Aron 2 Blue

I think my wife hit it. It's interesting to a teenager, but not so much to me. I read the first 'book' of the three. I liked the secret submarine with stealth technology (that didn't work) tracking the crab excavator robots looking for treasure in Atlantis, and f**king an apple statue with a woman inside as an initiation rite, but all the non-linear hallucinations got tiring. I appreciated the self-mockery of the short section that quotes a reviewer panning the book for not doing non-linear style as well as a more famous author. Another swap from paperbackswap, and it's destined to return, hopefully sent to a teenager.

I couldn't finish it. I made it to pg 166 of 648, then skipped ahead a few times to see what might happen. Someone dies, surprise surprise. I couldn't get interested in the drop-out poet who likes sex and occasionally does drugs, and tries to save a prostitute. Eh. The diary section that switches to a multi-character non-linear interview style is mildly interesting, but I couldn't stay focused or follow it long enough. Free trade on paperbackswap, and it's probably going back there.

These just post too much, so I can't keep up. If I have spare time, I might go to the main website.... Beyond the Beyond Bruce Sterling Boing Boing TV (and/or BoingBoing) Design Milk Dig Photo School FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right Lifehacker No Impact Man Reason Magazine The Kitchn TreeHugger I liked design/architecture and science. WebUrbanist Wired Science Worse Than Failure

I'm purging my feed reader: Economics catergory blog.pmarca.com BuzzMachine Cheap Talk Freakonomics-nyt I stopped when they killed full-feed. Free exch. Economist Nudges The Becker-Posner Blog The Undercover Economist WSJ.com: Economics There are several others I do follow, but these I'm purging....

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography - The Ruins of Detroit I know I've seen these before. Stunning photos. 'Decaying monuments', in Detroit. It's hard to imagine them lasting like the Coliseum of Rome, but the parallel is clear. Michigan Central Station I've seen a whole set of this building alone.... William Livingstone House United Artists Theater Bank Vault Wow. Yikes.

Why Cycle 9 - Cycle9.com I'm impressed with the trade-in program. I'm thinking about the balance-bike option for my 2yr old... I really want an electric bike.

I'm reading Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier. I'm most struck by examples of security failures. 'Hole in the wall' gangs that make a hole in the side of a house/building to avoid the security system. The airplane hijacker who demanded $200K and 4 parachutes when he landed, then took off again and jumped out the back staircase. Apparently inspired a bunch of copycats, which then prompted modification of the 727 rear staircase so it couldn't be opened during flight! He also says insects are often great examples of attack/response evolving, in weird ways. Fun so far.