Grand unified books thread

[PDH]

That's good, because the quality of service at Starbucks has been shockingly low lately.

No, that is me.

If this person wishes to continue, I suspect actually law school or pre-med, they could do whatever they want.  They are perhaps the smartest and most capable 1st year I have ever seen...and that says a lot - rather daunting in a way.

[Malthus]

That's good, because the quality of service at Starbucks has been shockingly low lately.

No, that is me.

If this person wishes to continue, I suspect actually law school or pre-med, they could do whatever they want.  They are perhaps the smartest and most capable 1st year I have ever seen...and that says a lot - rather daunting in a way.

Heh, kidding aside, maybe they could actually make it as a writer or academic. Some do ... it is just such a hard road these days.

I hate the notion that anyone with real smarts should become a doc or lawyer.

[PDH]

Heh, kidding aside, maybe they could actually make it as a writer or academic. Some do ... it is just such a hard road these days.

I hate the notion that anyone with real smarts should become a doc or lawyer.

They could, their only really non-like is the writing, and frankly they are damn good at that now - far better than I was at any point of my undergraduate, to be honest.

The daunting thing, as I said above, is that they could do anything - I really doubt any discipline is beyond them.  To see such a person is really remarkable, and makes me hope they really do go to great heights.

[Syt]

Don't get your hopes up too high, PDH. Teachers were gushing over me similarly when it came to maths, composition or languages. Look where I'm now.

[Oexmelin]

Is this person a conjoined twin or is using «they» rather than she / he something common ?

But yea, having bright or enthusiastic students is always a joy.

[Malthus]

Is this person a conjoined twin or is using «they» rather than she / he something common ?

But yea, having bright or enthusiastic students is always a joy.

I'm assuming PDH doen't want us to know the gender of this wonderstudent, for fear of being teased. 

[Oexmelin]

Ah. Gotcha.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Matthew Pearl- The Last Dickens.  Pretty damn good.

ohhh I didn't know about this one, I liked his previous books a lot. thx.

[PDH]

Is this person a conjoined twin or is using «they» rather than she / he something common ?

But yea, having bright or enthusiastic students is always a joy.

I'm assuming PDH doen't want us to know the gender of this wonderstudent, for fear of being teased. 

Bingo.  I assume teasing anyway, but yeah.

[Malthus]

Bingo.  I assume teasing anyway, but yeah.

I further assume that chances are good wonderstudent is female, as the Languish Teasing Potential (LTP) for praising a female wonderstudent is higher than that for praising a male wonderstudent.

Langush stock response(tm): "Tit pics plz"

[Sheilbh]

Is this person a conjoined twin or is using «they» rather than she / he something common ?

It's quite common in English English.  I believe it's less common in American English.

[garbon]

It's quite common in English English.  I believe it's less common in American English.

It's fairly common here, although for essay writing I was always expected to stick he or she.

[jimmy olsen]

Flipped through this at the library, it has some amazing photos.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonderful-World-Albert-Kahn-Photographs/dp/1846074584

Product Description
In 1909 the millionaire French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn embarked on an ambitious project to create a colour photographic record of, and for, the peoples of the world. As an idealist and an internationalist, Kahn believed that he could use the new Autochrome process, the world's first user-friendly, true-colour photographic system, to promote cross-cultural peace and understanding. Until recently, Kahn's huge collection of 72,000 Autochromes remained relatively unheard of. Now, a century after he launched his project, this book and the BBC TV series it accompanies are bringing these dazzling pictures to a mass audience for the first time and putting colour into what we tend to think of as an entirely monochrome age.Kahn sent photographers to more than 50 countries, often at crucial junctures in their history, when age-old cultures were on the brink of being changed for ever by war and the march of twentieth-century globalisation. They documented in true colour the collapse of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, the last traditional Celtic villages in Ireland, and the soldiers of the First World War. They took the earliest known colour photographs in countries as far apart as Vietnam and Brazil, Mongolia and Norway, Benin and the United States. In 1929 the Wall Street Crash forced Kahn to bring his project to an end. He died in 1940, but left behind the most important collection of early colour photographs in the world.

[Oexmelin]

His house is a nice place to visit when in France (beautiful garden + his archives).

[jimmy olsen]

Here's a nice speech by Dr. Michael Burlingame the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life. It's a 2,000 page biography that recently came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VExvJhMmv9Q&eurl