David’s Comments (group member since Dec 13, 2009)

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

I finished reading this book. It is entertaining. But I am really worked up about the amount of emotional pain he caused for his mother and grandmother. Here is my review.

By the way, since I like the idea of a ranked choice voting approach, I added a suggestion for this as a new feature in Goodreads. You can add suggestions here:
https://help.goodreads.com/s/suggesti...

I really like this concept of ranked choice voting. Just as an experiment, here is a link to the same voting test that Betsy suggests:
https://www.rcv123.org/ballot/1/WfF4R...

This direct link works for me. Does it work for anybody else?

Jessica wrote: "My husband asked me what the book was this month for "Science and Inquiry" and when I told him about this one, he wanted to hear about it and I was forced to admit that I wasn't reading it. Now I'm..."

Jessica, I am almost finished with the book. It is an autobiography, more like a memoir. There are a couple of interesting things in the book:
1) I had originally thought that "hacking" meant spending hours on a computer, exploring and illegally modifying code or data. There is some of that in the story. But the more interesting part is what the author calls "social engineering". This is a term used to describe the hundreds of phone conversations with strangers. Using tricks to make a phone call look like it was coming from inside an organization, the author would ask for data transfers and sometimes passwords. Sometimes the person on the other end of the line would get suspicious, but usually he or she would be eager to comply. The author was often surprised by how easy it was.

2) I was surprised that this hacking was really an addiction. The author did not apply hacking techniques for personal gain. The purpose was simply for the challenge. Acquiring data and software was itself like a trophy. But even when he knew that the authorities were on his tail, he could not help himself. He continued hacking to gain information, to cover up his tracks. And when the government prosecuted him, they supplemented his actual crimes with more grievous crimes that were fictitious.

Guillermo wrote: "I’d like to nominate Our Virtual Hearts (Through Us Series). This novel is a reflective, speculative exploration of how memory, love, and human connection endure in a world increasingly shaped by t..."

Interesting nomination. But this book was published only a week ago. And as of today, there are no ratings on the Goodreads site. We should give this nomination a few months, before reconsidering it.

Oh ... I forgot to add that we do not allow authors to nominate their own books.

Just today I started reading this book. While Kevin Mitnick was a teenager, he was skating on the edge of legality. He says that he never hacked into places for personal gain -- he was only trying to challenge himself. I'm sure he annoyed people, but he didn't steal things for personal gain.

Well . . . he did make lots of phone calls for free, so in a sense he was stealing from the phone company. Occasionally he would share his exploits with other hackers. Sometimes the other hackers would then betray him to the authorities.

Betsy wrote: "The University of Glasgow has developed some ceilidh dances based on gravitational waves:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1..."

There is a fun meme that goes like this: "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." And now ... people will be dancing about black holes!

I've been reading The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. Some parts of the book are fascinating. I am overwhelmed by the boquila vine, which copies the appearance of any nearby plant. How does it do that? Still a very controversial issue, though the author has a reasonable opinion on it.

I finished the book. Some parts of the book just terrified me. The main lesson that I drew from the book, is what happens when a closed society raises the value of propaganda above the well-being of its citizens. Here is my review.

Pramod wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

My Father's Brain: Life In The Shadow Of Alzheimer's looks like an interesting book. Unfortunately, so far the book has only 2 ratings on Goodreads. We would like to have 500 ratings before we consider it for a book of the month.

Betsy wrote: "Another thing that struck me was how everything about the lives of the Soviet and Ukrainian citizens was strictly controlled by the State. You are provided with minimal housing and have to meet cer..."

I had some personal experience about the severe regulations during Soviet times. A newcomer from the Soviet Union to the US once asked me some questions:

"What permission do I need to obtain, in order to travel across state boundaries?"

"I had a huge Yellow Pages book delivered to my apartment. It advertises all the companies, along with their phone numbers and their addresses. Do you mean these companies actually WANT you to find them?"

I finally finished reading Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World. Quite enjoyable. Not much new here for me, except for the chapter on 3-D solid objects. Here is my review.

Betsy wrote: "I got through the actual explosion, which was scary and very suspenseful. Well told, almost like good suspense fiction. Now I'm into the government response. I thought the U.S. government was mired..."

I'm thinking the same thing. And it was not just the bureaucracy -- it was also the total adherence to secrecy. No official wanted to admit to the Western world that the Soviet system had problems. They didn't even want to let their own citizens know about the dangers of the situation.

I just started reading this book. I had not realized how many reactor accidents had occurred in the Soviet Union. I had not realized how often the central government put pressure on the engineers to cut corners, in order to make deadlines.

I've started reading this book -- about halfway through. It starts out slow, because there isn't much new to me. But as I progress through the chapters, I read more about unfamiliar concepts in geometry. And the writing is quite entertaining!

Dana wrote: "Betsy, you said, "Feel free to use this thread to post... reviews, at any time." What is the best way to do that? If I post the link https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..., wil..."

Thanks for the detailed review, Dana. You have persuaded me to read the book - I just now downloaded it from our library!

By the way, I loved your book The Universe in Zero Words: The Story of Mathematics as Told through Equations!

I read this book a decade ago -- it is a beautiful book -- I loved it! My favorite chapter was about Emma Noether, a mathematician with deep insights into physics. She escaped from Nazi Germany, and developed and proved a fundamental theorem of physics; perhaps the most fundamental idea in all of physics. I highly recommend this book!
Here is my review

I finally finished listening to the audiobook. Some parts are gripping, and the science explanations are done very well. I highly recommend this book. Here is my review>.

Iver wrote: "I am assuming that top-posting is preferred. I don't know whether you would consider it "nano" enough, but there was Steven Vogel's Cats' Paws and Catapults. And there are several books on biomimic..."

Hello Iver!
I just looked up those two books -- they look fascinating! You could nominate either of them for our Book of the Month.

Katy wrote: "Betsy wrote: "For me, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande had a big impact on me. I read it not long after losing my mother, after a sev..."

I also really enjoyed reading this book!