Right now I'm reading

[motherjuggs&speed]

Human Smoke, by Nicholson Baker.. This was mentioned here a few years ago and I've finally gotten around to it. This is a different kind of book. Instead of a conventional narrative, Baker recounts hundreds of vignettes describing events leading up to the second world war, from statements made by leaders to events people took little notice of at the time, like Goebbels and a gang stopping the showing of All Quiet on the Western Front. It's a compelling story, and Baker tells it well. I have a different take on it than I would have a few years ago, though. Now, I see the obvious parallels to our own time, from swattings to organized riots to the lust for war (again). We never learn. We never change. The warmongers are still stoking the flames, the mobs are still easy to incite, people are still getting killed for the profit of a few, and most are either enthusiastic about the conflagration or indifferent to it. Human Smoke details history but we can also see it unfolding all around us, every day. Recommended.

Mass Observation, the British government's morale-sampling service, concluded that people in England found the war too dull. "A new restlessness is settling in, a desire for something to happen, however unpleasant." It was February 1940.

[motherjuggs&speed]

Popular Crime, by Bill James. We have a crime problem, and a criminal justice problem, and there are those who call for a return to the good old days. In Popular Crime, James details how there were no good old days, that crime has always been with us, and the mendacity and incompetence of police and prosecutors was much worse in the past. James describes a number of famous crimes and the media and social atmosphere around them, with his own commentary on both. He writes in a opinionated, acerbic style, just like he uses in his baseball writing, and he seems to have as much passion for popular crime as he does for baseball. He writes about a famous crime, and then takes us on a digression through his opinions on things, from juries to parole to crime reporting. He may not convince you of the truth of his theories about crime or how it's handled but he does hold my interest. And while he's critical of many books and movies about crime, he does give recommendations of some he likes. While I disagree with James about a lot of things, Popular Crime is an interesting and thought provoking read.

[Bram]

I liked All the Wrong Moves so much I read it almost nonstop and wouldn't stop that night until I finished it. One of the things I liked about it is the reality of Sasha's journey. There's a survivor's bias at work in most books of this type, or maybe it's a publisher's bias: The author goes on a journey to learn or improve at something, and after training with his own Mr. Miyagi, he's amazing at it. As if that's the way things work. Sasha struggles and doesn't really get that much better, because that's what happens in chess: people don't get much better. Although Sasha struggles with his manic obsessions, it's not all grim. There are many funny moments and Sasha brings his experience to the page very well. Recommended.

I thought you might like it. Your review is much better written than mine, but I enjoyed it too.

[motherjuggs&speed]

CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, by Tom O'Neill. In 1999, Tom O'Neill started pulling at loose threads in the accepted narrative of the Manson murders, and he kept at it for almost 20 years. Chaos is almost as much about O'Neill's reporting as it is an account of what happened but that makes sense considering his claims. Many things O'Neill reports would be hard to believe if he didn't name his sources, and if those people weren't in a position to know. I'll say here that O'Neill states clearly that Manson and his people did everything you think they did, but they were also in the middle of a mix of what could be described as questionable behavior by the LAPD, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office, the DA's office, judges, Manson's parole officer, and yes, the CIA. Chaos doesn't present a coherent, conclusive picture of what happened, though. O'Neill says in the book, and has said in interviews, that he's reluctant to say what he thinks happened because he doesn't want to cast doubt on what he's confident of. So let me say what picture I think he paints: For about two years, the CIA kept Manson out of prison by exerting pressure on the LAPD, LASO, and different judges who Manson appeared before on a number of different charges. Whether this was part of MKULTRA, the FBI's COINTELPRO, both, or something else is unclear, but what is clear is that many agencies and people within them acted in ways that led me to wonder just how deep the rabbit hole goes. 4.4/5.

[Bram]

Magic Pill by Johann Hari.

This is a book about Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonist drugs.

I’m going to stop there and say that Hari is a known fraud (you can look at his Wikipedia), and heavily distrusted this book—especially the anecdotes. He basically got booted out of the UK for bad journalism and re-branded himself as a US science writer.

That said, whatever the veracity, he’s easy to read. And I wanted something to help me form an opinion as more people I know take these drugs. As I was finishing it, I had my first client start on Wegovy. And, half-way through, my first friend admitted she’d been on Wegovy for months. She got shredded, dropping 30lbs, had a six-pack, then scaled back to a quarter-dose and gained ~5lbs back. She also claims her overall mental health is better and plans to stay on it the rest of her life.

So what’s the takeaway?

If you:

A) Can’t, or won’t, break your junk-food addiction….
And
B) You’re already obese.

The health risks seem to be better for these drugs than to keep cramming your pie-hole with junk food.

Increased thyroid cancer risk, pancreatitis, suicidal thoughts, mental dullness, and nausea are all risk factors. Plus I’ve heard sexual dysfunction and mood swings anecdotally.

I’ll never believe that people are incapable of quitting junk food, so I’ll never endorse these drugs.

Give the book a 4.2/5 (Hari already has been called out for falsifying an anecdote in this book).

[lenny]

Bram
I have a very simple diet. Protein from unflavored whey protein isolate with water, salmon, sardines, chicken, 25 gram protein yogurts, cottage cheese, fruits, vegetables, frozen berries, and some fats - avocados, feta cheese and recently gouda cheese because Dr. Pradip Jamnadas, MD recommended it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tokEa2DGcaA
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tokEa2DGcaA[/youtube]

He also suggests sauerkraut, but it comes with vinegar in the supermarket here which ruins the positive effects on the microbiome or kimchi which I could probably get by driving into Tel Aviv but there's a ton of traffic and the parking fees are outrageous.

Why am I writing this? My oldest friend is a guy I met at a high school graduation party in June 1967. I had actually played softball against him and his brother when we were ten years old in 1959 but didn't know them. Jacob as he calls himself now, was a fairly good athlete and on the JV football and baseball team in high school but he decided to quit. I guess he weighed 180 pounds in high school. I hadn't seen him in maybe 15 years, and he weighed probably 350 pounds when he came to visit me at my parents' house in the midwest about 15 years ago. I went into shock. He could barely squeeze out of the car and had an oxygen tank. He blamed all the weight gain on the chemicals put in foods that addict people. I thought he was crazy and just couldn't stop himself from eating.

He had bariatric surgery and gained a lot of weight back and has almost died at least five or ten times. I spent a week with him in 2015, and he had cleaned up his diet and did a lot of cooking but was still about 315 pounds I would guess. Here is what I found about ultra processed food and addiction.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/hi ... q?form=fpf

and a lot of other articles
https://www.google.com/search?q=ultrapr ... e&ie=UTF-8

I am very fortunate that I have no desire for any of that stuff. I stopped eating ice cream and popsicles months ago. My only sources of sugar these days are from energy bars and Coca Cola for workouts with weights or when I ride my carveboards. Once in a while I eat some of this mint chocolate bar from France https://www.chocolate.lindt.com/lindt-e ... e-bar-100g

I believe it is possible to stop eating ultraprocessed foods, but most people will need a lot of help since they are very cheap. Robert Kennedy Jr. said that most of the research money for Center for Disease Control, National Institute of Health etc. are from ultra processed food companies. if Trump is elected he will serve in his administration and sponsor research to prove that those foods are addictive and sue the companies that produce them. He believes the lawsuits will bring in billions of dollars. I couldn't find the exact youtube video, where he made those claims but here is some information I found.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... f-elected/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x42G68Hdq4E&t=3s


https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/ap-r ... s-elected/
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defe ... oundtable/

Maybe it's here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI9Kg2naNfs&t=6s


Kennedy helped clean up the Hudson river in New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS4y7DHiESE&t=1s


A lot of people hate Trump, and you may also, but I believe Kennedy is sincere. I have so much information about the problems caused by the covid vaccines that I have come to the conclusion that the major media organizations that demonize Kennedy and doctors against the vaccine like Peter McCullough https://www.petermcculloughmd.com/. like the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC etc. are lying. I knew they were lying in 1967. That’s 57 years ago.

I was at the Peace March in Washington DC in the fall of 1967. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was packed on both sides with people. I went with my cousin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_M ... cting_Pool

It is approximately 2,030 feet (620 m; 3⁄8 mi) long and 167 feet (51 m) wide.[3] The perimeter of the pool is therefore 4,392 feet (1,339 meters; 13⁄16 mile) around. We waited 45 minutes to march on the Pentagon. The line didn’t move, and we gave up and returned to our motel. I saw a photo in Time or Newsweek magazine the following week. It showed about 2,500 people and said the size of the crowd was not much more than that.

In 1967, I entered Columbia University. TV reception in the dormitory was impossible. I listened to the radio and found listener supported WBAI FM. https://www.wbai.org/. It had a news report about the Vietnam War from Reuters https://www.reuters.com/ that was probably a lot more honest in those years. One evening there was the claim that bubonic plague was occurring in North Vietnam because the jungles were being defoliated with toxic chemicals sprayed by the American air force. I found this

https://www.academia.edu/77310192/Makin ... ietnam_War

It doesn’t definitively say that the USA caused it, but I know what I heard on the radio. 25 years later in the San Francisco Sunday paper, there was an article that said bubonic plague was caused by the US military defoliating the jungles in Vietnam with toxic agents.

I read how the New York Times lied about the Columbia University campus strike in 1968. I could not believe that they were covering the same events I was seeing with my own eyes.

We all have to make choices. I took the covid vaccine 3 times, got vaccinated when I went to Costa Rica in 2015, have taken the flu vaccine numerous times, and when I wanted to travel to India in 1978. I am not against all vaccines. My children were vaccinated in the 1990s in California and here in Israel. I won't take any more covid vaccines for a lot of reasons. I have friends who vehemently disagree. You may also.

Bottom line. Ultraprocessed foods are a major source of disease. How to quit them is not easy for a lot of people.

[Bram]

Shit, Lenny! I’ll have to go through your above post. Thanks for all the links and time you put into it

[Bram]

The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow.

P.I./surfer who only works enough to own a working wetsuit and have a belly full of fish tacos. A stripper ends up dead and it’s up to Boone Daniels to solve the case before an epic swell hits.

It starts cheesy—“the waves are going to be epic macking crunchy”—and yet….I totally got drawn in. It’s also set about 2 miles from my apartment, with the big wave section set at a place I’ve surfed a bunch.

[motherjuggs&speed]

Meditations Before Mass, Sophia Institute Press edition. This is a collection of essays on how one can best prepare for a religious service but the ideas can be applied more generally. It's very thought provoking, leading me to rethink some things about my default settings.

I guess I should explain that a bit. Mathias Grunwald Verlag takes the view that many of the attitudes that people bring to the Mass are disrespectful, misguided or both. He specifically mentions sentimentality as one of the traps to be avoided. To apply this to a practical experience, I used to approach nature with a very self indulgent attitude. I even thought for a while that I could commune with the trees, ffs. I'm not saying, and I'm sure Verlag wouldn't say, that the lessons in his little book are necessarily applicable to other things, but it does make me think about some things in a new way. Now I have to finish it so I can take back this review.

[Bram]

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The book starts now, in the mid-2020's, with a horrific event caused by global warming. That first chapter is a banger, but it's the only gripping chapter in the book. You get many long chapters on economics and politics, with shorter ones told from the perspective of history, or a blockchain, or a photon. There are a few main characters, and they reappear, weaving an okay story of life fighting for justice. Then there's plenty of chapters told from characters at a strip mine or living in a refugee camp or working in the Antarctic.

I did learn some interesting things, like the Spanish/Basque community effort in Mondragón—a real, interesting, and successful alternative to capitalism. And the book is hopeful and shows somewhat-realistic ways out of the climate crisis.

But mostly I'm so happy this book is over. A page-turning slog. Which leaned more towards slog in the final hundred pages. Taking it as a good reminder to not recommend books until I've finished them.

[motherjuggs&speed]

Taking it as a good reminder to not recommend books until I've finished them.

I have to follow that rule as well. It took me forever to finish CHAOS once I posted my review. Have to not assume "oh, it will be quick" and jinx myself. Also, there's one book I liked based on the first 30 pages that I now think is bad (Change Your Brain Change Your Life by Daniel Amen).

[Bram]

Not Too Late by Gwendolyn Bounds

Gwendolyn is a journalist at the Wall Street Journal. In her mid-forties, she decides something is missing. After googling “world’s hardest things,” she enters the world of obstacle-course racing.

Although initially lacking in athleticism, she attacks her pursuit with admirable levels of passion and a drive to learn. Her first races are challenging, but over time she finds community, purpose, and podium-finishes.

It’s interesting reading a book in a genre that is usually male-dominated. Here you have a successful, gay woman who wants more from life, and leans on many of the books that have had an impact on myself: George Leonard’s Mastery, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, David Goggins’ Can’t Hurt Me, and so on.

I came away impressed with how filling this one hole in her life, led to a refinement of how she spends her free time, the courage to pursue a fuller life outside of racing, and who was really important: her wife, her parents, her dog, her best friend.

[Bram]

MJ&S,

Here’s hoping we both find thoroughly engaging books in 2025.