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tapbirds

tapbirds

has 172 followers and is following 152 people

An avid reader, naturalist, hiker, and photographer; a sinner saved by grace. "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read" (Groucho Marx). "It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and posses all the attractions of the next world"... more »
  • San Francisco, CA, USA
  • member since August 30, 2007

Public Notes

 
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Displaying 1-20 of 537 notes
  • She

    She says

    Hey Scott, I finally finished the biography of "Roger Williams and the creation of the American soul" by John Barry. Though the first half was very dry and difficult to read, it does lay the groundwork of the people who influenced Williams' development of ideas, and also to highlight the importance of what he accomplished. Williams had such high spiritual ideals that he believed that no "Church" should hold over the common man the dictates of how one should practice their faith, that it should come from within the person's soul, and any enforcement is an insult to God. Through his banishment, founding of Providence (Rhode Island) and his advancement of its freeedom of the 'soul' is at the root of the separation of church and state leading to the diversity of religious practice in this country. The second half of the book is nothing short of fantastic scholarship, political intrigue and astonishing accomplishment. I really think you will like this book that I am recommending.

    posted 2 days ago. ( send a note )
  • Beginnings

    Beginnings says

    Hi Taps!

    I was fooling around on the net-looking up Rare Disease Day - instead found this article from last year-February 28, 2011

    Researcher Killed By What He Didn't Know, CDC Reports-http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2011/02/today-nih-celeb.html

    Reminded me of Lewis Sinclair's character and book "Arrowsmith" who was also studying the plague-except his wife was the one who was killed by what she didn't know.

    posted 2 days ago. ( send a note )
  • Sagecoveredhills

    Sagecoveredhills says

    I see you're reading several by A B Guthrie. Have you read his autobiography, "The Blue Hen's Chick"? It's a great introduction to life in the first half of the 20th Century--good stuff.

    posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Jassafari

    Jassafari says

    Yes, There, are many,

    The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allen-Poe, Wuthering Heights, and David Copperfield: All, Classics Books. I choose to read, books, and... only Books, that I can get something from, to helpmy Life, or to give me something, in "Return!" But, as 4 your New, Grand-child, Man! I have 29, of them: But, I 2, have a first: I lost, my first Grand-daughter, this Year; Soooo, U are Blessed, to have not ever, experienced, that!

    Jas

    Great to hear, of your Blessings, May God, Bless U, "Eternally!"

    posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Jassafari

    Jassafari says

    tapbirds,

    Jas

    How,are U doing?

    posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Don K.

    Don K. says

    Who knows? The ways of publishers are higher than my ways, their thoughts higher than my thoughts.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Don K.

    Don K. says

    I noticed that you added Peter Watson's book, The Modern Mind. I think The Modern Mind is the same book Watson published a year or two earlier in the UK under the title A Terrible Beauty. Same subject, same length, different publisher.

    If so, it's great fun.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • mmolino54

    mmolino54 says

    I read "The Swimmer" last night. Wow. I mean, WOW!!!! I'm still trying to process it, but it's almost like he's swimming through time as he tries to recapture a luxurious life through turning the over-developed into a wilderness (which for him, it now is). So glad you recommended this. It's now one of my favorite short stories.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Jonas D

    Jonas D says

    Hi Taps,

    The best to you and your family for the new year as well !

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Katydid

    Katydid says

    Hi Taps,

    Now I'm really curious, and you don't have to answer if you don't want, but did you turn from evolutionary theory to creationism around the same time you became a Christian, or have you always been a Christian and changed your mind on this issue independently of finding your faith?

    Again, if that is too personal, feel free to ignore it!

    Best,

    Katie

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Joe M

    Joe M says

    Hey Scott, Happy New Year to you as well!! Hope it will be a great 2012!!

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Marcelo de Almeida

    Marcelo de Almeida says

    Same to you Tapbirds. New Years Eve would be perfect in San Francisco if fireworks could be set off over the bay.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Yosemite009

    Yosemite009 says

    Happy new year to you, too! Here's to a year of great reads and great walks!

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Beginnings

    Beginnings says

    Hi Again Taps,

    I liked the O.S. quotes below so much, that after I sent them to you I couldn't resist sending them as a New Years Wish to BTS. I even changed my profile to include the quotes, as they seemed to fit perfectly with my profile name "Beginnings." Your quote of Cather's book in your Better Than Starbucks review "Life was so short that it meant nothing at all unless it were continually reinforced by something that endured; unless the shadows of individual existence came and went against a background that held together" very much reminds me of a similar thought vein as Sacks.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Beginnings

    Beginnings says

    Happy New Year Day Taps!

    Just finished my second Oliver Sacks book "Island Of The Color Blind" If you liked the earlier O.S. quote from "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat"-here is one from I.C.B.

    "...has nothing to do with the human,but has to do with the ancient,the aboriginal,the beginning of all things....realms remote from the mortal or the human, realms which force us to gaze into immense vistas of space and time,where the beginnings and originations of all things lie hidden."

    "The sense of deep time brings a deep peace with it, a detachment from the timescale,the urgencies, of daily life."

    Wishing you a sense of deep time and peace in the New Year Taps!:)

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • amright

    amright says

    Thank you Scott. Happy New Year to you too. May your life be filled with happiness and joy in 2012.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Alexblues

    Alexblues says

    Thanks, and I wish you the same!

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Andi K

    Andi K says

    Thanks! You too!

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Jassafari

    Jassafari says

    And the self-same thing,

    Back-at-Cha! Happy New Year....And my God's Blessings, be upon U, Eternally!

    Jas

    I Have Missed U!

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Beginnings

    Beginnings says

    Hi Again Taps,
    The following quote paraphrases how I understand the relevance of math/science students being able to learn from field trips to court --I felt Oliver Sacks summed up my unclarified feelings/ideas -although he speaks of cognitive science/neurology and classical physics in particular.

    "And yet,whether in philosophical sense(Kant's Sense), or an empirical and evolutionary sense, judgement is the most important faculty we have.
    Of course, the brain is a machine and a computer-everything in classical neurology is correct. But our mental processes, which constitute our being and life, are not just abstract and mechanical, but personal, as well - and, as such, involve not just classifying and catagorising, but continual judging and feeling also. What happens to a science which eschews the judgemental,the particular,the personal, and becomes entirely abstract and computational." Credit-Oliver Sacks

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
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Displaying 1-20 of 537 notes