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Jun. 4th, 2019
American Gods
Jun. 4th, 2019 10:41 pmNeil Gaiman - American Gods
(This is a repost from LJ. Yes, I know there is the TV series now but I have not seen any episodes.)
Shadow, a very small-scale criminal, is released from prison couple of days early when his wife dies in a car crash. On his way home he meets a strange man who calls himself Wednesday who recruits him as his aide. Wednesday is gathering support for a confrontation between the old gods - most of them from the Old Continent - and modern gods of television, highways and computers.
( Mixture of European gods in the USA )
(This is a repost from LJ. Yes, I know there is the TV series now but I have not seen any episodes.)
Shadow, a very small-scale criminal, is released from prison couple of days early when his wife dies in a car crash. On his way home he meets a strange man who calls himself Wednesday who recruits him as his aide. Wednesday is gathering support for a confrontation between the old gods - most of them from the Old Continent - and modern gods of television, highways and computers.
( Mixture of European gods in the USA )
City of the Iron Fish
Jun. 4th, 2019 10:44 pmSimon Ings - City of the Iron Fish
(This is a repost from LJ)
( Is there only the city and nothing else? )
(This is a repost from LJ)
( Is there only the city and nothing else? )
The Sinister Pig
Jun. 4th, 2019 10:45 pmTony Hillerman - The Sinister Pig
(This is a repost from LJ. Note that I have read most – if not all – original stories so I compared this to them)
When a shot white man appears in a strange place, the FBI is in a hurry to declare it their business, take it off the hands of the Navaho law enforcement and then mainly keep quiet about all the evidence. This arouses suspicions of both Jim Chee and Jeo Leaphorn. But this time they are fated to be in the background.
( This is not a whodunit but a semblance of a political thriller )
(This is a repost from LJ. Note that I have read most – if not all – original stories so I compared this to them)
When a shot white man appears in a strange place, the FBI is in a hurry to declare it their business, take it off the hands of the Navaho law enforcement and then mainly keep quiet about all the evidence. This arouses suspicions of both Jim Chee and Jeo Leaphorn. But this time they are fated to be in the background.
( This is not a whodunit but a semblance of a political thriller )
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
Cal(liope) Stephanides is a intersexual (to be exact, a pseudohermaprodite male with mixed genitalia) whose Greek-born parents raised as a girl. And that's about it.
( ”Misleading )
Cal(liope) Stephanides is a intersexual (to be exact, a pseudohermaprodite male with mixed genitalia) whose Greek-born parents raised as a girl. And that's about it.
( ”Misleading )
How to build a mind
Jun. 4th, 2019 10:46 pmIgor Aleksander - How to Build a Mind
This is repost from LJ
Igor Aleksander is a South-African-born British engineer and cybernetist. At the time of writing this book, he was a Professor of Neural Engineering Systems at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London. The main theme of this book is what is consciousness and can we build a conscious machine.
( Not building terminators )
This is repost from LJ
Igor Aleksander is a South-African-born British engineer and cybernetist. At the time of writing this book, he was a Professor of Neural Engineering Systems at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London. The main theme of this book is what is consciousness and can we build a conscious machine.
( Not building terminators )
Winter World
Jun. 4th, 2019 10:50 pmBernd Heinrich - Winter World
(This is repost from LJ. This was the first BookCrossing book I received, from the NYC. Reading it in the middle of the local heat wave felt somewhat paradoxical…)
Bernd Heinrich is an US biologist I had only heard about before I received this book. In this particular book he writes about various wintering habits of various animals, partially based of his own experiences in New England and Vermont. Heinrich uses mostly the metric system but does present a conversion table. He has illustrated the book himself.
It may sound Heinrich is somewhat callous when he honestly tells about some of the research methods (in addition to saying that the sample birds were "collected" he also states that they were in fact shot.) However, personally I might have picked the injured turtle down, not driven over it and decapitated it…
Some animals resist freezing when others promote it, both in order to stay alive over winter. Some of these include changes in the animal metabolism like squirrels having supercooled blood and still preventing brain death; turtles buffering their blood with potassium and calcium ions to reduce the lactic acid; muskrats carrying more oxygen in their blood; frogs have glucose that restrict ice-crystal formation outside the membrane cells; and so on.
Clinical interest may outweigh intellectual curiosity if some people effectively want to turn into bears to maintain their muscle tone in passivity, like the bears do during their hibernation (effectively recycling waste products to keep their muscles healthy.) I bet pro-cryogenic transhumanists would read that with glee.
Book is also full other details of animal life, including kinglets who incubate their eggs by warming their feet, squirrels reusing bird nests, packs of hibernating turtles under the ice and multispecies bird flocks.
In addition to quoting others in his field, Heinrich also has his own theories, including speculation that that feather's originate as insulation against cold and wetting before becoming flying aids. However, I disagree with Heinrich's assertion that there are no theistic entomologists.
(This is repost from LJ. This was the first BookCrossing book I received, from the NYC. Reading it in the middle of the local heat wave felt somewhat paradoxical…)
Bernd Heinrich is an US biologist I had only heard about before I received this book. In this particular book he writes about various wintering habits of various animals, partially based of his own experiences in New England and Vermont. Heinrich uses mostly the metric system but does present a conversion table. He has illustrated the book himself.
It may sound Heinrich is somewhat callous when he honestly tells about some of the research methods (in addition to saying that the sample birds were "collected" he also states that they were in fact shot.) However, personally I might have picked the injured turtle down, not driven over it and decapitated it…
Some animals resist freezing when others promote it, both in order to stay alive over winter. Some of these include changes in the animal metabolism like squirrels having supercooled blood and still preventing brain death; turtles buffering their blood with potassium and calcium ions to reduce the lactic acid; muskrats carrying more oxygen in their blood; frogs have glucose that restrict ice-crystal formation outside the membrane cells; and so on.
Clinical interest may outweigh intellectual curiosity if some people effectively want to turn into bears to maintain their muscle tone in passivity, like the bears do during their hibernation (effectively recycling waste products to keep their muscles healthy.) I bet pro-cryogenic transhumanists would read that with glee.
Book is also full other details of animal life, including kinglets who incubate their eggs by warming their feet, squirrels reusing bird nests, packs of hibernating turtles under the ice and multispecies bird flocks.
In addition to quoting others in his field, Heinrich also has his own theories, including speculation that that feather's originate as insulation against cold and wetting before becoming flying aids. However, I disagree with Heinrich's assertion that there are no theistic entomologists.