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Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

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So I heard about this book at the end of last week, picked it up on Friday evening and about 36 hours later, it was finished. I had a hard time putting it down, you could say.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. There’s so much accusations flying towards this book already. There’s a lot of assumptions that this is a cry for attention, or an attempt at cashing in, or…. It becomes very hard to believe any of that nonsense after actually reading the book. It’s also not, well, boring. Or repetitious. Or a book full of empty accusations.

What it is, is honest, well reasoned, sharp… and courageous! Really, this woman is risking quite a lot by coming out with all of this. And I sincerely doubt she thinks she’s going to have any significant personal gain here. In fact it appears she’s got quite a history of absolutely not profiting from anything to do with that accursed family!

This is a book of answers and explanations.

Especially since his appointment in 2017, there has always been quite a lot of speculation around who Donald Trump really is. Is “this all” just an act? Is he secretly very intelligent? Is he really that incompetent? What the hell is he really about? Why is he so inconsistent? His very special brand of not making any sense or showing any consistency, together with his fountains of faux confidence and bad jokes, seem to have somehow created him an air of charismatic mystery. One that seems to appeal greatly to the poor souls buying his act, and keep everyone else guessing. Well, this is why this book had to happen.

Dr. Mary Trump, who as it happens is a clinical psychologist, is the niece of Donald Trump, and the daughter of the man who was considered the black sheep of the Trump family. She had not only spent time with this toxic family, but has also experienced first had the depths of their depravity. In his book, she clarifies who Donald Trump really is, what he really is, and precisely how he got to where he is today. The book demystifies the hell out of the living lie that is Donald Trump, dealing an awfully ruinous blow to someone whose only talent is to put up a show. A show so loud and so flashy that it manages to blind a ridiculously large number of people. This book is a magical pair of glasses.

Trump has already started Tweeting his disapproval. On one hand he’s calling it all lies, on the other hand he’s accusing the author of breaching NDAs. [I mean… if she has nothing on you, Mr. Trump, then what are the NDAs for and why are you in such a state of fluster?] Unseemly allegations are already going the way of the author, and it’s probably only going to get more complicated from here. She’s risked going up against Donald Trump in a fashion that can actually truly hurt him, despite having first hand experience what kind of hell could get unleashed on her.

So much of the criticism she’s already receiving, is coming from people who haven’t actually read the book and have no interest in evidence. And the attacks are so predictable, trying to assassinate her character rather than address the facts she’s putting on the table. But as Trump’s own actions manage to disintegrate his fictional image further, as more and more people, including his own followers, start questioning his claims, I hope more people will put swift and harsh judgement of this book and it’s author on hold until they’ve read it, and given it’s truth a chance.

 

I recently finished reading this and well…. hmmm…. it didn’t offer as much as I expected. It’s mostly life style suggestions for looking after your telomeres. But for what it is, it’s worth a read.

The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer by Elizabeth Blackburn | Goodreads

James Gleick: The Information + Chaos

Yup, these are not new. I read Gleick’s “The Information” quite some time ago, and halfway read “Chaos” as well but didn’t get the chance to finish it until just recently. Now I’ve finally finished Chaos as well, and enjoyed it greatly.

The two books I’ve read of him so far both have this interesting style of writing. He chooses a monster of a topic, and then goes about describing everything there is to know about it in a spherical fashion. He talks about the whole history of the topic, every important development that makes the topic what it is today, and he really likes to go deep into the lives of people who played a role in it. Scientists, researchers… he likes to talk about their lives, their eccentric habits, biographical bits that you may just not find in your standard biography book. His books as a result are quite fun to read…

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  • Filed under: Authors, Books, Math, Science
  • Radical Abundance by K. Eric Drexler

    A friend of mine just asked me if I finally read Drexler’s “Radical Abundance“, which reminded me that I didn’t write anything about it… or anything else I’ve been reading recently. =P Yes, I read it, and I re-read it, and finished doing so a while back. And I’m a big fan!

    K. Eric Drexler, who is for all intents and purposes the father of nanotechnology, is probably the most qualified person to explain what we’ve already accomplished in the field, what’s to be expected, the obstacles, the misunderstandings, and why we’re not where we could be yet. In this book he also does an amazing job in describing in a very straightforward and “none-fiction” way, what the future could look like if we did in fact realize the potentials of the field.

    I’ll probably read this again soon enough… huuuuuuge fan!

    Radical Abundance

    Last week I finished reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Fooled By Randomness“. What I would say about it is pretty much the same as what I wrote about “The Black Swan“. This is something to read for anyone who wants to know how the world works, and why we generally don’t/can’t do a good job in predicting what will or will not come next.

    Though I think I’m still a bigger fan of “The Black Swan”, I really enjoyed reading this one too.

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    The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    Meanwhile, in my so called “parallel reading”, I finished reading one of the most amazing, most brilliant non-fictions I’ve ever read. “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is must read for anyone who has an interest in thinking / learning about how the world functions!

    I came across this book completely accidentally, and it truly took my breath away. And now I think I’m going to read the rest of what the same author has written…

    url[1]

    Comic-Con 2013

    So during the weekend in between my notebooks and my tablet I managed to see just everything I cared to see from Comic-Con 2013 [and not really get anything else done! =P]. Aaaaaand it’s been exciting.

    J.J. Abrams’ “Almost Human” series is going to be here in a few months, and I really can’t wait to see it. The series is about Androids, and seems to have a very Asimov theme and feel to it. Oh, and Karl Urban is the main guy apparently. Enough said.

    Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”, created by Joss Whedon, is also right around the corner. It turns out Agent Coulson is alive and kicking, which is an awesome surprise. can’t wait for this one either.

    As for panels and such, I think I’m now officially a much bigger fan of the Nerd HQ panels than the official Comic-Con ones. Nerd HQ panels are very very different, they’re a lot less formal, a lot less directed and formatted and just a lot more fun to watch. This year’s Nerd HQ panels were again awesome, and my favourite one was most likely the one with Tom Hiddleston, a.k.a. Loki. =) Here’s that:

    The Nerd HQ Doctor Who panel was also awesome. Honestly Steven Moffat [now known as Steven Fat] is absolutely hilarious:

    And on the same channel you can find the panels with Joss Whedon, Richard Madden, 2 panels with Nathan Fillion and a whole bunch of other really cool one.

    Thanks to some good friends I was also able to have a look at several of the official Con panels. I absolutely LOOOOOOOOOOVED Loki’s appearance on the Marvel panel, that was just bloody awesome! =D  I also really enjoyed the X-Men panel, and of course the Doctor Who panel hosted by Greg Ferguson was quite entertaining. 😉

    loki-marvel-studios-panel[1]

    But of course I have to do a bit of ranting too. =P For one thing I don’t know who gave permission to these people to produce another idiotic 300 movie. Unbelievably disappointing.

    But the real disappointment is of course how Marvel seems to have picked up an axe to go after their own Cosmic story arcs altogether. I have been waiting for a “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie to happen for many many years. Now that it’s finally going to happen, they have taken the writing from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and handed it to Brian Michael Bendis, who really, really is NOT the writer for this. And of course James Gunn is directing…. right. And basically the same thing has happened to Nova… So now I wonder if this is really the end of Marvel Cosmic, or at least anything that was good about Marvel Cosmic… or will it somehow be rescued, I guess we just have to wait and see.

    Due to my collection of genetic peculiarities, I’ve undergone quite a number of tests and studies throughout my life. However last night during the “Quantified Self” meetup, I global_178140052[1] realized I’ve never actually looked into my sleeping patterns and stages. Given my truly weird lifelong sleeping habits, I think it might be interesting to do so.
    For as long as I remember, I’ve slept an average of 4 hours per cycle. As a child perhaps I would stay in bed longer, but the 4 hours were all the sleep I needed, and it’s still the same. I can force myself into sleeping more, that actually can at times work, but it will result in something like what people usually experience when they don’t get enough sleep. There have also been times when I’ve gone for a number of days with much less than that, or no sleep what-so-ever. And then I sleep for a much longer time, and all is well. The little sleep that I get is quite enough, and I’ve basically never had a problem with being tired, sleepy or out of energy during the day. None of this has ever had a negative effect on my health, mental sharpness and so on. The few hours that I sleep are usually deep, unbroken, and apparently quite fulfilling! [Some years ago there was a study about this, titled “The Sleepless Elite“. Didn’t offer much in terms of answers though…]
    The other odd bit is the way I dream. I’ve heard in many occasions, including last night at the QS event, about people attempting to induce lucid dreams. There’s been quite a good deal of speculations about the positive or negative results of doing that. The thing about me, is that I don’t have anything other than fully lucid dreams! I dream quite a lot, I tend to remember my dreams clearly, and in my 29 years, I have never had a dream that wasn’t lucid. I’ve been trying to figure this one out, talking to psychologists, neurologists, and you name it…. so far I’ve not come any closer to knowing why.
    So with all this, it was very interesting for me to look at the sleep charts created by “Zeo Sleep Manager“. The device detects and records your REM, Light and Deep sleeping stages [among other features…]. This is something I’ve never tried, and I do wonder, with my little “situation”, how my chart would look like. Perhaps I should give it a try.
    More on the QS meetup, it was also interesting to see Last.fm presented as a self tracking tool. I just realized that I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now… I listen to humongous amounts of music on daily basis, and I can’t really tell you what kind of music “I like”. Depending on my mood and state of mind, I could be listening to just about anything. What I’m listening to is a reflection of my psychological patterns, and for many years now, my close friends and I have been looking at my Last.fm charts to get an idea of “how I’ve been doing”! So yes, haha, Last.fm is in fact the perfect self tracking/study tool! =)
    And that’s about all I have to say for now….

    R.I.P Neil Armstrong

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  • Filed under: Sad, Science, Space
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