What I've Been Reading, October 2017

Links

These links appear in the order I read them, rather than any more refined sort of organization. You may find some of the best ones are near the bottom—it varies from month to month.

• Physicists find we’re not living in a computer simulation, by Andrew Masterson, Cosmos
  The sci-fi trope might now be put to rest after scientists find the suggestion that reality is computer generated is in principle impossible
• Gun violence in America, explained in 17 maps and charts , by German Lopez, Vox
  
• Diane Francis: Energy East's demise is Canada's Peak Oil Divide moment, by Diane Francis, Financial Post
  "This week’s cancellation of another oil pipeline--from Alberta to New Brunswick--should not be a cause for celebration as it is in some minds."
  Exactly the kind of talk one would expect to find in a newspaper dedicated to BAU (business as usual). But really, without understanding limits it's hard to discuss this sort of thing intelligently.
• How to Survive the Apocalypse, by Alex Williams, The New York Times
• C-Realm Radio 050, KMO interviews Dr. Richard D. Wolff about the US economy and the possibility of a transition away from capitalism.
• World’s No.1 Oil Trader: U.S. To See Final Oil Output Spike In 2018, by Julianne Geiger, OilPrice.com
  Five years ago, when President Obama was saying there was enough tight oil to last 100 years, Richard Heinberg was saying in his book Snake Oil that tight oil (fracking) would run out by 2020. Looks like even Heinberg might have been a bit optimistic.
• A New Look Inside the Cities of North Korea, by Joe Eaton, Citilab via Flipboard
  
• The Nazis were not lefty socialists you thick fucking cunts, by Malcolm Tucker, MT Tuckered
• Thoughts on Vegas, and Why Men Keep Doing This, by Charlie Hoehn, beyourself
  About mass shootings, gun violence and men's mental health, also about male loneliness.
• Anticipating the next crash, by Tim Morgan, Surplus Energy Economics
• You’re wrong about Second Amendment rights, by Gene Yoon, Ginsudo on Medium
  The Second Amendment is intended to preserve the threat of armed revolt against tyranny.
• All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization, by Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist
  An infographic
• A spike to puncture the bubble?, by Tim Morgan, Surplus Energy Economics
  Specifically an oil price spike to burst the debt bubble.
• Ways of life part 1 – original affluence , by DJ Zhao, This is Africa
  This part 1 is excellent. I was not impressed by part 2 and haven't yet read part 3.
• Twelve Lies Organic Lobbyists Commonly Spread about Pesticides , by The Risk-Monger, riskmonger.com
• Chimps and Monkeys have entered the Stone Age, by Colin Barras, BBC.com
  
• This Man Asked A Simple Question Online That Shut Down The Whole Anti-Abortion Argument, by Stella, boredpanada
  
• Should we be worried about the continuing radiation from the Fukushima Power Plant? , answers by ten different people, Quora
  And only one of those answer is seriously off base.
• Puero Rico's not coming back , by Salil Mehta, Statistical Ideas

Books

Fiction

• The Guards, by Ken Bruen,
  A Jack Taylor mystery.
• The Peripheral, by William Gibson
  A story about time travel (sort of) and collapse, by the master of cyberpunk.
• Visitor, by C. J. Cherryh
  Seventeenth in the Foreigner series, still worth reading, with a surprise near the end.
• Bannerless, by Carrie Vaughn
  A post collapse novel which avoids some of the worst stereotypes of that genre.
• pH, A Novel, by Nancy Lord
  University politics in Alaska in a time of falling ocean pH (ocean acidification).

Non-Fiction

• Enough is Enough, by Rob Dietz (Author), Dan O'Neill (Author), Herman Daly (Foreword)
  Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources

And here are a couple of gems from my bookshelf:

• The Third Chimpanzee, by Jared Diamond
  The evolution and future of the human animal.
• The Long Descent, by John Michael Greer
  A Users Guide to the end of the industrial age.