The Unwanteds: Unwanteds Series, Book 1

A society has separated itself out from the world. The leader demands obedience and shuns the creative arts. People that make mistakes or act out artistically become "unwanted" and are cast out and killed. At least that is what they thought. A separate group has been rescuing unwanteds and bringing them to a magical artistic utopia. However, they realize they will be found out and train for the inevitable. One of the key characters is a twin. He had actually sacrificed himself and taken the blame for some artistic activity of his brother (in part because he already realized that he had enough marks against him and his brother had none.) Eventually they meet in a magical battle and also discover that there are multiple schemes under way to overthrow the kingdom. 

The book introduces fantasy elements into a post-apocalyptic work, but does not go deep in either of them.

Arkansas: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation Series)

If you search for an Arkansas book, you are most likely to find an analysis of the Little Rock Central High integration. The federal troops game in after a defiant governor sought to prevent integration. Ironically, the governor had not shown much interest in integration issues and was able to parlay this into a successful reelection campaign.

Slavery and plantations have had a disproportionate role in the history of Arkansas, despite the lack of general importance to the population. Most residents did not have slaves. Only a small proportion of slaveholders worked on plantations. However, people were willing to fight for their rights. Arkansas was reluctant to succeed from the union. After the US government asked the state to send troops to help defend against the confederacy, the residents were reluctant to fight against their neighbors. Only one delegate voted against secession. (And this person would later become governor.) Later the government continued to support the idealistic needs of plantations, often at the expense of industrial development. (Even though the high plantation society was never really as predominant as other states.)

During the civil war, most residents fought on the confederate side. However, there was a significant amount (especially from the northern Ozarks) that fought for the Union. Alas, most of the hostilities in the state also took place in the north.

After reconstruction, Arkansas devolved to a one-party state. The state decided to follow the lead of Mississippi and adopt voting restrictions and Jim Crow regulations. Following Mississippi is never a recipe for progress and helped continue Arkansas's reputation as a backwater. The northern mountain part of the state was filled with rugged hillbillies, while there were other plantations along river valleys. Urban development took a while to take place, with the state retaining a primarily rural character longer than other states.

Arkansas had served as somewhat as a way station. It was the frontier beyond the edge of the Mississippi. It was also a gateway to Texas, Indian Territory  and further west. River transport was important, yet it never developed a St. Louis or New Orleans. At times the primary export was people.

The book is a brief history of the state written over 40 years ago. It does provide good coverage of the early history of the state into the mid twentieth century. The author came from a journalism background, thus the journalists are given significant say in the story. It is also interesting that though WalMart had existed for some time when the book was written, it didn't merit a mention in key Arkansas businesses.

Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba played an interesting role in the cold war. Castro was not initially a communist. He was naive populist who was focussed on the will of the people. He hoped to bring the United States to his side. However, the "will of the people" involved some things that the US was not too fond of. This led to a general shunning of Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a disastrous attempt to install a new regime in Cuba without involving US forces. It only served to further alienate Cuba. Castro was driven to greater ties with the Soviet Union and communism. This now gave the Soviets an allie within spitting distance of the heavily populated east coast of the US. It was a perfect place to base nuclear missiles. 

Gambling with Armageddon details many of the chance actions that prevented all out nuclear war during the cold war. The book starts with the lead up to Hiroshima and ends with the calming of tensions at the end of the Cuban missile crisis. While there were many big players involved (Stallan, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Kruschev), it was often little regarded underlings that did the most to prevent nuclear destruction. Some were under orders to fire nukes, but decided against it. Other chance encounters also helped to reduce tensions.

America had initially hoped to use the nuclear weapons to become a super power. The Japanese bombings were in part a way to show that the bombs were real. They also served to end the war more quickly to prevent further Soviet territorial claims. There were some in the US that desired to share the technology with the Russians in order to calm relationships. They were overruled by those that sought to hold on to the advantage. Alas, the advantage was only short term. Soon the USSR had their own weapons. There were also US hawks that were clamoring to use nukes on many occasions. These were often overruled.

Intelligence gathering on both sides was also quite well done, with the other side often having details. (There were times when Russia knew about things before the US president did.) The Soviets thought they could sneak missiles into Cuba without the US knowing. But, alas, US intelligence did find out. Some factions were arguing for an all out attack. There were various requests from the Soviets, but eventually things did calm down.

It is interesting to read how close the world did come to war. The book is very thorough, with many layers of detail. It can get a little slow at times, but does a good job of expressing the many challenges of nuclear weapons and the luck that has saved us from their widespread use.

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World

A large portion of the earth's population lives near the ocean. Places like Miami are almost entirely situated just a few feet above sea level. They are also subject to storm surges that temporarily rise up the level of the sea. People are ill-prepared for these changes. Flood insurance is usually underpriced and politically manipulated. This has encouraged development in flood-prone areas. There are some large-scale engineering measures that can be implemented to help buy time. However, these require money. Many low-lying areas are dependent on real-estate and tourism. They need confidence in the market to have the tax revenue for solutions. This further encourages development in floodplains. 

There have been some limited responses with varying degrees of success. The flood gate in Venice has been subject to huge amounts of corruption. In New York, there have been plans to protect some high-value real estate (like lower Manhattan) There have also been attempts to buy out homeowners in some especially fragile areas. (But not everyone has agreed - in part because flood insurance has allowed them to rebuild) There are also concerns about water, sewage and other changes as waters rise.

The book argues that human-caused climate change is the primary cause of sea level change. I think this gives a little too much credit to humanity's ability to manipulate the earth. Sea levels have always been changing. (People were once able to walk on land from Russia to Alaska.) It is a fool's errand to attempt large-scale engineering solutions to manipulate the climate. Human activities may change the pace of changes, but changes will still happen. In the past, people would pick up and move to different locations as sea levels changed. Today it is more challenging. Cities are filled with interconnected dependencies. How do we account for changes in sea levels? 

The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

On the surface, statistics are concrete facts that describe the world. However, in actuality, they are highly susceptible to manipulation, both intentional and unintentional. Understanding the details is key to making accurate decisions. 

In the UK, one part of the country appeared to have a much greater infant mortality rate. What could be causing that? The mortality rate even differed among similar demographics in the different locations. The "difference" turned out to just be in the way the statistics were reported. The same event would be reported as a "late miscarriage" in one place and a "live birth followed by death" in another. The events were the same, but the different reporting, made one appear to reduce infant mortality. This difference also explains some of the differences in infant mortality across countries. It is not that outcomes are worse, just that they are reported differently. It is common for elaborate charts and analysis to be built on unreliable data. 

Scientific studies, can be very prone to publication bias. An unexpected novel result is likely to get a great deal of press coverage. The "boring" results are less likely to even be published. There is also a strong incentive to publish novel results, rather than try to reproduce previous results. There may have been multiple people trying similar experiments, but only the novel results made it to publication. Then there are issues with the study itself. The significance threshold is arbitrary. A researcher may choose to change the size of the dataset in order to get the results that they are desiring. Psychology and medicine are both very prone to only publishing the "good stuff", leaving us with little ability to know what is truly "good".

On an individual level, we are also susceptible to bias from our pre-existing beliefs. We are more likely to consume media that backs up our beliefs. People that think like us are more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt over those that contradict our viewpoints. The same things happens in research. Results that are differ from what is expected are more likely to be discarded.

Visualizations are a great way to mislead. Different types of numbers can be compared to produce misleading results. Changes in color and scale can change our interpretation of the data. Unrelated data can be shown together to imply relationships were none exists. Graphs and infographics are easily digestible, but not necessarily show the whole picture.

The use of data can impact the data itself. If people know that data will be used for a purpose, their behavior may be changed to account for the data collection. Wrestlers target a specific weight class before they weigh in. Looking at data, it will be rare for a wrestler to be at the bottom of a weight class. Teachers that are graded based on student performance have incentive to manipulate that performance. The student performance is no longer fully objective. Government officials that can control data may manipulate it for their objectives. (This it is important to have non-partisan data organizations.)

Data Detective does a great job of helping to guide us through the pitfalls and benefits of statistics that we encounter in our life. It builds on past work while presenting concrete cases to help us to better understand what is going on in the world around us.

We

We is a futuristic dystopian novel. A totalitarian state controls everything. Some people engage in clandestine activites (like talk of a soul). There is also a group outside the city that run around without uniforms. They are plotting rebellion. There is also talk of math, with integral and infinity playing a role in the discussion. The grand plans end up failing.

This felt very much like Ayn Rand's Anthem. In both cases, the collective dominates, and the individual is just a number. Things like mating are strictly programmed by the state. However, in We, the society has become technologically advanced, while in Anthem it was not. They both left Russia and had obvious negative feelings towards their homeland.

After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort

Air conditioning, like driving consumes huge amounts of energy and allows humans to more easily live in additional areas. People have lived for centuries without air conditioning. However, once air conditioning has become available, people find it difficult to live otherwise. The lack of exposure to heat prevents the body from adopting to heat and thus makes it harder for people to endure different conditions. Buildings are sealed off to optimize the efficiency of air conditioners. (I recently stayed in a hotel that had an A/C unit, but no openable windows.) Past buildings had windows, basements, high ceilings and other structures that allowed passive cooling. There were also more social structures set up for dealing with the warm weather.

There are plenty of good points in the book. However, they must be fished out from other rambling. The attempts to see social justice motives in everything also distracts from the points and can be contradictory. (A government official argued that we should just encourage people to use sunscreen and coverings rather than worry about the ozone hole. This was ridicule as nonsensical and drove people to realize there was no alternative to banning CFCs.  Later, the author argues that CFCs were banned because white people were more susceptible to skin cancer.  In another case, A/C was seen as a way for the factory owners to get their workers to work more. But it was also reserved for the wealthy and not for those from Africa since they could "handle the heat". It just felt like a big hodgepodge of details without a solid argument.)

The constant attention to racial motives ends up muddling what would be otherwise be a strong argument. An arbitrary worldwide "standard of comfort" is a huge problem. Different places may make different use of air conditioning, but most people currently aspire to it. This has lead to excessive cooling. Cooling is not without benefits. Refrigerators help increase food safety and medication storage. (Though it does seem funny when we heat a building in the winter, only to have the freezer in the building cooling the air back down to the outside temperature.) It is with irony that the refrigerants that allow us to live in a comfortable sealed-in environment also make it more dangerous for us to be outside. Is this just the steady march to a a man-made world that requires machinery for survival? Do we have a chance to get back to nature?

The Age of Innocence

The well to do in New York run together in narrow social circles. Marriage is important. A lawyer works with people that they know. In this background, some people are getting engaged. However, another woman appears that appears more willing to go against the norms. There is also work on divorce. Feels like a Jane Austen book, set in New York in the early 1900s.

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate

Geography is not destiny, but it is a very strong influence. Location and natural borders have played a large role in the destiny of empires and the shape of the world today. Iran/Persia has had a very logical border on the Iranian plateau. It has been one of the longest lived civilizations. Egypt had an easily navigable river base and was protected on other sides. This facilitated a stable empire. Mesopotamia was not so well protected and was the site of regular churn. Europe is fairly dense with a huge amount of coastline and that has contributed to their maritime prowess. 

While some borders are natural, others are artificial. Most of the borders in Africa were arbitrarily drawn. The northern and southern borders of the United States are also fairly arbitrary. Northern Mexico is fairly well separated from southern Mexico, but very connected to the US. Some argue that the border region could choose to form its own country. The residents are different from other immigrants in that they can argue that they once occupied this area. 

India also has overlapping culture and borders. Pakistan and Bangladesh have both been part of India, but have been separated. Other countries, like Nepal and Afghanistan have also historically been part of the India sphere of influence. 

Geography has allowed growth and knowledge dissemination to take place in various regions. Eurasia is oriented east-west, with similar climate zones stretched over long ranges. This allows similar agricultural technologies to spread over fast ranges. South America and Africa are north-south oriented, and thus have much more limited climate bands. Africa also has areas such as the Sahara that further block connections.

The book has an interesting story of the influence of geography and politics. I was hoping for a broader argument, but the narrow approach did have some good points.

The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life

Edith Eva Eger grew up as a Jew in Hungary. As a teenager, she was hauled to a concentration camp and required to dance for a Nazi leader. Her parents were killed, but she lived to be liberated. She later moved to the United States and eventually received a PhD in clinical psychology. In the concentration camp she saw people die because they lost hope. There were many things outside of individual control. An appropriate focus allowed one to keep living, but it was not easy.

She spent years suffering from various types of guilt. One of the points of the book is that guilt is not helpful. There may have been things that could have been done to prevent somebody else's death. However, dwelling over them will not bring them back. It is important to not get brought down by the "might have beens". It is also not useful to hope for a big change that will resolve things. The change will happen inside. Once the internal change happens, the external can them resolve itself. A divorce is just a legal apparatus. It won't help somebody in a bad relationship unless the people really want to change. Conflict is normal. However, it must be dealt with appropriately. Looking to achieve happiness by having other people change is a recipe for failure.

The book has many good bits of advice colored with powerful anecdotes.

A Clockwork Orange

While reading A Clockwork Orange, some terms like "ultraviolence" sounded familiar. After reading it, I discovered I had read it a decade ago. I didn't remember many of the plot details from then. And even when reading it now, much of the details escaped me. A quick summary: a teenager and his friends dress fashionably, love music and commit heinous crimes. The government tries to reform him through some treatment. He is repulsed by crime. However, he is still subjected to it. People don't believe he is reformed. He tries to commit suicide. He fails. However, he does significantly injure himself. He is "cured" and now has the ability to commit acts of violence. He tries to go hang out with the old gang. However, he realizes that he just doesn't like it as much anymore. He has "grown up" and longs for a more peaceful life.

In the intro, Burgess complains that he is upset with the novel. It is by far his most famous, yet it was written quickly and does not represent his writing. The final chapter was removed from the US edition, violating the symmetry and changing the outcome. (Without the last chapter, the narrator is just an unchanged criminal.) However, Burgess appeared resigned to this. The audiobook concluded with him reading the first chapters.

Burgess was a linguist and the book shows it. Much of the novel consists of a made-up slang. Many of the words are repeated enough to enable understanding the meaning without a glossary. This helps the depravity seem a little more distant while giving the novel some otherworldliness. The narrator also has a strong attachment to classical music. (Burgess was an accomplished musician.) The classical music is strongly linked to violence in the book. The narrator suffers when he hears music while "controlled". He is relieved afterwards to finally be able to appreciate the classics. It is an interesting combination of art and violence. The result of the mind control remains ambiguous. The narrator really did change on his own afterward. Did he need to have change forced upon him first? Or would he have changed on his own?

Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World

Humble Pi is a fun book about math gone bad. Or perhaps smore accurately, it is about humans' poor understanding of numbers. There are big disasters and little flubs described. Bridges collapsed because minor changes greatly increased loads. McDonald's went to court because they seemingly exaggerated the number of meal combinations. Other companies understated the number of combinations. People have been given lethal doses of medications due to misunderstandings of the unit of measurements. The Gimli Glider was a 767 airplane that ran out of fuel midflight. Luckily, the pilot was able to glide it down to a landing. A number of things together created the issue. However, a key issue was the use of wrong units for fuel calculations.

People can sometimes have very bad logic when confronted with big numbers. One meme mistakenly assumed dividing a large number in the millions by another in the millions would have an answer in the millions. There have been internet flame wars over whether a week has 7 or 8 days. (Having something 0-based or 1-based does make a big difference.) 

The intersection of computers and people also create all sorts of problems. In one hilarious case, the upgrade of a an operating system (and downgrade of mail software) resulted in emails only being able to reach recipients within 500 miles. (Thank you speed of light!) Strange results often appear due to the binary representation of numbers. Results that exceed the maximum capacity can be very unpredictable. (When the 8-bit level number in pac-man rolled over, things went bezerk.) However, a similar overrun has also lead to a rocket to crash. (Legacy code also contributed to this. The part that caused the self-destruct did not even need to be run at the time.)

People's inability to behave like "math" can also help finding frauds. A professor can distinguish between those that really did record a large number of coin flips and those that made things up. Those that really did it are more likely to have some longer "runs" than a faker would appear. Forensic accounting can also be used to identify fraud due to bad distributions of numbers, indicating more likely "fakes".

What do we learn from all this? People can make bad mistakes with numbers. However, there are also many cases of bad number usage that we are still living with. There are also plenty of others that have been identified by the perpetrators, but have been "swept under the rug" as trade secrets.

Middlemarch

Middlemarch is the name of a fictional English town. Things happened there. Railroads were still a new fangled thing. Dorothea did things. The book is long, but not my cup of tea.

Anthem

Anthem is a lot like Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, only much shorter and more extreme. (It even has soliloquy advocating Rand's philosophy, but keeps it short.) The story is set in a communist dystopia. There is now "I". Everything is done for the collective good. People with above average intelligence are brought down. Mating is an organized process done through the eugenics board. Careers are picked by the organization. There is little freedom.

The protagonist discovers some relics from the past. He eventually discovers electric light. He believes all scholars will be grateful when he presents it. Instead, they are frightened and seek to punish him. How dare he step out of line. He eventually hooks up with a woman that he noticed and they decide that they will not let the world take their minds.

The story is reminiscent of Brave New World.  It presents the exaggerated view of what a collectivist society could be like. Equality created by bringing down all the high achievers leads to mediocrity.

The Magus

The Eagles "Hotel California" was loosely based on The Magus. The novel is fairly long, but the BBC dramatization keeps it manageable. The protagonist has knack for "using" people in relationships. He ends up involved in some elaborate psychological experience where people manipulate him and control his experience. The relationship with a woman takes some weird turns and a mysterious man seems to be heavily involved. 

The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses

The world has often been on the cusp of collapse. There have been various "dark ages" that have lost some of the technological advancements of the past. Sometimes, this was due to changes in climate that cultures were slow to adopt to. Other times there were human-induced challenges can cause problems. More recently, there were some instances during the cold war that the world came very close to nuclear war. The end of civilization will always be close. However, the world has continued to move on.

Why the West Rules - for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future

What is the west? And why does it dominate now? There are a number of different theories. Some say it is pure luck. Others say the geography or cultural institutions were critical. Ian Morris tries to respect all theories and provide a comprehensive analysis. He goes back as far as we can go historically to look at development and formation of societies. Different areas have dominated at times in history. Empires have grown and fallen, often by overextending or failing to respect non-standard rivals. 

Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential (Civil Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives)

The biggest takeaway from Uncharitable is that accountants make us do stupid things. Ok. There is more than that, but accounting mechanisms do seem to play an outsized role in what is good or bad with charities. Dan Pallotta had a successful company that organized major "active" charitable events, such as AIDS bicycle rides, and multi-day breast cancer walks. Then there was backlash and his company lost his contracts and went belly up. Some of his former employees went on to work directly for the charities to put on events. So, yeah. He has an axe to grind. The charities thought they would get more money by doing it on their own. Alas, they netted much less when they tried. Eventually they did ramp up to similar levels. Would they have been even higher if they kept with him?

The book rambles on for a long time about the Puritan ethic and the history of the separation of for-profit and non-profit distinction. 

The primary argument is that charities need to operate more like business. They should hire the best and compensate them appropriately. They should be willing to look to the long term. They should take risks and be willing to fail. Judging a charity merely on the percentage of funds that "go to the cause" encourages short-term behavior and creative accounting. It also penalizes smaller charities. He does give examples of some of the nonsense this behavior encourages. Having a company donate goods or services rather than donate money makes things look better, but is really just an accounting sleight of hand. 

There is some interesting discussion on advertising. Church goers tend to donate more to secular causes because they hear weekly propaganda on the benefits of charity. Similarly, charities receive large donations after a major catastrophe because of all the "free publicity" of the news. Corporations also spend money to advertise their products. Why shouldn't charities also advertise more? Aren't they providing a better service?

There are a number of good points in the book. There is also an underlying hurt that he felt from his past experiences. A lot of it boils down to what we think of a charity. The government provides favorable tax treatment and in return makes rules. We tend to follow through. While a charity does not need to be a non-profit organization, it is harder to convince people to donate. Higher education is its own separate beast. For profit colleges have been piloried and discredited. Yet colleges have been free to pay coaches millions of dollars - amounts that would not be tolerated at other non-profits. Would it be a problem if coach compensation were limited? Probably not. On the other hand, do we need to pay non-profit executives huge amounts? We could argue that for-profit executive compensation has become excessive. A more moderate non-profit salary could allow somebody to live comfortable at the 95% of income, and still earn a small fraction of a for-profit executive. No need to repeat the mistakes of the private sector. Would it be better to let the private sector executives make the big bucks and donate them to charity?

Other handcuffs of charities do need to be looked into. We should let charities focus more on innovation and long term development. It seems silly to require all donations received after a big event to be dedicated to that event. (Would this just encourage more creative accounting? Much of the work responding to the event was started before the donations flowed - using previous donations.) The difficulty remains in evaluating quality of charitable programs. Numbers are easy. 

Circe

Circe seemed like an interesting fantasy concept, retelling stories of Greek mythology from the view of Circe. I recognized Odysseus and some of other characters from Greek mythology. There was also an interesting part about a demi-god struggling with the birth of a human child. Maybe humans are not as wimpy as was thought? There seemed like some potential in the book, but it just did not click for me. Fantasy tends to be a hard sell for my brain.

War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots

War! What is it Good For. Absolutely something. Ian Morris postulate that war is good for a whole lot. Productive war helps to reduce violence in society. Instead of individual violence, war helps focus efforts and makes the world less dangerous. As armies get greater power, there is a reluctance to use the power, thus a greater peace. The odds of dying a violent death have been steadily decreasing over time, even if you include the odds of dying in war. Having a global superpower helps to reduce the odds of smaller scale skirmishes. The US is a super power now. The author believes technology will be the new global cop. But will the US reign of power last until then?

There is also an interesting comparisons of are ape relatives. Some are very violent. Others are not. Is there a violence gene? Is the feminization of society leading towards more peace. A lot of interesting questions. Is there an answer?

The Soviet Novel, Third Edition: History as Ritual

The novel had a special place within Soviet culture. It was an important means of entertainment as well as indoctrination. The authors also had to walk a fine line of properly appealing to the sensibilities of the current leadership. From Lenin to Stalin to Khrushchev, the leader in power caused different interpretations and sensibilities to become more important. The novels would stress the current sensibilities, sometimes acknowledging the faults of the past. There was still some space for independence and subterfuge, yet most novels adhered to a standard formula. Gorky's Mother seemed to be mentioned over in over. After the downfall of the Soviet Union, the novel's importance waned in independent Russia.

The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge

Atheist Evolutionary Predestined Libertarianism. That pretty much sums up the Ridley's principles. He is advocating the opposite of the "great man" view of history. Everything was destined to happen. Some people may slow progress through their interventions, but can do little to help things along. The best course of action is for government and culture to get out of the way and let things happen. 

Areas that have the most government involvement (such as education and healthcare) tend to stagnate, with cost going up without significant innovation. The background on education is quite interesting. Private education was taking off in a big way in the United States. However, people saw what was going on in Prussia and decided that would be a good model. (The Prussians were upset about the condition of their troops, so they wanted to train them to be high quality conformists ready to fight.) This manner of education continues to serve as our basic model. When asking for funding, the education establishment will bring about the need to teach people basic skills. However, that could be carried out much more effectively for a small fraction of the cost. What public education really provides is indoctrination. The goal is for students to have the appropriate beliefs that the current establishment desires. The education institutions also have a vested interest in protecting their jobs and continue their rent seeking behavior. Instead of keeping the ossified structure in place, we should let it continue to evolve to better provide for students. (Even formal private education is often over-regulated today.)

There are often many bad policies put in place as the elite tries to "help" others like the poor. They assume that they know what other people need and want, so they mandate it, rather than let things evolve. Zoning regulations were put in place to separate living conditions from jobs. Parking requirements, floor area ratios and other regulations were put in place to provide ideal living conditions. Isn't it ironic, they people still flock to live in old parts of cities that did not adhere to those regulations? If we just let things evolve, some might be that way. But others would not. Government gets in the way. We try to guess how things will turn out, but really only slow things down. Children are most influences by their genes and their peers. I guess that gives parents a role in picking a location for their peers. But, most of the future will just "evolve".

Warren Buffett and the Art of Stock Arbitrage: Proven Strategies for Arbitrage and Other Special Investment Situations

Stock arbitrage involves making money from pricing differences from essentially the same thing. This book outlines some of the ways that Buffett had made money primarily by relying on differences in value over time. The goal is to minimize most of the risk, while still achieving significant upside. A lot of the items involve changes in companies. A large conglomerate my be priced as the company as a whole. If a section with a large upside is spun off, it could significantly increase in value. Buying the original company is a way to get it on the cheap. Similarly, an acquisition target can often be bought for less than the future acquisition price. A company switching to an MLP that will increase its dividend may be priced with the old dividend in mind.

These seem like fairly reasonable strategies. However, how applicable are they for a retail investor? The ideal time to pounce is when an action appears 100% certain to occur soon, yet has not been fully priced in the market. Are there many of these? Is there enough of a spread that a retail investor can profit with minimal risk? The book gives examples of Buffett's success in some of these, but there is no coverage of his failures. How valid are these today?

Just Kids

I have heard of Patti Smith as a famous alternative musician of the past, but could not identify any of her music. (When I finally did listen to her top tracks on Spotify, it was all covers that jumped out. I've heard U2 and 10,000 Maniacs cover her songs, while she had covers of Prince and Nirvana songs.) When she started talking about Robert at first, I thought it was Robert Smith, and the time he (the singer of the Doors) died. Then I realized Robert Smith is the name of the Cure singer, and Jim Morrison was the Doors singer. (He death does actually show up later in the book.) The Robert who was dying in this book was Mapplethorpe. I had heard of him before, but really only remember him as being some artist that was more famous for controversy in the 80s.

This book is Smith's story of two young trying to find themselves in the New York City of the late 60s and eventually developing their own unique art. They both spent a significant amount of time struggling financially. They met by chance as he came to buy something at a store she was working at. She happened to see him walking by as she was trying to escape a bad date with a science fiction writer. She claimed he was her boyfriend to escape. They ended up becoming romantically involved. (At one time, he told his Catholic family they had eloped.) They broke up and got back together in different fashions. He eventually honed in on his homosexuality with other boyfriends, and she had other boyfriends, yet they still remained friends. They supported each other in their art. The book focusses on the "hard times" they had together in New York city in the late 60s. There were a series of odd jobs, some horrible apartments and many challenges as the artists spent time trying to create art. The book picks up speed in the 70s and then rushes through to touch on the launching point of their fame. Smith would eventually branch out from her Poetry to become a respected musician. He would be an artists known for his controversial sexual subject matter. He would provide the photographs for some of her album covers.

  

Reboot

Reboot follows the female-led dystopian fiction formula to a T. A virus has wiped out a good junk of humanity. Some young people "reboot" after dying. These youth are employed as "reboots" to be the security guards of humanity. The length of time that a reboot is "dead" before rebooting impacts how they are as a reboot. Higher numbers are more "in control" than lower numbers. Humans control the reboots and track their moves. 

The central character is a high number female reboot. She prides herself on her skill and her ability to follow orders. She meets a low number male reboot. She is asked to train him. They fall in love (of course.) They escape. She tries to go back to find the medicine that can help save him. (They have been running some experiments on reboots that make them extra wild.) After some close calls, they escape to their Utopia. It provides a nice conclusion while setting things up for the next book in the series.

Change a few details and this could be one of the many other dystopian works.