War and Technology, A Very Short Introduction By Alex Roland Excellent book and an excellent series. Quotations below were a particular interest to me All notes direct quotations: ⁃ Principles of war…: Objective, offensive, mass, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command, security, surprise, and simplicity ⁃ The Neo-Assyrian empire ...

Modern India Summary of A Very Short Introduction by Craig Jeffrey Note: this is a personal memo to summarize my own thoughts on Mr. Jeffrey’s work. All errors, of which there will be plenty, are my own. Some bullet points are direct quotations, others are summaries. Book is excellent. Chapter 1 - Hope ⁃ India is the fastest growing ma...

Dementia, A Very Short Introduction. By Kathleen Taylor ⁃ US 5.8 million people with Alzheimer’s with 400,000 developing it in 2019 ⁃ Worldwide 50 million people with Alzheimer’s ⁃ Top causes of death heart disease 9 million, stroke 6 million, COPD 3 million, pneumonia 3 million Alzheimer’s 2 million ⁃ Dementia diagnosis: A person must...

Rhetoric. A Very Short Introduction. Key Points Reviewed 110121 According to Aristotle: ⁃ Three genres: forensic (courtroom), epideictic (display, eg funeral), deliberative (persuade course of action, eg pass law, declare war) ⁃ Three types of proof: ethos (character), pathos (emotion), logos (logic) Five Canons of rhetoric ⁃ Invention...

Quoting Supreme Court re NY eviction moratorium.

“Nuclear power plants are extremely costly to build, but Wizards argue that putting CCS in coal plants drives up construction costs to the point where a new nuclear plant and a new coal plant have about the same price tag. And once they are running, most scientists say, nuclear plants have proven more reliable, cheaper, and safer than ...

From The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant P55: “In progressive societies the concentration [of wealth] may reach a point where the strength of number in the many poor rivals the strength of ability in the few rich; then the unstable equilibrium generates a critical situation, which history has diversely met by legislation re...

From Bill Gates, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster List of Useful Questions/Charts How much greenhouse gas is emitted by the things we do? ⁃ Making things (cement, steel, plastic) 31% ⁃ Plugging in (electricity) 27% ⁃ Growing things (plants, animals) 19% ⁃ Getting around (planes, trucks, cargo ships) 16% ⁃ Keeping warm and cool (heating,...

1. How Much to Save 2. How to Invest How Much to Save As much as possible, as soon as possible Let us start with the second point first. Assume Suzie saves $1k per month I starting at age 25, and stops at age 34. Her friend Bobbie starts at age 35 with $1k per month and saves until 64. Bobbie never catches Suzie. Assuming 7% return, Su...

None of us is here very long. And yet each of us has thoughts on how the world works. I have written some essays for my kids to share my thoughts, but always wanted to put them out in the world. Seemed intimidating, but now hey.com made it easy, so here goes nothing.