Tuesday, January 13, 2009

New Books

My wife gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for my Xmas & birthday and my uncle and aunt that we visited gave me two gift certificates from Barnes and Noble. As you might guess, I am delighted. I've only ordered one book from B&N, but I've used up the Amazon card already.

I ordered Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. I already have the volume on cats. Someone ought to do this for bears. I also ordered The World Without Us and The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks?. I also picked up History of the Persian Empire and Solar Sails (I've been in love with the things since I was a teenager). To round it out, I also picked up In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods (used).

From B&N I ordered Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs. I am probably going to order Last Hunters, First Farmers, too, but we'll see. I'd like to pick up some paleo books this route, too.

I was outright given Your Inner Fish which I read very, very quickly: it was good, but I'm hitting the point that I need to start crossing into the pro's papers instead of just the pop sci stuff since I knew 95% of what was covered in the book already. I also finished reading Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies. I am half done at the moment with United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict.

I have some questions for my Canadian readers in the future, but I think I need to dedicate some time to phrase the questions properly. Interestingly, did you guys know back in 1948 (+/-), the Canadians approached the US about a free trade treaty. It wasn't as interesting to the US at first, but a few (couple?) years later, the US came back with interest in the treaty, the Canadians rejected it as an encroachment on their sovereignty by the US...even though it had been their idea. *scratches head* There had to have been a government change in that time frame, but I don't recall one. I'll look again if anyone asks. However, the WI being, had the treaty gone ahead and the US and Canada had formed a free trade zone in around 1950, how would the US and Canadian economies developed differently? I doubt there would be a customs union or whatnot beyond straight up free trade. Think of it similar to the historical CUSFTA treaty prior to NAFTA. yet...There might be as much as 40 years before Mexico decides to join in, if ever. 40 years of deep economic integration between the US and Canadian economies, especially during the 1950s, would have some oddball effects I am sure. Anyone interested in discussing it?

Oh and there are times we hate IBM, too, at work. grrr. Good thing I got a lot of sleep last night and I'm caffed up...I can get uber scary then. Ogre Genes in full expression here! Coherent Ogre Genes at that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have a feed that tells you when you get new comments on old threads?

Anyway, without any look at any data, it is possible that the Canadian auto industries would have been much smaller than in OTL up to 1965.

Other than that, no idea.

Will Baird said...

Blogger emails me when someone posts on any post that I have past, ancient, or recent.

I think there would be a serious change in the economy for both. There would be less incentive to do the 'branch office' corporation infrastructure that happened OTL.

It would depend on a lot of different things, but if Canada had an exchange rate advantage, then we could see the "Maquiladora" spring up on the border. OTOH, it might well be that Canada would become just a resource exporter and the industry would reside in the US.