I stopped reading Gordon R. Dickson's "Time Storm" after about 200 pages. He went into the 'mental powers' mode, indistinguishable from Fantasy. I didn't find any serious ideas in this book -- definitely not 'hard scifi'.
Finished Asimov's "Positronic Man". 1993. Asimov died in 1992, so this was published after his death. Silverberg finished it, according to Wikipedia, tho there is no hint of this in the Bantam paperback I have. Good ideas, something my kid should read. A reasonable story, but obviously 'old style' SciFi in the Campbell mode. Long explanations via stilted dialogs are the main diagnostic for this.
Started reading "Cancer" by Bill Sardi. Sardi is mostly scientific, but, in some of his writing, is willing to rely on a single case to make his points. The book I bought has a 16-page addendum that presents a lot of research, good context for concluding that there is a lot that can be done to reduce the chances of dying of cancer.
Also, I found this while watching TEDMED :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMSGP2ONfBc.
This technology is a complete replacement for the FDA.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Finished 2 books by David Brin : Heart of the Comet -- essence is how easy it is for humans to form factions. Glory Season -- essence is how completely society would change if we had different sex drives and associated reproductive patterns. Both very good, "Glory Season" is easiest / best for my teenager, IMHO.
Finished 2 books by Orson Scott Card. I didn't realize how many different kinds of books he has written. "Empire" is a political / military thriller. He does a very good job of presenting the POVs of military people/culture. "Lovelock", with Kathryn H. Kidd, is told from the POV of a genetically- and surgically-enhanced capuchin monkey, mute, but of extraordinary intelligence, who comes to realize that he is a slave.
Currently reading Card's 'Sarah, Women of Genesis'. Historical novel, I don't know enough history / archaeology of that era to judge, but it seems plausible. Engaging, I am 150 pages into it, certainly want to keep reading.
Both "Lovelock" and "Sarah" detail the ways people manipulate others, small-scale social interactions making for social influence, popularity, etc. Sarah is 1990, Lovelock is 1994, so this is something Card was doing on his own, although Lovelock is much sharper in its insights about people. It will be interesting to see if this is interesting to my son, and at what age.
I watched 2 movies this week. "The Fifth Element" -- SciFi and "Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead". Element was a much better script than Hollywood usually gives SciFi movies. Rosenkrantz is a movie about a play pretending to be a movie about Shakespeare's Hamlet. Read some more about the question of who wrote Shakespeare.
Read a lot of stuff on the net in the last week. Lind's essays on 4th generation warfare, lots of articles off of Lew Rockwell's site. Some older articles by his authors. A bunch of economic info, e.g. The Automatic Earth. Also listened to a lot of new music, some from YouTube. Celtic, Klezmer. Klezmer bands need Uillieann pipes, IMHO. Maybe a digeridoo also. They aren't keeping up with the times. Lots of Nordic bands have digeridoos. 8).
Got onto some thread involving religion, found a great quote by Maimonides: "One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good - he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad - he and the world is destroyed. "
Very high standards for dealing with others. "Do unto others" with eternity at stake. Also found Karen Armstrong and her "Charter for Compassion".
Finished 2 books by Orson Scott Card. I didn't realize how many different kinds of books he has written. "Empire" is a political / military thriller. He does a very good job of presenting the POVs of military people/culture. "Lovelock", with Kathryn H. Kidd, is told from the POV of a genetically- and surgically-enhanced capuchin monkey, mute, but of extraordinary intelligence, who comes to realize that he is a slave.
Currently reading Card's 'Sarah, Women of Genesis'. Historical novel, I don't know enough history / archaeology of that era to judge, but it seems plausible. Engaging, I am 150 pages into it, certainly want to keep reading.
Both "Lovelock" and "Sarah" detail the ways people manipulate others, small-scale social interactions making for social influence, popularity, etc. Sarah is 1990, Lovelock is 1994, so this is something Card was doing on his own, although Lovelock is much sharper in its insights about people. It will be interesting to see if this is interesting to my son, and at what age.
I watched 2 movies this week. "The Fifth Element" -- SciFi and "Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead". Element was a much better script than Hollywood usually gives SciFi movies. Rosenkrantz is a movie about a play pretending to be a movie about Shakespeare's Hamlet. Read some more about the question of who wrote Shakespeare.
Read a lot of stuff on the net in the last week. Lind's essays on 4th generation warfare, lots of articles off of Lew Rockwell's site. Some older articles by his authors. A bunch of economic info, e.g. The Automatic Earth. Also listened to a lot of new music, some from YouTube. Celtic, Klezmer. Klezmer bands need Uillieann pipes, IMHO. Maybe a digeridoo also. They aren't keeping up with the times. Lots of Nordic bands have digeridoos. 8).
Got onto some thread involving religion, found a great quote by Maimonides: "One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good - he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad - he and the world is destroyed. "
Very high standards for dealing with others. "Do unto others" with eternity at stake. Also found Karen Armstrong and her "Charter for Compassion".
Friday, February 12, 2010
Books and other things
I just found a Harvard Course on Justice.
Interesting discussion of the cabin boy's being killed and eaten. Nobody in the discussion knows enough medicine to understand that thirst was the problem, not being hungry. People last 30 days without food, 7 - 9 without water. The cabin boy, having drunk sea water, would soon die, the others a day or so later. Thus, their life-expectancy was very short, barring rain or a ship. Puts an entirely different perspective on their actions.
Also, quoting one of their diaries ("Had breakfast") 4 days after they killed the cabin boy to indicate lack of remorse is quite unfair. What would their note have been in that situation?
So, overall, the professor and students all displayed a lack of ability to fully understand the context. "Justice" is all about context.
I finished CJ Cherryh's 'Cyteen' a few days ago. Re-read that after her new 'Regenesis'. These are, IMHO, her best work. I have read all of her 'hard scifi' except the last in the 'Foreigner' series.
I am now reading Varley's "Steel Beach'. Interesting takes on sex, suicide, ... I am about half-way through, definitely worth reading.
I am re-reading a lot of SciFi, partly for my own pleasure, partly to select good books for my son.
I have been watching TED talks, TEDMED. Just saw Craig Ventner's latest talk on engineering a new species. Also, hplusMagazine, Singularity Hub , and Wired Magazine . Lots of interesting articles in all of these.
I am installing Skype today, with the webcam. Linux x86_64, Kubuntu 9.10. Skype promises to open source some of its code, will make installing and using the tool much easier.
Interesting discussion of the cabin boy's being killed and eaten. Nobody in the discussion knows enough medicine to understand that thirst was the problem, not being hungry. People last 30 days without food, 7 - 9 without water. The cabin boy, having drunk sea water, would soon die, the others a day or so later. Thus, their life-expectancy was very short, barring rain or a ship. Puts an entirely different perspective on their actions.
Also, quoting one of their diaries ("Had breakfast") 4 days after they killed the cabin boy to indicate lack of remorse is quite unfair. What would their note have been in that situation?
So, overall, the professor and students all displayed a lack of ability to fully understand the context. "Justice" is all about context.
I finished CJ Cherryh's 'Cyteen' a few days ago. Re-read that after her new 'Regenesis'. These are, IMHO, her best work. I have read all of her 'hard scifi' except the last in the 'Foreigner' series.
I am now reading Varley's "Steel Beach'. Interesting takes on sex, suicide, ... I am about half-way through, definitely worth reading.
I am re-reading a lot of SciFi, partly for my own pleasure, partly to select good books for my son.
I have been watching TED talks, TEDMED. Just saw Craig Ventner's latest talk on engineering a new species. Also, hplusMagazine, Singularity Hub , and Wired Magazine . Lots of interesting articles in all of these.
I am installing Skype today, with the webcam. Linux x86_64, Kubuntu 9.10. Skype promises to open source some of its code, will make installing and using the tool much easier.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
2010-02-11 Beginning my Journal
This is a journal, recording some of my thoughts, books read, plans and execution. It is also a way of learning blogging tools, which may be useful in other ways.
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