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Dauntless wrote:

Not sure this fits in with the Book Club crowd but I've just finished reading this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ride-Lifetime- … 0399592091

I have a lot of respect for this guy and the Disney company. Also seems like he will be running for president at some point. Hope it works out.

Disney's performance over the last decade has really been something. Their acquisition of Marvel in 2009 did a lot for comics and the entire superhero genre. It's a shame their Star Wars stuff didn't work out as well but I think that problem has more to do with Star Wars as a property than Disney mismanagement. Star Wars was never good?

I like the reference to Dark Forces. I am sure you are old enough to remember those Windows 95 Star Wars games that had a bunch of FMV in it. Those exist only in my memories now.

I think Disney Star Wars is fundamentally doomed because it is owned by Disney. I mean my boomer dad is old enough to remember the original trilogy in theaters. He complains that the new movies were "kid movies" and not like the old ones for adults. I think that is rose tinted glasses but I suspect a lot of younger people that were old enough to remember the prequels actually in theaters are now old enough and have a taste for more mature and violent movies. Disney can't do a rated R Star Wars though so there will be a huge amount of people disappointed with the whole thing. The game of thrones writers were contracted to do a Star Wars trilogy that I suspect was Disney giving the R rated Star Wars thing a try. The GoT writers ruined that by rushing the ending to GoT.

Finished The Plague.

East of Eden is up next copies are available.

It was good. East of Eden is much better than that or Rand

You mean how it's a retelling of Cain and Abel?

Wait until you realize the Christian undertones in Old Man and the Sea!

Ok, who’s read Graham Hancock? Of course he gets lambasted as a pseudoscientist, but I met him and think he’s an interesting guy. I think he’s on to something as well in regards his work.

Starting off Sweet Thursday, by Steinbeck. Pretty goofy so far and good.

I've ordered about 6 books and am getting 5 more soonish. Felt it was about time I worked my way through Piketty's 'capital in the 21st century' among others, threw in Zuboff's 'age of surveillance capitalism' for good measure. New goal is to read at least one book every 2-3 weeks.

Last edited by Larssen (2020-09-29 04:35:13)

I might pick up piketty's other book as well but at this point I'm a bit wary of choosing too much economics literature belonging to the same authors/perspectives. I haven't read enough in economics yet and am looking for something that's still well-argued but from a different angle or on another subject.

I vaguely remember reading excerpts of imagined communities back in my undergrad as part of a series of courses. Very good read.

The other books I ordered are more about my own field, which makes it far easier to engage with these books, evaluate the arguments etc. Among them 'the utility of force' from rupert smith, has been on my to-read list for a long time now.

I might throw in a fiction book here. I don't know if I can deal with multiple books at the same time, but we'll see. In the past I've been more lax with my leisure reading so picking up a consistent habit is/will be new.

Smith's book is from 2005 and builds heavily on the western experience in conflicts in the 90s/early 2000s. Many later works esp. of the 'COIN' variety (david kilcullen et al) recognise the posited paradigm shift where military means are increasingly applied to situations of 'war amongst the peoples' and build on that. Now in 2020 though you could argue that the entire concept has been thrown out due to the experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. Probably won't stop us from getting involved in another quagmire, but for now more focus is put in passive, more advisory-type missions rather than active military involvement (i.e. advising other countries in military & police development etc, see security sector reform for that)

Recent developments in warfare itself are more focused on digital means due to increasing societal dependence on IT/OT systems and proven effectiveness by for example stuxnet. For that I'd recommend Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War as a good introduction (albeit focused exclusively on the USA).

Last edited by Larssen (2020-09-29 05:34:43)

Also GPS jammers are actually a thing. Goat-herders don't have them but Russia and China do.

Same question again, when everyone is mysteriously dying of Covid-2022 and China and Russia mysteriously aren't can we nuke them?

when you see the amount of technology and invasive social measures that china introduced in locked-down cities, quite literally mass-scale foucauldian bio-power, then you won’t wonder so much about sinister secret labs and even more secret vaccines/cures.

many countries managed to curb infections using phone apps and hotel quarantines. a robust enough track-and-trace system, plus the willing cooperation of the populace, has seen countries like italy curb further waves. these measures are in essence no more sophisticated than what the italian city-states used in the 15th century. sure, there’s apps, but the basic principle of isolating the sick and tracing their contacts has not changed.

china’s modern city-living population have every aspect of their lives monitored, tracked, surveilled, databased. it’s almost like a fourier-esque phalanx system. complexes of apartments and tower blocks with ultra-local administrations, officers, neighbourhood enforcement, etc. everyone participates and discusses on their large chat/communication platforms – including local govt officials, of course.

there really is no great mystery why a country like china is posting good numbers in comparison to a country like america. one is almost uniquely well set-up to lockdown and control its population. the other is almost uniquely in a phase of chaos and unrest.