My academic interests are in philosophy and psychology and include: critical thinking (heuristics and biases), epistemology, cognitive science (especially perception and attention), evolutionary psychology, logic, and philosophy of science. I'm also interested in moral psychology and ethics (especially distributive justice); I'd like to think of these latter interests as more than merely academic.
My most active hobby is skateboarding (as seen in my pics and videos). When I get a chance, I also play tennis and (used to play) chess. I am a sports fan and love watching sports on TV. I'm an aspiring connoisseur of Thai curries, craft beer, specialty coffee, cheese, and good food in general.
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Slavery 101
All-time favorites include:
Pixies
The Smiths
Bad Religion
Social Distortion
They Might Be Giants
Pearl Jam
Oingo Boingo
Talking Heads
Depeche Mode (up to Violator, anyway)
U2 (up to Rattle and Hum)
The Cure
New Order
Unwritten Law
On the radio, lately, I listen to KROQ (selectively), classical, jazz, and world music ("Morning Becomes Eclectic" and "Global Village" on KCRW and KPFK).
I like guitars, drums, and synthesizers as much as anyone, but what I really like are: horns, violins, cellos, oboes, and especially accordions and harpsichords.
Documentaries:
The Devil Came on Horseback
The Corporation
An Inconvenient Truth
Why We Fight
Black Gold - Wake Up and Smell the Cofee
Wal-Mart - The High Cost of Low Price
A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash
Declining by Degrees - Higher Education at Risk
In Debt We Trust - America Before the Bubble Bursts
Who Killed the Electric Car?
An Unreasonable Man
Schindler's List
Hotel Rwanda
The Matrix
Memento
Pi
Bulworth
O Brother Where Art Thou
Big Fish
Stranger Than Fiction
All six in the Rocky series
All six in the Star Wars series
Just about any movie with Will Farrell
Team America World Police
Best in Show
A Mighty Wind
Nacho Libre
The Science Channel; sports; The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; Lost; Curb Your Enthusiasm; The Office (especially the British version); Arrested Development; Extras; Big Love; The Food Network; etc.
When I get to take a break from reading for a living, for fun I like to read science textbooks and "classic" novels. Some novels I've read relatively recently (though not in chronological order):
Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky
Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, and Cannery Row, Steinbeck
The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
A Conferederacy of Dunces, Toole
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain
Frankenstein, Shelley
The first three books in the series of The Great Brain, by J.D. Fitzgerald (these are favorites from childhood).
I've started listening to audio books during my commute. Two books I just listened to and highly recommend:
Failed States, by Noam Chomsky
The Conscience of a Liberal, by Paul Krugman
Aaron Rust, The Happy Farmer (www.thehappyfarmer.net)