December 5, 2016

Perfect score.



Just ordered this one. I enjoyed Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This is the background of the collaboration of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.

February 6, 2011

Finished Michael Korda's biography of T.E. Lawrence. Just re-watched the movie and now will attempt to read for the third time: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The film is said to be filled with inaccuracies and Korda addresses it :"The object was to produce, not a faithful docudrama that would educate the audience, but a hit picture."



Hero by Michael Korda has many interesting phrases and footnotes. One of them concerned Lady Astor's famous remark to Churchill and his retort:

Lady Astor said to Churchill, "If you were my husband, I'd poison your coffee," to which he responded, "Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it!"

That brought to mind Michael O'Donoghue's - National Lampoon 1974(?), amusing take on it:

At an elegant dinner party, Lady Astor once leaned across the table to remark, "If you were my husband, Winston, I'd poison your coffee."
"And if you were my wife, I'd beat the shit out of you," came Churchill's unhesitating retort.

And, the exchange with George Bernard Shaw:

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one."
— George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill)

"Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one."
— Churchill's response"

O'Donoghue's take:

When the noted playwright George Bernard Shaw sent him two tickets to the opening night of his new play with a note that read: "Bring a friend, if you have one," Churchill, not to be outdone, promptly wired back: "You and your play can go fuck yourselves."



The Financial Crisis of Ireland is laid out nicely in Michael Lewis' Vanity Fair piece entitled When Irish Eyes Are Crying.



The week after next, February 14, is the big Jeopardy match between champion players and an IBM Computer named Watson.

The NYT today has an Op-Ed piece by one of my favorite writers, Richard Powers. He asks the question : What is a human being? Powers always explores Science and the impact on human emotions.

I wondered if Watson could pass the Turing Test and the answer is no.



The NYT also has a wonderful article about author Rebecca Skloot using the proceeds of her book to help surviving members of the Lacks Family.

September 25, 2010

Oktoberfest typically begins in late September. This year it runs from September 18th to October 3rd, 2010.



To celebrate Oktoberfest, the Sam Adams Harvest Collection.



The beers are interesting and tasty. The bottled Sam Adams Oktoberfest is better than the tap version, a rare event. The tap is very good but the bottle has more flavor.



Michael Lewis is always interesting, so I will see what he has to say about the last financial collapse. His latest article in Vanity Fair about Greece: Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds is required reading.



Picked this one up from the Queens Library. Great book, all about Heuristics which are cognitive rules of thumb, hard-wired mental shortcuts that everyone uses every day in routine decision-making and judgment.

Gladwell used the term"Thin-Slicing" in Blink.

This book offers a quick tour of such topics as: familiarity heuristic;acceptance heuristic and default heuristic or consistency heuristic. The introduction cites to Avalanche victims and the poor decisions that were made: First Paper and Second Paper.



Looks like the Yankees got to climb to the light.