Author Archives: Harry Katz
Cautious Optimism for 2015
2014 was a tumultuous year filled with tragedy, disaster and violence. Each new crisis dominated the headlines only to be quickly elbowed aside by the next: ISIS, Gaza, Ukraine, Ferguson, Malaysia 370, AirAsia 8501, Boko Haram school kidnapping, Peshawar school … Continue reading
Book Review: The Geography of Thought
The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently … And WhyBy Richard E. NisbettFree Press, New York, 2003 The Geography of Thought got me hooked with an intriguing observation right on page one: Westerners tend to view the … Continue reading
25 years after the Velvet Revolution, Czechs “red card” their president
Perhaps democracy has been slow to take root in some ex-Communist countries, but today, on the 25th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution, it seems to be alive and kicking in the Czech Republic. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/world/europe/-reverently-and-defiantly-czechs-honor-their-revolutions-anniversary.html?_r=0
How We Got to Now
Steven Johnson starts off How We Got to Now with a very cool story: One little-known consequence of the invention of the printing press in 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg was that thousands of people suddenly discovered they were farsighted. Before … Continue reading
For Whom The Wall Fell
On the heels of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, here’s a sobering post from economist Branko Milanovic of the City University of New York. He tries to determine which countries have successfully transitioned from communism … Continue reading
Compaq & Zotac
I’ve finally decided to retire my venerable Compaq Presario 6000 desktop computer. When I bought this computer in 2002, around the time Compaq was acquired by Hewlett Packard, it was a pretty powerful machine with a 2 GHz Pentium processor … Continue reading
Book Review: What If
What IfBy Randall MunroeHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2014 I’m a big fan of xkcd, so when I saw this book by Randall Munroe, its creator, my instant reaction was “must have.” What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical … Continue reading
Book Review: Infinitesimal
InfinitesimalBy Amir AlexanderScientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2014 Amir Alexander proves there is no subject too small to write a book about. Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World is about the mathematics of the … Continue reading
The Hobby Lobby Decision
In its June 30, 2014 decision in the case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time in US legal history that a closely held for-profit corporation is entitled to a religious exemption from following a US … Continue reading
Riley v. California (with a Primer on Reading Supreme Court Decisions)
In this post I’m going to take a break from book reviews and look at the recent Supreme Court decision in the Riley v. California case. (In future posts, I may deal with other cases.) Riley v. California is a … Continue reading
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