by William Montgomery WattCopyright (c) 1967, 1994. It’s interesting to become a voyeur into other religions. I see how much of Islam is quite similar to Christian fundamentalism – subjugation to a text, promises or threats of an afterlife, and a general lack of humanism. Perhaps this belies my Christian theological orientation more. I don’t really like Christian fundamentalism, nor do I like the Koran much. I respect Muslims, and I mean them no harm.…
by Eric MetaxasCopyright (c) 2017.AudiobookMartin Luther’s life is controversial any way you cut it. Fundamentalists (with whom Metaxas is sympathetic) like to claim Luther as one of their own because of his insistence on Scriptural primacy. (They like to call it Scriptural authority, but such concepts were not present within Luther’s writings.) Liberals like to claim him because he broke free from institutional chains to usher in the freedom which founded to modern world. Unfortunately,…
Programming on Purpose: Essays on Software Design by P.J. Plauger How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method by G. Polya Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs by Scott Meyers How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics by Zbigniew Michalewicz and David B. Fogel More Effective C++: 25 New Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs by Scott Meyers Object-Oriented Design Heuristics by Arthur J. Riel Writing Secure Code by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc Customer…
by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D.Copyright (c) 2014. This book tells the story of the American mental health system, starting with JFK’s “reforms” and ending with the Affordable Care Act. JFK, whose sister suffered from mental retardation and a failed partial lobotomy, assuaged his family’s “guilt” by reforming the system to close the state-run mental hospital system. This step federalized the system and took away state responsibility for these actions. In its place, no one –…
Information Visualization: Perception for Design by Colin Ware Visual Thinking for Design by Colin Ware
by Ken ChervenCopyright (c) 2015. I fooled around with Gephi at work some months ago. It’s one of the leading options that handles Social Network Analysis, a field that is taking off due to seemingly ubiquitous datasets due to academic publishing and social media. This book teaches you the basics of what Gephi has to offer vis-a-vis this field. I found most interesting the idea of a temporally-based social network – i.e., one that grows…
by Mario BiagioliCopyright (c) 1993. This work, now considered the definitive treatment on the Galileo saga where he was silenced for arguing for the Copernican view that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around, argues that the setting of Galileo’s story has never been well-considered. He was a courtier. He lived under the patronage of various rulers of his day and had to produce great wonders for them. As such,…
by Eric MetaxasCopyright (c) 2011.Audiobook. This book has been on my to-read list for a while, and it feels good to finally cross it off. Bonhoeffer’s story is worth sharing. Educated as a theologian, raised as a scientist under a German psychiatrist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived his life in rejection of the German state-church which was coopted under Adolf Hitler. He is a reminder of what living a life in the Resistance is like. Along the…
by Paul FarmerCopyright (c) 2012.Audiobook version. In January 2010, Haiti experienced a seven-point earthquake that laid waste to an already-struggling infrastructure. The world, for a few moments, paused and sighed a collective, compassionate sigh towards one of the oldest republics in the Western Hemisphere. Paul Farmer, known for starting Partners in Health and for being deputy ambassador to Haiti from the UN under Bill Clinton, composed this book about his experiences soon after the earthquake.…