Science vs. Literature

Sometimes, the lines between science and literature get a little fuzzy.  How?  Check these out: Literature as a graph and one that cracks me up: Fictional Physicists (the titles were slightly paraphrased).  What do you think?  Has science become literature or has literature become scientific?

Book Chat: Economics

I can honestly say that I'm shocked (and slightly embarrassed to admit) that two books about economics, of all things, would have changed my perspective of the world.  Honestly, you'd think some science book would do that, right?  But alas, in my age of ever-changing perspectives and general teenagehood, books on "the social science of decision- making" rather than "the study of the human brain" have changed the way I think.  Who would have known?

Anyway, all that being said and done, I should talk about the books, shouldn't I?  I'll go from oldest to most recent.  Here are the first two (they're related):

Freakonomics
"A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything"
By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner


SuperFreakonomics

"Global Cooling, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance"

By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Simply put, Freakonomics and it's sequel has one basic concept in mind: incentives cause people to do things.  Or, to put in one word, it's about incentives.  It's an extremely popular book, and for good reason-it has wonderful examples, shows surprising (but logical) points to make, and talks about some controversial issues. Even kokopelli1015 has read excerpts, but hasn't read the entire thing.  I do talk about Freakonomics in this post, but I know few of you will read that post, so quick review- has some controversial issues about discrimination and abortion as a heads up, and talks a lot about crime, and obviously, the role of incentives in the crime.  It also talks about a lot of other things, so even if none of those seem appealing to you, there's a whole lot of hidden treasures in that book that's worth reading for.  SuperFreakonomics is the one I read recently, though.  Another heads up: there is inappropriate content in the first chapter, but it doesn't look at it in a you-know-what light, but in more of an analytical view- looking at data and whatnot.  Still, get it checked out by an adult if you want before you read it to be safe.  It's been a little while, but I do know that this book doesn't focus all that much on crime as Freakonomics, but talks about other subjects as well.  It's got a pretty extensive chapter on global warming and some (easy) ways to combat it.  My personal favorite chapter is the last one, on monkeys (that's where the question box came from! I forget what my family and I were talking about to get to monkey hair...).  Both books, though, are honestly quite amazing and will change the way you look at things.  Really.  It did that to a hard-core science fan, and I'm sure that most people will find it a wonderfully fascinating read.  There's even a really interesting blog for Freakonomics that I'd recommend to read as well.

Trade-Off
"Why Some Things Catch on and Others Don't"
By Kevin Maney

This book was amazing.  Really.  It's all about a simple concept that's behind which products catch on- and which don't.  This basic concept is fidelity (quality) vs. convenience.  A product will go off well in the market if it either has super high fidelity or super high convenience.  It is impossible to have both- and trying to make a product have both is chasing the "fidelity mirage," which sounds all too possible but is a fool's errand.  This, along with other spin-offs of the fidelity vs. convenience trade-off is more thoroughly explained in the book.  There are tons of real, vivid, examples of products that have failed- and succeeded wildly.  While some may not be as well-known to us, like the company Tesla Motors, others we are all too familiar with (e.g. the iPhone and some other well known companies).  I don't think that I'll ever look at anything the same after I read this- especially right after reading this, you keep thinking about whether it's high convenience, high fidelity, or a bit of both.  Ever wonder how the whole revamp of the question box rewards system sprang into being?  Well, this book was part of the answer.  Really, it's a great book, and I'd highly recommend you read it.

Admittedly, these three books aren't quite science related, but they're really great books that puts a spin on your perspectives of things.  Try them out and see what you think, and you may be surprised that non fiction books can be just as interesting as Twilight, in different ways.

Book Chat: Economics

Introducing....

Freakonomics

"A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything"

By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

This book is, quite frankly, amazing. It explores a lot of issues and uses raw data to answer unusual questions that turn up even more odd things about our society. As Kurt Anderson says in his praise: "This is bracing fun of the highest order."

The cover consists of a picture of an apple with a slice cut away to show the inside to be... an orange. True to the cover, the book tries to send the message that not everything is what it seems, and by asking the right questions and using the right data, we can begin to uncover the real truths of our world. This is an extremely popular book as far as I know, which is why I decided to read it- and it was worth it. It's not extremely long, and every page has its own surprises. However, they do talk about some controversial issues, like discrimination and abortion, and if you have strong beliefs about such issues, this book may be a little upsetting. It also talks a lot about crime, since Levitt's chief interest is not really in the economy, but in everyday issues and crime. The way the authors write and explain things using data in this book is alone reason enough to read it, since it is extremely unique.

If you have yet to read a non fiction book, then I'd highly recommend this book for any sort of interest you may have. Being a science and music person, economics don't really strike me as, well, amazing, but this book was definitely worth the read. I have yet to read the next book, Superfreakonomics, and explore their website. If you do read it though, please tell me what you think of it! It's a very thought-provoking book.

Literature: Five Fables

The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
I think that the moral for this is that you should be careful not to let things fall into the wrong hands, since the sheep's skin had been simply thrown aside, which the wolf took advantage of. If the shepherd had been more careful with the sheep's skin, then the wolf wouldn't have been able to take so many sheep.

The Four Oxen and the Lion
I think that the maxim for this fable is that is that you have to stick together no matter what. Since the oxen kept arguing among themselves, they let their guard down and separated, which left them vulnerable to the lion. They should have stuck together despite their arguments so that they could have continued to defend themselves against the lion.

The Fisher and the Little Fish
In my opinion, the moral for this fable is that it is better to have something than to risk what you have for more. The fisher realized that if he let the fish go, then chances were that he wouldn't catch that fish again when it was bigger, since it would evade him anyway. Plus, since he didn't have any fish at the moment, he needed something to eat on that day, and since all he caught was the little fish, that is what he kept.

The Crow and the Pitcher
In this fable, the crow needed water badly, and he found water in a jug. However, since he could not get to it, he put pebbles into the jug to raise the water level so he could drink it and save his life. The moral for this fable might be that persistance with the right idea can yield its rewards, since the crow had to put the pebbles in one by one, a long process, but he got the water he needed in the end.

The Fox and the Goat
I believe that the maxim for this fable is that you should think before you act. The goat didn't realize that the fox could have been just trying to use her to get out of the well, which made her stuck in the well but let the fox out. If the goat had thought about the fox's position and his reputation, then she might not have been so eager to jump into a well.

Literature: "Wooden Bowls"

Here's my lit assignment for Wooden Bowls:

It was a really moving story. At first, when the son and daughter-in-law were annoyed at the grandpa, the story felt kind of sad and, well, in the pits. The son and daughter-in-law didn't realize what they were doing, the grandpa was feeling really left out, and the grandson just had to take it all. Later, when the grandson told his father that he was playing with the wooden scraps to make a bowl for them, I was a little worried that the parents would get mad at him too, so the fact that they actually realized the message made me happy. This relates to empathy (or a lack of it). In this case, the son and daughter-in-law lacked empathy for the grandfather because they didn't realize they were making their father feel left out, they thought that he was simply annoying. The grandson, however, had empathy and realized that his grandfather was upset. He sent the message to his parents by forcing them to go into his grandpa's shoes for a minute and think what having to eat from wooden bowls when they were older would be like. By making his parents empathize with his grandfather, the grandson managed to save the story.

Thoughts For the Weekend- 10/16 and 10/23

10/16-
How close to the ceiling does a fly have to be before he flips over and lands on the ceiling?

I highly doubt that a fly (or any living organism) can sustain flying upside for any period of time, so the fly probably has to be really, really close and just grab the ceiling, or it could do a sort of miniature loop-de-loop manuever and land on the ceiling at the peak of the loop.

10/23-
Who tastes dog food when it has a 'new & improved' flavor?

If you ask me, the "new and improved flavor" is just an advertising ploy. Dry dog food is dry dog food, and I don't think dogs really care about tiny differences in the flavor of dog food- unless it's some good old meat, it isn't anything special. Of course, maybe there are actual people who would go through testing the dog food, but "improved" is a relative term and anything put out there can be called "new." My mom suggested that perhaps they do testing in which they put two different types of dog food out for a dog, and the dog would choose what it wants to eat, but again, dogs can't really communicate its opinions of the food, and it probably doesn't matter to them anyways.

Literature: Why are people mean to each other?

Why are people mean to each other? For instance, we saw in class a news clip about a boy that was set on fire by his "friends" because they stole his father's bike. There is no logical reason for such an act of violence, yet it was done. Why?



I believe man is mean to each other because of two reasons: competition and insecurities. First off, competing for survival is an animal instinct that forces us to be aware of our resources, and figure out ways to get them before other people do. Of course, nowadays, most people don't have to compete as vigorously for resources, but it still exists. So, people bully each other to get want they want. It's like the id we're learning about in social studies. People will do anything to satisfy their needs, and don't care about others. For instance, Jack in Lord of the Flies starts to care about nothing but the "hunt," and feels no responsibility for the fire, or the littluns, or the other things that have to get done that don't get done. Also, people do it to relieve themselves of their insecurities: guilt, doubt, regret, worry, stress, etc. Everyone has them: we all regret things, worry about things, but we can usually handle these things. However, when they start to eat at us, people react differently. Some may find ways to deal with it, others do something about it, while others may have more negative reactions: breakdowns, depression, or putting on to someone else's shoulders: the blame game, violence, etc. This is when humanity starts becoming inhuman. For example, Jack in Lord of the Flies probably knows that he needs to be responsible, listen to Piggy and Ralph's reason, and start thinking about things other than the hunt. However, he doesn't: and he probably feels a bit of doubt about that. He deals with it by hating Piggy because Piggy has reason and is a thinker. We also see in one of the meetings that he starts acting violently, fighting with Piggy and hitting him in the stomach. I think that these reasons are why people are mean to each other. However, we can't stop being mean to each other because it is caused by fundamental flaws in human nature: we will always have insecurities, we will always have to compete for ways to survive, and unless we can find more efficient (and nicer) ways to deal with this problems as a whole, bullying will continue to happen. It's part of humanity today, and it won't disappear unless mankind addresses it as a whole.

Literature: Summer Reading

I read A Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan for my summer reading assignment. The book was about how Nancy, the main character, has to adapt to her parent's divorce and living in a settled home. She has ESP, or a gift of magic, from her grandmother. Her grandmother also gave some other gifts: the gift of dancing to Kirby, Nancy's sister, the gift of music to Brendon, Nancy's brother, a house to Nancy's mom, and the gift of storytelling to the author, Nancy's "stepsister." I imagine the author to be an interesting person, in a sense. Since she wrote a whole book on a story with the main character having ESP, she probably believes in some type of "magic," or is at least interested in it. In fact, I suppose she could be like kokopelli1015, since people who read/write usually know a fairly decent amount of interesting things, are pretty easy-going, and have a lot of creativity, which is what Lois Duncan seems to have. Also, she probably went through some tough times in her life, since divorce is a pretty rocky topic to write about.