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General Discussion / Re: What have you read lately?
« Last post by FishProf on May 30, 2023, 06:06:24 PM »
Quote from: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 01:27:32 PM
Dinosaurs are always crowd-pleasers, but I also try to give some love to some of the other notable prehistoric fauna.  Like Inostrancevia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia

Which evidently looked something like a cross between a walrus and a sabertooth.

News of Inostrancevia
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General Discussion / Re: What have you read lately?
« Last post by onthefringe on May 30, 2023, 05:08:41 PM »
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 04:53:26 PM

Quote from: jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:54:17 PM
Okay, never read The Hunger Games books or Twilight, as I'm an old snob. Would I like Twilight as well? Also planning to read Wayward Pines.

I dunno. It's on my list of future things to read, but I'm not in a hurry to get to it. Then again, that was true of The Hunger Games, too, and now look at me.

I liked Hunger Games very much for all the reasons Parasaraulophus points out. The sequels were not quite as good, but stubbornly refused to settle into many of the expected teen dystopia tropes.

I tried the first Twilight book and bounced off it hard. It’s basically a poorly written love triangle with a passive central female character and mopey vampires and werwolves. If I want light fantasy werewolf/vampire/adventure/romance books I’m good with the Mercy Thompson series.
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General Discussion / Re: What have you read lately?
« Last post by Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 04:53:26 PM »
Quote from: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 01:27:32 PM
It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to read a good dinosaur book.  I can justify getting maybe one a year for our small-town library's collection.  The latest edition of this might be a good choice for this year's acquisition.

Dinosaurs are always crowd-pleasers, but I also try to give some love to some of the other notable prehistoric fauna.  Like Inostrancevia:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia


I think you'd personally enjoy Witton's The Palaeoartist's Handbook more (incidentally, Witton also restores Cenozoic and Permian fauna--including Inostrancevia!), but yeah, your patrons would be better off with Naish and Barrett.

Quote from: jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:54:17 PM
Okay, never read The Hunger Games books or Twilight, as I'm an old snob. Would I like Twilight as well? Also planning to read Wayward Pines.

I dunno. It's on my list of future things to read, but I'm not in a hurry to get to it. Then again, that was true of The Hunger Games, too, and now look at me.

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General Discussion / Re: The Mental Health Thread
« Last post by apl68 on May 30, 2023, 02:09:07 PM »
I spent much of the past week experiencing mid-level anxiety and depression.  Like with Istiblennius above, it happens sometimes for no very apparent reason.  Sometimes it has been much worse.  I feel like over the past couple of decades I've lost a cumulative total of years of work that I might otherwise have accomplished to episodes like this.  I feel like I could have accomplished so much more if only my mind was hitting consistently on all cylinders.  But I just don't have that kind of mind.  It's frustrating to have a brain that gets sick like that periodically.

I've always been thankful to have a family and other supporters who are concerned enough to pray for me and give me good words to help me through such times.  They were helping me once again through last week's relatively mild episode.  I was doing much better by week's end.  Yesterday's opportunity to get out and around on the holiday also helped.

I've come to understand the situation as what Paul of Tarsus called a "thorn in the flesh:"

"There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to mistreat me.  For this I begged the Lord three times to take it away from me.  He said to me: "My grace is enough for you; my strength is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore I am well pleased with weaknesses, shortages, persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong."

There's a paradoxical way in which weakness can make one stronger in God.  So I guess from that perspective I get periodic workouts at unpredictable intervals.

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General Discussion / Re: What does Fuel Cost in your Neighborhood?
« Last post by hmaria1609 on May 30, 2023, 02:00:40 PM »
Argh! I read the gas tax will go up in Maryland starting July 1st:
https://wtop.com/maryland/2023/05/maryland-gas-tax-will-go-up-to-47-cents-per-gallon-in-july/
Posted on WTOP Radio online 5/30/23
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General Discussion / Re: What have you read lately?
« Last post by jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:54:17 PM »
Okay, never read The Hunger Games books or Twilight, as I'm an old snob. Would I like Twilight as well? Also planning to read Wayward Pines.
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General Discussion / Re: What have you read lately?
« Last post by apl68 on May 30, 2023, 01:27:32 PM »
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 09:20:03 AM

Darren Naish and Paul Barrett - Dinosaurs: How They Lived And Evolved: As far as I can see, this is the best popular up-to-date summary of dinosaur science out there (although it's no longer entirely up to date, since it was published seven years ago; I have the first edition, but the second seems to have made mostly relatively minor adjustments). As such, it's good and accessible (it starts with the very basic basics), and it's nice that it devotes an entire chapter to birds (rather than just Mesozoic birds, or Mesozoic + early Cenozoic), and is entirely unapologetic about birds and dinosaurs. The art selection is a little dated, although the authors don't shy away from critiquing it (the cover of the first edition, however, is bad in all kinds of ways; I gather they had no control over it, and weren't happy about it). Some sections offer what is perhaps a slightly more balanced treatment than is warranted (e.g. the section on the end-Cretaceous extinction). At this point I don't think I learned much that was new to me, but (1) it's good to read an up-to-date palate cleanser after having delved for a bit into the dinosaur science of the '80s and '90s, and (2) there's so much that you're bound to forget stuff, and it's nice to be reminded of it all.

It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to read a good dinosaur book.  I can justify getting maybe one a year for our small-town library's collection.  The latest edition of this might be a good choice for this year's acquisition.

Dinosaurs are always crowd-pleasers, but I also try to give some love to some of the other notable prehistoric fauna.  Like Inostrancevia:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia


Which evidently looked something like a cross between a walrus and a sabertooth.
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General Discussion / Phillip K. Dick and AI
« Last post by jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:11:38 PM »
https://compactmag.com/article/do-androids-dream-of-terrible-streets
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General Discussion / Interesting analysis of Welsh medical study
« Last post by jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:09:11 PM »
https://doctorbuzz.substack.com/p/will-a-shingles-vaccine-prevent-alzheimers
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General Discussion / Re: NYT Spelling Bee
« Last post by Langue_doc on May 30, 2023, 11:15:41 AM »
Afternoon!

Easy QB today. Missed enoki and noogie yesterday.

ab_grp, trip leaders are volunteers so don't get involved with transportation and related issues that paid trips routinely handle. We do need to sign waivers acknowledging that the organization is not responsible for injuries or other adverse effects from the trip. I've met interesting people on these walks--I once found an apartment through a fellow hiker when I lived in the midwest. Another fellow hiker who lived within walking distance would have me over for a movie and dessert on occasion. I've also been asked out on dates here and also in the Midwest. Nice people, so stayed friendly with them without getting into any complications. A fellow hiker from my midwest days was surprised (probably peeved) that the person who had asked her out on a date had also approached me.

Happy solving!
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