I went to buy a book. There were a chaos of options in the used list at the same price. Because these were used, there were descriptions of quality headlined with: Acceptable Good Very Good Like New All but new were represented at the cheapest price level. So naturally I looked through the very goods for the…
(This post on black-on-black crime is satire. Thought I would point that out before someone gets too upset over it.) A Georgia state lawmakers showed concern about the amount of black-on-black crime. He is obviously referencing the FBI homicide statistics for perpetrator race. Fortunately the actual number is lower than the 98% he claimed. But he’s not…
Iran and the United States managed to swap prisoners and make some positive steps in the nuclear deal while taking a step back with sanctions on a nuclear test. Listening to the news this morning, they were talking about the “relationship” the these two have at the moment. My thoughts were, “This is no relationship. This…
Amazon heavily pushed their Kindle Unlimited product the past couple months. Basically, it is a Netflix for books kind of service where you can read whatever you want for $10 a month. With over a million titles, there should be plenty of titles I’d read. I was whining about the frequency of the same ad…
I try to set achievable, measurable resolutions. Read 75 books. In 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, I set the goal for 52 even though I kept reading far more. Hit 25,000 pages. Last year dropped below 20K, so I really need to get the average back up to something respectable. Finish series already started. 24 of the 75…
OK, the year is completely done, so here is where I am with each resolution. Read 52 books. The goal was 52. I read 70. My Goodreads user challenge. Looking at pages, I managed to read 19,669 compared to an average of 21,815 for the prior four years. So while the number of books is good, they were lighter. (I think my…
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon My rating: 5 of 5 stars In this near future, science has figured out how to intervene with children to prevent autism. Lou and his friends, have to navigate the difficult choices when a cure becomes potentially available. It explores experimentation, work policies, social pressures, and what it…
Lots of people claim the reason cats present dead animals to their humans is because they are trying to teach the human to hunt. (Mental Floss, IFLScience, LiveScience) At one point I probably agreed with this. This conclusion rests on cats treating their human as a kitten. I wonder if there is something else at…
Fake clickbait like The Onion is good. ALWAYS click on The Onion. I don’t care if you dislike their fake news stories. I enjoy them. 🙂 The algorithms choose which stories we see. If you dislike what you see, then you need to change what you click. My Facebook feed? It is chock full of science,…