Whatcha reading?

[Silent Majority]

89) End of the Road - Brian Keene. Kindle. 2020. This is a collection of blog posts the most successful horror writer of our time did in 2016 while on a book signing tour. Keene is a macho type, certain of his views even when ill considered, and conscious of his legend. He can write, though, and, aside from a certain repetition that came from not editing the serially published chapters in this book, it's a highly entertaining and useful read. One of the goals of the book was to update King's Danse Macabre, which it never actually does

[Dr. Medulla]

From Schlosser's book, a remarkable bit of information about the Hiroshima bomb that I didn't know before:

A small amount of fissile material was responsible for the devastation; 98.62 percent of the uranium in Little Boy was blown apart before it could become supercritical. Only 1.38 percent actually fissioned, and most of that uranium was transformed into dozens of lighter elements. About eighty thousand people were killed in Hiroshima and more than two thirds of the buildings were destroyed because 0.7 gram of uranium-235 was turned into pure energy. A dollar bill weighs more than that.

[Silent Majority]

From Schlosser's book, a remarkable bit of information about the Hiroshima bomb that I didn't know before:

A small amount of fissile material was responsible for the devastation; 98.62 percent of the uranium in Little Boy was blown apart before it could become supercritical. Only 1.38 percent actually fissioned, and most of that uranium was transformed into dozens of lighter elements. About eighty thousand people were killed in Hiroshima and more than two thirds of the buildings were destroyed because 0.7 gram of uranium-235 was turned into pure energy. A dollar bill weighs more than that.

Monsters.

[Silent Majority]

90) The Magic of Marie Laveau: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans - Denise Alvorado. Audiobook. 2020. Written by a Cajun woman who is a voodoo practitioner, this gave a great insight into the workings of New Orleans magic and a history that is widely overlooked. The first half was a condensed biography of Laveau, who I thought I had pretty much discovered in my independent research but who turns out to be a major character in a recent series of American Horror Story, and the second was a series of actual spells which is just what I was looking for.

[Dr. Medulla]

From Schlosser's book, a remarkable bit of information about the Hiroshima bomb that I didn't know before:

A small amount of fissile material was responsible for the devastation; 98.62 percent of the uranium in Little Boy was blown apart before it could become supercritical. Only 1.38 percent actually fissioned, and most of that uranium was transformed into dozens of lighter elements. About eighty thousand people were killed in Hiroshima and more than two thirds of the buildings were destroyed because 0.7 gram of uranium-235 was turned into pure energy. A dollar bill weighs more than that.

Monsters.

Add to that the fire bombing campaigns and the genocide, participants on all sides in WWII engaged in a concerted dehumanization that is still hard to conceive. That it can now be treated blithely or rationalized by abstract aims will never not terrify me.

Currently watching a documentary of the same name (Command and Control) on youtube that PBS did a few years back. Chilling as fuck.

[Silent Majority]

From Schlosser's book, a remarkable bit of information about the Hiroshima bomb that I didn't know before:

A small amount of fissile material was responsible for the devastation; 98.62 percent of the uranium in Little Boy was blown apart before it could become supercritical. Only 1.38 percent actually fissioned, and most of that uranium was transformed into dozens of lighter elements. About eighty thousand people were killed in Hiroshima and more than two thirds of the buildings were destroyed because 0.7 gram of uranium-235 was turned into pure energy. A dollar bill weighs more than that.

Monsters.

Add to that the fire bombing campaigns and the genocide, participants on all sides in WWII engaged in a concerted dehumanization that is still hard to conceive. That it can now be treated blithely or rationalized by abstract aims will never not terrify me.

Currently watching a documentary of the same name (Command and Control) on youtube that PBS did a few years back. Chilling as fuck.

An imperial power is incapable of fighting a just war, even if the eventual resolution is a defeat of a worse power.

[Dr. Medulla]

From Schlosser's book, a remarkable bit of information about the Hiroshima bomb that I didn't know before:

A small amount of fissile material was responsible for the devastation; 98.62 percent of the uranium in Little Boy was blown apart before it could become supercritical. Only 1.38 percent actually fissioned, and most of that uranium was transformed into dozens of lighter elements. About eighty thousand people were killed in Hiroshima and more than two thirds of the buildings were destroyed because 0.7 gram of uranium-235 was turned into pure energy. A dollar bill weighs more than that.

Monsters.

Add to that the fire bombing campaigns and the genocide, participants on all sides in WWII engaged in a concerted dehumanization that is still hard to conceive. That it can now be treated blithely or rationalized by abstract aims will never not terrify me.

Currently watching a documentary of the same name (Command and Control) on youtube that PBS did a few years back. Chilling as fuck.

An imperial power is incapable of fighting a just war, even if the eventual resolution is a defeat of a worse power.

It's the effects, I think, of more sophisticated and prevalent use of propaganda, which is always about dehumanization. Once you no longer think of the enemy as having any shared humanity—to abstract them so completely as evil and threat—it's a minor step to adopt extermination as a legitimate tactic and embrace advanced technology on the grounds of that most capitalist of principles, efficiency. As much as reading about things like these can send me into a black state, I do it as a reminder of the evils of rationalization and the need to remember shared humanity.

[Silent Majority]

91) Sandinistas - Dennis Gilbert. 1988. Paperback. A balanced account of the FSLN in Nicaragua, it's historical antecedents, the fight against Somoza and, once in power, its role as the vanguard and its relationship with farmers, the bourgeoisie, the church and yankee imperialists under Reagan. They come across as mostly valiant, but still have unforgivable war crimes and a far too distant relationship with the aboriginal population. The story was less than half told at this juncture, I would have liked to see the author do a follow up.

[Silent Majority]

92) Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette. 2016. Audiobook. The dude ran out of personality with this, his third book. It's an entertaining, if overlong story about a really stupid pseudo-scientific diet that he went on, padded out with recipes and repetition and Bob Dylan quotes.

[Dr. Medulla]

As an aside, I love how catholic SM's book choices are. Shit is all over the map.

[oliver]

about a really stupid pseudo-scientific diet that he went on

Was that his all-potato diet? Because that sounds wonderful.

[Dr. Medulla]

about a really stupid pseudo-scientific diet that he went on

Was that his all-potato diet? Because that sounds wonderful.

[Kory]

92) Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette. 2016. Audiobook. The dude ran out of personality with this, his third book. It's an entertaining, if overlong story about a really stupid pseudo-scientific diet that he went on, padded out with recipes and repetition and Bob Dylan quotes.

I'm afraid I can't take him seriously when he calls "Bullshit!" anymore.

[tepista]

I just started "The Dracula Tape" in which Drac gives his side of the story that, according to him, was greatly misrepresented in Bram Stoker's book. So it's known that on Harker's visit to Castle Dracula that the Count prepared the meals. Not much of an eater himself, he has no cook in his employ. But what we didn't know is that after he cleared the table, he throws the dirty plates out the window and down the mountain. #DracDon'tDoDishes

So this started out like Drac is all nothing's my fault, everything is somebody else's fault, and it reminded me of a certain president, but eventaully it got better when Drac was getting into the shit nobody saw before. So he was banging Lucy, consentually, when Lucy was all "I gotta stop, I'm getting married" so he let here go, but Van Helsing with his experiemntal blood transfusion with wrong blood types was gonna kill her so he ha dto turn her vamp to save her life. Then he met Mina and they legit fell in love despite she didn't wanna hurt her chump husband, so they were gonna stay on the DL for the time being, (he was gonna keep her human cuz apparantly vamps can bang "breathers" but not eachother) and she even gave the guys false infor to save Drac, but at the end she was pregz so she dumped poor Drac for the sake of the baby, and he was all sad n shit. The end. Plus other things happened.

[Silent Majority]

about a really stupid pseudo-scientific diet that he went on

Was that his all-potato diet? Because that sounds wonderful.

Yep, that's the one.