Samsara - aNobii

Books (369)

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- 六千萬個法國人錯不了 (81)
- By Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow
- Finished on Feb 6, 2012
  
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六千萬個法國人錯不了

這本書說，法國人中央集權，服從權威甚至尊崇權威，他們想要大政府，也因此接受高稅率。
法國人又尊重知識份子，藝術家和精英。熱愛修辭，和法國本土文化美食。
但這書我看得霧裡看花，似是而非，有很多很多的例子和資料，但偏偏没有一個重點，看完後，對法國人更加迷茫．．．

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— Feb 6, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Organized Simplicity (4)
- The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living
- By Tsh Oxenreider
- Finished on Jan 28, 2012
  
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Organized Simplicity

Too many people spend moeny they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.
The greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.

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— Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Better than Beauty (4)
- A Guide to Charm
- By Emery I. Gondor, Helen Valentine, Alice Thompson
- Finished on Jan 28, 2012
  
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Better than Beauty

This is impressively good! See some quote:
- any good soap that you would use on your body is correct for your hair.
- your face can't look serene, your conversation can't be bright, your personality can't radiate, if your feet hurt.
- never be afraid of doing the wrong thing. Whatever is courteo ... (continue)

This is impressively good! See some quote:
- any good soap that you would use on your body is correct for your hair.
- your face can't look serene, your conversation can't be bright, your personality can't radiate, if your feet hurt.
- never be afraid of doing the wrong thing. Whatever is courteous and pleasant is bound to be right.
- you can forget the Do's and Don'ts of etiquette, if you will set up this simple standard... the only bad manners are those which are unkind or which contribute to another person's discomfort!!
- it is always unwise to tell your troubles - physical, mental, or spiritual - to a casual acquaintance. You have no right to assume any interest on the other person's part. Those are your problems, not hers, and it is your job to solve them.
- pleases don't be a tangent talker - the woman who starts telling a story and, halfway through, changes to another topic.
- DO YOU THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE TOUGH? THAT THE TOUGHENING PROCESS IS YOUR JOB? DO YOU THINK PEOPLE SHOULD UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEAN, THOUGH YOU MAKE NO EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND HOW THEY FEEL? DO YOU DISCOUNT THE "EMPTY HEADED" WOMAN WHO NONETHELESS SEEMS TO ATTRACT THE VERY PEOPLE YOU HOPED TO INTEREST?
- It is applied kindness, and it can be learnt
- There is scarcely an hour that passes in which someone doesn't do something for you. It may be the grocery boy. It may be the mailman. Most of all, it will be the people with whom you work and live. What is your attitude toward them? Are they mere scenery, something you paid for and so needn't be aware of? You can't afford to think so. Your attitude toward those who serve you reflects your attitude toward everyone else.
- Once you get this fundamental feeling that each of us lives by the grace of God and our fellowman, you will detect a new note in your thank-you.
- The important thing is your own awareness of those who have helped you, in however small a measure. All the gratitude and graciousness that any normal occasion evokes can be dealt with by those two words.
- Women are prone to this cruel sport. We get a false sense of intimacy in back-stabbing.
- Quite apart from the fact that the woman may hear some of those comments, this sort of judgment tendency, this babbling on and on must be thoroughly guarded against by the woman who would be charming. She will carry over remnants of such a conversation into her next meeting with the victim. She will gradually have a long list of people upon whom she has sat in horrid judgment, and toward whom she has a colored opinion that bars her from easy relationships.
- We are all just a group of human beings trying to live together.
- Accept yourself as you really are. You need no apologies for yourself, though you may need some for bad conduct. Get in the habit of calling yourself hones if ugly names.
- This is no formula. It is a real change of heart, a switching of interest from yourself to others.

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— Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback
- A Universe from Nothing (2)
- Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
- By Lawrence M. Krauss
- Finished on Jan 28, 2012
  
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A Universe from Nothing

I have to say I am disappointed.
I thought the author will be kind enough to explain why gravity is negative energy and exactly how it balance all other forces to make the universe essentially zero mass and zero energy... well... he did explained why a flat universe mean gravity nullify all positiv ... (continue)

I have to say I am disappointed.
I thought the author will be kind enough to explain why gravity is negative energy and exactly how it balance all other forces to make the universe essentially zero mass and zero energy... well... he did explained why a flat universe mean gravity nullify all positive energy... but a very shallow explanation... make me wonder if the physicist really figured out all the details and reasons why.
Maybe, brilliant scientist like him and Richard Darkin could spend less time wrestling with those evangelists lar!

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— Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Pictures of the mind (8)
- what the new neuroscience tells us about who we are
- By Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
- Finished on Jan 28, 2012
  
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Pictures of the mind

So fMRI and PET scan make a revolution on neuroscience.
- there is a convincing link between activity in the left prefrontal cortex and positive emotional states.
- gamma activity is believed to be an indicator of neural synchrony - the integration of localized neural processes into higher-order c ... (continue)

So fMRI and PET scan make a revolution on neuroscience.
- there is a convincing link between activity in the left prefrontal cortex and positive emotional states.
- gamma activity is believed to be an indicator of neural synchrony - the integration of localized neural processes into higher-order cognitive and emotional function.
- also referred to as the "dark network", these areas in the frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobes buzz with activity when we appear to be doing nothing at all, and go as cold and black as deep space when we are engaged in a task or soling a problem- when we are mentally connected to the moment, rather than time-traveling through our past or projecting ourselves onto an imagined future.
- Can we become numb to life's sharpest sorrows without also becoming numb to its greatest joys?
- Participants trained in mindfulness also showed much greater activation in the right insula, an area that has been tightly linked to awareness of body sensation.

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— Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback

- What the CEO Wants You to Know (9)
- How Your Company Really Works
- By Charan, Ram, Ram Charan
- Finished on Dec 28, 2011
  
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What the CEO Wants You to Know

The basic factor of any business, no matter it is a fruit shop or Fortune 500 can boil down into:
1. Cash generation
2. Profit Margin
3. Velocity (inventory turns)
4. Return on Assets (Return=Margin x velocity)
5. Growth
6. Customers
The author also make a strong case that it is more than making mo ... (continue)

The basic factor of any business, no matter it is a fruit shop or Fortune 500 can boil down into:
1. Cash generation
2. Profit Margin
3. Velocity (inventory turns)
4. Return on Assets (Return=Margin x velocity)
5. Growth
6. Customers
The author also make a strong case that it is more than making money, management need to increase the wealth of shareholder. So how is wealth different from money?? Wealth is PE ratio, the higher it is, the better prospect a company is (per the current market opinion). This is why the share price is so important. Low PE makes a company vulnerable to be a target of takeover.

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— Dec 28, 2011 | Add your feedback
- From Eternity to Here (6)
- The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time
- By Sean Carroll
- Finished on Dec 28, 2011
  
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From Eternity to Here

This book raise a very important question -- why the time always point to the same direction? Why we can only remember the past, not the future? And, why the entrophy always increase?
This is really good that I finally understand the mathematics beneath the Second Law of Thermodynamic. And I really ... (continue)

This book raise a very important question -- why the time always point to the same direction? Why we can only remember the past, not the future? And, why the entrophy always increase?
This is really good that I finally understand the mathematics beneath the Second Law of Thermodynamic. And I really appreciate the author's frankness in admitting there are a lot of thing we don't know and not sure. Many of the things in the book are the current physicists' best guess, and some of them are just personal preference. If all the scientist are as frank and humble as Richard Feyman, I am sure science can progress must faster and the public will pay them much higher respect.
A good read, but I am thinking, maybe I should read Panrose next. He is highly mathematics, but maybe this is the only way to capture the ideas.

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— Dec 28, 2011 | Add your feedback
Tokyo: A Brief Histor-
y
- Tokyo: A Brief History (1)
- Finished on Dec 23, 2011
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New York: A Brief Histor-
y
- New York: A Brief History (1)
- Finished on Dec 23, 2011
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London-
: A Brief Histor-
y
- London: A Brief History (1)
- Finished on Dec 23, 2011
  
  Finished (re-read) on Dec 23, 2011
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- Understanding the Americans (2)
- A Handbook for Visitors to the United States
- By Yale Richmond
- Finished on Dec 20, 2011
  
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Understanding the Americans

Interesting. American highly appreciate hardwork, open to disclose many personal details to stranger but very difficult to be real friends. They always want to be California sunshine, even they feel groomy and lonely....

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— Jan 16, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Satipatthana Sutta Discourses (1)
- (Vipassana Meditation and the Buddha's Teachings)
- By S. N. Goenka
- Finished on Dec 20, 2011
  
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Satipatthana Sutta Discourses

It is such a relieve to see that the Buddha himself define Vedena as bodiy sensation in this same discourse. So, what Goenkaji teaches is very likely to be Buddha's own teachings, right?
But easier said than done. This is such a looooong path.

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— Dec 20, 2011 | Add your feedback
- 一個人暖呼呼 (226)
- 高木直子的鐵道溫泉秘境
- By 高木直子
- Finished on Dec 20, 2011
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- 一个人住的每一天 (63)
- By 高木直子
- Finished on Dec 20, 2011
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- The Tale of Peter Rabbit (127)
- (Golden Tell-A-Tale Book)
- By Beatrix Potter
- Finished on Dec 20, 2011
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