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The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski

Sometimes you do things when you’re not sure and you just have a hunch.  Sometimes you don’t know the logic or the reasoning behind your decisions – you just know it makes sense.

 

SWIVL recommends a wonderful book, The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski for your September – October reading that provides an excellent summary of science and engineering, their differences and similarities.  This is a well written book, easy to understand, and quick to the point on how and why we make decisions; decisions based on experiences, common sense, and just plain human ingenuity. For example, Petroski tells the story of the Wright brothers and their invention of flight.  These brothers knew what to do but not why.  Here's a little bit of their story:

 

"The airplane is another classic example of a thing being designed, built, and operated before there was a complete scientific explanation of its working principles. The Wright brothers were neither scientists nor engineers in any formal sense, but that is not to say that they did not apply scientific and engineering methods to develop a machine capable of powered flight.  They read what they could find on the problems, experience, and phenomena associated with flight, and they experimented with different designs and profiles for wings and propellers, which they thought of as rather complicated rotating wings, to find the best shape for their purposes.  . . . When a Wright propeller broke in flight, it revealed a weakness that was fixed by a redesign.  What the brothers could not appeal to in their quest was a fully predictive engineering science of aerodynamics.  The development of that would follow the existence of airplanes whose powered flight begged for analysis.  Indeed, airplanes would be flying for decades before there was a full physical and mathematical explanation of why wings worked."

Petroski has taken a subject that at first glace might seem to be rather esoteric and limited to a scientific audience, and shaped it into an important story about how science and engineering have singularly and together created the wonders of our world today.  Equally important is that Mr. Petroski has provided numerous metaphors and analogies to help us understand how invention takes place not just in the physical and material world but also how we can reinvent ourselves to be more productive and successful in society. Click here to purchase a copy of the book.  As you read this book please feel free to add your own comments below.

July Book of the Month – “Hope for the Flowers” by Trina Paulus

Don’t let the cover fool you.  There is more philosophy, common sense, and optimism in this tiny book than you'll find in a year’s worth of CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times combined.  Hope for the Flowers describes a world of potential and possibilities where responsibility, self-reliance, and independence fuels life and life experiences. There are no entitlements, handouts or victims in this book.  Click here for a link to Trina's personal web site to find out more about Hope for the Flowers, other work that Trina and her team are doing, and most important   .   .   .   hope.   Hope for the Flowers should be read by every child – no every adult.

 

June Book of the Month - "The World Turned Upside Down" by Melanie Phillips

 

Is there a world-wide cultural collapse?  Is the United States no longer a culture of success?   Has England become a satellite for Moslem extremists?  Is multiculturalism a Trojan horse for cultural relativism and anything goes?  Have we lost our ideals that promote a strong work ethic, an independent spirit, and the primacy of the family? 

 

If these questions intrigue you or arouse your curiosity, you will want to read the SWIVL recommendation for June 2010, The World Turned Upside Down by Melanie Phillips.

According to Phillips, the West is losing both its rationality and its freedoms. The West is succumbing to a "soft totalitarianism," which not only is creating an ugly mood of intolerance but is undermining its ability to defend itself against Islamic aggression. While the Islamists are intent on returning the free world to the seventh century, the West no longer seems willing or able to defend the modernity and rationalism that it brought into being.

The basic cause of all this unreason is the erosion of the building blocks of western civilization. We tell ourselves that religion and reason are incompatible, but in fact the opposite is the case. It was Christianity and the Hebrew Bible that gave us our concepts of reason, progress and an orderly world-the foundations of science and modernity.

The loss of religious belief has meant the West has replaced reason and truth with ideology and prejudice, which it enforces in the manner of a secular inquisition. The result has been a kind of mass derangement, as truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor are all turned upside down. In medieval-style witch- hunts, scientists who are skeptical of global warming are hounded from their posts; Israel is ferociously demonized; and the United States is vilified over the war on terror-all on the basis of falsehoods and propaganda that are believed as truth.

Thus the West is losing both its rationality and its freedoms. It is succumbing to a "soft totalitarianism," which not only is creating an ugly mood of intolerance but is undermining its ability to defend itself against Islamic aggression. While the Islamists are intent on returning the free world to the seventh century, the West no longer seems willing or able to defend the modernity and rationalism that it brought into being.

With cold, perceptive, exhaustive and persistent passion, Melanie Phillips dissects the phenomenon among disparate movements, to reach disturbing but compelling conclusions about the erosion of modern progressive society – a society based on personal responsibility, independence, and self-reliance - by ideologies whose surprising interconnections are meticulously identified. One can only hope that her book will penetrate the information cocoon into which many of our intelligentsia have have sealed themselves."  Continue reading.

May Book of the Month - "Beyond Animal Rights – A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals" Editors, Josephine Donovan and Carol J. Adams

For the month of May 2010 the SWIVL book selection is Beyond Animal Rights – A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals.   This selection includes a practical set of essays that describes an important approach to ending violence towards non human animals which can be applied to child abuse and domestic violence.

The animal rights movement, which has generally been based on a natural rights doctrine and utilitarianism, advocates for more laws, rules and regulations to protect nonhuman animals.  While this view is popular with most animal rights organizations, Editors, Josephine Donovan and Carol J. Adams believe that an exclusive rules-based approach to animal protection should be rejected and replaced with the belief that people and the human community should be responsible and caring first and that given the right conditions, humanity will and can respect the sanctity of all life – human and non human animals, alike.

In eight scholarly essays, a foundation for a new approach to animal rights and protection is presented by Editors.  Themes presented include: (1) the connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, (2) how justice-based arguments for animal liberation have failed, (3) why the treatment of companion and domestic animals should be driven by morality, humility, and care, and (4) sympathy as a basis for ethical treatment of animals.

This selection for May 2010 supports the view that more government control and domination will not keep human and nonhuman animals safe and that the bureaucratic approach represents an illusion allowing government at all levels to simply gain more power and influence over our lives.

April Book of the Month - "Please Stop Laughing At Us" by Jodee Blanco

Each month SWIVL features a book that exemplifies the spirit of ViolenceFree.  For the month of April 2010, SWIVL recommends a wonderful author and advocate for ending violence.  

Don’t be a victim!  That’s the clear and simple message from Jodee Blanco, author of the best-selling book, PLEASE STOP LAUGHING AT US. 

Bullying, like animal cruelty, child abuse, and domestic violence is a disease that must be eradicated from society and Blanco describes a number of actions that children can take, including:

- Realize there’s nothing wrong with you

- Reacting to the moment, not later

- Reaching out to a parent or other individuals of authority

Ideas to stop the bully are promoted by Blanc through stories, examples, and most of all action.   Ignoring the abuser – the bully – will not make him or her go away.  SWIVL encourages schools officials, teachers, parents, and community leaders to review the work of Ms. Blanco and visit her web site.  

To end animal cruelty, child abuse, and domestic violence, we must focus on the act of violence and recognize that the abuser does not care who the victim is – it is the abusive act itself that gives pleasure and motivates the abuser. 

It’s time to get serious about the bully; an important first step to ending the cycle of violence.

March Book of the Month - "How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids" by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer

Each month SWIVL showcases a book that exemplifies the spirit of ViolenceFree.  For the month of March 2010, SWIVL recommends a wonderful story that shows how daily interactions either fill or empty our personal bucket with good or bad stuff.  Using the bucket as a metaphor, How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids, by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer, instructs us that every moment matters.

Each of us has an invisible bucket. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it's empty, we feel awful. Yet most children (and many adults) don't realize the importance of having a full bucket throughout the day.  This is a great book that can be used in the classroom and home.  Teachers and parents can use this book to help children understand the importance of their relationships with other children and adults.  Reading this book, children will not only learn the importance of their talents and strengths but that the talents and strengths of others need to be valued and appreciated.

February Book of the Month – “Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save it From Itself” by Larry Harrison

Each month SWIVL showcases a book that exemplifies the spirit of ViolenceFree.  For the month of February 2010 is a serious book about the role culture plays in producing economic progress, democratic governance, and social justice: factors that help create violenefree.  The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save it From Itself, by Larry Harrison points out in  dramatic way why culture is an important reason why some groups prosper while others seem to remain perpetually behind.  According to Harrison, certain cultural factors accelerate political, economic, and social development in poor countries and among underachieving groups in the advanced democracies.

January Book of the Month - "Rescuing Sprite" by Mark R. Levin

Each month SWIVL showcases a book that exemplifies the spirit of ViolenceFree.  For the month of January 2010 is a love story of joy, hope, sadness, and renewal - Rescuing Sprite, by Mark R. Levin. 

The human and animal connection is one that begins when we are very small and lasts for a life time.  Most of us can remember with love and affection the companion animals that were part of our family when we were small.  Whether we are socialized or it’s in our DNA, the bond we feel for nonhuman animals is powerful and everlasting. So too, is the sadness and personal loss we feel when we lose our companion friends. Rescuing Sprite, by Mark R. Levin, is a story that describes the essence of relationships that live with us all our lives.  It is both a love story and a description of hope and renewal.  Equally important, this is a story of family and friendship that gently confirms the importance of love and compassion to the human condition.

December Book of the Month - "The Three Little Javelinas" by Susan Lowell & Illustrated by Jim Harris

Each month SWIVL showcases a book that exemplifies the spirit of the Southwest.  For the month of December is a wonderful story - The Three Little Javelinas - for young children to learn about life and survival in the desert.  

From Scholastic News: Young children familiar with "The Three Little Pigs" will delight in the twists and variations that make up this engaging Southwestern retelling, now available in a bilingual edition. Coyote, the traditional trickster of the Native American Southwest, is the villain in this version, and his meal of choice (to be eaten with red chili sauce) is not pig, but javelina, a hairy, swine-like creature native to the area. The first javelina lives in a tumbleweed shack that's an easy target for the huffing, puffing coyote; likewise, the saguaro rib hut of the second javelina falls down without too much ado. Luckily, the third javelina comes to her brothers' rescue — she has built her house out of sturdy adobe bricks, with a coyote-sized wood stove as its best feature.

Susan Lowell tells her story with energy, spicing it with bits of the culture and languages of the Southwest, yet maintaining enough of the original for children to recognize it. Jim Harris's exuberant illustrations give a realistic picture of the landscape, but depict the characters with playful exaggeration, dressing the dapper javelinas in snazzy western duds. Consider using this enjoyable retelling to introduce students to the culture, wildlife, and environment of the Southwestern United States.   Student lesson plans are available for teachers and parents.