Complex Systems' dependence on tiny changes in initial conditions

 I recently read a book (see below) that made me think of this podcast:

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-open-a-restaurant/

The podcast is entertaining, as almost all Freakonomics episodes have been, but cautionary: the part that got my attention is that on opening night that had one glitch in their process on opening night that goofed up most orders all night and produced chaos instead of yielding a smoothly running restaurant. The rest of the episode is worth listening to; I hope you enjoy it.

The book I read was this one:

It's about DevOps, the idea of deploying software more often and in smaller changes, and the book struck me as a fictional take on how the monolithic deployment strategy in use by some companies still today (I worked at such a company as recently as 2018) has back-office ramifications that are pernicious and generally not predictable. Here's the main author, Gene Kim, talking about some of this:

Enjoy!

Nathan Myhrvold says he has a fix for Climate Change

 The Freakonomics Team has a (relatively new podcast) starring the economist on the team: Steven Leavitt.

The title is "People I (Mostly) Admire"  and a recent one is a conversation with Nathan Mhyrvold.

Besides his career with Microsoft, Mhyrvold also has a Ph.D. in physics and is a partner is a recent company reimagining nuclear power, Terrapower.

Mhyrvold claims during the discussion that the Terrapower reactors could all by themselves displace all carbon generation in the entire world economy.

Unfortunately this isn't all that's required, but would be an excellent first step! You still have to remove the existing excess carbon in the atmosphere, now over 400 ppm ...

Did you enjoy the 2020 election? Here's another way it could work!

I guess some election nerds really like the "swing state drama" of the late counts in Pennsylvania and Georgia ... but Biden has wound up 5 million + in the popular vote, so ... why?

And then there was the entertaining aftermath:

Couldn't we skip all this hoohah and just use the popular vote?

Maybe:

 

 

I was surprised to see that my state, Washington, has already approved this act ... as have quite a few others totaling 196 electoral votes. This leaves only 74 electoral votes before the agreement goes into effect, rendering the Electoral College a thing of the past.

I can't wait!

Another podcast-killer (well, delayer), this time from Chuck Wendig

 I just finished this one:

I don't want to say much about the plot as it's a wild one, just:

• You thought 2020 politics have been bad? Try this book
• There are a broad range of wonderfully-rendered characters including some horribly evil bad guys
• It's very violent in spots ... be warned

I am now maybe a full week behind on my daily podcasts! The audiobook is 32+ hours long.

Five stars!

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!