Finished (Audiobook) - "Surely You Must Be Joking Mr. Feynman" - Richard P. Feynman

I was given this book my my Master's Advisor when I started graduate school as an example of keeping up the curiosity needed to do high level research.

The book is a series of auto-biographical stories from the life of Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize winning physicist, known as a youngster on the Manhattan project, and most recently known as one of the key investigators of the Challenger Space Shuttle investigation in the late '80's a short while before his death.

I enjoyed the stories, and the smattering of science and problem solving that defined Dr. Feynman's life.  I must say that I was quite disappointed in the real experience of graduate school, as it seems to be missing the drama, and the broad based research of earlier eras of graduate studies.

I'd recommend this book highly for folks in, or planning, graduate studies - let's work to make the process more like Feynman's experience - it should help define a lifetime, not pad a prof's resume.

Finished (E-Reader): "United States V. Nixon: The Question of Executive Privilege" - Larry A. Van Meter

The "US v. Nixon" document was a very nice summary and discussion of the key issues of the Watergate scandal.  I was only 8 when the break-in occurred, and was 10 when Nixon resigned and remember pieces of the story.  The review is relatively short and points out the key constitutional issues under attack - the basic roles of the three branches of US government - judicial, congressional and executive.  At 10, I certainly hadn't realized the scope of the issues under investigation - e.g. who gets to set the limits of Executive power as outlined in the Constitution?  Can the president re-write the rules and use Executive privilege to cover any excesses?

The whole issue around assigning an independent investigative council raises questions - who gets to "police" the actions of the independent prosecutor?  Obviously in this particular instance, the President has a conflict.

What was actually refreshing about reading this article was how serious all branches were - in the legislature, both parties were taking the actions seriously, with the appropriate gravity.  Would that occur today, in the more divisive environment?  Does it even seem possible that the parties are further apart now than during Watergate?  I can't imagine any independent investigation of Bush Jr. being met with anything buy party-line, partisan responses (with a good dose of Fox "News" thrown in for good measure).  In this review, it seems that party affiliation took a back seat to actual governance - might be a less for politicians in both the U.S. and Canada - the role of governance seems to be distantly placed behind party politics.

Nearing the end of "The Informationist" - Taylor Stevens (E-reader)

I was interested in a quick diversion read - "The Informationist" fit the bill.  It is definitely a take-off on the Steig Larsson books - the key character is a woman who is very capable physically, and is an excellent researcher - sound familiar?

However, the Taylor Stevens version of Lisabeth, is a little to "super-hero"ish.  She sniper-kills army folks who've wronged her, she partially dodged a bullet and escaped from a "swim with the fishes" execution.  The rough upbringing that Lisabeth endured is nothing compared to the "knife fight, terrorist training rape-fest" that Vanessa lived through.

I'm finding the book a little predictable (I will update if my "theory" doesn't hold - did so far).  To be fair, if I read this without reading Steig Larsson's books, I might not have the Lisabeth-shadow over the reading.

Finished (Audiobook) -"Isaac Asimov's All-Time Favorite Science Fiction Stories"

These books (4 in all) form a nice commute series - each story is about 30-45 minutes or less, with a range of different individual stories.


"Captive Market" by Philip K. Dick is an interesting post-apocalypse story about a merchant selling to a colony trying to re-furbish a space ship and escape to Venus.  Nice parallel-universe feel to the story.


"Last of the Deliverers" by Poul Anderson investigates a possible future for the Capitalist-Communist ideologies if left to evolve over time with cheap, available power.

"World of a Thousand Colors" by Robert Silverberg is a future-based contest, where a world-wide selection of contestants every 5 years or so go off to another world, where they may win a fantastic prize - the catch?  Nobody knows where the planet is, or what the prize is, and anybody returning (probably non-winners) have their memories erased. "Ismael in Love" also by Robert Silverberg tells a tale of love from the perspective of a worker-dolphin hired to clean undersea water intakes.

Reading (Audiobook) - "Harperland: The Politics of Control" - Lawrence Martin

Enjoying is not he word for "Harperland: The Politics of Control" - Lawrence Martin.  Unfortunately, this book seems to support what I see and fear in the U.S. Republicans and their Canadian buddies, the Conservatives.


I'm a middle-of-the-spectrum, lying in the current Liberal party, somewhere on the border of where the PCs and the Liberals were in the '80s - "right wing" on the Liberal side, "left wing" on the older Conservatives.


I lived the last 12 years in Alberta, and was astounded at the political scene there.  The provincial Conservative party had done an excellent job of vilifying any party other than their own, and really only have to fear a split in their own party - no other party can reasonably ever catch them (and they've been in power since 1972).  The power of the PM's office and the PM himself shouldn't be surprising in Harper - this is the federal mirror of what happens everyday in Alberta - message control, top-down political influence (interference, depending upon your orientation).  The situation has been in place so long, some bureaucrats can't understand the politics/bureaucracy distinction anymore.


I don't particularly fear the stated ideas of the Conservative party - lower taxes, less waste, even some privatization might be OK in some circumstances.  What I fear, and what I saw in Alberta, and am seeing in Martin's book, is the "politics uber alles" mentality, the black-and-white viewpoints that drive everything to absurd extremes.


What I'd really like to see is the actual policies and ideas presented, with associated costs and benefits explained.  Why can the "right" call the "left" "tax and spend" when the "right" runs massive deficits?  Why aren't they called to explain how they are going to pay for tax decreases - what programs are going to be jettisoned or left to rot?


In Alberta, Premier Ralph Klein ran around the province and closed hospitals at smaller centres as a cost cutting measure - OK, I can accept that.  However, a few years later, he stood in the legislature and stated that "lack of beds" required a private health care system.  How can anyone get away with that?


My fear with Harper is similar - is the "big plan" for Conservatives to sell off Canadian assets, pull apart Health Care and other non-popular policies by driving the deficit up until they are unaffordable, leaving only unpopular options remaining?


The politics at all costs, and the inability to admit problems (and deal with them), all the while claiming to be open and accountable, is the problem I have with the right wing parties in both countries.  On some level, they realize that their "dream state" is not popular enough with the actual population - however, non-democratic practices is a dangerous path to tread.