Tag: nonfiction

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#BookReview: Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

Not As Much Of A Hit Piece As One Might Expect. If you see that a self-proclaimed “environmentalist” is writing a book about nuclear energy and specifically the Diablo Canyon Power Plant along Central California’s coast, many would likely assume this is going to be little more than a thinly veiled hit piece about how evil the plant is and how it should never have been extended.

And one would be WRONG in that assumption… mostly.

Tuhus-Dubrow instead actually does a reasonably balanced-ish (if still clearly tilted slightly (your mileage may vary on how “slightly”) towards the anti-nuclear position) approach of looking at the totality of everything about nuclear power in the 21st century, showing its evolutions from its earliest incarnations in the middle of the previous century when many thought nuclear power could usher in a Pre-War version of the world from Fallout (briefly seen in the opening sequence of Fallout 4, for example) into its most modern – and promising yet highly contested – forms, using the Diablo Canyon facility as the basis of much of the overall narrative.

Along the way she makes it a point to talk to many on both sides of the issue and give the requisite brief biographies of each of the key players to the narrative she is constructing, as well as discuss in varying detail the whole of the nuclear power saga – everything from its well known incidents to its lesser known incidents to how *exactly* spent nuclear fuel is stored (mostly, she never details the process involved at facilities such as South Carolina’s Savannah River Plant, where I’ve worked a couple of times in a couple of different software engineering roles) and most everything in between. She discusses the various pro- and anti- groups that have formed over the years and actively interviews several leaders on both sides.

But it is during these interviews in particular that Tuhus-Dubrow develops a new term she clearly means and uses as a pejorative throughout much of the text, specifically to describe many – if not all – on the pro-nuclear energy side: “nuclearists”.

Still, even this wasn’t truly significant enough to necessitate the star deduction. Instead, that comes from the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 11% or so of the Advance Review Copy of the book I read nearly four months before publication.

Ultimately, no matter your position on nuclear energy and even if you, like I, have actively worked in the field for any length of time, you’re going to learn something from reading this book. So give it a read, and make sure to write your own review about your own experience with it. And then go read the fictional Viral Apocalypse series by Michael McBride, showing one way Diablo Canyon could actually someday help cause the Apocalypse. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow was originally written on December 28, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Great River by Boyce Upholdt

Nothing Technically Wrong – Yet Your Mileage Will Absolutely Vary. This is one of those books where there is nothing technically wrong – even the bibliography clocks in at a healthy 30% or so – and yet with the way Upholdt chooses to write this book… eh, a lot of people are going to have a lot of problems with it.

The book does a decent enough job of going through (at a very high level, mostly) the breadth of the history of the Mississippi, particularly as it relates to human interaction with the river, from the earliest of “Native American” (themselves recent immigrants, at this point in history) all the way forward into 2020s era issues. But make no mistake, if you’re looking for a more geography-based examination of the river… this really ain’t that. Instead, this is far more of an engineering look at the engineering challenges of living amidst the river and shaping it – as much as possible – to human needs of the given era… no matter how ill-advised or not quite thought through or understood those efforts to shape it may have been in any given era.

One large point of contention here, for many, is the “less than straight” narrative flow, as Upholdt may be talking about 19th century efforts (or even 2020s efforts) and suddenly be doing a deep dive into ancient efforts either using an earlier tech or perhaps in the same area of the river. Similarly, we may be in New Orleans and suddenly jump to Chicago or St Louis or vice versa. These jumps worked reasonably enough for my own mind, but I also fully admit my own (Autistic) mind is very different than many, and not everyone will be able to follow such jumps with such ease.

I think, for me, the largest point of contention for my own personal tastes was Upholdt’s prevalent and pervasive denigration of anything good about Western and/ or white efforts within the River, getting quite preachy at times about how other societies’ efforts were “better” in some way or another according to his own tastes. No, I’m not defending in any way actual evil and vile actions that anyone of any race did along the Mississippi – humans are idiots in the best of times, and across all of humanity across all of time, there will always be people behaving nobly and people behaving abhorrently no matter their demographics. My issue with Upholdt’s commentary is simply that he routinely excuses the bad in every other group while highlighting the bad in Western/ white people and ideas.

But maybe my reading of the text was off and you don’t see any of that. Maybe my reading was spot on and you see it – but agree with Upholdt’s views on the topics at hand. As I said in the beginning, your mileage is absolutely going to vary on this book.

If you’re interested in the history of human engineering as it relates to the Mississippi River, you’re ultimately going to find this book at least somewhat enjoyable no matter your particular beliefs about any given topic, though there may indeed be sections where nearly anyone will also want to rapidly defenestrate it at the closest available opportunity. Read the book for yourself, decide for yourself what you think of it, and write up your own review of it. Feel free to call me out in your review if you truly think I deserve it. Just read the book for yourself if you think it is something you might be interested in and write your own review when you finish it. (Or even if you DNF it, write your own review noting where and why in the text you decided to DNF.)

Recommended.

This review of The Great River by Boyce Upholdt was originally written on December 28, 2024.

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#BookReview: Unforgiving Places by Jens Ludwig

Wherein Academia Catches Up To Eminem And Dr. Dre. First up, I gotta give Ludwig credit here, the text is 41% bibliography, which is truly remarkable – on the higher end of any book I’ve ever read. So, truly, kudos. No matter what those sources may say, the fact that they were so prevalent throughout the text is a good thing where I come from – at worst, it is crystal clear the information being used to present the narrative.

And before we get into the meat of the review, I do need to note that Ludwig’s reliance on the terms “System 1” and “System 2”, while perhaps academically accurate… also makes his arguments less clear and concise, as one has to constantly remember what “System 1” and “System 2” mean. So for this review, I’m going to do what Ludwig should have done and refer to them as “Automatic” and “Thinking”.

Basically, Ludwig’s entire point is that gun violence is not a question of “bad people” – as he claims the GOP likes to proclaim (in a fair amount of straw man, but perhaps with some valid enough straws) or of “bad environments” – as he claims the Democrats like to proclaim (in a similar amount of straw man/ straws), but rather *bad decision making*. Ummm…. duh, doc. From there, Ludwig’s entire premise centralizes on disrupting the Automatic action and forcing the person about to commit gun violence – be it murder or suicide – to *think* about what they’re about to do and whether they really want to do it.

So this entire 352 page book that clocks in at 41% documentation is essentially a long way of saying exactly what Eminem and Dr. Dre said in Guilty Conscience over 20 years ago.

Ludwig does in fact lay out the arguments in a very systematic, academic manner. Though he *does* rely *way* too much on Chicago, the *very* place most Americans think of as having the *worst* problem with gun violence in the entire country (and as Ludwig himself admits in the text, having perhaps only the second worst gang problem in the country, IF it is behind LA’s gang problem in any given year). But given that at least one recurring example used in the narrative is the doc walking his own dog… maybe there are reasons Ludwig didn’t look too much further afield.

But seriously, read the book. Maybe it will help crystallize in your own mind exactly what Ludwig does throughout the text: the arguments and policies of the last century clearly aren’t really moving the needle on the issue, so perhaps it is time for new ways of thinking. Of finding ways that disrupt the Automatic system and instead force individuals into the Thinking mode for even 10 minutes (or up to 3 hrs or so, in the case of suicide attempts, apparently).

Maybe if enough politicians read the book, maybe if Barack Obama or Bill Gates put it on their 2025 reading lists, maybe more people will consider these thoughts, and maybe things might actually get better.

Maybe if we’d listened to Eminem and Dre 20 yrs ago, we might have already been there.

Very much recommended.

This review of Unforgiving Places by Jens Ludwig was originally written on December 22, 2024.

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#BookReview: Fewer Rules, Better People by Barry Lam

The Practical Case For A More ‘Libertarian’ Ethic In All Walks Of Life. First off, let’s acknowledge that the Libertarian Party in the US is a joke of its former self that has squandered in these last few years all the hard-won gains it had achieved in its first 40 years – including the first so-called “third” Party candidate with over a million votes in any US election *ever* (John Monds, Governor of Georgia, 2010, followed by the LP’s Presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, in 2012 and again in 2016).

But seriously, forget about the LP and every instance you’ve ever heard of “libertarianism” in the media, particularly over the last 15 yrs or so.

What Lam does here, instead, is build a far more practical case for largely the same ideals. No, he never specifies “remove this government agency” or “that mandate is unconstitutional” or some such, his arguments are far more practical and every day – why must a mandate exist to buy coffee from a coffeeshop that doesn’t even open (at least on certain days) until 10am exist? Why shouldn’t I be able to buy coffee for my 8a meeting from a different vendor who is open at that time? As but one example Lam actively cites.

Time after time after time, case after case after case, Lam builds his argument chiefly around the insanity of the proliferation of laws, mandates, and rules across the US in particular. Even mandates with lofty ideals often wind up *harming* those ideals in their specificity and implementation, according to Lam, in a common theme throughout this text.

While entirely a philosophical, if practical philosophy, text, the writing style is far from a Mill or a Thoreau – this is far more approachable and conversational, easy for basically anyone with the reading skills to actually read the text to follow through logically and understand Lam’s points.

No, the singular flaw I found here was dearth of its bibliography, clocking in at a paltry 9% in the Advance Review Copy of the book I read just a couple of months before publication. Had this had double (or even triple, if I’m being hopeful here :D) the documentation it does, it would be a truly flawlessly executed book that strongly and persuasively makes its case quite well indeed.

Overall a compelling book written in an easily approachable style, this is one of those books that anyone committed to “Liberty in our lifetime” (as the LP once proclaimed) should read, take to heart, and begin beating the drums for. It makes the case for its points truly better than most libertarians of any era have, including the oft-cited (in LP circles) Harry Browne.

Very much recommended.

This review of Fewer Rules, Better People by Barry Lam was originally written on December 12, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger

Rare Blend Of Science And Mysticism Marred By Racism And Misandry. Quite honestly, I read the Audible version of this book, where Schlanger’s wonder of her topic comes through in her breathy, reverent reading of her text – and kudos to her, as not many authors can pull off reading their own text for the Audible version. (Though yes, this *is* far more common in nonfiction.) But *because* I read the Audible, I actually had to borrow this book from the Jacksonville Public Library, where I live, to check the length of its bibliography – which does in fact clock in at a relatively healthy 25%. So despite the extraordinary claims made throughout this text, at least it is reasonably well documented.

All of the above noted, however… Schlanger makes some *remarkable* claims throughout this text, and while I don’t agree with at least one 1* review on Goodreads that she was nearly dogmatic – my summary of that review’s arguments – about her insistence on her so-broad-as-to-be-nearly-useless definitions of concepts such as “intelligence” and “communication” and “consciousness”, I *do* agree that Schlanger stretches these words so as to be nearly incomprehensible to anyone.

While Schlanger does a remarkable job as a journalist covering all aspects of her chosen topic, she also crosses the boundary lines of science and mysticism so early, often, and frequently that to read this book is very nearly to watch a Dr. Strange MCU movie and accept that the conceits of its mystic “sciences” are real in the reality in which you are reading this review. Her skills as a writer make the text flow beautifully and, again, reverently… but the grasp on objective reality one would normally expect in a popular science book… isn’t always as “there” as it should be in such a book. Instead, Schlanger’s embrace of the (at least near) mystic is more readily apparent, particularly through certain sections of the text.

And while this is bad enough, and let’s call it a half star deduction, these are almost style issues – few would bat an eye if this were labeled more a philosophy or ethics book than a science book.

No, the real problem with the text, at least for me, was the frequent excusing of mystics claiming to be scientists by claiming that their mysticism is no worse than far more accomplished actual scientists such as Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, pointing to their own mystic beliefs (common in their era over 100 yrs ago) and proclaiming “but those were white men” (an exact quote) and so their mystic beliefs were excused. No ma’am. Their mystic beliefs were excused because they achieved great scientific accomplishments. The people you excuse have not reinvented the way humans live or communicate many times over, and if they ever manage to achieve a similar accomplishment, you won’t be the only one excusing their mysticisms. It is the blatant and pervasive racist misandry of these types of comments throughout the text that results in the other half star deduction, as they are not *so* pervasive as to necessitate a full star deduction of their own.

Overall this is absolutely an interesting read on many fronts, one that one can learn a great deal from and on that is documented enough that its claims should be taken seriously – but as we all know, sources *can* be cherry picked, so a great deal of discernment and further reading is also very much in order after reading this text.

Recommended.

This review of The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger was originally written on December 11, 2024.

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#BookReview: Sea Of Grass by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty

Seemingly Comprehensive Review Of Its Field Marred By Dearth Of Bibliography. This is one of those books you pick up randomly because “hey, I don’t actually know more than the very rough basics about the American Prairie”, and it will actually give you a largely well rounded view of the entire topic, from its ancient origins and pre-European development through the Indian Wars/ Manifest Destiny era and through the Dust Bowl years all the way up to mostly current farming tech/ practices in the region. Yes, the commentary is titled perhaps a touch toward the left side of the dial, but honestly it wasn’t anywhere near as pervasive or preachy as some other similar texts tend to get, so eh, it was enough to mention here but now I’m moving on.

No, the real problem, at least with the Advance Review Copy edition I read roughly 6 months before publication, is the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 7% of the overall text – a far cry from even the 15% of my newly relaxing standard for bibliography length, much less the 20-30% of my former standard. So that’s the star deduction – for all of the facts presented, there simply isn’t anywhere near enough bibliography to back them up – much less the more editorial commentary.

Overall a seemingly strong primer on the topic, I know I learned a lot about a lot here, and I suspect many will as well. I simply wish it had been better documented.

Very much recommended.

This review of Sea Of Grass by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty was originally written on December 3, 2024.

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#BookReview: Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp

Anti-Western Ideology And Dearth Of Bibliography Mar Otherwise Solid Enough Examination Of The Topic. This is one of those books that has a lot of great information… and then doesn’t really document where that information came from. Clearly, Clapp traveled extensively and did a lot of first hand observations – which is clear from the narrative. And yet there is also quite a bit of discussion of histories old enough (yet still modern enough) that Clapp could not possibly have conducted such interviews himself, such as one comment from a letter from an activist in 1992 Guatemala regarding the trade in trash being more lucrative at the time than the drug trade! Thus, there is enough that wasn’t directly observed that the bibliography should have been longer than the 13% the Advance Review Copy form of this book I read a few months before publication had. Still, that was only call it a half star deduction, as 13% is really close to the 15% that I’m trying to relax my standard to (from 20-30%).

The other half star deduction is from the explicit and pervasive anti-Western commentary – at one point going so far as to claim that “Indigenous societies were in greater touch with Earth’s natural rhythms than white settlers. They had a more profound sense of moral purpose.” While this statement was perhaps the single worst in the narrative, there were numerous similar comments spread throughout the entirety of the text, enough that some may wish to defenestrate this book early and often.

But don’t. Read the book. There really is quite a bit here, and while some of it is included in other works on the trash trade and trash life cycle – such as Year Of No Garbage by Eve Schaub, Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy, and Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis – Clapp manages to go to other areas (such as Indonesia) not covered in these other works and show their own problems and opportunities in stark clarity. Indeed, remove the blatant anti-Western bias, and this is truly a solid work in the field, showing a wide breadth of the overall problem of the life of trash after it is thrown away and now nothing ever really solves this particular problem… in part due to the classic peril of there being too much money to be made by *not* solving it.

So read this book. Maybe you agree with the author’s biases, maybe you’re vehemently opposed to them. Either way, I’m almost 100% certain that even if you happen to be an actual expert in the global trash trade… you’re *still* going to learn something from having read this book.

Recommended.

This review of Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp was originally written on December 2, 2024.

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#BookReview: Political Survival 101 by Adam Marky

Pessimistic Satirical Look At Politics For The Millennial And Younger Crowds. First, let me address why I specifically say this is for the younger crowds: Every chapter ends with an image that, in the print edition at least, is a coloring sheet. Yes, you read that right. This is, partially and only in the print edition, a coloring book. Even the last text section before the coloring sheet is a suggestion of how you might want to color it, based on the image at hand and the commentary of that particular chapter.

As to the actual text, it is exactly what I said above – a satirical, if perhaps a touch pessimistic, look at all things politics, including how so many stereotypical politicians act so much of the time. Which means that at least in a certain vein, it absolutely does ease political stress with a bit of humor – if perhaps landing a touch close to one’s actual views of the subject.

The coloring sheets, while infantilizing – arguably one of the *last* things we need to be doing with this set of younger adults (to be clear, including those of even my own Xennial generation) – are at least a solid attempt at humor whose landing will depend more on personal taste.

Overall a fun, light, funny-enough book that never takes itself to seriously and is in fact a good way to try to have a laugh.

Very much recommended.

This review of Political Survival 101 by Adam Marky was originally written on November 16, 2024.

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#BookReview: Selling Out The Spectrum by Liam O’Dell

Solid Enough Primer On The Topic Marred By Dearth Of Bibliography. This is one of those books where, as others have noted, O’Dell clearly has his own perspectives and they clearly come through, and yet he also does a reasonably balanced job of showing both sides to any given issue – while clearly favoring whichever side he does. For those perhaps unfamiliar with the Actually Autistic/ Autistic Adult community and the reasons it clashes so often with researchers of all forms and levels, this is a solid compendium of the issues at hand and an introduction to just how complicated some of them can be.

The primary blemish here is the dearth of the bibliography, clocking in at just 10% of the overall text – at least in the Advance Review Copy form I read weeks before publication. Adding to this is the editing/ formatting choices of at least this format – hopefully corrected in the full final form – that left footnotes in odd places that made it unclear at times whether one was reading a part of the narrative or a footnote, which got quite jarring indeed at times.

Still, for the actual information contained here, even while this particular Autistic doesn’t *fully* agree with many of the perspectives of the author, this truly does at least show the relevant issues and shows each of them from a variety of angles – which is always appreciated.

Recommended.

This review of Selling Out The Spectrum by Liam O’Dell was originally written on November 8, 2024.

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#BookReview: Dead Air by William Elliott Hazelgrove

Preserving A Clarion Call Against Attempts At Revisionist History. Radio, as Hazelgrove notes in the text here, was a new tech that had found its way rapidly into seemingly every home in America, no matter how remote, over the course of essentially a generation. As Hazelgrove notes, the first “real time” Presidential election returns were broadcast by radio just 18 years before the night Orson Welles issued his clarion call against the dangers of the media.

One idea Hazelgrove hits on early, often, and strongly, is that Welles’ Halloween Eve 1938 broadcast of a teleplay version of H.G. Well’s War Of The Worlds did not cause any mass panic, that this is some kind of revisionist misinformation itself. Hazelgrove goes to great detail in showing the widespread reports of just how wrong this claim is, of showing numerous media reports from the next day and the following weeks and years citing the exact people and their reactions, showing that this was indeed a widespread mass panic event. One that perhaps some did not fall for, but clearly many did.

This text overall is the entire history of that pivotal six seconds of dead air that night, of everything leading up to it – including a somewhat detailed biography of Welles himself – and of everything that came from it, all the way through the deaths and legacies of the primary people involved – again, specifically, Welles.

Its bibliography comes in at 14%, which is *just* close enough to the 15% or so I’ve been trying to relax my older 20-30% standard to to avoid a star deduction, but let me be clear – I do wish it had a larger bibliography. Still, given the esoteric nature of the subject and it being a singular event involving a handful of key players, perhaps there literally weren’t more sources for this particular text to cite.

One thing that Hazelgrove makes a point of detailing throughout this text is that Welles in particular believed that this play was a clarion call against how easily the radio format could be used to manipulate large swaths of people, and that the fallout it caused proved his point – including the man who attempted to kill him in the early 40s as Welles walked into a diner, because that man’s wife had committed suicide the night of the War of the Worlds broadcast due to believing it was completely real.

In that vein of Welles’ call, let me point out that it is *still* happening *to this day*, and indeed specifically *on this day*. I write this review on November 5, 2024, the date of yet another US Presidential Election. This one in particular has featured a grievous manipulation by media, one not imaginable even as recently as 12 years ago. The LGBT community has been fighting for its rights and indeed its very right to *exist* legally for 55 years (dating from the Stonewall Riots, a common date used to denote the beginning of this push for rights). It was barely 21 years ago, with Texas v Lawrence, that the Supreme Court of the United States effectively legalized anal sex in the US. It was just 9 years ago, with Ogberfell v Hodges, that that same court ruled that same sex couples have the legal right to marry in the United States. With all of this *recent* history – much of it *within my own adult lifetime* – why is the media of 2024 ignoring the first married gay man running for President who is openly on the ballot for President in 47 States and a recognized write in candidate in the remaining 3 + DC? That man is Chase Oliver, and I can tell you why they are ignoring his historic candidacy: because he dared run under the “wrong” Party label, being the Libertarian Party’s nominee. Were he instead the nominee of one of the “two” controlling Parties in the US, this very history would be a primary focal point of that same media over these last weeks.

As Welles proclaimed and showed 86 years ago, the media can and will manipulate you at will. Including, as Hazelgrove makes a point to show through this text, trying to gaslight you into believing history making events never happened to begin with. Another “Or” “Well” – George Orwell – warned us about this in another clarion call book written just a few years after Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds event, in a book named 1984. But that is another review entirely. 😉

As it stands, this text is truly well written and truly a bulwark against attempts to revise the history of Welles’ astounding avant-garde event.

Very much recommended.

This review of Dead Air by William Elliott Hazelgrove was originally written on November 5, 2024.