Newsletter: Aug 26th 2022
Whew! What a crazy couple weeks. Emotional ups and downs, family vacation, start of school, college drop off and finally a return to quiet routine. Bittersweet, one more step closer to an empty nest. A reminder to enjoy it while you can. They grow up in the blink of an eye.
Store Updates
I was informed that The Thinking spot was voted Best of Neighborhood on NextDoor by our neighbors! Yay! Thank you to all those who voted to make this happen. We look forward to continuing to create remarkable experiences for all. However, my social media challenged self can't seem to navigate the Nextdoor maze enough to find the actual listing - lol! So, if any of you can find evidence of said voting, please point me to it!
MOA Steam experience raffle: We shared the table with Code Savvy for one day at the MOA steam experience event, to raffle off two books - Starry messenger by Neil Degrasse Tyson and a Nature activity book. The winners have been picked and notified. Thank you to all those who visited the Code Savvy table.
Book club meetup - Final meeting for “Building a Second Brain” is this Sunday Aug 28th, 2p. Next book is “An Immense World” by Ed Yong.
Battle of the Books August - Aug 31st - Our final battle is on Wednesday the 31st at 5p. Several of you have asked if I will continue this during the school year. I thought about that, however, I think it'll be more fun - and less homework like - for the kids to instead have a monthly book club to meet other kids who love reading+science and share what books they've read and liked. Planning an initial meetup for that Sunday Sept 11th. Watch for an invite coming soon.
Teachers Appreciation evening - Sep 1 6p - Excited to be celebrating all the teachers in our community. Please share with all the Teachers in your life. I've received wonderful donations for the raffle from some of our partners - Specialty coffee by Coffee Studio Minneapolis, STEM kit by Code Savvy and tickets to the Bakken. If any of you are so inclined or know of any businesses that would be willing to donate for the raffle, please stop in or call/email and let me know. Let's give our teachers a fun boost as they take on our kids once again.
Bingo - Reminder to turn in those Bingo cards you picked up at the beginning of summer. You can only mark the cards till the 31st of August, but you have until Sept 15th to turn them in. One winner from all partial entries will receive a free book - one for kids and one for Adults. All complete blackouts will receive a free book as well. I hope the card helped you explore more topics in your summer reading than you normally would have.
Science News of the Week
In bittersweet category, Dino footprints were uncovered in Texas this week as a result of a dried out river bed caused by severe drought. It's still kinda cool to see something millions of years old preserved so well.
Artemis launch - In happier news, NASA is doing its test launch back to the moon this Monday the 29th. Watch it live. This is a first step to sending humans back to the moon, for the first time since the original Apollo missions!
On the way home earlier this week, I started listening to “What we Owe The Future - An Oxford philosopher making the case for “longtermism” — that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time.” His premise is that, we are at a unique moment in history where the future is still malleable. People in the past didn't have the resources and people in the future may not have an option, if we, currently, don't choose wisely. And that it is vital that we and the next few generations pivot to thinking about future humans, not just the ones we are raising right now but ones to come thousands and millions of years from now, if they are to even exist.
I kept wanting to broadcast it over the speakers at the airport, sit everyone down and say listen to this, read this, this is vital, this is critical that we change our thinking. Maybe not that earthshattering in hindsight, :), but in the moment I got carried away partly because it just so resonated with and reminded me of all the reasons I started on this journey of The Thinking Spot - to encourage long term thinking, to provide access to these kinds of thoughts that allow all of us to take a pause from day to day life to think about a better future. Consider yourself shaken :)
Surprisingly, I missed ordering this book when it came out last week. That will soon be corrected.
For reading recs this week, there were so many fascinating #smartreads out, I had trouble choosing. Below my top 5 for the week.
New Releases this week
Algebra the Beautiful
By G. Arnell Williams
A Mathematician reveals the hidden beauty, power and - yes, fun - of Algebra.
What comes to mind when you think about algebra? For many of us, it’s memories of dull or frustrating classes in high school. Award winning professor Arnell Williams is here to change that. Algebra, the beautiful is a journey into the heart of fundamental math that proves just how amazing this subject really is.
Drawing on lessons from twenty-five years of teaching mathematics, Williams blends metaphor, history, and storytelling to uncover algebra’s hidden grandeur. Whether you’re a teacher looking to make math come alive for your students, a parent hoping to get your children engaged, a student trying to come to terms with a sometimes bewildering subject, or just a lover of mathematics, this book has something for you. With a passion that’s contagious, G. Arnell Williams shows how each of us can grasp the beauty and harmony of algebra.
Spellbound
By Daniel Z. Lieberman
Psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, reveals how to join forces with your unconscious to make better decisions, find more meaning in everyday life, and develop a richer, more balanced way of living. The conscious mind, the part of your mental life you experience directly, is responsible for only a tiny sliver of what science says is going on inside your brain. Most of what you experience, your moods, and the things you like or dislike—most of who you are—comes from a much more mysterious part of your mind: the unconscious. And to really understand the influences of the unconscious, says psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, coauthor of The Molecule of More, we need to look to something often considered science’s alter ego: magic. Drawing on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and with deep dives into what we can learn from ancient mystical traditions from alchemy to numerology to meditation, Spellbound weaves together ancient magical traditions, psychological research, and the latest neuroscientific discoveries, in order to bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious mind. Like it or not, your unconscious is currently the source of most of your choices. It’s the source of your passions, your energy, and your “gut instinct.” It can help you solve seemingly impossible problems with the gift of inspiration. But it’s not always working in your favor: The unconscious is wild and untamed, often leading us down self-destructive paths that leave us baffled by our own decisions. Spellbound helps you take a new path: one where you learn how to recognize the influences of the unconscious, and make it an ally in helping you become the person you were meant to be. The human mind is perhaps the most mysterious thing in the universe. Science is only beginning to uncover its secrets, and some believe that we may never fully plumb its depths. But the ancient traditions of magic, traditions of understanding that have been built up over centuries, give us another window into the hidden facets of our humanity. After all, as the visionary Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, is professor and vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. Dr. Lieberman is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a recipient of the Caron Foundation Research Award, and he has published over 50 scientific reports on behavioral science. He has provided insight on psychiatric issues for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Commerce, and the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy, and has discussed mental health in interviews on CNN, C-SPAN, and PBS. Dr. Lieberman studied the Great Books at St. John's College. He received his medical degree and completed his psychiatric training at New York University.
Robot, Take the Wheel
By Jason Torchinsky
From famed automotive journalist Jason Torchinsky comes a witty insider’s guide to self-driving cars, the automated future, and the road ahead.
Self-driving cars sound fantastical and futuristic and yet they’ll soon be on every street in America. Whether it’s Tesla’s Autopilot, Google’s Waymo, Mercedes’s Distronic, or Uber’s modified Volvo, companies around the world are developing autonomous cars. But why? And what will they mean for the auto industry and humanity at large?
In Robot, Take the Wheel, Torchinsky, cofounder of The Autopian and former senior editor of Jalopnik, star of Jason Drives, and producer of Jay Leno's Garage, gives a colorful account of the development of autonomous vehicles and considers their likely implications. He encourages us to think of self-driving cars as an entirely new machine, something beyond cars as we understand them today, and considers how humans will get along with these robots that will take over our cars’ jobs, what they will look like, what sorts of jobs they may do, what we can expect of them, how they should act, ethically, how we can have fun with them, and how we can make sure there’s still a place for those of us who love to drive, especially with a manual transmission.
This vibrant volume brimming with insider knowledge, humor, and original artwork pushes us to reconsider our understanding of cars, raises fascinating ethical questions, and compels us to act now to shape the automated future.
Jason Torchinsky is the cofounder of The Autopian and one of today's leading writers on cars and technology. Previously, he was senior editor of Jalopnik, a producer of Jay Leno's Garage, which he's guest starred on, and the star of his own show, Jason Drives, which featured Torchinsky driving obscure cars and has had millions of views on social media. He is also the coauthor Ad Nauseam, has contributed to a wealth of publications, such as Boing Boing, Make, and Mother Jones, and is a stand-up comedian and an artist whose work has exhibited around the world. Torchinsky lives in Chapel Hill, NC.
Beau Boeckmann is president and COO of Galpin Motors, America's most recognized dealership group and home of the highest volume Ford dealer in the world. In 2006 Boeckmann founded Galpin Auto Sports, which led to a starring role and production title on the #1 rated automotive television show, Pimp My Ride. Boeckmann has been honored with several industry awards including the Peterson Automotive Museum's first Visionary Award and was inducted into the National Rod & Custom Car Hall of Fame. Boeckmann serves as a key member of Ford Motor Company's Product Committee, Aston Martin's Dealer Advisory Panel, and the Ford Dealers Advertising Association. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Swamplands
By Edward Struzik
In a world filled with breathtaking beauty, we have often overlooked the elusive charm and magic of certain landscapes. A cloudy river flows into a verdant Arctic wetland where sandhill cranes and muskoxen dwell. Further south, cypress branches hang low over dismal swamps. Places like these–collectively known as swamplands or peatlands–often go unnoticed for their ecological splendor. They are as globally significant as rainforests, and function as critical carbon sinks for addressing our climate crisis. Yet, because of their reputation as wastelands, they are being systematically drained and degraded to make way for oilsands, mines, farms, and electricity. In Swamplands, journalist Edward Struzik celebrates these wild places, venturing into windswept bogs in Kauai and the last remnants of an ancient peatland in the Mojave Desert. The secrets of the swamp aren’t for the faint of heart. Ed loses a shoe to an Arctic wolf and finds himself ankle-deep in water during a lightning storm. But the rewards are sweeter for the struggle: an enchanting Calypso orchid; an elusive yellow moth thought to be extinct; ancient animals preserved in lifelike condition down to the fur. Swamplands highlights the unappreciated struggle being waged to save peatlands by scientists, conservationists, and landowners around the world. An ode to peaty landscapes in all their offbeat glory, the book is also a demand for awareness of the myriad threats they face. It urges us to see the beauty and importance in these least likely of places. Our planet’s survival might depend on it.
Edward Struzik has been writing about scientific and environmental issues for more than 30 years. A fellow at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, his numerous accolades include the prestigious Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and the Sir Sandford Fleming Medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to the understanding of science. In 1996 he was awarded the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and spent a year at Harvard and MIT researching environment, evolutionary biology, and politics with E.O. Wilson, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. His 2015 book, Future Arctic, focuses on the effects of climate change in the Canadian Arctic and the impacts they will have on rest of the world. His other books include Swamplands, Firestorm, Arctic Icons, The Big Thaw, and Northwest Passage. He is an active speaker and lecturer, and his work as a regular contributor to Yale Environment 360 covers topics such as the effects of climate change and fossil fuel extraction on northern ecosystems and their inhabitants. He is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, a citizens' organization dedicated to the long-term environmental and social well-being of northern Canada and its peoples. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think
By Byron Reese
"Byron Reese gets to the heart of what makes humans different from all others." —Midwest Book Review What makes the human mind so unique? And how did we get this way? This fascinating tale explores the three leaps in our history that made us what we are—and will change how you think about our future. Look around. Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why? Where are the Bronze Age beavers? The Iron Age iguanas? In Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think, Byron Reese argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in. Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, and predict—and eventually master—the future. Thoughtful, witty, and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an intelligent species in three acts:
Act I: Ancient humans undergo “the awakening,” developing the cognitive ability to mentally time-travel using language
Act II: In 17th century France, the mathematical framework known as 'probability theory' is born—a science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern world
Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip, humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more precision, overcoming the limits of our brains
A fresh new look at the history and destiny of humanity, readers will come away from Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of what they are—not just another animal, but a creature with a mastery of time itself.
Byron Reese is an Austin-based entrepreneur with a quarter-century of experience building and running technology companies. He is a recognized authority on AI and holds a number of technology patents. In addition, he is a futurist with a strong conviction that technology will help bring about a new golden age of humanity. He gives talks around the world about how technology is changing work, education, and culture. He is the author of four books on technology, his most recent was described by The New York Times as "entertaining and engaging." Bloomberg Businessweek credits Byron with having "quietly pioneered a new breed of media company." The Financial Times of London reported that he "is typical of the new wave of internet entrepreneurs out to turn the economics of the media industry on its head." Byron and his work have been featured in hundreds of news outlets, including New York Times, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, NPR, and the LA Times Magazine.