The subject of Donald Rumsfeld came up while IM’ing with a friend a couple days ago. We were talking about the various accusations flying around, and my friend asked: “i wonder what bush’s real agenda is in keeping rumsfeld around”. My response was “He’d have to find another scapegoat when more allegations arise. He keeps […]
Chorus on KQED’s Spark
For those of you wonder what happens at all those mysterious rehearsals I go to for the chorus I sing with, KQED, the local PBS channel, has a show about the arts called Spark, which recently profiled the chorus, showing us preparing for our rendition of Faure’s Requiem. It’s a nice little 10-minute piece giving […]
All cultured and stuff…
I was in London last week and used it as an opportunity to reacquaint myself with the artwork of JMW Turner, a British artist that I learned about the last time I was in England. In particular, I love his use of light and dark in his paintings. While wandering through the National Gallery, I […]
Catching up…
As is probably obvious, even though I put up reviews of five books today, I didn’t read them all recently. I finished them over the course of the last month or so, but I did want to continue my policy of reviewing every book that I read, so they piled up on my desk until […]
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
Amazon link I never got around to reading Ayn Rand in college when everybody else did, but I was going away for a week on business, and wanted something long but compact to read, so I picked this up in paperback form at the used bookstore. Her basic thesis of Objectivism is that reason and […]
Aramis or the Love of Technology, by Bruno Latour
Amazon link I really liked Science in Action, another book by Latour, so when I saw this on a friend’s shelf, I borrowed it. Unfortunately, it took me several months to actually get through it; I started it over Christmas vacation, but I kept on getting distracted by other things, until I finally powered through […]
Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents, by Ellen Ullman
Amazon link Saw this at the used bookstore, and it looked sufficiently interesting that I picked it up. Ullman worked as an independent computer programmer contractor throughout the dot-com years, and this book is a sort of memoir of her dedication to the machine, sometimes at the cost of losing track of the people involved. […]
The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, by Peter Schwartz
Amazon link I liked the talk by Peter Schwartz that I went to, so when I saw his most well-known book at the used book store for $3, I picked it up. A pretty quick read detailing the idea of scenario planning, a management strategy involving coming up with several detailed future possibilities for the […]
To the Nines: A Stephanie Plum Novel, by Janet Evanovich
Amazon link Another Stephanie Plum novel. It was at the library when I stopped by recently, and so I grabbed it and read it. Entertaining and frothy as always. A nice quick read.
Jaron Lanier
I’ve been a big fan of Jaron Lanier since I first heard him talk several years ago at Stanford. So when I read that he was going to be speaking at the Bay Area Future Salon, I made sure to be there. Really interesting stuff. I’ll try to preserve the flavor of the talk by […]
