I really enjoyed this TED Talk on hacktivists the first couple times I watched it a year ago and a few months ago. Not sure why I have not yet posted it. The beauty of hackers, says cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari, is that they force us to evolve and improve. Yes, some hackers are bad…
Insurgent by Veronica Roth My rating: 3 of 5 stars While I read Divergent for the Not Your Oprah’s Book Club, I had no intention of finishing the series. That stance changed when I decided I should watch the movie for Insurgent since my trainer talked about getting an extra part in it. Maybe his…
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins My rating: 3 of 5 stars Yeah, I am finally getting around to reading it and years of resisting pressure. I rarely read something while everyone else does. The Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, and Percy Jackson phenomenons where all for Generation Y while I am GenX. I cannot…
The Gatekeeper by Scott Ferrell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Scott is a friend from high school. We played D&D and terrorized our hometown. I wanted to read this because I figured it would incorporate elements from that experience. Maybe I would even recognize someone I know? Stories like this about the hero stuck…
The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby My rating: 2 of 5 stars Back in 2007, I went to Thanksgiving with Mom to the home of a Philosophy professor. The professor’s father discoursed on why United States presidents should only be intellectuals. His arguments made sense. Someone able to understand the options, determine risk, and plan…
As I have previously written here, I am biracial. One parent is European descent while the other is of African descent. When I was born, I was the first biracial child many had ever seen. Thankfully, it was just the start of a trend, so these days plenty are around for people to notice us.…
I enjoyed reading Why We Should Design Some Things to Be Difficult to Use by Brian Millar for WIRED. It caught my attention and held it by referencing Dan Pink’s book Drive. I posted his TED Talk on Drive back in 2009. The sections of the piece: The Pleasures of Mastery Difficulty Makes Things Exclusive Danger May…
A while ago I posted a review about the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. The message of the book, I think, is critically important, but the book wasted my time with too many anecdotes and testimonials which are a taboo in science writing. The good parts remain where Dweck wrote about her own and…
About five years ago earlier this month, I went on Bahá’àpilgrimage to Haifa. It is funny how in that post I wrote about the experience my expectation of some significant change. Even that post stated, “Something like serving at the Bahá’à World Center would be the kind of change I foresee,” which clearly states where my head…