Deception - The Great Covid Cover-Up by Rand Paul (2023)

The Wuhan Lab's "gain of function," including cover-ups, deception, and the people behind the odd lockdown policies are brightly illuminated in this interesting book.  The silly politics are distracting and boring, but the information about the corruption, censorship, and the conflicts of interest within government funding agencies and EcoHealth Alliance are very good.  4/5 Stars.

Raft by Stephen Baxter (1991)

I am very interested in the Xeelee sequence of books. This first book is an expanded short story with an interesting alternative universe that has a huge gravitational constant. The book is not good. I did not like any of the characters, and the gratuitous deprivations served no purpose. 2/5 Stars.

Polostan by Neal Stephenson (2024)

Fantastic!  I am so happy Stephenson is writing another immersive historical fiction series again.  Polostan is the best I have read this year (so far).  I bought extra copies for my kids. 5/5 Stars.

Screens are *still* worse than Paper for reading retention

My first published academic paper in 1987 explained an elegant experiment I ran using SAT test questions that measure retention to discover if humans retain and understand information better by reading on paper or reading from screens.  Of course the overwhelming measurements and evidence indicate that reading from paper is much better than screens.  Recently, Amy Tyson published an in-depth study about the use of books and paper versus devices (phones, tablets, computers) in classrooms and looking at test scores.  She validated my measurements in school settings.  If you have a kid in school, get them to use books and printed materials.

Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson (1984)

I have no idea how or why this book appeared on my stack to read.  The book holds up surprisingly well after 30 years.  I did not like the authors "Mars" books that follow this original one, but I enjoyed this story. The story explores the insane conspiracy theories, alternative facts, fake news, and other modern topics over a centuries long time line. It's interesting how human societies treat history.  The objective truth never matters.  4/5 Stars.

Starship flight 5

I am very grateful to live in a time when we have exceeded the wildest imaginative concepts of science fiction to catch the biggest rocket ship ever built with chopsticks. I have not been this excited about watching space flights since watching (live) as Neil Armstrong descended the lunar lander. Go watch the 4K videos.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (2003)

This high fantasy book, second in a series, deserves all the prizes it won (Hugo, Nebula, Locus). I enjoyed the story, the characters, and the consistent but mysterious magic system. 4/5 Stars.

new goal in life

My new goal in life is to get paid 2.7 gigadollars ($2.7 billion) to get re-hired at one of my previous employers. I am very grateful to live in such an interesting time.

Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen (2015)

I think David Brin pointed me to this book as an illustration of other authors who picked up David's idea of uplift.  Uplift is when an advanced species (patron) genetically modifies a pre-sapient species (client) to elevate the new species to full sapience. In this book, the author has an area of our galaxy filled with uplifted earth species. The magic system and themes in the book are a little inconsistent and the physics is terrible.  But the story is interesting and the writing is good.  3/5 Stars. I enjoyed it but won't read any others.

Rebel by David Weber and Richard Fox (2024)

Remember the Honor Harrington stories David Weber wrote in the early 1990's? This new series he is writing with Richard Fox is just as much fun.  The detailed space fleet engagements and sophisticated, consistent magic system is fun, and the vector math as explained enables the reader to visualize the engagements clearly.  The politics are intentionally similar to the Honor Harrington universe, with wicked Oligarchs and oppressed colonies. I am enjoying these books. 5/5 Stars.