Categories
-
Recent Posts
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
- Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath
- Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
- Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
- Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”
- Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
Category Archives: Books
Book review of Turchin’s “Secular Cycles” and “War & Peace & War”
Preface. This is a book review of both “Secular Cycles” and “War & Peace & War”. I recommend reading “War & Peace & War” first, then the more difficult “Secular Cycles”. Turchin has found patterns in the rise and fall … Continue reading
Posted in 2) Collapse, Overpopulation, Peter Turchin, Predictions, Social Disorder, Stages of, War Books
Tagged collapse, crisis phase, decline and fall, secular cycles, Turchin, violence, war
Comments Off on Book review of Turchin’s “Secular Cycles” and “War & Peace & War”
Prime movers of human evolution
Preface. The human brain and culture evolved at an astonishing rate, making scientists wonder what conditions and ecological pressures drove it, why we became homo sapiens so quickly. This is a post that will grow over time as I find … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Evolution, Human Nature
Tagged agriculture, ashkenazi jews, bipedal, brain size, evolution, homo sapiens, human, neanderthal, prime mover
Comments Off on Prime movers of human evolution
Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims
This is a post about disaster insurance, and our own nightmare experience in dealing with the insurance company after our house burned down in the 1991 Oakland California firestorm. Plus a book review of Feinman’s 2010 book “Delay, Deny, Defend: … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Insurance What to do
Tagged arkstorm, earthquake, hurricane, ina delong, insurance, united policyholders
1 Comment
Review of “Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads”
Preface. This is a book review of Rundell’s “Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads”. If this book is right, things have gotten a lot better in Saudi Arabia than when my other review on Saudi Arabia was written … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East, Peak Oil, Peak Resources, Threats to oil supply
Tagged Export Land Model, oil, saudi arabia, stability
1 Comment
Human sprawl and wildlife destruction: a book review of “Nature Wars”
Preface. This is a book review of Sterba’s “Nature Wars” and our interaction with wildlife as our insanely huge population growth wipes out nature.
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Natural History, Overpopulation
Tagged nature, overpopulation, sprawl, wildlife
Comments Off on Human sprawl and wildlife destruction: a book review of “Nature Wars”
The myriad ways females play a role in evolution
Preface. This is a review of Cooke’s book “Bitch: On the female of the species”. I’ve been reading about evolution for a long time, but there was a great deal of new research on the role females play in evolution … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Feminism
Tagged anthropology, evolution, female, feminism, primatology
2 Comments
Will women be accused of witchcraft after energy descent?
Preface. This is a book review of “In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial.” The author Chollet writes that the book won’t spend much time on witchcraft today, but explore … Continue reading
The staggering level of corruption & kleptocracy in the world
Preface. This is a book review of Frank Vogl’s 2021 book “The Enablers: How the West Supports Kleptocrats and Corruption – Endangering Our Democracy” (well, mostly kindle notes). They couldn’t get away with it if there weren’t so many places … Continue reading
Posted in Banking, Bond Market, Corporate Welfare, Corruption, Crime, Gangs, Corrupt police, Private security, Debt, No Jail for Bankers & Wall St execs, Politics, Scams
Tagged autocrat, corruption, democracy, kleptocracy, kleptocrat
Comments Off on The staggering level of corruption & kleptocracy in the world
Will global warming drive us extinct? A review of Peter Ward’s “Under a Green Sky”
Canfield purple ocean, Green Sky Preface. Thank goodness for world peak oil production in 2018. We’re out of time to destroy the planet! We’re about to dramatically reduce fossil fuel consumption, unwillingly, as it declines at 8% or more and … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Climate Change, Extinction Books, Runaway Greenhouse
Tagged anoxic ocean, book review, canfield ocean, climate change, global warming, mass extinction, peak oil, under a green sky
Comments Off on Will global warming drive us extinct? A review of Peter Ward’s “Under a Green Sky”