Another fabulous audiobook

 I just finished this one:

This is #5 of The Murderbot Diaries, which starts with 4 novellas:

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition:

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

Network Effect is the first full-length novel and was reported to stand alone ... so I tried it with my Audible subscription.

What a pleasure! If you like space-opera-type action, vivid characters including some smart-aleck AIs, interesting bad guys / social issues ... Put it this way, I am a week behind on podcasts getting to the end of this.

Five stars! 

Why I support "Medicare for All"

 I have been mostly a contract computer programmer for the last 10+ years. Instead of their being a reasonable alternative health care alternative for that period, I've mostly just been buying health insurance with each job; usually this is less than $200 per month.

But this year I've been out of work since July 20, and once again the silly little company I was working for didn't offer COBRA, the law requiring most companies to offer a continuation of coverage to employees after they leave jobs.

This is the second time this has happened in 4 years; in this case the crummy little plan the employer offered was something I might have passed on anyway. But it's a stupid patchwork sort of system that is no match for the issue of the day:

If we have this underlying medical insurance for everybody, then I am not left without insurance any time ... 

But won't this break the bank?

No. I recently read a book on Modern Monetary Theory that made sense to me. I think we're plenty rich enough in the U.S. to do this without sparking inflation.

Readers (all two of you)? What do you think?

An interesting read on the "impossible burger" track

 I just finished this one:

The story is of a little company called JUST foods (formerly Hampton Creek). They became somewhat famous after getting into a spat with food behemoth Unilever on their Just Mayo eggless mayo product:

They initially argued that it wasn't marketed as 'mayonnaise' just as 'mayo' ... but finally organized a social media David vs. Goliath campaign to get the lawsuit dropped and Just Mayo got to stay on the shelves:

What about the billion dollar burger? JUST isn't going the same route as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, both of whom are creating meaty-tasting meat substitutes using plants. 

Instead, they're trying to grow actual meat cells in the lab, which is where the first success in this field came from, the $330,000 burger in 2013.

Costs are coming down quickly, though, and JUST plans to have an entry ....

I enjoyed this book very much; it was well written and the story moved along crispy. Four stars!