Old Man With Candy
After a conversation with Warty, I remembered perhaps my favorite scientific biography ever, Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age by Paul Nahin, and have been giving it a reread. Heaviside is only vaguely known among people in the physical sciences (I only knew the name because of the Heaviside step function in math), but ought to be far better known; for example, what physicists and engineers think of as the Maxwell equations (the foundations of electromagnetic theory) are actually the Heaviside equations. Maxwell’s formulation was clumsy and complex- Heaviside reworked them into a simple but comprehensive set of partial differential equations, the ones familiar to contemporary students and practitioners. His operational calculus laid the groundwork for Laplace transform methods routinely used in circuit analysis. His work solved the massive problems of the nascent telegraphy and telephony technologies and brought us into the 20th century.
But that’s what makes him interesting specifically to geeks. What makes him interesting overall is the sociology associated with him. Unlike most prominent British scientists of the era. Heaviside was a true outsider, born into poverty, and completely self-taught. Moreover, he was an odd personality, and if he were alive today, we’d put him somewhere on the autism spectrum. He had almost no social interactions beyond his immediate family, refused to adopt the manners and mores of the gentlemanly scientists with whom he interacted in scholarly journals, and larded his papers and books with thinly veiled invective and humorous insights (“It is wonderful how little work there is when you know how to do it.” “It is as unfair to call a vector a quaternion as to call a man a quadruped.”). Of course, establishment figures fought to keep this outsider outside, but the sheer power of his intellect swept that aside. Trigger warning: to understand what Heaviside did, some equations will inevitably present themselves. If you’re on the other side of CP Snow’s two worlds, you can skip over them and take my word that what he did was brilliant, significant, and vastly influential. This book is fascinating, a study in sociology and psychology as much as it is about physics, an absolute delight.
SugarFree
I had been meaning to read Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer since it won the 2014 Nebula for Best Novel, but it wasn’t until the announcement of the Netflix adaptation that I finally got around to it. It involves a scientific expedition into Area X, a portion of the southern United States coast that has been inexplicably quarantined by an invisible and deadly barrier with a single, deliberate opening to allow people to explore. Inside, mutant animals and an inexplicable structure beg to be explored. Almost everyone that goes dies or disappears or comes back insane, with amnesia or riddled with strange cancers.
I really have to say, I don’t understand the hype around this book. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really anything groundbreaking or even exciting. It is written in a limited viewpoint from an unnamed and probably unreliable narrator in a journal. In fact, none of the characters have names and are just referred to by their job or functions on the expedition, The Biologist, the Linguist, The Psychologist, etc. In an experiment to find the optimum psychological conditions for an expedition that can both survive and return with some sort of coherent information about the conditions inside the barrier, all the members on this trip are women.
Like much modern music, it seems like VanderMeer took a dozen or so better works, threw them into a blender, and hoped the reader wouldn’t find too many recognizable chunks floating around in the slurry. But I’m good at spotting chunks: There are bit and pieces of Solaris, Roadside Picnic, Rogue Moon and–for the first two–their cinematic adaptations, as well as all the movies and books derived from them (Event Horizon, Cube, et.al,) countless “found” memoirs of the inexplicable, the mind-flaying horrors of Lovecraft and even a solid piece of gristle from Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.
The movie is a pretty disappointing follow-up to the excellent Ex Machina by Alex Garland. It takes a few things from the novel, but otherwise pretty much ignores it to create a strange mash-up of “The Colour Out of Space” and The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard (minus all of Ballard’s Heart of Darkness overtones.)
Riven
I finally passed my exam and have been celebrating by reading exactly nothing–except the dialogue in Persona 5. That said, Mr. Riven and I listen to some podcasts when we’re lifting or traveling. Last week we traveled to Missoula for the USPSA Area 1 Championship. Mr. Riven has been especially delighted with his recent find of the Myths and Legends podcast. It dovetails nicely with his current game of choice–God of War. The writer and host covers a wide variety of, well, myths and legends with a good deal of fairly dry humor and a flair for entertaining. Besides the Norse lore that’s so apropos for God of War, they also cover Slavic fairytales, epic Viking tales, and all of the standard classics: Greek and Roman mythology, King Arthur’s court, mythological beasts, etc. There’s plenty more besides what I’ve listed here, and we greatly enjoyed a lot of the Slavic tales on our trip. Fans of John Wick might also appreciate the stories that include Baba Yaga, who is seems to be equal parts hilarious and terrifying (just like an ancient boogeyman should be).
mexican sharpshooter
It came to my attention that my younger brother was not a prog, but is still in college, so I decided to pick up a few books he might benefit given his environment. I got through this one pretty quickly, given Bastiat is pretty straightforward and concise. I also picked up The Road to Serfdom. This one is taking me longer.
I also bought The Federalist Papers since I never read them. I have to admit, I don’t like Hamilton. I can deal with his arguments droning on, taking several pages and multiple essays to convey–I’ve read boring stuff before. I simply find a lot of them ineffective, and he does not always adequately explain why something regulated by a state might be bad but it is totally okay for the federal government to do it. It might be my biases as a former federal employee, and seeing ineffective, incompetent implementation of seemingly simple tasks for several years. I do realize I should try to decouple that when reading a historical document. I found myself flipping through Hamilton’s essays and finding the next one Madison wrote as his seem better thought out. In all, it leaves me wondering if the natural born clause in the Constitution was intentionally written to keep certain assholes from being president, a certain asshole named Hamilton.
Web Dominatrix
I just started (and then finished in swift order) To Sell Is Human by Dan Pink. As a business owner I have to spend time selling, and I’ve hated it for years, which is why I was so delighted to discover this book which explains how to sell without feeling like a sleezeball backed up with case studies.
I am now reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg as my habits need some major work. There are habits I have that are good, others that are bad, and others that just simply aren’t serving me in the best way.
Tulip
I would like to recommend three short story collections. First is American Housewife by Helen Ellis. These are great little vignettes. My two favorites are “The Wainscoting War” and “My Novel Is Brought to You by the Good People at Tampax.”
The second is Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson. I love her short stories. She is probably familiar to most as the author of The Lottery. She also wrote The Haunting of Hill House. I read that in one sitting when I was fifteen. It was a hot, August day and when I finished, I was in a cold sweat. I’m still not sure why, but that book creeped me out like no other.
The last is Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold by various authors. Most are based on old tales, but with a modern twist. They are dark, creepy and sometimes funny.
SP
I’ve just started reading Bad Things Happen (David Loogan Book 1) by Harry Dolan. I’m enjoying it very much so far. It’s a noir-ish mystery, which I love in books and film. If it stays true to the promising beginning chapters, I’ll most likely pick up the rest in the series.
Also reading several vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. I’m getting a little tired of the same old plain stuff I’ve been eating during my 60 day 100% plant-based window (in which I’m trying to cement the practice), and need to mix it up some. Highly recommended: The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook: A Fresh Guide to Eating Well With 700 Foolproof Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen. 250 or so of these recipes are vegan. I’ve cooked from this before and everything just works. I’m thinking about putting a post together with brief reviews of several others, if there is any interest.
And, last, but certainly not least, a quick read through Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 days by Peter Burke has inspired me to begin growing soil-raised sprouts in the house. I love that I’ll be able to do so next winter!
Brett L
I finished Mark Lawrence’s latest, Grey Sister. Its probably his least best work, and still better than almost anything out there in the SF/F genre right now. It definitely ends on an Empire Strikes Back note, so I expect the third one to really kick ass. I read John Conroe’s latest collection The Demon Accords Compendium, Vol. 1. I give it a B. I think that universe has mostly run its course. And then Exam Ref 70-532 Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions because this Azure shit is hot and I need to keep my LinkedIn profile popular. Azure is fun and I wish I was 23 and single and could spend 2 or 3 nights a week messing around in it for 3-5 hours at a time.
STEVE SMITH
STEVE SMITH READ ABOMINABLE BY HOOMAN WRITER DAN SIMMONS. ABOMINABLE LONG BOOK BUT SHORT ON HOT YETI ACTION; STORY ALL MOUNTAIN CLIMBING AND NAZIS! STEVE SMITH FIND HOOMAN SIMMONS AND STEVE SMITH SHOW HIM WHAT ABOMINABLE REALLY MEANS!
jesse.in.mb
AWOL on the Appalachian Trail: I have a confession to make. Travelogues make me bitter; I was miserable thinking about how little I’d traveled while watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty…on a flight to spend a week in Berlin and Prague on my own for New Years, and was bitter *both* times I saw Under the Tuscan Sun (some of you are too young to remember when airlines just played one movie at a time)…while flying back from a month in Rome with side trips through the Tuscan countryside. So I reaaaally shouldn’t have read this delightful travelogue about hiking the AT because his motivations felt familiar and the adventure sounds absolutely awful, but doable.
Happy Dreams: This novel, about a peasant who moves to the city to be a trash picker, was a constant aggravation and a struggle to read, but I’m glad I kept chipping away at it. Toward the end of the novel I ended up caring about the characters even if their behavior still grated deeply. The author’s afterward really should’ve been the intro. Once I understood where he was coming from the entire story came together as beautiful in its grind.
Macbeth: A Novel: Audible had it on sale, and it was read by Alan Cumming. I’d never read it or seen the play (unless you count THRONE OF BLOOD), and I figured Cumming reading Macbeth would be awesome…except it’s not Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it’s Macbeth: A Novel. I kept thinking it didn’t *seem* very Shakespearean, and then looked into a it a bit and was annoyed.
Livy’s “History of Rome.” Yes, really.
Ugh. Ab Urbe Condita. Sooooooo boring. It beats De Bello Gallico though.
/former medievalist forced to take tons and tons of classical Latin that was largely useless to me because medieval Latin is an entirely different beast.
Ever read any Cicero?
I’m currently reading Rothbard’s posthumously published The Progressive Era. It’s relatively interesting in a Rothbard talks about trains a lot kind of way. Idk. Need to read more before I know how useful this book will be.
Recently finished Empire of the Summer Moon. That book is great. The Comanches were total dicks. Fuck ’em.
+1 on Empire of the Summer Moon being a great book.
Does this have anything to do with Sailor Moon? She’s hot.
I see I’m not the only one whose mind went there…
*narrows gaze*
Yup. Loved it.
– Recently finished A Most Ingenious Paradox: The Art of Gilbert & Sullivan by Gayden Wren. A very interesting read; it helped me recognize some of the humor and art in G&S productions that I would have overlooked.
– Don Juan by Lord Byron
– Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare (some dead old white man; I dunno)
– 12 Rules for Life by radical alt-right neo-Nazi Jordan Peterson. I’m about 3/4 of the way through, and I could see this being one of those books that helps you change your thought processes for the better.
Have you cleaned your room yet?
Yes, actually! I’ve never had a problem keeping my room clean… It’s just the rest of the dang house.
I know how you feel.
Have you cleaned your lobster tank yet? (am I doing this right?)
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages by Charles Henry Lea.
Er, Henry Charles Lea, rather.
I just bought it for $0.99 for my kindle how do you like it so far?
Reading on the Kindle, myself!
I’m enjoying the read immensely, although that may just be because of a preexistent interest in the subject. It’s a monster of a book, mostly on account of the author providing lots of detailed accounts of…various things. As much as (and maybe even more than) the workings of the Inquisition itself, it goes into some detail on some of the external circumstances “justifying” its existence or affecting its operations. Mind you, I’m only in the middle of the second volume, which is basically detailing the history and the efficacy of the Inquisition in each of the various lands of Europe.
(I recently finished the section on Bosnia, which…to be honest, I didn’t even know it was Catholic. Turns out, Roman Catholicism was virtually unsupported there from top to bottom [the author seems to imply they were almost all Catharan], so without state support…the inquisitors sent there utterly flopped. [Surprise, surprise!] Over 200 years and nothing to show for the effort!)
My biggest complaint about the Kindle version is that, for the size that it is, I’m not able to click on the footnotes numbers to travel back and forth, the way I can on some of my others.
I read that one a couple of years ago. Dense but very interesting and informative. And scary. Reading about Bernardo Gui gives you a lot of insight about what to expect once the progs take over.
I finally finished all 21of the Aubery/Maturin novels.
Even though it took 6 months and cost about $200 for all of them well worth the time and money to me.
Currently I am reading The Republic of Pirates, sometimes I feel like a nerd for my book choices, and then I see what some of you are reading and I feel better about myself.
*M
lol (don’t know how the above happened)
my experience reading those books was sort of crazy.
i read the first 10, then stopped, and started over and read the first- 10 again.
then i read 11 and 12. then i stopped and read 1-12 again.
then i read 13 and 14. then i stopped and read 1-14 again.
then i read 14 -17. then i stopped and read 1-17 again.
I have poked through 18 “the yellow admiral”; but never finished it because i’m sure if i really get into them again, I’ll start the whole fucking thing over again.
Part of it is also this sense that its ending, and i think the best part of the series is somewhere in the middle, and that i don’t really ever want to read the “end” books. Its not that i hold them in any special regard, but they are an interesting sort of world-creating, and the reason i kept re-reading them was because of the pleasure of knowing that world very intimately, and then going back and re-visiting places you had been before.
I’m behind schedule on my reading but….
I just received a copy of Stephen Hick’s Explaining Postmodernism
Glancing thru the introduction, it looks like it will be an entertaining read. Hicks does not pull punches.
A Deepness in the Sky – Very different than A Fire Upon the Deep. Not… quite as good, but still better than 85% of the shit I read. So still entertaining and thought provoking. The author is sharp as a tack and has thought about second, third, and fourth order effects of his technology, which I really appreciate. Recommended.
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist – I know Balko is not dripping with love here now that he’s transitioned from libertarian to woke. But this is a good book. Not my kind of book – true crime or whatever. Just not my cup of tea as a genre. But very well written and very well structured. Recommended.
How Children Succeed – What if we could help all these inner city kids with MOAR COMPASHION FROM PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT INERVENSTION. I am shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that upper-class white Ivy League graduates failed to use government school to teach poor black kids how to develop grit. Not Recommended.
Red Planet – Heinlein. Juveniles. Perfect, except for the fact that it wasn’t narrated by Zapp Brannigan. Recommended.
Children of the Sky – Half way through and I’m all “eh, wonder if I have any good podcasts.” I’ll finish it based on the strength of A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, but I’m withholding judgement for now.
Dying of the Light – A dozen hours in, and I’m all like “meh.” This book was nominated for a Hugo? Does it get way better? Confused.
Dying of the Light
It was, like, the 70s, man.
Just finished The Christ Who Heals by Fiona and Terryl Givens.
After listening to it on audio-book a couple of months ago, I’m reading Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life now.
My people!
Fahrenheit 451. Never actually read it before.
I’m curious how it holds up. I remember really liking that book when I read it a million years ago, but it seems to me now that I would find it clumsy and heavy handed. idk.
I haven’t read it in a million years, but that passage has always stuck with me. I, too, am curious how the book held up.
Sounds like you could also be describing that one Black Mirror episode where the woman trespasser is being hunted down by the relentless mechanical killer dogs.
Or those crazy dogbots in Snow Crash
– Gibson, ‘Count Zero’
It’s been used a number of times, but the first instance I can remember was Bradbury.
I liked when somebody interviewed Bradbury and asked him about underlying themes in the book, his response was great. To the tune of, “No, there’s no underlying message in it. Its about men that light books on fire.”
Bradbury changed that response over the years, at one point it was about censorship, then it was about mass media, then it was about television and technology. One of the few times I started to lean towards Death of the Author as the correct model of literary study.
On Politics – A History of Political Thought: from Herodotus to the Present by Alan Ryan.
I’m feeling my age these days — my first Uni degree was a double-major in Econ & PoliSci, but that was 30+ years ago and I’m rusty as all get-out. Ryan’s book is an excellent overview, the kind of book that I wish had existed when I first entered Uni. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but the author does a good job so far of placing all of the political ideas into their historical context; for example, you realize why, despite having been written over 2,400 years ago, Plato’s Republic is still being studied (and argued over) by modern-day philosophers and political scientists.
Based on my progress so far, highly recommended. But if overviews aren’t your bag, and you don’t wanna keep a copy of this on your bookshelf, perhaps see if your local library system has it as an e-book that you can borrow.
“Spook” by roach. Do not recommend.
SP – I burned through the four books Harry Dolan has out in a couple months, he’s my favorite new author right now. I’d say the third Loogan book (a prequel) is the best ones of the four just edging out the stand-alone The Man in the Crooked Hat.
Awesome, Hyp! Glad they stay enticing. Thanks!
I love What Are We Reading day!
Thanks to everyone who weighs in. I always get at least a couple new things to add to my list.
Thanks to everyone who weighs in.
Did you say the same thing in the Glib Fit thread?
Hmm, possibly so….
*narrows gaze*
Swiss, I bought a bottle of monkey 47. You’re right, very good gin. I’m not convinced it’s quite worth the price of admission, but definitely the best gin I’ve had. Usually a hendrick’s guy.
What’s this about gin?
If you like Hendrick’s you may like St. George Terroir. It’s super different, and like taking a hike along the northern CA coast line.
I’ll add it to the list. The next one I was going to try is the botanist.
Interesting. Let me know how you like it. I’m guessing it’s part of the whiskey makers’ move toward clear spirits that don’t need aging to offset the vagueries of the whiskey market by the manufacturer. I’m always interested in an unusual botanical composition though.
There’s only three gins I’ve come around to consistently liking: Broker’s London Dry, Gin Mare and Bols Corenwyn. Broker’s is a classic London Dry, punching far above its price point. Gin Mare uses a variety of Mediterranean herbs etc., and is awesome by itself, and also makes a complex G&T that I find quite fun. Corenwyn’s a great expression of the jenever/genever style popular in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Of the three, Broker’s is by far the easiest to get in Canada. YMMV.
I went to a bar that surprisingly had genevere. My opinion is it’s a mix of gin and tequila.
I brought back a bottle of oude & jonge genever from Amsterdam. The oude is great just on the rocks. I’m kicking myself now for not taking a bottle of corenwyn as well.
Given how much booze Americans are allowed to bring home with them, I’m always amazed at how little most of ’em actually do bring back. Canadians are treated like crap by our own Border Services Agency; we’re allowed 1.14 litres of hard spirits per person per trip. That’s approx. 1.5 standard 750ml bottles, which is effing stupid, and this particular allowance hasn’t changed in decades. Pisses me off every time I and my wife find that fourth bottle of something that we’d like to bring back. And trying to figure out ahead of time how much it will cost to import it? Fuggedaboudit!
Standard alcohol allowance for US citizens/residents is only 1L per person(*). -However- all you have to do if it’s above, is just declare it. Unless you’re bringing back hordes of alcohol, the CBP agent will more than likely just wave you through.
(*) up to 2L from certain Caribbean countries & 5L from certain US possessions
FM…yeah, it is a bit pricey, but I seldom indulge in gin anymore, so I will grin and bear it.
I’ve just purchased Quantum Void (book 2 of the Quantum Series). The first book was very engaging combination of SCFI, mystery, and political intrigue. I’m hoping this book goes much further with the world and events set up in Quantum Space by Douglas Phillips.
It’s a great coincidence. Friday’s are the day my wife and I go to our local watering hole. My wife and our regular barmaid start comparing books they read since they last saw each other. Mrs. Time goes through books like Steve Smith goes through lost hikers.
Back to front?
More like fast and hard.
I’m jealous. For all my good looks, I am an amazingly slow reader. I love reading, but it takes me a while to finish a book.
OT: FFS. It’s bad enough the new job still hasn’t gotten my remote access set up, but right now there’s one other person on the entire floor, and he’s dropping 19 phone configs in my lap that need to be done before Monday. It was bad enough I have a 16:30 conference call, but to wait until the last minute to drop work on my desk?
There is beer at home, and there is BIF e-mails to be sent out this weekend.
I hate people that try to give me work right before 5 on a Friday. It’s always compliance people that do it, too. If you needed it done before the weekend, you should’ve let me know a few days beforehand so I could stay late on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Unless a client is really going to be shafted by me leaving on time, I’m outta here at 5pm on Friday.
Message for the Dead, the next book in Galaxy’s Edge series came out, so I read it and hell, it really caught me by surprise. They claim that next one is the ‘thrilling conclusion’ but where things are now actually feels like a whole new setting. Unless the ‘conclusion’ is to the current crop of characters and we pick up 15 or so years later, because Star Wars.
I was toying with an idea of writing an article for Glibertarians.com, so I went back and re-read volume 1 of Baen’s edition of Poul Anderson’s Technic Civilization stories. This has turned into a full reread of the series. Damn, I forgot how good those stories were! I’m up to volume 4, where Dominic Flandry, gentleman-spy of the Empire, makes his debut.
And, when may we expect the article? Hmm?
I didn’t even clean my room!
Reading is for fags.
…whose shit is retarded.
lol
https://ntknetwork.com/hillary-clinton-wants-to-be-ceo-of-facebook/
Thus completing the merger with the DNC.
Wow, that’s revealing on so many levels
Have you cleaned your room yet?
That’s funny, I was just thinking about that, in a very oblique way, as I was running the weed eater a few minutes ago. Not thinking about Jordan Peterson, but about the fact that I do not have the “nesting gene” or whatever you want to call it. I’m living in a partially completed loft “apartment” in a barn. There are boxes which have been sitting, unopened, since I brought them here a dozen years ago, against the wall behind me, right now.
Some people might think I’m not fit to be allowed to run around loose. They can all go fuck themselves.
I finally got started on Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life and I’ve been very disappointed so far. The first 10 pages or so are about lobsters, and the point that he’s trying to make is so painfully obvious that the book put me to sleep. So much ink spilled for a concept that could be fully explained in a single page with a few footnotes for people that want to see the research or learn more.
I’m not sure if I’m even going to finish the first chapter. Still happy I bought the book though, just to piss of people that hate Peterson. That might be petty, but the way I see it — I’ve watched a few dozen hours of Peterson’s lectures over the past 2 years and I don’t mind throwing him a few bucks for it.
Tom’s Town, The Mafia and the Machine, Open City, Missouri Waltz, Pendergast!, The Pendergast Machine, and Kansas City Noir.
So I was wondering who all’s seen Boardwalk Empire and is it worth the money to binge?
I watched Boardwalk Empire and really, really liked it. My brother absolutely hated the show. So that’s my totally unhelpful comment.
I liked the first two seasons if I remember correctly. The characters I liked the most did not get enough screen time in my opinion.
I watched the first several seasons and enjoyed them. I got busy with life and had the last season and a half recorded on a DVR which then failed. I have not felt compelled to go find the remaining episodes. I think it went a bit stale towards the end.
Yes boardwalk empire is great. seasons 1-3 are epic.
4 and 5 are sort of fucked up. i think what happened is that HBO contracted for 3 and then left “options” for 4 and 5. they both feel ‘tacked on’ and drawing out story-arcs that should have probably ended quicker or had different resolution. not “bad” but just not as tight and interesting as 1-3
* i think it deserves special praise simply for its period-quality. very few period pieces seem to get things 100% correct. they try, they do a good job w/ costumes, etc. but fail on something (e.g. The Knick, which was good,… you could see hints of the modern in their use of language, and occasional bad-set-design (you can see modern windows in their 19th century buildings) Boardwalk Empire does a fantastic job with its art design – sets, costumes, and the general style of presentation. it feels more accurate and more concerned w/ capturing the period correctly than many similar types of things.
** i did feel the shoehorning of “race and gender issues” into plots was sometimes a little hamhanded; but they at least aligned them w/ actual issues of the day (e.g. suffrage movement, and increasing integration in the north)
Thank you! That is why I was tempted to watch it and why also I was hesitant. Some period pieces just don’t get the period right and I need some flavor to go with my research.
*cute little thing i pointed out a few months ago….
a building down the street where i used to live was used in the show, and i thought it was clever how it was made to fit in both 1970s and 1920s set-dressings…
https://imgur.com/a/AWjW5
Also! the bar i ate dinner in nearly every other night for a few years was also used as a set in the show. can’t remember the episode… i think it was the one where the guy gets assassinated from across the street by the sniper. you can see why they used the bar – its been used in a bunch of 1920s gangster movies as well
Agreed. Love 1-3, 4-5 were pretty much a mess. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I thought Nucky was a better, much more believable character in his first incarnation than as what he became in the last two seasons.
I could agree with that. I gave up somewhere either in the 4th or 5th season.
Binge it is, then! Thank you!
With some series I’ve been excited about the first season, they’re written as if they don’t think they’re going to get a second season, then they do and don’t know where to go. It’s rare I get past the middle of a second season that’s floundering.
The old Denis Leary series Rescue Me was like that. First season was fantastic – black comedy/drama about a NYC firehouse in the wake of 9/11 and its aftereffects on the firemen. By season 3 it was total crap, with increasingly bizarre plots that went nowhere.
Dennis Leary is so odd to me, I feel like I’m watching the generic brand version of Willem DaFoe.
See also: Scandal
First season was good, first 3 or 4 episodes of season 2 were okay, then it took a deep dive into stupidville. It gets unbelievable when literally everybody the main character has ever know is embroiled in some overarching conspiracy.
who all’s seen Boardwalk Empire and is it worth the money to binge?
I liked it. Like any of those shows, it has its ups and downs, but I’d say it’s definitely worth it.
re: ups and downs
At some point, in any long, complicated story, the writers end up painting themselves into a corner. Extricating themselves can be awkward.
OT: Another assault car. Will no one think of the pedestrians and get these vehicles of death off our roads?
Ok, based on recommendations here I finished the Repairman Jack novels. Yes, it was as bad of an ending as you described and yes, I’m still glad I finished. Overall, I thought it was a great series. The stories were very imaginative and the characters, for the most part, were interesting. I think it really must be tough to write that type of series. You can almost feel when he got tired of a character but couldn’t kill them off. It always amazes me when a writer can do a long series that you still give a shit about the characters at the end.
So now it’s time for some non-sf, crime/detective shit. I re-read Lawrence Block’s The Girl With the Long Green Heart as a palate cleanser and it was still excellent. Con men, beautiful women, the works! Read it!
My favorite series is the Rebus novels by Ian Rankin. Last summer I had the pleasure of a couple drinks at the Oxford Bar, a pub that is featured prominently in the books. The bartender even gave me a sweet bookmark! Anyway, fans will be happy to learn that he’s got a new one coming out this fall! I’m stoked. When it looked like he was done, he fooled everyone and wrote a bunch more, really strong books.
And finally, thanks to SP, I have a new series to tackle. Thanks, SP!
Dammit, another place to visit added to the list. Heartily recommend Rankin. I started about twenty years ago and still enjoy them.
Stupid Kindle app, I can’t tell what I’ve read and what I haven’t, so I started reading a Rankin that didn’t look familiar. I think I may have read it before after all, but by this time it’s too late. (Re-)hooked me again.
I’ve read them all several times. Definitely visit Edinburgh. It was so cool recognizing things from the books. Yes. I am a nerd.
You’re welcome.
We’ll be in Minneapolis the evening of Sunday, June 17.
Sweet! I am actually in town! I’d love to meet you both.
The rest of the Twin Cities Glibs would be welcome, too, but I’ve heard from nary a soul.
I’ll drop you a note.
Uffda.
All your brown nosing pays off. SP makes sure to invite you to her road show.
I commented above and made a witty reply to SP and what do I get? A narrowed gaze from Swiss. I see how this place is.
Maybe if you showered more than twice a month people would want you around more.
Hey, I’ve invited people at least twice in the comments, and people all along our road trip are meeting us, but have I heard from ANYONE in the Twin Cities? No.
I can understand not wanting to meet OMWC, but I’m actually a nice person!
We are quite exclusive.
*Sips beer with raised pinky*
Oh. Well, I’m not that classy.
/re-draws the route home
Yeah, right. Do you know in what part of town you are staying?
Hey, at least people visit your neck of the woods. No one comes to Richmond!
people are fucked up.
why would you create a fake account just to post photos other people took to try and spark some viral tweet?
https://twitter.com/TellUsWhyCo/status/999803756106706944
The weird thing is, why does a book about Australians in the war in Afghanistan have a picture of U.S. Marines?
I know, the guy almost completely owns the original poster…but then goes too far and claims they’re “Australians”
later down the thread a marine corrects him and points to the actual photographers website.
its a lesson: never be *too* self righteous about the facts when you’re not 100% sure of them.
Tim Egan rides to Amazon’s rescue
President Trump has declared war on Amazon, the nation’s second most valuable company. Amazon is creating more jobs than all but a handful of entire states. And nearly every major city in the country is vying to land the second headquarters of this global retailer and the 50,000 high-paying positions it promises to bring.
———–
Amazon is no saint, certainly, with low wages at some warehouses and a business strategy that has hurt many small retailers while helping others. All the major tech companies could use a clamp of regulation to restrain their intrusions into daily life and commerce. But Trump isn’t the least bit concerned about any of that. Those issues are too complex for him.
He sees the world as a brute with power sees it. Everything goes through a love-me/hate-me prism. Sycophants are rewarded. Dissidents are crushed. Diplomacy, as he just showed with his laughable, incoherent dance with North Korea, is much harder.
If Trump hates it, we are compelled by the divine power of progressivism to love it. I wonder what little Timmy thinks of that commie crackpot in Seattle and her tax on jobs.
“He sees the world as a brute with power sees it. Everything goes through a love-me/hate-me prism. Sycophants are rewarded. Dissidents are crushed.”
Projection, projection, projection, projection…
Common sense when progressives do it…
Evil stupidity when Trump does it.
Also, perhaps I’m out of the loop more than I thought, but I’m calling bullshit on this. His link says there were over 90 million in the US as of 2017. That’s nearly 30% of the country and most of the adult population I’d wager. You really expect me to believe that that many people have actually joined Amazon Prime and stayed on? Yet Bezos can’t turn a profit?
I’m still in a group that’s reading The History of Christian Doctrines by Louis Berkhof. It’s dense and we’re moving slowly through it, but it’s jam packed with info.
I took a break from audiobooks for a while to listen to the radio, but I’m looking for the next one to listen to. I downloaded a few Sci fi books from Amazon, so I’ll see if theyre any good. I can usually tell within the first 5 pages.
Public Enemy Number One strikes again!
Unions representing government workers were quick to denounce the actions, calling them an “assault on democracy,” in the words of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, which represents 700,000 workers.
Experts on the Civil Service said the moves represented the next stage of an effort that Republican politicians and conservative activists had led in states like Wisconsin and Michigan throughout this decade.
“This is very clearly an administration trying to do all it can to weaken the role of public employee unions as part of a far broader strategy that in many ways has been bubbling up from the states to turn the Civil Service into at-will employment,” said Donald F. Kettl, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, who is based in Washington. “For many people involved in this debate from administration, that is the ultimate goal.”
It’s like he sent a bunch of Pinkerton goons to the Rayburn Office Building to throw those hardworking heroes of democracy out of windows.
Public employee unions are an abomination.
“This is very clearly an administration trying to do all it can to weaken the role of public employee unions”
We can only hope.
a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, who is based in Washington
I see an absentee (state) public employee that should be shitcanned.
Unions when Team Red wins: “Wait a minute, the guys we’re going to negotiate with aren’t the ones we bribed with fat campaign money and perks?”
For anyone who has ever tried and failed, or thought about doing so, or lied about doing so, I recommend actually reading Infinite Jest.
I read that a couple of years ago (took my like 2 months, I usually can crank a book out in a couple of weeks). I kept meaning to mention it on one of these threads and I finally remembered.
I’m too lazy/stressed to read anything new, so I’ve been leafing through old favorites lately. Most recently, Alastair Horne’s The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916.
Oh, I also comfort-re-read Anne McCaffrey’s Crystal Singer trilogy.
“Thinly veiled invective” is way understating it. Heaviside was an asshole. A genius, but an asshole nevertheless (which is not unusual).
He spends more time in Electromagnetic Theory ragging on Tait and Hamilton (and to some extent Gibbs) than he does actually explaining his own vectorial system, with ample sidebars about the merits of different typefaces and how awful Euclid is as a first course in geometry. He’s not exactly wrong in any of this, but it comes across more as yelling at clouds than as any coherent exposition.
Yes, no question, he was. And as he got older, he got worse about it, and nuttier than a Snickers. Unlike Tesla, though, his nuttiness didn’t cloud his sharp analytical thinking. The snide quaternion remark was directed specifically at Hamilton.
Of course his real archenemy was Preece.
Hamilton was the butt of a lot of quaternion remarks, but I think Tait got more of them because he was still alive and was able (and willing) to return fire.
Pretty fascinating guy. One of those bizarre self-taught geniuses like Tesla who’s just as eccentric and weird, though Tesla was supposed to be a lot more agreeable with other people than Heaviside. Another thing in common with Tesla is that if he ever got laid he probably wouldn’t have made the contributions he did.
Interestingly, Tesla never really did analysis- it’s tough to find any equations in his works, he completely worked intuitively. And of course, 95% of Tesla’s stuff (and all of his later stuff) was sheer nutbaggery.
You’d love this book.
Tesla did some odd stuff that wasn’t limited to electromagnetics. His designs for one way admittance valves with no moving parts are interesting, if not particularly applicable to much.
I’ll czech it out.
I’ll have to read that. I’m only passingly familiar with Heaviside, but anyone who mocked quaternions is OK in my book.
That was where I came from. I knew the name but little else. By the end of this, all i could think was, “Jesus fucking christ, why isn’t he far more famous?”
Most great scientists, like most great artists, most great writers, and most great musicians, are fundamentally uninteresting people outside of their “thing.” Heaviside was not uninteresting. The only other scientist I can think of who was this level of interesting as a person (though a totally different kind of person) was Feynman.
I need to find my Feynman books in storage and reread them, now that you mention that.
Via Instapundit, a rather good essay by John McWhorter on white leftist guilt and the religion substitute that is “wokeness”.
This can be extended to much of progressive “philosophy” (if one can call it that).
Also, it’s always a good reminder of what a racist piece of human garbage Coates is.
SPQR: A History of Rome by Mary Beard. Beard is a superb skeptic, critical thinker and evidence-weigher and it makes me wish I knew more scientists who applied such critical thinking to their work and publications.
Randomly, thank you to whoever recommended the movie “The Best Years of Our Lives” the other day. I had never heard of it, and it was quite an interesting historical document.
I know GDPR has been discussed a bit around here. How it’s going to be nearly impossible to comply with this gibberish. You would think that the people in the media who clutch their pearls every time Trump insults Don Lemon would be a bit more concerned about a law that’s basically causing impossible to comply with and which is causing many to simply cut off access to the 500 million people.
From Wikipedia, on the GDPR:
Totally.
GDPR (really the EU overall, but that’s another story) is an excellent window into the world progressives envision; massive unaccountable, unelected bureaucracy presiding over a labyrinthine structure of rules and regulations that are nearly impossible to comply with, all implemented under the guise of some utterly vague and benevolent sounding goals that said bureaucracy will work diligently to accomplish the exact opposite of.
/watched my company prepare for GDPR for over 6 months
The German Democratic Peoples Republic brought to you by the new Ministry for State Security.
“Trust us, it’ll totally work this time!”
Last months reads
Alan Parks Bloody January ***½ Scottish crime set in ’71, Detective with ties to criminals, elites of high society may be involved, a little trope-y but too much so.
Joe R Lansdale Jack Rabbit Smile **½ Unfortunately this series is running out of steam, like Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor series, it needs to be put to bed and let the author explore some fresh characters and stories.
Jim Thompson The Grifters ***½ Straight ahead dime store noir, little short on crime, there’s no ‘big heist’, lots of witty banter and double-crossing. Now on to The Getaway.
Steve Mosby You Can Run ****½ Very good manhunt/serial killer/obsessive detective novel, lots of fresh takes on a sometimes formulaic genre.
I recommend Chester Himes and Ross McDonald if you like pulp crime
also, stuff like, “shoot the piano player”, or any of the black lizard anthologies
Yeah, I’m alternating Thompson and Himes right now. The Getaway is my next Thompson but first I’ll read The Crazy Kill by Himes. Although I’m gettiing little burnt out on the crime/noir/mystery genres might have to get back into some Sci-fi or westerns to mix it up a bit. Or heck, I might go all smart guy and read some Bios or history.
First Kanye
Then Elon Musk
Now… Farrakhan
https://twitter.com/RepStevenSmith/status/1000039857693995008
I figure someone paid him to do that. If they didn’t, they should have.
So I have to agree with Tommy Robinson and Louis Farrakan in the same week?
Books? I’m here to read links, and chew bubble gum. And I’m all out of bubble gum.
*kicks over trash can in corner, to show we me business*
and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.
Making it so nothing can be done is a form of simplification.
GDPR makes me think Egon Krenz has risen from the grave.
Along these lines, my fifteen year old son is bitching about having to write an essay in the style of James Joyce.
I don’t blame him.
I think your son would has legitimate cause to burn the entire school down.
Me neither. I can understand Shakespeare. But Joyce is like Chaucer and Agile Cyborg had baby, dropped him on his head, then sent him to Oxford.
Train the cat to hit random characters on the keyboard for an hour. It will be about as lucid as Joyce and twice as interesting.
I remember nothing of Ulysses or Finnegan’s Wake, despite spending a month on Joyce in AP English. I’m pretty sure I could give a paragraph blurb of everything else we read in that class, but Joyce slid off me like water off something that floats by P Brooks.
It’s a lovely day. I think I’ll throw a few beers in the little cooler and go find a spot by the river where I can hang out and see what floats by.
I’m reading the Darth Bane trilogy of Star Wars novels (Nerd!). After reading the excellent Nick Cole & Jason Anspach Galaxy’s EdgeStar Wars pastiche, I went hunting a box of old paperbacks, primarily Star Wars paperbacks stretching back to when the Timothy Zahn Thrawn trilogy was the new hotness. I’ve been sort of randomly picking and choosing for leisure reading. And god damn is Lucas a moral and philosophical retard. His whole Light/Dark distinction for the force doesn’t make any damn sense. Both the Sith and the Jedi have utterly nonsensical philosophies.
Light/Dark distinction
To the best of my knowledge, “Light side” is not mentioned in the original trilogy.
Which is perfectly sensible, since The Force is drawn from Eastern Philosophy, probably a wiki-version of Tao. So ‘balance’ is a natural state, in which it flows in a harmonious way, and you can achieve what you want with minimal effort. ‘Dark side’ is when you start ordering it about and cause disharmony, which fucks with the world outside, but also with your inner balance, leading you to look like The Emperor.
I used to read SW books till I ran headlong into Dark Saber in which Kevin J Wiliamson did to my desire to do more what he would do to the Dune universe in a few years. When I heard about Yuuzan Wong, I was out for good (even Zahn’s second crack at Thrawn was bad). I might read the new Thrawn and Ahsoka at some point, since those are awesome characters and maybe insanity has abated…
I don’t think it is. It’s referred to as The Force, and as the Dark Side even the version of the Force in the OT doesn’t fit well with eastern ideas of Tao though. But he’s directly responsible for the ideas in the prequels and the books about the light being utterly selfless, with no attachments or strong emotions and the Sith being villains that’d make Ayn Rand blush.
And yes, Thrawn at least in the 1st Thrawn trilogy was a great character.
I recently watched Rebels Seasons 1-3. He’s still a great character!
I finally finished “The Stone and Flute” by Hans Bemmann. It ended being better than I thought it would be, but it is still too long.
Over the last month I read “Tom Swift and his 3-D Telejector”, which was OK. I also read Thomas Sowell’s “Wealth, Poverty, and Politics”, which I liked.
I’m currently reading Ian Skennerton’s “The Lee-Enfield Story”. It’s the second edition, I need to buy the third edition. It’s chock full of information about Lee-Enfields but is poorly organized.
My recent reading has been down lately because of the amount of reading I have to do for me new position at work.
I had several appointments where I knew I would have time spent waiting. I re-read Neal Stephenson’s first book “Zodiac”. It is shorter than the rest of his works and his hero is an asshole, but funny. It is an amusing read set around the Boston area.
“What We Knew” which is about life in National Socialist Germany as told by a series of interviews. It opens with a (((person))) who does not forget or forgive. The book, Like “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”, gives lie to the myth that nobody knew what was happening to (((easterners))) and other undesirables. A good read especially because you see how the “good” progressives will turn their eyes away from evil if it involves the right victims.
I saw the “Milagro Beanfield War” and it made me miss the AZ/NM so I grabbed a classic of the shelf and re-read it to stoke my misery. Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” is a classic of the genre.
This is my favorite Glib feature, but I missed it due to work.
This month I read Shadowdemon. I liked it. Good job, UCS! Look forward to reading Shadowrealm.
I read Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol 1. I was shocked that the show largely kept the origin story. But only a few issues in and Shredder was killed or “killed”, and this stupid space traveling BS started. I do not recommend.
Dark Disciple by Christie Golden I borrowed this in audiobook form from one of my libraries because I needed an audiobook (damn it, Witcher #2 is still on hold). It is a canon Star Wars book set during the Clone Wars. Vos, a Jedi is sent to assassinate Count Dooku by the Jedi Council, but must befriend and enlist the help of an ex-Sith Dooku disciple, Asajj Ventress. It was fine for light fare, which is what I was expecting and looking for.
SPQR XII Oracle of the Dead. So this year I decided I would try to finish series that I started reading and avoid beginning series that the author has not completed or I could not obtain all copies from an Overdrive. I actually went ahead and read the last SPQR (XIII) in April because XII wasn’t available at the time. I have not finished SPQR although Roberts is working on a 14th I doubt I will read it. I’ve enjoyed some books more than others, but feel content with this being the stopping point. Side note: Fist recommended this series many years ago.
The Real Lincoln by Tom DiLorenzo I have several non fiction books on my to read list, but always resist reading them because I fear they will be too academic, boring, or heady. Lincoln certainly hots some points again and again, but it’s not academic and pretty straight forward. I think it was worth reading how awful Lincoln.
Flamebearer by Bernard Cornwell. I love Uhtred. I love how he’s developed over the Saxon Saga, and he is just kick ass. This book is pretty much pure fiction, not drawing on any historical events. But it does set the series up for coming to a close (really).
Saga Vol 5 By Brian Vaughn I finally got a library card for the new county I moved to and grabbed a bunch of graphic novels for my upcoming paternity leave (I pretty much only read ebooks and listen to audiobooks). Still a little interesting, but as the name Saga I assume this series is supposed to be milked forever. If the next volume or 2 isn’t interesting I’ll move on
My contribution to a dead thread.
Still slogging thru 1001 Nights, now on Night 151.
An example:
“If the case be as thou dost relate and describe, then be at thine ease here; for naught shall befall thee save the rain of peace and safety; nor shall aught betide thee but what shall joy thee and shall not annoy thee, nor shall it annoy me.”
Still, Burton’s is a wonderful translation, preserving the poetry of the original.
… Hobbit
Way too late to this thread, but I’ve just finished Everything Flows by Grossman. I’m also reading George Macdonald Fraser’s history of the Anglo-Scots Borders.
Everything Flows is unfinished, and in some ways barely a novel at all, but still amazing.