Mary Brodd

This is an excellent compilation of the author's best blog posts. That said, I think the blog is the better way to experience these - in small bits, rather than gorging on them. The author is generally quite snarky (again, fine in small doses! I love snark!) and a book's worth of snark can cause spiritual/mental indigestion.

A good list of useful things to do even if you're not waiting for the end of the world as we know it. If I could spend the summer doing these things we'd have less clutter, good emergency kits, trusted backups of the important paper and electronic documents, and so on. This is definitely a project to consider...

Generally illuminating. The pre-WWII information was easier to follow. The post-war material was more confusing, as the original institution broke itself into pieces (and the author tried to follow them all), but it was interesting/depressing to see how, as the regulations in the US/UK changed/disappeared, riskier and riskier behavior became the norm. This book stops in the late 80s, so nothing about our latest financial catastrophe.

Maybe I need to stop trying to read this book right before bed. I simply could not make my way through it without incurring enough library fines to pay for my very own copy! It is a very dry read. I did get the point in the first part of the book, though - bankers are going to continue to act the way they do (i.e. extreme leveraging, short-term gain over long-term stability) because the laws and regulations allow them to do so, and because they profit immensely. So, nothing will change. Maybe that's why I'm giving up on this book - it's too damned depressing right now...

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a great deal (e.g., this project is where Bechtel got its start, and Kaiser Permanente could be said to have been born here too). Almost more interesting than the construction details was the information on the living conditions at the site. Men flocked to Black Canyon before construction started, hoping for work, and ended up living in camps in the most squalid conditions, some with their families in tow! Reading about the eventual improvements in living conditions, along with the occasional organized-labor conflicts (IWW and UMW), and the incredibly authoritarian governance of the whole area (it was one big Federal camp, essentially), was very interesting. If you've been to Hoover Dam, or plan to go, this book will add greatly to your appreciation of what you're seeing. (I do wish it contained more photos, though.)

Read it in one sitting and really enjoyed it. Plausible political thriller, interesting near-future setting which is mostly believable, and a very engaging main character. (I knew from reading the author's blog that the gender of the main character was deliberately not revealed. I still found myself thinking that “Chris” was male, to be honest...)

We are so screwed.

Arctic Ocean will be ice-free in the summer by 2080.

Permafrost not “perma” any more.

Ice-albedo - positive feedback loop - the faster the ice melts, the faster the ice melts.

Final paragraph:
“Ice core records also show that we are steadily drawing closer to the temperature peaks of the last interglacial, when sea levels were some fifteen feet higher than they are today. Just a few degrees more and the earth will be hotter than it has been at any time since our species evolved. The feedbacks that have been identified in the climate system - the ice-albedo feedback, the water vapor feedback, the feedback between temperatures and carbon storage in the permafrost - take small changes to the system and amplify them into much larger forces. Perhaps the most unpredictable feedback of all is the human one. With six billion people on the planet, the risks are everywhere apparent. A disruption in monsoon patterns, a shift in ocean currents, a major drought - any one of these could easily produce streams of refugees numbering in the millions. As the effects of global warming become more and more difficult to ignore, will we react by finally fashioning a global response? Or will we retreat into ever narrower and more destructive forms of self-interest? It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.”

This is probably more like a 3.5 stars, but it suited my purpose, so there you have it.
Takeaways from this book:
Harrison's entire life was spent trying to find a job that would allow him to support his family (he had, like, a million kids...).Harrison was the first president to campaign in person.
Campaign was fabricated (sound familiar?)- H was not some rustic Westerner sitting in a log cabin drinking cider, but a well-educated Virginia gentleman.Choice of Tyler as VP was fairly random - how would first part of the 19th century gone had H picked a running mate more carefully? As an alternate-history fan I find that interesting to contemplate.

(I'm trying to read at least one biography of every US president - this period between Jackson and Lincoln is a bit of a slog - not many books available, so if you have any suggestions let me know!)

Interesting book, poorly organized.
Some takeaways:
Typical British working-class diet in lead-up to war was appalling. Army diet was much better calorically and w/regard to protein intake.Challenges of providing cooking ovens for the scale needed, and then moving them over and over (Soyer stoves, Aldershot ovens, ovens built in the sides of trenches), were huge.
Transporting food long distances while keeping it hot/cold.Scale of food needed - 2 million men time 1lb meat/bread/tea/sugar/cigs/etc etc EVERY DAY - railway challenges.
*And don't forget the HAY for the tens of thousands of HORSES.
This was an interesting read in a “pull the curtain back” way, but it read very disjointedly - diary excerpts and drawings and so on are scattered heavily throughout the text in a way that I found very distracting.

Main takeaway - “gendered” reactions to pandemic - (male) doctors felt sense of failure from inability to “cure” disease and from death of patients, while (female) nurses were able to care for (nurture) the ill regardless of outcome - even if patient died, nurse had done her job to best of ability. Not sure if this was worth the read. Still looking for something will tell me why this pandemic seems to have fallen into a memory hole for American society. This wasn't it.

exhaustive description of all the ways that different versions of manuscripts can exist, and the way that researchers can figure out where an individual MS fits in the grand scheme of things. Even more makes me wonder how people can claim that there is JUST ONE ONLY ONE INERRANT WORD OF GOD, when this idea flies in the face of the facts. (I have read also an earlier edition of this book, one that wasn't co-authored by Bart Erhman, and while I do like this edition I think it's been, um, “dumbed down” just a bit)

I checked this out after seeing the movie “Bridge of Spies” and found it to be generally interesting. It's a lot more courtroom drama than international-espionage drama - the swap and the events leading up to it are really a very small portion of this book. What I found most interesting about this book was the degree to which the author seemed able to set aside the whole “Red Scare” mentality and develop a good relationship with and respect for Rudolf Abel. I've returned the book to the library already so cannot give exact quotes but the author's belief in the rule of law, and belief that a fair and transparent trial was always going to be the best demonstration of American civic virtue regardless of the verdict, I feel are sadly lacking these days.

role of American has changed from “citizen” to “consumer”“What's left of the counterculture is the counter.” (p. 198 - think of Northern Sun)
no commitment to the public good“Good wine is a necessity to me” Thomas Jefferson (?)

“Citizenship means changing the whole picture. It means demanding policies...and working for an economy and a culture that reject environmental destruction, the exploitation of working people, the privatization of the commons, and the commodification of every desire and satisfaction.” (p. 256)

Development (making things better =/= Growth (making more things) AMEN

One of those books that reminds you that the past is really a foreign country. It would never have dawned on me, for example, that people didn't necessarily have kitchens, but would take their food to “cookshops” to have it prepared for meals. And how much manure would be produced by the tens of thousands or horses used in the city (and how much hay they'd need to eat...). And that people wouldn't have any better sense than to drink the river water into which they'd just emptied their chamber pots! Extensively-researched and greatly detailed look at day-to-day life 150 years ago, enriched by many references to Charles Dickens' life and writing.

1906 a terrible year seismically - earthquakes everywhereonce the sticking point gave away, the plates moved at TWO MILES PER SECOND past each other!
scientists of the time ignored or didn't understand seismographical data (seismographs were very primitive) and mislabeled the epicenter for many years.only 3-10% of damage to buildings was actually due to the earthquake; the fire did the rest
*Pentecostal movement got an initial boost (San Francisco suffering the WRATH OF GOD for its SINFUL WAYS!) from which it has never looked back.