Collapse
Title: Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Author: Jared Diamond Paperback: 592 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 27, 2005) ISBN: 0143036556 This is the follow up to Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel . Where his first book attempted to answer the question, “why do you people have such great cargo,” this book […]
January 22nd, 2006 by alephnaught
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City of Walls
Title: City of Walls: Crime, Segregation, and Citizenship in Sao Paulo Author: Teresa P. R. Caldeira Paperback: 473 pages Publisher: University of California Press (April 2, 2001) ISBN: 0520221435 This was a very scholarly work. The main premise is that the culture of Sao Paulo is causing a segregation of its people based upon class, […]

January 21st, 2006 by alephnaught
São Paulo
I got to go to São Paulo , Brazil, on a business trip from January 15 through January 21, 2006. This was my first time in Brazil; I had a great time and would go again. We stayed at L’Hotel, a very nice hotel near one of the major shopping and banking streets, Avenida Paulista. […]
December 31st, 2005 by alephnaught
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Getting Things Done
Title: Getting Things Done Author: David Allen Paperback: 267 pages Publisher: Penguin Books (January, 2003) ISBN: 0142000280 This is a very good book – it was recommended, as an aside, in an RSS news feed I read regularly (the main thrust was recommending a web-based list management site, tasktoy). David Allen suggests that we spend […]
December 26th, 2005 by alephnaught
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Dutch debate rights in struggle against terror
An article from the NY Times, reprinted in the Herald-Tribune, about the difficulties facing the Dutch in fighting terrorism.
November 28th, 2005 by alephnaught
Pompeii: Stories from an Eruption
Aviva and I went to the “Pompeii: Stories from an Eruption” exhibit at the Field Museum. This was a very good exhibit (even if visting it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving may not have been good timing). It was very very busy – there was some crowd control but not too much, and the staff […]
November 28th, 2005 by alephnaught
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At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tails of Terror
Title: At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tails of Terror Author: H. P. Lovecraft Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Del Rey; Reissue edition (September 13, 1991) ISBN: 0345329457 My son Nathan recommended this book to me – I had nearly finished the book I brought along for the flights and hotel room, and he said […]
November 19th, 2005 by alephnaught
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The Great Heresies
Title: The Great Heresies Author: Hilaire Belloc Paperback: 161 pages Publisher: T A N Books & Publishers (October, 1991) ISBN: 0895554755 This book was a waste of my time. The author is obviously Catholic – the viewpoint of the book is that all heresies are wrong, the Catholic Church is the one right church, and […]
November 9th, 2005 by alephnaught
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The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars
Title: The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars Author: Stephen O’Shea Publisher: Profile Books (May 21, 2001) ISBN: 1861973500 I bought this book at Waterstones on Kalverstraat in Amsterdam – I had almost finished the book I brought along with me (A War Like No Other : How the Athenians and Spartans […]
November 7th, 2005 by alephnaught
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The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Title: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Author: Thomas L. Friedman Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN: 0374292884 I’m glad I got to read this book – I got it by responding to a survey by Infosys. Friedman ties a bunch of seemingly separated things into a […]
January 27th, 2006 by alephnaught
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