From the jacket, D. Berlinski has taught both math and philosophy at the university level. Which makes my head hurt, because the logic errors that accumulate like autumn leaves crackle underfoot as he wades blithely forward.
His brand of wit seems to encompass primarily snippy ad-hominem attacks, designed to irritate rather than debate.
The part that dumbfounded […]
I heard about this book when the blog Get Rich Slowly interviewed the author and he said “Don’t buy my book. Email me, and and I’ll send you a digital copy.” (He now has a link to a direct download.) I decided to take him up on his offer.
On “Authenticity”
Many of the comments that have […]
I’ve always been a fan of polymaths. I find it inspiring to read about people who leap from field to field, excelling in each. Franklin, Leonardo… and now Thomas Young.
This book chronicles the life of Thomas Young, who began the work on deciphering the Rosetta Stone, wrote on the particle/wave nature of light, pioneered research […]
I picked up The Breakthrough Imperative: How the Best Managers Get Outstanding Results as an advance reader at my bookstore. It should be coming out in March. There were some printing errors, but that happens with all readers, I think.
I have recently been on a business kick, something that the person I was a few […]
Small Business Management: an Entrepreneurial Emphasis, by Longenecker, Moore, Petty, Palich
This is the textbook for the ENTR 335 class. I am somewhat disappointed by it because I was hoping for something a little more detailed, but this book seems to focus more on relentless boosterism and extolling the glories of owning or starting your own […]
An interesting, but only mildly so, account of an attempt by a school board to put Intelligent Design on the science curriculum.
I liked this one. But then, I’ve always been a sucker for idealistic over-the-top pessimistic policy wonk fiction. The main character, Cassandra Devine, modestly proposes on her blog that baby boomers be given hefty tax incentives to “gracefully transition” at age 65. Intended as an outrageous proposal to spur debate about the awesome bankruptcy of […]
This is a collection of short fiction by David Drake. Perhaps it was just me, but I found some of them more accessible than others. I had a hard time following nearly all of the “bug” style stories that featured any sort of monster creatures. I just couldn’t picture them.
I imagine that Ringo is pretty upset that there is a scifi authors workin group that helps the us government plan how to fight future wars. He is probably muttering sullenly to himself in his underground bunker as he polishes whatever firearm is his weapon of choice. Anyway, Ringo is probably a bad choice for […]
An economics book for the hippies in your life. McKibben provides economic reasons why we should all shop at farmers markets, hook up the solar cells, and enjoy the polar icecaps for a few minutes before climate change evaporates them.
There were some interesting facts in the book, such as a fleshed out version of the […]