History was one of the classes in school i found little use for. Not that i don't enjoy history or see its importance; its just that the emphasis was always towards, what i considered, the least import: names, dates, locations--and almost always centered around politics and war. Much more useful to my mind is what happened, why, and what were the repercussions.

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Enter How we got here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets, by Andy Kessler. In about 200 pages, he describes the parallel evolution of modern technology and economics while staying relevant, often downright amusing, and finally thought provoking.

One topic touched briefly on, making me completely rethink my view of, was the backing of money with gold. I'm not sure which economics book or pseudo-economic propagandist i'd bought into, but i've had the lurking view that money should be backed by something--gold generally comes to mind. On second thought, gold really has no intrinsic value. Fools' gold illustrates this quite nicely:

If people were stranded in some remote location without food, water, and shelter, a mountain of gold would serve no more purpose than so much sand. It would have no price. Gold has no intrinsic value. It merely has a price which is the result of complex factors associated with its subjective price value compared to other commodities. Industrial usefulness of gold as well as human subjectivity that desires gold for personal adornment, etc., does assure that gold will fetch a price in a modern market. But what price? -- Robert Carroll

In any case, i now how some new theoretical filters for viewing the world of technology and money, and i love new philosophical filters.

I friend convinced me to buy the new Paul Graham book, Hackers & Painters: big ideas from the computer age, even though a lot of his essays are up on his webpage. This has to be the most (technically) inspirational book i've read in a long time! Paul Graham's essays were what lead me to rethink learning LISP. He was also the one who put Bayes based spam filters on the map. The new essays in the book (not up on his webpage) are more specifics on his startup, ViaWeb, which he's alluded to in the past, but not fully described. Overall the essays are making me realize why i'm so frustrated working for a big company, and make me think that i would be much more productive (and satisfied) doing contracting again or working on a startup.

While trying to access other material, i ran across a most fascinating and candid book, All dressed up and no place to go, by Pat Darnell. For some reason her account didn't make it into the Missionary hall of fame series that they showed us kids at church on the old Ducane projectors.

More seriously, her book conveys many horribly painful years married to an Adventist preacher. It leaves one with a lot to chew on: about religion (and religion based on Ellen White and Seventh Day Adventism), but also about life in general. While the story she tells may be an extreme example, it is never-the-less not atypical of what i've seen and the little that i've been privy too.

While the book is very matter of fact, almost journalish in nature (and also contains a number of minor typos), i had a most difficult time putting it down. It is a highly suggested read.

This book started out with a lot of similarities to The Long Walk: man is sent to a Siberian labor camp and after a spell decides to make his way back to his home country, in this case Germany, on foot.

That's where the similarities end, and contrasts appear: rather then traveling in a small group, this guy does it alone; rather then avoid other people, this guy interacts with people all the way; rather then going south to India, this guy heads East; and contrary to the title, he ends up traveling by train, hitching truck rides, etc. He also takes his time about getting out of the country, and ends up running around with some sketchy characters; a few times i had to check that i was still reading this book and not ``Adventures of Huckleberry Fin.''

Overall a decent read, but not one that tops The Long Walk.

I ran across High Adventure at a local book store, and couldn't resist. This was the first book i've read about ascents of Everest, or mountain ascents in general; it was quite gripping.

The book starts by very briefly discussing how Hillary got into mountain climbing, and then jumping right into him being invited into a party ready to try an ascent of Everest from the south side. It then follows the exhibitions he takes over the three year period leading up to the final successful ascent of Everest.

This is a good book, worth a read, but not something that just has to be read. I would have also preferred some more details--very little is said about financing, which must have been pretty significant.

If you've never read about such excursions, be sure to take note of the glossary at the end of the book; i found it when i had finished the book, and was then able to confirm my assumptions on the meanings of various terms used throughout the book.

Some number of years ago i posted a list of Unix Programming Rules, from an unknown source. Only recently did i discover this was the outline from the book The Unix Philosophy, by Mike Gancarz.

While the rules themselves are timeless, and of utmost value, the book itself is not quite so much so. My suggestion is to look over the Unix Programming Rules, if you don't understand the scope and rational for some of the rules, then i would highly suggest you read this book. Otherwise, it is a good read if unix philosophy grabs your fancy.

The book ``Sugar Blues'', by William Dufty, is a health book surviving from the 1970s which surprisingly shows few signs of being dated.

The premise under which the book is written is that sugar is bad--very bad bad. To kick off the book, the author gives his account of how sugar affected, or rather controlled, his life until he decided he wanted out. From there he jumps to a history of sugar in Western civilization, and from there does topic juggling between more history, medical anecdotes, relating personal accounts of acquaintances, all while never forgetting to sound sour notes about refined sugar.

What exactly is so bad about sugar? First of all, the author suggests that sugar is very much a drug such as heroin in its effects on the body and the way in which it is refined. (See also: Is sugar bad for you?) Sugar canes or beets, (as well as rice and wheat) are stripped from all of their natural vitamins and minerals, leaving only the non-nutrient portion of the plant left. This refinement strips the food of its usefulness to man, and in fact, can leave the food, such as sugar, in the state of being an anti-nutrient.

The book throughout mentions many problems over a broad spectrum of health problems that sugar consumption can cause: addiction, head-aches, depression, hyperactivity, tooth decay, diabetes, obesity, worsened PMS, allergies, lung cancer, scurvy, Alzheimer Disease, weakened immune system, as well as many many other things. (See also: 108 ways sugar can ruin your health) Not stopping at that, he also finds that sugar has caused wars, slavery, circumcision, and the buying out of scientists and doctors to not disturb the industry tied up in sugar production. Some of the conclusions that he draws make perfect sense. Others are a bit more of a stretch, although i certainly can not rule them out.

One example where i wondered if the author was not taking things too far was that of tobacco and smoking. He suggested that problems caused by smoking are from the sugar, and not the tar and nicotine as we are usually lead to believe. While i have not been able to verify portions of this, the sugar being a function of the curing process indeed checks out. Furthermore, some stop-smoking sites suggest cutting back on refined foods while trying to quit smoking, which seems to link part of the addictive behavior with the sugar. (See: Curing Tobacco, and Addiction relapses: nicotine, caffeine, and sugar)

An interesting twist was the portion of the book which discussed how psychiatrists are unneeded and are trying to talk away problems while ignoring that they are diet related. For some time i've been of the opinion that there is little or no need for psychiatrists, but my reasoning was more along the lines of how that field of human health was trying to solve problems which could be very spiritually related. Forgiveness would be a good example; sin can create a huge amount of mental and emotional baggage which could trigger any number of symptoms. At the suggestion of William Dufty, i now have all the more reason to believe that my reasoning against modern psychology practice is appropriate.

The biggest question that this book raises for me, is to what extent is the medical world useful and to what extent is natural healing of sorts preferred. Raised in Western mindset, we are encouraged to trust science, doctors, the government, and church suggestions on health matters. Sugar Blues rightfully knocks these assumptions by coming down very hard on doctors, psychiatrists, the AMA, and the Catholic church. Meanwhile Dufty very much endorses natural healers and eastern thought (IE yin and yang)--both of which have very questionable components. The former, as described by the author, comes very close to the realm of medicine men, or witch doctors. The later has similar pitfalls. Obviously there is some truth in both of these, but to what extent, and how should a Christian relate to these?

Overall this is an excellent book for stimulating thought, as it raises red flags about numerous facets of Western life. It is also written in a very entertaining manner, which most any person could find appealing, although for some, the lack of rigorous scientific presentation may be a slight turn off.

Some collected excerpts from the book may be found in a Nexus Magazine article entitled Sugar Blues.