[dbs]

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Mathew Reilly........Contest

[BigMackCam]

I'm still reading "The Prince and the Pauper", but just ordered and received a copy of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". Allegedly, much of the plot is founded upon Rand's Objectivist philosophy. I've wanted to read it for some years, after doing some consultancy work for a Scandinavian investment bank / broker that gave each employee a copy - which seems a little creepy if not downright sinister, but there it is.

The copy I've bought is a mass market paperback of some 1,000+ pages, and the print size is tiny I'll start reading and, if I get into it, I'll buy the Kindle version to read on my Paperwhite at a larger font size!!

[paulh]

"Sully", written by 'Sully' Sullenberger, the "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot. Very good with interesting insights on aviation and the airline industry.

[luftfluss]

I read Atlas Shrugged some 30 years ago at the recommendation of a high school teacher. Fortunately I borrowed a large hardcover copy, so no tiny print to struggle with

[clackers]

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Don’t know if it was the basis of the recent TV series but it ties in very well with it and expands on the science and characters involved.

I think the series was based on a book by a Russian journalist ... (Edit: Svetlalana Alexievich)

[clackers]

Very scary stuff,at the time of Three Mile Island the Soviets had suffered a series of accidents at their nuclear plants which were all totally suppressed.

I enjoyed it as drama, it features Jared Harris (from Mad Men) and Stellan Skarsgard (his family are the only actors in Sweden). The circumstances of the accident (a mandated stress test of the commissioned reactor gone wrong) are eye rolling, the scale of the cleanup eye widening (700,000 involved, including NBC specialists on ninety second missions to throw graphite fragments off a roof, because the borrowed West German police bomb disposal robot failed within a minute).

But if you watch this link, the makers let themselves down with facts …

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[dbs]

two manuals
K 100D Super
K 5 ii

Dave

[clackers]

I read Atlas Shrugged some 30 years ago at the recommendation of a high school teacher. Fortunately I borrowed a large hardcover copy, so no tiny print to struggle with

I've not read it, Luftfluss, what did you make of it back then? Is it a heroic inspiration as Alan Greenspan thought, or an 'unpleasant, daft, and deeply flawed … libertarian rant' as Sam Jordison of The Guardian wrote?

[clackers]

"Sully", written by 'Sully' Sullenberger, the "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot. Very good with interesting insights on aviation and the airline industry.

He's campaigned hard for pilot wages and conditions, especially in the domestic airlines, where they were working too many shifts, having to do a second job, sharing accommodation with a bunch of others in the same situation to save cash, etc.

I do want whoever's flying the plane I'm in to be well trained, rested, remunerated properly and minimally distracted by outside stress, if that means higher ticket prices, so be it!

[clackers]

Currently reading ‘Vietnam’ history by Max Hastings. I tend to read a lot of history.

I thought it was a very good book, making clear (as does Ken Burns' excellent documentary) that Le Duan became the most important North Vietnamese leader from the mid sixties despite coming from the South, while Ho Chi Minh and Giap were not far away from being locked up. They were politically on the outer, because they were Russian aligned rather than Chinese, and had very little to do with the final victory.

Neil Sheehan was of course along with David Halberstam in Vietnam for the New York Times, Hastings was there at the end for the BBC.

[luftfluss]

I've not read it, Luftfluss, what did you make of it back then? Is it a heroic inspiration as Alan Greenspan thought, or an 'unpleasant, daft, and deeply flawed … libertarian rant' as Sam Jordison of The Guardian wrote?

Jeez, Clackers, it's been so long that I don't remember too much detail about it, so I guess from a philosophical perspective it didn't have any meaningful impact on me. Of course, I'd also been reading 1984 and Brave New World around the same time as Atlas Shrugged, so my opinion of the human race at that time was not... positive.

[dstar]

I read now Area 51 little fun

[clackers]

Of course, I'd also been reading 1984 and Brave New World around the same time as Atlas Shrugged, so my opinion of the human race at that time was not... positive.

Margaret Attwood's like Orwell and Huxley, a mainstream literary writer who went to SF for 'The Handmaid's Tale'. Must be something about that genre that makes it good for getting bleak world views off an author's chest.

[veato]

A free read on Amazon for Prime members.. WRECKING CREW: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery

[luftfluss]

Margaret Attwood's like Orwell and Huxley, a mainstream literary writer who went to SF for 'The Handmaid's Tale'. Must be something about that genre that makes it good for getting bleak world views off an author's chest.

The lady certain has gotten a bushelful of hate mail these last couple of years, over something she penned 3 decades ago