Mostly Dross
Ramblings From Benson
Mostly Dross
Ramblings From Benson
Book Deals for Monday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land by P. J. O'Rourke ($2.99)
- Dangerous Women edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois ($2.99)
- The Making of the English Working Class by E. P. Thompson ($2.99)
- The Getaway God by Richard Dadrey ($1.99)
- Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California by Frances Dinkelspiel ($2.99)
- Ivan the Terrible: A Military History by Alexander Filjushkin ($2.99)
- Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey ($0.99)
- The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams ($1.99)
- Time After Time by Karl Alexander ($2.99)
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
Assorted Links for Sunday
- Power, Prestige & Ottoman Culture Wars
- The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America's UFO Mythology (WSJ)
- The US Dollar isn't broken yet
- When They Stop Selling Your Favorite Thing (NYT)
- Corruption in Plain Sight is Still Very Much Corruption
- The Rising Temperature of the Mediterranean Sea
- 5 AI bots took our tough reading test. One was smartest - and it wasn't ChatGPT (Wash Post)
- A world built on fossil fuels is loud. Here's how advocates are defending peace and quiet
- The US Navy's five roads to ruin
- What's a healthy amount of sleep? It differs from one country to another
- Mapping space: Largest map of the universe announced
- How Ukraine's Operation "Spider's Web" Redefines Asymmetric Warfare
- The Russian Wartime Economy: From Sugar High to Hangover
- Why human experts may be useful for longer than you think
Book Deals for Sunday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- Black Fall: A Jessica Blackwood Novel by Andrew Mayne ($1.99) Recommended
- Just Kids by Patti Smith ($1.99)
- Churchill and the Generals by Barrie Pitt ($1.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo ($1.99)
- A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle ($1.99)
- Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being by Neil Theise ($1.99) 2024 Nautilus Book Award Winner
- Ponderings II-VI: Black Notebooks, 1931-1938 by Martin Heidegger, translated by Richard Rojcewicz ($4.99)
- LUPIN - The Adventurs of a Gentleman Thief by Maurice Leblanc, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos and Edgar Jepson ($0.99)
- Encyclopedia Brown Lends a Hand by Donald J. Sobol ($3.99)
- Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way by Donald J. Sobol ($3.99)
Assorted Links for Saturday
- No one voted for anything Immigration version.
- The End of Silicon Politics
- China's rare earth weapon changes contours of trade war battlefield
- The Global Trend in Indigenous Community Recognition
- Some Economics of Africa's Struggle
- J'accuse - Further thoughts on the Great Recession
- Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE fired too many people (Wash Post)
Book Deals for Saturday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- The American Civil War by John Keegan ($1.99) Recommended
- Reflections on the Revolutoin in France by Edmund Burke ($1.99) Recommended
- Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jan Barbree ($2.99)
- The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling by David Gilmour ($2.99)
- Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson ($2.99)
- A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolome de las Casas ($1.99)
- The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison ($1.99)
Assorted Links for Friday
- Why child benefits should be front loaded
- The Up Wing combo of AI and energy
- Fewer than half (43%) of US adults support federal funding for NPR and PBS. But it is much higher than the 24% in favor of removing federal funding.
- Inside the Ukranian Drone Operation That Devastated Russia's Bomber Fleet (WSJ)
- Early-Onset Cancer Fast Facts
- How the world's first electric grid was built
- The U.S. Credit Rating and the Dollar
- Drones
- The Implications of Non-Linear Pricing
Book Deals for Friday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 by Catherine Merridale ($2.99) Recommended
- American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow by Jerrold M. Packard ($1.99 or available through your Audible membership)
- An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power by John Steele Gordon ($2.99)
- The Constitution of Liberty: The Definitive Edition by F. A. Hayek, edited by Ronald Hamowy ($3.99)
- Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History from the Alphabet to the Internet by William J. Bernstein ($2.99)
- Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 by Gary Giddins ($3.99)
- Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Jean-Michel Guesdon ($3.99)
- Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden ($2.99)
- The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo - and the Sacrafice That Forged a Nation by James Donovan ($2.99)
- Shotguns and Stagecoaches: The Brave Men Who Rode for Wells Fargo in the Wild West by John Bessenecker ($2.99)
- The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction, 1909-1959 by Raymond Chandler, edited by Tom Hiney and Frank MacShane ($3.99)
- Judy: The Life, Legend, and Tragedy of an American Icon by Gerold Frank ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made the National Lampoon Insanely Great by Rick Meyerowitz ($2.51)
- Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas by Glenn Kenny ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Printer's Error: Irreverent Stories of Books History by J. P. Romney and Rebecca Romney ($1.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
Assorted Links for Thursday
- OECD Cuts U.S. Growth Forecast Over Tariffs, Policy Uncertainty
- Factory Activity Weakens in Asia, Rises in U.S. & Europe
- Debt Distress on China's BRI: Who Gets Bailed Out and Why?
- Is There a Tariff End Game?
- Think of It as Generating Our "Investment Surplus", Not as Our "Trade Deficit"
- How Often is AI Depicted in Movies, and How Frequently is it the Villain? A Statistical Analysis
Assorted Links for Wednesday
- China's 'Vanishing' Data Can't Hide Its Economic Slowdown
- The beauty of concrete
- The Steep Price of Declining Civility
- What really happened in 2008
- How Chinese drones could defeat America
- China is falling into deflation
- Trump promised to bring jobs to the Rust Belt. The Sun Belt may get them instead. (CSM)
- 5 scientists on finding meaning in our Universe's 13.8-billion-year story
- No AI, no job. These companies are requiring workers to use the tech. (Wash Post)