book review
jdupuis | June 19, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future, is from April 26, 2007.
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I don't have to much to say of a deep or profound nature to say about this book. It's one of those "Whatever…
kbonham | June 17, 2011Anthony Weiner is an idiot. I think we can at least all agree that if you're going to use a social networking site to spread illicit photos of yourself, you damn well better learn the difference between direct messaging and displaying your crotch to all of your followers. That said, all of us are idiots sometimes. And if I had to put money on it, I'd wager dollars to donuts that the thing we are the most stupid about is sex. But why?
What's the point of sex? You may think I'm the idiot for asking the question - the answer is obvious, right? Well...
The answer to why humans have sex turns out…
jdupuis | June 6, 2011Sometimes we Open Access advocates tend to assume everybody is already on our side. You know, all our librarian and scientist colleagues out there. Surely by now they've seen the light. They understand the main issues and flavours of OA, can ably summarize the major arguments for OA and refute the major complaints against.
Of course, reality is a lot more complicated than my dreamy, unrealistic wishes.
Convincing librarians to support Open Access, either directly or indirectly, is usually fairly easy but even we have a number of misconceptions and misunderstandings about what OA really…
jdupuis | June 5, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, is from August 14, 2007. (Weinberger left a detailed comment at the original post, for those that are interested.)
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David Weinberger's…
jdupuis | May 22, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Sharing, Privacy and Trust in a Networked World, is from November 19, 2011.
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OCLC's newest state of the library world/environmental scan report was published a few months ago: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in a…
jtoney | May 16, 2011
Still from Woman in the Moon (1929, Fritz Lang) (via filmmuseum-potsdam.de) Walking on the moon without spacesuits!
Portrayal of science and scientists in media and film has for generations misrepresented what we do and who we are. Caricatures of the lone mad scientist toiling in the laboratory might capture our passion, but miss an essential point - that science is a social endeavor that can benefit society.
But are there four different kinds of science? A recent book suggests that there can be science four ways.
"Lab Coats in Hollywood - Science, Scientists, and Cinema" by David A.…
jdupuis | May 15, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts, is from February 24, 2008.
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This is one of those books that I picked up at a the train station cheap remaindered books kiosk. I do…
jdupuis | May 8, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, is from February 24, 2008.
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Just so you all know I don't just read the brightest, shiniest, newest books. I also read some old classics too. And classic…
jdupuis | May 1, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, is from February 26, 2008.
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I try and spread around the disciplinary love in my science book reading. Some physics, some math,…
jdupuis | April 24, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages, is from March 25, 2008.
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This book should have been called Everything is not Miscellaneous. In fact, this book could be imagined as Weinberger's Everything is…
jdupuis | April 17, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Einstein: His Life and Universe, is from March 24, 2008.
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Walter Issacson's 2007 biography of Albert Einstein was one of the best reviewed books of that year, appearing on nearly all the year end lists of…
jdupuis | April 10, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart, is from April 12, 2008.
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You know how I'm always complaining about business-y buzz/hype books & articles? How they're 1/3 repetition,…
jdupuis | April 3, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become, is from May 2, 2008.
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Ambient findability describes a fast emerging world where we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime. We're not…
jdupuis | March 28, 2011I read these five books over about the last year or so and they all represent something I really look for in books on complex subjects -- for the most part, they concentrate on things individual people can actually do to make a difference. In this case, a difference in the future of the planet.
Whether it's where you live, what you eat, what you buy or how you get around, the choice is ours. Each of us, me and you, can make choices that, in the aggregate, can make a difference.
Mark Bittman's Food Matters and Betty Fussell's Raising Steaks are at least as much about food and food culture…
jdupuis | March 27, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, is from May 18, 2008.
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It seems that at least half the time I mention this book to someone interested in the way the web is changing social patterns the…
jdupuis | March 21, 2011In his incredibly wonderful new book, On the Grid: A Plot of Land, An Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work, Scott Huler gives us three essential take-aways:
Thank God for engineers
Get out your wallet
Let's learn to love our infrastructure. (p. 217-225)
In fact, not much more need really be said about the book. In essence it's a kind of tribute and salute to the women and men who keep our highly technoligized society functioning. The people we often forget about, whose glamour pales in comparison to movie stars, singers, politicians, even police and fire…
jdupuis | March 20, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, is from June 22, 2008.
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This is a book with a profoundly split personality. It's like two books warring in the bosom of one volume. It's a bit…
jdupuis | March 14, 2011Here's a hint. Never, ever, ever put the following sentence in any non-fiction book you are writing:
This is dull stuff. (p. 165)
Testify!
An object lesson on non-success for popular science books to compare and contrast with an object lesson for success in popular science books.
But, to be fair, the book under consideration isn't really a popular science book. J.L. Heilbron's new Galileo is a scholarly scientific biography of Galileo and as such shouldn't really be compared to popular science books.
On the other hand, it was a topic I expected to really enjoy but I did end up struggling…
jdupuis | March 13, 2011I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here.
This one, of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, is from July 10, 2008.
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Another cautionary book about the effect of the Internet on our lives, this one concentrating on the effect that…
kbonham | March 7, 2011One of my earliest memories is of waves. I was 7 or 8 years old, on some nameless stretch of sand in southern California, and I was trapped. I don't remember when I learned to swim, and I don't remember a time when I didn't love the ocean. But I remember the day I learned to respect it.
My brother Steve and his friend Chris were already back on the beach, but I don't remember why I hadn't followed them. Maybe I had something to prove; they were 3 years older and teased me incessantly, so I was always trying to show them that I could be tough. Maybe I meant to follow them, but couldn't swim…