Stephen Budiansky

What a mixed bag! The discussion of the co-evolution of humans alongside domesticated animals and plants is so well articulated, as is the critique of our persistent romanticized view of "nature," now created from afar since so many of us have such a mediated experience with anything remotely wild and even then, what appears wild when we are only occasionally stepping out of the built environment may still be profoundly shaped by co-evolutionary forces that we don't recognize. I've read similar analyses in other books (e.g. pieces by Temple Grandin), but those were written at a later date, so it was interesting to read this argument at a much earlier point in that conversation. So those parts were great, but the diatribes against animal rights advocates is completely out of control. By contrast to his thoughtful analysis and deconstruction of naive understandings about the relations between people and animals and plants, in discussing animal rights movements the author gives into self-indulgent slams against tactics and doesn't attempt to address any of the real problems this movement was trying to surface. Interestingly, he predicted a great backlash against their perspective because of the tactics, but that is not in fact how history has played out.… (altro)

Þokkalegasta lesning. Tyrfin á köflum þegar Budiansky útskýrir helstu dulkóðanir og leiðir til að brjóta kóðana en hann útskýrir ágætlega brösótta fæðingu NSA, stofnanavæðingu og klúður. Þrátt fyrir að Bandamenn gætu brotið alla helstu kóða Öxulveldanna í Seinni heimsstyrjöldinni reyndust þeir brátt óbrjótanlegir í Kalda stríðinu. Sovétmönnum gekk að mörgu leyti betur gegn tæknilega öflugri andstæðing með njósnurum og árangursríkum gamaldagsaðferðum. Besti árangur njósnastofnana stórveldanna var kannski að sýna forystumönnum ríkja sinna að þrátt fyrir hættuna á kjarnorkustríði væru engin skref tekin til virkja kjarnorkuflaugarnar og þannig minnka óttan við gagnkvæma eyðingu.… (altro)

5762 Oliver Wendell Holmes A Life in War, Law, and Ideas By Stephen Budiansky (read 3 Nov 2021) This book, published in 2019, is an elegant work, telling in great detail Holmes' time and wounds in the Civil War, his time as a lawyer and judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was born 8 March 1841, the son of the author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (read by me on 5 Dec 1944), and served in the Civil War from 1862 to 1865, was seriously wounded twice, practiced law till appointed to the Massachusetts high court, and in 1902 was appointed by Teddy Roosevelt to the United States Supreme Court, where he served till 1932. He died in 1935. This book gets better and better and by he time I finished it I was really finding it a most worthwhile book, Back on June 9, 1944, I read Catherine Drinker Bowen's biography of Holmes with much appreciation but since then I have gone to law school and therein not only learned of many of Holmes' fine opinions on the Court but also leaned of his flawed views, such as his horrendous opinion in Buck v. Bell, a case much admired by Hitler and now viewed as one of Holmes' worst decisions. But many of the dissents by Holmes have now become, fortunately, the majority view, especially in the areas of free speech and of legislative power.… (altro)