Sadly I haven't had time to read much Middle Age literature but I want to get around to the following.
Sainte-Augustine's Confessions
Dante's Divine Comedy
Petrarch's My Secret Book
I remember Sainte-Augustine by his quote "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet" and it would be interesting to see how a hedonistic turned into one of the most famous and revered characters of the Church. Dante's Divine Comedy tells about the scholastic tradition and how the leading thinkers were introducing pagan thought into their discourses. Petrarch book shows the start of the Renaissance and how current human thought can add to secular knowledge.
To me Canada's tech sector isn't damned; just dwarfed when it is compared to our much larger southern neighbour. The economy of Canada isn't really based around innovation and technology but rather primary industries like oil/gas/lumber/etc... so it makes sense that our business focus’ on our unique advantage. To me is seems that starting and growing a business is harder to do in Canada then in the States. Just as an example the rate of return for VC firms is roughly about -5% in Canada while in the States it is roughly %10. See: http://www.bdc.ca/EN/Documents/other/VC_Industry_Review_EN.p.... I am not sure why our companies have difficulty competing internationally but alot of the reasons in the article (Lack of Acquisition of Knowledge, Second Place is Good Enough and We Suck at PR) seem like symptoms rather than causes.
I remember Sainte-Augustine by his quote "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet" and it would be interesting to see how a hedonistic turned into one of the most famous and revered characters of the Church. Dante's Divine Comedy tells about the scholastic tradition and how the leading thinkers were introducing pagan thought into their discourses. Petrarch book shows the start of the Renaissance and how current human thought can add to secular knowledge.