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BOOKS - What are ASF members reading?

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Not a book but an interview with Ronan Farrow. His background is eye opening. The fact that at 11 he was starting his first double degree at university and at 16 he was enrolled at Yale law school shows a very bright guy. His investigative journalism opened up the Harvey Weinsten abuses.

Ronan Farrow, the son of Mia and Woody Allen, is the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist whose exposé triggered #MeToo. Now, he has written an acclaimed book on waning US diplomatic influence – and he’s still only 30

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...interview-woody-allen-harvey-weinstein-me-too
 
A horrific story . But perhaps worth putting in your knowledge bank.

He Killed 140 Men in the Electric Chair. Then He Took His Own Life.

The man who operated New York State’s “Old Sparky” was calm, collected and always professional. No one knew that every flick of the switch was tearing him apart.

It’s eleven p.m. on Thursday, September 17, 1925 – “Black Thursday” to the residents of Sing Sing prison in New York’s Hudson Valley. The inmates are locked down for the night, unable to leave their cells. All except one.

Prisoner Julius Miller, with four guards as well as the chaplain in tow, just walked twenty paces from the pre-execution waiting cells, called the “Dance Hall,” to the legendary “Death House.” He’s standing next to the electric chair inmates long ago nicknamed “Old Sparky.”

The warden asks him for any last words. He has none.

The guards quickly seat him, buckling black leather straps round his limbs and torso.

The “State Electrician,” John Hurlburt, a grim-faced man in his late fifties, of average height and wearing a dark suit and spotless black shoes, steps forward. His job has all but destroyed him. But Hurlburt’s disposition betrays nothing as he carefully checks the electrode strapped to Miller’s right leg. The electrode is in working order, and the sponge it contains is soaked in brine, just as it should be.

Hurlburt is calm, impassive, and entirely professional. But he’s gritting his teeth and a thin sheen of sweat adorns his stern face. He doesn’t want to do this, to keep on doing it. But he has no alternative. He also doesn’t know that this, his 140th execution, will be his last.
http://narrative.ly/he-killed-140-men-in-the-electric-chair-then-he-took-his-own-life/
 
This story which examines the recent discovery of the Cascadia subduction zone (?) and it's role in creating cataclysmic earthquakes in the North West region of the US is fascinating. Well worth a read.

The Really Big One
An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when.
schulz-kathryn.png

By Kathryn Schulz

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
 
Quants: The maths geniuses who brought down Wall St.

Great read outlining the bio and history of the maths and computer geniuses, armed with Ugene Fama's the market is always efficient theory, lots of data, then hundreds of billions of other people's money... how the nerds took over Wall St, turn gambling into a fine, highly computerised/algorithmic art that for the first decade or so raked in loads of cash... then almost send the global financial markets down the tube in 2007-2008.

Almost because Goldman Sachs first inject a few billions as a circuit breaker; then almost again a couple months later when the US Fed bail them out.
 
Just finished reading Childhoods end by Arthur C Clarke. Always "knew" he was a great writer but hadn't got round to actually reading his stuff.
This was excellent. Very well written and provided interesting philosophy on the idea of a super race from the stars that comes to Earth and effectively establishes a universal world order based on peace, non violence, equity and prosperity.
But Why ? And is this a"Good thing ?"
 
A long read from The Atlantic on The case for reparations . Examines the history of backs in the US.
Lot of systemic theft from Negroes that most people would be unaware of.

The Case for Reparations
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
 
Money is not everything of course ... but after the Cat Person short story went viral the author was offered a $1m dollar deal for rights to publish her first book of short stories.

Cat Person author's debut book sparks flurry of international publishing deals

Following her viral short story hit, Kristen Roupenian’s You Know You Want This has been sold to Cape in the UK, with the US auction said to be topping $1m
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...arks-flurry-of-international-publishing-deals

https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/review-you-know-you-want-this-by-kristen-roupenian.html
 
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Ever wondered what the Colosseum looked like after it was sacked ? Interesting story of the ongoing history of this Roman relic.
Rome’s Colosseum Was Once a Wild, Tangled Garden
Rare plants and Romantic poetry tell a forgotten history of the ancient ruin.

Paul Cooper Dec 5, 2017
lead_720_405.jpg

"Interior View of the Colosseum in Rome," 1804François-Marius Granet
When the botanist Richard Deakin examined Rome’s Colosseum in the 1850s, he found 420 species of plant growing among the ruins. There were plants common in Italy: cypresses and hollies, capers, knapweed and thistle, plants “of the leguminous pea tribe,” and 56 varieties of grass. But some of the rarer flowers growing there were a botanical mystery. They were found nowhere else in Europe.

To explain this, botanists came up with a seemingly unlikely explanation: These rare flowers had been brought as seeds on the fur and in the stomachs of animals like lions and giraffes. Romans shipped these creatures from Africa to perform and fight in the arena. Deakin takes care to mention in Flora of the Colosseum of Rome that the “noble and graceful animals from the wilds of Africa ... let loose in their wild and famished fury, to tear each other to pieces”—along with “numberless human beings.” As the animals fought and died in the arena, they left their botanical passengers behind to flourish and one day overtake the building itself.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/romes-colosseum-garden/547535/
 
Cam019 said:
The Intelligent Investor (Revised Edition) - Benjamin Graham
Click to expand...
I put this book down for a different book earlier this year. I'm giving it another go now and am about to begin Chapter 4. So far, this book is fantastic!
 
Blue Highways; Journey into America.
by William Least Heat Moon. 1982.

- nice wander around the back roads of the USA
 
Just finished reading Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Just a brilliant story.
Solzhenitsyn had been sent to the Gulags in 1945 (like millions of others ). He was released on Stalins death and sent into exile. He then fell ill with cancer and was treated in provincial hospital and made quite a remarkable remission.

Cancer Ward looks at the lives of the patients, doctors and nurses in the Cancer Ward in 1955. Throughout the novel we understand the way Soviet Russia was working both at the time and during the Stain purges. Compelling writing and a powerful reflection of the Soviet system.

It was banned in the USSR and published in the West in 1968

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_Ward
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Solzhenitsyns first book "A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" recounted his time in the Labour camps. It public depiction of life in the camps brought to the world the reality of the many millions of people imprisoned and killed in the Stalin era (and beyond) .

Khrushchev allowed it to be published in 1962 as part of his political thaw. When he was deposed in 1964 the USSR went back into freeze mode.

http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/aleksandr_soljenitsin_ivan_denisovichin_bir_gunu-eng.pdf
 
Came across this piece of scientific and social history recently.

How Kepler Invented Science Fiction and Defended His Mother in a Witchcraft Trial While Revolutionizing Our Understanding of the Universe

How many revolutions does the cog of culture make before a new truth about reality catches into gear?

www.brainpickings.org

How Kepler Invented Science Fiction and Defended His Mother in a Witchcraft Trial While Revolutionizing Our Understanding of the Universe

How many revolutions does the cog of culture make before a new truth about reality catches into gear?
www.brainpickings.org www.brainpickings.org
 
This story might be useful if you are building your own business or just wanting to make the most of your work space.

How Maria Popova Builds Discipline, Routine & Discovery into her Work

This conversation is brought to you by Workflow, an interview series about people's working styles and workspaces.

www.balancethegrind.com.au

How Maria Popova Builds Discipline, Routine & Discovery into her Work - Balance The Grind

After studying Maria Popova and learning how she's grown Brain Pickings from a tiny newsletter to a media empire, these are the valuable lessons I've learnt.
www.balancethegrind.com.au www.balancethegrind.com.au
 
An oldie but a goodie: The Histories, by Herodotus. Dates from the 5th Century BC.
Running a Marathon? The tale of the first run from Marathon to Athens comes from Herodotus.
300 Spartans? ditto.

And bucketloads of stuff about the Eastern Mediterranean world, its history, its legends, its stories, its people.
Oh, and the war between Hellas and Persia. In fact, 2 wars.

The Histories is pretty much the oldest known lengthy prose work: certainly the oldest known by a single author.
A surprisingly readable tome. Many translations over the years: mine is by Aubrey de Selincourt, 1954 (published by Folio Society)
 

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