What are reading?

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:49 am

samtzu wrote:Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus... bioengineers trying to find out how nature does it, and then trying to figure out how we can do it so we don't impact the Earth as badly as we do...

How is that? Interesting or just industry shills trying to whitewash selves? (BTW--is "whitewash" an acceptable racist term?)

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:37 am

BlueBirdPoof wrote:
samtzu wrote:Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus... bioengineers trying to find out how nature does it, and then trying to figure out how we can do it so we don't impact the Earth as badly as we do...
How is that? Interesting or just industry shills trying to whitewash selves? (BTW--is "whitewash" an acceptable racist term?)

Whitewash works, but this book is a little hard to figure out. On the one hand they are talking about imitating nature in 'growing' materials without the ususal 'heat, beat, and treat' methods, and then they talk about some of the labs that they are doing this in, and it sounds like the same old crap to me. I'm not done with the book yet, but it does appear to lean more towards the Earth Friendly side... I'll let you know.....

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 10:35 am

I've looked at it in the library but never checked it out. I'm not sure if that's "I have enough interesting books to read already" or "Gosh this looks like bait and switch" though. My book (cradle to cradle--upthread) is interesting and while these people DO work with industry they do make a lot of interesting and good points. They've done some interesting work--including the roof garden on Chicago City Hall. Plus some upholstery factory in Swisserland where the water is cleaner going out than coming in and when you tire of your cover, you can rip it off and compost it. For some reason, that warms the cockles of my heart. I love my compost heap.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:03 am

I'm just looking to see what I can do to make less of an impact and this is one of a bunch books that I am going to read to see what I can do...

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:04 am

samtzu wrote:I'm just looking to see what I can do to make less of an impact and this is one of a bunch books that I am going to read to see what I can do...

i suggest a slower rate of movement or falling from a lesser height.

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:10 am

Rian Jackson wrote:
samtzu wrote:I'm just looking to see what I can do to make less of an impact and this is one of a bunch books that I am going to read to see what I can do...
i suggest a slower rate of movement or falling from a lesser height.

Just remember: Gravity, Not Just a Good Idea--It's the Law

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:18 am

Or you could reduce your body mass.
I suggest using a saw.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:18 am

Why are you reading a book when you can just ask us, who know everything?
Jackass.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 4:35 pm

Wirless Hacks by Rob Flickenger

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 4:51 pm

Earth: An Intimate History

, Richard Fortey

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 7:06 am

Rian Jackson wrote:Why are you reading a book when you can just ask us, who know everything?
Jackass.

Sorry... I don't know what I was thinking.

But, since you offered... which protein would be a good replacement for the standard graphite-in-resin mix that is used to make everything from airplanes to boats? Would we have to use keratin to surround the fibers, and bond them, or can we get the fibers to throw out hooks and eyes that willl reel themselves in, thus bonding the fibers one to another? And what would the DNA sequence be that would cause a fractaling of the protein into such a flexible matrix?

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:32 am

Read a norwegian novel called The Four Winds (excellently written, especially for linguafiles). [elapsed time: 2 days]

Then read an autobiography about growing up in - and leaving - South Africa called Kaffir Boy. (Slightly overwritten, but i can't really blame the guy. Sure reminded me of places i've lived... surprisingly so.) [elapsed time: 2 days]

Now reading The File, Timothy Garton Ash's journey back through his Stasi file.

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:34 am

I read Kaffir Boy when I was in middle school for english.... it had quite the impact on me!

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:35 am

yeah, it was a christmas gift. (my relaties think i'm political)

i've heard people make the comparions betwen S Africa and Palestine before and actually blew it off a little bit.

Not anymore....

ronski · Post by **ronski** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:36 pm

Earlier this month I finished "Operators and Things: The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic", by Barbara O'Brien (pseudonym). Published in 1957.

I had read this originally about 15 years ago. Quite an amazing and beautiful little account. It's out of print now and very hard to find. Got it through an interlibrary loan program.

Now I just picked up a collected works of Guy De Maupassant because I want to read his story, "The Horla". Published in 1887.

Both deal with this years BM theme. No coincidence.

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:47 pm

Speaking of the theme, how about The Interpretation of Dreams by Papa Freud?

"And what do you think it means? Hmmmmmm?"

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:29 pm

I thought Carl was the expert on that one....

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:49 am

cowboyangel wrote:I thought Carl was the expert on that one....

Carl is my favorite, but Freud got all the good press.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:00 am

A poof on all there hausen! Damn creepy burier of child molesting evidence. Evil swiss anti semite. CT scans all the way.and don't say cat scan around here.

gigglesnort · Post by **gigglesnort** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:02 am

When I'm working, I have to say 'computed axial tomography scan' every time....

gigglesnort · Post by **gigglesnort** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:03 am

....which fucking reminds me.....work......

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:06 pm

Finished Cradle to Cradle
Checked out Superbia!

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:18 pm

The Confusion by Neal Stephenson... superb

Rob the Wop · Post by **Rob the Wop** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:28 pm

The Eplaya.

Definitely not the PCI-E Base Specification 1.0a.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:32 pm

Rob the Wop wrote: Definitely not the PCI-E Base Specification 1.0a.

Even the title fills me with ennui.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:54 pm

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. This is his first book sinec his Pulitzer winning Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies

Looking pretty good as a curl up read on this rainy day.

KellY · Post by **KellY** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:02 pm

Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard. A novel set in the Victorian London of 1860, herein we find a grown up Timothy Cratchit, now cured except for a slight limp, living in a brothel teaching the madam to read and earning extra money on the side dredging corpses up from the Thames. Far better than it may sound. Really.

sparkletarte · Post by **sparkletarte** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:07 pm

Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Tried it a couple years ago and got turned off a couple chapters in. Have now made it past that point and so far, so good.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:16 am

im actually reading three books right now...im about halfway through 'This Is Burningman' im almost done with 'Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass' for like the 10th time this month and when im in the potty im reading the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:32 am

LamplighterDuke wrote:im actually reading three books right now...im about halfway through 'This Is Burningman' im almost done with 'Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass' for like the 10th time this month and when im in the potty im reading the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe

"But... the amontillado?" ... do you hear the chains rattling on the other side of the bathroom wall?...

What are reading?

Reading