Books
Welcome...
I have been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1987.
For 3 years, it ran in the Greeley Tribune. Since then, it has run in various subsidiaries of the Douglas County News Press. I still have most of my columns in digital format.
For many years, I only gave myself one rule: try to work the word "library" into every piece. My intent was to think in public about just what librarianship means at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st.
August 12, 2010 - think for yourself
In 2005 Philip Tetlock wrote a book called, "Expert Political Judgment: How Good is it? How can we know?"
To find out, he did something extraordinary. He went back and studied 50 years of writings by various media pundits and commentators who made predictions about politics and economics. Then he carefully tracked the results.
What did he find?
Experts don't do so good.
January 28, 2010 - the mind changes the brain
For a long time, scientists believed two things about the brain.
The first was the idea that you're born with a set number of neurons -- "brain cells." Then, you lose them all your life.
January 21, 2010 - reading is both science and magic
I'm a pretty fast reader. Because of that, I usually only read one book at a time. (That also helps me keep the characters and plots straight.)
But last weekend, I broke the pattern, in part because the formats of the books were so different.
