Perhaps the only thing that my intro to psychology teacher taught me wsa that correlation does not equal causation. That is to say, just because too things are related doesn’t mean that one causes the other. In Fact, she hammered it in so well that I even did a Previous Post about health and gambling correlates.
A good example of this is the Flying Spaghetti Monster graphic of number of pirates vs global temperatures.
That’s why this story claiming that Alcohol use helps boost income needs to be taken with a grain of salt and some lime.
While it may be true that those who drink more earn more, it’s probably not that they earn more because they drink. What’s most likely happening here is that people who earn more have more disposable income to spend at places like bars.
What do you think is the proper relationship here? That people who drink more are better employees and make more money… or that people who make more money spend more of it at bars?
Ingore this link to my Technorati Profile. They somehow require it to start spidering this blog.
September 14th, 2006
Yesterday I talked about books that I think shouldn’t be banned at all. That got me thinking of some of the other good books I’ve read before, and I figured I should list them here. I didn’t just include good books though, I also included short stories and plays that I think are good as well.
death of a salesman is a classic play by Arthur Miller about national values and the american dream (or if you think small scale, one family’s struggles)
We already covered to kill a mockingbird
no exit is an existentialist play by Sartre. It starts out with a man arriving in Hell… You can find this one free online somewhere, a must read
the stranger is a novel by another existentialist, Albert Camus. It details the interesting take on life that Merssault (a man who didn’t cry at his mom’s funeral) seems to have.
1984 & Animal Farm have so many comparisons to what’s going on in this country right now that every American should be forced to read it.
leningen vs the ants is a short story about a man saving his farm from ants. At one point he digs a moat and the ants simply keep marching into it until they fill it up and cross on the dead bodies of other ants. China could do this to the US if they wanted.
cat on a hot tin roof is a tennessee williams play about mendacity, or as big daddy describes it “Liars and Lying”. I did a research paper on this in school.
the great gatsby was also mentioned earlier so I won’t get into it.
the chocolate war is probably one of the most banned books in America. It’s about high school kids and starts out with one taking a picture of another masturbating.
the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime is a british novel told from the point of view of a 15 year old with a mental problem (like rainman) who’s trying to figure out why his neighbor’s dog is dead.
henderson the rain king is the basis for the counting crows song, and is about a millionaire who goes to africa and joins a tribe.
The Pearl is a short story about a villager who finds a pearl and all the evil it brings upon his simple life.
Internet Slang Dictionary is my book. Buy it
If we have to mention shakespeare, the following plays get my vote:
King Lear, MacBeth, Hamlet, Oedipus
That’s a pretty big list. Sometime this weekend I’ll list the non-fiction books that everybody should read.
Did I miss any? Let me know, leave your reccomendations in the comments.
September 14th, 2006
