Russell Atkinson's Blog, page 9
September 16, 2024
What3Words – Second Trump assassination attempt
By now the world knows what appears to be a second assassination attempt on ex-President Trump occurred at his Trump International Golf Course in Florida. The suspect did not fire a shot or even come within line of sight of Trump so I doubt he can be convicted of attempted assassination, but he is facing many charges. I do not know the exact coordinates of where he set up with a rifle, but if newspaper maps are correct as to where the FBI cordoned off the area, I searched the right area with my What3Words program. These W3W combinations from the area are somewhat ironically applicable:
Write your own story about these. I don’t want to be accused of treating the matter lightly.
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September 14, 2024
My New York Times Connections game solving tool
I’ve been having fun playing the Times’ Connections game and decided to write a tool that would help me when it gets to the final hard part. What the tool does is find the words that most often follow or precede a set of puzzle words. You can find the most likely candidates to solve puzzles (usually the purple one) in the form ___word or word ___. I’ve made a video of the tool in action. The default is to find the highest scoring words that follow the puzzle words, trying to find the connection. If I check the box, it will do the same for words that precede them. In the video I show how after solving the yellow and green groups I am hypothetically stumped at the last two categories. I’d actually solved this already without the help of my tool. I selected four of the eight remaining words that included three connected words as though I was unsure. I could have entered as many as eight, but that would take too long for the video. I ran my tool and it found one of the connections, the word KING. The tool uses the Google Twograms data to determine the frequency of word pairs that include each puzzle word, then selects and orders the ones that have the highest overall frequency combined with multiple (but not necessarily all) puzzle words. Here’s the video.
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September 12, 2024
Rich Blood by Robert Bailey
Rich Blood by Robert Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jason Rich, fresh out of rehab and bar discipline, is an ambulance-chasing personal injury attorney who has never taken a case all the way to a jury trial. His sister Jana is a former beauty queen who cheated on her husband, a rich doctor, takes drugs, and is accused of murdering her husband. There’s bad blood between them, but she calls on Jason to defend her and he agrees to do it mainly for his nieces’ sake. I’ll skip the details of the investigation and the trial to avoid spoilers but the case does go all the way to trial.
The blurb on the cover quotes another author as saying it’s a “deliciously clever legal thriller.” That’s not accurate on either count. It’s not particularly clever nor much of a legal thriller, but I will say it’s worth reading if you’re the patient sort. There is a psychological heuristic known as the peak-end rule that says an experience is remembered as a whole based on only two points in time: the peak experience and the end. In this book, both come in the last 50 pages, which is why I say you need to be patient. It’s rather boring for the rest of it. The first 200 pages or so are mostly filled with descriptions of how Jason has messed up his life and is about to fall off the wagon again and similar unflattering facts about Jana. The investigation by Jason and his team consists mostly of interviewing all the obvious witnesses and doing a little bit of physical surveillance. They all say pretty much the same thing which points to Jana’s guilt. There’s no cleverness in that. The courtroom part starts around page 280 and isn’t full of any surprises, either. I certainly never felt “thrilled.” But the author does manage to end with a couple of surprises, provided more by an unlikely last-minute stroke of luck (a sudden memory) than by any cleverness on Jason’s part and by some post-trial revelations. Still, it leaves the reader with a feel-good “end” that proves the truth of the Peak-end rule. At the end you feel like you’ve enjoyed it, even if you were bored for 80% of it. If you like true legal thrillers I would recommend Scott Turow or Michael Connelly over this author.
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September 4, 2024
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
My wife gave this to me to read when she discovered it was a mystery. I like mysteries, but this isn’t really one. The mystery part is actually fairly well done but confined almost entirely to the opening scene and the last 10% of the book. The rest consists of hundreds of pages of descriptions of classical violin pieces and is a showcase for the author’s personal knowledge of the fine points of playing them. When it’s not doing that, it’s the story of a handsome, decent, young black man who is constantly subjected to racist treatment at the hands of whites. I’m quite tired of reading or hearing from professional victims. Yep, racism is real but I don’t need to be told that for the ten thousandth time. I’m part black although I don’t look it; I’ve been discriminated against for being too white. I just want a good mystery. Concert violin soloists might enjoy this more than I did, but I actually thought the music part was rather clumsy and mostly an ego trip for the author. Other than some bluegrass fiddling and romantic string quartets I don’t care much for violins. Still, the book is readable enough to pass the time.
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August 26, 2024
The Wager by David Grann
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the best book I’ve read all year by far. It’s a must-read. It’s a total page-turner almost from the beginning although it takes a few chapters to introduce the key figures and their backstory. This is the true story of a harrowing misadventure of a task force of English ships sent around Cape Horn in 1740 to prey on a Spanish Galleon thought to be laden with treasure. The group becomes separated in the notorious storms in that region. One ship in particular, The Wager, is shipwrecked on the Patagonian shore. Thereafter is a tale – many tales – of death and disease and heroism and bravery and cowardice and resourcefulness and deviousness. It’s a cross between Lord of the Flies and Horatio Hornblower 1 – 11. and Robinson Crusoe. Some survive. Some don’t. I don’t want to spoil it beyond that but the subtitle tells you there’s a lot more: “A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.”
The book is thoroughly researched with many direct quotes from log books and other original sources, but the book reads like a well-paced novel, not a white paper. There are many truths here and they are not consistent. You can judge the officers and seamen and the entire British navy for yourself after finishing it — or maybe you’ll decide you shouldn’t judge anybody.
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August 21, 2024
Google Trends – V.P. candidates
I thought it would be interesting to see who’s trending where of the two leading vice presidential candidates. In case you don’t know who they are, J.D. Vance is the Republican, Donald Trump’s running mate, and Tim Walz is the Democrat running mate of Kamala Harris. This map is from Google Trends and covers the last 30 days. The map colors are misleading because Vance is blue and Walz red, the opposite of the colors normally associated with the two parties.
Since Vance grew up in West Virginia and Ohio, geography explains some of his popularity in those blue-colored “red states.” Walz was less well-known than Vance until recently, which may explain why people all over are now curious about him. As for Arizona, Vance recently visited there, reportedly “to introduce himself to those voters.”
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August 17, 2024
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is as advertised, a fantasy novel for young adults. It’s set in an alternate universe where England is in a weird mix combining gothic and modern elements, but technologically behind the real world by a few decades. I would not normally read something in this genre but a friend has taken a liking to the HBO/MAX series now playing which combines all three of the books in the trilogy His Dark Materials. We’re watching it for the spectacular CGI and production values but it’s hard to follow at times. I got the book to explain some of the fantasy world and characters better. The book was good for that, but I found it juvenile and not particularly well-written. It reads as though the author just started writing and when he came to a block in the story like an unsolvable peril for the main character, Lyra, he just invents some fantastic character or suspension of the laws of physics – an armored bear, a witch, a companion animal/daemon who can change shape to fight, fly, etc., to get past the jam. Since it’s fantasy, anything goes and nothing makes sense. This book, the first in the series, was made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman but it bombed at the box office, so the trilogy wasn’t completed then. HBO picked up the baton and did the whole trilogy from scratch. The book is harmless enough, an easy read, and I suppose would be okay for a twelve-year-old girl, but I can’t recommend it for adults.
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August 9, 2024
The Internet of Animals by Martin Wikelski
The Internet of Animals: Discovering the Collective Intelligence of Life on Earth by Martin Wikelski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The author is a wildlife biologist and Director of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. He and his colleagues have devised the concept of an Internet of Animals as the title calls it, which is essentially a global tracking system for animals both wild and domesticated. They have worked for decades toward this goal and partially implemented it through Project Icarus jointly with Russian scientists. The system consists essentially of three parts: a tagging system to put on animals, a satellite to receive signals from the tags, and a database to record and analyze the information. The satellite was mounted on the ISS and began operation, but the Ukraine War ended the cooperation of the Russians and the program was short-lived. But it has since been restored to life with a new plan to launch a new satellite later this year without the need for Russia or the ISS. Although this is a lifelong dream of the author and his inner circle, I’m not sure the scientific community as a whole, or the general public at all, would consider this quite as lofty an achievement.
Nevertheless, the book is fascinating throughout, at least most of the time. It details the author’s many expeditions and biological discoveries, anecdotes of meeting helpful (or not) local people all over the world, and some often amusing stories. The descriptions of the obstacles involved in fashioning tags and how those have been overcome especially intrigued me. The tags alone are a truly incredible engineering feat but it also has to be combined with a range of protocols for how and where to install them on a wide variety of animals from elephants to dragonflies. You may think it’s impossible to make a small electronic tag that will fit comfortably on a bird and yet be powerful enough to collect and transmit data to a passing satellite, but it has already been done.
The book centers on Icarus, but is more than that. Much of it is about how the author connected with others who have been instrumental in the project, and described their many unrelated clever research triumphs (and not-so-clever failures). The author tends toward the egotistical, but can be self-deprecating such as when he describes how he got a horrible case of poison ivy climbing a tree because he is so bad at plant identification. Anyone who enjoys wildlife stories or field research will enjoy this book.
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August 1, 2024
Phantom Orbit by David Ignatius
Phantom Orbit by David Ignatius
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ivan Volkov is a Russian scientist knowledgeable about satellites. In the 1990s he studies in China with a scientist named Cao Lin. In their discussions they figure out a way to disable a whole satellite guidance system, like the American GPS. Volkov also meets a young woman named Edith Ryan who turns out to be a spotter for the CIA. Sparks fly between them, but ultimately he realizes she’s using him and he returns to Russia. Cao tries to get him to return to China, but the FSB (KGB with a new name) keep him home. Skip ahead to modern day and these three characters’ lives interact once again while the U.S., Russia, and China are on the brink of war in space involving satellites. China is helping Russia in the Ukraine war.
I was hoping for better than this book delivered, but it wasn’t bad. It took almost 200 pages to get to the present day, which is where the suspense kicks in and things get complicated. Be prepared to read about years of personal history on these characters. There was surprisingly good detail on satellites and how they work, which I enjoyed. The spy tradecraft and cold war type action are less than credible in places, but I liked how they brought it right up to the present day, even working in the Ukraine War and oblique references to ex-president Trump. The ending was mostly predictable thus diffusing the suspense. The writing was good enough to keep me reading, but I don’t have a desire to read another of his books.
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July 31, 2024
What3Words – Assassination Attempt on President Trump
Followers of this blog know that I like to find three-word combinations that are linked in the What3Words.com (W3W) website or app in an interesting or amusing way. The shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, however, is not something to joke about. It is a serious reflection of how cavalier or at least accepting Americans have become about violence in general and political violence in particular. But I don’t want to digress into politics or gun control.
I will refrain from treating the matter lightly, but I think it is still poignant to note some ironic word combinations at that site. All of the following W3W combos are real and in or around the rally/shooting site.
The Podium Area
codes.crucial.fenceddistracted.hunter.appeartargets.wonderfully.linkedtargets.porch.aurarooftop.mortal.newsprintThat last one seems prophetic. Crooks, the shooter, climbed on the rooftop, proved to be mortal, and made it into newsprint. That seems to be his only motivation.
The shooter’s Rooftop
speech.apprehend.unusualcelebrate.schemes.impactenabling.investigate.yesterdayrefers.period.botchThese last two refer to the Secret Service failures and the forthcoming investigation, I would say. Conspiracy theorists will no doubt make hay with or without knowledge of these coincidences, and that’s all they are. Still, here are two theoretically ominous combos in the shooter’s area for them:
conspire.residual.affirmsconspire.seamstress.refrigerateThe post What3Words – Assassination Attempt on President Trump appeared first on OnWords.
