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.