Analysis and Opinion Books

Thinking like a genius: eight strategies used by the supercreative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison.: An article from: The Futurist
~ Michael Michalko

Like the author's two wonderful books on creativity, this article is very well written.

If you own &/or have read any of Michael Michalko's 'Thinkertoys' &/or 'Cracking Creativity', then I reckon there is no point for you to acquire &/or read this article. The things he talks about in this article can be found in his two books.

My rating of 5 here applies to the author's two books, both of which have already been reviewed by me on amazon website.

Yes, as this article says, the 9/11/2001 attacks came from out of the sky but not from out of the blue.

These attacks came less than 48 hours after the end of the infamous Durban Conference which Cooper and Brackman spend seven pages discussing here. The arbitrary and racist acts of the participants at this "Racism" conference are simply amazing.

As the authors explain, the NGO Forum at Durban adopted an "action program" which called for:

1) dismantling "Israeli colonies"

2) a "right of return" of Arabs to Israel

3) reinstitution of the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism

4) the repeal of Israel's Law of Return for Jews to Israel

5) preparation of "educational packets" by the UN describing "the Israeli racist apartheid system"

6) establishment of a special UN Special Committee on Israeli apartheid

7) development of UN programs to counter "propaganda" that portrays Levantine Arabs as violent terrorists

8) launching by the UN of an international anti-Israel apartheid movement

9) convening of a War Crimes tribunal to prosecute Israel's leaders

10) demanding that the international community completely isolate Israel

11) condemning all states supporting, aiding, and abetting Israel

Decent people tended to notice that the tenor of all this was strikingly similar to some of the worst antisemitic literature of the twentieth century.

In my opinion, the Durban Conference is, so far, the greatest diplomatic disaster of this century. It basically advocated a total overthrow of human rights. It mocked truth and justice. Let's hope that, at the very least, it will remain the worst diplomatic disaster of this century through 2100.

I was shocked by what happened at Durban. I recommend this article, and think that everyone ought to be aware of how bad it was so they can do something to prevent it being repeated.

As this article states, a large Israeli peace camp was willing to make major compromises. But this willingness did not lead even to a bogus peace agreement at Camp David or Taba, let alone a genuine one. Well, what went wrong?

In my opinion, there was no peace because the true Arab demand was to abolish Jewish rights in the Middle East. That demand could not be met simply by changing a few borders. It could be supported by making Israel weaker, or by getting some anti-Israeli lies accepted. But it would be sabotaged were Arabs to formally make peace with Israel and leave it on the map.

Some folks decided to say that whatever the reasons for the failure of the peace talks, it must have been Israel's fault. That is absurd, given that Israel was the party that needed peace, not the Arabs. This article summarizes what some of those who blame Israel say, and it rebuts them.

One of those Margalit quotes who refuses to blame the Arab side is Ron Pundak. Pundak laments that the Arabs were "'in a political-psychological state of utter despair.'" However, Margalit notes that the violence starting in September of 2000 took place after unprecedented Israeli offers to concede land, even it the Israeli capital of Jerusalem. That violence did not take place under the Netanyahu administration but under Barak's.

The author concludes that any genuine peace agreement has to maintain Israel's character as a Jewish state, "in accordance with the Wilsonian principle of respect for every nation's right to self-determination." In addition, "Israel's security needs must be given priority." And that the failure of Arabs to agree to this (rather than, say, the Jewish towns in the West Bank) has been the problem.

I'd go further than this. I think a peace agreement has to have some connection to truth, justice, and human rights. It has to ensure that it is consistent with all humans in the region having rights to life, liberty, and property. Still, I recommend this short article. It shows just how unreasonable the arguments are which blame Israel, not the Arabs, for the unprovoked Arab attacks on Israel in 2000.

While there's much in this article I disagree with, I think the author makes some good points.

First, he points out that "Israel was not created in sin." The Arab community is the one that rejected human rights for the Jews, not the other way around. The Arabs were the ones that went to war rather than accept a very favorable partition of the land, in 1937, in 1948, and in 1967. As Rosenblum says, "Israel has had to fight numerous defensive wars. The 1967 war was one such war."

Next, he warns us that there is a disinformation campaign to deny what the Israelis offered the Arabs at Camp David and Taba. There really was an offer of 94% of the West Bank and an additional 3% taken from Israeli territory. This was an even better offer than the Beilin-Abu Mazen proposal of 1995.

Rosenblum also says that "brutal honesty and total clarity are necessary if peace making is to prosper." I agree. And he does admit that there is not as yet a serious Levantine Arab partner for compromise. Compromise would mean having an Arab right of return only to a new Arab state and a Jewish right of return only to Israel, not an Arab right of return to both (and a Jewish right of return to neither).

Well, why is there no peace? The author's conclusion is that the reason for it is that the Arab side is being misled. As a whole, Arabs have no idea what was offered to them at Camp David or in the Clinton Plan. They are told that Israel offers only endless "occupation." And that the only alternative is an armed struggle, a struggle in which the Arabs will have justice and the whole world on their side. A struggle in which they'll achieve total victory! Well, if that's what most Arabs believe, it is no wonder that they reject peace.

What you will come to know in several years can be assimilated in little time with this book written by the master. Because most people are going towards electronic trading, they are devoid of the emotions that people have witnessed in the trading pits. Often times, things that are percieved in a convoluted way are at the human level pychologically simple, and that is what this book is taking you towards. Everything good and nothing bad.

this book starts out giving the basics of the futures markets. the meat of the book is about bullish consensus which i found very interesting. the author states this isn't a trading system but a supplement to trading systems.i would reccomend this book.

Ironically the low sales of the book (I inferred from the Amazon sales rank) tells the high value of it, if ones believes the contrary opinion theory, that conventional wisdom, usually the popular one, always put the majority/public to the wrong side.

The author had honestly and successfully delivered what one could grasp from the title: profiting by contrarion opinion (to be precise, bullish/bearish consensus) in futures markets. He explained why the futures market is a money game, why the minority always win, why conventional market wisdom (yeah, your analysts included) always fail...He did that so well. That's all I wanna say.

...

This book received a award of Best Book of 2002 on Ethnic and Racial Political Ideology and/or Political Theory, Organized Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics of the American Political Science Association. Book design: Heidi Haeuser.

Brown Tide Rising is not one of those social science books with a beat. No one will soon convert it to a hit song or into a blockbuster movie. Reading it is tedious without being overly complicated, but didn't all our mothers make us eat our broccoli? Some books need to be read even when we don't want to read them.

Santa Ana walks the reader through his analysis of metaphors utilized in the Los Angeles Times when reporting on three California propositions presented to the electorate in the 1990's. All had direct and potentially adverse repercussions for Latinos. This book carefully deconstructs the ways in which the parameters of the debates were constructed by looking at the language, and metaphors, used in newspaper accounts.

The power in Santa Ana's work lies in his explanation of the idea of public discourse. Public discourse is the imaginal limitation of perspectives. This narrowing of perspectives is accomplished by almost subliminal use of metaphor so that the legitimate contours of an issue are restricted by assumption and adoption of a specific cognitive framework. Because this framework is undeclared and public, it serves to significantly restrict public debate and provides an assumptive, public heuristic that easily substantiates bias, injustice, and discrimination.

Few in America continue to defend ethnic and racial pejoratives. Their demeaning use is without social acceptance or approval. Santa Ana clearly shows that the metaphors utilized in public discourse are substantially more pejorative than the most blatant verbal slur.

I hope that many will read this work. Awareness of the power inherent in the formation of public discourse, a power that is quite subtle and pervasive, can only be controlled by an intelligent and insightful public.

I had to read this book for a broadcasting class and it was a treat. "Ratings Analysis" deals with the behind the scenes business of broadcasting. The authors do a good job of presenting the information in an intellectual manner without putting you to sleep. This is actually one "text book" that I have enjoyed reading. The layout of the book is easy to read and to comprehend. It is divided into three parts and from there, the information is broken down even further. Although the authors have tried to present their case in as easy terms as possible, they never sound unintelligent or underestimate their readers' intelligence. One gets the message and the point without feeling that they are being talked down to. The book includes the latest statistics on audience research and data, which is hard to come by in the ever-changing business of broadcasting. I recommend this book for anyone interested in broadcasting or in pop culture, for that matter.

When I imagine a book that brings together statistics, research methodology, social science and modern history, I imagine an excellent antidote to insomnia. But surprisingly, not only did I stay awake through the entire book, I actually learned a few things.

The authors' history of commercial audience research was tight, offering a multitude of insights into where the ratings business might be headed in the Internet age. And the descriptions of research methodology was just right--enough to understand conceptually, without overdoing it.

Following closely on the heels of chapters about ratings used in programming and advertising, the chapter on ratings and financial analysis added almost no value. But the third section, Understanding Audience Behavior, offered some great discussions of specific measurements without burying the reader in too many details.

Overall, Ratings Analysis is the best book on the topic I've seen--a very thorough exploration of the subject without the passive, scholarly tone of too many textbooks.

The Complete Father Brown Stories is a misnomer for the title of this book of mystery stories by G.K. Chesterton. The book actually contains only stories from the first two books in the series: The Innocence of Father Brown, and The Wisdom of Father Brown. Stories from all four Father Brown mysteries (including The Incrudulity of Father Brown and The Secret of Father Brown) can be found in the Wordsworth Classics edition entitled Father Brown and apparantly not available through amazon.com. None of these titles has any particular significance beyond giving a different name to each set of stories. Be that as it may, The Complete Father Brown Stories does give a good sense of these mysteries.

Father Brown is much different from his more illustrious precedessor in British detective fiction, Sherlock Holmes. Brown is short, Holmes is tall, Brown is cherubic, Holmes is rod-thin. Brown is unassuming, Holmes is commanding. The tone of the stories themselves are different. The Father Brown mysteries are more light-hearted with a touch of humor, whereas Holmes is all seriousness.
But Father Brown and Holmes are alike in that they solve seemingly unsolvable crimes and difficult situations by throught processes rather than brute force. Father Brown ponders a case and suddenly has an "aha" moment and comes up with the solution.

The stories are in many ways more enjoyable than the Holmes mysteries. The first story, The Bule Cross, introduces the reader to Flambeau, a master thief turned detective, who shows up in many of the Father Brown stories. Flambeau bears some resemblance to Dr. Watson in that his skills are inferior to those of Father Brown, but he is treated more as an equal than is Dr. Watson. The Paradise of Thieves tells a marvelous tale in which things are never what they seem. The Honour of Israel Gow provides a unique definition of "honour." The Mistake of the Machine is a delightful tale in which there is no crime but shows that love can conquer all if one is clever enough.

All in all this book is delightful reading for mystery and non-mystery fans as well.

In the genre of the finely crafted English detective story, Chesterton's "Father Brown" stories are wholesome and stimulating detective tales surpassed by few others, except perhaps Doyle's legendary Sherlock Holmes. In contrast to the arrogant Holmes, however, Chesterton's protagonist is rather quiet, unassuming and modest, and makes an unlikely hero - a catholic priest. Father Brown's simple manner makes you quick to underestimate him, but the startling flashes of brilliance that spill from beneath his humble exterior soon make you realize that he has a firm grasp on the truth of a situation when you are as yet frustratingly distant from it. His perceptive one-liners make it evident that he has a clear insight into something that you see only as an apparently insoluble paradox.

Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox", and the Father Brown stories are a clear testimony of his fondness for paradox. Ultimately it is not just crimes that Brown must solve, but the paradox underlying them. In fact, not all stories are crime stories - among them are mysterious situations that do not involve criminals, and it is the perceptive insight of Father Brown that is needed make apparent contradictions comprehensible by his ruthless logic. Father Brown is not so much concerned with preserving life or bringing a criminal to justice as he is with unravelling the strands of an impossible paradox. In fact, Chesterton's conception of Father Brown is itself a paradox - both a cleric and a crime-fighter, a priest and a policeman, a representative of God's mercy and an instrument of God's justice, a proclaimer of forgiveness and a seeker of guilt, a listener in the confessional and a questioner in the interrogation.

How a priest could possibly play the role of a detective is explained in the first story, "The Blue Cross". Brown apprehends the confounded criminal Flambeau and explains that his knowledge of the criminal mind is due in part to what he's heard at the confessional booth "We can't help being priests. People come and tell us these things." (p.17) When Flambeau retorts "How in blazes do you know all these horrors?" Chesterton allows his humble priest to attribute his insight into human depravity to his experience as a priest: "Oh, by being a celibate simpleton, I suppose, he said. Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil." (p.18)

But both Chesterton and Father Brown have insight into much more than just human depravity - they are both champions of Catholic orthodoxy. This gives the Father Brown stories a depth not found in Brown's compatriot Holmes. In the course of Chesterton's stories, we are treated to philosophical discussions about catholic theology, such as the relationship between faith and reason. We do not merely meet an assortment of cobblers, blacksmiths, magistrates and generals, but atheists, legalists, secularists, pagans, Presbyterians, Puritans, Protestants and Catholics, all with varying and vying affections for superstition, naturalism, rationalism, scepticism, agnosticism, materialism, anarchism, nihilism, or cynicism. Along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton was one of the few writers in the twentieth century that made an important contribution to English literature that was stamped by Christian principles instead of the prevailing secularism of the day.

Readers who do not share Chesterton's theological convictions will not concur with all his insights, but they must concede that they are enjoyable, profound and stimulating. Somewhat surprising is the occasional use of blasphemous expletives such as "O my God", although generally from the mouths of others than Father Brown himself. And Brown does seem to degenerate more and more into a mouthpiece for Chesterton, with a sermonizing tone not present in the first stories.

But on the whole these are exemplary models of the English crime short story. The "Wordsworth Classics" edition contains a selection of 18 favorite stories, with contributions from all five of Chesterton's published Father Brown collections. Among my favorites are "The Blue Cross", where Father Brown follows a mysterious trail of clues and engages in some bizarre behaviour and fascinating theological discourse to apprehend Flambeau. "The Hammer of God" is also an outstanding whodunnit, as Brown solves the murder of a man who has been crushed by a huge hammer outside a church, seemingly the recipient of a divine thunderbolt of judgment from heaven. In the process Chesterton shares some thought-provoking insights, such as the memorable: "Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak." (p.91) Also unforgettable is "The Blast of the Book", which recounts the mysterious disappearance of five men whose only crime was to open a seemingly magical book. Father Brown is quick to unravel the paradox by explaining it as the work of an ingenious prankster.

Father Brown's tongue never fails to produce profound paradoxical gems such as "The point of the pin was that it was pointless." (p.273). And: "I never should have thought he would be so illogical as to die in order to avoid death." (p.264) It is Brown's unique perspective that allows him to see what others do not see. When his compatriots are awed at the eloquence of a magistrate's thundering sermon in "the Mirror of the Magistrate", Father Brown remarks: "I think the thing that struck me most was how different men look in their wigs. You talk about the prosecuting barrister being so tremendous. But I happened to see him take his wig off for a minute, and he really looks quite a different man. He's quite bald, for one thing." (p.222.) His words are frequently indicative of remarkable perception.

With the finely crafted prose, depth of theological insight, and brilliant combination of perception and paradox, Chesterton has created in Father Brown a noble and enduring character, a worthy successor to Sherlock Holmes and in some respects his equal and superior. The Father Brown stories are unquestionably worthy of their designation as classics.

If you enjoy Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, I think you will appreciate Father Brown. This edition is a great bargain-priced introduction.

Father Brown is the archetypal bumbler who is actually quite adept at finding out who committed the crime. He is the ordinary citizen who beats the police at their own game.

I got addicted to short stories about 35 years ago when I was at high school. I began reading them in the yellow-covered Gollancz science fiction short story collections. There is something to be said for a story that you can read at a sitting.

Chesterton's stories are now public domain. You can sample them online, but it is much nicer to have a book to browse away from the computer!

And this is such an unbeatable price, I am buying several copies to give as excellent, but inexpensive gifts.

Highly recommended.

This book was purchased based on the titles in the table of contents. However, this book is 277 pages and not the 800 pages it says. It is NOT the complete Father Brown Mysteries at all. A few of the stories like "The Flying Stars" and "The Absence of Mr.Glass" are not in this book. I am very disappointed since this was a Christmas gift.

The mystery story is exemplified by the Sherlock Holmes stories. Those who haven't read them will probably know much about them from the way they have (justly) been added to the public imagination. So a good way of describing the Father Brown stories is to compare the two, as the images of Holmes are probably known to all.

Holmes is a private detective. As such, his main objective is to solve the crime. Father Brown is (obviously) a Catholic priest. His objective is to serve God by trying to better society. These two goals say a lot about how they go about solving crimes. Unlike Holmes, Brown gets close to crimes by accident (yes, that's a big suspension-of-disbelief) - as they happen amongst the families and coworkers of friends. He does not seek to "catch" the crook for the police but rather to find out what happened. At times, he lets the criminal go - and unlike the grumpy Holmes his speech (full of philosophical discussions) and actions reek of a love of humanity.

Holmes solves by logical deduction. Brown solves by a combination of intiution and a deep insight into character and circumstance. As such, the crux of many of the stories is psychological. Others rely on assumptions that people make about, say, people subservient to them. The Brown stories are therefore great satires of the early 20th century London society.

This edition has 18 stories - a quite eclectic collection and very recommended if you haven't encountered Brown before. The first one (the Blue Cross) introduces him marvelously as one of the great detectives.

Jerry Layne Rogers, Sr. -- wrongfully convicted and innocent. From 1989 - 1992, I was his investigator at CCR [The Office of Capital Collateral Representative, a state agency representing death-sentenced persons].

Rogers' case consisted in 1992 of at least 80 boxes of documents, from court files, prosecutor and law enforcement files, trial and evidentiary hearing transcripts, etc. Rogers's case was the largest and most complicated that CCR has ever represented that I am aware of.

The second largest and most complicated was that of Gerald Stano, whose lead attorney during most of the development of his case was Mark E. Olive.

In 1995, Rogers began receiving pro bono representation from the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington and Burling. The result was an unanimous Florida Supreme Court (FSC) 26 page opinion ordering a new trial in Rogers' case due primarily to prosecutorial misconduct, in particular Brady v. Maryland violations.

To read the opinion, go to the FSC website, then at "Public Information", to the recent opinions, to the year 2001, then toward the bottom at February 15, 2001, one will find the FSC opinion.

During the summer of 2002, Rogers was re-convicted, however sentenced to life upon the jury recommendation. Now twice Rogers has been wrongfully convicted.

In 2004, the Florida 5th District Court of Appeal denied relief. The FSC declined to accept jurisdiction and thus denied the petition for review.

His case is pending Federal review.




For those interested in reading the narrowly decided by four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to the FSC website, then go to the recent opinions, then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases:

Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002

Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001


Additionally, the issue in the below cases is DNA testing that proves that Roy Swafford did not rape Brenda Rucker:

Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. SC03.931 and SC03.1153



Please also read other books about Florida's death row by David von Drehle and Michael Mello - also availabe at Amazon.

Brehm's book is an excellent treatment of the problem of survey non-response. It is a well-known fact that in academic surveys of public opinion and attitudes that it is getting increasingly difficult to get people to agree to spend even a few minutes on the phone answering any type of survey questions. There is strong reason to believe that this problem is even worse for non-academic surveys, since they have less incentive to pursue possible survey respondents. Brehm develops a theoretical framework in his book which allows for a clear and coherent understanding of why it is people don't agree to answer surveys. He performs a number of tests of his framework, and even delves into the politically-sensitive question of whether or not survey non-response influences the reported results of surveys. While the effects he demonstrates in this latter analyis aren't horribly strong, they are strong enough (in the context of an academic survey) that they clearly call into question the quality of non-academic survey results.