David > Recent Status Updates

So sad to read about, as one example, the green energy changes that were taking place around 2005 or so and realize many of those programs are currently being dismantled in favor of the petrochemical giants and coal companies.

More sobering statistics. Some pretty familiar, at least the gist, such as Walmart causing local stores to close and small town centers to be abandoned, with an overall loss of jobs while the new jobs provide poorer pay and benefits (they're selling stuff cheaper, after all, so...duh?). Communities make us feel better, at least statistically speaking.

Ch. 2 on eating locally has numerous alarming stats about our reliance on fossil fuel to make modern farming work, with some carrots thrown in about how it may be possible to generate enough food for the planet using old, small-scales methods with small farms.

Finding this to be a wonderful read. Kelly is a gifted storyteller, sharing many professional and personal anecdotes.

Covering various memory systems and how to improve each.

Who'da thunk breaks would improve the speed of assimilating a new skill? In other words, less practicing of a piece of music can result in faster learning. Of course some conditions apply, but this seems very counterintuitive. As she says, uni music students tend to think more practice is better! But she wants to convince us it's not true.

Solid info so far on the neuroscience of musical practice and how it affects its effectiveness. Looking forward to promised practical applications.

Fairly basic but good & helpful info about interpreting pieces notated in "fake book" style.

Lots of details and examples of differences between democracy on one hand and totalitarianism and other authoritarian systems on the other. Effort was made to point out that the totalitarian systems did not necessarily fail because they were inadequate, ie we are probably still susceptible to their control if we are not vigilant.

Thought i was escaping the depressing daily news, but much of what I just read was about "strongmen" subverting democracies for their own ends.

Discussion of the "infallibility trap" contrasting the behavior of, for example, the catholic church with the scientific community and especially their capacity for self-correction.

Partway thru the myth of infallibility.

Covered the rise of importance of documents for tracking "dry" info beyond what humans reasonably can remember, and the artificial categorizing to try to make retrieval possible.

I'm struggling to continue questioning the various statements he makes because I just find them compelling, or they just seem reasonable to me!

Had hoped for a little broader perspective, I guess? I'm not really an afficionado of movie production, especially not about movies mostly unknown because they did so poorly, so i find many of the stories here don't mean much to me. Just read about Dune, Sorcerer, Dolittle, and now about Münchhausen. At least getting to movies released after I became a teen! :-)