Zach Weinersmith's Blog, page 335
October 26, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - The Grasshopper and the Ants
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I really feel there's an entire field to be had by bringing together literature and economics. Like, does anyone else side with Scrooge during that scene where his nephew asks him to contribute to an unevaluated charity.
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Wednesday Book Reviews!
Bull’s Eye (Adams) [image error]
Of the three major books written on Gerald Bull’s life, this is probably the least good. It’s not a bad book exactly, but it’s very strange. The author was, at least in the early 90s, a reporter on international arms sales and the associated shady behavior of rogue nations. That’s fine and all, but the book ends up being nominally about Gerald Bull while having enormous tangents about the author’s area of expertise. So, you’ll get somewhat loose biographical details, followed by a remarkably in-depth discussion of particular artillery systems from the mid-80s.
The Science of Cheese (Tunick) [image error]
I bought this book thinking it’d be a nice light read on, well, the science of cheese. It’s quite good, but really more of a reference book on types of cheese and the chemistry that produces them. So, if you’re rather nerdily-inclined and want to know more about cheese, this is a great book, but I wouldn’t try to read it all in one sitting unless you happen to be a chemist.
Demon, volume 1 (Shiga) [image error]
A great little comic book! I mean, also horrifying. Like, really violent and disgusting, but underneath that a very clever story. I’m looking forward to reading the next volume.
The Invention of Science (Wootton) [image error]
A fantastic history of the idea of science. I mean, just great. I got this book looking for a sort of light read on early science. It turned out to be a very detailed history on the concept of science as a human behavior, encompassing everything from history to etymology to social science. It’s just absolutely fantastic, and it will probably defy your expectations. I’ve gotten used to books of this sort repeating the same tired sets of moments in scientific history. Wootton not only introduces all sorts of new (to me) parts of history, but he adds more nuance to parts of history you may already be familiar with.
In Milton Lumky Territory (Dick) [image error]
Another of Dick’s earlier non-scifi novels. Like the others, it’s good and has good characters, but just seems to be missing something. Honestly, part of what makes his early literary stuff hard to read is that it’s so relentlessly depressing. I don't mind sad novels, but relentlessly sad novels (Updike's Rabbit series springs to mind) always seem to me like they're a palette missing a color.
The other thing is that (perhaps because almost none of it was published), all of these literary novels by Dick hit on very similar territory, almost always concerning themselves with douchey men and crazy women, living dull pointless lives, often starting a pathetic small business of some sort.
That said, it was still a pretty good novel. Reading this early stuff is interesting, because it helps you see Dick’s trajectory toward becoming one of the best science fiction writers of all time.
October 25, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Progress
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Now, it's time to create a pig that can fly.
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October 24, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Dentistry
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When will someone finally invent sour straws with pointy chips and Cap'n Crunch embedded in them?
New comic!
Today's News:
Almost sold out of BAHFest San Francisco tickets! Get'em while they exist!
October 23, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Phonemes
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Time for me to lock in the erotic linguistics audience.
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October 22, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Terrible News
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New comic!
Today's News:
We are nearly sold out of tickets for BAHFest West!
October 21, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Welcome to Heaven, Loser
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Yeah... yeah... THAT'S why my hands are so strong.
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October 20, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Immortality
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This method can be used on anything bad about human existence!
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Today's News:
Over a week left and we've sold about 75% of BAHFest tickets!
It's going to be a particularly strong lineup this year :)
October 19, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - An Important Distinction
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Wow! I get so much more respect now that you're dead!
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October 18, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Time Travelers
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I SWEAR IT MAKES SENSE
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Wednesday Book Review!
Puttering About in a Small Land (Dick)[image error] This book is another of Philip K Dicks early, unpublished literary books. I think they generally get better as they go, and this one was pretty darn good. Dick has an interesting way of making his characters, which is almost hard to describe. They’re almost like characters from Elizabethan theatre at times - with dialog that’s unrealistic, but which accurately reflects real sentiments. The hardest thing about Dick’s non-scifi novels is that they’re so relentlessly bleak. I don’t mind sad books, but it’s almost like there’s a missing color from his palette. I think of his best books involving a bent sort of hope, or at least humor, which doesn’t really show up in this book.
Proving Grounds (Kirsch)[image error] This is a very very dry history of Project Plowshares. If you want to research that topic, there’s some good stuff here. But, it’s not a light read.
Why Information Grows (Hidalgo)[image error] A fun book on Hidalgo’s theory of economics and trade as manifestations of energy, entropy, and information. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Time Out of Joint (Dick)[image error] As you may have noticed, I’ve been reading through Philip K Dick in order (based on wikipedia’s Dick bibliography). I would say this book is the first really excellent science fiction novel he wrote. I wonder if it wasn’t the first really intellectually ambitious sci fi novel he wrote. It’s an early version of the science fiction trope where a man lives in a constructed reality, but the explanation for why he’s there is very clever and interesting. Highly recommended!
Eccentric Orbits (Bloom)[image error] A fantastic history of the Iridium Satellite system, and how it was saved from disaster. This book is a sort of combination of science history and business history. It’s very long and detailed, with a lot of different characters taking the stage at times, but enjoyable the whole way through.
October 17, 2016
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Riemann's Quaternary Conjecture
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Also, negative infinity plus positive infinity results in zero infinity.
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Today's News:
Just one premium BAHFest ticket left, geeks!
