Reviews

• Review
• Book Review

Yuval Noah Harari is one of my top three favorite authors. I also love Bill Bryson and Walter Isaacson.

Therefore, I was thrilled that a few months ago, I got an advanced copy of Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, which launches today, September 10, 2024. 

It's a 515-page book but has 11 chapters filled with headers, making it modular and readable.

I also reviewed his previous book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

I loved Nexus, although Homo Deus is still my favorite Harari book.

Nexus explores the evolution of information networks from prehistoric times to the present, focusing mainly on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. 

Listen to the podcast

Read more …

• Book Review
• Podcast

Wow. If you want the most comprehensive study of George Mallory's 3rd and final climb up Mt. Everest, read this book!

The book Mallory, Irvine, and Everest: The Last Step But One by Dr. Robert Edwards examines the mystery surrounding George Mallory and Andrew Irvine's 1924 attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

The book provides a fresh and original perspective on this historical event, as the author is a mathematician who has applied modern analysis techniques to the available evidence. Dr. Edwards has thoroughly researched the contemporary accounts, letters, and artifacts related to the climb and has identified inconsistencies in previous narratives.

The book's release coincides with the 100th anniversary of Mallory and Irvine's fateful expedition and offers unique insights. Mountaineering experts Jochen Hemmleb and Thom Dharma Pollard have praised its potential to shed new light on whether Mallory and Irvine were the first to conquer Everest. This unique perspective is sure to enlighten the audience.

Mallory picked a strong, young, inexperienced climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, to push to the summit.

Video interview with the author, Robert Edwards

Podcast

SPOILER #1: Nobody knows if either one of them made it. And this book doesn't offer a definitive answer either.

However, this book will enthrall you if you want to learn what the most meticulous researcher has discovered.

For example, Edwards spends pages examining everything about the mysterious ice ax found high on the mountain.

SPOILER #2: The ax is almost certainly Irvine's or Malory's, but we don't know which one. The author concludes that it was placed there and didn't tumble or drop there accidentally.

What I love about this book is that Edwards lets the evidence speak. 
Although he speculates, he admits when he's speculating to let the reader reach their conclusion.

After reading this excellent book and interviewing the author, here's my best guess as to what happened:

Mallory probably reached the summit late in the afternoon, forcing him to descend at night. When investigators found his corpse in 1999, Mallory's sunglasses were in his pocket, indicating he descended at night. He ran out of oxygen, which sapped his strength and heat just when he needed to stay warm at nightfall. He had few clothes compared to modern climbers. Without oxygen, he got disoriented and wobbly. His judgment worsened. One slip was all it took to break his leg and slide down to his resting spot, where he was found decades later.  

This hypothesis is my speculation, not the book's. 

Get the book, and judge for yourself.

WARNING: This book may bore people with only a passing interest in this topic. 

VERDICT: 5 out of 5 stars!

• Book Review

The Gifts of Africa: How a Continent and Its People Changed by Jeff Pearce is a book I wanted to love.

I love this book's goal.
The point is to highlight what Africa has done for the world.
Many believe Africa hasn't produced anything useful or innovative since the pyramids.

Although it has been the least innovative continent in the last two thousand years, that doesn't mean it hasn't contributed anything toward humanity's progress.
This book points out overlooked African gems.

Fortunately, Jeff Pearce isn't an insufferable, politically correct man who tries to blame everything under the sun on the white man and portray Africans purely as victims.
Still, at times, he lapses into such a tired narrative.

I also like that he's not prone to senseless cheerleading. He talks about:

"a highly impressionable writer rattles off how the Dogon people of Mali knew about Jupiter's moons and Saturn's ring and more. Impressive--except it's ridiculous.  Simple common sense reminds us that none of these astronomical phenomena can be seen anywhere on Earth with the naked eye."

He's willing to admit Africa's limitations:

"The Aksumites were the only Africans aside from those in client states for Rome to issue their own national coinage, which they used from about the late third to the seventh century."

As Chinua Achebe said:

"I do not see that it is necessary for any people to prove to another that they build cathedrals or pyramids before they can be entitled to peace and safety. Flowing from that, I do not believe that black people should invent a great fictitious past in order to justify their human existence and dignity today." 

Amen.

Since I am writing a book about traveling 8 years to all 54 African countries, I appreciated his insight.

Why did I dislike it?

- He is too verbose! He often goes into painful detail. TMI.

- The book goes off on tangents too often. For example, he talks extensively about Steven Biko. It's off-topic.

- He faults Europeans for making crude African maps but doesn't say that Africans made no (long-lasting) maps.

CONCLUSION: I love his conclusion. He concludes that Africans contributed to humanity. Their contributions were less than those of Eurasians, but they moved the needle. It's a vital point. I just wish he had made it more succinctly. I hope someone writes a book half the length of this one and focuses on the key points like a laser.

VERDICT: 3 out of 10 stars.

• Book Review

NJ Ayuk has written a provocative book called A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix. 

Ayuk sums up his book in 6 words: "Gas First. Solar and Wind Later."

Here are some memorable parts of the book:

• 16% of the world is African, but they produce 3% of emissions. 
• "Africa has supplied oil and gas to the world--while neglecting its own needs."
• Coal emits "nearly twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as natural gas per unit of energy."
• More than 600 million people in the Sub-Sahara have no access to electricity.
• "The dignity of work goes a long, long way in building a strong, sustainable community."
• "Africa has 40% of the world's solar energy potential."

He sums up his book in a sentence: "We cannot ignore the needs of millions in our zeal to prevent climate change."

Listen to the WanderLearn Podcast review

Read more …

• Review
• Video
• Podcast
• Cryptocurrency

In this video, I review Coinkite's Coldcard MK4, the newest bitcoin-only hardware wallet in 2023!
After unboxing it, I review the Coldcard MK4's latest features.

Throughout the review, I compare it to the MK3, the previous Coldcard model, which I compared to the Ledger.

Toward the end, I address the questions:

• If you have the MK3, should you upgrade?
• If you don't have the MK3, should you buy the MK4?

I also give a sneak peek at Coinkite's OPENDIME, which I reviewed extensively.

If you buy the Coldcard, please use my affiliate link because it costs you nothing extra and gives me a tiny commission.

TIMELINE

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:45 Why a BTC-only hardware wallet?
• 02:13 Unboxing
• 04:00 New MK4 Features
• 05:25 PIN code
• 06:46 More new features
• 09:05 New Multi-sig feature
• 09:20 OPENDIME
• 10:25 Should you upgrade?
• 11:50 Should you buy it?

Read more …

• Book Review

Today (May 25, 2023) is the third anniversary of George Floyd's horrible death.

As I predicted, the number of unarmed Black (and White) people killed by the police would remain unchanged despite all the protests and defunding movements. 

I explained what needed to happen for those statistics to improve. (Hint: it's got little to do with racism.)

My wife, Rejoice, is a black African (she's from Cameroon).

VERDICT: 1 out of 5 stars.

• Book Review

Herman Narula's Virtual Society book examines the metaverse. Chapter 1 begins unexpectedly. It discusses the ancient site of Gobekli Tepe. WTF? 

However, it makes sense when you realize that the people who built that holy site were imagining a virtual world, just like the pharaohs of Egypt who built pyramids hoping to go to another universe.

He writes, "We have always had the capacity as a society to believe in, and to imbue with a kind of half-life, worlds of events, ideas, and people that are not strictly real. We have engaged this capacity for millennia."

Before giving my verdict, I'll quote fascinating parts of the book to give you an idea about what it covers and says. I bolded parts that I find memorable:

Read more …

• Book Review

In October 2022, two books about Mars were released. I'll review each and then give my recommendation on which is best.

The Red Planet is a Mars guidebook, revealing Mars's geologic history and current state. The second book, Dinner on Mars, explores leading-edge AgTech to reveal how we will feed a Mars settlement—and ten billion Earthlings too.

I plan to interview Simon Morden about his book so let's start with that.

The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars by Simon Morden

I've read many books about Mars, so I expected to learn little from this book.

I was so wrong!

This was a tour guidebook revealing many facts about the red planet. For instance:

Many know that Mars has the Solar System's biggest volcano.
But I didn't know that Olympus Mons is NOT the tallest mountain in the Solar System.
It's the second tallest.

Mars's Hellas is the solar system's largest single extant crater. 2300 km across by 9 km deep.

Mars has the biggest canyon we know of. Valles Marineris is 2000 km east-west, 200 km wide, and 10 km deep.

Mars's Great Dichotomy explains it's uneven.
The south is 2 km higher than the north.

Can methane appear on Mars without volcanic activity?

It has 28 large volcanoes.
Thin lava made flat volcanos with 4-degree slopes, so if you stood on a Martian volcano, you probably wouldn't realize it.

Perchlorates are chlorine-rich compounds that are lethal at Mars-level doses.
Solar flares increase the solar radiation 200 times because Mars lacks a magnetic field & its atmosphere is too thin.

Inhaling the dust is a killer: it produces silicosis.

This book is readable and fast-paced.

VERDICT: 5/5 STARS

Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth by Lenore Newman and Evan D.G. Fraser

I adored this book too! I've read many books on Mars, and this one taught me so many things! If the book above taught me about Mars' geology, then this book is all about food on Mars! What will Martians eat!?

I'll quote my favorite passages below:

Perhaps Carl Sagan was right when he wrote, “For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. We invest far-off places with a certain romance. This appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival. Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game — none of them lasts forever. It is beyond our powers to predict the future. Catastrophic events have a way of sneaking up on us, of catching us unaware. Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species’ might be owed to a restless few — drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds.”

It should be possible to put cyanobacteria at the base of the Martian community and use it to turn locally found Martian ingredients into a food system that could function without regular supply runs from Earth.

The bewildering diversity of life we witness is made up of some relatively commonplace atoms. Here the scientist’s job can scan the genetics of plant life and then show how these basic building blocks can be assembled into new things — new nanoparticles, new forms of protein.

People are drawn to spaces with plants, water they can touch, places to sit alone and with others, and places seeded with food. Others have built upon Whyte’s work to show people can stand small living quarters if they have views of nature.

Martians will eat something closer to a nutritionally “recommended” diet rather than indulging in what is today the average Earthling’s diet.

Plants can turn only 3 to 6 percent of the total solar radiation that lands on their leaves into sugars (aka, chemical energy).

The bottom line is that Mars generally receives somewhere around 50 percent of the solar insolation of Earth. This means that putting a greenhouse at the Martian equator would be somewhat analogous to putting a greenhouse on Devon Island in Northern Canada.

C4 plants — can keep photosynthesis going even when it gets hot. Overall, only about 3 percent of flowering plants are C4, but together this group produces about 20 percent of global photosynthesis.

Every single input can be used with total efficiency, and that every output is imagined fulfilling multiple purposes. Maybe it’s this mindset — more than the technologies themselves — that we need to adopt on Earth?

Our ability to produce [lactase] fades with time, and as it goes, so too does our ability to digest milk and other dairy. Globally, about two-thirds of the human population react to milk in this way, though some populations can stomach dairy better than others

Cellular agriculture (cell-ag). This emerging technology proposes to produce meat and milk but without any animals.

Perfect Day began selling cell-ag ice cream in the U.S. during the summer of 2020, followed by cream cheese in 2021.

“But why would we take animal farming, which is horridly inefficient and ethically bankrupt, with us to a new planet?

Eat Just and Future Fields are working on churning out bulk plant-based

Mosa Meat and by 2020 was boasting he could produce the same burger patty for about ten Euros. Mosa is currently working on perfecting producing cellular animal fat (to mix in with the muscle cells) and is also working to perfect the process of brewing vegan growth serums. Post admits to being on a crusade to ensure that there are a lot fewer cows on the planet in the future. He argues that today’s cattle population of one and a half billion cows needs to drop to about 30,000.

“Animal agriculture uses huge amounts of land, energy, and water. I know you think there are some situations where animals can be raised in ways that meet environmental or ethical standards but, overall, the way the world produces animals today is madness.

If I’m going to eat fish on Mars, I want it to be grown in the lab and printed by a 3D printer.”

Finless Foods, which is working on replicating bluefin tuna; BlueNalu, which is planning to offer a variety of seafoods; Shiok Meats, a company pioneering the production of shrimp, crab, and lobster; and of course, Wildtype, among others. Finless even sent cells to the International Space Station where they were cultured and shaped into spheres using a 3D printer.

At any given time, there are twenty-three billion chickens pecking away somewhere on the planet, destined to serve our insatiable desire for cheap protein.

In 2017, Eat Just announced they would be growing chicken nuggets using cellular agriculture. The result was 70 percent synthetic (cellular) meat,

Eat Just’s chicken for public sale, and restaurant 1880 became the first place on Earth where one could find cultured meat on the menu.

Heme is what makes meat red, but it is also found in plants. Impossible uses heme found in soy, but companies are increasingly making their own heme using a process similar to the fermentation.

Globally producing analogues for beef (Mosa Meat, Aelph Eatery, Upside Foods), chicken (Eat Just, SuperMeat), seafood (Wildtype, Finless Foods, BlueNalu, Shiok), leather (Modern Meadow), gelatin (Geltor), dairy (Perfect Day,TurtleTree), and eggs (The EVERY Company, Eat Just). But the industry, aside from some outliers, is concentrated in a few key geographic areas, including California’s Bay Area, Singapore, Israel, and the Netherland’s Golden Triangle.

Is it possible to design a system that is both economically efficient and closed-loop here on Earth as well as in space?

Aquaponics, these operations attempt to mimic closed-loop systems by bringing fish and vegetable production together under one roof.

For breakfast, the average Martian would probably consume some kind of nutrient-dense bar that would be algae-based. This might be flavored with insect protein but most of the insects would be used to feed fish.

When it comes to lunch, hyper-fresh salads

Along with the salad, we imagine folks eating a 3D-printed fish or chicken cutlet where the proteins are either grown in a bioreactor or are derived by yeasts.

For additional protein, there would likely be some yeast-derived cheese added to the salad.

Bread products, however, are probably going to be scarce given that it would be difficult and expensive to set up domed habitats capable of growing any quantity of wheat, corn, rice, or barley. Pasta and baked goods will be a luxury to be savored. But at lunch or dinner, there might be potato pancakes or some small pastry made from potato flour.

At dinner, BaseTownies would sit down to a printed chicken breast and another salad, perhaps washed down with a glass of faux dairy milk or some juiced berries from the vertical farming operations. For a special occasion, the inhabitants might enjoy an actual real-life fish.

For dessert, sweetener proteins synthesized in the biofoundries might be mixed with synthetic egg proteins and a little bit of (very valuable) flour to create small biscuits that would accompany ice cream or a milkshake (again made with yeast-derived dairy proteins).

For an evening greasy snack,seasoned fried protein balls (salmon, beef, and chicken flavored) and fries could be common.

Overall, the Martian diet we foresee is likely to be sensible, tasty, and well-balanced. The biggest difference between what we are imagining and what we eat on Earth today is the lack of livestock products and the relative dearth of simple carbs. But, over time, we think the inhabitants of Mars will not miss these products all that much. Folks there will be, by necessity, eating a diet much more aligned with what nutritionists and national food guides recommend we eat. If

Our key message is that it is on Earth where this food revolution will have the biggest impact.

Ten species dominate about 39 percent of the planet — 14 percent dedicated to cropland and another 25 percent held for forage and grazing (that is almost entirely devoted to cattle).

It is the abundance of land, water, soil, and species — an evolutionary heritage that Mars will never have — that has allowed us the luxury of developing food and farming systems that are staggeringly inefficient.

 

VERDICT: The authors didn't set out to be vegans, but that's one of the many fascinating conclusions of this book. Because resources are abundant on Earth, we can afford to be incredibly inefficient. Eating meat is the most inefficient way to get protein. That's the lesson of planning to eat dinner on Mars. Martians will teach Earthlings how to grow food 1000x more efficiently! 5/5 stars! PERFECT!

Which book is better?

It's hard to say because I gave both books five stars.

It depends on what interests you. Those who want to understand Mars's geology and geography should read The Red Planet. Those interested in learning how we might live on Mars should read Dinner on Mars.

Without knowing what interests you, I recommend Dinner on Mars over The Red Planet because it has profound implications for eating on Earth.

• Book Review

Fans of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, Richard Branson, and the privatization of space should celebrate. Three recent books document the 21st-century private space race.

One is Christian Davenport’s book, Space Barons: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos.

The other is by Tim Fernholz's Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race.

And the most recent is Ashlee Vance's When the Heavens Went on Sale. 

Which one should you read?

When the Heavens Went on Sale

Among the three books, I recommend Ashlee Vance's When the Heavens Went on Sale. Although all three books are fabulous, I prefer Vance's book because he focuses exclusively on lesser known companies, such as:

• Astra
• Firefly
• Planet Labs
• Rocket Lab

I knew little about these innovative companies, so I loved taking a deep dive into them.

Another reason why Lance's book is best is that it's the most recent. It's available May 9, 2023, whereas the other books have been out for a few years. In the fast-changing space industry, it's best to get the latest info.

Read more …

• Book Review

I enjoy reading books about the war, the military, special operations, and the navy.

Publishers send me Advanced Reader Copies (ARC).

I review them on this page on a 1-5 scale (5 = best).

A few books have long articles and a podcast devoted to them.

That's where I interviewed the author.

I summarize and link to the full review and podcast in those cases.

The books below are in reverse chronological order. 

In other words, the books I have read most recently are at the top.

If you have feedback, write it in the comments below.

If you want me to review your book, contact me.

U. S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: A New Strategy for Facing the Chinese and Russian Threat by Brent D. Sadler

Brent Sadler summarizes how the US Navy needs to be in this century.

It's essential reading for military and political strategists. 

Here are three quotations that I loved:

Sir Walter Raleigh declared in the early 17th century that "whoever commands the sea, command the trade; whoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequetly the world itself."

"The object of naval warefare is the control of communications, and not, as in land warfare, the conquest of territory." - Principles of Maritime Strategy, 1911

"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." - Douglas MacArthur

VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars.

British Paratroopers in Action

Jason Wood's Paras in Action: Ready for Anything – The Parachute Regiment Through the Eyes of Those Who Served is perfect for someone interested in:

• Paratroopers
• British military history
• Special operations
• Elite combat units
• Skydiving warriors

Wood documents a century of paratrooper activity, including:

• WWII
• Cyprus
• The Falklands
• The Balkans
• Afghanistan
• Iraq
• The 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan
• The Circuit (private protection)

Occasionally, Wood reflects on the training.

This tome salutes the brave warriors the fall from the sky.

I would have liked Wood to explain how the Paras differ from US Airmen PJs, Airborne Rangers, and US Special Operations.

VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars.

What the British Navy did to end the slave trade

Read my full review of Royal Navy Versus the Slave Traders.

My one-sentence summary is: author Bernard Edwards supplies ample evidence that Europeans, especially the British Navy, were instrumental in ending the slave trade, despite the efforts of Africans and others to keep it going.

VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars

Read more …