what Dave thinks about movies, books and everything
In this article from Scientific American, Michael Shermer points out that war was outlawed in 1928. I was pretty surprised — I’d never heard of this. But it’s true — it’s called the General Pact for the Renunciation of War, also known as the Kellogg–Briand Pact, and was originally signed by France, Germany, and the […]
{4.5/5} “What I do believe is that Earth protects itself. Remember that all reference to earth in the Library on Trantor has been removed. Remember that Gaia’s marvelous memory, in which all the planet takes part down to the rock strata of the surface and the molten metal at the core, stops short of penetrating […]
{4.5/5} “‘They’re having auditions for the fall musical.’ ‘Do we have that here? … How am I a senior and not know we have that?’” Lady Bird, released in 2017 Christine is in her last year of high school in California and decides to call herself “Lady Bird.” She’s hoping to go to college on […]
{4/5} “Stories are wild creatures, Conor O’Malley. If you let them loose, who knows what havoc they may wreak.” A Monster Calls, released in 2016 Conor is visited, possibly in his dreams, by a tree monster who demands that he listen to 3 stories — and then tell him one. The monster’s stories are true […]
I read 3 or 4 of the Dune books many years ago, and I read 8 of them more recently. They’re worth reading — even if you feel you’re missing a few things here and there, as I did. Brian Herbert (Frank’s son) and Kevin J. Anderson also wrote a bunch of Dune prequels, which […]
{4.5/5} “He will surely attract the attention of the Second Foundationers — always assuming they exist and are indeed concerning themselves with us. And while they are attracted to him, they will, perchance, ignore us.” Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov, published in 1982 It’s been 500 years of the Seldon Plan and the people of […]
{5/5} “You know, I’m not really good at saying no when I don’t want to do something. That’s usually Riki’s job so, um, yeah, totally!” Garfunkel and Oates season 1, aired in 2014 Kate and Riki do a corporate gig, but it turns out the person who hired them is quitting. Riki tries dating a […]
{5/5} “If a sizable group of human beings learned of key details of the Plan, their actions would be governed by that knowledge and would no longer be random in the meaning of the axioms of Psychohistory. In other words, they would no longer be perfectly predictable.” Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov, published in 1953 […]
{4.5/5} “Psycho-history… proved itself the most powerful instrument ever invented for the study of humanity. Without pretending to predict the actions of individual humans, it formulated definite laws capable of mathematical analysis and extrapolation to govern and predict the mass action of human groups.” Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov, published in 1952 The Empire […]
Here’s a sobering interview with journalist Sarah Kendzior in which she points out that things people are surprised about now were actually known months or years ago and the problem is that no one did anything about them. She has plenty of blame to throw around. “The Mafia White House”: My no-holds-barred interview on The […]