Bøger udgivet af P.J. Bear

These essays are on topics reflecting the intersection of science and humankind. They concern time, consciousness, beauty, probability, and understanding. They supplement and compliment my book Important Things We Don't Know (About Nearly Everything) and are presented here as an accompaniment to that book. But, this volume can stand on its own. For several years, I periodically updated Important Things. But, I decided to leave the last edition as the last. Yet, I keep reading and thinking. So, I have been writing short essays on scientific subjects and including them in my Wanderings books. There are now enough that I thought it worth making them (updated and revised-in some cases, very substantially), along with some new ones, separately available as an addendum to the original book.

The four books in my Wanderings series contain many essays on politicized topics. I decided to collect them in one place, arranged by related subjects, covering most of the big issues of today: racism, climate change, abortion, inequality, heredity, nationalism, patriotism. I call it "Politics," based on an unusual definition attributed to the late Christopher Boehm, formerly the Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center. I would clarify it by adding "attainable" before "directions" and "rational" before "arguments", making it less Utopian but also more aspirational. It seems silly to do more than dream about societies that can never exist; and we can at least hope for rational argument. I believe that these essays meet both criteria. "[T]he essence of politics: the ability to reflect consciously on different directions one's society could take, and to make explicit arguments why it should take one path rather than another."In May 2023, I became concerned again that I would run out of time and, frankly, was feeling worn out. So, I wrapped up my writing projects and published them. Then, during that summer, I resumed reading, then writing. The master of the book Politics became longer, as I revised and expanded it. It seems one cannot discuss politics without considering history and ideologgy. And, I felt the original title was now too narrow. Thus, I added to the title as well.

My father grew up on a small farm in a very small town in northwestern Ohio, appropriately called Hicksville. Its claim to fame is that it is mentioned in Huckleberry Finn. My mother's father during the 1930s worked at the YMCA so that his family could eat meals in the cafeteria. That was his pay. My parents both graduated from Ohio State University. They married right after my father returned from Italy, where he had served in the army during WWII. I grew up in Northville, a small town in southern Michigan. Everyone was either management or labor, and everyone supported either Michigan or Ohio State (in football). Our town was economically diverse, but otherwise pretty homogeneous. Our minorities were the Catholics. My father was quite successful over time. We moved to Oakwood, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, which was much less economically diverse (but there were more different religions). My parents lived quite well after all four kids were through college and had several wonderful years of travel and adventure after he retired.These are my stories... .

Sometime during 2013, I became aware of my first symptoms.I was diagnosed in March 2015. I rushed to finish the book I was writing since my retirement in March 2011. Under a perceived shortage of time, I decided to self-publish. The book was out by mid-2016. By early 2018, I was getting restless. I started writing again. Naturally, much of what I wrote concerned my experiences with ALS. Having learned how to publish a book, I indulged myself. I have now three more. While reading posts from sufferers of ALS, whether patients or care-givers, I concluded that there might be benefits if I made my writings more accessible. So, I gathered the relevant chapters from the three books, added a preamble and some final notes and went "to press". For a small but very special audience. May some find help.¿