Gedanken Experiment

Reading List

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00:34 GMT

On Nuclear Terrorism

On Nuclear Terrorism by M. Levi ISBN 9780674026490

If you are not a wonk, move on as this book is not for you. Thoroughly referenced, Levi's book goes into detail on the subject of nuclear terrorism and its defense. What might be surprising is that we now find ourselves somewhat more at ease than before reading it. The physics of nuclear weapons was not new to us yet much of the engineering aspects were and when viewed along side the various controls and defenses now in place, one begins to realize just how difficult a task building a very small rudimentary weapon would be to even the 'best' terrorist group. While not the fastest read due in part to the need to check the extensive footnotes, anybody who either needs to know or wants to know about this subject should read this book and not risk being lost in journalistic hyperbole or worse, government proaoganda.

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00:12 GMT

Vacuum Diagrams

Vacuum Diagrams by S. Baxter ISBN 9780061059049

Being a fan of hard Sci Fi and not the touchy-feely rubbish publishers push on the genre these days, Baxter's books looked very interesting. Checking quickly on-line for sequencing of his novels (there appeared to be an underlying theme related to an alien race called the Xeelee), we came across this quote from the author:

I’m not a great fan of books that end with cliff-hangers. So you could go in anywhere. One way would be to start with ‘Vacuum Diagrams’, a collection that sets out the overall story of the universe. Then ‘Timelike Infinity’ and ‘Ring’ which tell the story of Michael Poole, then ‘Raft’ and ‘Flux’ which are really incidents against the wider background, and finally ‘Destiny’s Children.’"

Taking his advice, we are now about one-third into Vacuum Diagrams and we like it.

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00:04 GMT

Steidlmayer on Markets

Steidlmayer on Markets: Trading with Market Profile by J. Steidlmayer and S. Hawkins ISBN 9780471215561

Always looking for some new perspectives on trading, we decided to finally take the plunge and try to understand market profile. What better source than a book co-written (and blessed) by the man who created the technique, Mr. Steidlmayer? Recommended for any chartists who would like to incorporate this method into their trading.