Read and Reading

Boomerang - Michael Lewis
No Easy Day - Mark Owen
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History - Chris Kyle
Bossypants - Tina Fey
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris

Started but not finished:
Antifragile - Nassim Taleb
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Godel, Escher, and Bach - Douglas Hofstadter

Catcher in the Rye (MB)

I recently finished rereading The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.  The book is about Holden Caulfield, a quintessential rebel without a cause. It is written in the first person from the perspective of Holden, an angst-filled adolescent fighting a battle against the world. Throughout the novel, Holden is able to find a flaw, peccadillo or fault with just about anyone or anything he encounters.

There are many summaries on the internet about this book and why it is important. They all talk about how the story is one of alienation, a coming of age tale of an adolescent bridging the gap between childhood and responsibility. Holden believes he lives in a world of phonies. A world where he is the only sane person alive. This realization is both a product of his immaturity and his first tastes of reality. As I read through the book, I slowly came to realize that we all go through phases like this. An interesting point is that while some people escape the phase unscathed, some continue to carry this weight of incredulity. They live their days finding faults with everything but themselves, unable to understand that, despite what each of their senses is reporting, the world does not revolve around them. I admit that I carry this weight from time to time. I can only hope that the first step towards wisdom is admitting it.

The Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism

Clif notes: the better you are at speaking more than one language the better your brain is at brain things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?_r=1

Zhong Wen

That's chinese for chinese. Goal for the week is to do some sort of mandarin studying every day this week.

Currently reading: Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac

Some of the latest additions to my reading list:

• The High Beta Rich, Frank
  
• Empire Falls, Russo
  
• Olympic Weightlifting, Everett
• All Business is Local, Jocz
• Inside Apple, Lashinsky
• Deep Economy, McKibben
• Eating Animals, Foer
• On the Beach, Shute

Some of the latest additions to my film watching list (mostly 2012 Academy Award winners or nominees):

• Happy
• Project NIM
• The Artist
• Man on Wire
• The Artist
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• The Tree of LIfe
• Warhorse
• Rango
• A Separation
• Undefeated
• Saving Face
  

Quadcopter TED talk

You guys probably saw videos of these things flying around, here's the team that created them:

http://www.ted.com/talks/vijay_kumar_robots_that_fly_and_cooperate.html

(ricci build some)

Introduction

While Pain Train helps us track endeavors of the body, Brain Train has been created to track progress on endeavors of the mind. Post about your current intellectual pursuits, interesting articles you find, and current events you want to discuss. Make a plan and post it here so that others can keep you honest and focused.