# Michael Shermer is my hero



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I have warm places in my heart for Carl Sagan and Paul Krugman. Of course Owen Flanagan, Steven Pinker and E. O. Wilson have their own rooms. So do Clyde Prestowitz, E. P. Sanders, and Jaroslav Pelikan. In my news room, you'll also find Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and the incomparable Cenk Uygur. I'll always take time to make time for Martin Wolf. 

But my hero is Michael Shermer. Awesome dude.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I want to add some more guys to my news room: Misha Glenny, Ahmed Rashid, Robert Fisk, Juan Cole, Tom Englehardt, and Chris Hedges. 

Christopher Hitchens gets his own column as long as he wants it. When he doesn't want it anymore I'll just recycle his old stuff.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

We have very closely aligned tastes!  I'll use this as a springboard for finding some writers I'm not as familiar with but will probably enjoy.

I of course know _of_ Shermer very well, but have not read much - any suggestions?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I have read almost everything Shermer wrote and regularly read the Skeptic magazine. He is a hero of mine as well. Although I love his writings, I think his most impressive feat was competing in the Race Across America. Bicyclists start on the coast in California and ride almost non-stop across the country to Ocean City, New Jersey. They generally sleep 2 hours a night for the first 7 or 8 days and then go non-stop the last 2. It's simply insane and almost unbelievable that humans could actually do that. 

One of my favorite all time quotes came from Shermer after he came in third out of 4 in the first race. Reporters asked him what he would have done differently. He replied that he would have had different parents.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Polednice said:


> We have very closely aligned tastes!  I'll use this as a springboard for finding some writers I'm not as familiar with but will probably enjoy.
> 
> I of course know _of_ Shermer very well, but have not read much - any suggestions?


No. It's _all_ good. Well, I'm not sure that I've read all of his books, but all of them that I've read are good.

He's one of those guys that, if I read or hear him say something that I disagree with or that surprises me a lot - and this on absolutely any subject that he's researched - I'd bet that I'm the one who's wrong.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

mmsbls said:


> I have read almost everything Shermer wrote and regularly read the Skeptic magazine. He is a hero of mine as well. Although I love his writings, I think his most impressive feat was competing in the Race Across America. Bicyclists start on the coast in California and ride almost non-stop across the country to Ocean City, New Jersey. They generally sleep 2 hours a night for the first 7 or 8 days and then go non-stop the last 2. It's simply insane and almost unbelievable that humans could actually do that.
> 
> One of my favorite all time quotes came from Shermer after he came in third out of 4 in the first race. Reporters asked him what he would have done differently. He replied that he would have had different parents.


He's had a curious life, ran a bicycle company at some point I believe.

It's definitely a different side of him. I think I read that he'd experienced an alien abduction during a bike race - do you know if it was at that time or another time?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I don't know since I never heard about that. Apparently the riders in the Race Across America sometimes have hallucinations so I suppose he could have had an experience like that.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

mmsbls said:


> I don't know since I never heard about that. Apparently the riders in the Race Across America sometimes have hallucinations so I suppose he could have had an experience like that.


Yes, that's what I think I read - in perhaps _Why People Believe Weird Things_ or maybe _How we Believe_.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2011)

science said:


> I have warm places in my heart for Carl Sagan and Paul Krugman. Of course Owen Flanagan, Steven Pinker and E. O. Wilson have their own rooms. So do Clyde Prestowitz, E. P. Sanders, and Jaroslav Pelikan. In my news room, you'll also find Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and the incomparable Cenk Uygur. I'll always take time to make time for Martin Wolf.
> 
> But my hero is Michael Shermer. Awesome dude.


Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Cenk Uygur are not reporters of news. They are political commentators.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Oh. 

Thanks for clarifying.


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