the authorm Andrew Potter was the prof for a philosophy of biology course I took back at UofT

In Whistling Vivaldi, Steele (a social psychologist at Columbia University) describes the groundbreaking work that he and his colleagues conducted over the past 20 years on stereotype threat, the psychological threat of confirming or being reduced to a negative stereotype. Empirical work on this topic began when Steele and Steve Spencer found that they could dramatically improve women's math scores simply by telling them that the test they were about to take shows no gender differences in performance [research described in (1)].

newish book: Future Imperfect

The Mississippi scheme -- The south-sea bubble -- The tulipomania -- The alchymists -- Modern prophecies -- Fortune-telling -- The magnetisers -- Influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard -- The crusades -- The witch mania -- The slow poisoners -- Haunted houses -- Popular follies of great cities -- Popular admiration of great thieves -- Duels and ordeals -- Relics.

recommended by Paul Kedrosky on his blog

yikes. a lot of reading to do still

for the next long road trip!

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