commuting fillers

the majority of last year (2017) was spent commuting back and forth to Glasgow, which provided time to indulge in some reading. in no particular order, because I am struggling to remember them all let alone when I read them, are what I can see on the bookshelf and kindle.

‘Homo Deus’ by Yuval Noah Harari – should be read by everyone, especially the under 20’s along with Silk Road. Eyes wide open type of book.

‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed – was a fascinating read speculating the sliding scale of “risk” across industries and how we continuously fail to learn from real world failure in favour of theoretical “risks” imagined by the press and politicians. Interesting read and well written.

‘Histories of Nations’ edited by Peter Furtado – if you haven’t read “Silk Road” then try it instead. A meta data skim through history with no real passion or enjoyment.

‘Sleeping Giants’ and ‘Waking Gods’ by Sylvain Neural – loved these, was reading too much work/factual and first ‘Sleeping Giants’ grabbed me and I think I had it read in 2 days and was ordering the next one after a couple of chapters and can’t wait the for the 3rd book. OOOO exciting stuff – aliens, death, destruction and epic world wide conflict – I am sure the movie rights have been long sold and 2019 blockbuster is being planned.

‘The New Digital Age’ by Eric Schmit and Jared Cohen – can’t remember this one, hmmmm, and yep I only got half way through. Coming back – a bit boring and similar books/authors have a much better way of presenting their ideas and convincing you to join the ride. Maybe I’ll go back and finish it. Hmmm have either of them done a TED talk on it I can watch instead?

‘The midnight Line’ by Lee Child, you cannot beat a bit of Jack Reacher from the old stoner Lee. Was an enjoyable kick ass romp in the middle of america somewhere and the bad guys get their asses kicked and Jack gets on a bus at the end. I am sure I have read another Jack Reacher story just like that?

‘The Walkers Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs’ by Tristan Goodley – is my new best friend while out walking, and walking is the new running DYK, so what I like to do is choose a topic or chapter and explore it when out. I now walk alone mainly due to constantly stopping and being a know-it-all thanks to this book. Who knew nature could be so interesting.

‘the 5 people you meet in Heaven’ by Mitch Albom – is a fantastic little book and beautifully written. Such an interesting concept and if there was such a thing as Heaven then this is a much better representation of it then anything I’ve seen. Amazing book – keep a hanky handy.

‘Why the Dutch are Different’ by Ben Coates – now I started this on a trip to Amsterdam at the beginning of the year and I remember the first 2 chapters but the rest, like those few days in the Dam I cannot.

‘Physics of the Future’ by Michio Kaku – is a great read, I think I listened to the majority of this one, walking and at the gym, so maybe heightened endorphins make me recall this book with pleasure? But the concepts are fantastic from nanobots to space lifts from tomorrow to 100+ years in the future and what may or may not realistically come to pass and what it will actually look like. The master has spoken these things will come to pass.

‘Surviving AI’ by Callum Chace – is another future prediction book but weights the pros and cons in a nice way and even has some fictional scenarios which I quite enjoyed. Worth a read.

‘Doughnut Economics’ by Kate Raworth – is my current material and so far so good.

The Silk Roads

The Silk Roads is a fascinating read, written with flair and the result of serious scholarship, it inverts received wisdom and charts mankind’s flirtation with global disaster. It feels like history has been distorted to fit the western agenda’s and the real terrorists are European by decent and claim that ‘freedom’ is the reason they oppress the rest of the world.

If you want to understand why the world has ended up where it is, then just reading the conclusion will help you understand.

The Establishment

“The Establishment: and how they get away with it” by Owen Jones was a long, and at times, arduous read but so interesting and educational. It should be essential reading for every teenager in the UK and anyone else who is uncomfortable with the way society is currently heading. It helped me understand why some of the events of the last 10-20 years have happened as I was always skeptical of the reasoning put forward by main stream media and western society. To try and summarize it makes me sound like a conspirator theorist so maybe read the book and get your own paranoia going.

the-establishment

Can I get a massive doses of glyphosate with that cereal please

GMO seeds are not considered dangerous simply because they are modified, but it is that they are modified to handle massive doses of glyphosate (Roundup), and not be affected. The seeds are immersed in baths of a chemical herbicide, that is lethal if consumed by humans, and it is the fear that the buildup of glyphosate within crops is a potential cause for the recent rapid increase in autism, cancers, and other long-term developing illnesses.

Monsanto will aggressively pursue any negative incident legally and cover up anything that leads to negative publicity, believed to be hushing farmers, buying off segments of the government and paying off scientists, so that it is hard for anyone to know what logistical data has been soured, and what truths to believe.  It has become easier for countries like Hungary to plow under the crop than to try to disseminate between what is fact and what is fiction with Monsanto.

Monsanto seeds seem to be turning up everywhere – even in batches of “natural” seeds. Could this be because if Monsanto seeds are found to be present on land, Monsanto will fight for ownership of those seeds, and consider them as patent infringement, theft, or whatever you want to call it.

So, like Hungary, rather than fight the giant in court every time their seeds blow into a field, it’s easier to wipe them off the map. NOTE – Scotland has banned the use of GMO crops 🙂

Check out what Reverent Billy from the Church of Stop Shopping has to say about Roundup:

a guide to our future

“A Guide to Our Future” by Paul Mason – the most interesting and informative book I’ve read this year. Capitalism is dead and neoliberalism is trying to keep the status quo but the technology revolution is reshaping our notions of work and value. Change is upon us and it is not a third world war even if Hilary and the neocons push that agenda – it is the removal of that elite, that 1%. It is the intervention and weaning off of the petroleum addiction we have had for the last 70 years, opening our eyes to see that it is the simple things in life that bring happiness, not how many channels you have access to or what your latest app does.

One of the most common comments amongst the 1% is “China shows capitalism works better without democracy” – which is scary because it suggests the last 100 years of western democracy has failed and the actual desired state is a bastardised socialist state – a form of communism?

Paul Mason’s book helped me understand how we got to here, what the current agendas are in play around the world and gives an insight into where we are going. It is disturbing reading as it made me realise a chunk of my history lessons were hugely distorted and potentially lies, it shows how much we are lied to by our governments, media and institutions and shows how greed and power drive everything humans do.

Definitely worth a read if your head isn’t firmly stuck in the sand.

paul-mason-a-guide-to-our-future