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The other night I finished Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of our time. I thought it painted a pretty harrowing picture and made a compelling case of the need (and benefit to be gained) from increased effort to eliminate poverty by 2025. Maybe if I were an economist I would be on better ground to analyze his arguments, but from where I stand it seems pretty solid. I really wish the US was doing its part. Heres the review I posted on Librarything for a brief synopsis. This work begins by recounting the history of extreme proverty and by elucidating the current state of poverty in our world today. Sachs then goes on to outline a method for eliminating this situation, and takes the reader through several case studies of different countries grippling with poverty on their own terms. Endorsing a method of differential diagnosis to carefully assay the needs and failures of each country, Sachs shows the kind of approach he has in mind and how he has augmented this approach with lessons from his past. Sachs's message is inspiring, but the caveat is in the book title. Economic possibilities of our time remain just that, possiblities, unless there is a groundswell of support for the ideas outlined in his book. Personally I felt his arguments were pretty solid, and clearly many nations are not doing their part, creditors and debtors alike. However it remains to be seen whether or not these plans reach fruition. I hope they do. Maybe more people reading this book will help speed that along, because even if you don't agree with Sachs solution his book will definitely convince you that extreme poverty is an issue that affects us and is highly deserving of our attention. Then, finally, we can all sit down and hammer out an answer.
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Dec 14, 2006 21:33
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Wreath of Barbs posted:Also read through what matters most is how well you walk through the fire by Charles Bukowski and it was also fantastic. I've always been a huge fan of his poetry and it never fails to disappoint. I really enjoy that one too. Have you read any of Mockingbird Wish Me Luck?
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Dec 15, 2006 00:49
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Wreath of Barbs posted:Not yet, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I plan to pick up a copy as soon as I finish Bukowski's Run With The Hunted. I can't remember which I bought first, Mockingbird or Walking Through The Fire but for all practical purposes it really doesn't matter. The first one opened my eyes and the second cemented me as a fan. Part of it was his love of horses and horseracing, part of it is just his language I guess. I've never really gotten poems (I'm hardly the arbiter of good taste!) but for some reason Bukowski always resonated. I've got South of no North, I need to go through it again. Anyways, yeah I think Mockingbird is pretty good. My favorite poem is in this one. Charles Bukowski posted:rain
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Dec 15, 2006 04:11
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TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke sucked Aaaahhhhhh. Your view is completely diametrical to my own, I really liked it =( Especially Gilbert Norrell. My interpretation: I never felt like the Fairy King was torturing those characters at all, at least not out of malice and intention. Though mad, I felt he strongly covetted Stephen Black and Arabella; hes not delighted in their pain, hes enamored with their presence and existence, and quite assuredly insane. Oh well, different strokes. Yiggy fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Dec 15, 2006 |
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Dec 15, 2006 09:20
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Just finished The Birth of the Mind by Gary Marcus so heres the review I left on LibraryThing. This piece was succinct but effective, I thought, in the point it was trying to make. Generally one encounters strong conceptions about the mind's complexity and the ability of a brain to contain the scope of its phenomena. Even though the causal links between mind and brain are evidenced in every day life in the form of anti-depressents and other medication, many holdouts remain. Some critics decry that materialistic explanations of the brain can never truly understand the mind. In this book, Gary Marcus swiftly dispells these doubts and clarifies the simplicity of the problem with the creative powers of biology. He begins by discussing the nature/nurture argument before going on to explain concepts like learning and other mental processes within this framework. Proceding onto topics in genetics, developmental and molecular biology, Marcus discusses the growth of the brain and how it structures itself into modules that allow our minds to exist. A praise quote on the back of the book mentioned the simplicity of the book, and I agree that this is one of the works most redeeming aspects. Not in that the material or coverage is overtly simplistic, but rather that it simplifies what to many appears to be a system that is actually too complex to ever fully be known. Marcus provides a little light at the end of the tunnel that maybe figuring out the brain isn't so impossible after all.
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Dec 29, 2006 04:46
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While riding on the train up to Chicago I read E. O. Wilson's Consilience and Biophilia. Consilience was a great read I thought. Wilson gives a brief account of the history of consiliatory thought and then begins taking each area of the humanities head on. In dicussing recent movements and ideas and biology, Wilson sketches out what we know and how he sees everything linking together in the long-run. Wilson closes the book with a plea to end petty squabbling between sciences and humanities and to put the culture wars away in order to solve the more important problems of the day. His last chapter outlines the global warming crisis (as of 1998) and makes a call for all sides to come together in order to save "The Creation" as he refers to it. Wilson's prose is elegant and moving at times and his explanations and metaphors are apt. Biophilia, I quickly learned, was basically the practice run for Consilience. Written in 1984, it expresses many of the same ideas, and indeed some of the passages are near identical. However, a lot of his thinking isn't as airtight as it is fourteen years later, and there are several newer advances that Wilson has incorporated into his thinking in addition to some previous ideas from Biophilia. What Biophilia has that Consilience didn't are some fairly interesting autobiographical accounts from Wilson's life, conveying keen aspects of the human endeavor that is science. These parts had a feel that was in many ways similar to some of Feynman's accounts from Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman, at times both charming and insightful. Wilson ends Biophilia, much like he would later end Consilience, with a plea for all sides to come together in order to save what was then the prevailing ecological crisis of the day- large scale deforestation and habitat destruction. After having read Consilience first and then Biophilia, the clear lack of response to Wilson's first call leaves a chill as to how much action is revised and more up-to-date plea will have. If one is interested in Wilson's ideas and wants a general gloss they may prefer Biophilia. Taking into account page numbers and print size, I'd say Biophilia is roughly a fourth to a third of the length of Consilience, which clocks in at about 327ish pages.
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Jan 3, 2007 06:48
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I just finished The Song of The Dodo: Island Biogeography in An Age of Extinctions by David Quammen. Apparently this book was written over eight years of research and field work, and it is indeed a journey. In it he recounts how islands have shaped the ideas of biologists from inception, influencing thinkers from Darwin and Wallace to present day illuminaries like E.O. Wilson and Robert McArthur, tales he recounts in telling the developement of a prevailing paradigm in evolutionary biology. In narrative style, Quammen presents a vivid picture of how insularity shapes species in interesting and predictable ways and also pushes them closer to extinction. Throughout, Quammen also adds tales of his own trips to islands to interview field biologists, experts doing research and other various trips just to see wildlife created in the island setting, such as the komodo dragon and the bird of paradise. I'd been reading through this one slowly, intermentently pausing to read other books, so while reading many similar themes were popping up in my other schoolwork, both in the history of science and in evolutionary biology. It was a nice bonus as I finished the book Wednesday night, and then found that the same topics were all we were talking about in class Thursday morning, which will make the exam Tuesday easier to study for I hope. 650 pages, fantastic writing I thought, also very sad and sobering. It puts human ecological impact in perspective, and highlights how certain trends in extinction are on the rise and woefully predictable.
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Feb 9, 2007 23:18
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I just finished Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams by Paul Martin. This was quite the interesting read, and I learned alot about the importance of sleep, an importance that is greatly underestimated by American Society. Some of the information this book presented was unsurprising, but none-the-less eye opening. Martin has a casual writing style mixing information together with literary quotation, Shakespeare more often than not. One thing that alarmed me more than the damages of sleep deprivation was how often I fell asleep reading this book (and I'm not making a statement about the book's liveliness). I even rolled over and creased the front cover during one of my naps, a damning reminder of all the book said and warned about. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn a little more about how they're spending a third of their lifetime.
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Feb 28, 2007 09:54
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I just finished On Becoming a Biologist by John Janovy Jr. This work is basically a primer on what life is like for a working day biologist. Janovy covers issues such as the philosophy that guides a biologists work, occupational opportunities and the realities of teaching. Offers a balance between wide-eyed idealism and the pragmatics of reality that everyone seeking a career in biology are bound to face.
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Mar 9, 2007 08:41
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LooseChanj posted:It's really "Ham on Rye: A Novel". A novel huh? I never would have guessed, it's a good thing they pointed that out! It's amusing, at least to me, because if you're picking up a book in the first place, you're literate and know what you're dealing with. And if you can't read, it doesn't make much difference anyway. I can understand why he'd put a distinction in his titles, otherwise you'd never know when picking it off the shelf it if was a collection of poetry, short stories, etc. I picked up South of No North just because I really dug Bukowski and expected another book of poetry. I still enjoyed the short stories, but I didn't know thats what it'd be going in.
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Mar 16, 2007 14:06
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Just finished Human by Michael Gazzaniga. Having seen him speak and enjoying it I had high expectations going in. Ultimately I didn't like it very much and had to force myself to finish it. I thought it was overly conversational to the detriment of explaining what he wanted to explain. There was very little presented which hadn't been written about (much better) elsewhere. I thought some of his conclusions were weak. I thought some of his analogies were bad. I also felt he wandered a bit at times, and the last third of the book felt like navel gazing. 2/5
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Jan 10, 2009 23:56
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