Pariah, the eternity war by Jamie Sawyer

​Not particularly well-written but fun juvenile story.  3/5 stars.

Persepolis Rising

​Fantastic continuation of the story.  I hope the authors keep churning them out for years to come.  I am also looking forward to the third season of the tv show.  5/5 stars.

Vanishing Games by Roger Hobbs

Fantastic!  5/5 Stars.
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Artifakt Lazarus book 1

This story is a little melodramatic and formulaic but is still fun with non-stop action. I shall continue reading this series. 4/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Flagship by Isaac Hooke

Fun!  There is enough action to suspend disbelief. Interesting plot twists. 4/5 stars.
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Machine Learning by Hugh Howey

There is a little too much anthropomorphism in these stories but they are still very good. The science is also a little weak.  I enjoyed the stories and may pick up more of Howey's stuff. 4/5 stars.
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The Stars are Legion

Puke awful, disgusting, horror.  1/5 stars.  Yuck!​

hieroglyph

This story collection is fun and the links back to the project at Arizona State are also interesting. I did not enjoy some of the stories as much as most of them.  4/5 stars.​

Global Transparent Society

Another David Brin prediction is starting to come true:  the latest Paradise Papers leak indict thousands more of the "ruling class" and provides an interesting analysis.

Article (in English)

https://projekte.sueddeutsche.de/paradisepapers/politik/this-is-the-leak-e866529/

Brin's book page

http://www.davidbrin.com/transparentsociety.html

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

. . . would be a shame if somethin' was ta happen to it. . .

Bellevue Washington's High School football's 11 State championship dynasty's legal battles continue.  This part is really funny:  '. . .   college acceptance decisions are coming up and “it would be a shame if something were to happen.”'  It's bad Hollywood dialog from a real-life cardboard character.

Max the Demon vs Entropy of Doom

If you read my blog you will remember I sponsored the kick-starter for the creation of this graphic novel.  The fundraising was successful; the book was published; my signed first edition arrived while I was traveling for business.  My youngest daughter read the book in one sitting and I read it when I got back.  I had very high expectations for the book and it exceeded all of them!  The book is funny, exciting, well-drawn, and educational.

I sincerely believe that comic books and graphic novels will eventually find their way into classroom curriculum and kids will learn important, difficult concepts through this important medium.  If you have kids 10-16 years old who like comic books, you should consider giving them this book for the Holiday gift-giving season.  5/5 stars.

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

I think I waited too long to read this one and therefore found it a bit dated and "old news."  It does have some good insights and is not bad.  But aspects of the selfish humanism he calls out are poorly analyzed.  3/5 stars.  There are better pop-culture business books.

The Struggle is Real

The mighty oak leaf struggles desperately to defy the wind but is torn asunder by the wind's power; but the reed bends and the wind passes through. -- Confucius (孔丘), [intentionally misquoted]. 

Leaf eating soil organisms wait all year to feast on dead oak leaves, trying to survive against their grass eating enemies until an annual Fall feast.  The struggle is life and death.  And not just the soil bacteria, but all life in the universe struggles against the laws of thermodynamics and the inevitable increase in entropy.

Our back yard oak tree (Tree-Beard) provides cool shade all summer;  he supports a tire swing my youngest daughter mounted to his might boughs.  He  breathes in CO2 and converts the Carbon to leaves and living wood.  Every year in the Fall (right now) he poops a few tons of leaves in a 4 square km surface that suffocates grass, hides dog poop, and bother our neighbors.  Every year we spend a few hours of hard labor every week picking up Tree-beard's droppings and then paying an evil monopoly too much money to sell these leaves at a hefty cost. Yes: we work and sweat to collect and deliver the goods they sell; they don't pay us; we pay them!

Some of our neighbors hire trained professionals instead of toiling in their own fields but we choose to do the work ourselves to keep our yard green and clean in our struggle to stay fit.

The struggle is real.

Ghostman by Roger Hobbs

Fantastic story!  Could not put it down, 5/5 stars, ordering the sequel now.  I am very sad we shall not see any more books from this fantastic author.
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The Long March by Richard Fox

The story continues as heroic British Napoleonic war sea captains in space ships fight evil mutant cyborg monsters and French privateers (pirates) in epic space battles.  Still fun, with original characters and situations but I could not binge read the series because the writing is not as good as Patrick O'Brian.  4/5 stars.
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three body problem by Cixin Liu

interesting book because it is from a purely-Chinese perspective, including moires, zeitgeist, customs, culture, ​sensibilities, attitudes.  But it seemed unmotivated and contrived to me for those same reasons (I am stuck in my own world perceptions). The story was interesting, spanning 75 years of Chinese history through the eyes of two generations of characters.  But the physics at the end, and the space alien civilization were just puke awful and ruined the book.  2/5 stars.

Albion Lost

Interesting mishmash of (bad) Napoleonic wars British affectations and heroic seamanship (think C.S. Forester or Patrick O'Brian) and futuristic sci-fi military space opera with ridiculous cardboard super-bad guy invaders.  Why did he do that? Because he is evil.  I enjoyed the first book, have started the second.  Good formula scifi, with awe-and-wonder mysterious tech, colorful, quirky good-guys.  3/5 stars.

Mr. Fox does not write British vocabulary, turns of phrase, or humor well; neither does he capture the "seaman like manner" aboard the vessels.  Otherwise it's fun.

Vanguard: Genesis Fleet book 1

Don't read all of the "Jack Campbell" books sequentially; give them a break and then the next few will be exciting again.  I enjoyed this first book in the series 5/5 stars.

Sherlock Holmes und der Fall Karl Marx

This radio play was very interesting, well-acted, with many unexpected plot twists. The author injected a few of those awesome super-human deductions that make Holmes stories fun. 5/5 stars.
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All these Worlds

Thrilling conclusion to a great series!  I am so happy the author has chosen to write full-time and will soon produce more fun space opera with good science, wonderful characters, and great plot.  5/5 stars.
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Thrilling conclusion of a great series.  I am so happy 

King of Thieves

I like this series and enjoyed this new branch of the story.  5/5 stars.​

Der Junge Karl Marx

We watch five or more films per week and it became impossible to review and rate them all.  This film is the best film I have seen in 2017 so far.  It captures a slice of life of industrial workers and the local politics in France, and England, as well as the passion, drive, and personality of the young revolutionary.  Gritty, exciting, engrossing, well-directed, fantastic dialogue.  We had no subtitles and sometimes the French was very fast but mostly it was simple and easy to follow.  5/5 stars.  Highly recommended.
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Das letzte Geschenk

A radio play by Erhard Schmied with great voice acting and an interesting plot with twists and surprises.  I love radio plays and this one forces you to think about end-of-life care for aging parents, a heavy subject.  I did not like the characters and some of them were not developed well.  3/5 stars

Infomacracy

Disappointing after all the hype.  The politics and election stuff are boring.  I didn't care about the characters and the close combat fighting was silly.  2/5 stars.  Meh.
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All these Worlds

I love these books and I hope the author continues to write more of them,  5/5 stars.
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Sapiens

Life changing, high-impact, fascinating book.  5/5 stars.  I love his "different" take on history, metaphysics, alternative speculations for cause & effect.  I am buying copies for everyone I know who will read the books :-).
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Science in the Soul

There are elements of Richard Dawkins' elitism, arrogance, and bravado that I enjoy​; and there are other bits I find a little off-putting.  In general his prose, regardless of the topic is delicious and pleasing.  This collection is not as good as his other books.  3/5 stars.

The Summons

​Still catching up on Grisham, liked this one as well.  4/5 stars, great slice-of-life of Mississippi.

Homo Deus

Life changing, awesome, must-read 5/5 stars

Best book I have read since "Thinking Fast and Slow."  Amazing thoughts and insights into metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, politics.  Amazing speculation and future projection of science trends in biology, computer, and information sciences.  Great insights into implications of intelligence versus consciousness.  Just read it!

Camino Island

We started to read the Grisham books we had not read when they came out and I noticed a new one sitting around.  It is a great story with wonderfully colorful characters.  Very enjoyable 4/5 stars.​

De Oppresso Liber

I love this series and can't wait for the next one. 5/5 stars
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CIA as organized crime

Very long conspiracy theory book with strong research, interesting facts, and bizarre speculations / conclusions. It is important to shine a brighter light on the unethical, immoral, and truly-evil activities, institutions, and individuals Valentine describes.  So I do recommend skimming the book and chasing his references for details.  However the bizarre accusations and conspiracy theories about the motivations, relationships, and higher purposes of the people and institutions is awful.  2/5 stars.​

The Power of Habit

I enjoyed this one and zipped through it quickly.  I understood some of the biology before reading it but it was great to get some more insights.  4/5 stars.
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We are Legion (We are Bob)

After a series of juvenile or weak space opera, I stumbled upon this series of books by Dennis Taylor and really enjoyed the first book.  The characters are fun.  The adventures are interesting and the science is better than usual.  I can't wait to read the next one.
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The Bishop Must Die

I seem to have landed in the middle (or end) of a large series of books by this author and it was entertaining, interesting for the historical context, dramatic, but not spectacular.  Well plotted 4/5 stars.
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eBay's billion-item inventory in the public cloud

If you are in downtown Bellevue on Wednesday 8/16/2017 and want some free food, I am giving a talk about how eBay operates on our 1.1 billion item inventory several hundred thousand times per second in the public Cloud.

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My talk is at the "Big Data Bellevue" meetup at 411 108 AV NE, Bellevue, WA (map).

madame butterfly

We saw the Seattle Opera company's production of madame butterfly on Sunday 8/13.  It was fantastic.  The production includes an international cast of stars, spectacular (literally a spectacle) of set design, costumes, sound, orchestra, and even English subtitles beamed 5 meters above the stage to enable you to catch up on the story without distractions. 5/5 stars.

You can get cheap tickets at the box office at noon before the 2pm matinee shows.  The show plays to a full-house.

Photo Album

Nachtbrenner

I have been listening to some German radio plays since the one I heard on the plane recently was so good.  This one is not good.  1/5 stars.

rogue clone

The series is disappointing; it is more teenage close-combat fantasy, sigh.  The space opera, technology, story line, politics are not good 2/5 stars.
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Dafan

​This radio play is not bad.  It is a little short and the pacing is very inconsistent but the "lotus eaters" story is a good one.  3/5 stars.

Der Zahir

I was a little disappointed by this self-indulgent, introspective philosophical monograph.  The details of the Kazakhstan Steppe were interesting.  And I enjoyed the depth into the values and culture of the characters.  The book it is very-well written.  Coelho is a fantastic writer.  But the petulant, egotistical, self-aggrandizing characters' melodramatic first-world problems seemed silly. And the bizarre, mystical superstitions  of the Kazakhs are just plain dumb.  2/5 stars.

I am considering writing a separate, German blog since I started reading a lot of German books; however I think most people who might look at this blog are not German speakers.
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Zadig ou la destinee

Another great story by Voltaire, 4/5 stars.

Candide ou l'optimisme

This play or the story summary version I read on the plane today is fantastic! I was laughing frequently all during the flight. 5/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Kaffir Boy

My daughter must read this book for her class at school so I wanted to see if the pornography law suit against school districts had merit.  The beginning is quite horrific.  And I suspect conditions in the region have not changed much since the book was published, despite the fact that Apartheid has been abolished.  The book is not well written; it is dated, extremely melodramatic, but important for the historical context.  2/5 stars

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

max the demon vs entropy of doom

It's a graphic novel (comic book) to make thermodynamics approachable by non-physics majors.

I sponsored the kickstarter project because I selfishly want to buy and read the graphic novel.

The kickstarter page is here:

http://kck.st/2sL36PG

7/24 - 7/26/17 Photo updates

Gabriella's camera "saw Internet" when it came home to our house and uploaded the rest of the photos I had not secured previously, so we have updates to a few of the albums as well as photos from the trip home

She captured some amazing pictures out of the window of our plane rides, Zurich, Los Angeles, Seattle.

• Monday 7/24/2017:  Flights home