The Philosopher's Stone

Monday, April 21, 2025

The 2023 & 2024 Book List

The 2023 & 2024 Book List

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli
Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy by David Chalmers
Is Math Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics' Deepest Truths by Eugenia Chang
1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones & others
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of the Nation by Heather Cox Richardson
Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Keisha A. Blain
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
The Great School Rethink by Frederick M. Hess
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg
Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert M. Sapolsky
Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud by Ben McKenzie & Jacob Silverman
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez
The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta
Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (And Why That's a Good Thing) by Salman Khan
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity by Nicklas Brendborg
Aurora's End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It by Richard Reeves
The Smartest Kids in the World (And How They Got That Way) by Amanda Ripley
The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning by A.J. Jacobs
Hacking Project Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom by Ross Cooper & Erin Murphy
We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds by Sally Adee
Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom (New Expanded 2nd Edition) by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager, PhD
A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas by National Research Council of the National Academies
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
The Learning Brain (The Great Courses) by Prof. Thad A. Polk
The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security by Scott Galloway
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney
The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, form the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement by Sharon McMahon
Learning That Sticks: A Brain-Based Model for K-12 Instructional Design and Delivery by Bryan Goodwin with Tonia Gibson and Kristin Rouleau
The BSCS 5E Instructional Model: Creating Teachable Moments by Rodger W. Bybee
Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation by Ebony Omotola McGee
2018 Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education: Rehumanizing Mathematics for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Students by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Universal Design for Learning Science: Reframing Elementary Instruction in Physical Science by Deborah Hanuscin and Delinda van Garderen

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 29
Electronic: 6

Kindle: 6

Dead tree books: 12

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 5

Science Fiction: 4
Fantasy: 1

Non-Fiction: 36

Science: 16

Physics: 5
Psychology: 8
Biology: 3
Technology: 3

Mathematics: 1
Philosophy: 2
History/Politics: 12
Economics: 3
Education: 14
Game Design:

Podcasts

In addition to listening to audiobooks, my intake of thinking consists enough of podcasts that it seems worth including them as a category. Here are the podcasts that I have listened to in 2021 on a fairly regular basis:

You Are Not So Smart
Making Sense with Sam Harris
The Glenn Loury Show
Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria
Armchair Expert
Very Bad Wizards
Advisory Opinions
The Lawfare Podcast
Rational Security
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
Left, Right, and Center
Today, Explained

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Monday, August 07, 2023

Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log Solo RPG

I've just recently acquired the new Star Trek Adventures solo RPG Captain's Log from Modiphius Entertainment. This is a roleplaying game that contains a streamlined set of rules from the full Star Trek Adventures RPG (which I blogged about during the playtest and when it came out here, here, and here) and directions on how to run yourself through solo adventures.

How does a solo roleplaying game work? Basically the book contains a series of tables that you roll on to generate the initial incident and theme of the adventure, an advantage or disadvantage that's in place at the beginning, and then the first encounter that is taking place.

The game can be played in any of the eras of Star Trek, with cover variants for TOS, TNG, DS9, and even the distant future from Discovery. The books are the same, from what I can gather, but the covers are different.

I decided to start my character during the original series era, year 2269, as a tellarite ensign in the science division, and then to generate the character as needed throughout play of the game. This is also outlined in the book, along with rules for designing the ship. I'm crew on the U.S.S. Asimov, an Oberth-class science vessel.

For my first adventure, here's what I rolled up:

Mission Type: Diplomacy - Negotiate Release of Political Prisoner

Incident: Retrieve

Theme: Nest (Energy-based)

Advantage: Second Wind

Encounter: Uninhabited Planet - Port for Smugglers

Prisoner: Tholian scholar from a mining colony, seeking to stop an event using extortion, with an interest in the Federation

Jailer to Negotiate with: Edosian engineer from a busy colony, with a leadership role, who wants to earn someone's love by revealing secrets, and is blase toward the Federation.

Energy-based lifeform: Patient attitude, feeds on chroniton energy, Cnidarian (jellyfish), mycelial network

Smugglers: Caitian

The adventure then begins. You start with an introductory log entry, and then progress through a variety of scenes. The adventure consists of three acts of about 5 scenes each, with a supplemental log entry written at each act change, and then the conclusion. Here's the result ...

Act 1: Personal Log - I have just received my first mission since assigned to the U.S.S. Asimov. We were exploring the Brigellan Sector, but have been diverted from our scans to negotiate the release of a political prisoner ... a Tholian. Lieutenant Commander Jakes is in command, of course, but we are meeting on an M-Class world that's a rogue planet, drifting far away from any stars. He wants a science officer along to maintain scans to identify any unusual properties. The Asimov itself must stay a way back from the planet, until we have completed the negotiations.

Act 2: Personal Log, supplemental - Lt. Cmdr. Jakes is unconscious and I'm in command of the mission now. As bad as that sounds, it's so much worse. We handled negotiation with the Edosian Ry-Lar easily enough, but then my tricorder reported strange energy readings ... just in time for a group of Caitian smugglers to attack us. Jakes was taken out early on, but I was able to stun the Caitians. The Tholian got spooked during the battle and ran for our shuttle to get out of here. Then the entire area became irradiated by chroniton radiation. Ry-Lar and I pulled Jakes and the Caitians into some nearby ruins that provided sufficient shielding. We are safe, for the moment, from the chronitons, though they are interfering with communications. I've been able to awaken the Caitians and negotiate a truce until we get to safety. Unfortunately, though, the chroniton readings are showing that a mycelial network throughout the planet is absorbing the radiation and growing ... as if the planet itself were an egg that were hatching. We need to find a way to get to the Ray-Lar's ship and launch.

Act 3: Personal Log, supplemental - We've made it to Ray-Lar's ship and launched, just as the planet was dissolving around us. The planet is home to energy beings and, as they consume the planet, they are converting it into chronitons for nourishment. The good news is we're in the air. And our sensors have located the stolen shuttlecraft. Unfortunately, it's also shown that the shuttlecraft is currently being chasen by what I can only assume is this nest's hen ... a giant energy being.

Conclusion: Personal Log, supplemental - We were able to get free of the chronitons and call the Asimov, which arrived in time to pull the shuttlecraft away from the energy being with its tractor beam. We were also able to dock, and get shields up just as the creature attacked. Jakes is in medbay, but will recover. The Caitians revealed that they had some chroniton-based explosives among their smuggled goods, which is likely what began releasing chronitons and triggered the creatures out of dormancy. We were able to shoot it with a modulated pulse, and the release of chronitons distracted both the parent and babies, giving us enough time to get free of the rogue planet. We then let Ry-Lar go, dropped the Caitians off at a nearby starbase, and took the Tholian to rendezvous with another ship. Everyone safe. A very successful first mission.

Career Events:

Required to take command
Discovered an artifact
Encountered truly alien being

Friday, December 31, 2021

The 2021 Book List

The 2021 Book List

Been a crazy year, marked with some health problems. Oddly enough, spending so much of the year bedridden and immobile has seemed to have a negative impact on my ability to focus on reading. My intake of audiobooks has drastically dropped off, as I've been listening a lot more to podcasts over the last couple of years.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (finished from 2020)
No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (finished from 2020)
Dark Convergence by Dave Gross
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson
The Teacher Wars by Dana Goldstein
Think Like a Game Designer by Justin Gary
The White Box Essays by Jeremy Holcomb
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place by Janelle Shane
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (reread)
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 5
Electronic: 2

Kindle: 2

Dead tree books: 6

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 4

Science Fiction: 2
Fantasy: 2

Non-Fiction: 9

Science: 4

Physics: 1
Psychology: 2
Biology: 1
Technology: 1

History: 6
Education: 1
Game Design: 2

Podcasts

You Are Not So Smart
Making Sense with Sam Harris
The Glenn Loury Show
Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria
Very Bad Wizards
Advisory Opinions
The Lawfare Podcast
Rational Security
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
Left, Right, and Center
Today, Explained
The Weeds

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Friday, January 01, 2021

The 2020 Book List

The 2020 Book List

Well, that's a crazy year in the record books ... and, speaking of books, here's the list of books I read this year. Ironically, everyone being locked at home meant that generally I did less reading than normal. Fewer audiobooks because there was no commuting, for example, but also even just in terms of having free time to read, I found I had less, because so many activities were cancelled, there was a lot more family together time and less time where I had blocks to just sit down and read without someone else coming along to interrupt.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang
God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World -- and Why Their Differences Matter by Stephen Prothero
For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones
Upon the Flight of the Queen by Howard Andrew Jones
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
An Economic History of the World since 1400 by Donald J. Harreld (Great Courses)
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revoluion by Francis Fukuyama
Law School for Everyone by Molly Bishop Shadel (Great Courses)
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't by Jim Collins
Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi
A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin
The New Testament by Bart Ehrman (Great Courses)
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity by Sam Harris & others
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
The ABCs of Educational Testing: Demystifying the Tools That Shape Our Schools by W. James Popham
Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman
The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths by Mariana Mazzucato
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (unfinished)
No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (unfinished)

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 13
Electronic: 3

Kindle: 3

Dead tree books: 12

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 13

Science Fiction: 3
Fantasy: 10

Non-Fiction: 15

Science: 2

Physics: 2
Psychology: 2
Technology: 1

Religion: 2
History: 5
Politics/Law: 4
Business/Economics: 4
Education: 1
Philosophy: 1

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories. And a book on Politics might drift enough into the realm of Philosophy (or vice versa) that I count them as both, or both might explore enough historical groundwork that I feel the need to include it as a History book.

I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

Podcasts

You Are Not So Smart
Making Sense with Sam Harris
The Glenn Show
Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria
Very Bad Wizards
What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law
The Lawfare Podcast
Rational Security
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
Advisory Opinions
Left, Right, and Center
All the President's Lawyers
Today, Explained
The Weeds
Stuff to Blow Your Mind

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

2019 Book List

The 2019 Book List

In 2018, I initiated a plan to not read any of my "default" authors (white heterosexual males, which were by far the bulk of my reading library). I called this "Don't read white (males) after Labor Day." So up through Labor Day this year, I was specifically focusing on reading minority or female authors. During that period, I'm listing what I can tell of the identity of the author. (If you're paying attention, then you'll be able to tell this means that once I hit Labor Day in 2019, I only got through 4 books for the remainder of the year. It was a busy fall!)

Becoming by Michelle Obama (African-American female)
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (African-American male)
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (African-American male)
Children of Bone and Blood by Tomi Adeyemi (Nigerian female)
The Soul of Yellow Folks by Wesley Yang (Korean-American male)
Infidel: My Life by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somali-born Dutch-American female)
Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somali-born Dutch-American female)
Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somali-born Dutch-American female)
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World by Michele Gelfand (female)
Radical: My Journey Out of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz (British Muslim)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Report On the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election (Vol I & II) by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (female)
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt (female)
A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, Book 1) by V.E. Schwab (female)
A Gathering of Shadows(Shades of Magic, Book 2) by V.E. Schwab (female)
Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi (female)
The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer
A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, Book 3) by V.E. Schwab
Call Me God: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper Investigation by Jim Clemente, Tim Clemente, and Peter McDonnell
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 15
Electronic: 1

Kindle: 1

Dead tree books: 5

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 9

Science Fiction: 2
Fantasy: 7

Non-Fiction: 12

Science: 2

Psychology: 1
Technology: 1

Religion: 3
History: 11
Politics: 10
Business/Economics: 2
Philosophy: 3

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories. And a book on Politics might drift enough into the realm of Philosophy (or vice versa) that I count them as both, or both might explore enough historical groundwork that I feel the need to include it as a History book.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section if I read them in both formats. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

Podcasts

Writing Excuses
You Are Not So Smart
Waking Up Podcast with Sam Harris
History of Philosophy
History of Africana Philosophy
The Glenn Show
Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria
Very Bad Wizards
What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law
The Lawfare Podcast
The Cyberlaw Podcast
Rational Security
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
Today, Explained
The Weeds
The Phil Ferguson Show
Hidden Brain
Stuff to Blow Your Mind

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

2018 Book List

The 2018 Book List

Ones and Zeroes by Dan Wells
Children of the Divide by Patrick S. Tomlinson
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
The Higgs Boson and Beyond by Sean Carroll (The Great Courses)
The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World by Bart Ehrman
Republic, Lost: Version 2.0 by Lawrence Lessig
The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook by Niall Ferguson
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey
The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant
Why Honor Matters by Tamler Sommers
Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah Goldberg
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe
Burn Me Deadly by Alex Bledsoe
Dark Jenny by Alex Bledsoe
Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James. P. Carse
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord (black Barbadian woman)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (African-American woman)
I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan by Khalida Brohi (Pakistani Muslim woman)
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (caucasian transgender woman)
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (caucasian lesbian woman)
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (caucasian lesbian woman)
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray (caucasian woman)
Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray (caucasian woman)
A Million Worlds with You by Claudia Gray (caucasian woman)

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 16

Audio courses: 1

Kindle: 5
Dead tree books: 7

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 13

Science Fiction: 8
Fantasy: 5

Non-Fiction: 12

Science: 3

Physics: 1
Psychology: 2

Religion: 2
History: 5
Politics: 7
Business/Economics: 1
Philosophy: 5

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories. And a book on Politics might drift enough into the realm of Philsophy (or vice versa) that I count them as both, or both might explore enough historical groundwork that I feel the need to include it as a History book.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section if I read them in both formats. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

Podcasts

Writing Excuses
You Are Not So Smart
Waking Up Podcast with Sam Harris
History of Philosophy
History of Africana Philosophy
Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria
Very Bad Wizards
What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law
The Lawfare Podcast
The Cyberlaw Podcast
Rational Security
The Phil Ferguson Show
Hidden Brain
Stuff You Should Know
Stuff to Blow Your Mind

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Monday, September 03, 2018

Initial Thoughts and Reflections: Suicide of the West by Jonah Goldberg

Regardless of political affiliation or inclination, I sincerely wish that we could have a national book club where everyone was encouraged to read Jonah Goldberg's Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy.

It took me the better part of the summer to get through it. This is not because of any flaw in the book, nor is it difficult to get through on any level. It's actively engaging and entertaining, in fact, despite the serious subject matter. No, the delay is entirely on me. First, I am busy. Second, and probably more importantly, the book was one that I definitely wanted to deeply engage with. Therefore, rather than getting the book on Audible and listening to it, I actually wanted to read the book, with a notebook near me for writing down quotes or thoughts and observations as I went.

Aside: This is definitely not a slam on audiobooks. I dearly love the format, and find it a great way to engage with a lot of my information intake these days ... but since I specifically listen to audiobooks when doing other things, it does not facilitate careful notetaking and reflection on the subject matter in the way that reading can. Reflection while reading is automatic, because you must consciously proceed to follow the author's flow of words, and the internal voice takes precedent. Reflection while listening, on the other hand, requires the active step of pausing the flow of the author's words (or ignoring their continued flow, at least) in order to reflect on your reaction to them. For comparison, while I very interested to read James Comey's Higher Loyalty, I felt no need to take careful notes on it, so an audiobook was a perfectly appropriate format ... and I finished it in a couple of days of listening, as I drove around town, did laundry, etc. Nor, for that matter, did I find

I imagine that there is a world in which I would have read Suicide of the West and been very convinced that the biases and assumptions with which President Hillary Clinton is running America are probably dangerous and troubling. I dearly wish that we lived in such a world.

Goldberg's central thesis is focused on portraying admiration for something he refers to as "the Miracle" - which is, generally speaking, the Enlightenment and the subsequent growth of plurality, secular society, democracy, and capitalism - and expressing the concern that the tribalism, populism, nationalism, and identity politics of the title put those features of our society at risk.

Goldberg began work on the book prior to the 2016 election, so the transformation in his understanding of the thesis as he watched his own conservative party get taken over by a form of rampant nationalist populism is intriguing to witness. The book is a coherent, well-edited whole, so you don't see the gradual transformation take place as you move from page 1 to the final page, while Goldberg realizes that his own house is far from in order. No, instead, the tone throughout consistently recognizes that everyone is subject to these foibles of human nature.

Despite the fact that I no doubt am much more willing to give the state a free hand in trying to help people out than Goldberg is inclined to, I found very little in his criticism of this approach - or, indeed, in most of the arguments in his book - to take issue with. For the issues he brings up, if our concerns were placed a scale of 1 to 10, I'd imagine that in general we'd be off by a point or two here or there.

Intriguingly, one of the claims that he makes that I most took issue with was the following quote:

Indeed, as much as I hold Trump in contempt, I am still compelled to admit that, if my vote would have decided the election, I probably would have voted for him.

I am certainly not disagreeing that this is how Goldberg would have felt compelled, but given his own arguments, I am definitely disagreeing that this is how he should have felt compelled. Even given all of his concerns about the statism and over-reliance on regulation embodied by the Obama administration, which would certainly have continued under a Clinton administration, by his own metrics there should not have been no contest that Clinton was the better choice.

There are a ton of arguments that I could make why Clinton wasn't as big a danger to America's values and "the Miracle" as Trump is, but let's focus on Goldberg's own points here.

At one point, he quotes some of Clinton's comments, such saying that Islam has "nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism," pointing out that she "painted with a broad brush in a single color and so did Trump." But there are two differences here, and both are ones that Goldberg is trying to highlight and then ignoring in the case of Clinton.

First is the nature of the "broad brush in a single color" being used. Clinton's comment is made in an attempt to demonstrate respect to good Muslim people, and to re-affirm (if incorrectly) that American society has a place for them and that Americans would to well to welcome and embrace them as a whole. This is 100% in accord with the arguments that Goldberg himself makes throughout the book.

Trump's comments about Mexico sending us their rapists and banning all Muslims, on the other hand, paints "with a broad brush in a single color" that is specifically at odds with the very American values that Goldberg is admirably defending.

Second is what this rhetoric covers up. Here, admittedly, Goldberg may well disagree with me, but I see absolutely no reason to believe that Clinton doesn't know that she was painting with a broad brush in a single color. Yes, she was making a rhetorically excessive statement in support of a higher principle (inclusiveness for peaceful Muslims), but in practice is there any reason to believe that this would inhibit her ability to implement security procedures when acting as President of the United States? Is Goldberg suggesting that she does not actually understand that there is a connection between Islam and terrorism that has to be considered by the intelligence and security communities?

Trump, on the other hand, seems to believe his rhetorical excesses about Muslims to quite a significant degree ... both in the moment he's making them, and when called out on them. There's nothing in his subsequent comments to really make it clear that he understands the differences between Islam and terrorism, or between dangerous and peaceful illegal immigrants for that matter.

Toward the end of the book Goldberg identifies the key elements of conservatism as twofold: Ideas matter and character matters. As flawed as Hillary's ideas and character may have been, on both of these accounts that Goldberg clearly values, she has to be held up as superior to Trump. Indeed, of the two candidates, by this metric (and many others) she was actually more fundamentally conservative than Trump actually was (or is).

All of this, of course, is to parse hairs over inconsequential differences. Goldberg's book, even when I disagreed with it, forced me to be far more critical of my assumptions and how different rhetoric that sounds good resonates through our society. Hell, he even convinced me that if I were to watch one of my favorite movies as a teenager, Dead Poet's Society, I would probably find that it is no longer appealing to my adult sensibilities.

And being forced to confront the flaws of one's own assumptions is, I think, the best that one can ever expect to get from a book.

Monday, January 01, 2018

2017 Book List

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting of books consumed for 2017!

The 2017 Book List

The Speech by Bernie Sanders
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal
Over Your Dead Body by Dan Wells
The Dictator's Handbook by Alastair Smith & Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Witch: A Tale of Terror by Charles McKay (read by Sam Harris)
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
The Daily Show: An Oral History (the Audiobook) by Chris Smith
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
Hamilton: The Revolution by Jeremy McCarter
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
Pathfinder Tales: Gears of Faith by Gabrielle Harbowy
Convictions: How I Learned What Mattered Most by Marcus Borg
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
Keynes/Hayek by Nicholas Wapshott
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them by Joshua Greene
The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sas
Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D by David Kushner and Koren Shadmi (graphic novel)
Nothing Left to Lose by Dan Wells
Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl & Cynthia Ward
Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders by Denise A. Spellberg
The Atheist Muslim by Ali A. Rizvi
The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Wilson
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek by Manu Saadia
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Verbal Judo, Updated Edition by Pam Thompson
Bluescreen by Dan Wells
This Fight is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren
Extreme Makeover: Apocalypse Edition by Dan Wells
Speak Easy by Catherynne M. Valente

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 14

Audio courses:

Kindle: 8
Dead tree books: 9

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 8

Classics: 1
Science Fiction: 2

Young Adult: 1

Fantasy: 5

Non-Fiction: 20

Science: 3

Physics:
Psychology: 3
Biology: 1
Technology:
Math/Statistics:

Religion: 7
History: 12
Politics: 9
Education: 3
Business/Economics: 7
Philosophy: 5
Humor: 2
Writing/Creativity: 3

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section if I read them in both formats. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Open Letter on Secretary DeVos' Nomination

This morning I called Indiana Senator Todd Young. I was kicked to voicemail, presumably with the staff overburdened with calls related to things that came up over the weekend. Young is on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, so I wanted to speak with him regarding the confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Not able to get through, I left a quick message expressing that I'd like to be contacted to give my concerns.

Since I wasn't able to speak with anyone, I jotted down my thoughts here:

Today President-elect Trump's Secretary of Education pick, Betsy DeVos, is having a confirmation hearing. I have worked in the educational field for nearly twenty years, first in Detroit with a non-profit math enrichment program and then in the educational publishing industry, working with the testing company CTB for a decade. I have an undergraduate degree in physics and a Master's in Mathematics Education, and I have worked with more than a half-dozen states on developing, designing, and writing their mathematics assessments, including two national assessments: the TASC high school equivalency test and the Smarter Balanced Coalition test. For the last two years, I have been working self-employed as a freelancer in educational publishing, with the majority of work that supports me and my family being with testing companies and textbook companies.

I have two concerns regarding Mrs. DeVos as a potential Secretary of Education.

First, she seems to be singularly unqualified. She has made statements that make it clear she does not understand educational policy, specifically the Common Core. And when I say she "does not understand," I don't mean that I disagree with her stance on the issue or her conclusion ... I mean that her rhetoric has made it clear that she is fundamentally confused about some of the basic facts related to the defining educational policy of the last 6 years. She appears to think that "local control" means "eliminating the Common Core," but any state that is utilizing the Common Core is doing so because it has chosen to. An educational policy of "eliminating the Common Core" means coming in and imposing federal educational restrictions on the states. It is not clear that she understands this crucial distinction. I would hope that questioning during the confirmation hearing can help clarify her thinking on whether her objective is "returning local control" or "eliminating the Common Core," because you can't do both.

Nor, for that matter, is it necessarily good policy to do so. Indiana, for example, voted to get rid of the Common Core for partisan political reasons, and had to go through the expense of developing a new set of state standards ... which, not surprisingly, are really just superficial cosmetic changes to the Common Core. The vast majority of the Common Core was retained in the new Indiana standards. I don't complain about this too much, as part of my work over the last year has been working on a math textbook that is designed for the Indiana standards, but as a citizen and taxpayer in Indiana I wish they had just stuck with the Common Core.

My second concern is that Mrs. DeVos was the head of the All Children Matter PAC, as I understand it. That being the case, I feel that anyone in the committee, or in the Senate, who has received money from that PAC (or from DeVos personally) should recuse themselves from voting on this nomination. Or, at the very least, she should be asked about which Senators she has given money to in the past.

I'll admit, I have not been particularly political in the past, prior to seeing what happened in this election. Maybe it is normal in Washington for active lobbyists to be appointed to Cabinet-level positions, but mixed with her bizarre lack of educational qualifications and my extensive experience in the field, I find this really a problematic nomination.

I am not opposed to school choice. I've taught in charter schools in Detroit. I have sent my son to both private and charter schools in the Anderson area, though ultimately we found that the public schools have been a much better fit. I do not oppose school choice, but anyone who is going to support school choice in the role of Secretary of Education has to be committed, first and foremost, to maintaining a quality educational standard in our public education system. Mrs. DeVos does not appear to have demonstrated that commitment.

NOTE: Due to morning brain, I accidentally called Mrs. DeVos "Senator DeVos" in the original title. I've fixed the title, but it's obviously still incorrect in the link. And, of course, since she isn't yet confirmed, calling her even "Secretary DeVos" is a bit premature, but seemed appropriate anyway. So I know all of that ... the e-mails can stop now.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016 Books Read

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting of books consumed for 2016!

The 2016 Book List

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall
This Will Make You Smarter by John Brockman
The Koran
A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells
Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick
Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills (The Great Courses) by Professor Stephen Novella
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Higgs Boson and Beyond (The Great Courses) by Sean Carroll
Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology by Kentaro Toyama
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford
The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (The Great Courses) by Prof. Robert Garland
Revisionary by Jim C. Hines
Chupacabra's Song by Jim C. Hines
Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer
Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft
The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
There Was No Jesus, There Is No God by Raphael Lataster
The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems ... And Create More by Luke Dormehl
Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists by Raphael Lataster w/ Richard Carrier
Did Jesus Exist: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth by Bart Ehrman
Answers to Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life by Massimo Pigliucci
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll
The Ark: Children of the Dead Earth (Book One) by Patrick S. Tomlinson
Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence
Trident's Forge: Children of the Dead (Book Two) by Patrick S. Tomlinson
Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior by Bart Ehrman
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Extraordinary Zoology: Tales from the Monsternomicon, vol. 1 by Howard Tayler
Mr. Monster by Dan Wells
I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells
Partials by Dan Wells
The Devil's Only Friend by Dan Wells
Necessity by Jo Walton
Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work That Matters, and Make Smart Choices About Giving Back by William MacAskill
The Lady Astronaut Club by Mary Robinette Kowal (beta reader of draft edition)
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (with commentary by Steven Barnes) (re-read)
How Great Science Fiction Works (The Great Courses) by Prof. Gary K. Wolfe
Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 26

Audio courses: 4

Kindle: 13

Kindle shorts: 1

Google Docs: 1
Dead tree books: 6

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 22

Classics: 2
Science Fiction: 8

Young Adult: 2

Fantasy: 13

Horror: 3

Non-Fiction: 25

Science: 9

Physics: 3
Psychology: 1
Biology: 3
Technology: 4
Math/Statistics: 1

Religion: 8
History: 8
Politics: 5
Education: 1
Economics: 5
Business: 6
Philosophy: 7
Humor: 2
Writing/Creativity: 2

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Why I Hope to Vote for Donald Trump in 2020

There has possibly been no political contest in my living history that I have felt more strongly about than this one, so the result that Donald Trump has been elected as President is really devastating. These aren't quite my first thoughts on this, because I had to get up, see my kids off to school, take my youngest to a doctor's appointment ... you know, the stuff of living that actually matters, far more than this political stuff.

But the political stuff matters, too, when people's healthcare, and their family's marital status, or ability to stay in this country, or the integrity of their control over their own bodies are on the line.

At about 10:50 last night, the results were coming in were devastating, and I convinced my wife to go to sleep rather than suffer through hours of stress watching the results come in.

I woke up at 4:00 am (because my phone went crazy with a bizarre series of junkmail texts) and saw that Donald Trump had won ... and could not get back to sleep.

I have been fundamentally wrong at every stage in this election, sure that the Republicans would nominate a reasonable candidate, and then sure that the American people would reject the man they eventually chose. I clearly had too much faith in the American people to make the moral choice - yes, the moral choice - in this election. I was wrong about what America would do.

Now, I find myself in the position of hoping that I am wrong. I truly hope that I'm wrong about the character of Donald Trump, that I have misinterpreted his statements that were strategic attempts to gain support and do not represent his actual views. I hope that he will be a centrist, with conservative economic policies and a concern for individual civil liberties.

I remember reading about President Bush's first advice to Barack Obama:

Trust yourself. And know that ultimately regardless of the day-to-day news cycles and the noise that the American people need their president to succeed, regardless of political party.

We are in the position where Donald Trump, along with the Republicans, have the run of the table. And, as much as I loathe the way he has run his campaign, and indeed his whole life, and the way the Republicans have handled themselves the last 8 years, I cannot wish the government abject failure.

Americans need a government that succeeds. We need economic and tax policies that promote jobs and growth. We need a President who can deftly maneuver the various threats to our national security and national interests.

And, much as I loathe President-Elect Trump's rhetoric during the campaign, I hope he rises to the challenge. I hope that the White House brings out the very best in him, in fact that he leads in such an exemplary fashion that in four years, when he runs for re-election in 2020, it is not primarily among rural white voters that back him, but that he has broad approval among women and African-American, LGBT, urban, and Latino populations, and that he has earned that because his policies are really working, and he's proven himself to be a thoughtful man with deft leadership.

I doubt this will happen ... but I truly have never hoped to be wrong more in my life.

Friday, February 19, 2016

On Scalia: Letter to Dan Coats

In this February 16 interview, Indiana Senator Dan Coats said that he didn't believe President Barack Obama should nominate a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia. Here is the point he made, in particular:

“I think that ought to be put to the American people and let them decide who they want to be their president and who they want to nominate,” Coats said. “But at that point, that person has to be evaluated in a non-partisan way, in my opinion. Does he have the experience? Does he or she have the criteria to be a justice? The temperament?"

He isn't alone. There's been a slew of this talk from Republicans, and some Republicans have actively broken ranks to say that Congress should do its job, including the definitely-not-pro-Obama Tea Party governor of Maine. While I'm willing to attribute this behavior strictly to political opportunism, and a real fear about losing strong conservative voices on the court, some have attributed far more sinister motives to the call.

The end result of all this, for me, was the following letter to Indiana Senator Dan Coats:

Dear Senator Coats,

I was disappointed to read today that you had publicly expressed the desire to push off a decision on a Supreme Court nominee until after the election. In the interview you claimed that this was a desire that it "ought to be put to the American people and let them decide who they want to be their president and who they want to nominate."

It occurs to me that this question has indeed been put to the American people twice, in 2008 and 2012. I voted for President Obama in both cases, but I'm non-partisan, and in each election I seriously considered all of the candidates. I intend to do so again this year, but I will confess that this sort of obstructionism on the part of Republicans is troublesome to me. If Republicans have a hope of winning over enough moderate voters in a general election to win the White House, they have to convince the American people that they can actually govern.

In this case, that means allowing President Obama - whom the American people decided twice to be their president - to perform his duties for the fourth year of his second elected term. What it seems to me you are actually saying in the above quote is that you feel uncomfortable with the decision the American people made in 2012 and hope they make a different one this year. You are certainly free to be uncomfortable with it, but your Constitutional duty as a Senator is clear. If President Obama puts forth a qualified nominee, and Republicans obstruct it on purely political grounds, I suspect it will cast a very poor shadow on Republican prospects among moderates in the general election.

I know it will for this moderate.

Thank you for your time.

I don't know if this sort of thing ultimately has any impact, but it seems good to have one's voice heard. You can leave a message for Indiana Senator Dan Coats here.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 Books Read

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting of books consumed for 2015!

The 2015 Book List

Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines (reread)
The Martian by Andy Weir
Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell
Codex Born by Jim C. Hines (reread)
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey
America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System by Steven Brill
Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words by Albert Einstein
Unbound by Jim C. Hines
Abraham Lincoln: A Presidential Life by James McPherson
The Just City by Jo Walton
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku
Does Santa Exist?: A Philosophical Investigation by Eric Kaplan
Thinking About Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare by Prof. Paul Rosensweig (The Great Courses)
On the Plurality of Worlds by David Lewis
Terrorists in Love by Ken Ballen
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Beyond the God Particle by Leon Lederman & Christopher Hill
The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Lock In by John Scalzi
Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything In Life Easier by Ari Meisel
Death of a King by Tavis Smiley
How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians by Quintus Tullius Cicero & Philip Freeman
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick
The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty by Robert P. Crease and Alfred Goldhaber
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (reread)
The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life - Master Any Skill or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process by Thomas M. Sterner
Animal Farm [audio dramatization] by George Orwell
The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature by Timothy Ferris
Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
Behavioral Economics: When Psychology and Economics Collide by Prof. Scott Heuttel (The Great Courses)
Scientific Secrets of Self-Control by Prof. C. Nathan DeWall (The Great Courses)
Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance Your Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction by Philip Athans
A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nassar
Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: A Novel by Judd Trichter
The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy
Monster by A. Lee Martinez
Heroes and Legends (The Great Courses) by Prof. Thomas Shippey
Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman
The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton
Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries: The Founding Fathers in the Age of Enlightenment by Tom Shachtman
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Leviathan Wakes by James A. Corey
The Theological Origins of Modernity by Michael Allen Gillespie
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark
Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer
Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
An Unwelcome Quest by Scott Meyer
Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez
Fable: Blood of Heroes by Jim C. Hines
How Ideas Spread (The Great Courses) by Jonah Berger

Breakdown

Format:

Audiobooks: 45
Kindle: 10
Dead tree books: 10

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 25

Classics: 4
Science Fiction: 12
Fantasy: 14

Urban/Modern Fantasy: 9
Young Adult:
Steampunk: 1

Non-Fiction: 37

Science: 17

Physics: 7
Psychology: 8
Biology: 1
Technology: 2
Math/Statistics: 1

Religion: 12
History: 15
Politics: 11
Education: 4
Economics: 6
Business: 2
Philosophy: 11
Humor: 1
Writing: 2

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section. I've also included The Great Courses audios that I listen to through Audible.com. Though not actually books, I figure that a 10+ hour course on a subject contains about the same informational content, if not presented structurally in quite the same way as it would take in a written book.

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Science and the Big Bang Theory: Richard Feynman's van

The Feynman family with the family van.

From its first joke, CBS' The Big Bang Theory has proven adept at mixing humor and science. Many of the science jokes hinge on comprehending the subtleties of quantum physics in the Shrodinger's cat thought experiment (or making a self-aware lack of comprehension), but some are not about scientific concepts themselves, but jokes that focus on the culture of science.

For example, in a previous episode, Sheldon took Amy to a book signing by noted theoretical physicist and author Brian Greene, specifically so that he could heckle Greene for attempting to demystify string theory in a language accessible to the common, non-scientist reader. Science communicators and scientists ranging from Nobel Laureate George Smoot to Bill Nye to Stephen Hawking have made cameo appearances on the show.

In the handful of episodes this season, the direct scientific references have been slim, but there's been one notable scientific cameo. Not by a scientist, though, but by his family van.

Since Leonard and Penny eloped in the last season finale/premiere, the guys hadn't gotten a chance to throw Leonard a bachelor party. To make up for it, they decide to drive down to Mexico (abducting Sheldon to bring him along, although one has to wonder why they would ruin their weekend in this fashion and not just leave him behind). And the vehicle they use for their bachelor party road trip was a van that had belonged to Richard Feynman.

Richard Feynman was the famed CalTech physicist, filling the gap of popular face of physics between the eras of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. He worked on the Manhattan Project, was one of the key figures in developing quantum electrodynamics (for which he received the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics), inspired the fields of nanotechnology and quantum computing, and famously demonstrated the likely reason for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster with a glass of ice water. Feynman had a big personality, as well, and is as well known for the strange stories about him as for his physics. He became known as a safe cracker at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and played bongo drums at strip clubs, to name just a couple of his unusual hobbies.

And his van is, to my knowledge, the only real vehicle that has been repeatedly mentioned in physics books. (The Enterprise and the Batmobile probably have been referenced.)

Though not explained in the episode, Feynman's van is famous in physics circles because of the curious squiggly markings on the outside of the vehicle. These look random, but they're actually diagrams used in physics to describe the quantum interactions of particles. They are, to the physics community at large, called "Feynman diagrams." Though he displayed uncharacteristic humility in avoiding calling them by this name, he was very proud of their creation, as they were a key tool in comprehending the quantum electrodynamics interactions that he had defined mathematically. He was so proud, in fact, that he detailed his van with these Feynman diagrams.

The van was restored recently, and the show note at the end of the episode does indicate that it was actually Feynman's van that was used in the episode, not a replica ... a scientific cultural icon that became part of a popular culture icon. (Despite the events of the episode, we are assured that the real van survives intact.)

Episode 9.3: The Bachelor Party Corrosion

Air date: October 5, 2015

Watch the episode on CBS.com

Thursday, April 02, 2015

The Religious Beliefs of Corporate Persons

I still think the Catholics should go with this
more-inspiring sigil for the modern age.

Back in 2012, well before it occurred to me that a corporation could be said to have religious beliefs, I commented on the idea of "corporate personhood." I focused on this idea at length in that post, but recent events have made it worth looking at again.

Indiana RFRA and Corporations

In the 2010 Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court decided that these corporate entities had the ability for unlimited, unregulated political speech, which can also be made behind a mask of secrecy about the funding sources. And in the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, it was made clear that, at least for "closely-held corporations," they also had religious liberties.

This was recently codified into law in my home state of Indiana, as part of the controversial Indiana state-level version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which resulted in widespread concerns about discrimination of LGBT members. I happen to agree that the original wording of the law would have given some additional support for this sort of discrimination (which is already legal in Indiana, actually, due to no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT groups).

In comparing the Indiana and federal RFRA statutes, one difference that stands out is Section 7.3. In this section it seems that the Indiana law specifically sets very broad definitions of what sorts of organizations/institutions may make claims of having religious freedoms burdened, broader than the "closely-held corporation" rule from the Hobby Lobby decision:

(3) A partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a company, a firm, a society, a joint-stock company, an unincorporated association, or another entity that:

(A) may sue and be sued; and

(B) exercises practices that are compelled or limited by a system of religious belief held by:

(i) an individual; or

(ii) the individuals;

who have control and substantial ownership of the entity, regardless of whether the entity is organized and operated for profit or nonprofit purposes.

The question this leaves open is whether courts interpret the above wording as applying only to closely-held corporations, as the Supreme Court ruled for the federal RFRA under the Hobby Lobby case. Nothing in the wording above indicates to me any such limitation as being an inherent part of the law, so I think corporations can at least argue that the limitation doesn't apply. If a publicly-traded entity is owned 51% by people who want to invoke a claim under RFRA, it would seem like it should be allowed under this wording. A non-closely-held corporation that wants to exercise these sorts of religious interests is free to, at least, make the argument that they should be able to under the Indiana RFRA, in a way that they couldn't under the federal RFRA.

This is followed up by the other major difference between this legislation and others, which is Section 9:

Sec. 9. A person whose exercise of religion has been substantially burdened, or is likely to be substantially burdened, by a violation of this chapter may assert the violation or impending violation as a claim or defense regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding. If the relevant governmental entity is not a party to the proceeding, the governmental entity has an unconditional right to intervene in order to respond to the person’s invocation of this chapter.

It seems that when applying the federal RFRA, there has been dissent within the courts about whether protected religious liberty can be claimed in a private dispute between individuals or not. The clear and unquestioned intended goal of RFRA was to provide defense of religious activity from government regulation, from what I can tell. Its use of the phrase "and obtain appropriate relief against a government" can be interpreted as restricting its claims to those of the government, or of including the government among those relief can be sought from. Different circuits have ruled different ways in this.

The wording of the Indiana law under Section 9 makes it explicitly clear that protections of religious liberty can be invoked in disputes between private individuals ... which, in conjunction with Section 7.3, would seem to mean that corporations can invoke religious liberty defenses in completely private disputes.

Against Corporate Personhood

This attribution is false, but I like the quote
and don't feel like changing the graphic.

Here's how I, as a small business owner of a sole proprietorship that operates without corporate protections and have looked into whether I need those protections, view the way a corporation functions:

A corporation is an entity that is used to perform an act on behalf of an individual or individuals, in a way that isolates the individual from harm. Should an individual attempt to use a corporation to perform an act, retribution strikes the corporation rather than the individual. The corporation may be terminated only by bankruptcy or willful dissolution, but is otherwise immortal. Even if terminated in this way, it may pass its essential essence along to another entity which, in most particulars, may function as essentially identical to the original entity in service of the owner. The person behind the corporation is unharmed, except by the inconvenience of having to create a new entity.

Gamers and fantasy readers will recognize this:

It is a construct of some kind, possibly a necromancer's undead minion, a golem, a wizard's homoculous, or some other kind of summoned/crafted proxy creature. In Shadowrun, it would be Rigger's robotic drone (or a corporation, since they have those in Shadowrun too).

So, essentially, we now have immortal non-human entities with the ability to amass wealth for unlimited political speech and able to invoke religious beliefs in disputes with other people and corporations.

I do not think this is a good outcome.

Because, simply put, corporations are not people.

The corporation does not, as a corporation, possess the ability to have a religious belief or conviction, it can only express the religious beliefs and convictions of the owners. Any claim to religious liberty, and the ability to exercise religious liberty, is only as a second-hand consequence of the rights held by the individual who runs the corporation. Those rights are protected for the individual, and may be protected as expressed through a corporation, but the corporate entity itself does not possess those rights.

There may be many perfectly valid reasons for supporting the broad freedom of corporations to serve as the means of expressing personal liberties held by their owners, but corporate personhood is not among them.

You'll hear all kind of people quoting nonsense about how corporations are people, but this diminishes the richness and complexity of what it means to be a person. It is offensive in every way, and as a rhetorical tool needs to end.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 Books Read

End of the year, so time for my annual accounting of books consumed. (Out of deference to my lovely wife, I will not say "books read," because nearly half were in audiobook format.) Here are the books I consumed in 2014.

The 2014 Book List

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided Over Religion and Politics by Jonathan Haidt
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--And Reality by Chris Mooney
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
Embracing Your Best Self by Nancy Zimmerman
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality by Max Tegmark
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go Of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown
Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain by Michael S. Gazzaniga
Doubt: A History - The Great Doubters and their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Hecht
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Shawn Achor
Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon
Pathfinder Tales: The Redemption Engine by James L. Sutter
The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian and the Making of a Navy SEAL by Eric Grietens
Living the Quaker Way: Timeless Wisdom for a Better Life Today by Philip Gulley
Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman
The Psychopath Test By Jon Ronson
A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Madness by Nassir Ghaemi
My Brief History by Stephen Hawking
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Walking by Henry David Thoreau
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More by Bruce Feiler
Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
Novum Organum (The New Organon) by Francis Bacon
The World As I See It by Albert Einstein
The God Engines by John Scalzi
Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human Race by Mark Twain
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
Inferno by Dan Brown
Shadow Ops: Breach Zone by Myke Cole
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn
How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee by Bart Ehrman
The Adversary by Erin M. Evans
Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler
The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning by Marcelo Gleiser
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume
The Last Stormdancer by Jay Krisoff
Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris
Pathfinder Tales: Stalking the Beast by Howard Andrew Jones
Pathfinder Tales: Reign of Stars by Tim Pratt
The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein
Ignorance: How It Drives Science by Stuart Firestein
Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait by K.A. Bedford
Invisible: Personal Essays on Representation in SF/F edited by Jim C. Hines
San Diego 2014: Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant
Farewell to Reality: How Modern Science Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth by Jim Baggott
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
The Reaver by Richard Lee Byers

Analysis

Format:

Audiobooks: 26
Kindle: 19

Kindle Singles (mini-books/novellas/solo essays): 2

Dead tree books: 10

Subjects:

Total Fiction: 18

Mystery/Thriller: 1
Science Fiction: 6
Fantasy: 12

Urban/Modern Fantasy: 2
Traditional Fantasy: 7
Young Adult: 1
Steampunk: 2

Non-Fiction: 36

Science: 19

Physics: 8
Psychology: 10
Biology: 3
Technology: 1
Math/Statistics: 1

Religion: 12
History: 11
Politics: 8
Education: 3
Economics: 1
Business: 2
Philosophy: 17
Humor: 1
Writing: 2

These numbers don't quite match up, because some books cover multiple areas, and so I've included them in all relevant categories. So, for example, a book on free will would fall in both Psychology and Philosophy (and possibly even Religion) categories.

Similarly, some books I read using Whispersynch-for-Voice to jump between the Amazon Kindle and Audible audiobook versions of the books, so they got double-counted in the format section.

The History

And for anyone who is interested in looking into the past to see some of my previous book lists...

Prior to 2008, I didn't keep a precise running record of the books that I read.