Georeactor Blog

I'm a good ways into books related to the New Deal, fossilized plants, and pirate radio, but I wanted to make a books post with what I have.

The Guest Lecture (Martin Riker, 2023)

A peculiar concept - an anxiety novel - it's the thoughts of a professor awake in a hotel room, the night before a lecture on Keynes. This was recommended in a few places and recently Angela Collier's books channel.

The first third-to-half truly delivers on the 'could they really make a book about this premise' side. Spiraling thoughts alone sounds terrifying, but it is used to introduce details of the professor's family, work life, and home decor. I feel like I learned real information about Keynes and memorization methods (though this is different from any kind of presentation or thought process that I would follow).

Thoughts about politics let us know that the setting is 2018 or 2019? Yes, Trump gets a name drop. There is also a reference to caring about small problems amid an apocalypse, which seems borrowed from 2020 or maybe mean-spirited dramatic irony considering that the writer and reader are sitting post-2020.

Red Harvest (Dashiell Hammett, 1929)

A 2024 New Yorker profile recommended Red Harvest for "the velocity and economy of screenwriting" so I picked it up.

This is a detective novel written in the 20s where everything plays out like a cartoon set in the 20s. The language alternates between a charming 20s clip and impenetrable slang (I googled a reference and the first result was someone else asking about the book https://www.reddit.com/r/ExplainTheJoke/comments/1avqv4d/my_deafness_is_a_lot_better_since_ive_been_eating/ )

I accidentally left the book on the plane after the first mystery was resolved and the stakes were ratcheted up (but I wasn't really tracking some of the characters). I thought it was alright and would probably watch a movie version (the internet has been discussing one).

Updates to Previous Reads

A book post from last year reminded me to check up on microcredit Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus. He had a political trial, got bail in March 2024, and after a student uprising forced out the PM of Bangladesh, Yunus was installed as the interim "chief adviser", a PM-like role which he holds today.

I saw Jacinda Ardern at a screening and Q&A for the documentary Prime Minister - luckily I was at the right place at the right time. The documentary benefited from Ardern's now-husband's recordings, but also an audio diary collected by NZ's national library on a regular basis during her term. I was immediately reminded of The Clinton Tapes, even though the Q&A moderator dismissed offhand the idea that a president would participate in this program. I don't know what to think of Ardern's new fellowships era / upcoming book / messages about politics? She wants to encourage young people not to lose hope / optimism / kindness and to keep participating in politics, but I don't see that as the missing piece of the 2024 campaign, nor did I get that impression from the documentary (which ends with some real disappointment at division and anger in NZ politics). It seems more like she wanted to do something positive and sell a positive book even if it doesn't meet the political moment?

I read an interesting take on the USSR collapse, that the managerial class could not get luxuries and rewards that they expected / saw in media and became demotivated / disillusioned with socialism.

Ologies had a hippo researcher say that pygmy hippos were first photographed in the wild in 2006. This announcement of a 2008 trail camera photo appears to agree. https://news.mongabay.com/2008/03/photos-of-rare-pygmy-hippo-in-liberia/

PBS Civil War Muslims https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjT7ApX-xhI

Interesting story out of Bougainville (possibly on its way to separation from Papua New Guinea) https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/mar/06/in-search-of-the-south-pacific-fugitive-who-crowned-himself-king

Discussion of international law - a bit dry - but Professor Hola does an interesting segment on punishment and accountability for people who participated in show trials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QNKqVzmirA

I noticed some of these AI-generated 'history' videos and shorts when I was looking up a video on the Chicago fire. Several videos show a version of the modern skyline burning (bruhhhhhhh). The article focuses more on the TikTok side https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy87076pdw3o

Trump executive orders may have the power to push changes to the Smithsonian's African American Museum. The specific items which have been called out so far touch on concepts like, history of "scientific racism", whether race is biology or a social construct, and whether some concepts are "white culture". I think this is an example like the "scientific method" controversy where people think it's being erased from schools or something, when the statement "the scientific method has historically provided results free of bias" is one that most people can understand is false (especially the conservatives in power now).

Pre-1900 Russian airplane/glider concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozhaysky%27s_airplane

I listened to the 2019 Wondery podcast "Bad Batch" about patients who were severely injured by a stem cell injection (the podcast also touches on, but never quite fully debunks the premise of the procedure). Oddly the CEO of the responsible company was willing to be interviewed. I did some Googling and he pleaded guilty last August and he received FDA sanctions just this month. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/founder-and-chief-executive-officer-injectable-stem-cell-product-manufacturer-pleads-guilty

Have been listening to longtime Letby podcast when this report came out questioning the medical evidence. This case has taken in medical stats nerds, and made the New Yorker last year, because you could perceive it as hospital rumors and then bad math (was Letby the only NICU nurse present for all the suspicious deaths, or were these babies selected for the trial?). In the podcast, the jury was told that these NICU babies were expected to do well, and that Letby looked up the parents on Facebook on anniversaries and holidays, sometimes two years later. There is some behavioral evidence like that, and then one or two people who figured that they interrupted Letby, but no smoking gun.

Writing about the Neil Gaiman subreddit reminded me that the Kanye subreddit has also been mostly good about post-Kanye discourse.

In 2012, Bill Clinton answered questions about My Little Pony for NPR https://www.npr.org/2012/07/07/156251707/bill-clinton-takes-a-quiz-about-my-little-pony

Cryptocurrency mixer "Tornado Cash" was removed from sanctions, though it's still unclear what happens to the lead developer.