Re: Guest post - What this here blog needs is a reading group

1

Fine, whatever. I messed it up last time and then made some reparations but basically I owe the blog.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 1:43 PM
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Actually Halford defaulted and then flounced off without paying a cent. I'll do the pinching, but I'll be happier if someone else signs on as a backup. Especially because I haven't read the book.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 1:50 PM
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The CIA loves it:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol.-56-no.-2/thinking-fast-and-slow.html


Posted by: lemmy caution | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 2:30 PM
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" I messed it up last time and then made some reparations but basically I owe the blog."

Thorn is still in character as Weimar Germany from the last reading group.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 2:44 PM
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I've read half of it. I would be willing to be designated pinch hitter, but not this week, since I'm in the middle of moving to another country.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 2:44 PM
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Especially because I haven't read the book.

"Thinking fast and slow is a very interesting book. It talks about two types of thinking: 'fast' and 'slow'. 'Fast' thinking happens quickly, while 'slow' thinking, as you might imagine, takes more time...."


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:11 PM
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Errors by Kahneman Slate, 12/21/16

"A couple of the chapters came out looking very good, with R-index scores of 93 and 99--worthy of an A-plus grade from Schimmack for their rigor. But five other chapters, including the one on social priming, ended up with scores of less than 40--what Schimmack called an F. Taken all together, the chapters Schimmack looked at earned an average grade of C-minus."

2) Old white male book


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:13 PM
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When this book was brought up before, I hadn't yet read the recent Slate semi-debunking of it, and I'm not sure if that was brought up. If it wasn't mentioned before, I hereby mention it.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:25 PM
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Oops, bob-pwned.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:26 PM
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10

But more interesting/fruitful to discuss if the results are in doubt, right? (Especially since that article did not give many specifics about the 11 chapters under analysis and I can find no source. So facts must be established.)


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:37 PM
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Bwned, if you will.


Posted by: Merganser | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:49 PM
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I agree with 10 that it's a feature, not a bug.


Posted by: Heebie | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 3:53 PM
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while they're feeling refreshed and not overcommitted

I have a distant memory of that feeling.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 4:06 PM
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I'm not equipped to determine if the studies Kahneman cites are replicable or not. What would be arguing?

Rebel Crossings is new, cheap, fun, hot, by a prolific author so likely readable and honoring and supporting a great 2nd wave feminist who got fired from her longtime university position recently and is possibly winding down her career. Immigrants, bohemians, feminists, socialists, comparisons to our 2nd gilded age. Introduction is available for a taste.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 4:08 PM
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13: yeah, I'm about to go over the cliff of having no leisure time for months (or more accurately, of stealing all leisure time for not-very-leisurely activities) -- like, starting in a few hours. Good wishes to you, essear...


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 4:16 PM
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Same to you, lurkey.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 4:29 PM
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I'm over the side of that cliff since the day after Boxing Day.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 4:35 PM
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But the longer the time falling, the softer the landing, right?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 4:42 PM
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Sure, something like that, right? I'm probably back to where I shouldn't talk about my life on the blog, but a gentle landing works for me too.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 5:09 PM
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20

If only we had a physicist around to answer that sort of question.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 5:35 PM
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21

An good physicist. Not the kind who stopped looking for the ether.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 5:37 PM
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22

That book sounds interesting to me! Will it teach me to think? Will that hurt?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 5:37 PM
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23

All my physics comes from song lyrics, so I'm sorry to have to inform you that there's no easy way down.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 5:40 PM
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"The sun is a mass of incandescent gas...."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 5:41 PM
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19: The gentlest for you, I wish.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 01- 9-17 7:37 PM
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peep, a black hole sun will indeed wash away the rain but we still would prefer it not to come.


Posted by: Awl | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 3:41 AM
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27

Unless a flood of lurkers are supporting by email, I take this as insufficient interest.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:06 AM
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28

It seems like this place has gotten notably quieter since the election, although I have no evidence to back that observation up. (Likely related to a sense that my share of the total comments has gotten alarmingly high and I really need to back it off.)


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:48 AM
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28 I dunno, at the same time it seems that it's brought a lot of the old ones back.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:49 AM
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30

I'd be interested in the book-group, but I'm not sure how much time I will have.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:50 AM
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31

I dunno, at the same time it seems that it's brought a lot of the old ones back.

The stars are right!


Posted by: Opinionated H. P. Lovecraft | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:52 AM
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I've just signed up for a MOOC, which is how I waste my time between reading groups, so I don't think I can really do both properly. Maybe in a few weeks?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:53 AM
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33

What MOOC?


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:55 AM
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34

31. Best explanation for the new cabinet I've seen yet. Also, is it just me or is the average age of this shower about 75?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:55 AM
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35

Intro to Ancient Egypt from U. Penn. Probably not all that demanding, but eats time.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 10:57 AM
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36

I'm interested, but haven't read the book so can't volunteer to pinch-hit. The book will probably take work, since assessing the quality of the underlying research will be part of reading the chapters properly.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 11:31 AM
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Seriously, how many people do we need? I need to do SOMETHING. We can read old Calvin & Hobbes collections, Heidegger, I don't care. Mandatory I Capture the Castle for anyone I haven't forced into it already.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:08 PM
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Apparently 38 chapters, so I figure 6 posters. I count 3 at the moment. I'm also up for anything if there's more enthusiasm for something else. The Exxon book might generate good threads.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:14 PM
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I'll cover some of whatever. I still need to read Deluge -- that one came around while I was still staring into space a lot and not processing language too well.

I think I've read Thinking Fast And Slow, but I don't remember it well and don't have a copy.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:33 PM
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40

I'm game to take a chapter, but I probably won't live up to lw's standard in 36.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:36 PM
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41

Babai's graph isomorphism algorithm?

Interesting essay about the inadequacy of quantum mechanics for liquid water. I am really surprised at the suggestion of coherence domains that big and that long-lived at high temperature, but maybe that's defective intuition. Anyone know evidence of others? http://inference-review.com/article/the-hydrogen-bond

Evidence linking DJT to very considerable amounts of Semyon Mogilyevich's money after DJT's Atlantic City bankruptcy: https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:43 PM
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42

40. I am also unlikely to do well for more than a tiny bit with advance notice, FWIW.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:47 PM
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43

I can't think about brains anymore right now but next time around for sure because boy am I bored.

(Re. brains, my dad's home and doing great--like complete cognitive/emotional function aside from 6 weeks missing, and regaining physical function rapidly so the lesson there is that death is a lie but wear a helmet just in case.)

I hope 2017 is a better year for dads than 2016 all around.


Posted by: Clytie | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 12:49 PM
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44

How about ... An Introduction to Attic Greek???


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:14 PM
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45

37: I read I Capture the Castle! We could discuss that.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:20 PM
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46

43.2: So glad to hear that.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:20 PM
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44: My attic is just a crawl space, so I'm thinking Basement Greek would be more useful to me.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:21 PM
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48

46 thinking of you and your dad in particular. Get it together, dads.


Posted by: Clytie | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:27 PM
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49

I am in the grip of a horrible anxiety attack this evening because my mother is losing her mind and my sister is in the grip of one of her periodic fits of hating her vigorously which leaves me to cope with both of them and it's NOT FAIR.

Mother had me over on Friday night because she was feeling giddy and nauseous, so I had to spend the night to help her when she got up to pee in the night. She had fallen twice before Christmas, so this was better than another night in the emergency department.

Then again on Sunday because her leg was hurting.

Then today because she rang up to complain that there were no working clocks in the house and she had no idea what time it was or whether it was day or night. I said that I knew for a fact there was a working clock in the room where she spends all day, and that sister had given her a watch at (not for, it was a castoff) at Christmas. Also, that the time now was 2:35, if that was helpful. "That's very helpful. I'll write it down". So of course I had to go over.

She couldn't read the clock because she refuses to wear her spectacles. The watch was by her bedside ("I've looked *everywhere!*") but had run down.

I know that all this means that she is very frightened and lonely, but I also have a living to earn and even to some extent a life to lead. I can't actually sit and hold her hand, which is what she wants, all the time. She is very horribly obviously physically weaker than she has ever been before and the deterioration has been very fast over the last few months.

She has good and sympathetic carers in four times a day but none, clearly, are a substitute for my-son-the-brain-surgeon.

I have a delightful and loving girlfriend, but I can't vent at her all the time and it isn't practical to cross the country to relieve my feelings otherwise and murder my sister even though I am sure the jury would be very understanding. "I've spent all morning talking about her with my therapist and I can't bear to think of her any more."

So I type here. Thank you.


Posted by: Feeling presidential | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:30 PM
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50

That is not fair, FP! Stay strong and non-homicidal.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 1:34 PM
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51

If I go off my meds can I think fast and slow at the same time? Honest to Gawd, back in the seventies they told me the Haloperidol was to slow my thinking down. I says I am not sure that is an entirely accurate description of how dopamine receptor antagonists really work, and they doubled my dosage. I compensated with chasers of IV Preludin and horse tranquilizer.

A Spike in Rates of Pregnancy-related Deaths in Texas Spurs Soul-searching ...black women only, and not Latinas. As WTF as the white working class women dying in droves

Great to live here in Real America.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 2:33 PM
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51: This is quite a correction --

Correction, Aug. 24, 2016: This story originally said a study put the U.S. maternal mortality rate at 23.4 percent in 2014. The study said the rate was 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births that year.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 3:05 PM
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53

I thought the next reading group was Gaudy Night???


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 3:23 PM
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54

Because I'm a feminist.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 3:23 PM
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55

Gaudy Night seems hard -- don't you think the commentariat splits between "read it already and knows it well" and "it's not their kind of thing"? I suppose if everyone participating is affectionately rereading, that could be okay.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 3:57 PM
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49: Oh, man, that is really awful. I don't know what you do, but is this maybe getting to the point where you talk about transitioning to assisted living? Or moving her into your house/really close to you somehow.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 3:59 PM
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55: maybe... I'd be interested in other people's readings, they might pick up on things I missed!


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:11 PM
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58

No idea what I Capture the Castle is about but Thorn seems enthused


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:15 PM
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59

Plus, your St. George/Miss Hillyard slash fiction might have an audience.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:15 PM
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"Larger audience." Apologies.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:18 PM
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No no no. St George / Miss de Vine OTP.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:19 PM
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I wasn't referring to the mass market stuff.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:23 PM
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Sympathies on an emotionally and practically very tough situation, FP. If she has sympathetic and competent checkins multiple times daily, many serious practical risks are covered. It's difficult to see someone you love in distress, but there's only a limited extent to which you can change how other people feel, especially if they are unreasonable.

Don't beat yourself up over her bad feelings, you're going above and beyond normal loving care.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:47 PM
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Sorry FP--just maintaining under those circumstances is so much work and then ugh siblings taking up bandwidth.


Posted by: Clytie | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 4:54 PM
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Back when I was trying to keep long hair put up, I maybe over identified with Miss de Vine's hairpin issues.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 5:33 PM
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Don't those poke into your brain?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 6:26 PM
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Possibly I'm thinking of hat pins.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-10-17 6:28 PM
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So, I count 4 for summaries (me, Thorn, Walt, LB), another 4 for reading. Which doesn't strike me as enough. What say you all?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 7:23 AM
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Most of my free reading time over the next six months is going to be devoted to SF&F, as I try to figure out first what to nominate (by March 17) and then what to vote for (by the end of July) for the Hugo Awards. Has anyone read any good stuff that was published in 2016 to recommend?


Posted by: Dave W. | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:12 AM
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Let me be the first to suggest Chuck Tingle.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:13 AM
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Chuck Tingle continues to do excellent work.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:19 AM
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68. I'm in for a summary, just not for short-notice backup. Still only 5.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:23 AM
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73

Damn you, Moby. This is what slacking off on refreshing constantly gets me.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:23 AM
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74

It's possible that Pissed on by Putin isn't sufficiently removed from reality to count as "Fantasy."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:23 AM
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I'm recalling TFAS as pretty light -- I think doing it in five chunks would be perfectly plausible.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:24 AM
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73: I did say "Let me be the first." I thought you were just seconding me.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:25 AM
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77

You mean I wouldn't have even looked pwned if I'd just kept my mouth shut? This gets worse and worse.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:32 AM
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78

Also, Heebie stepped up in 40


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:38 AM
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"Commenting Fast and Slow"

By Moby Hick and LizardBreath


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:39 AM
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"Moby Hick, A.B.D"


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 11:48 AM
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81

"LizardBreath, no, honestly, it's a kind of doctorate."


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 12:27 PM
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82

Ok, alive then. When do people want to start? I'm ok with whenever.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 8:02 PM
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I need to be relatively late in the process. My next month is kind of awful.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 8:20 PM
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84

I would think Helpy-Chalk would also be game to take a chapter.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 8:21 PM
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85

I'd do a chunk of TFAS.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 8:21 PM
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We should start on a Tuesday because that's the day writing was invented on.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 8:27 PM
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I would totes do a chapter


Posted by: Keir | Link to this comment | 01-11-17 8:36 PM
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88

So, eight readers (me, Thorn, Walt, LB, lw, Heebie, Nathan, Keir) 40 chapters (counting intro and conclusion), 5 chapters each. Ok? How many chapters a post are reasonable?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01-12-17 6:56 AM
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89

Three.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-17 7:07 AM
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90

I have to say: rather underwhelming response. Maybe Brandon Milanoovic's Global Inequality?


Posted by: X. Trapnel | Link to this comment | 01-13-17 3:21 PM
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91

Fucking autocorrect. Branko.


Posted by: X. Trapnel | Link to this comment | 01-13-17 3:22 PM
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92

How about Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate?


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-13-17 6:47 PM
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93

Second 90. I'll read the Milanovic.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01-13-17 10:16 PM
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