For Soccer Fans Only

As a long-time soccer fan, I especially enjoyed reading Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski's book Soccernomics, an economic analysis of the world's most popular game. They really go into detail and  analyze everything from coaches to players to World Cups to most anything else that has to do with soccer. If you're a true soccer fan, you need to get this book.

You will learn a few secrets of the transfer market:

• A new manager wastes money on transfers; don't let him.
• Stars of recent World Cups or European championships are overvalued; ignore them.
• Certain nationalities are overvalued.
• Sell any player when another club offers more than he is worth.
• Replace your best players even before you sell them.
• Gentlemen prefer blonds (this is a good one ;-))
• including six more secrets that you'll find in the book...

You will also find out...

Cool It! - A Guide To Global Warming

I've just recently read a book that has been a bit of an eye-opener to me: Cool It by Bjorn Lomborg. If you're interested in or worried about global warming, this is a must-read. If you're skeptical about global warming, you need to read it. It is the most balanced account of what is actually happening and what we can/should do about the earth's problems that I have read so far.

Topics include the well-publicized decline of the polar bear population (true?) and the question of how global the warming process really is. Lomborg goes straight to the facts and shows the truth about melting glaciers, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, flooding, water shortages and more. Do we need to fear a new ice age in Europe? He answers this and other questions as well.

Here are a few quotes from the book, so you can get a feel for the content...

When You Were Born Matters....

Why are some people more successful than others? What's the recipe for becoming what some people may call a genius? Are they born or made? If you're willing to believe Malcolm Gladwell, it's a little bit of both -- but not in the way you're probably imagining it. In his bestselling book Outliers. The Story of Success, he makes it clear that success isn't handed to you at birth -- but it can have something to do with the day you were born...

If you look in the dictionary, you'll find the following definition for the term Gladwell chose as his title:

outlier  |ˈaʊtlʌɪə|
noun
1. a person or thing situated away or detached from the main body or system
2. a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample

Early on in the book, the English-Canadian journalist makes it clear that successful people don't come out of nowhere:

People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It's not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't. (p. 19)

In his first chapter, entitled "The Matthew Effect", Gladwell tries to make his point by using the example of Canadian ice hockey.