Reviews and links for September 2010
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson
4/5
I'm a big fan of Bronson and I became a father last Thursday, finishing this book the day after. NurtureShock is packed full of the latest research on child development from infants (I can't believe how happy I am that Baby Einstein doesn't work) to teenagers. If you're unwilling to vaccinate you can probably skip this, otherwise I'd say a must read for parents. But do check back - will update this review in eighteen years or so...
WAR by Sebastian Junger
3/5
WAR consists of Junger embedding with infantry trying to hold a valley in Afghanistan. He visits several times over the course of their deployment and gets caught up in a frightening amount of action. It's as much a book about dealing with this personally as it is about the soldiers he's there to cover. There's very little context about why the valley might be important, or about the war in general, just an account of the hard pointy end of warfare and the psychology of the troops before, during and after.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
3/5
It's a passionate manifesto for focusing on new media for marketing and PR, and a reasonable guide as to how to go about it. I found repeated chapters on the same topic to be a bit grating but if you're completely new to blogging I guess it could be helpful. Readers would be better served by including more on SEO basics and less on Second Life. Worth a read if you're not even blogging yet, probably a pass otherwise.
Links
- Lucas to release Star Wars in 3D from BBC News - Home (Bastard.).
- Star Trek pizza cutter from Boing Boing (Need this!).
- Blacklisted books from BBC News - Home (No).
- The coming BlackBerry row from BBC - American Frei (Those who don't remember the Clipper Chip are doomed to repeat it...).
- David Miliband: This is Ed's day from BBC News - Home (And it will probably make for a really crappy Miliband Christmas.).
- S.F. Mayor Newsom vetoes fee on alcohol from SFGate: Top News Stories (Cheers Gav!).
- Timelapse Footage of San Francisco and its Fog at Night from Spots Unknown (Often the fog here looks like a time lapse.).
- Ewan McGregor in a Spitfire from BBC News - Home (A Spitfire 'jet', really?).
- Pope aide in 'Third World' jibe from BBC News - Home (Criticizing Heathrow and BA is hardly the same as criticizing the UK. Also, he's right.).
- New way to curb binge drinking from BBC News - Home (Is it Pernod?).
- Clinton endorses Jerry Brown for Calif. governor from SFGate: Top News Stories (Wow. Probably says more about Meg than Brown.).
- Young 'exposed to unsuitable TV' from BBC News - Home (Right, so send them to bed early so they can watch porn on their laptops...).
- Call for homeopathy cash pull-out from BBC News - Home (Does it have a Homeopathic ER (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0)?).
- Why do so many people like toast? from BBC News - Home (of toast?).
- Turtles Eating Things from Boing Boing (Except... they're tortoises! One might expect Blade Runner savvy BB to spot the difference. Sigh.).
- Why patent lawsuits and hot tubs don't mix from All Salon (From the headlines you never thought you'd read department...).
- WTF stamp from Boing Boing (Want).
- Top Gear's 'The Stig': Revealed? from BBC News - Home (It's all a decoy to prevent the real identity from leaking out (Julian Assange)).
