Something to read up on

Red About Town · 26-05-2013 1:50pm #1

Give me something suggestions on something to read up on/study

Can be anything as long as it's interesting and an in depth topic.

The Backwards Man · 26-05-2013 1:54pm

https://www.bible.com/

Bipolar Joe · 26-05-2013 1:54pm

Visual programming.

Prodigious · 26-05-2013 1:55pm

Safes: A dummy's guide to Lockpicking

_Whimsical_ · 26-05-2013 1:55pm

www.udacity.com

It offers uni level courses on a whole lot of subjects. It's lectures rather than reading, but I'm sure you can read up on the subjects if you so desire.

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

That one has links to 700 courses online, lots from well respected 3rd level institutes around the world.

IM0 · 26-05-2013 1:57pm

here

thee glitz · 26-05-2013 1:58pm

www.cracked.com

the 50 most interesting articles on wikipedia
http://copybot.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/the-50-most-interesting-articles-on-wikipedia/

orestes · 26-05-2013 1:58pm

Well it depends on what you consider interesting

http://www.wikipedia.org/

Just keep hitting random page or clicking on links to things that seem interesting to you and away you go.

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

Full university lecture courses on pretty much everything.

Peter The Pedo · 26-05-2013 2:01pm

Natural Fractals

DarkJager · 26-05-2013 2:04pm

The Backwards Man wrote: »

https://www.bible.com/

http://www.lolcatbible.com

Much better read

Grayson · 26-05-2013 2:11pm

sod that. I'm pretty much addicted to learning. But the new season of arrested development is on netflix today.

Red About Town · 26-05-2013 2:23pm

I'm wasting loads of time just browsing the net, watching YouTube etc. Want to make it more valuable. Learn about a new topic, historical event etc. Some of the courses on those links look very good.

Aidric · 26-05-2013 2:35pm

Study tax planning. It will stand you in good stead.

Musefan · 26-05-2013 2:50pm

The Mariana Trench. It's a pretty deep subject.

KyussBishop · 26-05-2013 3:05pm

http://youarenotsosmart.com/all-posts/ (start at the bottom; could also get the book)

Other than that, get an RSS reader such as RSSOwl (there are better, that's just my preference), and find good RSS feeds; what you lose in time, you will sometimes make up for in obscure and useless knowledge.

Prof Nincom Poop Ph.D · 26-05-2013 3:06pm

Red About Town wrote: »

Give me something suggestions on something to read up on/study

Can be anything as long as it's interesting and an in depth topic.

The Best Websites for Free Online Courses, Certificates, Degrees, and Educational Resources

http://www.popsci.com/

http://phys.org/

http://mentalfloss.com/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/

dodderangler · 26-05-2013 3:07pm

I've recently starting reading up on Charles Darwin
That chap has some seriously interesting theories on life

bnt · 26-05-2013 3:10pm

Study some History. Something fun. such as the history of the Roman Republic, and how it became the Roman Empire. In popular culture, we only see bits of it, but we don't get to see the big picture unless we look.

For example, the movie Gladiator is set around 180AD: this is during the reign of the real Emperor Commodus, and that character is based partly on what we know about the real Emperor. He really did like fighting as a gladiator himself, which was considered highly scandalous.

The movie Spartacus was set 250 years before that (73-71 BC). It as during the Roman Republic, long before the Empire was founded. It was a completely different ear, yet it all gets lumped under the heading "Roman". I've found it rewarding to read about all that, particularly what went wrong. We're facing many of the same challenges today, yet folks don't seem to be able to learn from history.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
- George Santayana

Ice Storm · 26-05-2013 3:38pm

thee glitz wrote: »

www.cracked.com

the 50 most interesting articles on wikipedia
http://copybot.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/the-50-most-interesting-articles-on-wikipedia/

That wikipedia list was a big disappointment. I am struggling to find any interesting articles in that list tbh.

kowloon · 26-05-2013 3:45pm

Grayson wrote: »

sod that. I'm pretty much addicted to learning. But the new season of arrested development is on netflix today.

:eek:

thee glitz · 26-05-2013 4:08pm

Ice Storm wrote: »

That wikipedia list was a big disappointment. I am struggling to find any interesting articles in that list tbh.

Ye, sorry about that. I must have been really bored the day I started going through that list.

Mental Floss is interesting, as already suggested by Prof Nincom Poop Ph.D
http://mentalfloss.com/section/ww1

barneysplash · 26-05-2013 4:25pm

There's loads of interesting stuff on the UCD history hub site:

http://historyhub.ie/

Grayson · 26-05-2013 4:48pm

Go out and buy a book called Godel, Escher, Bach.

Corkfeen · 26-05-2013 4:50pm

Grayson wrote: »

Go out and buy a book called Godel, Escher, Bach.

Thanks for reminding me, been intending on ordering that for ages.

18AD · 26-05-2013 5:17pm

Grayson wrote: »

Go out and buy a book called Godel, Escher, Bach.

You beat me to it. I was going to say fractals. Now I fear there's weird psychic recursion happening again. *hides*

genuine leather · 26-05-2013 6:37pm

Daniel Goleman , Emotional Intelligence.

biko · 26-05-2013 6:44pm

rtfm

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 26-05-2013 6:49pm

Start with Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. He covers big bang theory, exploration, biology, physics, chemistry, natural history, the lot. It's a great way to get a steer towards an item you may want to learn more about. Written in his unique style it is easy reading and peppered with interesting insights into the characters met along the way. Fact filled, humourous, and informative.