Book Hunt

Recent articles about "Back to the Future" assessing how much of its predictions came true got me thinking about The Next Hundred years: The Unfinished Business of Science by C. C. Furnas. My Dad had this book but somehow it got lost. The San Jose Public Library has a copy, but I wanted my own. This was as much about happy memories of my Dad as curiosity about how much has changed since it was written.   I stopped by +Bell's Books in Palo Alto today on an impulse to inquire if they had it. I had a wonderful conversation about books with Faith Bell. She didn't have the book, but gave suggestions where to look. On impulse again, I checked Amazon and surprisingly (I had checked before and didn't find it) they had it!  So of course I ordered it, and after I've reread it, I will write about it.

Free Online Courses

With the pace of change, constant learning will be the norm. Imagine the quantum leap the global mind could take if education were free and available to all!  There are lots of materials available online, but not everyone has the computer access to take advantage of these free resources (see a sampling below).

https://www.coursera.org/

https://www.edx.org/course

http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

//openlearn.open.ac.uk/

http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative

http://oyc.yale.edu/

http://itunes.stanford.edu/

http://itunes.berkeley.edu/

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

http://www.khanacademy.org/

And then there's YouTube where people love to share what they know!

Poison

"Poison" by Sara Poole tells the story of Francesca Giordano, daughter of the late poisoner of Cardinal Borgia. Convinced that her father was murdered, she maneuvers to take over her father's job to figure out who was responsible and to take revenge. Her quest leads her deep into the dangerous political intrigues of the papacy.

I wrote this brief description in my iPad Notes last May 23rd, intending to expand on it. Obviously I got busy with other things and never did. Meantime, I think I've donated the book to the Palo Alto library, so I'll have to borrow it to say more on this book. But I think what I've said so far is reason enough to find a copy of this book and read it. It is very well-written and is one of those books you have to finish once you start.

I guess getting sick (I've had a cough/cold for a week) has its bright side - I lost a few pounds and I found time to get back to my blog. I never stopped reading, but I haven't been writing. I hope this signals the start of my second wind.