Oct. 13th, 2008
I finally finished reading Neal Stephenson's The Confusion last night. I left it unfinished @ M's in July because it was too heavy to bring back to Japan (this was the right decision), and then I read the last bit really slowly because I didn't want it to be over. Aside from it being one of the best novels I've ever read, full stop, Stephenson gets major points for finding a completely plausible way to turn parts of it into a spaghetti western, a sort of pirates-and-samurai slice-fest. Oh, it's awesome. If one thing's for certain, it's that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
On that note, I was somewhat disturbed to read this post on Steve Coll's blog about the history of the Great Depression (the economic situation that dares not speak it name--depression in small letters, that is), particularly the eyebrow-raising line "First, the neat distinction between liquidity and solvency had become meaningless." History repeating? That's still one of my favorite songs ever, by the way.
I'm obsessed with www.fivethirtyeight.com. Not only is the guy a) brilliant and b) the guy who revolutionized baseball with math, he's also daring to say what for some reason the mainstream media (with the notable exception of The New Republic) can't or won't. How's that for an original maverick?
On that note, I was somewhat disturbed to read this post on Steve Coll's blog about the history of the Great Depression (the economic situation that dares not speak it name--depression in small letters, that is), particularly the eyebrow-raising line "First, the neat distinction between liquidity and solvency had become meaningless." History repeating? That's still one of my favorite songs ever, by the way.
I'm obsessed with www.fivethirtyeight.com. Not only is the guy a) brilliant and b) the guy who revolutionized baseball with math, he's also daring to say what for some reason the mainstream media (with the notable exception of The New Republic) can't or won't. How's that for an original maverick?