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Nelson Mandela on criticism:
Leaders fully appreciate that constructive criticism within the structures of the organisation, however sharp it may be, is one of the most effective methods of addressing internal problems, of ensuring that the views of each comrade are carefully considered, that if a comrade is to express his view freely there must be no fear of marginalization or, eve worse, of victimization (Mandela, 326).
On Henry Aaron (yes, he liked Henry way more than Hank - didn't even answer to Hank): "...it was his sense of duty, conbined with a certain steely, uncompromising compassion, that struck" observers "the most (Bryant, 265)." Quietly, almost unknown to his teammates, Aaron sought to help people who were less fortunate that him. On his hunting trips, he befriended a whole community in South Dekota, Spink County and its six major towns, where he visited the Redfield State Hospital and School, and its kids who just wanted to learn how to play baseball the major league way. Over the years Aaron spent days and days just being Henry and talking - and showing - about baseball (Bryant, 268). Aaron, in a way, was in the shadow of such more well known players - black players - like Willie Mays. He ended up playing longer and in his own way, achieved more both on the field, and off.
On Custer: Given a little time, all of us could come up with a story about Custer's failures as a Western Indian fighter. An interesting aside about Custer's service in the Civil War, at Gettysburg (Philbrick, 47-48):
"The redoubtable Jeb Stuart launched a desperate attempt to penetrate the rear of the Union line. If he could smash through Federal resistance, he might meet up with Pickett's forces and secure a spectacular victory for General Lee. Custer, well ahead of his troops, with his sword raised" charged Stuart and broke Stuart's attack on East Cavalry Field, with "the most gallant charge of the war." Recognizing Custer's contribution to the war, General Sheridan gave Custer's wife Libbie "the table on which Grant and Lee signed the surrender" (Philbrick, 48).
On Lewis and Clark, and Western exploration (Hall): Lewis was the friend of Jefferson, the one that got many of the adventurers into what became one of the great explorations of all time, especially from an American expansion point of view. Technologically, there were quite a few interesting highlights of the journey. Horses. Boats and canoes. Fostering friendship amongst folks who might have no reason to be friendly. Figuring out what those new friends would like to take home. (Blue beads were a good start.) And let's not forget location. They used chronometer and sextant to figure out where they were, all the time trying to figure out which direction tributaries of the Mississippit went - and how far north - as those measurements (Hall, 192) would lead to the derivation of the border between Louisana and Canada. Since Hall's is a novel, we are also treated to a story about the baby born on the journey and, in fact, the technology of raising an Indian child in the wilderness with the technology of exploration. Custer may have failed at the Little Big Horn; Lewis and Clark named the river on their first journed years before.
On Freakonomics: Levitt and Dubner admit that their first book, Freakonomics, had no unifying theme. Upon submitting their second book some time later, they had a different attitude. There was a unifying theme to their work, namely, "people respond to incentives (Levitt, xiv)." There is a Law of Unintended Consequences that operates on economic activities that you ignore at your own risk. Macroeconomics are a big deal; so are microeconomics: a scientist taught a group of monkeys to use money as a form of exchange (Levitt, 212). The University stopped the experiment. Why destroy a happy colony of monkeys by showing them how, over time, one could become richer, and another, thus, poorer? Other key findings? Irrationality is not only human. Monkeys become just as irrational as, say, day traders, when given the right incentives( Levitt, 214). No wonder the University stopped the experiment. Why destroy a healthy colony, indeed?
On the RAND Institute (Nasar, 105):
World War II was a war in which the talents of scientists were exploited to an unprecedented, almost extravagant degree. First, there were all the new inventions of warfare - radar, infrared detection devices, bomber aircraft, long-range rockets, torpedoes with depth charges, as well as the atomic bomb. Second, the military had only the vaguest of ideas about how to use these inventions....Someone had to devise new techniques for these new weapons, new methods of assessing their effectiveness and the most eficient way to use them. It was a task that fell to the scientists.
On Patents, John Atanasoff, and John von Neumann: John Atanasoff, it now proven, developed the modern computer first in a laboratory in Iowa in the thirties. Anyone else who made claims was late to the party. John von Neumann, scientist par excellance and advisor to presidents, wanted to make sure that computers eventually ended up being useful to all scientists, not just a few. His papers, the eventually crucial title of which was "First Draft of a Report of the EDVAC, by John von Neumann", layed out the whole computational universe, and eventually, kept one manufacturer from monopolizing the development of the computer. Good for mankind. Not so good for competing computer patent-holders. There is a message here. Atanasoff was busy during the war years, too busy, in fact, to supervise the patent applications the university back in Iowa was supposed to be submitting. That lack of diligence muddied the whole story of the computer - and the patents thereto - opening up a can of worms that wasn't resolved until the seventies.
On Milton S. Hershey, Hersey's choclate magnate: During the Great Depression, most company's sales continued to fall. Hersey's did as well, bottoming out in 1932 or so and never looking back. In their favor, they were a cheap indulgence that strapped kids could continue to afford, yes, but they also continued to aggressively expand. A film "The Gift of Montezuma" was distributed to theaters about the birth of chocolate, and the birth of Hershey (D'Antonio, 199). During the Depression, Hershey continued to expand both the plant itself in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the company town. There was, almost nostalgically when seen from today's eyes, a Utopian vision for the town and the company, both created and enlivened year after year by Milton S. Hershey.
On the first nuclear weapons, their utility, and their future: Robert Oppenheimer led a perfect scientific life. He was acclaimed for his scientific work, his management of the bomb facility at Los Alamos, and, finally, denigrated by the government for his realization that there would be no winner in the weapons race of the fifties and sixties, especially if it focused on total nuclear warfare. Eisenhower's "military complex," and political McCarthyism, won in the end, stripping Oppenheimer of his security clearance and the ability to manage large-scale projects while humiliating a kind and honorable man who, seeminly, misunderstood the possibilities of taking on the complex - and winning. The Institute for Advanced Study was his last refuge, a place he changed from a purely mathmatical haven to a creative institute for historians and poets, as well. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer realized the responsibility he retained, even if Truman himself thought him foolish, as the buck, as they say, really did end at his desk, not Oppenheimer's.
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Bird, Kai and Martin J. Sherwin. American Prometheus. The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Alfred A. Knopf. 2005.
Bryant, Howard. The Last Hero. A Life of Henry Aaron. Pantheon Books. 2010.
D'Antonio, Michael. Hershey. Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. 2006.
Hall, Brian. I Should Be Extremely Happy In Your Company. A Novel of Lewis and Clark. Viking. 2003.
Herriot, James. Every Living Thing. St. Martin's Press. 1992.
Lama, The Dalai. My Spiritual Journey. Personal Reflections, Teachings, and Talks. HarperOne. 2009, 2010.
Levitt, Steven D. and Stephen J. Dubner. Superfreakonomics. Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. William Morrow. 2009.
Mandela, Nelson. Conversations with Myself. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2010.
Mariano, Connie. The White House Doctor. A Memoir. Thomas Dunne Books. 2010.
Nasar, Sylvia. A Beautiful Mind. Simon & Schuster. 1998.
Norman, Philip. John Lennon. The Life. Ecco. 2008.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. The Last Stand. Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Viking. 2010.
Smiley, Jane. The Man Who Invented the Computer. The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer. Doubleday. 2010.