Author Archives: Harry Katz
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
Book Review: Love and Math
Love and MathBy Edward FrenkelBasic Books, New York, NY, 2013 You’ve probably seen those late night TV ads for Zumba or P90X or a dozen other fitness programs. Ever notice how everyone in those ads already looks slim, sculpted & … Continue reading
Book Review: The Ideas That Conquered the World
The Ideas That Conquered the World By Michael Mandelbaum PublicAffairs, New York, NY, 2002 The Ideas That Conquered the World was published with some fanfare in 2002, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I can’t remember how … Continue reading
Book Review: The Second Machine Age
The Second Machine Age By Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2014 The steam engine was the iconic invention and the driving force behind the first machine age. It transformed the world by enabling … Continue reading
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