05 Jan 2010
I recently finished reading “The Falls” by Ian Rankin. I would consider it to be an interesting crime novel. It includes particularly interesting elements of history into the book, and is very well written.
The plot is concise, and I found no immediately-evident holes. There was an excellent use of Scottish history, and quite an extensive vocabulary, including Scottish phrases and words.
One thing I thought was a bit bothersome was the fact that from 3/4 of the book, till about 30 pages before the end, the pace seemed to slow down a lot. Everything seemed to stagnate, and the characters didn’t seem quite well to know what they were doing, or seemed to be getting nowhere. Considering this is a crime novel, a large book, and written by a respectable author, I find it amusing to see this kind of problem. However, it was just a small one in the whole picture.
I would rate the book 3.5 out of 5
27 Dec 2009
I have been in doubt for a long time about the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England.
For some strange reason I thought England was a country, Great Britain was the alliance between Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom was the collection of islands including the Isle of Man.
I have done some research and also developed a small image that exemplifies what I have learned.
- The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe.
- A sovereign state, commonly simply referred to as a state, is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state.
- Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe.
- England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.
I hope this may have been of use to you or somebody else with this question.
The following links were of use to me while doing my research:
22 Dec 2009
What is the operating system of money? Why are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? When did all of this start?
Douglas Rushkoff answers these questions in a powerfully simple way:
Once upon a time, before the middle ages, we had an abundance-based currency. Everyone lived happily, you were issued vouchers based on how much grain you harvested, and those vouchers could in turn be used to pay for things. It was based on abundance… In contrast to our scarcity-based currency model of today.
> The monetary system we use today was created so that rich people could stay rich by being rich rather than doing anything.
> We live in an economy where the sustainance of the economy itself depends on growth at the rate of interest.
> Where do you get the extra money? You'll have to borrow that too.
> Corporations? They were created to support this economic system as well.
This was the value of our currency right through the industrial age. This is the system still in use today. It is an outdated system, one that must be ruled out.
Why and how did this happen?
The following video by Rushkoff explains this in 15 minutes, why the system is broken and how must we change things to create a better economic system.
Via poortaste
04 Dec 2009
I just finished reading Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden. It is the 3rd book in the Conqueror Series of Genghis Khan. I would like to share my thought on the book.
The hardback version is 518 pages long, so it proves to be a lengthy good read. It is mostly fiction, however, many dates, army sizes, names, and events are based on actual facts and tales written throughout history.
The book is very vivid and descriptive. While I am a fan of 1st person writing, this book was colourful and used a wealthy amount of grammar. It is fast paced, and I consider it the least boring book I’ve read in about a year. The most intense and emotional part (in my opinion) is towards the end, at four fifths of the book.
If you are looking for a historical novel to read through I can highly recommend this book.
04 Dec 2009
So, you’ve finished school, you’re working, you probably have been doing so for a few (or too many) years. Then one day you stumble on a math equation you saw at High School (Tertiary School if you are British) and you can’t remember where to start solving it. Then someone mentions something about Genghis Khan and you barely remember he was a Mongol that took over many lands.
It’s only natural, you know, to forget things over a period of time. Specially when we don’t use and practice them constantly. How can you avoid losing all that information your teachers took so much pride and effort in stuffing into your brain in the first place?
I came up with an interesting game I am going to start. Every Saturday (or so) I will pick a topic on random, it might be about the British Empire, or about the Chin, or about finding the area under a curve, or parsing XML through the Python programming language, or how to hack the firmware for my digital camera, or maybe how to bake French bread. Then I am going to blog about my findings.
Why? Well… maybe many of you already know some of these things. Then again, maybe many of you don’t. Information is vital in our society: He who knows is he who perseveres. The point of me posting random topics to my Blog is not to brag about how much I know, or what I learned throughout the day, but to share my opinion on a topic I randomly thought about which may be of interest to you.
In the end, it may be a handy read, or it may be irrelevant information, but the point is doing what you feel is right in the end… I feel we all must keep our memories and knowledge alive, and this is might be a good practice to start with.
What do you think? Do you consider you have a better way of keeping knowledge alive in your memory?
