Somewhere out there!

Watch the first 20 mins or so; clear view of the current state of the word and culture.

Link: sevenload.com

From Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books.

Google has just released a personalised version of Google Books. It looks quite cool. I’ve been meaning for a while to move my delicious monster library set to librarythings, might have to consider Google Books instead.

From lifehacker.

From jkOnTheRun: Polymer Vision to offer rollable eBook reader. One of these will certainly make it easily to give an ebook to my mother.

Technorati Tags: ebooks, hardware

I think this comment from Stiglitz: What the IMF Must Do to Reestablish Legitimacy clearly states the complication of international trade. 

This poses a dilemma for Chinese policy makers. Subsidising their own farmers would divert money from education, health, and development projects. Or China can try to maintain an exchange rate that is slightly lower than it would be otherwise. If the IMF is to be even-handed, should it criticise American farm policies or China’s exchange-rate policies?

As a side note, three books on economics I can recommend to any are: Naked Economics, Freakonomics and one I finished this weekend The Undercover Economist. The last one being a very good

Technorati Tags: china, economics, international, books, trade, usa

I’ve just finished reading the latest two books from Richard Morgan, Broken Angels
and Market Forces. With these two books is now pretty much on my default for consistent quality buy list, along with Greg Bear, David Brin, Peter Hamilton, Robin Hobb and David Zindell.

I’ve started reading ebooks on my Psion 5MX and sometimes like SE P800.

After downloading some stories in lit format from Fictionwise I converted to mobipocket format by first using Convert LIT and changing them to OEBF. Then with Mobipocket I created some I could read on my Psion 5MX.

I must say its very cool being able to open my Psion at exact the right page.

Some other useful ebook resources at this site.

The Advantage of Being Useless, by George Sweet is one of my favourite books. The headlining tale is one of Chung Tzu’s goodies:

A sage, in rambling about the heights of Shang, saw a large and
extraordinary tree. The teams of a thousand chariots might be sheltered
under it , and its shade would cover them all! Said the sage, “What a
tree this is! It must contain an extraordinary amount of timber!”

The sage looked up at the smaller branches and saw they were so twisted
and crooked that they could not be made in rafters and beams. At the
roots its stem was divided into so many rounded potions that neither
coffins nor shell could be made from them. Licking one of the leaves
left the mouth feeling torn and wounded. The small of it would make one
frantic, as if intoxicate, for three whole days together.

“This indeed is a tree good for nothing, and it is thus that it has
reach so great an age.”

The cinnamon tree can be eaten, and there is cut down.
The varnish tree is useful, and therefore incisions are made in it.

All know the advantage of being useful, but no one knows the advantage
of being useless.

– Chuang Tzu.

Reading Bulgarian Background, by Bernard Newman. Travelogue published in 1961 about the authors journey though Bulgaria during that period. The two main monasteries, Rila and Bachkovo, sound like interesting places to see. One particular comment about a bicycle journey down the Danube has inspired maybe a holiday next year. Cycle tour though Austria and maybe a long term plan to cycle the whole way around the Black Sea. The later is definitely something that requires some planning.

Anyway the book is quite interesting, provided me with some insight into the Balkan history from the Bulgarian point of view.