December Read/Alma

Title: The Enormous EGG

Author: Butterworth, Oliver

THIS IS MY FIRST ENGLISH BOOK WHICH I HAVE red. Let me try to introduce the interesting story to you.

Nate is a general boy, 12 years old, he is living in a small town in the New Hampshire.  He grows up in his farm family.

The thing surprise everybody happened on his summer holiday.

One morning, Nate found his hen laid an enormous egg in their coop .It is so huge, even is big as same as the hen! But the hen still like it and take care of it. So she want to hatch it out. Of course it is a very formidable task. But she insisted it for five weeks although everybody give up, except Nate. He think it was normal that cost longtime to hatch out, because sometimes hatch a goose maybe take 3 weeks, besides his egg is enormous! So Nate helped his hen to turn the egg over for several times everyday even in the midnight.

At last, 6 weeks past, they did it and got a big surprise. It is a baby dinosaur which has disappeared before long long ago.

Nate decide feed him by himself. Every morning Nate walks with his baby in the street. And usually many kids walk together with them follow the dinosaur. It make him fill so good.

Scientists come to the small town to explore from all over the country,  that make his backyard mess. But the biggest problem is it grow so fast, food is limited. Luckily the baby just eats grasses, not meat.

Now Nate had to think about let the baby go. He is very sad. But Dr. help him.  The national museum in Washington DC would like to accept it. And Nate will still take care of it for 3 weeks. This is another gift to Nate because he never go to there before.

But usually the museum only collects specimens, so the dinosaur made some big troubles in the museum. When Nate walks with his friend in the street in the early morning, the dinosaur crack up the car and people scare away, anyway the street is mess.

They have to move him to a zoo, but only after 1 day , the zoo wouldn’t like to adopt him. Because his appetite is too big, they think it waste the money of taxpayer. People argue about keeping it or kill it.

Nate was very anxious if he can’t protect his friend. In a TV interview, he told the whole story since he had the egg, took care of it like if he is his pet, as a friend, and the dinosaur is always very kindly to everybody except eat too much and grow too fast. He is absolutely unacceptable anybody kill his pet. His speech touched the audience.

On the second day, many people went to the zoo objection. Finally they raise money for feeding the dinosaur , they got the enough money to feed for all his life.

When Nate come back hometown, he was like a little hero. His family is proud of his action.

January Read

Title: Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Author: Berger, Jonah

Call Number: 658.8342 B496C 2013

Subjects: New Products; Consumer Behavior; Popularity

Number of Pages: 244

ISBN: 9781451686579

Book Description (from the inside of the book cover):

            If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

            Wharton marketing professor Johan Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children.

            In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and Youtube videos.

            Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through\ the lowly cheesesteak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender.

            If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread-for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.

My Read:

            The author lists six key principles in the book. He says: The same key principles drive all sorts of social epidemics. Whether it’s about getting people to save paper, see a documentary, try a service, or vote for a candidate, there is a recipe for success. The same six principles or STEPPS, drive things to catch on (page 207). There are:

Social Currency-We share things that make us look good

Triggers-Top of mind, tip of tongue

Emotion-When we care, we share

Public-Built to show, built to grow

Practical Value-News you can use

Stories-Information travels under the guise of idle chatter

            And if you want to apply this framework, here’s a checklist you can use to see how well your product or idea is doing on the six different STEPPS (page 209)

Social Currency-Does talking about your product or idea make people look good? Can you find the inner remarkability? Leverage game mechanics? Make people feel like insiders?

Triggers-Consider the context. What cues make people think about your product or idea? How can you grow the habitat and make it come to mind more often?

Emotion-Focus on feelings. Does talking about your product or idea generate emotion? How can you kindle the fire?

Public-Does your product or idea advertise itself? Can people see when others are using it? If not, how can you make the private public? Can you create behavioral residue that sticks around even after people use it?

Practical Value-Does talking about your product or idea help people help others? How can you highlight incredible value, packaging your knowledge and expertise into useful information others will want to disseminate?

Stories-What is your Trojan Horse? Is your product or idea embedded in a broader narrative that people want to share? Is the story not only viral, but also valuable?

            As I closed the book and thought back what I just read some points and stories popped up. First is “the Rule of 100.” The receiver of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics is Daniel Kahneman. He isn’t an economist. He is a psychologist. He has this theory called “prospect theory.” The Rule of 100 is explained as followed: if the product’s price is less than $100, the Rule of 100 says that percentage discounts will seem larger (i.e $30 with $3 off vs 10% discount). If the product’s price is more than 4100, the opposite is true (i.e $2,000 with $200 off vs 10% discount).

            The second point came to mind is the emotion part. Both positive and negative emotion will trigger the virality. Not all positive emotions will do. There are 3 kinds of positive emotion that will do the magic: awe, excitement, and amusement. And two kinds of negative emotion will go viral: anger and anxiety.

            The third point is the case about iPod’s headphone. Instead of the ubiquitous black headphone, the Apple Company had their white iPod headphone. The white color stands out. Another similar case is the yellow Livestrong wristband.

            And don’t forget the first story about the “Please Don’t Tell” bar in New York. How the hot dog shop "Crif Dogs" stands out and beats the other nearby 60 places to sell their drinks: they use a wooden old-fashioned phone booth as the secret passage to their forty-five seats bar behind the shop. Patrons have to locate the booth then dial clockwise to hear the answer: Do you have a reservation? And, suddenly, the back of the booth swings open-it's a secret door!(page 30).

            Overall I find the book helpful and worthy of reading and referring. "Monkey see, monkey do." The author states from the beginning of the book: "Word of mouth is more effective than traditional advertising for two key reasons. 1)it's more persuasive. Our friends tend to tell us straight. Their objectivity coupled with their candidness, make us much more likely to trust, listen to, and believe our friends. 2) word of mouth is more targeted. It is naturally directed toward an interested audience. Word of mouth tends to reach people who are actually interested in the thing being discussed.

Please find some more stories and cases in the Reference.

Reference:

Book-Made to Stick by Heath, Chip and Dan

Will it Blend?

Please Don’t Tell-Crif Dogs in New York

Rue La La

Barclay Prime’s hundred-dollar cheesesteak

Ken Craig’s Clean Ears Everytime

Google’s Parisian Love

iPod’s white headphones

Movember

Livestrong bands

Man Drinks fat

Dove’s Evolution

(one can search the case by youtube.com or Google)

December Read/3

Title: Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights

Author: Klein, Gary

Call Number: 153.4 K64S 2013

Subject(s): Insight

ISBN: 9781610392518

Number of Pages: 281

Book Description (from inside of the book cover):

            Insights-like Darwin’s understanding of the way evolution actually works, and Watson and Crick’s breakthrough discoveries about the structure of DNA-can change the world. We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed-or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don’t, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery.

            Klein is a keen observer of people in their natural settings-scientists, businesspeople, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, family members, friends, himself-and uses a marvelous variety of stories to illuminate his research into what insights are and how they happen. What, for example, enabled Harry Markopolos to put the finger on Bernie Madoff? How did Dr. Michael Gottlieb make the connections between different patients that allowed him to publish the first announcement of the AIDS epidemic? What did Admiral Yamamoto see (and what did the Americans miss) in a 1940 British attach on the Italian fleet that enabled him to develop the strategy of attack at Pearl Harbor? How did a “smokejumper” see that setting another fire would save his life, while those who ignored his insight perished? How did Martin Chalfie come up with a million-dollar idea (and a Noble Prize) for a natural flashlight that enabled researchers to look inside living organisms to watch biological processes in action?

            Klein also dissects impediments to insight, such as when organizations claim to value employee creativity and to encourage breakthrough but in reality block disruptive ideas and prioritize avoidance of mistakes. Or when information technology systems are “dumb by design” and block potential discoveries.

            Both scientifically sophisticated and fun to read, Seeing What Others Don’t shows that insight is not just a “eureka!” moment but a whole new way of understanding.

My Read:

            This is one few book that intrigued me from the beginning and hooked me up on zealous reading. The part I appreciate the most from reading this book is the storytelling. Those stories take the readers ride after another of investigation and speculation with sufficient information and detailed knowledge about the events/cases/stories. The one story impresses me the most is the story from chapter six, Creative Desperation, titled “Fighting Fire with Fire.” To enforce the rarity of such heroic action and to emphasis the emergent urgency of the situation the firefighters were facing the author uses a picture and a diagram allowing the readers to see, inspect, and imagine the dire condition the story is about. The solution and the act the survived firefighter came upon with is an ingenious one that no one ever has heard of. As I am writing this review my admiration and sense of unbelievable surge as I recall the whole story stated in this book.

            There are three parts listed and described in the book: Part I-Entering Through the Gates of Insight: How Do Insights Get Triggered?; Part II-Shutting the Gates: What Interferes with Insights?; Part III-Opening the Gates: How Can We Foster Insights?

There are five categories/strategies used and listed by the author in this book to decode how and where insights come from. They are: Connections, Coincidences, Curiosities, Contradictions, and Creative Desperation.

The following two diagrams are helpful and designed by the author to further understand his points of view and assist the reader to get hold of his ideas about insights.

Take a look:

            I find the following from the book very inspirational and directive:

“If you don’t expect much, if don’t inquire in a way that respects the intelligence of the other person, you probably won’t find many insights.”-page 233

“It was only through appreciative listening that a research team I headed was able to solve a mystery that stumped British military analysts.”-page 233

“If we want to increase our own insights, we should know about the different paths. The contradiction path depend on our being open to surprises and willing to take them seriously even if they violate our beliefs about the way things work. The connection path begins when we are open to experiences and ready to speculate about unfamiliar possibilities.The creative desperation path requires us to critically examine our assumptions to detect any that are tripping us up.”-page 244

“The new set of beliefs leads us to view the world differently.We have different mental equipment, different ideas about our capabilities, different priorities for what to watch and what to ignore. We have different goals. In some ways we become different people.”-page 246

Reference:

Martin Chalfie and the green fluorescent protein

Harry Markopolos and Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme

Michael gottlieb and AIDS

Jocelyn Bell Burnell and pulsars

Alexander Fleming and penicillin

Wilhelm Roentgen and X-rays

Barry Marshall and ulcers

John Snow and cholera

Wagner Dodge and Mann Gulch

Napoleon at Toulon

Watson-Crick double helix model

9/11 and the Phoenix Memo

Sean MacFarland in Iraq

Kodak bankruptcy

Six Sigma

Rosalind Franklin’s famous photo number 51

Other books by Klein, Gary:

Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions

The Power of Intuition

Working Mind: A Practitioner’s Guide to Cognitive Task Analysis

Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making

December Read/Lydia

Title : The Giver

Author : Lois Lowry

Jonas lives in a perfect world called Sameness. There is no war, pain, poverty and worries. Everything is under control in Sameness; weather, job, applying for newchild, matching of spouses, even release to Elsewhere of old people.

Every child has almost the same childhood. In their first year, new children receive their names and families in an annual ceremony.  They go to the same childcare center and school. Seven year-olds wear front-buttoned jackets. This is their first sign of independence. Eight year-olds start volunteer activities for their community. Nine year-olds are given their own bicycle as a powerful emblem of moving. Twelve year-olds are assigned future roles in the community.

Jonas has been selected as the next Receiver of Memory when he turned twelve. He trained from the previous Receiver of Memory, the Giver. Only the Giver holds the memories of true pain and pleasure of life that was existent before Sameness. He can give advice from his past memories when his community is in unexpected trouble. It is the most honored role in the community but also a very lonely and painful job. The Receiver of Memory is exempted from the rules in community but not permitted to discuss anyone about the memories. Jonas has received the memories of pain and pleasure of life from the Giver for almost a year. However he was confused and affected by sorrowful and happy memories that he has never faced before in his community. He wanted to bring those happy memories to the community.

Jonas’s father is a Nurturer who has cared for newchildren born in the previous year. He brings a new baby named Gabriel every night because he isn’t well and needs extra care. One day Jonas saw his father releasing an undeveloped newborn baby and was shocked that release to Elsewhere meant death.

A few days later Jonas has heard that the community decided to release Gabriel to Elsewhere next morning. That night Jonas has taken Gabriel was on a bike and escaped from the community. For the first few days, Jonas has heard the planes search for them. The planes stopped chasing as they ran away, but Jonas and Gabriel now faced other problems: lack of food and cold weather, farther. Now Gabriel cried because he was hungry and cold and terribly weak. Jonas cried because he was afraid that he can not save Gabriel. At last, Jonas could not pedal his bike any more. So he began to walk up the snow hill holding the already cold and weak Gabriel. He reached to the top and imagined to slide down the hill on a sled. He went downwards and downwards and suddenly he saw a shine through the windows of rooms, where families created and kept memories. For the first time, he heard something that he has never heard before, music.  He heard people singing.

This book was very interesting. I could not stop reading after I picked up this book. I think Jonas’s community seemed ordinary in the beginning, but I realized the community has set up everything including human emotions. There were no negative values but also positive values like color, music, literature etc. Because the community allowed only practical values, it didn’t have true experiences. This book is asking me “Does practicality bring happiness?”

December Read/2

Title: How to Find Out Anything: From Extreme Google Searches to Scouring government Documents, a Guide to Uncovering Anything About Everyone and Everything

Author: MacLeod, Don

Call Number:001.42 M165H 2012

Number of Pages: 256

ISBN: 9780735204676

Book Description (From back cover):

            In How to Find Out Anything, master researcher Don MacLeod explains how to find what you’re looking for quickly, efficiently, and accurately-and how to avoid the most common mistakes of the Google Age.

            Not your average research book, How to Find Out Anything shows you how to unveil nearly anything about anyone. From top CEO’s salaries to  police records, you’ll learn little-known tricks for discovering the exact information you’re looking for. You’ll learn:

How to really tap into the power of Google, and why Google is the best place to start a search, but never the best place to finish it.

The scoop on vast yet little-known online resources that search engines cannot scour, such as refdesk.com, ipl.org, and Project Gutenberg, among many others.

How to access free government resources (and put your tax dollars to good use).

How to find experts and other people with special knowledge.

How to dig up seemingly confidential information on people and businesses, from public and private companies to nonprofits and international companies.

            Whether researching for a term paper or digging up dirt on an ex, the advice in this book arms you with the sleuthing skills to tackle any mystery.

My Read:

            In this book, the author generously and arduously shares his years of experiences at researching and finding out anything possible in this world. No matter if your searching or researching target is information, knowledge, organization, places, public records, or people you would be able to find some links, websites, books, and places to shed some light and hunt down what you are looking for.

            The chapter that benefits me the most is the chapter on the Google “Advanced Search” template. There is a two-step process using the “Advanced Search:” first, ask a better question; second, a person will need to reduce the number of web pages that Google consults to create your hit list by using the filter tools to exclude things you don’t need to see. (page 42)

Syntax/ Filter tools include using symbols like (examples taken from the book)

-quotation marks (“ “) to precise, literal matches to your search words. i.e. “database” “interest rates”

-minus sigh (-): to help disambiguate results. i.e. “Avatar” –movie

-pipe symbol (|): to have one or more of these words. i.e. “digital SLR” “Nikno”|”Canon”|”Leica”

-asterisk (*): to act as a wild card

Going All In (page 48-49)

            Inurl:Chevrolet    allinurl:felony defense

            Intitle:Longfellow     allintitle:Jackson snakes plane

            Inanchor:combustion_engine     allintext:bedbugs remedy

Web Filters

            Let’s use the examples the author has in the book to teach us how to use the filters to narrow our search results.

Domain and site searching: 

“diabetes” site:.gov

“admissions” “Yale” site: .edu-site.com(finds Yale University, not Yale Locks)

Searching a specific website:

            “necklace” site:tiffanys.com

            “tuition” “in-state” site:oregonstate.edu

File type:

            “Roe v Wade” filetype:pdf

            “SuperBowl winners” filetype:xls

Numeric range:

            “car” “used” $5000..$8000

Cache: To see what a web page looked like one session before the current one, click on the link labeled “cached” in the result list.

Google Collections

Google Alert: www.google.com/alerts

Google Books: http://books.google.com

Google Finance: http://finance.google.com

Google Groups: http://groups.google.com

Google Guide: www.googleguide.com

Google News: http://news.google.com

Google +: https://plus.google.com

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com

iGoogle: www.igoogle.com

            All is about Connection!

In the last chapter the author wraps it up stating: Regardless of what new wonders technology may bring us next, one thing will always be true about research: The process of finding things out means making connections. Ultimately the secret to knowing how to find out anything means learning how to connect with people. Exactly how you do it up to you. (page 241-243)

            Of course the best thing to do is to practice, practice and practice.

           

December Read

Title: Cuckoo’s Calling

Author: Galbraith, Robert

Call Number: F

Genre: Mystery

Number of Pages: 455

ISBN: 9780316206846

Book Description (from the inside of the book jacket)

            After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

            Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

            You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

My Read:

            Talking about motif for a murder there are unique categories attached to it: Money, love/hatred, and revenge. In this book the case is about money: ten millions.

To the main character, Cormorna Strike, it’s been obvious to him from the start that the person who benefits most from the supermodel’s death is her adopted brother, John. (page 430) Upon facing John, the killer, Cormoran commented: I said you’re bat-shit insane. You killed your sister, got away with it, and then asked me to reinvestigate her death. (page 429)

            Even before I finished the book I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be just one time story; this book would be the first book of a series featuring the old-fashioned, note-taking, sharp-observing, and one-legged sleuth named Cormoran Strike. Cormoran’s personal life is complicated enough and the author skillfully weaves his personal agendas with the progress of the case he undertakes the investigation.

           And don’t forget the ever efficient and extremely considerate Robin, Cormoran’s temporarily hired secretary. From the ways and methods she handles Cormoran’s requests and threats from her boss’s creditors intrigued readers would consider her to be the smart and must have sidekick of Cormoran’s and expect to see her again in the next books following the Cuckoo’s Calling.

            I admire Cormoran’s methodological tactics on investigation and his seemingly harmless yet to the point questions he presents to the people involved directly and indirectly to the case. It seems like he gathers piece by piece from asking questions and the followed answers to complete the broken and messy puzzle.

            If you like the TV series Columbo starring Peter Falk and the Lincoln Rhyme series books by Jeffery Deaver you will find yourself fully engage in reading this book following Cormoran’s thinking and action he takes. Check it out yourself!

November Read/Ruby

Title:The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants

Author: Brashares, Ann

 

There were four girls who know one another from babies. because their mothers took a class in aerobics for pregnant women, they were the September group. The September mothers started hanging out after class, and after babies were born, they formed their own little mothers’ support group and let all babies squirm on a blanket together while they complained about not sleeping and how fat they still were. But now, even the friendships between mothers were not so close anymore, the girls kept the relationship. Sometimes it seems like they’re so close they form one single complete person rather than four separate ones.

One day, at a thrift shop, Carmen(one of the girls) was tagging along with Lena(another one of the girls) and her younger sister, Effie, and their mom. Effie was there to buy a dress for the sophomore prom, Carmen decided to buy something and she found a pair of pants were only $3.49 including tax. She didn’t even try them on, so we can tell she wasn’t serious about owning them.

The four girls were different types& body shapes: Bridget the athlete, wild and unstoppable, was tall with broad shoulders and long legs and big hands; Lena the beauty, shy and beautiful, was slim; Tibby the rebel, had narrow hips and long legs for her small frame; Carmen the one with the bad temper, writer, her butt had specific requirements for pants. But the pair of pants fit all of them, they thought “there are magic pants”.

It was their first summer apart, and the magic pants came to them, they wanted these pants belong to them equally, that the pants will travel to all the places they’re going, and the pants will keep them together when they are apart. The girls sorted out some rules for the traveling pants, for example, never wash the pants; mustn’t pick nose while wearing the Pants; Pants equal love, love your sister love yourself, etc…

Bridget, who went to a summer camp, she felt in love with one of the coaches, but it wasn’t allowed to; Lena and her sister Effie went to visit their grandparents who lives in Greece; Tibby stayed at the town and had a part-time job at a grocery store, she met a 12-year-old girl who has leukemia; Carmen spent her summer with her father, her parents were divorced for years, but she didn’t except her father was going to marry.

When four girls got together in the end of summer, they were full to their edges with their own stories, having a summer of experiences and feelings that belonged to each person alone. The Pants were the only witness to all of their lives, and I believe that they will cherish their friendship forever.