Mike Ball » Books

Why Crack Dealers Live With Their Mothers

Mike — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:51:55 +0000

A couple of years ago I read a great book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics. It was a great book, applying economic principals in day-to-day situations. I heartily recommend it. This posting was inspired by a video of a talk by Steven Levitt on a topic from the book. One of them lived with [...]

Book: Biting the Wax Tadpole

Mike — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:45:09 +0000

As long as I can remember I have been fascinated by languages, both natural and artificial. The book Biting The Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic, by Elizabeth Little, was written by a young lady with a similar interest. It’s a little full of oddities for the sake of oddities, but it does a good [...]

Book: What Terrorists Want

Mike — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 03:40:33 +0000

I’ve often argued that terrorism is a poor tactic because it doesn’t achieve its political ends. My son Kevin, one of the smartest people I know, argued that terrorists really weren’t trying to achieve political ends, but were trying for glory within their group. After we talked about it for a while, we decided that both [...]