http://radio.weblogs.com/0100496/categories/books/ Latest reads in random order. en Copyright 2003 Ken Nickerson Fri, 25 Jul 2003 20:17:53 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss092 kenn@ibinary.com kenn@ibinary.com <P>This is a great, entertaining read on economics.&nbsp; I was initially drawn to it for it's apparent coverage of John von Neumann's work, but that part is weak and there are better books both by and about von Neumann out there.&nbsp; Even so, this book is interesting enough with a broad overview of the history and core thoughts on economics.&nbsp; After reading this, I'd recommend you pick-up Butterfly Economics by Paul Ormerod as a nice follow-up and slightly deeper read.</P> <P><IMG src="http://radio.weblogs.com/0100496/radioStationPictures/images/2003/04/26/strangelove.jpg"></P> <P>Ablaze, The Story of Chernobyl by Piers Paul Read via Seeker and Warburg.&nbsp; </P> <P><IMG src="http://radio.weblogs.com/0100496/radioStationPictures/images/2003/03/20/chernobyl2.jpg"></P> <P>This book is an interesting review of the accident at Chernobyl.&nbsp; It's fairly well written and there are some pretty graphic B&amp;W pictures to give you a better idea of the scope of this event.&nbsp; The overall cause simply appears to be a given assumption that these RBMK reactors were completely "safe".&nbsp; Even after the explosion, many there could not believe the accident occurred in the core of the reactor.&nbsp; Interesting topic and some good lessons to be learned on engineering, design, responsibility, authority and ethics.</P>