What are you currently reading?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Wait till you see the Ideal pdf, of which that one is a mere shadow.

Thanks for that: I needed the laugh!

Yes, good joke! [I like your avatar, Elgarian - the Violin Concerto]

[Elgarian]

I needed the laugh!

Heck, we all need those.

(There are some people, you know, who insist that the pdfs we read on our computers are the only pdfs there are, and that there is no ultimate pdf reality beyond those. Hard to believe, eh?)

[Elgarian]

I like your avatar, Elgarian - the Violin Concerto

That's impressive. I have to admit that if someone else had been wandering around with a similar windflowery avatar, I doubt I'd have spotted it myself!

[DavidRoss]

(There are some people, you know, who insist that the pdfs we read on our computers are the only pdfs there are, and that there is no ultimate pdf reality beyond those. Hard to believe, eh?)

And thank you for the chuckle.

I've often pointed out that the claim you describe implies omniscience and thus is irrational--but this obvious argument has proved too subtle for our resident rocket scientists who insist there are no pdfs but the pdfs they personally have fondled.

Good to have you around.  Think I'll pop some Elgar into the CD tray this morning.

[Bu]

[Elgarian]

... rocket scientists who insist there are no pdfs but the pdfs they personally have fondled.

I know, I know. The current trend seems to be to suppose that pdf development arises from small random changes that occur during the pdf copying process, and that only the fittest of these new pdfs survive. Which might be worth thinking about, except for the fact that an awful lot of the pdfs I've encountered don't seem fit for very much at all.

Think I'll pop some Elgar into the CD tray this morning.

Aha! My plan for Elgarian world domination is working! Maybe you'll tell us what you played?

[Bu]

[Renfield]

I know, I know. The current trend seems to be to suppose that pdf development arises from small random changes that occur during the pdf copying process, and that only the fittest of these new pdfs survive. Which might be worth thinking about, except for the fact that an awful lot of the pdfs I've encountered don't seem fit for very much at all.

And I'll play Elgar over that one.

[karlhenning]

what are you currently reading?

The Apollonian Clockwork

is it any good?

Jury's still out.  It's a peculiar read, I'm finding.

[Brian]

I am currently reading Madame Bovary.

[bwv 1080]

Good overview of the last 30 years of experimental economics, its ties to Hayek and Smith and what aspects of the neoclassical model can be tested under controlled experiments.  Smith outlines the primacy of what he terms ecological rationality -

We have become accustomed to the idea that a natural system like the human
body or an ecosystem regulates itself. To explain the regulation, we look
for feedback loops rather than a central planning and directing body. But
somehow our intuitions about self-regulation do not carry over `to the artificial systems of human society.
(Thus)...the...disbelief always expressed by
(my) architecture students (about)...medieval cities as marvelously patterned
systems that had mostly just "grown" in response to myriads of individual decisions.
To my students a pattern implied a planner... The idea that a city
could acquire its pattern as "naturally" as a snowflake was foreign to them.

Historically, a recurrent theme in economics is that the values to which
people respond are not confined to those one would expect based on the
narrowly defined canons of rationality. These roots go back to Adam Smith
(1759, 1776) who examined the moral sympathies that characterize natural
human sociality.3 Contrary to vulgar impressions, in Smith's view, each individual
defined and pursued his own interest in his own way, and individuals
were mischaracterized by the metaphor, 'economic man.' (Cf Hayek, 1991, p
120). This careless scholarship fails to recognize the key proposition articulated
by the Scottish philosophers: to do good for others, does not require deliberate
action to further the perceived interest of others. As Mandeville so
succinctly put it, "The worst of all the multitude did something for the common
good." (See Mandeville's poem, 'The Grumbling Hive' or 'Knaves
Turned Honest,' 1705; quoted in Hayek, 1991, p 82). Many contemporary
scholars, and not only popular writers, have reversed Mandeville's proposition,
and argued that the standard socio-economic science model (SSSM) requires,
justifies and promotes selfish behavior.4 On the contrary, because enforceable
rights can never cover every margin of decision, opportunism in all
relational contracting and exchange across time are costs, not benefits, in
achieving long-term value from trade; an ideology of honesty 5 means that
people play the game of 'trade,' rather than 'steal,' although crime may often
pay the rational lawbreaker who always chooses dominant strategies. Nor does
non-selfish behavior in ordinary market transactions prevent those transactions
from promoting specialization and creating wealth.

(H. Simon, 1981/1996, p 33).

[rockerreds]

Great stuff!

[karlhenning]

The Dumpsters? 

[jwinter]

Plutarch's Lives.  I bought it almost 20 years ago, I figure it's about time I actually read the thing.  I've been reading a lot of 1775-1825 US history, and am always impressed at how deeply immersed Jefferson, Adams, et al were in the classics.  Imagine today a US President who comfortably reads Homer and Thucydides in the original Greek!

[Diletante]

Just finished reading "Auferstehung der Toten" by Wolf Haas. He writes in a very particular way. He uses Austrian German (not a dialect, just a peculiar Hochdeutsch) and a very informal tone. I ended up enjoying the language more than the story, but it was OK.



Now I'm starting two new books.

1) "Lecciones preliminares de filosofía" by Manuel García Morente. Some kind of philosophy primer. It's not a textbook, by the way. I know squat about philosophy so I figured that starting this way was better than trying to read some philosopher's work right off the bat.

2) "Drei Männer im Schnee" by Erich Kästner. I'll read this one when I'm not in the mood of reading philosophy.

[val]

JOHN MAYNARD SMITH / EÖRS SZATHMARY:       The Origins of Life

I enjoyed reading this book. Maynard Smith was one of the great biologists of his time. Although not new, his explanation about the evolutionary advantages of sex his very detailed and elucidative.

[Brian]

I am currently reading Madame Bovary.

A "HIP romantic" novel, for there is a serpent player in it!

[Lethevich]

The Stuart Age (A. F. Scott)

This is such a good book - I'll have to hunt down others in the out of print series. It is essentially a collection of contemporary accounts of various subjects, organised by category. It includes the fascination of an Englishman visiting Italy, to find that they are the 'only in Christendom' who insist on using things called forks, due to a distaste for dirty hands. Another is a pedantically accurate account of a duel from the POV of a participent who himself comes out quite mangled, although the 'victor'.

Edit: actually, scratch the idea of trying to buy more. The only vaguely affordable ones are tatty ex-library hardbacks. Damn you book publishers, damn you!

[mahler10th]

Photo and Quotes to follow later...but...
I was sent this fabulous translation of the Tao Te Ching by Jeffrey.  Is it any good?  Well, to praphrase the translator:

"Tao is not a way that can be pointed out.
Nor an idea that can be defined."

I think it's a great, easy, uplifting translation, but in fact, it neither is or isn't.  Or is it?   lol
It's great!!

[Solitary Wanderer]

Wonderful entertainer. Tragic live. Depressing, but interesting read.