My idea of a good time

But first - shock! - there's a new post o'er at artful science. It concerns my strange and enlightening journey on the path to newborn vitamin k administration.

But second - my idea of a good time!

I have in my smoking hot beautiful hands the following books from the UNSW library

Metamagical themas: questing for the essence of mind and pattern
Perhaps my favourite work of Hofstadter's. It contains a real mix of essays and articles, covering nuclear armageddon, superrationality, analogy as the crux of creativity, nonsense (Arthur a grammar!) and many, many more. I'll own this one day.

Schrodinger's kittens and the search for reality
Physics populariser extraordinaire John Gribbin writes about light, and quantum theory, transactions and reality. If time slows down as you speed up, and if it approaches zero as you approach the speed of light, what would it be like to travel at the speed of light? Time wouldn't pass, right? So there's essentially zero time (and zero distance) between the source and receiver of a photon, even if the source is a quasar 13 billion years from your eye.

The origins of the future: ten questions for the next ten years
Gribbin again, I was hoping for more of his magic but, crucially, updated. I lost interest after the first chapter, which was actually a great introduction to the state of quantum theory/matter/waves/particles as it stands today. It's pretty fucking weird, but utterly fascinating.

Quantum psychology: how brain software programs you and your world
I picked this because it was the only title by Robert Anton Wilson they had. It's not bad, I've come across many of these ideas in Cosmic Trigger and Illuminati, plus I've realised that a lot of what he says is strange common sense (to my mind anyway), yet he phrases it in a very distinctive style, one many would call new age or oddball or dissenting or something like that. Well, the fact that he feels compelled to use the word quantum shows you what I mean. For example, perception is not a passive process of signal receipt, but active interpretation of signals based on current (and past) brain/mind states. We don't 'see reality', we weave it, and he ties this to ideas from quantum theory.

Consider a spherical cow: a course in environmental problem solving
I originally looked up a separate ecological statistics book, but this one looked far more interesting. I needed it for a small project I'm working on at the moment. A bit deluded to think I could catch up on my mostly forgotten maths, but damn it I don't care.

Ecological data
Same project as above. This caught my eye because of it's good overview of methods in ecology, including metadata and geographical information systems.

A primer of statistics: data analysis, probability, inference
My textbook from first year statistics. Great little book, starting with box plots and working up to chi square tests and some nifty algebra.

Regional climate change and variability: impacts and responses
This one could be the key to my little project, but I haven't gotten past the introduction!

Climate change 2007: the physical science basis: contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fourth Ass
Who ever heard of so many colons?! Otherwise known as the IPCC report, I'd like to check out some of the nittier grittier parts of this. Slick production. Weighty tome. Tome.

Subjective probability: the real thing
Title appealed to me, sadly the real thing hasn't corresponded to my hopes, yay my dreams. Guy writes with flair, but it ain't no good.

Ice, mud and blood: lessons from climates past
Popular science type entry for my mini-project, the first few chapters go into some interesting ideas about what the planet was like in the past. Dere was some big ice ages (Snowball earth) and some hot, hot times. Not quite sure why I put it down.

Climate code red: the case for emergency action
I saw one of the authors speak last year, and he was convinced we need to assume a war footing. Forget this 0.01% of the economy spent on climate change, we need to spend 30 or 40 or 50%. He was particularly grim about the fate of the arctic.

It's all for sale: the control of global resources
Without having read it, I reckon this is the type of book that should be compulsory reading in, say late high school. A rundown of all the natural resources that are exploited - by whom, for whom, how much etc.