Winter Is Coming | Opinion For a show filled with fire-breathing dragons and Machiavellian politics, Game of Thrones is surprisingly rich with economic metaphors that resemble the world we live in. To start, although the Seven Kingdoms of the Westoros continent, where the saga unfolds, have the social and technological characteristics of medieval Europe, its economy ebbs and flows like the modern business cycle. Seasons on the continent lasts years. For an agrarian society, summer is like an economic boom and winter is like an economic depression. And just like the fictional long winter, everyone knows that the economic depression is coming—but no one knows when. The economy of the Seven Kingdoms reached a sorry state during the show. But the fate of the Seven Kingdoms was perhaps sealed before the show’s start. This is a narrative that Americans can relate to. In the show, King Robert ran a deficit every year when the time was good—because he could. So what should the Seven Kingdoms have done? Jonathan Z.
04-2011 : Want to be able to read faster? 6 tips for speedier reading Most of us read on average 150 to 250 words per minute. People who’ve learnt to speed read can manage far more, even over 1,000. So how do they do it? You can spend a fortune on training sessions or computer programmes – but why do that, when you can read our tips for free? Before we start, a word of advice. 1. 2. Hold the text a bit further away from your eyes than you usually would, and try to relax your face and your eyes. Focus on the middle of each line, instead of starting at the beginning. 3. The thing is, we speak at an average speed of about 120 words per minute, so if you “vocalise” or “say” words as you read them, you can only read as fast as you can speak. To turn off the voice in your head, try humming to yourself while you’re reading, or counting up to four, over and over again. 4. So don’t allow yourself to re-read material. So there we are. If you have a few more minutes, try reading this article again, using one of the methods we’ve suggested.
The Philosophy Pages T he Philosophy Pages is an online library of philosophy and theology texts, including selected writings of philosophers from anicent times to the contemporary period, including Plato, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Pythagoras, amongst many others. The site has been active since 2006 and is currently undergoing redesign work. If you would like to contribute to the site or have any questions, email philosophy@davemckay.co.uk . Facebook Page - Visit the Philosophy page on Facebook ! Anaximander - Surviving Fragments. Aristotle - Collected Works. Bertrand Russell - Selected Writings. Chinese Classics - The Four Books, Five Classics and the Classics of Military Science. David Hume - Complete Writings, including posthumous works. Diogenes of Sinope - Biography from Diogenes Laërtius’ “Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers”. Ralph Waldo Emerson - Complete Works in twelve volumes. Epicurus - Surviving Fragments, Letters and Documents. Heraclitus - Surviving Fragments.
An Original Thinker of Our Time by Cass R. Sunstein Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman by Jeremy Adelman Princeton University Press, 740 pp., $39.95 Albert Hirschman, who died late last year, was one of the most interesting and unusual thinkers of the last century. Hirschman is principally known for four remarkable books. Finally, The Rhetoric of Reaction (1991) is a study of the reactionary’s tool kit, identifying the standard objections to any and all proposals for reform. Hirschman’s work changes how you see the world. The current debate over gun control is a case study in “the rhetoric of reaction.” Hirschman, born in 1915 in Berlin, was an economist by training, and he spent a lot of time reading Adam Smith, but his great intellectual loves were Montaigne (with his advice to “observe, observe perpetually”) and Machiavelli. As Jeremy Adelman shows in his astonishing and moving biography, Hirschman sought, in his early twenties and long before becoming a writer, to “prove Hamlet wrong.”
5 Ways That eBooks Are Better Than Paper Books Recently I began to buy eBooks for the Kindle application on my iPad. While I still love paper books, the digital wiles of eBooks are looking increasingly attractive to me. Below are five eBook features that may tempt you to buy electronic books too. I should note that I wasn't a hold-out on eBooks for moral reasons. 1. See also: 5 Ways That Paper Books Are Better Than eBooks Being able to highlight quotes and passages and easily find them again is a key feature that eBooks have over paper books. I must add that one thing I miss about paper books is the personal touch, for example receiving a book from a friend with their marked up highlights. 2. The ability to create and then easily display archived notes is a big plus for eBooks. 3. I recently bought a few books of poetry in the Kindle Store. 4. @Tooq commented via Twitter that he/she likes the ability to tweet or send to Facebook quotes from books, on the Kindle. 5.
Academic scholarships From AoPSWiki AoPSWiki includes one of the internet's most comprehensive guides to academic scholarships. Get started by clicking through the links below by subject area. If you know of scholarships that do not match any of the following categories or are best listed under a category rather than a list, please create a new page for that category and list it here. As a general guideline for scholarships: if you're paying to apply then it is probably not a legitimate organization of scholarship. Major Scholarships National Scholarships Scholarship search systems is an internationally recognised database of student fenincial aid options including grants, scholarships and student loans. Mathematics, science, and technology scholarships These large scholarships span fields of science broadly. Specific Scholarships Scholarships by subject Additional Help See also Academic competitions
What Happens at the End of Infinite Jest? (or, the Infinite Jest ending explained) WARNING: This whole thing is one gigantic spoiler. Only read it if you’ve already tried to figure it out for yourself first. Gately, having relived his bottom, begins to recover from his infection. But at the same time, Hal’s condition deepens. In life he created the Entertainment to draw Hal out (Hal moves outwardly but doesn’t feel inside; victims of the Entertainment feel—something—inside but don’t move outwardly). JOI’s wraith is responsible for the strange disturbances around ETA — tripods in the forest, moving Ortho’s bed, ceiling tiles on the floor. JOI also created DMZ as part of an attempt to undo the effects of Hal’s eating mold as a child (recall: DMZ is a mold that grows on a mold). Hal never leaves leaves his toothbrush unattended (870), but that’s no problem for a wraith. It’s too late because someone got there first and took the anti-Entertainment cartridge (126) embedded in JOI’s head (31). Well said and eminently plausible. posted by jackd on September 17, 2009 # Thanks.
» 50 Amazing and Essential Novels to Enrich Your Library Post written by Leo Babauta. I recently ran into a couple of reading lists (I’ll share them at the end) and realized that I LOVE reading book recommendations. I can’t get enough of them. So I decided to compile my own (somewhat eclectic) list of novels I think are amazing and essential to every library. I hope you enjoy it. I should make some notes before diving in. Another note: there are actually many more books listed here than 50 — a number of those listed are actually series of books, in a couple cases series that include 20 or more books. There are classics here, but there are cheap thrillers and popular fiction and even a few “kids” books. If you could fill your library with only 50 books, you could do much worse than choose these 50. Not in any order but just in the order they came to me: King Lear, by Shakespeare. Some other lists of books I’ve enjoyed recently: