Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Makers by Cory Doctorow
I loved this book. Forget my review and go get it now, it’s wonderful. If you don’t have the scratch right now, that’s ok: Cory Doctorow walks the talk and has published his book under a creative commons license. You can get “Makers” for free at his site as a pdf, as html, ePub, or as [...]
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Review: Where Men Win Glory
I’ve finished Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory: The Oddysey of Pat Tillman” in the air above the middle of America and I’m furious. This story begins with the hero dying and it ends with his betrayal by the people who promised us all they would put our interests above theirs. Krakauer builds a sculpture [...]
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Oh the places you’ll go with your magical phone
Here's my droid review, sort of as a short story. Sort of.
My Best Books of 2009
I like to read. Here are the best books I read this year. Nonfiction Born On A Blue Day & Embracing the Wide Sky by Daniel Tammet Yes, it’s two books, but it’s really about the same subject. Daniel Tammet is an autistic gay savant synesthete. He won the unusualness lottery. The first book is [...]
Satoshi Kanazawa cannot think.
That this has not proven to be a handicap for someone employed by the London School of Economics is astounding and reflects poorly on them. I found him through the stupidest, most sexist article I have read this year. He argues: The power of female choice becomes quite apparent in a simple thought experiment. Imagine [...]
Also posted in Incentives, Pals Tagged gender, logic, logical fallacies, psychology, Satoshi Kanazawa cannot think, sex, sexism, sexuality, stupidity, terrorism, the death of academia 11 Comments
LibraryThing, Books, and Planning
I’ve been using the excellent librarything to keep track of my books. I’ll be building a self-hosted version of it Real Soon Now, but until then, I’m putting what I read in there. I’d gotten a bit of feedback from my vast hordes of readers that they are interested in what I read, so you [...]
Blind Pickle Taste Test
Sam and I bought 3 jars of pickles, and did a blind taste test in the name of science. We each ate three rounds of three pickles labelled A, B, and C, then ranked them. We threw out the White Rose, as it was disgusting. Vlassic is what we think a pickle should taste like.
What I’ve been reading in February
February has been a banner month for reading. A bumper crop of beaming books brought me a bounty of smiles. I started out with autism and ended with the midwest. First I read One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey ‘The Kid’ Ungar, a biography of the best poker and gin player [...]
Books: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson’s Anathem has been called a space opera, but that seems inaccurate. The characters eventually make it out of the atmosphere, but time is the subject of the book – not space. Some of the best parts are about contemplation, piecing together puzzles and following the threads of deductive logic through to a conclusion. [...]
Books: The City and the City by China Mieville