Review: Code Girls

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Code Girls break the code

Code Girls is an excellent "read" and I'm glad I didn't pass it up.

My mom worked in Communications in WWII (though on the Canadian side of the border), so was always curious about what she really did. There were many parallels with the story of the women in this book, which I enjoyed.

Regardless, it's a fascinating story. The lives these women led, and the very real contribution they made ~ for which they were never recognized ~ made for a good book. The details on how they broke the codes - and how complex they were - largely kept my attention. As I read other reviews before I purchased, I intentionally did not try to keep the women straight, and it was fine.

For the last 1/3 of the book, I was falling asleep with it at night, and although I set the sleep timer, I kept needing to rewind. As a result, I felt the same stories were being told over and over again... I don't know how much of that was repetition, and how much was my dozing off. But the end of the book wrapped up well. Very insightful.

See the great pictures on author Liz Mundy's website

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Yes, I'm an introvert

Yes I am an introvert.

Yes I am shy.

Yes I am sometimes antisocial.

No I’m not stuck up. I’m listening and I’m observing.

I can’t stand small talk but I’ll talk about my interests for hours with anyone who will listen.

I’d rather be at home with a close friend or two than among a big crowd of acquaintances.

Don’t scold me in public.

Don’t embarrass me in public.

Respect that I’m reserved.

If I open myself up to you know that means you’re very special to me.

- unknown, from the Introverts are Awesome Facebook page

Jay Cross

It's been 9 years since I was totally immersed in the learning and development world, and aside of the occassional reflection on now being an elearner (vs creating the stuff), so I rarely think of all the people I used to follow in the industry. In scrolling through my old blog posts tonight, looking for something, I arrived at the beginning, in 2003, and my first posts. I posted a lot about learning and elearning in those days. My curiosity was sparked, and decided to see what one of the more delightful thought leaders was writing about these days: Jay Cross.

What I learned is that Jay passed away in 2015. I'm sorry to hear this. He really contributed a lot, and shaped much of the dialog of the day, so I am sure he is missed.

I met him a couple of times, at conferences, and attended some sessions with him. Always thought provoking, and down to earth. Jay was huge advocate of informal learning, while the industry was going crazy with structured learning.

Jay's Informal Learning Chart
View full size high quality image

Perhaps what I remember most, and loved, were Jay's observations about the world around him. After each conference he would post photos of odd moments and unusual discoveries he encountered. He always made me think.

RIP Jay.

An Industry Remembers Jay Cross

Why truth matters

Peter Mansbridge's acceptance speech when presented with a lifetime achievement award, standing up against fake news and attacks on journalism. Well said Peter.

Farewell Stephen Hawking

It almost seems like he planned it, Stephen Hawking died on Pi day, the day Albert Einstein was born...3.14.…
@Kilderok on Twitter

It's not the only remarkable date in Hawking's life: he was born on Jan. 8, 1942 ― the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death.

Reading the Huffington Post's extremely well written story on the passing of Stephen Hawking, I was struck by how his brilliance was hidden by the very things we (society) criticize youth for:

• "Hawking was an indifferent student, preferring to spend his time playing board games and tinkering with computers."
• "He rarely attended lectures and has said that he spent only 1,000 hours on studies during his three years at Oxford, or just an hour a day."

Hawking was given just 2 years to live while he was still a student. An excerpt from the same article:

During a symposium at Cambridge on his 70th birthday, Hawking reflected on how much he struggled to stay motivated after his diagnosis. "Why work so hard for a Ph.D. when you could be dead in two years?"

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” he said. “Try to make sense of what you see and about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”

Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, was published in April 1988 and shot him into the limelight. Both a Newsweek magazine cover and a television special described him as "Master of the Universe".

Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and reportedly enjoyed partying and dancing into the small hours.

But his schedule left him little time for work and his students, and some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability. I personally find this both sad and disturbing.

A Brief History of Time sold an estimated 9 million copies. And, no, I have not read it (yet)...

Trivia:

• Hawking reportedly declined a knighthood.
• On 28 June 2009, as a tongue-in-cheek test of his 1992 conjecture that travel into the past is effectively impossible, Hawking held a party open to all, complete with hors d'oeuvres and iced champagne, but publicised the party only after it was over so that only time-travellers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party.
• At the release party for the home video version of the A Brief History of Time, Leonard Nimoy learned that Hawking was interested in appearing on Star Trek. Nimoy made the necessary contact, and Hawking played a holographic simulation of himself in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1993.
• Also in 1993, Hawking's synthesiser voice was recorded for the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking".

Resources:
Hawking's website
Stephen Hawking collected news and commentary - The New York Times
Iconic Physicist Stephen Hawking Dies At 76 - Huffington Post

Vexatious litigant

Love it when I hear a word or phrase on the radio or a podcast that is new to me. Today it was "vexatious litigant". The context was a new story about a woman being declared a vexatious litigant. I wasn't really listening to the story, so the details didn't register, but the term did. Google certainly did help me, as I couldn't have guessed the spelling.

vex•a•tious

ADJECTIVE

1 Causing or tending to cause annoyance, frustration, or worry.
‘the vexatious questions posed by software copyrights’

1.1 Law Denoting an action or the bringer of an action that is brought without sufficient grounds for winning, purely to cause annoyance to the defendant.
‘a frivolous or vexatious litigant’
‘No man, let alone a vexatious litigant, has a vested right to bring or continue proceedings which are an abuse of the process of the court.’

Source: Oxford Living Dictionaries

Resources
 'Wasteful' B.C. woman who 'wouldn't take no for an answer' in court banned from suing opponents - the CBC story that started my investigation this morning

My choice of Oxford for my source today is not random. I've recently started listening to the Audible version of "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester, which tells the very remarkable story behind the Oxford Dictionary.

The Goroka Show

This week I helped a couple book flights to Goroka to visit their daughter. They had timed their visit to take in the annual Goroka festival. The destination is so far off our radar that I had to get IT to add the Goroka Airport code (GKA) to our CRM in order to do my invoice! Needless to say, I was intrigued. Here's what I learned...

The Goroka Show is a well-known tribal gathering and cultural event in Papua New Guinea. It is a Sing-sing held every year close to the country's Independence Day (16 September) in the town of Goroka, the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province.

About 100 tribes arrive to show their music, dance and culture. The festival started in the mid-1950s as an initiative of Australian Kiaps. In recent years it has become a major attraction for both national and international tourists and remains the largest cultural event in Papua New Guinea despite similar shows now being organised in Mount Hagen and other cities around the country.

Creative Commons images Drew Douglas, kabl1992 on Flickr

Resources
Goroka Show website
Goroka Show - 1957 and 1958 (photos)

Review: The Girl from Krakow

The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just finished this book, listening on Audible, and can definitely recommend it.

Only towards the end of the book I started wondering about the book's title, because she wasn't actually from Krakow. Poland, yes, but not Krakow. Thanks to Alex Rosenberg's unexpected storyline, I was satisfied to understand by the end.

What an engaging story, and a character so well developed, I was sure she was real. World War II from the perspective of a Jewish woman who survived, in the open, in a disguise of her own creation, was remarkable. An interesting book on so many levels, with stories from Barcelona to Moscow built in. The loves and losses of Rita were brought to life through Michael Page's excellent narration.

Alex Rosenberg - the author's website

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