To Be Continued ...

I had finished 3 science fiction novels, time to blog them, but then the latest Charlie Stross novel came in, so I went on and read that too. All 4 novels are part of ongoing series.

1st up, the 7th Expanse Novel, "Persepolis Rising", by James. S. A. Corey, 2017, 560 pages. The SyFy channel has done a great job adapting these novels to TV. The authors seem to having fun mining various genres of space opera. It started as Earth vs Mars vs the Asteroid Belt political intrigue and skirmishing being interrupted by a extrasolar bioweapon. Then it transitioned to a story of an ancient network of gates to 100s of habitable worlds, so lots of opportunities there, with 100s of worlds to work with. The latest installment is about a Great Man with a vision to create a galactic empire. It's well done, and this story line will take another novel or 2 to play out. What genre will they go onto next? But, they jumped 20 years into the future for this one, so our main characters are noticeably getting old, such that maybe they aren't going to continue it that much longer.

2nd, the 3rd novel of the Confluence series, "The Druid Gene", by Jennifer Foehner Wells, 2016, 435 pages. These are only available on Kindle. She has retitled the book to "Inheritance" to be more consistent with the others in the series. Oh, Ms. Foehner says on her website: "It needed to join the series so that people would read them in order." This story is set in the same universe as the others, and references the event stream of the other stories briefly toward the end. I had been thinking, I hadn't read any sci-fi lately with lots of weird aliens - yey, weird aliens! The story moves along well, Ms. Wells' writing continues to improve. The 4th novel in this series "Valence" is out now, I have purchased it, I will probably wait a while to check it out.

3rd, the 3rd novel of the Terra Ignota series, "The Will to Battle", by Ada Palmer, 2017, 348 pages. Dr. Palmer continues to blow one's mind. A character who is The God of another universe visiting our God, and events that are totally best described as supernatural miracles, as the future near-utopia continues to unravel. Our totally untrustworthy narrator of the 1st 2 books is joined by The Reader and Thomas Hobbes of "Leviathan" fame to provide additional narrative. Dr. Palmer shows that she has no respect for any convention whatsoever when these narrators start talking to the characters in the story??? She has already broken the 4th wall, which wall is that? One of the most creative (and informational) writers of recent years.

I downloaded "Leviathan" from Apple for free, but I don't think I'll read it, I think I will read the Wikipedia article instead. I also purchased from Apple The Collected Works of Voltaire. I think I will give "Candide" a try, and maybe skim his Philosophical Dictionary.

4th and last, "Dark State", by Charles Stross, 2017, 341 pages, the 2nd novel of the Empire Games series, which is the 2nd series in the Merchant Princes universe. Wow, a 2nd-order series! Plenty of precedent - hah, the 1 that immediately springs to mind are the 2 Amber series that Roger Zelazny did - which these Stross stories reminded me of when I 1st started the series. Hmmm, Charlie moved forward 20 years for this 2nd series, as did The Expanse authors. I wonder why 20 years? Just coincidence, or close to the 22 year (tarot) cycles of life?

So we have a lot of intrigue amongst the parallel earths, but overall the plot doesn't seem to advance that much. Stross obliquely shares his alarm at the panopticon we seem to be moving towards here in the real world. I always enjoy Charlie's writing. We again encounter the ghost of Hobbes, and get a Kafka reference - and a plug for Universal Basic Income.

Another morsel of human food, gulped into the belly of a Hobbesian beast.

...

like the shed carapace of a cyborg Gregor Samsa.

Hmmm, I use Amazon for page counts of the books - Kobo doesn't always show the page count. So the last 2 both under 350 pages long? Meanwhile, the Wells story was 435 pages? I would have guessed under 300. And the new Expanse was 560? Sure didn't seem that long. Let's check the Kindle file sizes; 1st, 2855 KB; 2nd, 4702 KB; 3rd, 4269 KB; 4th, File Size: 4480 KB. That makes no sense either. How to get an accurate page count?

Not sure what to read next. I'll clear the magazine stack and then decide. After some initial technical difficulties, the iPad apps for Sky & Telescope, Scientific American, and Wired seem to work pretty well now (no jinx!). Still having to read Technology Review online.

Jigsaw Puzzles

We have a family tradition of doing jigsaw puzzles over the winter holidays, going back at least a decade. My 3 daughters are always involved, my wife usually, my son sometimes, me not so much.

Last year I screwed up - I bought 3 2000 piece puzzles. 2000 pieces is too many - very little progress was made.

So this year, I bought a 1000 piece puzzle that my wife and I had seen at the Portland (OR) Fine Arts Museum when we were visiting our daughter in Oregon in August. I didn't want to fly the puzzle home, so I took a picture of it, found it on Amazon, and had it shipped to FL.

There was also a suggestion to get a 500 piece puzzle, so I got one of those from Amazon as well. And finally, my son and his wife gifted another 1000 piecer.

The 500 piece puzzle was titled "Barcelona". My 3 daughters made short work of it, finishing it in an afternoon.

Next up was the 1000 piecer from our son, "Wanderer's Cove". It was interesting in that it was based on a night scene. My wife and I did it in around 4 days.

I figured I'd go on and do the other 1000 piecer. (Yes, I am definitely retired). It took me 11 days. Its title is "Geometric Herb Garden".

Doing it on my own, I payed attention to the solution algorithm:

1. Sort the interior pieces by color and pattern while sorting out the edges and corners. Both 1000 piece puzzles I missed 3-5 edges during this sort.
2. Put the edges and corners together.
3. Add interior pieces based on the most distinct patterns and colors. The garden puzzle has ~42 different patterns/regions. Because the puzzle has perspective, the top (further away) sections were less distinct and harder to match.
4. Finish it off - when you have mostly only a few colors left - by sorting the remaining pieces into the 6 shapes of interior piece and matching based on shape.

The picture below shows the 6 shapes of interior pieces and the 4 shapes of edge pieces. The number at the start of each row is the number of "outies" on the piece, the number over each piece is the number of unique rotations of that piece. There are 16 total interior piece rotations (2^4) and 8 total edge piece rotations (2^3). Corners can have 3 shapes: 0, 1 (2 rotations), and 2 outies - 4 rotations total, 2^2; the garden puzzle had all 4 corners as 1 outie pieces.

So in step 4, a completely enclosed missing piece can be matched by only 1 shape. A missing piece enclosed by 3 pieces can be matched by only 2 shapes; bordered by 2 pieces, 3 shapes; bordered by 1 piece, 5 shapes.

Ha ha, yes, I am definitely retired. Plenty of time to fiddle with numbers. I'm sure there is much can be learned about jigsaw puzzles - say from this very informational Wikipedia article - around since 1760, who knew? - but it is nice to not have to be serious about everything.

Oh, I almost forgot. I took a picture of the garden puzzle every day and then used Gimp to create an animated gif. I didn't do a very good job, but here it is nonetheless.

THERE IS ENOUGH TO GO AROUND!!!

I started a post on these topics, but then, accessing my exocortex (== reading old blog posts), I felt like I had said it all in earlier posts - no point in duplicating.

But, I think this a concise statement of my current thinking on economics. A comment on this FB post.

Yes. We moved from Capitalism 1.0 to Capitalism 2.0, from an economy of scarcity to 1 of abundance, in the 1950's. That was when advertising shifted into hyperdrive to convince people to buy things they didn't need. For f#ck's sake, go into any Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Costco, Lowe's, Kroger - and realize that these stores are replicated 1 to several times in every major US (world?) city - and tell me that there is NOT enough to go around.

Keynes predicted that around 2030, capitalism would have done its job - produced enough capital that the human race can meet the needs of all its members - such that it (capitalism) could be retired.

I believe we are there. THERE IS ENOUGH TO GO AROUND. We just need to retire capitalism and come up with a more effective accounting system whose purpose is to optimize the outcome of EVERY human being, of EVERY human child - not just the 0.001% and their offspring.

My "Representatives"

Sigh. Writing this post to be able to link to a PDF of an email from my senior "representative" Mitch McConnell.

I am so discouraged when I get emails telling me to "contact your representatives" on issues, I mostly don't bother.

Here are my representatives:

• Senior Senator and Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, aka McTurtle. He was so proud of being the master of Senate strategy. Now that he has shown all the hidden aces, burned it all down, and basically converted the Senate, from being the Higher Chamber, into yet another completely partisan echo chamber, is he still proud? I sure hope not, I hope he burns in (secular) hell.

  Also, I will not dignify the many rumors from the late 70's, when I lived in Louisville, that he was a pederast.

• Junior Senator Random Paul. The Senate's token libertarian. "They call him Random Paul because you never know what he's going to say next." Very occasionally, based on the fine Libertarian principles he absorbed sitting on his racist pappy's knee, he will randomly come down on the right side of an issue. Yay?

• Andy Barr. Teabagger par excellence. The 1st time he ran in 2010 they interviewed him, "what are you reading". His answer: "Atlas Shrugged". Of course.

  On the Finance Committee, so as a matter of SOP collects annually ~<=$1M from Wall Street. Has great newsletters, kisses many babies, and is totally competent at parroting each day's Faux "News" talking points.

  He lost the 1st time he ran against Blue Dog Dem Andy Chandler in 2010. Surprising, as 2010 was the 1st Teabagger (racist cracker) backlash wave against BHO. But then he won in 2012. Beat a female educator in 2014, and a female minister in 2016, to both of whom I donated $$$. [Note, I have donated $$$ to ~10 political candidates over the last 10 years, and the ONLY ONE who won was BHO. So, tempted to discontinue donations (unless for BHO).]

  I'd already donated to the retired female marine fighter pilot, Amy McGrath, who generated a bunch of buzz with her 1st campaign ads.

  Also running, State Rep Reggie Thomas, very upbeat, very transparent (very nice newsletter), kisses babies.

  Then, Jim Gray, extremely competent, very popular 2 term mayor of Lexington, 2nd largest US city with an openly gay mayor, announces for the seat.

  The night before he got elected mayor, Monday night, my wife and I were waiting for the best live music in Lexington to start at Tee Dee's Progressive Club.

  So, 9ish, Tee Dee is chatting with us at our table, when he looks up and says, "Uh oh, politician." Jim Gray and 2-3 of his staffers had just come in the door. Tee Dee left us to settle them out, but Jim Gray definitely got my vote on Tuesday.

  Gray is self financing, so I will give him no $$$. But, Ms. McGrath is supposed to call me back for more $$$, I will give it to her if she will assure me that she will run a clean race, the main objective of which is to defeat that asshole Barr, regardless of who is the candidate.

  Also, Barr has beaten 2 female candidates in a row. scary to run a 3rd against him, fighter pilot or not. But does a gay man or a black man have a better chance to beat Barr? That is all I care about, to get rid of the Teabagger asshole. Well, after the Dem primary, I guess I won't have to worry about that.

So here's the letter I got back from Mitch re requesting he support net neutrality. Current FCC chair did such a great thing getting rid of those pesky Net Neutrality regulations. Back to rapacious capitalism in 10th gear! As Jebus intended it!

Going Barefoot

Pro:

• Climbing trees
• Experiencing more of life (young person)
• Walking on the beach
• Picking up things with one's toes (particularly bt the big & 1st toes)
• Appreciating one's southern heritage
• Being from Kentucky
• Remember/resonate with being a hippie

Con:

• Avoiding foot injury (old person)
• Working guitar pedals and pedal boxes

Note, being an old person, I try to avoid completely going barefoot outside. :-(