Die Tagesordnung by Eric Vulliard

Französisches preisgekröntes Buch ins Deutsche übersetzt und sehr beliebt. Dieses Buch wurde von meiner Schwägerin empfohlen. Die historischen Dokumente mit einigen der Spekulationen und Spekulationen des Autors geben einen grimmigen Überblick über die Ereignisse, die vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg stattfanden, und über die Erfolge unserer herrschenden Klasse bei der Schuldumleitung und -manipulation. Ich mag Geschichten aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nicht mehr besonders, weil ich in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren mit zu vielen bombardiert wurde. 3/5 Sterne.

3 minutes, 3 hours, 3 days, 3 weeks

Late one evening this week I received a phone call from one of my children, asking what to pack as he was evacuating his house to escape a fire.  Without giving it much thought I told him to pack dust masks (3 minutes without air), water (3 days without water), and a power bank for his phone.

Now that he is safe, I am thinking that for urban survival in the event of natural disasters, we should think about preparedness much differently from outdoor survival.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

A Russian co-worker who shares my passion for science fiction recommended Arkady Strugalsky's books so I picked this one up.  It is fantastic. I missed the second wave of Soviet Science Fiction from the late 1970s but I caught the first wave because Isaac Asimov was a champion of the translations.  If you, like me, have not read Arkady Strugatsky, you are in for a treat. 5/5 stars.

I am a strange loop by Douglas Hofstadter

It took a while to get through this one.  Hofstadter is disappointed that fans of his magnum opus GED did not grasp his main point about (his metaphysical belief) that machines can have souls and that the level of soul-size or  consciousness is a spectrum.  He then creates a bunch of thought experiments and analyses to convince us.  His metaphysics is terrible, as is his neurobiology.  His ideas on abstraction and strange-loops are not bad, though.  Not great, 2/5 stars -- not worth reading.  Read an explanation of the Gödel paper instead.

algae bio-reactor sucks CO2 creates food, fuel, textiles

https://www.hypergiant.com/green/

A 1.8 cubic meter (67 cubic feet) sized "bio reactor" that is open-sourced, including the algae, sucks out as much CO2 from the air per second as 400 trees. The older or dead algae can be eaten, turned into fuel, or spun into textiles (clothing, carpet, insulation).

Nickel cell matrix "metallic wood" stronger than titanium, lighter than wood, floats

It takes a day to suspend the nano-scale plastic in water, dry them out, electroplate them with nickel, and then dissolve the plastic.  The largest pieces of the substance are postage stamp sized but it appears straightforward to scale up.

Black Dawn by Jay Allen

A mighty new empire is introduced into Allan's universe as the characters overcome overwhelming odds again.  The tropes are getting a little ragged but the stories are still fun, 3/5 stars.

Catriona Shearer's "Tilted Twin" puzzle

I just stumbled across Ben Orlin's "Math With Bad Drawings" blog, where he mentions Catriona Shearer's geometry puzzle tweets.  Both Orlin's blog and Shearer's tweeted puzzles are enormous fun.  Here is the answer to the puzzle above:

 cos(?) = 1/2 ; ? = 60 degrees.  The answer was tweeted at the author by Alaadin Cizer.

Misc Stories and Books by Frederik Pohl

Day Million, The Deadly Mission of PHineas Snodgrass, Fermi and Frost, The Knights of Arthur, The Mayor of Mare Tranq, Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair, A Life and a half, In the Problem Pit, the Day of the Boomer Dukes, The Hated, The Merchants of Venus

I chanced upon a collection of Frederik Pohl's complete works and am reading through them in fits and starts.  The early works have great ideas but are not as polished.  Many of his ideas stand the test of time.  Merchants of Venus in particular was really good, 4/5 stars.

The White Fleet by Jay Allan

More great plot twists in this very-long series.  The bad science and cardboard politics are a little grating but I hope to finish the series.  3/5 stars.

The History of Jihad from Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer

The writing is a little inconsistent and the author omits some scholarly research and data from influential thought that do not support his narrative.  The history is interesting; the details are good and some of my personal knowledge gaps are filled.  At times it was a slog to get through and I think the text needs better editing, 3/5 stars.

How to Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb

I have not read this book.  However my daily Blinkist spam had an ultra terse distillation worth sharing:

Take a moment to think about one of your goals. It could be anything – from a professional aspiration to a dietary resolution.

Got it? Okay, now jot it down.

Did you write something like "Stop eating junk," or was it more like "Make healthy, delicious meals for myself"?

The former formulation is an avoidance goal; the latter, in contrast, is an approach goal.

Create approach goals for feel-good productivity

As you probably guessed, approach goals – aiming for something positive rather than steering clear of something negative – make us feel better and are more effective at ushering us to actual goal achievement.

One 1997 study found that students who used approach goals improved their performance, while the opposite was true for students using avoidance goals.

So why not take a couple of goals you already have and reframe them? Because not only does "Deliver a presentation that I'm proud of" sound a lot more appealing than "Don't screw up my next presentation," it literally gives you a better chance of achievement.

This approach to goal setting seems very simple, straightforward, and useful.  I have not tried it yet.

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Another classic that withstands the test of time, great drama, amazing characters. 5/5 stars