Be more chill by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracks

On Wednesday 10-April we saw an evening performance of "Be more chill."   It is awesome.  5/5 stars.  The $10 million production budget was well-spent.  The costumes, choreography, music, sound, lighting, and stage effects are amazing. The story line is ok (not great).  The science fiction is good.  Don't miss it!

On the Future, prospects for humanity by Martin Rees

Not bad; I appreciated his updated interpretation of the Drake equation and Dr Rees' perspectives.  Easy reading, short book, 4/5 stars.

Balto

We went to the Balto statue in central park that appeared in the 1995 movie "Balto."

2019-04-08 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monday we were in Central Park and at the Metropolitan Museum of art.  An album of our favorite photos is here.

Advances in Applications of Personality Research: the Light Triad

An interesting and comprehensive research report this week appeared in "Frontiers in Psychology." The authors had been working for quite some time on a counter-balance to the popular and often-cited 2002 research on the Dark Triad of Personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy. After some excellent, comprehensive, longitudinal, and provably repeatable studies, they have finally written up their results and findings.

One of their interesting results is that their new triad actually measures different characteristics. "The absence of darkness does not necessarily indicate the presence of light," the authors write,  "… there appears to be some degree of independence between the Light and Dark Triad, leaving room for people to have a mix of both light and dark traits."   The authors constructed what they call "portraits of the light vs.dark triad." Participants who scored high on light triad traits tended to be older, female and have experienced less unpredictability in their childhoods. They also tended to report higher levels of: religiosity, spirituality, life satisfaction, acceptance of others, belief that they and others were good, compassion, empathy, openness to experience and conscientiousness. People who scored higher on dark triad traits were more likely to be younger, male and more motivated by power, achievement, superficial sex and short-term relationships. They also tended to be less compassionate, agreeable, empathetic, satisfied with their lives and likely to believe they and others were good.

Darkfall by David Webber

Great prequel short story in the Honor Harrington universe, 4/5 stars.

The conclusion of the trilogy makes so many twists, and reveals so many secrets in such a fast-paced succession, that the book becomes a frustrating deus est machina story.  The high fantasy elements and clash of transcendental abstractions (preservation vs ruin) as well as Sanderson's great writing make the story engaging.  3/5 stars.

the coolest toys are on eBay

The reason I love this "Flitt" 720p video quadcopter ($20 on eBay) is that it folds up with rotors attached.

It's also easy to fly & stays aloft for 10 minutes per charge.

Here is a video of me learning to fly in the office.

The Flitt is $25 on Amazon.

Exile by Glynn Stewart

Fun space opera with melodramatic, juvenile, iconic characters, terrible physics and fun military engagements, Fun story, very entertaining, 3/5 stars.

Baudolino von Uberto Eco

Ich mag die Bücher von Eco. Ich wünschte, ich könnte Italienisch verstehen, um die Originale zu lesen. Diese sehr lange historische Roman hat einen fantastischen Anfang und ein gutes Ende. Der zweite Teil, nämlich Baudolinos Suche nach Priester Johan und seinem Königreich, ist langweilig und schlecht. Mir ist klar, dass die Italiener aus dem 12. Jahrhundert an diese Fantasiewesen glaubten. Und die gnostischen religiösen Diskussionen mit Hypatia haben Spaß gemacht. Aber der Rest ist zu blöd.