"I certainly never write a review about a book I don't think worth reviewing, a flat-out bad book, unless it's an enormously fashionable bad book." --
says, John Gardner in Conversations with John Gardner
Quoted from 'Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations'     Edited by Mohamed Taher & L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994) p.150. Available @ Amazon.com

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

How Doctors Think by Jerome E. Groopman

Info courtesy: Ricklibrarian and a suggestion: "Groopman's book is already very popular. Every library should have it."



From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. SignatureReviewed by Perri Klass:
Every reflective doctor will learn from this book—and every prospective patient will find thoughtful advice for communicating successfully in the medical setting and getting better care.Many of the physicians Dr. Groopman writes about are visionaries and heroes; their diagnostic and therapeutic triumphs are astounding. And these are the doctors who are, like the author, willing to anatomize their own serious errors.


See also:
  • Information Seeking Behavior of the Believers
  • Information Seeking Behavior - Quote of the day
  • Words of Wisdom from Technology Guru Bill Thompson
  • Saturday, July 21, 2007

    Harry Potter book pages found online


    Kevin Griffin, CanWest News Service
    Published: Monday, July 16, 2007
    A 33-year-old Vancouverite has downloaded what appears to be about 60 per cent of the seventh and final Harry Potter book — even though the children’s novel isn’t supposed to be officially released until midnight Saturday. continue reading

    See also:
  • Read the review of the new "Potter" movie
  • Much more @ Google's

  • Saturday, July 14, 2007

    Interfaith Minister's Manual


    About the bookThis book is a labor of love. When I was ordained as an interfaith minister, I looked for a minister's manual which would have ceremonies and prayers appropriate for people who had been raised with a particular religious background but who now did not want to be affiliated with any religious organization. Initially the only purpose for doing this was for my own ministry but there is an obvious need for a single manual in which the major religions (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Yogi, and Native Medicine people) are represented. This book is my effort and has been very well received. It is now in its fourth edition [source: Yahoo! shopping see also: Angela Plum's home page]
    What do others say:
    Other Christian traditions are ignored. The complete lack of anything from the Anglican/Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, for example, seems a glaring omission.

    Non-Christian traditions comprise perhaps 10-15% of the book. There are brief descriptions of some Jewish, Buddhist, and Islamic holy days, two paragraphs from an Aztec baptism, the traditional Jewish prayers for the dead, a description of Kwanzaa, and two Native American prayers. That's about it, except for some very brief references in the definitions section.

    If you're looking for a fusion of New Age and Catholic Christianity, this might be the book for you. Otherwise, look elsewhere. I was truly disappointed that this book did not live up to its "Interfaith" title or the positive reviews given by others. source: Andrew Shults (Chicago, IL USA)

  • Much more on Interfaith Dialog
  • A section of my book for an article on interfaith dialogue:
    So much of visual literary genre, so little time to categorize it
  • Wednesday, July 11, 2007

    Great minds like a think: “Hey, vertical and horizontal! You ‘da mensch!”

    Googling for vertical and horizontal worship (religious / spiritual practices) I came across the following comment by a Rabbi and in a broader discussion on if “Abraham” and “Brahman” might be etymologically related:
    "... the first five commandments have to do with man’s relationship to God, while the second five govern man’s relationship to man. quoted and posted by SC&A @ Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

    see also:
  • SPIRITUAL GEOGRAPHY: The Horizontal and Vertical Communities of our Dual Citizenship
  • Vertical and tacit: Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective
  • Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
  • Basic duties of the Muslim… by Muzzamil Siddiqi [with reference to relationship with God and and people-to-people]
  • Saturday, July 07, 2007

    Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means

    by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the nation's foremost expert in the new science of networks,
    Linked: Networks from Biology to the World Wide Web
    Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, professor, physics, Notre Dame @ WGBH Forum Network




    Best comment @ Amazon:
    Cotton Candy--Lots of Air, Some Sugar, No Bibliography, June 3, 2002
    By Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States)
    "I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it is coherent, thoughtful, and tells a story about the emerging science of networks that anyone, who can read, can understand. This is a non-trivial accomplishment, so 4 stars.
    However, the book is also--being brilliantly designed to be understood by the lowest common denominator, an undergraduate--somewhat shallow and empty.... especially when compared with Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science", 1197 pages not counting the index, which is at the other extreme.
    Although there are good notes, there is no bibliography, and the author fails to use network methodology to illustrate and document the emerging literature on networks--called citation analysis, this would have been a superb appendix to the book that would have taken it up a notch in utility."

    From Publishers Weekly
    "Information, disease, knowledge and just about everything else is disseminated through a complex series of networks made up of interconnected hubs, argues University of Notre Dame physics professor Barabasi. These networks are replicated in every facet of human life: "There is a path between any two neurons in our brain, between any two companies in the world, between any two chemicals in our body. Nothing is excluded from this highly interconnected web of life." In accessible prose, Barabasi guides readers through the mathematical foundation of these networks. He shows how they operate on the Power Law, the notion that "a few large events carry most of the action." The Web, for example, is "dominated by a few very highly connected nodes, or hubs... such as Yahoo! or Amazon.com." Barabasi notes that "the fittest node will inevitably grow to become the biggest hub."

    see also:
  • Business : Your Network - What type is it?
    by Ellis Pratt (Technical Authors) on 16-Jul-05 10:39pm
  • Monday, July 02, 2007

    If You Build It . . .Ontario's Electronic Toll Highway


    [PS. This review is not from my desktop]
    "If you build It . . ." charts the history of Ontario’s Highway 407, the world’s most technologically advanced toll highway, from its development as a toll road in the early 1990s, through construction and operation by a crown corporation, to its subsequent privatization in 1999 by means of a 99-year lease and its performance thereafter..." continue reading


    See also:
  • A review at InterGovWorld Blogs
  • HARD LESSONS ON SELLING A PUBLIC HIGHWAY @ The Social Edge
    About the Authors: Chandran Mylvaganam & Sandford Borins
    To contact the authors: Chandran Mylvaganam: chandran@chartermi.net & Sandford Borins: borins@utsc.utoronto.ca.