Blog Smith

Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Rand vs. Illegal Records Collection

Rand

Slow Motion Weapons

Fort Bragg

Saturday, May 30, 2015

No Mo' Alimony

No Mo

Friday, May 29, 2015

Engineer Claims Aliens are Real

Engineer

Free Speech Mohammed

Free Speech

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Man Annoys Lioness at Work

Lioness

Unit 5

11.127x Unit 5 is now live! In this unit, we’re exploring assessment and classroom integration. We’ll hear how several game developers created support materials to help teachers use their games in an educational environment. We’ll hear from an organization working to build a community of educators around game-based learning. We’ll discuss assessment and consider how games assess players and the potential for using games to measure student learning. You’ll develop an integration or assessment plan for your game and provide feedback. Don’t forget that you can still join a survey-based working group and/or affinity group. We’re also thrilled to see participants meeting in the forum and then collaborating on projects.

http://youtu.be/jtlKYjbi-r0


Welcome to Unit 5!
In this unit, we'll talk about integrating learning games into the classroom and also consider how games can be used as assessment tools. 
  • Integrating Games: Case Studies: Scot Osterweil (with Prof. Eric Klopfer), Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, and Joel Levin discuss their experiences developing support material and helping teachers to use their games in the classroom. Jennifer Groff and Peter Stidwill talk about their work creating a community of educators around game-based learning. 
  • Asssessement & Games: Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Prof. James Paul Gee about assessment and they explore how games provide feedback to learners.  
  • Choice-Based Assessment: Prof. Dan Schwartz explains choice-based assessment to Prof. Eric Klopfer and considers how video games can be used as assessment tools to improve teaching and learning. 
We will be reading chapters from the Mind/Shift Guide to Digital Games + Learning. Those who wish to dive deeper can read excerpts from Stealth Assessment: Measuring and Supporting Learning in Video Games by Valerie Shute and Matthew Ventura. 

Appearances by: Scot Osterweil, Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, Jennifer Groff, Peter Stidwill, Joel Levin, James Paul Gee, Dan Schwartz
http://youtu.be/jtlKYjbi-r0
Prof. Eric Klopfer and Scot Osterweil return to Lure of the Labyrinth. Scot explains the vision for integrating Lure of the Labyrinth into the classroom and also discusses challenges faced by the project team. How will a teacher learn how to play your game? Scot mentions that it would have been helpful to have a "game-like activity" for the teacher to get aquainted with the game. Consider engaging ways you could help teachers and facilitators learn how to play your game. 





http://youtu.be/R___bVy92c4

Louisa Rosenheck, a research manager at MIT's Education Arcade, and Susannah Gordon-Messer, an education content manager at MIT's Education Arcade, are back to talk about The Radix Endeavor, specifically about how the team supported teacher use of the game. They reflect on how they responded to teacher input and figured out what resources were needed. They mention the importance and prominence of state standards in the minds of teachers. You may want to consider standards/guidelines that are in place in the environment where your game will be used. In this video, we briefly show some teacher resources created by Louisa and Susannah. If you want to see more, go here. You'll have to click on a quest (at the bottom) to see examples of connecting questions.

https://www.radixendeavor.org/resources/market-market

http://youtu.be/R___bVy92c4

Jennifer Groff, Executive Producer, and Peter Stidwill, Senior Producer, of Playful Learning, discuss their efforts to create a community of teachers interested in and passionate about using games for learning. They reflect on the wrap-around support that teachers need in order to implement games, the feedback they hear most frequently from teachers, and its implications for game designers and developers. Take note of their advice for game designers towards the end of the video (at 15:11).

http://playfullearning.com

http://youtu.be/pSghaxzLTQc

Joel Levin of MinecraftEdu talks about his experience building in supports for teachers to facilitate classroom use of Minecraft. Are there game mechanisms that will help teachers use your game in a learning environment? While you may not be able to implement them all right now, it is worth considering.

http://youtu.be/l9qRrOSI1MM

Let's take a look at teacher support for learning games. Take a look at the examples below or find your own. What feature or aspect of these guides do you find to be especially helpful for teachers working to integrate a game in their class? Why? iCivics Teach Teach with Portals - Portal & Portal 2 were not explicitly designed to be educational. MinecraftEdu Resources Lure of the Labyrinth for Educators Share your thoughts in the forum so you learn from these practices for your project.

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Prof. James Paul Gee at Arizona State University about assessment in schools. They discuss what it is, what it could be, and give examples of how it is handled in games. Think about how your game measures progress and provides feedback. Are there improvements you could make that would allow learners and teachers to better track and understand accomplishments?

http://youtu.be/MZxIVHCE8LA

Eric and Prof. Gee continue their conversation about assessment, explaining why and how games can fit productively in the context of a learning environment. Prof. Gee asserts that we can learn so much about the core principles of learning and teaching from video games.

http://youtu.be/lmezIMTI5v0

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Prof. Dan Schwartz, Stanford University, about his work on choice-based assessment and its implications for how we teach, learn, and assess. Prof. Schwartz recognizes that video games are great at giving players compelling experiences and that this can be leveraged to prepare students to learn. He describes his reboot of Space Invaders, which was designed to help students learn statistics (9:09 in the video).

http://youtu.be/hwPuC5Ik5sM

Eric continues his conversation with Prof. Schwartz, focusing on how choice-based assessment can be used to understand students' thinking for the purpose of preparing them to make their own good decisions about their learning. One project he describes allows students to practice inquiry, creative thinking, and presentation skills, while making their decisions available to mentors.

http://youtu.be/OVN2ghNpK4o

http://youtu.be/OVN2ghNpK4o

Unit 5 Reading INTEGRATING GAMES Read the chapters "How to Choose a Digital Learning Game," "Overcoming Obstacles for Using Digital Games in the Classroom," and "How Teachers Are Using Games in the Classroom" (pgs. 19-40). We chose this reading to expand your understanding of factors teachers consider when selecting a digital game and of obstacles they may face. Shapiro, Jordan, et. al. 2014. Mind/Shift Guide to Digital Games + Learning. Joan Ganz Cooney Center/KQED.

http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/news/MindShift-GuidetoDigitalGamesandLearning.pdf

DIVE DEEPER Read "Digital Games, Assessment, and Learning" (pgs. 17-29). Shute, Valerie and Matthew Ventura. 2013. Stealth Assessment: Measuring and Supporting Learning in Video Games. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

http://myweb.fsu.edu/vshute/pdf/Stealth_Assessment.pdf

http://youtu.be/l7OCJjShOzU

In this unit, we talked about integrating games into the classroom, with a focus on assessment as a key opportunity to provide value to learners and educators. For this assignment then, focus on one of two options. You may either: Develop an integration plan - consider how you might integrate your game into your targeted environment? Are you going to create materials to accompany it? Would you conduct workshops to help train instructors on how to use your game? Maybe a series of videos? Explain (in any format you wish) how you'll integrate your game into the target learning environment you have chosen. Include accompanying materials and/or describe them. Develop an assessment plan for one or more of the learning objectives for your game. How might you help learners and mentors/teachers understand accomplishments in the game? How can you give the right just-in-time feedback to learners or their guides? In order to answer that question, really consider what your game is asking people to do, and whether you could say anything about their learning based on how they engage with the game. Explain to the course staff and students (in any format you wish) how you will help learners and teachers understand accomplishments/progress in the game. Of course, if you wish to do both, you may, but we would prefer that you focus on one and do a thorough job. We’re in the final weeks of the course and we understand it may be hard to address all of the questions we've asked here. Ultimately, this work is for your learning and development, so do what will serve you and your project best. Peer Feedback Guidelines Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: In your opinion, does the participant's integration or assessment plan seem appropriate considering the targeted group and environment? Do you have any recommendations for improving the plan? How has the participant's plan influenced your own thinking?

Monday, May 25, 2015

Bonhoeffer Author on Nazi Parallels

Bonhoeffer Author on Nazi Parallels

Houston Nazis

Memorial Day, 2015

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Top 5 Guns

Top

Friday, May 22, 2015

Smart and Dumb Music

Music

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Socialist Attacks with Spittle

Spittle

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Monday, May 18, 2015

SEPTA Enforces Sharia Law

Philly buses

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Race-baiting Michelle

Moochelle

Home Movie and Anti-Communist Educational Film

The joys of showing 8mm home movies (1957 14 #05B Sh t P1150373 xvid short drama2)

Watch an insane 1970s anti Communist educational film

http://youtu.be/JcHFEO0024A

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

White Privilege

White

Gay Government Persecuting Christians

Gay

FBI Warns of Train Derailment Threat

Bullet Train

FBI
Yameen Allworld,

Birth nameBinyameen Friedberg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3079146/Amtrak-train-crash-video-shows-passengers-crawling-safety.html

Projectile

OBAMA RIPS FOX: ‘WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO CHANGE HOW THE MEDIA REPORTS’

I think that the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, don’t want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction. And look, it’s still being propagated. I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant venue. They will find folks who make me mad. I don’t know where they find them. They’re all like, “I don’t want to work. I just want a free Obama Phone, or whatever.” And that becomes an entire narrative that gets worked up. And very rarely do you hear an interview of a waitress, which is much more typical — who is raising a couple of kids and doing everything right but still can’t pay the bills.
And so, if we’re going to change how 
 and
 think, we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues, and how people’s impressions of what it’s like to struggle in this economy looks like. And how budgets connect to that. And that’s a hard process because that requires a much broader conversation than typically we have on the nightly news.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Ben Shapiro: The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority

Many Muslims want to kill non-believers.

Unit 4

11.127x Unit 4 is now live! For this two week unit, we’ll focus on testing and iteration. The development of the game The Radix Endeavor will serve as a case study and we’ll talk with several team members about their experiences prototyping and testing. We’ll learn about design-based research (DBR) and take a closer look at one project applying it. You’ll work on testing your game and you’ll provide feedback to your classmates. The activity break is especially important for this unit; submit your questions for playtesting and read other posts. After a round of testing, you’ll likely iterate your game. Consider getting some help from your working group (survey-based) and/or affinity group.
Two bonus videos from 11.126x have been released to provide participants with additional background regarding prototying and playtesting. Check out Philip Tan’s video about prototyping in the Unit 3 Overview and Sara Verrilli’s video about playtesting in the Unit 4 Overview. 
Thank you for joining us for the Hangout on Air on Wednesday, April 29! We were impressed with your work and we enjoyed critiquing your prototypes. If you missed this live event, you can access the recording here. If you’d prefer to watch it on Youtube, go here
The course staff is looking forward to reading about your experiences testing and iterating. See you in the Forums!

After reviewing activity in the forum, course staff thought it would be helpful to include some additional content regarding prototyping. Research Scientist Philip Tan from the MIT Game Lab introduces the concept of prototyping, explains what it is, and talks about why prototyping is an important skill in developing games.
This video originally appeared in 11.126x: Introduction to Game Design.

Tan


http://youtu.be/Oqksxk56dlM
Welcome to Unit 4! Now that we have entered the later stages of game development, it's time to focus on two challenging aspects of the process - testing and iteration. Since testing and iteration is necessary to get the game "right," we'll be spending two weeks on this unit. Radix: Iterative Design: In this case study, Louisa Rosenheck and Susannah Gordon-Messer talk about their work developing and iterating The Radix Endeavor. They show us the game and offer a true behind-the-scenes perspective. Radix: Digital Prototyping: In the continuation of our look at The Radix Endeavor, Prof. Eric Klopfer and Colin Greenhill discuss the digital prototyping process from the developer's point of view. Design-Based Research: Prof. Eric Klopfer explains design-based research. Prof. Eric Klopfer, Prof. Matthew Berland and Devon Klompmaker discuss the creation of Makescape (now Oztoc) as an example. We will be reading the "11.127x Guide to Playtesting" and Louisa Rosenheck's "Six Strategies to Make the Most of Student Playtesting." Those who wish to dive deeper can read the Edutechwiki entry on design-based research. BONUS: Sara Verrilli talks about playtesting in this video from 11.126x (included in this section). The course staff thought this video would be helpful for a general overview of playtesting. Appearances by: Sara Verrilli, Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, Colin Greenhill, Matthew Berland and Devon Klompmaker
http://youtu.be/Oqksxk56dlM
After this unit was completed, the course staff thought the addition of this video would be helpful to participants. Sara Verrilli, Development Director at the MIT Game Lab, talks about testing games, the different types of testing, and when you should use each of them. This video originally appeared in 11.126x: Introduction to Game Design.
http://youtu.be/Zkz73q4wmpI

Louisa Rosenheck, a research manager at MIT's Education Arcade, and Susannah Gordon-Messer, an education content manager at MIT's Education Arcade, discuss their work iteratively designing, prototyping, and testing The Radix Endeavor. In this segment, they reflect on how prototyping and playtesting contributed to the development of the marketplace quest. The Radix Endeavor, an online multi-player game for high school math and biology, is currently being tested in a large-scale pilot involving teachers and students.

http://youtu.be/tf5TzG79JB4

Louisa and Susannah continue their conversation, walking us through the transition from paper to digital prototypes. They explain how they realized that in-game activity could support certain learning components, but that others might be better served through complementary classroom activities and teacher support. Your learning game could also have complementary activities. We'll talk more about integration in Unit 5, but you may want to start thinking about it.

http://youtu.be/Z6Btdq2uPAk

Louisa and Susannah discuss developing the quests in the final version of the game. They consider how the protoyping and testing phases shaped the final design and influenced their thinking regarding game levels and scaffolding. Does your learning game have levels? Before you leave this section, reflect on your levels. Consider the difficulty, the flow, etc.

http://youtu.be/ZPEsLoL4YV8

When you test your game, you'll want to ask the players some questions so you can learn about their experience. For this activity break, write some questions you'd like to ask playtesters. Consider what questions should be asked and also when you should ask them (Before game play? During? After?). Here are a couple to consider incorporating into your protocol: What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? These questions may look very general to you. You'll want to follow up with additional questions regarding specifics and details. These additional questions will arise naturally out of the playtest experience itself, though you may want to consider in advance the types of questions you're likely to get. Example: If a playtester says that Level 2 was especially challenging because of the instructions, you'll want to find out more. What about the instructions was challenging? You'll notice there are no questions about learning in this list. Think about how you'd like to talk to your playtesters about educational content in the game. What questions will help you find out if playtesters are learning? The list of questions above is adapted and inspired by the Playtester Feedback Worksheet created by Gamestar Mechanic. You may also want to check out the related content.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZWxpbmVtZWRpYS5jb218Z3NtbGVhcm5pbmdndWlkZXxneDo3YjMxNTM0OGRiZmM1NzE5

https://gamestarmechanic.com

https://sites.google.com/a/elinemedia.com/gsmlearningguide/game-design-101/lesson-5-playtest-and-iterate

Even if you don't always share your thoughts for activity breaks, please consider doing so this time. Other course participants may want to reflect on and use the questions you come up with.

What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? How does the game compare to other Humanities, history, or general education classes you have taken? Which is more engaging: standard classes or game-based classes? In which type of class–standard or game-based–are you more active? Which game would you rather participate in based on your work and family schedule?

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Colin Greenhill, who works as a software developer at MIT's Education Arcade, about his experience communicating with the design team and his work iteratively creating and refining digital prototypes for The Radix Endeavor.

http://youtu.be/ZPEsLoL4YV8

Eric and Colin continue their conversation and take a closer look at the geometry quest area. Colin highlights the importance of figuring out which interface elements are helpful and useful to the player. Think about your game's interface as you test and iterate this week.

http://youtu.be/UBZfoVvI8R0

http://youtu.be/z-jzwtSmFys

Unit 4 Reading PLAYTESTING 11.127x Guide to Playtesting (posted in this section) Rosenheck, Louisa. 2015. "Six Strategies to Make the Most of Student Playtesting" Gamesandlearning.org (Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop).

http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2015/02/16/six-strategies-to-make-the-most-of-student-playtesting/

DIVE DEEPER Edutechwiki. "Design-Based Research." Hosted by TECFA at the University of Geneva.

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Design-based_research

11.127x Guide to Playtesting How do you find out if your learning game works the way you expect and gives players the experience you want? Playtesting! Use your observations and tester feedback to make your game even better. WHO DO I TEST WITH? Test your game by playing yourself. Do this before you engage any outside testers. Try to view the game from the perspective of a player rather than as a designer/developer. Make necessary changes before you engage playtesters. Allow people you know to try your game. While this audience may not be as objective, you may feel more comfortable testing your game with this group first. You can also fine-tune playtesting questions. This may mean seeking out participants who have seen your past prototypes or who are in your affinity group or survey-based working group. Test with people who do not know you or your game. This group can give you objective feedback. Maybe you can approach 11.127 participants who you have not engaged with previously. Test with your target audience. This may not be possible for all participants. Feedback from this group will be especially relevant. HOW TO CONDUCT A BASIC PLAYTEST Consider what you hope to get out of playtesting sessions. Make sure your questions for the tester will help you iterate effectively and improve the game. For in-person tests, decide if you will test one-on-one, in groups, etc. Provide the information your tester will need to access and play the game. Don’t tell the tester about all of your experiences developing the game or why you think it can help people learn. You want to get a fresh perspective. Ask the playtester any questions you’ve created for the pre-gameplay phase. It’s time to play the game! Ideally, watch your tester play the game and write down your observations. You may notice interesting body language, etc. You may also want your tester to think aloud and explain why they are making certain choices. If that’s not possible, consider asking your tester to write down some observations as they play. Ask post-game questions and discuss the overall game experience. Use the questions you developed for the activity break and also any great questions you might have noticed in the forum. Bibliography: Fullerton, Tracy. 2014. “Playtesting.” In Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 248-271. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.

http://youtu.be/z-jzwtSmFys

It's time to test your game! Get your prototypes into some stable, presentable form, and start looking for playtesters in the real world. You can ask friends and family to play, but the best feedback you can get will be from your target audience. It can be challenging to get into certain kinds learning environments to test a prototype (American schools, for instance), but if you find children of the right age through friends and family, do your best to get your game in front of them. If you can’t get into an afterschool program, perhaps you can get some time with someone who works in an afterschool program and you can ask them to play your game and/or talk to you about how they would use your game in their program. Also, try to make changes to your game based on the feedback from others and then get your game back out there! This type of iterative game design is done by game designers and developers at every level. It is extremely rare that your game is going to come out of your head perfectly. It is much more likely that it is going to take watching a lot of other people playing your game and asking them about their experience to get your game into a good place. If you are working with a team, it may be a good idea to standardize your questions somewhat if you are playtesting with groups in different towns, states, countries etc… This will make sure everyone on the team’s questions are getting answered, and it will make sure that the same type of feedback is coming back to your team. Your deliverable should be publicly viewable and include the following: A written reflection on your experiences testing your game - Did things turn out differently than you expected? Would you test your game the same way in the future? An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations A brief explanation and list of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions Guidance for Peer Feedback Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: Comment on how the participant responded to lessons learned from testing. Do you have any recommendations regarding how the participant can test and iterate more effectively? How did the participant's experience testing and iterating influence your own thinking?

Unit 4 Deliverable

A written reflection on your experiences testing your game - Did things turn out differently than you expected?

Yes, things turned out differently than what I expected. My first tester was very enthusiastic, was very experienced with the game Civilization, and offered to work on a scenario. The second tester was more ambivalent and had no experience with the game but did make an attempt to learn. My third tester had no experience whatsoever with gaming but really enjoyed the testing process. The same tester had expressed a dissatisfaction with the companion course to mine that I had not taught. Their experience confirmed the idea that if a student did not like the standard pedagogical approach the game could be very stimulating. The last tester was a very experienced gamer but was unfamiliar with Civilization. As a result, it was necessary to walk them through the testing process.

In summary, the previous experience or lack of experience with gaming did not determine how the tester reacted to my iteration process. Some experienced players really embraced the idea or some still struggled with it. On the other hand, those with little to no experience did really enjoy the new approach. I would have anticipated previous to the testing that the more experienced gamers would more readily embrace the new approach and the less experienced gamers would struggle.

Would you test your game the same way in the future?

The next time around I am better prepared with the readings and experience in this course to test in a more effective manner.

An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations

I took into consideration the feedback that I received. The issue with a scenario is how accurate does it need to be based on the learning objectives of a regular course. For example, the scenario is limited because I do not have Italy in the course; does it need to account for every, or only some of the key elements of the Renaissance. Or, do I favor the realistic nature of gameplay as opposed to the actual events of the past?

A brief explanation and list of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with

1. Very experienced gamer

2. No experience with Civilization but a fair amount of gaming

3. No gaming experience

4. Very experienced gamer.

The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions

What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? How does the game compare to other Humanities, history, or general education classes you have taken? Which is more engaging: standard classes or game-based classes? In which type of class–standard or game-based–are you more active? Which game would you rather participate in based on your work and family schedule?

Because of my particular audience I asked questions that would address the key issues that they are concerned with. How does gaming technology contribute to the students being more active and engaged? I also wanted to compare their experience with gaming as opposed to traditional pedagogy.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Boston University Against White People

Boston University

How Islamists Prosper in the West

Survive

Krauthammer: Saudi Loud Statement

Loud Statement

Barbara Seaman

Seaman

Seaman and the Catholic Church

PBS The American Experience

Isis He was also a practicing Catholic who found himself in the spotlight of controversy ... he took these attacks far more personally than those from the Catholic Church. ... and health feminist Barbara Seaman catapulted the controversy onto center ... www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/652100

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/652100?uid=3739808&uid=2460338175&uid=2460337935&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=83&uid=63&uid=3739256&sid=21104366538991

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Court Rules Against NSA's Section 215

215

Peter Thiel, PayPal, Palantir Technologies, Zero to One



Peter Thiel on what works at work (from the Washington Post)

Peter Thiel is often described in techno-hyphenated words: Techno-philosopher. Techno-libertarian. Techno-utopian. Technology, after all, is how he first made his name and built his billions. Yet his reach has since stretched beyond that, with his political opinions now getting him nearly as much notice as his tech investments.
Thiel, 46, was born in West Germany and moved to California at age 10. He was the first outsider to invest in Facebook ($500,000 for a 10 percent stake), the co-founder and chief executive of PayPal, and now serves as chairman and co-founder of data-analytics company Palantir Technologies. He’s also the author of Zero to One, a manifesto on how to create American progress.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can also listen to the conversation with Thiel in the latest episode of our new On Leadership podcast. (You can listen on the Post's site or on iTunes.)
Q. What’s a question you always hope you’ll be asked in interviews, but no one ever seems to ask you?
A. There are all these questions about what’s working in Silicon Valley today, what’s not working, that I think are really interesting. There’s something about the software businesses built in the last 30, 40 years that works incredibly well for actually capturing value. And I think it’s interesting to explore how unusual that is relative to many other areas of technology, because there are so many innovations that were good for society but the people who came up with them ended up with very little. The Wright brothers built the first airplane—they didn’t make any money on that.
Q. So is this something we’ve cracked the code on now?
A. I don’t know if we’ve really cracked the code. Innovation is a very strange thing in general, because it’s so hard to know what to learn about it or how to study it. Every moment in the history of business, in the history of technology, happens only once. And so there’s no formula.
A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas.
Q. Some people outside Silicon Valley see it as a place that is not really in touch with the rest of the country. Does that ring true to you in any way?
A. There is a big disconnect, because you have this sense of stagnation and slow growth in many other places, and you have this incredible boom in Silicon Valley.
Also, I do not think we live in a scientific and technological age, as a society. I think most people do not like science and technology. They’re scared of it. All you have to do is watch science-fiction movies — they all show technology that doesn’t work, or they’re dystopian. I watched "Gravity" last year, and it’s like you’re so glad to be back on a muddy island. You never want to go into outer space.
There’s something about our society that’s incredibly conservative, in the sense of not wanting things to change. So I think there’s a cultural disconnect with Silicon Valley that’s pretty big.
Q. You’ve written that you doubt the efficacy of MBA programs to prepare future business leaders. What would an effective MBA program look like?
A. The question is, what substance of business are you focused on? The conceit of the MBA is that you don’t need to have any substance at all. It’s just this management science, and you can apply that equally well in a software company or an oil drilling company or a fashion company or a rocket company. That’s the bias I’d want us to cut against. So for the degree, people would learn substantive things and then on the side you’d pick up some business skills. But you wouldn’t treat the business degree as the central thing.
I think one challenge a lot of the business schools have is they end up attracting students who are very extroverted and have very low conviction, and they put them in this hot house environment for a few years — at the end of which, a large number of people go into whatever was the last trendy thing to do. They’ve done studies at Harvard Business School where they’ve found that the largest cohort always went into the wrong field. So in 1989, they all went to work for Michael Milken, a year or two before he went to jail. They were never interested in Silicon Valley except for 1999, 2000. The last decade their interest was housing and private equity.
So there is something about the way in which business school is decoupled from anything really substantive that I’d want to rethink.
Q. Even though you don’t agree with teaching management in and of itself, were there any lessons you learned as CEO that you would share with others?
A. One is that competition is overrated. People should try to do unique things. As a business, you want to have a monopoly, not be in a company where you have cutthroat competition. Google is a better business than opening a restaurant, for example.
The internal management application of this is that it’s always a bad idea to set one’s employees too much against one another. You want to find ways to differentiate people’s roles. Frame it this way: If you were a sociopathic boss who wanted to create trouble for your employees, the formula you would follow would be to tell two people to do the exact same thing. That’s a guaranteed formula for creating conflict. If you’re not a sociopath, you want to be very careful to avoid this.
We have this ideological understanding of conflict, where we say it happens when people want different things. But I think it actually happens when people want the same thing — the same promotion, recognition for doing the same job well, the same toy as a kid.
One of the rough rules I had at PayPal was that people were responsible for one primary thing. I wanted to be really clear that the job descriptions for everybody were different, so you would not have this endemic conflict. I think that was very powerful.
You still end up having conflicts in all these startups because the roles are very fluid and things change a lot, but it’s something you want to really avoid. For a lot of these businesses, the most common cause of failure is that they blow up internally when people don’t get along.
An executive once told me she thought that if you had three good friends at your office then you’d never leave. If you had no good friends, you were a very at-risk employee. It’s a really good question: How do you build a company culture where people have strong friendships with at least a few people at work? That’s healthier than having a super professional approach where there’s this low-level chronic dislike everybody has of everybody else, and it somehow functions but people are unhappy — which I think is true of a lot of law firms or investment banks.
Q. Did you figure out any good ways to support that fostering of friendships? Aside from some of things we immediately associate with Silicon Valley companies, like ping-pong tables and free food.
A. You try to hire people you think you could become friends with. I’m personally very skeptical of the ping-pong tables and all these corporate perks. I think the company culture is always best organized around the mission of what the company does.
Q. What did you find the hardest part of being CEO?
A. As CEO, you’re somehow both the total insider and the total outsider at the same time. In some ways you’re at the center of the organization. In other contexts, you’re like the last person to know anything.
Q. What’s your basic philosophy on how to effect change in a society?
A. I’m biased to the model that change happens in small groups, in small organizations. I’m skeptical of solo efforts, and I’m skeptical of mass movements. This is why I like the Silicon Valley startup, or the Constitutional Convention of the United States. You have a small group of people who come together, united by a purpose.
In theory, everything should be solved within large existing organizations — governments, large companies, large nonprofits. They have more resources, they have longer time horizons. Yet there’s always a need to start small new organizations, because the politics in these large organizations slow things down too much.
Q. What’s a trait you possess that you really value?
A. I’ve built some great friendships over the years with people I’ve worked with. And I think that’s a really important part of what enables one to be successful in the long run in our society. There are ways people can succeed without doing that, but I think it’s very underrated. My friend Reid Hoffman always says it’s hard to know what the meaning of life is, but he thinks it has something to do with the people you spend time with.
Q. What about the flip side? Is there anything you’ve had to work at over the years, some trait you’ve had to tweak?
A. There are all these things that you never know whether they’re features or bugs—in a company or organization, or even in a personal trait. I’m interested in lots of different things. I’m interested in business but also economics and philosophy and literature. I always like to rationalize that as helping me think about things better, or that these things are interdisciplinary. But maybe it’s just being a dilettante or procrastinating and not ever really getting focused.
Q. When you were young you were a U.S.-rated chess master. Has chess influenced your strategic thinking outside of the game?
A. When I was in high school, one of the intermediate learnings in chess is that you should always have a plan. Even having a bad plan is better than no plan at all. I think something like that is true in a lot of business contexts, where even a bad plan is better than randomly going from day to day. But I suspect in general it’s a mistake to try to say that life is too much like chess. It’s a lot more complicated.
Q. Who has had the biggest impact on shaping you?
A. I grew up in this very middle-class context where there was sort of this mindset that if you worked hard, you could get ahead. That was a sensibility that I powerfully picked up from my parents.
Q. What’s it like to be a billionaire?
A. Well, you have a lot of money, and there are sort of good things and bad things that go with that. You certainly have a lot more freedom. There are fewer financial worries. On the other hand, one of the strange dynamics with extreme wealth is you always have these questions — are people interested in talking to you because of your money? — and all this second-guessing that can happen to varying degrees. I try not to worry about that stuff too much. My experience was not that different from many people in Silicon Valley, where it happened virtually overnight. It was this very fast and very strange change.
Q. What’s your concept of what it will mean to have lived your life well?
A. People always say you should live every day as though it's your last. I sort of have taken the opposite tack, where I think you should live every day as though it's going to go on forever. You should treat people like you're going to see them again in the future. You should start working on projects that may take a long time. And so I want to live every day as though it's going to go on forever.
Q. What’s your best piece of advice?
A. Always prioritize the substance of what you're doing. Don't get caught up in the status, the prestige games. They're endlessly dazzling, and they're always endlessly disappointing.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Iranians Scare Americans in the Gulf of Aden

Obama Bows

Games for Technology and Education

Gamification Design (ended, archived)
https://iversity.org/courses/gamification-design
Video Games and Learning (ended, archived)
https://www.coursera.org/course/videogameslearning
Gamification (2nd iteration in January, 2015)
https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification
Game design for learning (asynchronous)
http://academy.nmc.org/course/crash-course-on-gaming-and-learning/

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Anti-Black Obama

Anti-black

Surveillance in Baltimore

Surveillance

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Two Islamists Dead in Attempt to Stop Free Speech, Garland, Geller

Judge Pirro

Why Won't Pamela Geller Shut Up?

Bill Maher

SNL: Draw Mo

Geller vs. Juan Williams

Dead Islamists Tell No Tales

One Brave Texan Cop Results in Two Dead Islamists

Suspected IED Near Texas Border

Islamist Describes Weapon of Mosque

Megyn Kelly and 1st Amendment Expert

British Islamist Advocates Death Under Sharia for Geller

Geller: No Government Protection After Islamist Attack

Megyn Kelly vs. Richard Fowler

Anti-free speech mosque to hold Islamist's funeral.

An unidentified “senior law enforcement official” tells the New York Times that, while the FBI had been aware of Garland, Texas jihadist attacker Elton Simpson for nearly a decade, they did not follow his violent, pro-jihad tweets as closely as they could have because “there are so many like him” that the agency is overwhelmed.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/05/06/official-fbi-overlooked-texas-shooters-violent-tweets-because-there-are-so-many-like-him/

More anti-jihad conferences and a selection of anti-jihad cartoons.
Geller on Fox and Friends
Geller and Imam on Hannity
Geller and the First Amendment
Fox News Seeks to Restrict Free Speech
Dershowitz vs. Islamists
Islamic State threatens Pamela Geller.
CNN promotes Sharia over Garland, Geller event.
Islamists
Killing Free Speech
Second shooter finally identified. Both Islamists have been identified for years by the FBI.
"Good" Islamist Shooter
Tom Trento

Short Trento vid


This event follows the Stand With the Prophet conference in January.

Watter's World













Ian Hunter and the Crybabies, Everybody's A Fool

Ian Hunter

Sold Out Draw Muhammad Day

Moohammad

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Friday, May 1, 2015

Satan's Hallow

Hell

MTA Bans Free Speech

Speech

Total Pageviews

Popular Posts

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed/Site Meter

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map

Where From?

site statistics

Search This Blog

Reading since summer 2006 (some of the classics are re-reads): including magazine subscriptions

  • Abbot, Edwin A., Flatland;
  • Accelerate: Technology Driving Business Performance;
  • ACM Queue: Architecting Tomorrow's Computing;
  • Adkins, Lesley and Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome;
  • Ali, Ayaan Hirsi, Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations;
  • Ali, Tariq, The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads, and Modernity;
  • Allawi, Ali A., The Crisis of Islamic Civilization;
  • Alperovitz, Gar, The Decision To Use the Atomic Bomb;
  • American School & University: Shaping Facilities & Business Decisions;
  • Angelich, Jane, What's a Mother (in-Law) to Do?: 5 Essential Steps to Building a Loving Relationship with Your Son's New Wife;
  • Arad, Yitzchak, In the Shadow of the Red Banner: Soviet Jews in the War Against Nazi Germany;
  • Aristotle, Athenian Constitution. Eudemian Ethics. Virtues and Vices. (Loeb Classical Library No. 285);
  • Aristotle, Metaphysics: Books X-XIV, Oeconomica, Magna Moralia (The Loeb classical library);
  • Armstrong, Karen, A History of God;
  • Arrian: Anabasis of Alexander, Books I-IV (Loeb Classical Library No. 236);
  • Atkinson, Rick, The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (Liberation Trilogy);
  • Auletta, Ken, Googled: The End of the World As We Know It;
  • Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice;
  • Bacevich, Andrew, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism;
  • Baker, James A. III, and Lee H. Hamilton, The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward - A New Approach;
  • Barber, Benjamin R., Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy;
  • Barnett, Thomas P.M., Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating;
  • Barnett, Thomas P.M., The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century;
  • Barron, Robert, Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith;
  • Baseline: Where Leadership Meets Technology;
  • Baur, Michael, Bauer, Stephen, eds., The Beatles and Philosophy;
  • Beard, Charles Austin, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (Sony Reader);
  • Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon, The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam's War Against America;
  • Bergen, Peter, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader;
  • Berman, Paul, Terror and Liberalism;
  • Berman, Paul, The Flight of the Intellectuals: The Controversy Over Islamism and the Press;
  • Better Software: The Print Companion to StickyMinds.com;
  • Bleyer, Kevin, Me the People: One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America;
  • Boardman, Griffin, and Murray, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World;
  • Bracken, Paul, The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics;
  • Bradley, James, with Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers;
  • Bronte, Charlotte, Jane Eyre;
  • Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights;
  • Brown, Ashley, War in Peace Volume 10 1974-1984: The Marshall Cavendish Encyclopedia of Postwar Conflict;
  • Brown, Ashley, War in Peace Volume 8 The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of Postwar Conflict;
  • Brown, Nathan J., When Victory Is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics;
  • Bryce, Robert, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence";
  • Bush, George W., Decision Points;
  • Bzdek, Vincent, The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled;
  • Cahill, Thomas, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter;
  • Campus Facility Maintenance: Promoting a Healthy & Productive Learning Environment;
  • Campus Technology: Empowering the World of Higher Education;
  • Certification: Tools and Techniques for the IT Professional;
  • Channel Advisor: Business Insights for Solution Providers;
  • Chariton, Callirhoe (Loeb Classical Library);
  • Chief Learning Officer: Solutions for Enterprise Productivity;
  • Christ, Karl, The Romans: An Introduction to Their History and Civilization;
  • Cicero, De Senectute;
  • Cicero, The Republic, The Laws;
  • Cicero, The Verrine Orations I: Against Caecilius. Against Verres, Part I; Part II, Book 1 (Loeb Classical Library);
  • Cicero, The Verrine Orations I: Against Caecilius. Against Verres, Part I; Part II, Book 2 (Loeb Classical Library);
  • CIO Decisions: Aligning I.T. and Business in the MidMarket Enterprise;
  • CIO Insight: Best Practices for IT Business Leaders;
  • CIO: Business Technology Leadership;
  • Clay, Lucius Du Bignon, Decision in Germany;
  • Cohen, William S., Dragon Fire;
  • Colacello, Bob, Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House, 1911 to 1980;
  • Coll, Steve, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century;
  • Collins, Francis S., The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief ;
  • Colorni, Angelo, Israel for Beginners: A Field Guide for Encountering the Israelis in Their Natural Habitat;
  • Compliance & Technology;
  • Computerworld: The Voice of IT Management;
  • Connolly, Peter & Hazel Dodge, The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens & Rome;
  • Conti, Greg, Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You?;
  • Converge: Strategy and Leadership for Technology in Education;
  • Cowan, Ross, Roman Legionary 58 BC - AD 69;
  • Cowell, F. R., Life in Ancient Rome;
  • Creel, Richard, Religion and Doubt: Toward a Faith of Your Own;
  • Cross, Robin, General Editor, The Encyclopedia of Warfare: The Changing Nature of Warfare from Prehistory to Modern-day Armed Conflicts;
  • CSO: The Resource for Security Executives:
  • Cummins, Joseph, History's Greatest Wars: The Epic Conflicts that Shaped the Modern World;
  • D'Amato, Raffaele, Imperial Roman Naval Forces 31 BC-AD 500;
  • Dallek, Robert, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963;
  • Daly, Dennis, Sophocles' Ajax;
  • Dando-Collins, Stephen, Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome;
  • Darwish, Nonie, Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror;
  • Davis Hanson, Victor, Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome;
  • Dawkins, Richard, The Blind Watchmaker;
  • Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion;
  • Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene;
  • de Blij, Harm, Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America, Climate Change, The Rise of China, and Global Terrorism;
  • Defense Systems: Information Technology and Net-Centric Warfare;
  • Defense Systems: Strategic Intelligence for Info Centric Operations;
  • Defense Tech Briefs: Engineering Solutions for Military and Aerospace;
  • Dennett, Daniel C., Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon;
  • Dennett, Daniel C., Consciousness Explained;
  • Dennett, Daniel C., Darwin's Dangerous Idea;
  • Devries, Kelly, et. al., Battles of the Ancient World 1285 BC - AD 451 : From Kadesh to Catalaunian Field;
  • Dickens, Charles, Great Expectations;
  • Digital Communities: Building Twenty-First Century Communities;
  • Doctorow, E.L., Homer & Langley;
  • Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational;
  • Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The House of the Dead (Google Books, Sony e-Reader);
  • Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The Idiot;
  • Douglass, Elisha P., Rebels and Democrats: The Struggle for Equal Political Rights and Majority Role During the American Revolution;
  • Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, The Hound of the Baskervilles & The Valley of Fear;
  • Dr. Dobb's Journal: The World of Software Development;
  • Drug Discovery News: Discovery/Development/Diagnostics/Delivery;
  • DT: Defense Technology International;
  • Dunbar, Richard, Alcatraz;
  • Education Channel Partner: News, Trends, and Analysis for K-20 Sales Professionals;
  • Edwards, Aton, Preparedness Now!;
  • EGM: Electronic Gaming Monthly, the No. 1 Videogame Magazine;
  • Ehrman, Bart D., Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scriptures and the Faiths We Never Knew;
  • Ehrman, Bart D., Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why;
  • Electronic Engineering Times: The Industry Newsweekly for the Creators of Technology;
  • Ellis, Joseph J., American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson;
  • Ellis, Joseph J., His Excellency: George Washington;
  • Emergency Management: Strategy & Leadership in Critical Times;
  • Emerson, Steven, American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us;
  • Erlewine, Robert, Monotheism and Tolerance: Recovering a Religion of Reason (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion);
  • ESD: Embedded Systems Design;
  • Everitt, Anthony, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor;
  • Everitt, Anthony, Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician;
  • eWeek: The Enterprise Newsweekly;
  • Federal Computer Week: Powering the Business of Government;
  • Ferguson, Niall, Civilization: The West and the Rest;
  • Ferguson, Niall, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power;
  • Ferguson, Niall, The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000;
  • Ferguson, Niall, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Decline of the West;
  • Feuerbach, Ludwig, The Essence of Christianity (Sony eReader);
  • Fields, Nic, The Roman Army of the Principate 27 BC-AD 117;
  • Fields, Nic, The Roman Army of the Punic Wars 264-146 BC;
  • Fields, Nic, The Roman Army: the Civil Wars 88-31 BC;
  • Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire;
  • Fisk, Robert, The Great War For Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East;
  • Forstchen, William R., One Second After;
  • Fox, Robin Lane, The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian;
  • Frazer, James George, The Golden Bough (Volume 3): A Study in Magic and Religion (Sony eReader);
  • Freeh, Louis J., My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror;
  • Freeman, Charles, The Greek Achievement: The Foundations of the Western World;
  • Friedman, Thomas L. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century Further Updated and Expanded/Release 3.0;
  • Friedman, Thomas L., The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization;
  • Frontinus: Stratagems. Aqueducts of Rome. (Loeb Classical Library No. 174);
  • Fuller Focus: Fuller Theological Seminary;
  • Fuller, Graham E., A World Without Islam;
  • Gaubatz, P. David and Paul Sperry, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America;
  • Ghattas, Kim, The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power;
  • Gibson, William, Neuromancer;
  • Gilmour, Michael J., Gods and Guitars: Seeking the Sacred in Post-1960s Popular Music;
  • Global Services: Strategies for Sourcing People, Processes, and Technologies;
  • Glucklich, Ariel, Dying for Heaven: Holy Pleasure and Suicide Bombers-Why the Best Qualities of Religion Are Also It's Most Dangerous;
  • Goldberg, Jonah, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning;
  • Goldin, Shmuel, Unlocking the Torah Text Vayikra (Leviticus);
  • Goldsworthy, Adrian, Caesar: Life of a Colossus;
  • Goldsworthy, Adrian, How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower;
  • Goodman, Lenn E., Creation and Evolution;
  • Goodwin, Doris Kearns, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln;
  • Gopp, Amy, et.al., Split Ticket: Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics (WTF: Where's the Faith?);
  • Gordon, Michael R., and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq;
  • Government Health IT: The Magazine of Public/private Health Care Convergence;
  • Government Technology's Emergency Management: Strategy & Leadership in Critical Times;
  • Government Technology: Solutions for State and Local Government in the Information Age;
  • Grant , Michael, The Climax of Rome: The Final Achievements of the Ancient World, AD 161 - 337;
  • Grant, Michael, The Classical Greeks;
  • Grumberg, Orna, and Helmut Veith, 25 Years of Model Checking: History, Achievements, Perspectives;
  • Halberstam, David, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals;
  • Hammer, Reuven, Entering Torah Prefaces to the Weekly Torah Portion;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, Between War and Peace: Lessons from Afghanistan to Iraq;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, How The Obama Administration Threatens Our National Security (Encounter Broadsides);
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, The End of Sparta: A Novel;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny;
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, Wars of the Ancient Greeks;
  • Harnack, Adolf Von, History of Dogma, Volume 3 (Sony Reader);
  • Harris, Alex, Reputation At Risk: Reputation Report;
  • Harris, Sam, Letter to a Christian Nation;
  • Harris, Sam, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason;
  • Hayek, F. A., The Road to Serfdom;
  • Heilbroner, Robert L., and Lester Thurow, Economics Explained: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works and Where It's Going;
  • Hempel, Sandra, The Strange Case of The Broad Street Pump: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera;
  • Hinnells, John R., A Handbook of Ancient Religions;
  • Hitchens, Christopher, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything;
  • Hogg, Ian V., The Encyclopedia of Weaponry: The Development of Weaponry from Prehistory to 21st Century Warfare;
  • Hugo, Victor, The Hunchback of Notre Dame;
  • Humphrey, Caroline & Vitebsky, Piers, Sacred Architecture;
  • Huntington, Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order;
  • Info World: Information Technology News, Computer Networking & Security;
  • Information Week: Business Innovation Powered by Technology:
  • Infostor: The Leading Source for Enterprise Storage Professionals;
  • Infrastructure Insite: Bringing IT Together;
  • Insurance Technology: Business Innovation Powered by Technology;
  • Integrated Solutions: For Enterprise Content Management;
  • Intel Premier IT: Sharing Best Practices with the Information Technology Community;
  • Irwin, Robert, Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents;
  • Jeffrey, Grant R., The Global-Warming Deception: How a Secret Elite Plans to Bankrupt America and Steal Your Freedom;
  • Jewkes, Yvonne, and Majid Yar, Handbook of Internet Crime;
  • Johnson, Chalmers, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire;
  • Journal, The: Transforming Education Through Technology;
  • Judd, Denis, The Lion and the Tiger: The Rise and Fall of the British Raj, 1600-1947;
  • Kagan, Donald, The Peloponnesian War;
  • Kansas, Dave, The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It: What You Need to Know About the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time--and How to Survive It;
  • Karsh, Efraim, Islamic Imperialism: A History;
  • Kasser, Rodolphe, The Gospel of Judas;
  • Katz, Solomon, The Decline of Rome and the Rise of Medieval Europe: (The Development of Western Civilization);
  • Keegan, John, Intelligence in War: The Value--and Limitations--of What the Military Can Learn About the Enemy;
  • Kenis, Leo, et. al., The Transformation of the Christian Churches in Western Europe 1945-2000 (Kadoc Studies on Religion, Culture and Society 6);
  • Kepel, Gilles, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam;
  • Kiplinger's: Personal Finance;
  • Klein, Naomi, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism;
  • KM World: Content, Document, and Knowledge Management;
  • Koestler, Arthur, Darkness at Noon: A Novel;
  • Kostova, Elizabeth, The Historian;
  • Kuttner, Robert, The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity;
  • Lake, Kirsopp, The Text of the New Testament, Sony Reader;
  • Laur, Timothy M., Encyclopedia of Modern US Military Weapons ;
  • Leffler, Melvyn P., and Jeffrey W. Legro, To Lead the World: American Strategy After the Bush Doctrine;
  • Lendon, J. E., Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity;
  • Lenin, V. I., Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism;
  • Lennon, John J., There is Absolutely No Reason to Pay Too Much for College!;
  • Lewis, Bernard, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror;
  • Lewis, Bernard, What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East;
  • Lifton, Robert J., Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America;
  • Limberis, Vasiliki M., Architects of Piety: The Cappadocian Fathers and the Cult of the Martyrs;
  • Lipsett, B. Diane, Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth;
  • Livingston, Jessica, Founders At Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days;
  • Livy, Rome and the Mediterranean: Books XXXI-XLV of the History of Rome from its Foundation (Penguin Classics);
  • Louis J., Freeh, My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror;
  • Mackay, Christopher S., Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History;
  • Majno, Guido, The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World;
  • Marcus, Greil,Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes;
  • Marshall-Cornwall, James, Napoleon as Military Commander;
  • Maughm, W. Somerset, Of Human Bondage;
  • McCluskey, Neal P., Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education;
  • McCullough, David, 1776;
  • McCullough, David, John Adams;
  • McCullough, David, Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt;
  • McLynn, Frank, Marcus Aurelius: A Life;
  • McManus, John, Deadly Brotherhood, The: The American Combat Soldier in World War II ;
  • McMaster, H. R., Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam;
  • McNamara, Patrick, Science and the World's Religions Volume 1: Origins and Destinies (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution);
  • McNamara, Patrick, Science and the World's Religions Volume 2: Persons and Groups (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution);
  • McNamara, Patrick, Science and the World's Religions Volume 3: Religions and Controversies (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution);
  • Meacham, Jon, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House;
  • Mearsheimer, John J., and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy;
  • Meier, Christian, Caesar: A Biography;
  • Menzies, Gaven, 1421: The Year China Discovered America;
  • Metaxas, Eric, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy;
  • Michael, Katina and M.G. Michael, Innovative Automatic Identification and Location-Based Services: From Barcodes to Chip Implants;
  • Migliore, Daniel L., Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology;
  • Military & Aerospace Electronics: The Magazine of Transformation in Electronic and Optical Technology;
  • Millard, Candice, Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey: The River of Doubt;
  • Mommsen, Theodor, The History of the Roman Republic, Sony Reader;
  • Muller, F. Max, Chips From A German Workshop: Volume III: Essays On Language And Literature;
  • Murray, Janet, H., Hamlet On the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace;
  • Murray, Williamson, War in the Air 1914-45;
  • Müller, F. Max, Chips From A German Workshop;
  • Nader, Ralph, Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender;
  • Nagl, John A., Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam;
  • Napoleoni, Loretta, Terrorism and the Economy: How the War on Terror is Bankrupting the World;
  • Nature: The International Weekly Journal of Science;
  • Negus, Christopher, Fedora 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux;
  • Network Computing: For IT by IT:
  • Network World: The Leader in Network Knowledge;
  • Network-centric Security: Where Physical Security & IT Worlds Converge;
  • Newman, Paul B., Travel and Trade in the Middle Ages;
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence;
  • Nixon, Ed, The Nixons: A Family Portrait;
  • O'Brien, Johnny, Day of the Assassins: A Jack Christie Novel;
  • O'Donnell, James J., Augustine: A New Biography;
  • OH & S: Occupational Health & Safety
  • Okakura, Kakuzo, The Book of Tea;
  • Optimize: Business Strategy & Execution for CIOs;
  • Ostler, Nicholas, Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin;
  • Parry, Jay A., The Real George Washington (American Classic Series);
  • Paton, W.R., The Greek Anthology, Volume V, Loeb Classical Library, No. 86;
  • Pausanius, Guide to Greece 1: Central Greece;
  • Perrett, Bryan, Cassell Military Classics: Iron Fist: Classic Armoured Warfare;
  • Perrottet, Tony, The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Olympic Games;
  • Peters, Ralph, New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy;
  • Phillips, Kevin, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush;
  • Pick, Bernhard; Paralipomena; Remains of Gospels and Sayings of Christ (Sony Reader);
  • Pimlott, John, The Elite: The Special Forces of the World Volume 1;
  • Pitre, Brant, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper;
  • Plutarch's Lives, X: Agis and Cleomenes. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Philopoemen and Flamininus (Loeb Classical Library®);
  • Podhoretz, Norman, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism;
  • Posner, Gerald, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK;
  • Potter, Wendell, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans;
  • Pouesi, Daniel, Akua;
  • Premier IT Magazine: Sharing Best Practices with the Information Technology Community;
  • Price, Monroe E. & Daniel Dayan, eds., Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China;
  • Profit: The Executive's Guide to Oracle Applications;
  • Public CIO: Technology Leadership in the Public Sector;
  • Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community;
  • Quintus of Smyrna, The Fall of Troy;
  • Rawles, James Wesley, Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse;
  • Red Herring: The Business of Technology;
  • Redmond Channel Partner: Driving Success in the Microsoft Partner Community;
  • Redmond Magazine: The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community;
  • Renan, Ernest, The life of Jesus (Sony eReader);
  • Richler, Mordecai (editor), Writers on World War II: An Anthology;
  • Roberts, Ian, The Energy Glut: Climate Change and the Politics of Fatness in an Overheating World;
  • Rocca, Samuel, The Army of Herod the Great;
  • Rodgers, Nigel, A Military History of Ancient Greece: An Authoritative Account of the Politics, Armies and Wars During the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, shown in over 200 color photographs, diagrams, maps and plans;
  • Rodoreda, Merce, Death in Spring: A Novel;
  • Romerstein, Herbert and Breindel, Eric,The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors;
  • Ross, Dennis, Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World;
  • Roth, Jonathan P., Roman Warfare (Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization);
  • SC Magazine: For IT Security Professionals;
  • Scahill, Jeremy, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated];
  • Schama, Simon, A History of Britain, At the Edge of the World 3500 B.C. - 1603 A.D.;
  • Scheuer, Michael, Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War On Terror;
  • Scheuer, Michael, Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq;
  • Scheuer, Michael, Osama Bin Laden;
  • Scheuer, Michael, Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America;
  • Scholastic Instructor
  • Scholastic Parent & Child: The Joy of Family Living and Learning;
  • Schopenhauer, Arthur, The World As Will And Idea (Sony eReader);
  • Schug-Wille, Art of the Byzantine World;
  • Schulze, Hagen, Germany: A New History;
  • Schweizer, Peter, Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the Global Economy---and How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops Them;
  • Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe;
  • Seagren, Eric, Secure Your Network for Free: Using Nmap, Wireshark, Snort, Nessus, and MRTG;
  • Security Technology & Design: The Security Executive's Resource for Systems Integration and Convergence;
  • Seibel, Peter, Coders at Work;
  • Sekunda N., & S. Northwood, Early Roman Armies;
  • Seneca: Naturales Quaestiones, Books II (Loeb Classical Library No. 450);
  • Sewall, Sarah, The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual;
  • Sheppard, Ruth, Alexander the Great at War: His Army - His Battles - His Enemies;
  • Shinder, Jason, ed., The Poem That Changed America: "Howl" Fifty Years Later;
  • Sidebottom, Harry, Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction;
  • Sides, Hampton, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West;
  • Simkins, Michael, The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan;
  • Sinchak, Steve, Hacking Windows Vista;
  • Smith, RJ, The One: The Life and Music of James Brown;
  • Software Development Times: The Industry Newspaper for Software Development Managers;
  • Software Test Performance;
  • Solomon, Norman, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death;
  • Song, Lolan, Innovation Together: Microsoft Research Asia Academic Research Collaboration;
  • Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays, tr. Robert Fagles;
  • Sound & Vision: The Consumer Electronics Authority;
  • Southern, Pat, The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History;
  • Sri, Edward, A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do In The Liturgy;
  • Sri, Edward, Men, Women and the Mystery of Love: Practical Insights from John Paul II's Love and Responsibility;
  • Stair, John Bettridge, Old Samoa; Or, Flotsam and Jetsam From the Pacific Ocean;
  • Starr, Chester G., The Roman Empire, 27 B.C.-A.D. 476: A Study in Survival;
  • Starr, John Bryan, Understanding China: A Guide to China's Economy, History, and Political Culture;
  • Stauffer, John, Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln;
  • Steyn, Mark, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It;
  • Strassler, Robert B., The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories;
  • Strassler, Robert B., The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War;
  • Strassler, Robert B., The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika;
  • Strategy + Business;
  • Streete, Gail, Redeemed Bodies: Women Martyrs in Early Christianity;
  • Sullivan, James, The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America;
  • Sumner, Graham, Roman Military Clothing (1) 100 BC-AD 200;
  • Sumner, Graham, Roman Military Clothing (2) AD 200-400;
  • Suskind, Ron, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11:
  • Swanston, Malcolm, Mapping History Battles and Campaigns;
  • Swiderski, Richard M., Quicksilver: A History of the Use, Lore, and Effects of Mercury;
  • Swiderski, Richard M., Quicksilver: A History of the Use, Lore, and Effects of Mercury;
  • Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver's Travels;
  • Syme, Ronald, The Roman Revolution;
  • Talley, Colin L., A History of Multiple Sclerosis;
  • Tawil, Camille, Brothers In Arms: The Story of al-Qa'ida and the Arab Jihadists;
  • Tech Briefs: Engineering Solutions for Design & Manufacturing;
  • Tech Net: The Microsoft Journal for IT Professionals;
  • Tech Partner: Gain a Competitive Edge Through Solutions Providers;
  • Technology & Learning: Ideas and Tools for Ed Tech Leaders;
  • Tenet, George, At the Center of the Storm: The CIA During America's Time of Crisis;
  • Thackeray, W. M., Vanity Fair;
  • Thompson, Derrick & William Martin, Have Guitars ... Will Travel: A Journey Through the Beat Music Scene in Northampton 1957-66;
  • Tolstoy, Leo, Anna Karenina;
  • Trento, Joseph J., The Secret History of the CIA;
  • Twain, Mark, The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today;
  • Ungar, Craig, House of Bush House of Saud;
  • Unterberger, Richie, The Unreleased Beatles Music & Film;
  • VAR Business: Strategic Insight for Technology Integrators:
  • Virgil, The Aeneid
  • Virtualization Review: Powering the New IT Generation;
  • Visual Studio: Enterprise Solutions for .Net Development;
  • VON Magazine: Voice, Video & Vision;
  • Wall Street Technology: Business Innovation Powered by Technology;
  • Wallace, Robert, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda;
  • Wang, Wallace, Steal This Computer Book 4.0: What They Won’t Tell You About the Internet;
  • Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization;
  • Warren, Robert Penn, All the King's Men;
  • Wasik, John F., Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream;
  • Weber, Karl, Editor, Lincoln: A President for the Ages;
  • Website Magazine: The Magazine for Website Success;
  • Weiner, Tim, Enemies: A History of the FBI;
  • Weiner, Tim, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA;
  • West, Bing, The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq;
  • Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence;
  • Wilcox, Peter, Rome's Enemies (1) Germanics and Dacians;
  • Wise, Terence, Armies of the Carthaginian Wars 265 - 146 BC;
  • Wissner-Gross, What Colleges Don't Tell You (And Other Parents Don't Want You To Know) 272 Secrets For Getting Your Kid Into the Top Schools;
  • Wissner-Gross, What High Schools Don't Tell You;
  • Wolf, Naomi, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries;
  • Wolf, Naomi, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot;
  • Woodward, Bob, Plan of Attack;
  • Woodward, Bob, The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House;
  • Wright, Lawrence, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11;
  • Wright-Porto, Heather, Beginning Google Blogger;
  • Xenophon, The Anabasis of Cyrus;
  • Yergin, Daniel, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power;

Computing Reviews

Handy Tools, Links, etc.

This Website is a Belligerent Act

Share |

SmileyCentral.com

Radical Christian

My secure contact form

Choice Reviews Online

techLEARNING.com

CIO and Strategy & Business magazines

Mil-aero info

Defense Systems

Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science

CIO

Choice Reviews Online

SD Times: Software Development News

KMworld

SC Magazine for Security Professionals

Bloggers' Rights at EFF

The Scientist


Missile Defense
33 Minutes

Government Technology: Solutions for State and Local Government in the Information Age

Insurance & Technology

What's Running is a great tool so that you can see what is running on your desktop.

Process Lasso lets you view your processor and its responsiveness.

Online Armor lets you view your firewall status.

CCleaner - Freeware Windows Optimization

Avast is a terrific scrubber of all virus miscreants.

ClamWin is an effective deterrent for the little nasty things that can crop into your machine.

Ad-Aware is a sound anti-virus tool.

Blog Directory & Search engine

For all your electronic appliance needs research products on this terrific site.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Recent Comments

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of this blogger. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited, before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but not hostile, libelous, or otherwise objectionable statements. Original writing only, please. Thank you. Subscribe with Bloglines

Blog Smith Headline Animator

Library Thing: Chicks Dig Readers

Blog Archive

National Debt Clock

"Congress: I'm Watching"

A tax on toilet paper; I kid you not. According to the sponsor, "the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act will be financed broadly by small fees on such things as . . . products disposed of in waste water." Congress wants to tax what you do in the privacy of your bathroom.

The Religion of Peace

Portrait of Thinking Hero

Portrait of Thinking Hero
1844-1900

Check out:

Check out:
Chicks dig readers.
@ Blog Smith. Powered by Blogger.