Category Archives: Books

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 , , , , , | 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 , , , | 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 , , , | 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 , , , , | 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

Posted in Feminism, Religion, Slavery, Social Disorder, Who is to Blame? | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Will women be accused of witchcraft after energy descent?

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 , , , , | 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 , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Will global warming drive us extinct? A review of Peter Ward’s “Under a Green Sky”

Look Before you Eat

Preface. This post is a book review of Be Wilson’s Swindled. From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee – The Dark History of the Food Cheats. Wilson explains why cheating has always gone on and always will, especially in societies with … Continue reading

Posted in Health, Health What to do, Peak Food | Tagged , | Comments Off on Look Before you Eat

How the grid works, why a distributed grid won’t work

Preface. This is a book review of Angwin’s 2020 “Shorting the Grid. The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid”. It is a good primer on how the grid works, especially why Volt-Ampere Reactives (VARs) are important and why renewables don’t … Continue reading

Posted in Blackouts, Blackouts Electric Grid, Distributed Generation, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Electricity Infrastructure, Energy Books, Grid instability | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on How the grid works, why a distributed grid won’t work

After the Reich. The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation

Preface. This is a book review of: Giles MacDonogh (2007) After the Reich. The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation.   In trying to understand what life might be like as energy declines, I’ve read a lot of books about … Continue reading

Posted in Books, War Books | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on After the Reich. The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation