Sparked with an interest in faking her own death to avoid student loans, Elizabeth Greenwood begins investigating how realistic it is to fake your own death in the 21st century. Playing Dead follows Greenwood as she interviews people who help you disappear, people who hunt you down and the people who (briefly) lived after being declared dead. Because, you see, there is no way to know how many people have successfully faked their deaths because you only ever hear about the failures. The man who gives her […]
It’s all about willpower
I’m so far from an elite athlete, even the comparison is comical. Yet I’ve pushed myself often enough and hard enough while running, rowing, or cycling, that I have some understanding of the pain of pushing past your limits. So, I was intrigued when I heard about this new book, How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle (2015) by Matt Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s main thesis (supported by lots of science) is that your mind is the limiting factor in athletic endurance performance. […]
“animals get diseases, but only man falls radically into sickness”
Oliver Sacks, probably best known for his work that would inspire the movie Awakenings,has devoted his life to neurology and those whose brains revolt against them. In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Sacks shares some of his more memorable cases. “Neurology’s favourite word is ‘deficit’, denoting an impairment or incapacity of neurological function: loss of speech, loss of language, loss of memory, loss of vision, loss of dexterity, loss of identity and myriad other lacks and losses of specific functions (or faculties).” The title […]
Running is What I Came For, Diet is What I Left With
I like to run, but I’m not big on running outdoors. Unless it’s for an official race. Part of the reason is that I don’t like running on sidewalks, I’m afraid of dogs, and I’m more motivated if I head straight to the gym after work. I saw this book in a book store and I thought it might be a good resource to have and a nice addition to the other books I own on running and fitness. Specifically, I thought this was going […]
Both an intimate history and a large-scale one
For years, people have recommended Siddhartha Mukherjee’s book about cancer, The Emperor of all Maladies, to me. It’s sooooo good, they would say, not like you think a book about cancer would be. I don’t read a ton of nonfiction and a book about the history of cancer has always sounded incredibly grim, despite what anyone says, so I’ve always politely ignored their suggestions. After reading The Gene however, I’m actually considering picking it up. Mukherjee is an incredibly talented writer. The Gene delves into […]
Interesting material about a couple of real assholes
Masters of Sex has two main components: the research that Masters & Johnson performed over decades as “sex experts”, and biographical material on the researchers themselves. Most of the research I found fascinating, particularly in how very controversial it was at the time. But the biographical material, while presumably accurate, portrayed Masters & Johnson as a couple of really unpleasant people that I quickly tired of. Dr. William Masters — an OBGYN determined to make a name for himself — and Virginia Johnson — a secretary […]
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