I just realized that you are William Poundstone. I browsed through your book again and just happened on the section on how Ed Thorpe was sent the paper on Black Scholes, programmed his calculator and verified that the equation on the paper gave the same answer that he had derived for his warrant pricing. Sad that no on gives him credit for being the true father of modern options pricing, since he anticipated these other guys by several years. Anyway, I like the book and I will be reading it from cover to cover soon. nitro
Are you really William Poundstone? I perused your book at Borders today and I love to read those kind of books. It look's very interesting. It will be my next book to read for sure. Just curious if you really are the author.
Almost done with this one: "Chronos : How Time Shapes Our Universe (Hardcover)" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_6/002-8215686-0829648?v=glance&s=books Highly recommended. nitro
A short book that can be read in one sitting: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Paperback) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805063897/002-8215686-0829648?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance People on ET talk about lots of abstract politics that has little to do with the day to day life of most people. The solution (political ?) of this problem would hit home to several million people in this country. nitro
"Amazon.com's Best of 2001 Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet. As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test. So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Publishers Weekly In contrast to recent books by Michael Lewis and Dinesh D'Souza that explore the lives and psyches of the New Economy's millionares, Ehrenreich (Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, etc.) turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce's bottom rung. Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, she left behind her middle class life as a journalist except for $1000 in start-up funds, a car and her laptop computer to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker for a month at a time. In 1999 and 2000, Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Fla., as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, Maine, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minn. During the application process, she faced routine drug tests and spurious "personality tests"; once on the job, she endured constant surveillance and numbing harangues over infractions like serving a second roll and butter. Beset by transportation costs and high rents, she learned the tricks of the trade from her co-workers, some of whom sleep in their cars, and many of whom work when they're vexed by arthritis, back pain or worse, yet still manage small gestures of kindness. Despite the advantages of her race, education, good health and lack of children, Ehrenreich's income barely covered her month's expenses in only one instance, when she worked seven days a week at two jobs (one of which provided free meals) during the off-season in a vacation town. Delivering a fast read that's both sobering and sassy, she gives readers pause about those caught in the economy's undertow, even in good times. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc." nitro
I am having a monster couple of months, so I just treat myself. Here is how I spend my money (~$100): Knowing : The Nature of Physical Law (Hardcover) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/01...f=pd_bbs_1/102-3049693-6465713?_encoding=UTF8 Hiding in the Mirror : The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, from Plato to String Theory and Beyond (Hardcover) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/06...102-3049693-6465713?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 The Cosmic Landscape : String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design (Hardcover) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03...102-3049693-6465713?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 It's About Time : Understanding Einstein's Relativity (Hardcover) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/06...102-3049693-6465713?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 nitro
really appreciate this thread!! Only question I have is.... when the heck do you find time to read all these books??..lol Thanks again!!
YW. It is the way I relax. [I think]If I had to live my life all over again, I would be a mathematical physicist, or maybe a pure mathematician. nitro