Wednesday, April 8, 2015

People worth knowing, alive and dead

Peter de Vries - New Yorker writer, wrote some wonderful novels for reading aloud to your wife or loved one.  Try "Comfort Me with Apples" for $3 on Kindle

John Ioannidis - Greek professor of health and medical science who has tracked research results carefully.  Now at Stanford University.  Has found that results and medicines tend to lose power over time.

W. E. Deming - Statistician who did a great deal for quality in manufacturing and organizations. Worked with Japanese and American manufacturers, US Census Bureau, many executives to improve quality of work done.

John Tukey - a statistician with a very good imagination.  He invented the subject of Exploratory Data Analysis and several excellent methods of statistical analysis.

R.S. Peters - Richard Stanley Peters - British philosopher who wrote "Ethics and Education."  Made the point that Americans need to pay more attention to: it is just as unethical to treat unequals equally as to treat equals unequally.

John Kemeny - mathematician, educated in Germany, was unhappy that math education tended to ignore last 100 years of mathematical work, invented "finite math" to show ideas and methods applicable to business and many other fields of study and work, invented the computer language "Basic", served as president of Dartmouth

Jacques Barzun - a writer, historian and dean of humanities at Columbia, grew up in French intellectual household, wrote on a very wide range of topics

Parker Palmer - a Quaker author, writing today, exemplifies calm intelligence and good language, "Let Your Life Speak" is my favorite of his books

Laurence Morehouse - main author of 70's "Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week", author of many texts and expert who took a basic look at fitness for the average person and how to get it easily and steadily

Wislawa Szymborska - Polish poetess who won the Nobel for poetry. Here is one of her poems I like: The Joy of Writing

Sheldon Kopp - psychotherapist who wrote "If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him" and with photographer Clare Flanders, "No More Hidden Meanings"

Nel Noddings - mother of 6, professor of education at Stanford, author of "Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education"



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


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