I was amused to discover that January 13 is International Skeptics Day. I really don't need a day, however, I'm pretty much a skeptic every day. ;-)

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free, by Charles P. Pierce. Common sense, thoughtful thinking, logic .... none of these seem to be in use anymore. If something makes money, is said loudly enough, and enough people believe it, then it must be true. It has even lead to politicians being elected because they promised to vote against a project that never existed in the first place. There have always been 'cranks' as the author calls them, but never had they had so much power. This book was scary, and rather depressing.

Knowing that much of what we hear or read is not exactly true, I looked for a book on just how that is done. Spin This: All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth, by Bill Press was what I found. Learn how just about anything can be put in the best possible light, whether in politics, sports, advertising, and general life. (There is a difference between a spin and a lie, by the way). Fun, at times, but frightening as well.

Full of tidbits of information, The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson proved to be an enlightening read. Turns out, the Great Wall of China can not be seen from the moon. (Okay, I did wonder about this)! A two-toed sloth has either six or eight toes, and an octopus doesn't have eight arms. Some I actually knew (violin strings are not made of cat gut), others I didn't. The short entries allowed me to read this book during the ads on tv. :-)

Burt Reynolds as James Bond? Invading Russia in the winter? Changing the taste of Coke? Read about these and more in 100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts, by Michael N. Smith and Eric Kasum. Some are familiar, some are not, some, well, you have to wonder what folks were thinking! Nicely laid out with a good bibliography should you want to learn even more.

Reading Hermit With Dog