rkbabang

Anathem, and probably Seveneves after that, although I'm less than a quarter through it, it is very good so far. Then probably Reamde. I enjoyed Reamde, although it was lighter on the Science than many of his other works, it could be turned into a great action adventure movie. Next would be The Baroque Cycle, slow at times, but really good over all. Then The Diamond Age and finally Snowcrash. They are both good (especially Diamond Age), but not at the level of his later stuff. As far as his first books go, I couldn't get into Zodiac and I've never read his first novel (I forget the name and too lazy to look it up). I've read both Cryptonomicon and Anathem twice, plus listened to the audiobook versions once. All the others I've only read once.

I just started Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle yesterday! Another one to add to the pile then. He's one of my favorite authors. The depth and scope of his books are amazing. The Baroque cycle is excellent, everything he's written since Snowcrash is excellent, but my favorites are still Cryptonomicon and Anathem. I'm almost 200 pages into Seveneves after one night, it is hard to put down.

I just started Seveneves yesterday, but this one will be next.

For quotes I love many by Robert A. Heinlein. Here's a few: "Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy." "Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again." "Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss." "I never learned from a man who agreed with me." "Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done." "An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life" "I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." "One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word." "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." "One man's theology is another man's belly laugh." "Being right too soon is socially unacceptable." "No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority." "Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal." "Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong." "Nobody ever wins a lawsuit but the lawyers." "A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain." "There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe." "The less respect an older person deserves the more certain he is to demand it from anyone younger." "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." "Progress doesn't come from early risers -- progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." "You live and learn. Or you don't live long." "The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it -- once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth." "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Another factor is getting into space costs hundreds of millions of dollars, it isn't something that can be done by hobbyists in their garage. Airplanes can be built by individuals or small teams for not a lot of money, which is why many people killed themselves when flight was a new thing. You just aren't going to see people building rockets for fun in their back yards and blasting themselves into space in the foreseeable future. It is just too hard to do and too expensive.

It's an interesting tangent: in some areas we as civilization have become so risk averse that it's a miracle we progress at all. How many people died during the voyages of exploration in the past. Now we want to protect at 99.9% even people who volunteer for risky missions... Anyway, I understand that the "value" of human life has increased a lot since the past. So we can't really go back. But it's still possibly slowing down progress. (On the third hand, space exploration might not be necessary for progress...). I wonder if we have to wait until consciousness uploads and copying is commonplace to get back into risky possibly-no-return exploratory missions. Anyway, possibly OT. I have no problem with people doing risky things as long as they understand the risks. The first mission to Mars will probably be a one way trip and may not end well, but there is no shortage of people willing to do it.

Hopefully you're buckled in for that ride! Its a testament to the whole "space" community that they spend millions if not billions on safety features like this, many of which may never even need to be used in order to protect the lives of their crew. Pretty sure SpaceX didn't spend that much on this particular feature. They just have a modern design that was built for safety from the ground up. Trying to retrofit that stuff on older designs would probably be very expensive, but the Dragon capsule has the ability to land under its own power, so they're just using that to double as a safety mechanism. Everybody assume that everything cool must be expensive, but developing the first iPhone is reported to only have cost 150m :) As for the ride, yes, you must feel like quite the pancake for a bit. But I suppose that's better than being dead. I was reading on g force earlier today, and rocket sled pilots have been exposed briefly to up to 45+ g forces... Crazy! What astronauts would go through here probably isn't too different from what some fighter jet pilots go through. Sounds like fun actually. I could see buying tickets for a ride where you get strapped into the Dragon, experience some massive acceleration, then parachute back down. No going into space at all, but the ultimate amusement park ride. I'd go out of my way to do it even if it was costly. Maybe they could use a stripped down version of the capsule with large windows built in, since it isn't going into space.

SpaceX tested their innovative abort system which is built right into the Dragon capsule. SpaceX successfully tests Dragon launch abort system "SpaceX hopes to bring crewed launch missions back to the US by 2017"

Well, that's why Zuckerberg Zuckerberged his neighbors... Nice house I have to say. Not worth $2.16M though. The other house seems underpriced, that one seems overpriced. The website shows a complete lack of class, no one who would want to live near WEB is going to want to pay more than a house is worth to some jerk who would put up such a website. Just my opinion of course. Maybe they'll sell it.

Much like my portfolio, it is adversely affected by cold weather. Shrinkage!

Answer: Larger than some, but smaller than others. To both questions.

From 2012: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/anonymous-size-of-your-portfolio-poll/

I believe the problem with global warming is the same as politics. There is a very delayed feedback loop. A voter votes for a terrible politician who creates all sorts of bad problems...but the problems don't manifest themselves for 20 years. That voter doesn't necessarily link their vote and the politician to the problems. If they do some new solution that might create problems is required to fix it, consequences are delayed. Global warming is the same. Something that's a problem right now might not be terrible for 20-30 years. There is no feedback, and it's not immediate so people have a tough time with it. I don't know why using less of things, being more resourceful, and conserving is all that bad. Even if there isn't any global warming those are good things we should be doing anyways. Unless someone is a contrarian to be contrary why is "I just want to waste and use too much of anything for no reason" something anyone strives for? I have no problem with using less of things, recycling, and everyone doing their small part. I do these things myself. What I have a problem with is things like carbon taxes which will not only hurt the economy but give the governments of the world trillions of more dollars to spend on weapons to slaughter people over resources with. No thanks. If it is a problem, and it increasingly looks like it is, then, like any real problem, government does not have the solution.

I really love all of his WWI/II stuff and all of his Roman Empire series as well. I'd recommend starting with the "Blueprint for Armageddon" series (I-V) since it is still free on his site. I'd download all his free series before he starts charging for them. He only keeps his latest few free, so if he comes out with a new one, one of the series that is now free will be moved to pay only. I've listened to all of them, I think my favorite series was probably "Death Throes of the Republic".

Also for audio. Anyone who hasn't listened to Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" should give it a shot. It is like a cross between a podcast and a series of audiobooks on history. Some of the topics run many hours long. The most recent few are available for free, the older series are worth paying for.

Why Bitcoin is and isn't like the Internet "... I remember twenty years ago, giving a talk to advertising agencies, media companies and banks explaining how important and disruptive the Internet would be. Back then, there were satellite photos of the earth and a webcam pointing at a coffee pot on the Internet. Most people didn’t have the imagination to see how the Internet would fundamentally disrupt commerce and media, because Amazon, eBay and Google hadn’t been invented -- just email and Usenet-news. No one in these big companies believed that they had to learn anything about the Internet or that the Internet would affect their business -- I mostly got blank stares or snores. Similarly, I believe that Bitcoin is the first “killer app” of The Blockchain as email was the killer app for the beginning of the Internet. We are in the process of inventing eBay, Amazon and Google. My hunch is that The Blockchain will be to banking, law and accountancy as The Internet was to media, commerce and advertising. It will lower costs, disintermediate many layers of business and reduce friction. As we know, one person’s friction is another person’s revenue..."

This misses my question. Right now I have over 1000 books on the to-read list (yes, some of them are probably crap where I won't get through first 20 pages and over 70% are fiction so they only partially relate to this topic). So I don't need a reason to read. But I do need a reason to read particular book or a set of books. Cause otherwise, they will just go into 1001 through 1100 positions into the queue. 8) And in general most history books for me personally go to the bottom of the pile, not to the top. Was just looking at some Napoleon's biography recommended by Economist. Probably good book, decided not to even add to my pile. 8) Anyway, if you enjoy history books, that's fine. I was just looking for some extra motivation. :) Point taken. History interests me. In my view to come close to understanding humanity, you have to understand where we came from (history, evolutionary biology, philosophy, etc) as well as where we want to go (futurism/extropianism/sci-fi/etc)... So apart from finance and mindless-fiction, those are the types of books I tend to read.

I've read most of Jared Diamond's books and they are very, very good. It has been a while since I read any of his books, so I don't recall if this was true with all his books, but I feel depressed after reading his stuff and I am typically a pretty up beat person. I know what you mean. I'm an optimist to a fault, and I don't end up agreeing with many of his conclusions, yet I like reading things that make me look at things from a different angle. Also his writing is engaging, his experiences in New Guinea are fascinating, and he's very persuasive in his arguments. He tells a good story and keeps you reading.

I'd second the recommendation for "Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond and further recommend reading his other books as well. "Collapse", "The World Until Yesterday", and "The Third Chimpanzee" are all excellent. For American history the best book I've ever read is "Conceived In Liberty" by Murray N. Rothbard. It covers the period from just before Columbus until just after the Revolution. There are many places to read about Columbus and many books on the Revolution, but the almost 300 year period in-between is fascinating and largely untaught about in the usual U.S. history courses most of us have taken in high school or college. The hardcover is over 1600 pages, but you can also get the ebook for free in PDF or EPUB. As far as Jurgis's question goes, I never need a reason to read. I love to read and don't usually expect to get anything specific from any one book. If I find it interesting, informative, and/or entertaining I'll read it.

duh, I see where I messed up. For some reason I was thinking M couldn't be prime, but it is S that can't be the sum of primes. Thanks for the solution.

That's a tough one. I'll take your word for it that there is a solution. I tried to brute force it by writing a simple python script to output every possible answer of S and M (pun not intended) leaving out only the obvious ones such as a=b=2 or M being a prime number. I looked at the results and I think I see many values that could meet the conversation without either figuring out the answer. Such as: S=10: P would know that (a,b) = (5, 5) or (6, 4) or (7, 3) or (8, 2) P would also know that M = 25 or 24 or 21 or 16 All of those values for M have more than one possible value of (a,b). This is the same of you start with S = 11 or S=12. I don't get how Q knows the answer just by knowing that P doesn't know and knows he doesn't know. It seems like that leaves a ton of possibilities. I have to think about it more. By the way this is the python script: import os, sys, math def is_prime(num): if num > 2 and num % 2 == 0: return False for n in range(3, int(math.sqrt(num)) + 1, 2): if num % n == 0: return False return True results = ""; for a in range(2,100,1): for b in range(2,100,1): if b <= a and (a+b) > 5 and (a*b) > 8 and not is_prime(a*b): results += "a={}, b={}, S={}, M={}\n".format(a, b, a+b, a*b); f = open("s_and_m.txt","w"); f.write(results) f.close() EDIT: I just realized that 25 doesn't have more than one a,b pair. I'm going to figure this out.

According to this ( ) SpaceX failed to land the Falcon 9 first stage on a barge again.

I've gotten that before as well. What I usually do is select everything I was about to post->right click->copy, then reload the page and paste it back into the post box.

Thanks. That is an excellent observation. I think some of the things that come into play here are 1) most big brands have about the same quality so if you are going to buy it comes down to price. But many people don't want the big brands at all any more, because you can get exactly what you are looking for from smaller operations who's product quality is equal, or in many cases, greater than the big brands. The internet makes it difficult to stay in business for long with a shady sub-standard quality product. A quick search by any potential customer will quickly find your dissatisfied former customers. This works in favor of the small businesses who do produce a quality product as a quick search will also find rave reviews from many of your satisfied customers. There is no longer a need to stick with a big brand that you know well to protect yourself from shoddy products. In the past people stuck to the big brands that they were comfortable with even though they might have been over priced, bland, or not 100% what they would want, just because it was safer and easier than taking a chance with an unknown brand. This whole de-branding of the economy is going to accelerate as we become more and more networked and 3D Printing/small scale/additive manufacturing takes off. The easier it is to manufacture a quality custom product and the easier information flows, the less we need the things that we formally used to protect us such as brand loyalty or most consumer regulations. Look at the taxi regulations versus Uber and the other ride sharing companies. People want to do their own research and make their own decisions now, because it is no longer that hard to do. We are on the cusp of some major changes in just about every area of life. Big brands are just one of the many things that will go by the wayside. These manufacturing trends should also effect the shipping industry in a big way. It will become easier at some point to setup local manufacturing facilities than to ship products half way around the Earth. Shipping will be more about moving raw materials than finished products.

I was talking about this Solar system. I would give at most 70 years for organic bodies. (And I believe immortality will be here in ~50 8) ). So there's no rush to travel fast when you are non-organic and immortal. We don't really know what will be modus operandi of these beings anyway. (For sceptics, I am not 100% optimist. I see a binary future: there will be huge societal changes because of the above which may lead to pretty complete annihilation. But if we don't annihilate, then the "future's so bright we gotta wear shades". And don't forget: if you have kids, they are likely to be immortal. Or dead. Wish them luck. ;) ) I have the same view as you do. We will either spread throughout the galaxy and eventually others or we will kill ourselves off completely in the next 100-500 years. We will never be immortal though. There is no such thing. We may live a long time, hundreds or maybe even tens of thousands of years, but no human conciseness will survive for trillions of years. You can only fight against entropy for so long. Sooner or later we will all be dead and so will your kids.