Daily Thoughts 10/20/2012

Claude Monet, painting of the French artist's wife, Camille, reading in a meadow full of flowers. It was first exhibited in Paris in 1877. Dans la prairie, 1876, Oil on canvas.

Daily Thoughts 10/20/2012

Last night, I read some more of Online Reputation Management for Dummies.  It reminded me to set up a Google Alert for a few subjects. http://www.google.com/alerts
I also read a little bit more of Paradiso.  There is a lot of Roman and Florentine history in the poem by Dante.  I especially liked the description of the Roman Emperor Justinian.

This morning, I read some of On Politics, Book One by Alan Ryan.  It is a two volume set.  The first book covers from Herodotus to Machiavelli.  The focus is on western politics and starts with the polis or the Greek city state.  The author suggests that a small city state is very different from a large modern nation in how democracy is carried out.  Alan Ryan has a very impressive publications list.  I especially like the review list from the New York Review of Books.  http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ajryan/mycv.html#books

I also read some more of Paradiso by Dante.  My favorite line so far from Canto X is:

Within the court of Heaven, whence I return, Are many jewels found, so fair and precious They cannot be transported from the realm;

It is something worth contemplating.

I have been contemplating purchasing an ebook from Harvard Business Review, Information Wants to Be Shared by Joshua Gans.  I probably won't buy it.  It seems to be a spinoff of the idea "information wants to be free."

Web Bits

My 6,128 Books by Joe Queenan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444868204578064483923017090.html