i dunno if you noobs like to read but i just bought mad books so i figure i'd post about them cause they were semi educated decisions and maybe some people would like some book recommendations.
Nickel and Dimed
This book is about some lady author who decides to live for a few months in three areas of the USA and try to survive on minimum wage-ish jobs. It more so becomes a memoir/look into the people with whom she ends up having to work with or live around becaues of her low paying jobs from what I can rather (have read 1/3rd of it). She works three different menial jobs in Florida, Maine and Minnesota respectively. I find this "hands on" investigative journalism stuff pretty interesting and the section on Maine was ok. I kinda got the vibe the author was sort of an ego-maniac and used a lot of hyperbole and stuff to make thing sound more dramatic than they really are but its an interesting account of lower class American life in the three very different cultural/geographical areas she does her little experiment in.
The Next Hundred Years
George Friedman is a guy I was semi familiar with whilst acquiring my political science degree. For reasons I'm honestly not fully understanding of he is very highly revered in the political/financial worlds, particular for his supposed ability to predict future events. This book is actually a pretty interesting read as the guy is really well school on political history and political philosophy and does a good job (imo) of combining both effectively to formulate good hypothesis. That being said, it is worth noting that this man is a Texan, and has a very pro-US and US-Centric bend on his "predictions" even in this book. I won't try to spoil it too much but he predicts very few negatives for the US over the next 100 years relatively speaking. One interesting note is he does allude to his belief that over the next 100 years Mexico will possibly re-annex land lost in the Texan Revolution and Gadsden purchase via some interesting methods. Also, those of you who are into the poland-ball comics might be amused to find that he predicts Poland to be one of the four major powers of the world by 2100 via some interesting turn of events he predicts with regard to Europe. This is definitely not a book you can take super serious but definitely an interesting read coming from someone who is very educated on macro-humanity and the political systems that have been in place over the last 3-400 years.
Methland
This book is perhaps the one I'm most interested to read. For those not familiar with the USA, I am originally from the Northeast, which, probably not coincidentally, is the only part of the USA not experiencing what I would consider a meth epidemic. It wasn't until I moved to Las Vegas that I was confronted with the realities of Meth. I literally moved to Vegas with no idea of what it was as I suspect its still highly underreported in the northeast as its just about impossible to come across. Given I was in Vegas and I play poker I'd be out at odd hours. Frequently you'd stumble upon "tweakers" (meth users) at a convenience store at like 4am or wahtever, picking at cuts and scabs theyve picked into their skin and generally fidgeting while buying a $7 pack of cigarettes in loose change they had picked up off the ground or stolen. I've seen this scenario played out at 2-7am just about every other time I go to a store at these hours. I'd say it's a problem. This book examines a dozen or so of the most ill-affected meth communities from small towns in Iowa to cities such as El Paso, Texas. I haven't read much of this one yet but I'm very interested to see whats up.
The China Study
Lastly, the "coming out"
For the last six weeks or so, I've been avoiding eating any processed meat and generally been maintaining a more or less vegan diet. I plan on continuing this trend for the forseeable future. I already feel better than I did before and overall more energized and I expect this to continue for some time as the toxins exit my body. Don't get me wrong, I think animals are pathetic and it is our darwinistic duty to smite them at all costs, however, the manner in which we are farming animals and producing them solely for consumption / feeding them corn etc. is really alarming. I'm not even so worried for myself as I am for future generations of people and the long long term effects of this kind of dietary trend as we have seen (especially in the USA) over the last 30-40 years. The tipping point was watching some documentary on how much corn is in the average US diet and how most livestock are cornfed as opposed to eating the foods they naturally would (grass etc) blah blha. One day I just decided this isn't too good so I'm gonna try and stop eating meat for awhile. About a week into that I figured if I dont eat meat there isn't much reason to eat dairy so I cut that out too. I will however continue to use leather as it is cool and feels nice. Anyways, I dont know why I sorta "hid" this from people in my life, I think it was mostly because I didn't think I'd make it this long/actually stick to it, but by now I'm pretty confident that I will sustain this diet for the forseeable future. Wish me luck.
Anyways, this book is one of the best/most comprehensive books I've found on diet and was recommended to my by an old friend who is actually working as a nutritionist now. I'm not a big fan of telling people how to live their lives or whatever but I'd at least recommend reading more about diet if you haven't already because it's something that I think it under-appreciated and undervalued in traditional global society.
Hopefully some of you guys will find one of these topics interesting and check them out, books are cool dude.
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