Phil Davidson's Scrapbook of Useful or Intriguing Information
General reference resources
Health and health care
-
Good News and Bad News About Breast Cancer
by David Plotkin
(Atlantic Monthly,
June 1996).
He says that the statistics about breast cancer and mammography
are widely misinterpreted.
-
What Nurses Stand For
by Suzanne Gordon
(Atlantic Monthly,
February 1997).
Trained nurses bring expertise and empathy to provide what
the machinery of the health care system is missing.
The Christian gospel and understanding it
-
The Jesus I Never Knew
by Philip Yancey
(Zondervan, 1995. ISBN 0-310-38570-9).
An enlightening, transforming view of Jesus as
reflected in the gospels and in the early history
of the Christian Church.
I recommend this book for anyone who knows the
life of Jesus, in order to know Jesus better.
-
Expert On Death Faces Her Own Death:
Kubler-Ross now questions her life's work
by
Don Lattin,
San Francisco Chronicle,
Saturday 31 May 1997,
Page A1.
"Two years of medical problems and existential angst have forced the
Swiss-born psychiatrist and spiritualist [Elizabeth Kubler-Ross]
to question her own legacy and to
reconsider her ideas about life, death and 'the other side.'"
-
God at War
by Gregory A. Boyd
(InterVarsity Press,
1997. ISBN 0-8308-1885-5).
Asserts that the Bible's view of the world
includes angels and demons with freedom to oppose God;
that in fact some of these created beings still oppose God
and therefore the world is a battleground.
This explains why the Bible does not address the modern world's
philosophical problem of evil.
The problem of evil asks how an omnipotent, loving God can permit
evil beings and events.
According to Boyd, the problem arose from Augustine's view of God
as meticulously controlling every aspect of the universe
and of God as unaffected by that universe.
The Bible's monotheism isn't quite like
Augustine's Greek-influenced version.
The Bible's view of God as all-powerful and sovereign
includes the view that God permits some of his creatures to
oppose him and even to thwart his will for a time.
Racism in America
-
Hymn
by Emily Hiestand
(Atlantic Monthly,
July 1998).
One woman's partial perspective on straddling the white/black divide
in church.
-
What Jefferson Helps to Explain
by Benjamin Schwarz
(Atlantic Monthly,
March 1997).
Jefferson is justifiably lauded and criticised for his statements
and actions about black/white relationships.
This article goes beyond the Jefferson debate
to discuss why slavery was tolerated in our freedom-loving country
and how African-Americans changed American culture.
The article then introduces "the very bonding force
that could potentially redeem America from the racial fear
and hatred":
Christian churches demonstrating real interracial equality
among their members in Jefferson's time and after.
-
Playing the Grace Card
by Spencer Perkins
(Christianity Today,
13 July 1998).
One important part of racial reconciliation
is the practice of forgiveness by African-Americans
toward European-Americans.
Perkins (African-American, son of John Perkins)
shares some of his difficulties and victories in the process.
Management -- an elusive skill
-
The Cathedral and the Bazaar
by Eric S. Raymond.
A long (but readable) essay on why a chaotic community of computer programmers
can produce a finer program than a confined commercial effort can produce.
The reasoning is
based on the dramatic successes of the Linux operating system
and fetchmail.
Although written about programming and for programmers,
the argument may have implications for many other kinds of collaborations
and communities.
See also
-
Intelligent Hiring 101 -- Tools and Techniques
by Marc Mencher, Virtual Search.
How to interview job candidates effectively.
This article also appeared in
The Cursor,
Summer 1997, page 52.
-
The Ultimate Telecommuter:
One Person's Demonstration Of Working On-The-Go
by Robert Moskowitz
(MicroTimes issue 168, 17 August 1997).
Answers many of the standard objections to telecommuting.
Mexico
Views of our wide world
-
Notes on the Twentieth Century
by Hans Koning
(Atlantic Monthly,
September 1997).
A random, sober summary of the history, trends,
and some of the greatest changes of the twentieth century.
-
"Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair"
by Doris Drucker
(Atlantic Monthly,
August 1998, pp. 73-91.
A memoir of growing up in an upper-middle class family in Germany before,
during, and after World War I.
- A
Forbes profile verifies that the author's husband
is Peter Drucker, the famous management expert.
-
Visivox
is the author's invention,
a visual display to help speakers regulate the sound of their voice.
The author's firm, RSQ LLC, sells it
to speakers bureaus (such as Peter Drucker's) and others.
-
Poor but Prosperous
by Akash Kapur
(Atlantic Monthly,
September 1998, pp. 40-45).
The Indian state of Kerala has achieved a controlled population and a healthy, literate
people and is increasing its level of popular political involvement.
This is in spite of a gross domestic product (per capita)
about 16% less than India's.
There's more good news, too.
Why aren't more places like this?
An Indian woman told me that Kerala is matriarchal
("the highest form of society").
Might this have something to do with it?
-
Israel
Now by Robert B. Kaplan
(Atlantic Monthly, January 2000, pp. 62-77.
A tour of parts of Israel (and across the border in Syria and Jordan) in 1999 (?)
reveals some of what peace starts to look like in a land too small to divide.
More on politics, morality, etc.
- The Great Disruption:
Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order,
by Francis Fukuyama
(Atlantic Monthly,
May 1999).
Critiques the usual theories about why crime seems to have been advancing and society decaying.
Many of the theories don't fit the facts.
The author finds another culprit:
the sexual revolution liberated women from dire dependence on men, so family bonds
and the financial status of women decayed.
(Does this indicate that interdependence is stronger when there is unavoidable dependence?)
The author finds hope
-- without recourse to religion or religious institutions --
that the human social instinct may have already begun
restrengthening our ties to one another.
Miscellaneous
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Last modified 22 April 2005