Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the Worldin His Own Image

I read this on the plane on the way home.   It provides just the right amount of background and detail, filling in gaps in my knowledge of history. It paints Leonardo in a very human light, complete with warts, failures, deficiencies, shortcomings. 4/5 stars

Consider Phlebas

The first "Culture" book is good. 4/5 stars

Petit Quinquin

We are watching the french mini-series "Le Petit Quinquin." It is very bizarre and powerful in many ways.  The timing and cinematography will keep you spell-bound.  You will need subtitles.  4/5 stars.

Run all night

Monday night we watched “Run All Night” where Liam Neeson plays an alcoholic mafia torpedo who has Liam-Neeson super powers.  When you shoot him it makes him angry. Not great but a fun shoot-em-up 3/5 stars, worth watching.

Battling Botnets

The anti-fraud team in Google has very cool digs in London.  They are fighting botnets that create billions in click fraud losses to the evil search giant (ESG).

Their entrance is like a big bank vault. 

 

Their powerdrill super-computer sounds really cool.  But the article indicates they are losing the battle and the click fraud is actually increasing.

Read the whole thing.

A Lion Among Men

I finished Greg McGuire's fourth book in his "Wicked" stories in his own Oz universe.  I find the magic system inconsistent and unsatisfying. I shall not read future installments.  The second book was the best.  2 out of 5 stars.

Focus

. . . is slightly better than the terrible reviews; 3/5 stars.  Not good; barely worth watching.

Echopraxia

Just

This one is just as good as "Blindsight." It's a fantastic story with amazing metaphysics, hard science, epic (operatic) plots and character arcs. Awesome!!  5 out of 5 stars.

Iron Sky

based on recommendations from people at work we watched "Iron Sky."  It was as bad as the reviews and we are sorry we wasted the time. 1/5 stars.

Rip Off

loved this collection of short stories.  3/5 stars.