Author Archives: Harry Katz
Book Review: The Bookseller of Kabul
The Bookseller of KabulBy Ǻsne SeierstadLittle, Brown and Company, New York, 2003 The Bookseller of Kabul is a “stranger in a strange land” book. The stranger, Ǻsne Seierstad, is a blond, female, Norwegian journalist. The strange land is Kabul during … Continue reading
The Black Swan
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, options trader cum philosopher, defines a Black Swan as an extremely improbable event that has huge impact. Think 9/11 or the current subprime lending crisis. The title comes from the fact that black swans – the birds … Continue reading
Jeffrey Sachs
This evening we attended a lecture by Professor Jeffrey Sachs sponsored by the Seattle World Affairs Council. Sachs gained fame in the early nineties advising the newly elected governments of Eastern Europe how to transform their economies from communism to … Continue reading
Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke passed away today in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1:30 am, March 19 local time) at age 90. He’s probably most famous for his novel 2001, A Space Odyssey upon which Stanley Kubrick based the movie of the same … Continue reading
Admiral “Fox” Fallon Resigns
The New York Times is reporting here that Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon is taking early retirement. Fallon, commander of Central Command (CENTCOM) which encompasses the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, has often seemed critical of the Bush … Continue reading
Waving Goodbye to Hegemony
It’s very clear the United States under the Bush Administration has lost influence around the world. Parag Khanna, a fellow at the New America Foundation, argues that this is unlikely to be corrected by the next president. Writing in this … Continue reading
Muhammad Yunus
On Friday, we attended a talk, sponsored by the Seattle World Affairs Council, given by Professor Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Professor Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank and the pioneer of microcredit in his … Continue reading
A (very) little sympathy for Mitt
I don’t much like Mitt Romney. I disagree with his positions on several issues: he’s anti-abortion (fairly recently it seems and still with some exceptions); he supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a … Continue reading
Mitt Romney @ Microsoft
Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, spoke to members of the Microsoft PAC today on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA. My overall impression is that Romney is one of those people who … Continue reading
Reading Like a Writer
Reading Like a Writer is a book for aspiring writers that teaches by example. In it, Francine Prose, author of about two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, examines various aspects of writing by quoting and then analyzing the works … Continue reading
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