K. Kumar's Blog, page 4

Book Review: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having visited the Panama Canal, I became interested in understanding the story behind its construction. This book covers, in great detail, the history of the canal. It is broken into three parts: (1) the French attempt and failure, (2) the U.S. decision to take over the canal, (3) and the US's success in completing the canal. The level of detail and the number of characters in thi...

San Salvador

#sansalvadorA photo posted by K Kumar (@sicstrap) on Apr 2, 2016 at 4:25pm PDT

This is from San Benito in a nicer part of the city of San Salvador. The landscape of the city is spectacular as the mountains jut out at different angles of the city forming a kind of basin. But it's also congested, a million people are crammed into this place and that is manifest in the heavy traffic and pollution. It's also in the violence, around every corner and crevice is violence and disorder and caos...

Mexican Anthropology

#mexicoA photo posted by K Kumar (@sicstrap) on Mar 27, 2016 at 8:46am PDT

This is from the Anthropology museum in Mexico City. This is the same story you'll read in probably every anthropology museum in every Latin American country. It's all the same story...

Mexico City

De la ciudad de MexicoA photo posted by K Kumar (@sicstrap) on Mar 23, 2016 at 4:17pm PDT

Bellas ArtesA photo posted by K Kumar (@sicstrap) on Mar 25, 2016 at 12:08pm PDT

#diegoriveraA photo posted by K Kumar (@sicstrap) on Mar 25, 2016 at 12:09pm PDT

Mad Max

This is one of the better movies I have seen in a while:

The story takes place in the future where resources are scarce and a tyrant uses this to his advantage by turning his subjects into slaves. I liked how the movie does not explicitly reveal the backstory, but rather drops bits and pieces along the way. Even the dialogue is an exaggerated version of English. The actual plot was kind of interesting, but was nothing special. What I really liked was the action and landscape. This movie may ha...

Cows

This pic was taken at the Agricultural Expo. In the main exhibition hall there were hundreds of people crowded around the different booths from some of the local producers and vendors. The producers were all very impressive and ambitious, showing their cacao, beans, sweets, coffee, and other products. There were a lot of interesting demonstrations of things like tilapia farming and despite all the bad news you hear, this was a nice counter story to add to the mix.
This photo was taken in one o...

Gifted Hands 20th Anniversary Edition: The Ben Carson Sto...

Gifted Hands 20th Anniversary Edition: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked up Gifted Hands by Ben Carson after he became a leading candidate for the Republican party and CNN was running stories about the accuracy of his auto biography. It is not quite what I expected, but it is a really well written, positive story that mixes in a deep sense of faith and purpose that has driven Ben Carson to his successful medical career. Admittedly, a lot of the details have to...

Rio

This is a beautiful photo of Rio:

Christ the redeemer from a distance. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. photo by: @jakewestphoto #earthfocusA photo posted by Earth Focus (@earthfocus) on Mar 1, 2016 at 9:51am PST

War in a Time of Peace

War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and the Generals by David Halberstam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

War in a Time of Peace is a reference to the idea that post-Cold War, America has been increasingly fighting or engaging in small, proxy wars that do not seem to present any real national security threats to the country. The soldiers who fight and sacrifice represent a small part of the country and the wars are fought with increased sophistication to prevent American casualties and make it seem li...

The Arrival of the Spanish

I took this photo from a book written by an indigenous people in South America and if you travel throughout the region you'll hear the same story everywhere you go...A photo posted by K Kumar (@sicstrap) on Feb 23, 2016 at 12:16pm PST

One of the interesting themes that comes up when traveling throughout Latin America is the arrival of the Spanish. The above is an example from Colombia, where they describe what happened when the Spanish arrived and took over the indigenous populations. It is th...