What are you currently reading?

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pakarinen United States of America
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#161

Post by pakarinen »


Somewhat related: The large, leather armchair in the loft has developed a split on the front of the left armrest (it's over 30 years old, so not too surprising). Could be time for a... Barcalounger!

Anyway, I need another Commisario murder mystery. Might stop by Half Price on the way home tonight and see what I can find. Meanwhile, I'm reading random bits from Rovelli's "Reality is Not What It Seems".
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I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#162

Post by John Donne »


This has been an interesting read.
Screenshot_20221020-122958.jpg
SCOPES :ES127 f7.5, SW100 f9 Evostar, ES80 F6, LXD75 8" f10 SCT, 2120 10" f10 SCT, ES152 f6.5.
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I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#163

Post by GCoyote »


Any metaphor will tear if stretched over too much reality.
Gary C

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Re: What are you currently reading?

#164

Post by pakarinen »


Got this for about $5 shipped. It's 20 years old, but it's kinda fun and sort of nostalgic (hypered Tri-X and C-8s!) It does have some nice mono pics of DSOs.
book med.jpg
=============================================================================
I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do.
=============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#165

Post by Don Alvarez »


Time for a break from reality
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#166

Post by SkyHiker »


I just received the Feynman Lectures on Gravitation. The book looks fine, just why did they wrap it in a bubble wrap envelope, then cardboard wrapped in a ton of tape, then the book in a plastic bag - why not just put the latter in a paper envelope? High time to call these plastic and bubble wrap maniacs to justice, and just live with it if it doesn't arrive perfectly. It makes me feel like I committed an environmental crime just for a small paperback booklet.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#167

Post by Greenman »


And now of course Patrick is part of the history of Astronomy...



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Cheers,

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Re: What are you currently reading?

#168

Post by Pikaia »


Image

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/414 ... S4v&rank=1

Sandworm is a Russian cyber warfare group, named from one of the various references to Frank Herbert's novel "Dune" contained in its malware.
It has been involved in the 2016 USA and 2017 French presidential elections, the 2018 cyber attack on the Olympic opening ceremony, and attacks on Ukraine. In 2017 one of these attacks on Ukraine caused $300 million damage by hitting almost all the computers of Maersk, the World's biggest shipping company. They were only able to recover because one vital piece of software needed to do so escaped destruction on one computer in Ghana because of a power cut. Without that fortuitous power cut the company would probably have been destroyed.

Scary stuff.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#169

Post by Nakedgun »


~

Just completed:

"WHAT IS REAL?, The Unfinished Quest For The Meaning Of Quantum Physics" by Adam Becker, 2018, 370 pages.

Unfinished, indeed, and incomprehensible.


.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#170

Post by Baurice »


Butterfly Maiden wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2020 7:49 am Well, I don't think my current reading material will be of any interest to the guys here (or maybe they are :think: )

Anyway, I'm reading lesbian romance novels on my Kindle. One of my favourite authors being Monica McCallan, so I'm currently re-reading six of her books I particularly like in that genre.
I'd be open to reading LGBT romance. No reason why not.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#171

Post by Baurice »


I'm reading "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath who is better known for poetry. It was her only novel.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#172

Post by ewomack »


The last book that I finished, just last week, was a deceptively short introduction to agnosticism, a very interesting topic. It went deep into philosophy, philosophical theology, and even some aspects of science to propose a potential "middle ground" to the ongoing atheism vs. theism debate. I've wanted to read about this topic for quite a while and finally took the plunge.
418QLnDYB5L._AC_SY780_.jpg

Next, I'm trying to decide which to read first, "Turn Left at Orion," or delve into the thick "History of the Franks" by Gregory of Tours, written in the mid-6th century. I may end up undecided and read them in parallel.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#173

Post by John Donne »


Next, I'm trying to decide which to read first, "Turn Left at Orion," or delve into the thick "History of the Franks" by Gregory of Tours, written in the mid-6th century. I may end up undecided and read them in parallel.
[/quote]


I am curious what edition of Gregory you have at hand.
It is a wonderful read...and an important work.
SCOPES :ES127 f7.5, SW100 f9 Evostar, ES80 F6, LXD75 8" f10 SCT, 2120 10" f10 SCT, ES152 f6.5.
MOUNTS: SW AZ/EQ5, MEADE LXD75, CELESTRON CG4, Farpoint Parallelogram.
BINOCULARS: CL 10X30, Pentax 8X43, 25X100 Oberwerks.
EP: Many.

"I am more than a sum of molecules.
I am more than a sum of memories or events.
I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
I am, before memory.
I am, before event.
I am"
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#174

Post by ewomack »


John Donne wrote: Sat Jan 07, 2023 8:54 pm I am curious what edition of Gregory you have at hand.
It is a wonderful read...and an important work.

I have the 1974 Lewis Thorpe Penguin edition, pictured below. I came across this work by watching the Yale online course "The Early Middle Ages, 284 - 1000" on YouTube:



That course uses the Alexander Murray edition, which the professor called "simplified" and expurgated for use in courses. He then said "the full work is much more extensive" and held up the Thorpe Penguin edition. I wanted the full treatment, so I went with the thicker edition. I hope that was a wise choice.

Just a month or two ago, I read "The Secret History" by Procopius, which that course also discusses. It opened up a fascinating new era of history that I had never explored. I've since delved deeper into Late Roman/Byzantine and Frankish history.

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Re: What are you currently reading?

#175

Post by John Donne »


I am reading the same book....a 1927 ed from Oxford press.
This is a great read...a transitional period of the old Roman empire.

I am often reading more than one book at a time. 🙂
SCOPES :ES127 f7.5, SW100 f9 Evostar, ES80 F6, LXD75 8" f10 SCT, 2120 10" f10 SCT, ES152 f6.5.
MOUNTS: SW AZ/EQ5, MEADE LXD75, CELESTRON CG4, Farpoint Parallelogram.
BINOCULARS: CL 10X30, Pentax 8X43, 25X100 Oberwerks.
EP: Many.

"I am more than a sum of molecules.
I am more than a sum of memories or events.
I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
I am, before memory.
I am, before event.
I am"
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#176

Post by Apollo69s »


i got a couple off books,but im no reader,,,,,,,,,,,,Tacticus anales, I-IVI-,XI-XVI have ive been into,,Its a hard book,,,,you get tired after 10 pages.
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#177

Post by DEnc »


Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
Neil Shubin

Shubin writes about mechanisms of evolution, bringing up to date Darwin’s notion of change of function as the drving force, rather than a bootstrapping appearance of a novel feature enabling exploitation of a new niche. Fun throw away fact: if the DNA in every cell of the human body were linearized and placed end to end, it would stretch nearly to Pluto!

Regarding the cosmos, next on my reading list is The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body, by the same author. “How have astronomical events that took place millions of years ago created the unique qualities of the human species?” And of course What's Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner, posted in the forum under “We are all made of stars: The long trip from the big bang to the human body"!
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#178

Post by SkyHiker »


I am reading Weinberg's "Gravitation and Cosmology", and Sean Carroll's "Spacetime and Geometry". These books are complementary in that Weinberg is more physics oriented, and Carroll is more math oriented. Carroll is actually nice because of my math background; he discusses what the upper and lower index tensor machinery means in terms of vector spaces and dual vector spaces, explained in a way that is much better than my math classes 45 years ago.

Following Weinberg, my goal is to derive the weak version of the Einstein field equations, the gravito-magnetic equations that follow from it, then solve Carroll's exercise 7.8.2, which is the Lense-Thirring effect within a thin spherical shell representing the distant universe. According to Weinberg this was solved by Brill-Cohen. All of this has been done long ago of course but there is still a lively debate of what it all means in terms of Mach's principle. The trouble with all of this literature is that each author has their own notation, everyone refers to others, taking jumps, which makes it altogether harder to collect and translate the various pieces than to derive it yourself thoroughly.

I have a decent understanding of Weinberg but often skipped over the details. At some point the rubber must meet the road by actually solving any equations that are not fully solved ("this follows from...", "it is not difficult to show that...", etcetera). I am getting the hang of tensor calculus by doing these exercises. Right now, it's very slow but it will speed up the more I learn. I am writing it up as I go in a Word document.

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... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#179

Post by GCoyote »


Excellent mini reviews Henk and good luck on the derivations.
Any metaphor will tear if stretched over too much reality.
Gary C

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Meade 114-EQ-DH f7.9 Newtonian w/ manual GEM
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Re: What are you currently reading?

#180

Post by Nakedgun »


~

Just completed: "Cause Unknown, The Epidemic Of Sudden Deaths In 2021 And 2022" by Edward Dowd, 2022, 203 pages.

Recommended reading.



.
"A republic, madam, if you can keep it." - Benjamin Franklin
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