475 ratings (4.55 avg)
0 reviews

Thomas

Add friend

Thomas’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)
currently-reading‎ (0)

read‎ (476)
current‎ (286)

previously-read-recommendees‎ (144)
highly-recommended‎ (57)

favorites‎ (28)

Stats | More…

“Obama argued to the press in mid-June that the decision to withdraw even a residual force was made not by him but by the Iraqis when they refused to sign a new Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, early in his presidency. As had been the case with his attempt to argue that it was the world and not he who set the Syria red line, within twenty-four hours the Washington Post published an article noting that during the [2012] campaign in a debate with opponent Mitt Romney, Obama had in fact taken credit for making the decision to get all US troops out of Iraq.”
― David Rothkopf, National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear

0 likes

“Some growers believe that a particular type of music makes the plants grow faster, but most agree that the best strategy for the plants is to play whatever music the workers like best.”
― Amy Stewart, Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

3 likes

“during a hearing on the proposed expansion of a port terminal, a member of the public objected on the grounds that the project would generate more truck trips on already crowded freeways.
"Why do I need a port? the woman asked. "I have Walmart."
There were murmurs of agreement from an audience who felt that these trucks were indeed deplorable, their presence a barrier on the travels and commerce of "real people.”
― Edward Humes, Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation

2 likes

“When it comes to a large, complex agency like ours, the public pretty much forms its views on the basis of what the media reports, even more than what the facts may be.

Here the union had a decided advantage.”
― Joel Klein

1 likes

“Anyone who visits Aalsmeer will be struck at first by the absurdity of the arrangement. Why go to all the trouble to put something as perishable as a daisy on an airplane, fly it to another country so it can sit on the auction floor, and then put it back on a plane and fly it to its final destination? ... [I]t seemed obvious that an Internet-based system would simplify things. Sure, the flowers would still need to come together in some kind of distribution center...but the actual bidding and ordering wouldn't have to happen in the same building where the flowers are.
...
When I asked one importer this question, he just shrugged and said, 'Why are there still brokers on Wall Street?”
― Amy Stewart, Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

0 likes

More of Thomas’s quotes…