premise is put forward that all humans are descended from these seven women! According to Bryson’s book, all humans share over 97% off the same DNA and its only the 3% that separates us into who we really are!
Another book I am just halfway through is, “Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror“, initially penned by Anonymous, but now known to have been written by former CIA employee Michael Scheuer. Interestingly, its publication was ‘blessed’ by the CIA itself, some say to destabilise Bush’s re-election chances in 2004!
It’s a ‘heavy-duty’ book that reconfirms my belief that we do now live in a more dangerous world than five years ago and through ongoing actions by western governments it is getting worse. Perhaps with a little more clear thinking by politicians we might not be in the mess that we now see in the middle east. I now view the Iran issue as another possible stepping-stone to further disaster. I’ll reserve my final judgement till I finish the book, but as with other similar books, it seems that the ‘silent’ majority are continually out-manipulated by politicians who seem more bent on conflict.
Beasley's Place 