Kid: "Daddy, why does he say 'Wacka Wacka?'"
Daddy: "To tell you it was funny."
Kid: "But if it's funny don't you just know?"
July 2010 Archives
I have spent some time experimenting with various applications and tools on Facebook and have come to the conclusion that I am not happy with the limitations it imposes. I don't care for the notion that absolutely everything has to be a collaborative experience or that one thousand characters is treated as a whole heck of a lot.
I have pulled all of my book reviews off of the site and made them all entries here. Thanks in some part to the nature of the forum they tended towards brevity. I hope to overcome that trend in the future.
Interesting. The tactic of simplifying complex mathematical formulas so that they can serve as "rules of thumb" to be used by the less mathematically inclined is an idea who's time has come. I had a discussion with a professor of statistics about this very thing prior to reading the book. The book declines a bit, as many do, towards the end.
I struggled over how I felt about this book. I would argue that this book is a must-read for anyone who really wants to understand the forces that drive sales in the technology sector; or quite possibly the sales of any type of disruptive innovation. So why only three stars? While the quality of the thesis of a book and the way it structures its argument is critical to my appreciation of it, so too is the overall quality of the presentation. To coin an automotive analogy, if the theme of a book is its drive-train then the quality of the editing is its suspension. This book is a Mercedes with the handling of a Škoda Estelle. What is it about business books that causes editors to give up on page vii? Oh well, if you ever expect to sell something to people who may not see the need for it right off the bat, read this book. But if you care about the quality of the printed work best to start of with a stiff drink.
Fantastic. This is the fourth Petroski book I have read and my favorite second to "The Pencil". The title is in face a double-entendre since this is both a book about the evolution of book storage and a book about the effect that storage needs had on the books themselves. This subject may not interest everyone, but I assure you if you love books half as much as I do you will find Petroski a kindred spirit and "The Book on the Book Shelf" a fascinating story.
A classic tail made all the more entertaining by the fact that the version I read was a small book I typeset, printed and bound myself.
Most Americans who know the name Frankenstein have a poor conception of the actual story. They are surprised to find out that the monster of the original book is not the lumbering monosyllabic hulk that served as the template for Herman Munster but rather a loquacious and dexterous giant.
Few Americans are familiar with the history of the Napoleonic wars. In fact, as I mentioned previously we don't even seem to remember much about our own war in 1812. This book would be a good start for someone with little knowledge about the time but a desire to learn more.
The book, written from the British historical perspective, Is a very good introduction to the military campaigns, especially those that came after Arthur Wellesly took to the field. There is enough historical perspective to give you some understanding of both Lord Wellington's and Bonaparte's personal histories but the reader wont come away from this book with a profound understanding of early 19th century Europe.
Very well written and surprisingly engaging book about the art of scientific communication. both a great companion and counterpoint to Day's "How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper."
I think everyone should read the work of the Stoics; especially that of Seneca who had a knack for explaining the fundamental tenants of the philosophy in plain language. This is the second book of his works that I have read, and I think one that I will return to with some frequency.
Fantastic. A great follow up read to his "Basic Economics." While this book might be lumped in with other "conservative" writings, this is a book that is sure to offend most ideologies. Mr Sowell takes aim at any institution; legal, governmental, religious, or intellectual; that would place limits on the behavior of individuals in the service of some sort of prescriptive ideal.
I had always assumed that something happened between the Revolutionary War and the Civil war, however I feel woefully uninformed about 80 years of American history. This book provides enough information to carry you share of a cocktail party conversation about the war if you tend to find yourself at cocktail parties where conversations about nineteenth century wars are germane. There are probably more complete treatments.
Thornton speaks the way Seurat painted; a point here, a point there and voilà an image emerges; and that image is invariably insightful. To try to bang his stream (nay torrent!)-of-consciousness into an unbroken paragraph seems a task worthy of Hercules, let alone trying to weave it together into a book.
First, let me say this is a successful book. Second, let me ask "who the heck edited it?" Its replete with examples like: "known [by it's acronym] FOQA for Flight Quality and Operations Assurance" which are forgivable when they fall from the pen of an author, but which smack of negligent editing when they make it to print.
Though burdened both by the task of bottling Thornton's hurricane and by woeful editing, the book is an effective clarion call to "business" to get off of its collective empirical keister and really analyze the data that surrounds it. The book is short on falsifiability and long on anecdote; but then its not the bugler's job to justify Reveille, he just awakens the army.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have been fascinated by emergent systems since I saw a demo of swarming behavior back in the day. This book does a great job of showing how a small number of simple rules can create a network that mimics the organization of everything from the Internet to the web of chemical reactions in the cell. It also explains why Kevin Bacon isn't all that connected relatively speaking and we should be playing four degrees of Donald Pleasence.
I was at the Half Priced Books on lane avenue looking for something by Seneca when a helpful man suggested that I have a look at this book. He pointed out that "much of it was drawn from seneca and his stoic philosophy." It was only $4 so I obliged. I'm glad that I did.
This book traces an arc through philosophy: Socrates -> Epicures -> Seneca -> Montaigne -> Schopenhauer -> Neitzche. It was my first exposure to Montaigne and Schopenhauer and taught me that I knew very little about Socrates, Epicures, and Neitzche. The language of the book made what is typically a very difficult subject very approachable.
Highly recommended for anyone who wondered why the heck we should give a crap about the famous thinkers of history.
From Laurence Sterne's "The LIfe and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" Volume 2 (according to the latter editions) Chapter XLVIII. Here Tristram is speaking of his father:
--Prejudice of education, he would say, is the devil,--and the multitudes of them which we suck in with our mother's milk--are the devil and all.--We are haunted with them, brother Toby, in all our lucubrations and researches; and was a man fool enough to submit tamely to what they obtruded upon him,--what would his book be? Nothing,--he would add, throwing his pen away with a vengeance,--nothing but a farrago of the clack of nurses, and of the nonsense of the old women (of both sexes) throughout the kingdom.
