Two Short Lists

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Concerts I've Seen

I thought I had seen more concerts than this, but I guess I haven't. I was probably thinking of the many high school and college music department concerts I've seen, which I couldn't even begin to list.
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Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Boston

Chicago*

Sheryl Crow (with Wilco and Michael Penn)

Counting Crows (with Dogs Eye View)

Billy Joel*

Elton John

Journey

Outfield

REO Speedwagon*

The Rolling Stones (with Lenny Kravitz)

Starship

The Scorpions

The Verve Pipe*

The Wallflowers (with The Jayhawks)

* saw them multiple times

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3 More Books I Really Like (the others are here)

1) Artificial Life - Stephen Levy. Levy is the author of the seminal computer science book "Hackers", and here he takes a look at computer simulations and reproductions of biological processes, such as evolution and heredity. Patterns that occur naturally in nature sometimes have mathematical algorithms behind them, and with a few simple computer instructions, they can be reproduced quite easily, which shows that biology sometimes follows rules that we can see and understand.

2) Cortez & the Conquest of Mexico - Bernal Diaz. This is a book written by a member of Cortez's exploration team. It describes their travels around South America and Mexico, including of course their eventual battles with Montezuma. The descriptions of the fights are interesting - they didn't have guns, so they threw spears, used bows and arrows, slingshots, etc. The book describes battle after battle, sometimes lasting many hours, after which maybe two people will die. A very interesting read.

3) The 9/11 Commission Report - The 9/11 Commission. This is not a typical government document. It's readable, and fascinating. It describes in detail the people involved, what happened, what the president did, what the terrorists did, and so on. It reads like a novel, and we all know it's almost stranger than fiction.

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