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rinlight814's review against another edition
1.0
Funny if not so anti-intellectual and without endless tangents.
osheanik's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting and somewhat entertaining. I've added another book to my list that is more recent and doesn't promote dowsing or using lie detectors on plants. I hated that new-agey aspect of the book.
Pick up another book on George Washington Carver. Overall, don't recommend.
Pick up another book on George Washington Carver. Overall, don't recommend.
miluva's review against another edition
The tangents were a bit draining, and after a while I felt I gathered the gist of the unfinished research that was gathered in this book.
It’s not a huge turn-off to me that it was quite unacademic and new age, because given, those categories have overlapped into science before. I just found it a bit repetitive and boring after a while.
It’s not a huge turn-off to me that it was quite unacademic and new age, because given, those categories have overlapped into science before. I just found it a bit repetitive and boring after a while.
skahn's review against another edition
4.0
A scientist doesn't poo poo "weird." A scientist asks if he can repeat weird and if weird can be come the new normal. A scientist doesn't ask: is it weird? A scientist asks: does it work?
It's very easy to be put off by the language of this book, especially for dime a dozen skeptics out there. Prejudicial doubt is very trendy, mostly because it saves people the trouble of actually thinking! Any real scientist who dismisses something as "weird" or "unproven" reveals his own laziness: if he can dismiss something from my armchair, he doesn't have to try anything himself! Prejudice saves people the trouble of having to change their minds and culls new information as: unworthy of consideration. Unfortunately, sound reason will weigh bullshit dispassionately and seek out what truth might be in it, if any. People will go through such elaborate efforts to avoid thinking.
It doesn't matter how much someone gets right: they can be wrong about something else. There are no infallible gurus. Conversely, it doesn't matter how much someone gets wrong: they can be right about something else. There is no one who is always wrong.
For much of this book, many of the (strange!) experiments themselves might be quite good. The interpretation of those experiments might not be correct, but that's a totally different can of worms. The real question is: does it work? We can figure out why it works after entertaining whether it works. And "weird" has nothing to do with either. Virtually every important scientific discover was "weird" -- scientists got burned at the stake for their weirdness. Don't think for a minute that dogmatism is gone. Dogma alive and well in censorious minds crowded with inherited habits and vacant of original thoughts. It is easier to tear down than to build up. It is easier to dismiss than to dissect.
This book is a tour de force of alternative agriculture and the surprising sensitivity of plants to their environments. If it doesn't make you rethink what plants are and how they live, I don't know what will.
It's very easy to be put off by the language of this book, especially for dime a dozen skeptics out there. Prejudicial doubt is very trendy, mostly because it saves people the trouble of actually thinking! Any real scientist who dismisses something as "weird" or "unproven" reveals his own laziness: if he can dismiss something from my armchair, he doesn't have to try anything himself! Prejudice saves people the trouble of having to change their minds and culls new information as: unworthy of consideration. Unfortunately, sound reason will weigh bullshit dispassionately and seek out what truth might be in it, if any. People will go through such elaborate efforts to avoid thinking.
It doesn't matter how much someone gets right: they can be wrong about something else. There are no infallible gurus. Conversely, it doesn't matter how much someone gets wrong: they can be right about something else. There is no one who is always wrong.
For much of this book, many of the (strange!) experiments themselves might be quite good. The interpretation of those experiments might not be correct, but that's a totally different can of worms. The real question is: does it work? We can figure out why it works after entertaining whether it works. And "weird" has nothing to do with either. Virtually every important scientific discover was "weird" -- scientists got burned at the stake for their weirdness. Don't think for a minute that dogmatism is gone. Dogma alive and well in censorious minds crowded with inherited habits and vacant of original thoughts. It is easier to tear down than to build up. It is easier to dismiss than to dissect.
This book is a tour de force of alternative agriculture and the surprising sensitivity of plants to their environments. If it doesn't make you rethink what plants are and how they live, I don't know what will.
2000ace's review against another edition
4.0
I grew up next door to a tree nursery, and spent my childhood running up and down rows of azaleas and camellias, and reading books in the branches of an old apple tree. Perhaps that is what made me so receptive to this book. I cannot remember a time in my life when I did not talk to plants.
Granted, this is a kooky book, and it has not aged all that well. It would be interesting if someone updated it, and maybe fine-tuned it. I actually got to see some of the ideas from these pages put into action, and ... they worked. I had the opportunity to garden with a man who had lived at Findhorn, and used the bio-dynamic gardening methods of Rudolph Steiner. I must admit, the day we used the ball of cow dung that had been buried on a full moon and left in the ground for a year or so before we dug it up was something else. We took the bolus and mixed it in a bucket with gallons of water and walked all around the farm sprinkling this magic elixir on the ground. We also planted by the phases of the moon. I have never seen such a lush, productive garden or such beautiful grounds,
Of course we are connected to the plants. All life is one.
Granted, this is a kooky book, and it has not aged all that well. It would be interesting if someone updated it, and maybe fine-tuned it. I actually got to see some of the ideas from these pages put into action, and ... they worked. I had the opportunity to garden with a man who had lived at Findhorn, and used the bio-dynamic gardening methods of Rudolph Steiner. I must admit, the day we used the ball of cow dung that had been buried on a full moon and left in the ground for a year or so before we dug it up was something else. We took the bolus and mixed it in a bucket with gallons of water and walked all around the farm sprinkling this magic elixir on the ground. We also planted by the phases of the moon. I have never seen such a lush, productive garden or such beautiful grounds,
Of course we are connected to the plants. All life is one.
rinlight's review against another edition
1.0
Funny if not so anti-intellectual and without endless tangents.
dreamybee's review against another edition
I don't remember exactly when I read this, and I didn't finish it, but again, here are some notes from my reading to give you an idea if it might be up your alley. It had some interesting ideas, but a lot of the "science" in it seemed pretty questionable.
p.40-Using plants to screen for terrorists-wouldn't that be better!
Book goes back and forth between scientific, reasonable exploration to woo-woo pretty quickly & extremely. IMO. Not that the two have to be exclusive, but I can see how all the woo-woo would scare people away. Case in point: Guy pointing tube w/ vegetable matter in the air and picking up signals--must be communications from space and, likely, a cry for help. Well, of course!
p.40-Using plants to screen for terrorists-wouldn't that be better!
Book goes back and forth between scientific, reasonable exploration to woo-woo pretty quickly & extremely. IMO. Not that the two have to be exclusive, but I can see how all the woo-woo would scare people away. Case in point: Guy pointing tube w/ vegetable matter in the air and picking up signals--must be communications from space and, likely, a cry for help. Well, of course!