What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

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Tero
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Tue Jun 07, 2022 8:20 pm

Gifted academic. He has a lot of degrees. Makes nonfiction readable. Sort of the opposite of Pinker, who puts me to sleep with "too many words."

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educa ... ert-b-1949

there is another Robert B Marks, much younger
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Tue Jun 07, 2022 9:00 pm

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Learned a fair bit ....it's pretty relevant as the ships were only found in 2019 ...of course the Inuit knew where they were but no one asked them :roll:
One kid even took a picture of the mast sticking out but lost the camera so did not not tell anyone.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/cult ... aeologists

Size large boondoogle by the Brits and mass murder by the supplier of the tinned food ( lead poisoning combined with scurvy).
The ships were fit, the crew was not, including Franklin who was waaaaay too old for that role.

https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarcti ... anklin.php

They actually credit Franklin with the North West Passage as he mapped the last unknown bit. Politicking at play there.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Jun 08, 2022 8:27 am

macdoc wrote:Image
About Scott's Antartic expedition. Title seems correct. They were insane given their gear.
Mostly directly from the journals which makes the dire experiences very vivid yet spirits stayed high. Amundsen did much better with his gear and reliance on dogs instead of "motors", ponies and dogs plus man hauling. Beat Scott to the pole and lived to tell the tale.

I had not realized how much longer and tougher a journey than the race to North Pole. I do now.
One of my favourite "boy's own" adventures as a teen.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Thu Jun 09, 2022 12:07 pm



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Learning a lot
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Mon Jun 13, 2022 5:10 am

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What a wonderful and heartbreaking story well told.
A second heartbreak is one of his brilliant sons Johnny also was diagnosed with the same mental illness Nash mostly recovered from ( a rare occurence ) His illness confirmed his father's sometimes questioned original diagnosis.

Growing up during the same period covered I was only vaguely aware of the lofty heights of mathematics and Nobel level work. Very enjoyable and I really liked the movie tho the book is much more comprehensive.

Flawed genius indeed.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Mon Jun 20, 2022 8:57 pm

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Nice prequel to A Beautiful Mind as it shows the emerging power of technology pre and and during WWII and the minds harnessed to develop it.
Of course ATT was the evil empire of the time but it's a fascinating story with memorable characters.

This was a disappointment and did not finish - only a couple chapters in and just could not take the speculation and anthropomorphic view with little or no support. Well meaning with fascinating anedotes and I rarely give up on a book but dipped my toe in twice and just too annoying in his approach.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Sean Hayden » Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:36 am

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--excellent, will be on the classroom bookshelves for my kids this year.

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Tero » Mon Jun 27, 2022 1:52 am

https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:23 am

excellent, will be on the classroom bookshelves for my kids this year.
so should this be - it is a wonderful gripping novel ...
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Joe » Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:43 am

That was a hell of a read.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:03 pm

Yup - should be mandatory read for EVERYONE
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Sean Hayden » Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:11 pm

Thanks mac :cheers:

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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:24 pm

Image
sounds good.
Like the narrator.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by macdoc » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:46 am

Learning a lot ...incredible guy - his surprise attack over the Andes ranks with Hannibals and in 75 days he basically liberated Spanish South America.

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It is astonishing that Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of South America, is not better known. He freed six countries from Spanish rule, traveled more than 75,000 miles on horseback to do so, and became the greatest figure in Latin American history. His life is epic, heroic, straight out of Hollywood: he fought battle after battle in punishing terrain, forged uncertain coalitions of competing forces and races, lost his beautiful wife soon after they married and never remarried (although he did have a succession of mistresses, including one who held up the revolution and another who saved his life), and he died relatively young, uncertain whether his achievements would endure.

Drawing on a wealth of primary documents, novelist and journalist Marie Arana brilliantly captures early 19th-century South America and the explosive tensions that helped revolutionize Bolívar. In 1813 he launched a campaign for the independence of Colombia and Venezuela, commencing a dazzling career that would take him across the rugged terrain of South America, from Amazon jungles to the Andes mountains. From his battlefield victories to his ill-fated marriage and legendary love affairs, Bolívar emerges as a man of many facets: fearless general, brilliant strategist, consummate diplomat, passionate abolitionist, gifted writer, and flawed politician.

A major work of history, Bolívar colorfully portrays a dramatic life even as it explains the rivalries and complications that bedeviled Bolívar’s tragic last days. It is also a stirring declaration of what it means to be a South American.
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Re: What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

Post by Sean Hayden » Thu Jul 07, 2022 6:30 am

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