Bedside Biblitz

06/21/2017

To a God Unknown - Wikipedia

Re-reading Steinbeck lately. Wondering why this has not appeared as a mini-series. Wonderfully sensual descriptions of northern California that lighted the imagination of teenage Biblitz and compelled him eventually to go. California is one of those rare experiences that fails to disappoint. It's actually better than you imagine. I recall the hikes in Big Basin among the giant redwoods and swimming in a green waterfall like the old Tarzan movies with no one around for miles. There was a magical emerald pool somewhere in the woods at Big Sur where I was swimming with a bunch of kids. Though much has changed since Steinbeck and I were kids, California is a wonderful experience never to be missed. Interestingly, this one refers to a devastating California drought, which was in full swing when we were there but not so bad, really.

To a God Unknown is a novel by John Steinbeck, first published in 1933. The book was Steinbeck's third novel (after his unsuccessful Cup of Gold). Steinbeck found To a God Unknown extremely difficult to write; taking him roughly five years to complete[citation needed], the novella proved more time-c...

03/04/2017

Bedside Biblitz

03/04/2017

Spencer Tracy Is Not Dead (Kindle Single) (A Vintage Short)

New short story collection from Sam Shepard, who does it all - plays, acting, writing. Probably musical, too. Sample in the not-so-good-anymore The New Yorker recently.

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection The ride to the tiny village in Mexico where he’s due to film has not been easy. The actor has to first put up with Gunther, a maniac German driver in a tuxedo, the Narcos who insist on excavating the contents of their car, t...

03/04/2017

Pre-order Price Guarantee. | South and West: From a Notebook

Hoping to get young Joan to collaborate on a P.G. Wodehouse musical comedy film. She's has a rough last decade and the project might act as a tonic. Awaiting my Audible copy of her latest.

Pre-order Price Guarantee. | South and West: From a Notebook

08/03/2016

[Folio] | My Holy Land Vacation, by Tom Bissell | Harper's Magazine

BEST piece of writing in some time! Wow. Explains link btwn Christian evangelicals and Israel.

Touring Israel with 450 Christian Zionists

03/22/2016

First-rate compendium edited by Amanda Betts that reminds us of how the damn poem became a propaganda tool the Borden regime used to promote conscription in faraway Canada during WWI. Borden made Quebeckers the focus of such derision, it's a wonder we avoided civil war. Makes French Immersion even more of a social triumph. Note esp the native soldier in uniform. This guy won the Boston Marathon in 1907!

03/08/2016

Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch

Job seekers must-read list: Thomas W. Malone, The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life, illustrated edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2004.

Lowell L. Bryan and Claudia I. Joyce, Mobilizing Minds: Creating Wealth from Talent in the 21st-Century Organization, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life, New York, NY: Plume, 2009.

Andrew McAfee, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization’s Toughest Challenges, first edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2009.

Erik Brynjolfsson and Adam Saunders, Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology is Reshaping the Economy, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009.

Wolf Richter, David Bray, and William Dutton, “Cultivating the value of networked individuals,” in Jonathan Foster, Collaborative Information Behavior: User Engagement and Communication Sharing, Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Michael Chui, Markus Löffler, and Roger Roberts, “The Internet of Things,” McKinsey Quarterly, 2010 Number 2.

Hal R. Varian, Computer Mediated Transactions, Ely Lecture to the American Economics Association, Atlanta, GA, January 3, 2010.

Bernhard Boser, Joe Kahn, and Kris Pister, “Smart dust: Wireless networks of millimeter-scale sensor nodes,” Electronics Research Laboratory Research Summary, 1999.

Peter Lucas, “The trillion-node network,” Maya Design, March 1999.

Stefan Thomke, “Enlightened experimentation: The new imperative for innovation,” Harvard Business Review, February 2001, Volume 79, Number 2, pp. 66–75.

Stephen Baker, The Numerati, reprint edition, New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2009.

Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris, and Robert Morison, Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2010.

David Bollier, The Promise and Peril of Big Data, The Aspen Institute, 2010.

Janaki Akella, Timo Kubach, Markus Löffler, and Uwe Schmid, “Data-driven management: Bringing more science into management,” McKinsey Technology Initiative white paper.

“Economist special report: The data deluge,” the Economist, February 25, 2010.

Smart 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age, The Climate Group, 2009.

Giulio Boccaletti, Markus Löffler, and Jeremy M. Oppenheim, “How IT can cut carbon emissions,” October 2008.

William Forrest, James M. Kaplan, and Noah Kindler, “Data centers: How to cut carbon emissions and costs,” mckinseyquarterly.com, November 2008. See the complete list and how it all works http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/clouds-big-data-and-smart-assets-ten-tech-enabled-business-trends-to-watch.

Advancing technologies and their swift adoption are upending traditional business models. Senior executives need to think strategically about how to prepare their organizations for the challenging new environment.

01/27/2016

Frictionless Markets by Jack Buffington. Wow! A wonderfully optimistic take on the Second Machine Age. Here is a sample:

07/02/2015

The Great Disruption: How business is coping with turbulent times (Economist Books)

July 2/15 - Have just put this on hold at the library. Heard him interviewed on Bloomberg by Kathleen Hayes, who never gets a chance to expand on the berg's gerbil-like formula. Would've liked to hear her argue with Wooldridge, a history PhD who was admittedly lured by gold to his present posish. Mixed feelings about The Economist generally but I think they get it right about a third of the time. 'The Great Disruption is a collection drawn from Adrian Wooldridge's influential Schumpeter columns in The Economist addressing the causes and profound consequences of the unprecedented disruption of business over the past five years.

The Great Disruption has many causes. The internet is spreading faster than any previous technology. Emerging markets are challenging the west’s dominance of innovation as well as manufacturing. Clever management techniques such as “frugal innovation” are forcing companies to rethink pricing. Robots are advancing from the factory floor into the service sector. But these developments are all combining together to shake business life—and indeed life in general—to its foundations.

The Great Disruption is producing a new class of winners, many of whom are still unfamiliar: Asian has more female billionaires and CEOs than Europe, for example. It is also producing a growing class of losers: old-fashioned universities that want to continue to operate in the world of talk and chalk; companies that refuse to acknowledge that competition is now at warp speed; and business people who think that we still live in the world of company man. It is forcing everybody to adapt or die: workers realise that they will have to jump from job to job—and indeed from career to career—and institutions realise that they need to remain adaptable and flexible.

The Great Disruption is all the more testing because it coincides with the Great Stagnation. The financial crisis has not only reduced most people’s living standards in the west. It has also revealed that the boom years of 2000-20007 were built on credit: individuals and governments were borrowing money to pay for lifestyles that no longer had any real justification. Employees are having to cope with unprecedented change at a time when they are also seeing their incomes flat or declining. Companies are having to respond to revolutionary innovations even as they are seeing their overall markets contract. We are all having to run faster in order to stay in the same place.

This book begins with a long introduction explaining the thesis of the book and setting it in a broad historical context. It will also introduce readers to Joseph Schumpeter and explain why his ideas about creative destruction are particularly valuable today.

The Great Disruption is a collection drawn from Adrian Wooldridge's influential Schumpeter columns in The Economist addressing the causes and profound consequences of the unprecedented disruption of business over the past five years.The Great Disruption has many causes. The internet is spreading ...

05/24/2015

A promising new tribute to Dylan Thomas as described in British Country Life magazine this month! Hurray!

05/14/2015

Looks like another winner from my favorite native writer, who does whine about being native, yes, but artfully and with humor. He also boosts for modern education, which sets him apart from the professional throat-singers and their hangers-on.

03/18/2015

The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom (Vintage International)

'... I was once asked: 'Are you an Islamophobe?' And the answer is no. What I am is an Islamismophobe, or better say an anti-Islamist, because a phobia is an irrational fear, and it is not irrational to fear something that says it wants to kill you. The more general enemy, of course, is extremism. What has extremism every done for anyone? Where are its gifts to humanity? Where are its works? From the Author's Note, signed M.A. London, August, 2007.

A master not only of fiction but also of fiercely controversial political engagement, Martin Amis here gathers fourteen pieces that constitute an evolving, provocative, and insightful examination of the most momentous event of our time.At the heart of this collection is the long essay “Terr...

03/09/2015

Blue Horses: Poems

March 8/15 - Sign of health: Biblitz is 14 in line for four copies of the latest from the people's poet, Mary Oliver.

Blue Horses: Poems

11/28/2014

The Enemy Within: The Mcclellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa And Corrupt Labor Unions

'Some cases cried out for investigation. There was the union organizer from Los Angeles who had travelled to San Diego to organize juke-box operators. He was told to stay out of San Diego or he would be killed. But he returned to San Diego. He was knocked unconscious. When he regained consciousness the next morning he was covered with blood and had terrible pains in his stomach. The pains were so intense that he was unable to drive to his home in Los Angeles and stopped at a hospital. There was an emergency operation. The doctors removed from his backside a large cucumber. Later he was told that if he ever returned to San Diego it would be a watermelon. He never went back.' -- p. 8

The Enemy Within: The Mcclellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa And Corrupt Labor Unions

10/25/2014

Rolling Stone Sept. 25/14 - RS still giving us the beans.

10/21/2014

From Wanting by Richard Flanagan on a rather obese lout:

08/06/2014

Aug. 6/14 - book 3 of Atwood's Oryx and Crake dystopia, Hobby's reflections on world wars and Piketty's doomed outlook on the growing gap btwn rich and poor. What's everyone reading?

07/31/2014

July 30/14 - Trying to decide which of these two is the worst. Rickards writes as if autistic drawing huge conclusions based on obsessive, narrow focus; Schama like the Grimm brother whose fairy tales didn't make the cut. Pass on both.

07/16/2014

[Forum] | How Germany Reconquered Europe, by James K. Galbraith, Ulrike Guérot, John Gray,...

Terrific article on the fate of Euroland. Ulrike Guerot the preferred approach. Can't help wondering why the conversation doesn't begin with the excellent Marshall Plan.

This past fall, Harper’s Magazine brought together experts from several European nations and the United Statesfor a private forum, followed by a public discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Both events were moderated by Jeff Madrick, the author of Harper’s Anti-Economist column.

06/17/2014

Just finishing up the second of Follett's Century trilogy http://ken-follett.com/bibliography/fall_of_giants/ - a powerhouse soap opera that will make a terrific mini-series. Each book about five novels in one! Excellent value. Free virtual beer for the Welsh!

05/26/2014

Second Machine Age

Found this to be an unexpectedly brief yet powerful assessment of how to navigate the new industrial era. A few select, very apt case studies. Summary: The bad news: Jobs as we know them will go. The gap btwn rich and poor will probably continue to widen. Govts should institute guaranteed income to cover basic life necessaries and end monopolies to free the market. The good news: robots will increasingly replace people at even high-level tasks such as medical diagnosis. Computer will have more and better info than against which to compare symptoms so it should yield better results than those of sawbones, who will be free to do ... other stuff.

The new book by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee is "The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies."

03/06/2014

Nations and Nationalism Since 1780

Reading this one to understand and assess whether and how Canada's self-described 'First Nations' properly meet the test of nationhood as scholars define it. See comments for excerpts.

Eric Hobsbawm's brilliant enquiry into the question of nationalism won further acclaim for his 'colossal stature ... his incontrovertible excellence as an historian, and his authoritative and highly readable prose'. Recent events in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics have since reinforce...

02/16/2014

February's virtual nightstand

12/18/2013

Dannis Ellis The Boy at the Gate. Un. Believable. Honest. True. Artane Industrial School. Would be very interested to know what Indian Res Sch survivors have to say about this one.

12/18/2013

No more heavy lifting!

12/01/2013

The Luminaries

The lure of prospecting in the goldfields in a novel by Canada's Booker Prize 2013 winner - so far entirely worthy of the accolades. See comment for excerpt.

The Luminaries

09/25/2013

Among literature's best dedications.

09/15/2013

Bedside bounty of Heaney collections I somehow don't possess from Koerner earlier today.

09/14/2013

Biblitz taking his ease this Saturday poring over the venerable Irish Times and the Independent sent from a saint-like pal in Ireland after the great Seamus Heaney handed in his dinner pail. Ireland, a nation of poets who still revere poetry like the Top 40.

08/07/2013

Construction Law: An Introduction for Engineers, Architects, and Contractors

The BEST book ever on US construction law! Biblitz is deep in its throes. Approaching Chapter 12, Contract Administration. Stirring stuff!

Construction Law: An Introduction for Engineers, Architects, and Contractors

08/07/2013

Enjoying a welcome breeze while imbibing the finer pts of US construction law in an excellent 2013 treatise by Gail Kelley. This is among the best law books I've ever read. Gripping, simple, complete.

04/20/2013

2nd page of Hurricane - a zinger!

04/20/2013

Hurricane, from Mary Oliver's latest, A Thousand Mornings. For everyone who has lived through a hurricane of one kind or another - 1st of 2 pages.

04/18/2013

First Nations? Second Thoughts

April's reading material beginning with an incisive look at Canada's aboriginals by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief policy adviser and suggested plan to end race-based subsidies that are not enriching more than a very few.

First Nations? Second Thoughts

03/22/2013

Home

PUBLIC LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING: “NATIONAL AMNESIA AND LITERARY MEMORY"

Sponsor: UBC Asian Studies, St. John’s College, and the Institute of Asian Research.
Place: St. John’s College, Fairmont Social Lounge, 2111 Lower Mall, UBC, Vancouver
By: Yan Lianke
Type: Seminar
Dates: Monday, Mar 25, 2013 to Monday, Mar 25, 2013
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm See comment.

The Institute of Asian Research, located on the University of British Columbia main campus.

02/16/2013

Cargo Business Newswire

Terrific story on local dock expansion to facilitate double coal exports by Fred McCague - Fraser Surrey Docks / Plans to move coal in 2013, in the November, 2012 issue of Western Mariner. An expanded version of this Cargo Business News brief http://www.cargobusinessnews.com/news/092712/news2.html. See comment.

Fraser Surrey Docks will soon begin loading coal to barges. The dock has applied to Port Metro Vancouver for a permit to build coal-handling facilities, and plans to handle up to 2 million tons in 2013 and 4 million in 2014.

02/10/2013

Some first-rate hindsight on WWII by Ian Kershaw, Max Hastings and Tony Judt. See comments:

12/26/2012

Review: 1434, by Gavin Menzies - Telegraph

Biblitz, that club-carrying troll, has been trolled! This nonsense about the Chinese fleet that sailed to Italy and ignited the Rennaissance is exactly that!

Despite being dismissed as 'drivel' by fellow academics, Damian Thompson considers why so many are ready to accept Gavin Menzies theory of history.

11/16/2012

Blue Nights

More beautifully crafted, heartbreaking reflections on the loss of spouse and only daughter several years later. It's not getting easier, but readers will find succor against the despair of mementos one collects in an effort to keep loved ones present like shoveling s**t against the tide.

A New York Times Notable BookFrom one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter.Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion is an inten...