Newmark's Door

Review of Carlo Rovelli's Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution.

Brief review of a new book, Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, that explores an interesting question: if drinking is so bad, why hasn't physical or cultural evolution gotten rid of it?

P. J. O'Rourke suggests teaching young people using Free to Choose and Capitalism and Freedom as texts. 

Peter J. Wallison, summarizing a recent book by Michael Shellenberger and one by Steven Koonin:

However, the amazing fact is that when actual scientific sources are consulted about climate change, the story about an “existential threat”—let alone a military threat—completely falls apart. Yes, climate change is occurring, but the science says there is no evidence that it poses current dangers to mankind today or in the foreseeable future.

By Ross Kaminsky.

Throughout Unsettled, you’ll become unsettled at the brazenness of the lies and misdirection used by those who support the Green New Deal, carbon taxes, painting your roof white, eliminating meat from our diets, forcing you to ride a bike to work or, even worse, take public transportation, and on and on and on. Almost everything you’ve been told by the mainstream media, including by “scientists,” is either intentionally or unintentionally erroneous, leading politicians to support policies that not only won’t help us today but will cause tremendous damage to future American generations’ standard of living and economic opportunities.

By Rupert Darwall.

The APS climate debate was the turning point in Koonin’s thinking about climate change and consensus climate science (“The Science”). “I began by believing that we were in a race to save the planet from climate catastrophe,” Koonin writes in his new book, “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, And Why It Matters.” “I came away from the APS workshop not only surprised, but shaken by the realization that climate science was far less mature than I had supposed.” “Unsettled” is an authoritative primer on the science of climate change that lifts the lid on The Science and finds plenty that isn’t as it should be. 

Johns Hopkins economics professor and senior fellow at Cato, Steve Hanke, makes a firm prediction.

See also this review of a new book by two noted economists, "A New Inflationary Era".

Article about John McWhorter's new book, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter, Then, Now, and Forever. Research in this field is tough McWhorter says:

One of the hardest things about tracing curse words is people aren’t going to write them down.

Apparently, Ms. Rawlings was a kick-ass woman. And I absolutely loved The Yearling in junior high. (New York Times, may be gated.)

I haven't read all but one of these--but the Doctorow ones, the Stross, and the Egan ones look interesting--and that one, Stand on Zanzibar, really impressed me as a kid, but that was a long time ago.

Related: "I read it for the economics and the unicorns".

Review of a new book, Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.

If you want to understand how memories are formed, appreciate the difference between normal age-related memory lapses and Alzheimer’s, or learn how to improve your memory and reduce the risk of developing dementia, then this is the book for you.