umbrarchist

These are interesting in that they were written before Gaddafi came to power but the same year that Patrice Lumumba was killed . Black Man's Burden (1961) by Mack Reynolds https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/32390 Border, Breed Nor Birth (1962) by Mack Reynolds https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/30639 50 years later Gaddafi was taken down while a Black man was in the White House who got a Nobel Peace Prize. Obama was born in 1961 the year I started reading SF. .

More stupid than slavery. I know a "General" in his 50's who has spent more than a decade in prison and now talks about how stupid it was/is. I first met him when he was 12. What happens to kids trapped in toxic environments with elders as bad as the environment?

The entire automobile industry is bullshit. I never bought a new one. The Laws of Physics do not change style from one year to the next. Where have economists listed the annual depreciation since Sputnik? The Screwing of the Average Man (1974) by David Hapgood

I use an app called AIReader for text to speech. It is not as good as professionally done audiobooks but it is better than some of the free audiobooks in Librivox. It has some dumb flaws like saying Drive for the abbreviation of Doctor. You would think there was a setting for that.

If you are looking for suggestions: Daemon & Freedom by Daniel Suarez A book has to be good enough to overcome my antipathy for reading. The problem is finding them. I don't care about the quality of writing very much but the info/ideas in the story matter a lot. Daemon and Freedom are a single story spread across two books. There is a murder in the first 3 pages but the culprit is already dead. A daemon is a computer program that sits in the background and does nothing. It just waits for a trigger event to execute its code. If the code is to kill someone, it does not care. https://www.lfs.org/newsletter/030/02/Suarez.shtml There are two Black characters, male and female, but they are not involved in any way. .

Another Haole perspective on the Negro Problem: Black Man's Burden (1961) & Border, Breed nor Birth (1963) by Mack Reynolds In 1972 I read Mack Reynold’s Black Man’s Burden/Border, Breed Nor Birth, a cool looking ACE Double. I discovered the stories were reprinted from ANALOG and written a decade earlier. Yes, there are some politically incorrect aspects to these stories of a group of African-Americans who decide to unite North African countries by creating a mythical leader, El Hassan, to bring progress to suffering people. In the Introduction to “Black Sheep Astray” Mack Reynolds writes that John Campbell, editor of ANALOG , suggested elements of the series. Later, I learned there was another book in the North Africa Series, The Best Ye Breed, where the Soviets, Japanese and Americans decide El Hassan must be assassinated because he and his group controls too many vital natural resources. Mack Reynolds may have come up with this idea because of the OPEC oil crisis at the time. Nation-building isn’t a common Science Fiction theme, but Mack Reynolds–a SF writer who wrote about politics and economics–delivers a thought-provoking series. GRADE: B+ https://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2008/08/mack-reynolds-on-africa-islam-utopia-and-progress.html

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler - - - - - - - 1980 SF density 0.029; Fantasy density of 0.157 JRRT.LOTR2_TwoTow.txt SF density 0.016; Fantasy density of 0.420 LMB.CursoChlALL.txt SF density 0.072; Fantasy density of 0.498 JA_Pride&Prejudice.txt SF density 0.032; Fantasy density of 0.085 I don't know if I have ever gotten an SF Density of 0.00. Because words have multiple meanings they may be used in a nonscientific context. Like the word 'orbit' might be used to refer to social relationships. But I ran across this Unschooling business a couple of years ago and started reading about it. From their description I started Unschooling myself with science fiction in grammar school. The nuns taught no science whatsoever, so I ended up using info from SF books to research things in the encyclopedia. But some stuff called science fiction is just adventure stories with no science so I am analyzing it. There are more than 1000 free SF works in Project Gutenberg. I am not going to read all of them. So I need a filter. .

I have read all 3 but could never make it half way through Dahlgren, too weird. .

So much fiction is formulaic, read that story different characters different places, same story. Most fiction I read is science fiction but a lot of people claiming to write it do not know science and technology. They just put characters in a sci-fi setting. So a while ago I started working on a computer program that counts the use of Science words in a story. A text file is scanned and words like "gravity, orbit, laser, plastic, hysteresis, Mars" are counted individually and in total. The program computes an SF density for the work. I later added a fantasy database with words like "wizard, wand, witch, sword, sorcerer". A SF density of 1.00 would mean 1 science word per 1000 characters of text. Of course this means that I have to get a computer readable version of the work. A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke has an SF density of 1.4 Ender's Game is like 0.46. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov SF density of 0.731; Fantasy density of 0.029 OSC.EndersGame.txt SF density 0.455; Fantasy density of 0.100 FH.Dune.txt SF density 0.415; Fantasy density of 0.090 Harry Potter all Seven Books JKR-HPAll_Books.txt SF density of 0.193; Fantasy density of 0.746 NKJ.5thSeason.txt SF density of 0.189; Fantasy density of 0.030 The Harry Potter books have a much higher Fantasy Density at 0.746 than SF Density at 0.193. Curiously Jemison's work is odd with a low SF Density and a lower Fantasy Density. She does not use the usual fantasy words. I might have to add words just for her works but I died in the middle of the second book. .

This is why I concentrate strictly on the physics of the Twin Towers. I don't even deal with building 7. There are too many directions and tangents on directions to deal with them all. But structural engineers and physicists must be derelict in their duties to not solve this. I won't make any claims about it but there was, and maybe still is, a video on YouTube analyzing the flight path of the plane that hit the South Tower. The video claims that the plane flew in a STRAIGHT line, then made a turn, flew another STRAIGHT line, made a last turn and went straight into the building. That is not how a human being flies. That is how a computer flies. I have no dog in that fight. It is merely Fascinating! Steel must be properly distributed for 1400 foot skyscrapers to hold themselves up and the Conservation of Momentum does not care about conspiracies. It is just physics and lots of people with degrees sticking their heads in the sand. 925 vus .

The Laws of Physics got cancelled on 9/11! Suppose you could make a perfect computer simulation of the North Tower. You then take the top 20 stories and raise them 64 feet. That is what is so cool about computer simulations, you can do things that are impossible in reality. Then you drop the 20 stories onto the bottom 90. Of course there is simulated gravity. The 20 stories would fall for 2 seconds impacting at 64 ft/sec or 43.6 mph. You can do metric if you want but this being an American building I will stick with the primitive British system. The French can simulate the collapse of the Eiffel Tower if they want but it does not have enough concrete to be interesting. Anyway the bottom of the 91st level would impact the top of the 90th and they should proceed to destroy each other. Being adjacent levels they should not be very different so we can assume equal destruction. But because of the Conservation of Momentum and the energy expended doing said destruction the falling mass should slow down. This is the result of the Potential Energy of raising the mass 64 feet being turned into Kinetic Energy and some gets used up bending steel and cracking concrete. But then 92 has to take on 89 with a lot of crushed up mess in between. However 89 is heavier and stronger than 92. Probably not a great difference but still some. So 92 suffers more damage than 89. And the falling mass slows down some more. Now the levels keep getting stronger and heavier coming down while the falling portion gets lighter and weaker going up. Could 20 stories destroy 90 stories? And Yet! And yet! When and where have engineers and scientists been demanding accurate data on the distributions of Steel and Concrete down the Twin Towers? We cannot make the simulation without that data. Who cares about the Conservation of Momentum? Curses, foiled again! 915 vucnt .

It is really curious how encountering "the right book" can turn years of schooling on it's head. The Screwing of the Average Man (1974) by David Hapgood ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ 5 star review posted in 2015 When I read this book back in 1981, it opened my eyes to the "way life is". It is the most insightful book I have ever read on the subject of personal economics in the real world. Enlightened my scepticism. I naturally drifted into a college major in economics because of the way I thought after this book. It didn't make me rich, but I'm one of those people who likes to have a clear focal point of view. ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ The system depends on controlled ignorance but the suckers must BELIEVE in the System.

The *problem* is that it sabotages children's minds while they are still in grammar school. I remember preparing for school one morning in 3rd grade trying not to cry because I could not understand how I could get through another day of stultifying BOREDOM. This was in a Catholic school. They NEVER taught science. After I discovered science fiction in 4th grade it was very little sweat. I could sit there and pretend to pay attention and have lots of other things to think about. That is why we should have a K-8 reading list. Do not trust the haoles to suggest worthwhile material.

They say how much they THINK THEY LOST not what they MADE compared to expenses. If they had a reliable method of forcing everyone to pay how many people would just not ride? That is why I think chasing repeat offenders is worthwhile. They probably have to ride and do it in predictable patterns.

I don't want anything. YOU asked for a suggestion. If YOU do not like My suggestion Tough SHIT! I will consider being so kind as to not make any more. But maybe I will since reading you blow a gasket is so funny.

As long as you put what they say into your Nothing Box.

What can they do with facial recognition? Search for and track repeat offenders. Find the travel patterns of repeat offenders. Have the police waiting for them when they get off. Pick a number of offenses to qualify as a felony.

How is accounting more advanced than trigonometry? I agree that it is more practical and that is why everyone should know it. It is mostly just addition and subtraction with a little multiplication for interest rates. Of course now we have computers to do the idiotic and complicated busywork.

Double entry accounting is 700 years old, invented in Italy. The oldest double entry accounting book is 500 years old though it is actually a mathematics book with a section on accounting. Electric power is barely 150 years old. Why do you associate Accounting and STEM. I trust haoles to pretend that most things are more difficult than they really are. Relevant knowledge is just something else to play power games with.

Do you have any reaction/thoughts on mandatory accounting/finance in the schools? I communicated with an Internet entity who claimed to be an accountant said that he did not mind as long as it was not done until after he retired in 6 years. I'm not sure but I think that was more than 3 years ago.

This is an example from science fiction. Compare Ursala K LeGuin and Isaac Asimov People have referred to Asimov's writing as "workman like". He writes what he has to, to tell the story. One man told me that Asimov couldn't write. LeGuin's book The Dispossessed has a physicist as a main character but there is No Physics in it. Asimov wrote The Gods Themselves where the physics was central to the story. As a result of a conversation with Robert Silverberg where he imagined an element that Asimov said could not exist, Asimov imagined a parallel universe where the element could exist. Asimov created a storyline with alien contact to transfer energy. LeGuin had better human characters but Asimov's story was far more mind blowing. What does the reader want out of the time spent reading? 542 vus .

I read this book when I was 9 years old in 4 grade. The author was White and there are no Black characters in the story. But the following three long positive reviews mention Racism. Science Fiction has somewhat of a reputation for saying what cannot be said in the cultural climate of the time. This book got me hooked on science fiction which introduced me to information and ideas that I was not getting elsewhere at the time. I actually do not know how I would have gotten through grammar school without it. Maybe I could have murdered a nun or three. The book is now free on the Internet as text and an audiobook. I have no info on the ethnicity of the reviewers Star Surgeon Alan E. Nourse, Scott D. Farquhar (Narrator) 3.87 501 ratings. 85 reviews Warren Fournier 702 reviews · 119 followers May 4, 2022 This YA novel from 1959 is a critique of systemic racism thinly disguised as a Golden-age space opera that works surprisingly well. In the distant future, humans have invented the Koenig star-drive, allowing us to explore solar systems far beyond our own. It turns out that the galaxy is teaming with intelligent life, united under a Galactic Confederation, but it seems human civilization is the only one that has developed any kind of medical science. Therefore, Hospital Earth is the main center of healthcare in the whole galaxy. Dal, an alien from the planet Garv II, is inspired to become a physician, probably the only one in the history of his people. But while Earthlings have long since ended their centuries of race and culture wars, becoming unified in their diversity, there is still fear of the Other. Thus, our hero struggles to graduate from medical school on an equal footing with his human colleagues despite his academic performance. But this book is far more advanced in it's conception of the cause of racism than we have today. Racism does not come from some inherent fault in the genetics of white people, one of the latest racist testaments of contemporary culture, nor is it the product of necessarily a fault of ignorance or morality. It is the product of politics. A truly unified population is impossible to control. Once cultures and ethnicities blend in harmony, apparent differences tend to dissipate anyway to the point where a common language and values are shared. The political elite are motivated for this to never happen, and thus to stoke the fires of division. In this case, Earth holds the monopoly on the health sciences. All other planets must rely on humans to save them from infectious epidemics and other global health crises. Therefore, the Confederation NEEDS Earth, and that gives Earth political leverage and power. If a non-human is allowed to join the exclusive club, then it won't be long before other alien candidates will be admitted, this diluting the power. Racism is fear of losing control. Now, as brilliant as this idea is, the author does not subtlety weave this in to the narrative. Instead, he artificially inserts the main theme into an inquest on whether to grant the young Garvian a probationary license. So one doctor basically spouts out the whole plan to keep the medical profession ethnically pure--right in front of Dal. Not in closed session. Not in some internal narration. Not even in a private scene where he lets the sinister motivation slip while having one too many pangalactic gargleblasters. Nope. Instead, the scene plays out like a senator shouting out on C-SPAN, "We are holding this hearing today not really to investigate anything, but only to tarnish the reputation of the other party to make sure they never get elected again! It's our only hope to stay in power! We must rule the WORLD! Mwoo hoo ha ha haaaaa!!!" Sure, that would be honest. But it's stupid. And it doesn't happen. So it should not have been written this way in this book. I understand this is a novel for young people, but I think the author should have respected the intelligence of his audience a lot more. But the rest of the book is pure Golden-age sci-fi goodness. Dal, his pink pet Fuzzy, and two other resident doctors, fly around space in their rocket ship "Lancet," encountering different races and planetary environments among a variety of medical challenges. These are the kinds of adventure stories I like best, and why Doctor Who remains one of my favorite television shows. "Star Surgeon" also reminds me of Murray Leinster's "Med Ship" series, also reviewed here, which follows a similar formula. The stakes are high for Dal, as not only does he have the lives of his patients on his hands, but mean Doctor Hugo Tanner is gunning for him. One slight mistake could give an excuse for Dal's dismissal. So this makes for some fairly good drama as well as fun sci-fi adventure. The way I came across this book was kind of by mistake. I was looking to read the James White "Sector General" series, which includes a novel called "Star Surgeon." But this one was published some three years before and was written by Alan E. Nourse, who was also a physician. Nourse even wrote several nonfiction medical texts. When he wrote fiction, he sometimes went by the rather sinister pseudonym Doctor X. Fun fact, Nourse's novel "The Bladerunner" was the source of the title of the famous movie "Bladerunner," though the movie script was mostly based off of Phillip Dick's story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." Anyway, it seems I have a few more medical space operas to check out, and you can be sure I'll review them here! But in the meantime, I do recommend this short novel to vintage sci-fi fans young and old. It's a simple but fun romp through exotic worlds with a worthwhile message. Cheryl 11.1k reviews · 460 followers June 18, 2020 Highly recommended. Never mind that it's old; it's relevant right now. I enjoyed the free audio from Librivox.org of this short public domain book and suggest you trust me (the narrator is a volunteer, but he's very good... there's also an ebook version on project gutenberg). If you want more persuasion, read on, but I can't really talk about it without being a bit spoilery. Mostly surprisingly intelligent and wise. Ok, it does seem odd at the beginning that Tanner has to tell the committee his objections to the Garvian probationer, as I would think they would have had discussions well before Dal had 8 years of training. And the cleverness of the virus vs. their hosts is kind of awkward (see Manny's review). But the anti-racist message of Dal's fight for respect and independence is beautifully done. He has to deal not only with Tanner's racism and extreme patriotism, and Jack's ignorance and fear, but with his friend Tiger's impulses to be a 'white savior.' He has to find his own core of strength, his own confidence in his skills and judgement, his own self-respect. All along I thought he was doing fine, but the ending just makes me realize that, as a white American, I do not always see what challenges the disenfranchised face. Lis Carey 2,200 reviews · 121 followers June 26, 2022 Dal Timgar wants to be a surgeon. He's dreamed of it most of his life, and he has the intelligence and the discipline to do it. Unfortunately, he's a Garvian, an alien, humanoid, but not human. No non-human has ever studied medicine on Hospital Earth; Dal is the first. And he's mostly not welcome. When Earth developed a faster than light space drive, they also discovered a thriving Galactic Federation, composed of myriad different races. Each of them contributes some particular talent or achievement. Dal's race, the Garvians, are merchants, and especially good at managing people. Earth's specialty is medicine. Since having a valued specialty is the price of full admission to the Galactic Federation, Earth, now "Hospital Earth," is determined to protect the reputation of its doctors and medical technology. Dal Timgar gained admission to medical school, and has graduated. He's ready for his first assignment on a patrol ship, the assignment all young doctors must complete successfully before getting full recognition as doctors in their chosen specialties. But there is opposition to Dal getting his assignment; there has been from the beginning. Have failed to stop his admission, they try to stop him at this point--and he achieves a highly conditional victory. He gets his assignment, but with conditions and with one of his teammates chosen by his biggest enemy. Frank, a.k.a "Tiger" Martin is the Green Doctor, the internal medicine specialist, and a friend of Dal's from early in medical school. Dal is the Red Doctor, the surgeon. The Blue Doctor, the diagnostician, is Jack Alvarez, the choice of Dal's most determined enemy, and very hostile to Dal's presence in the medical service, never mind on the same ship. This is a book that takes on racism, including structural racism, pretty directly, but also with grace. Jack's racism is obvious. Tiger, with the best of intentions, and loyalty to his friend, has an inclination to be a rather bull-headed "White Knight" savior, which Dal finds neither welcome nor helpful. These three young men have to find a way to work together, while confronting some serious challenges on worlds Hospital Earth, and even the Galactic Federation, haven't been in contact with before. They all have a lot to learn. Aside from Jack's desire to find something that will disqualify Dal, and Tiger wanting to charge in and save Dal when there's a problem, Dal has his own temptations. He has a companion, a symbiote, and it's very, very useful. It's one of the things that makes Garvians such successful traders. And it would be extremely unethical for Dal to use it to help him in his difficulties with humans--at least according to the ethics he's learned on Earth. Will he resist? Will he succumb to temptation? This is an enjoyable book, with decently drawn characters, and real growth in those characters, including the ones one might not be tempted to think of as good guys It's not as good or exciting as I thought when I was racing through all the science fiction in the library in the 1960s, but it is good, and satisfying, and making thoughtful points I didn't consciously notice as a kid. Recommended. It's available free as an audiobook on LibriVox, and as an ebook on Project Gutenberg, and I am reviewing it voluntarily.

There is this website called Quora. People go there and discuss a lot of different subjects. For some reason questions related to IQ come up a lot. Question: How do people with an IQ of 140 think? Answer: The real question is how do the vast majority of people Not Think? It is like they run on contagious non-thinking ideas. Sources like advertising and propagandists work at manipulating those ideas. Someone made a post here saying that he had taken lots of tests at different ages. The lowest score he ever got was 132 and the highest was 159, so what does one score prove? Measuring human performance is not like measuring a table. My score is over 133, that is all I am saying. But how is it that nearly 23 years have gone by without lots of “experts” demanding and discussing accurate data on the distribution of steel down the North Tower? Did level 105 of a 110 story skyscraper contain the same amount of steel as level 5 which had to support the weight of 21 times as many stories? Why is the Eiffel Tower shaped the way it is? So how do people in the bottom 90% NOT THINK!?!?!??? If we are supposed to believe the results of the Idiot Quotient tests consider if the schools mostly indoctrinate kids to Not Think. ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ A nun told me that I would get into a good high school but I would not do well. I got straight D's in religion. I guess she was right. The purpose of the Internet is to mess with the planet.

Good luck with that.

affecting Is that why there are so many homeless people? I don't recall this in the 90s, or is that sarcasm I see before me.