While several German religious leaders, writers and artists, industrialists and politicians mounted strong opposition to Nazi rule at great personal cost, sometimes of their lives, there was nothing comparable to be found in German science.

I stumbled upon the book thanks to this article that mostly dealt with the effort of constructing an Aryan version of Physics. What an interesting book. By using the stories of giants like Max Planck, Peter Debye and Werner Heisenberg during the Nazi rule the author explores the apolitical stance many scientists used to have (and depending the field continue to adopt) on the results of their work and the repercussions of them being used. Planck remained glued to the Fatherland regardless of who was ruling it (and whether being true to the Fatherland), Debye tried to walk though the rain without getting wet and Heisenberg with the arrogance that came with his ability tried to rebuild German Physics by assuming the role of its curator.

Together with these we learn of the noble stance by Max von Laue and Fritz Strassman  (“I value my personal freedom so highly, that to preserve it I would brake stones”) and the grey stance of the rest who stayed and did science within the regime. Even Lise Meitner and Debye left at the very last moment they could. Correspondence between many prominent scientists from the beginning of the Nazi rule till after WWII is also included. Very interesting points of view and commentary of the situation these people were in.

While you cannot completely enjoy the book without remembering your Physics, you will highly enjoy the questions of ethics and moral compass that it poses. I know it troubled me and it makes me answer questions about the work I am doing and the sector it applies too daily. And DevOps is not exactly science yet.

While the stories we read about for 11 or so chapters serve largely as a preamble to the fantastic epilogue on Science and Ethics, they do describe the situation we are in today and questions we need to answer. Prior to reading the book I used the get a bit sad when a scientist or an engineer I admired failed me on other standards that I supposed they were concurrently holding. I do not get sad any more. Within the realm of politics they are equally fallible like the rest of us.

There had been no tanks on the streets. No one had gone to the firing squad […] It was a very British coup.

I found out about “A Very British Coup” while searching for the origins of House of Cards. A very fascinating novel that deals with the complexities of governance. With a clear depiction of all the forces in power that collide, how and why.

Do you happen to know of a country in the Western World with a leftist government? That dislikes the IMF, the EU and NATO? That seeks funding from alternative sources? Then you should read this book, even though the ending was not of my taste. The novel had to end somehow anyway. Come to think about it, no, I like it how it ends. It reminded me of 1984.

I have to admit, I bought Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody because of the title. I was between this and Fortune’s formula.  I thought how can one write a book about rock-paper-scissors strategies? Would that include lizard and Spock also?

It turns out there’s only one chapter about the game. The book starts really strong, with Claude Shannon’s outguessing machine and how it worked. It then continues with a bit of Benford’s Law and Nigrini‘s work (and I am both a fan of the Law and of Nigrini’s book). Next is some excursion in Madoff‘s scheme and how it could have been detected had someone paid more attention to the numbers.

Afterwards the book becomes increasingly boring to me as it offers some advise on how to outguess office pools on bets I am not really interested in (like American football, NCAA and picking the Oscar winners). With that comes a so much dumbed down treatise on randomness that is becomes annoying to the point that I sometimes wonder whether Poundstone himself understands it.  And all that just to disprove the hot hand feeling that sometimes players feel. Yes, there is no hot hand. No, let them believe it there is. You cannot beat the belief by serving a dumbed down treatise on randomness. You’re making it worse.

Finally, the book finished with some work on the stock market. After several pages with a particular long-term investment example the author finally admits that “nobody invests for 132 years” and then proceeds to offer some advise that fits a lifespan better. Well, I do not like fillers like this when this is supposed to be an advise book.

A US audience might be happier with the book. What is damaging to me though, is that I need to look elsewhere for the history of the Kelly criterion (which is the subject of the other book from the same author that I was thinking about buying).

A friend passed me his copy of “The Mathematics of Love“, a book that uses mathematics in order to help you choose your strategies in the quest of finding love. Years ago I had stumbled upon this blog post by Mike Trick on finding love optimally. The same subject is covered in Hannah Fry’s book also.Things like the Drake equation, one night stands and online dating strategies get the spotlight too.

And you will laugh a lot. Knowledge of Mathematics is not a prerequisite.

I first heard about The Martian at the Engineering Commons podcast. Mark Watney, a Botanist / Mechanical Engineer is presumed dead from his mission crew on Mars while they evacuate base during a sandstorm.  But as luck has it he survives and finds himself in the most hostile environment a human has ever endured.

Compared to what he has to face just to stay barely alive, any “survivor” reality show that you may have watched on TV is like a walk in the park. Science and Engineering save his life, even though sometimes he is lucky to stay alive in the series of hardships that face him.

Science and Engineering I get, but the sheer mental power and focus that is needed in order to stay alive in the most extreme environment for who knows how many days in an effort to just make contact back home and wait for who knows how long before a rescue mission reaches you, this is for me the dominating element of the novel.

Time to watch the movie now to get a better visual on some of the contraptions Watney devised during his reign on Mars.

Up until a month ago I never knew about the book. Good friend Nikos mentioned it over beer. I was sold on it immediately and bought the kindle version.

I’ve read two more books that cover a lot of the political and technological situation of this era (that is when Eisenhower and Khrushchev held the helms). Where Wizards Stay Up Late about Internet’s prehistory and even more Red Plenty provide angles on what was happening in the US and the USSR at the time.

Among all the people who know who von Braun is, how many have ever heard of Korolev? A man whose name was a state secret? What was it that made him sell the Sputnik to the Premier where in fact he demanded ICBMs? And why did the USSR had such a pressing need for missiles? What was the engineering gap that the two superpowers wanted to bridge? How did the military-industrial complex, or big egos, ambitions and personal rivalries affect the space race? Because nothing was done in the name of science.

If you are like me and remember the SALT II and the SDI here is a glimpse on why these ever happened. The book comes with a lot of notes if you want to delve more into the history, biographies, physics, engineering, politics or even economics of rocketry. The book is literally a launchpad to many directions itself.

PS: How were trajectories calculated without computers? Would you be able to fly a “steampunk” drone today with a slide-rule like they did with their rockets? Think about that.

I got How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk on a $0 promotion that its author was running on LinkedIn.

Sane advice and catchy phrases, but not something that you do not already know of. Surely not as boring as the disaster of Become a key person of influence.