Build, Baby, Build

Build, Baby, Build : The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation (2024) written by Bryan Caplan and illustrated by Ady Branzei is a marvelous comic book introduction to the Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) movement and the economic ideas behind it. Caplan is an economist at George Mason University.

The book starts with the economic fundamentals of supply and demand and why houses cost a different amount in different places. Then Caplan explains how scarcity is created by rules that don’t allow for the full potential economic use of land. Here the Glaeser and Gyorko paper on the impact of zoning is introduced. Nicely, Caplan introduces in comic form the actual authors. This method is continued throughout the book and some surprising characters appear. Caplan then describes how reducing restrictions can help. The objections to zoning changes are next to be addressed. The French economist Bastiat is introduced and his concept of missing possibilities is very well added. After touring more economists freeing up zoning is described as a ‘consilience’, that is position that can be reached from different starting points and values. Finally the YIMBY path is outlined and the way it can be realised is described.

YIMBYism has a pretty strong base and is fairly popular across different political views. Caplan does really well putting the argument into comic form and Branzei’s illustration’s are excellent. For housing wonks the book references many of the major economic writers on the subject and there is an extensive notes section. It’s hard not to be delighted when someone like ‘Bernard Siegan’ is mentioned and brought to life. It’s really a very well done book. It’s surprising just how well a comic can be used to introduce so many ideas. It’s also fun how so many figures from economics and philosophy are brought to life.

Build, Baby, Build is a fantastic book that a lot of people will enjoy and get a lot out of. It’s a tremendous use of comic books and a good short read to understand why so many people support zoning deregulation. After reading it Nolan Gray’s also excellent ‘Arbitrary Lines’ would make a very good follow on.

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear Fusion : The Race to Build a Mini-Sun on Earth (2022) by Sharon Ann Holgate is a short book that provides a overview of nuclear fusion. It’s part of the Hot Science series edited by Brian Clegg. Holgate has a doctorate in Physics and has written a number of popular books on science and a physics textbook.

The book begins with an overview of nuclear physics and describes what fusion is. Then there is a chapter that quickly looks at the z-pinch and then moves on to tokamaks. There is then more on Tokamaks and some detail is given to looking at ITER and Wendelstein 7-X. The next chapter features the NIF and inertial confinement fusion and also General Fusion. There there is more in ITER. There is also a chapter that has a few pages about Fukushima, which is a curious choice for a book about nuclear fusion. There is also a description of the role of robots in in fusion and then finally a description of the progress of fusion and how the race is on to get a working reactor.

The book actually meanders around and tries to cover too much. The book The Future of Fusion Energy covers the topic in more depth and does a better job. The book That Star Builders looks at a number of the current experiments and companies in more detail. A Piece of the Sun cover the history of fusion experiments in more detail. Nuclear Fusion : The Race to Build a Mini-Sun on Earth is the shortest of these books but it’s probably going to be confusing to anyone as a popular book on fusion.

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea (1952) by Ernest Hemingway is a powerful, short novel.

Santiago is an aging fisherman in Cuba. He has a young friend who comes to help him. His luck has been bad for months. The story focuses on a fishing voyage where he needs to catch a big fish. The story is sparse and moving.

The Old Man and the Sea is a great book.

Shogun

Shogun (2024) created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks is an adaptation of the 1975 book Shogun by James Clavell.

The series and the book have great material to work with. The series follows John Blackthorne, who is a fictional English sailor who arrives in Japan around 1600. Blackthorne is modelled in the real life character William Adams. At the time the Portugese were trading with Japan and the English were keen to displace them. Protestant and Catholics were also in conflict.

Blackthorne quickly encounters Lord Toranaga who is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu. He also meets Lady Mariko, a woman from a disgraced family who has converted to Christianity.

There is much political intrigue. There is also much made of staunch adherence to tradition and duty. It all looks amazing.

The TV series is well worth a look. The first few episodes are definitely the strongest. Shogun portrays a truly fascinating historical meeting, that of Europeans with the Japanese with considerable aplomb.

Fallout

Fallout (2024) the TV series was created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. It is an adaptation of the successful Fallout RPG series. Wagner was a producer for Portlandia, Silicon Valley and the US adaptation of the Office.

I haven’t played the Fallout games but I am aware of their impact and I own a few in my pile of virtual shame. The TV series works really well for someone who has no knowledge of the game.

The series is set in a retro-futuristic fantasy setting of life after nuclear wars. It’s an interesting universe.

There are vault dwellers who live in vaults beneath the surface. On the surface are ghouls who have survived radiation poisoning. There are also other humans, some of who join groups like the Brotherhood of Steel who fight in powered armour.

The story concerns Lucy who is a vault dweller. After a raid from the surface her father is kidnapped and she leaves the vault for the surface to rescue him. There she meets ‘the ghoul’ who is an old bounty hunter. She also meets Max who is a squire in the Brotherhood.

The Ghoul, portrayed by Walton Goggins is very well done. The story also flips between the era shortly before the war where the ghoul was a famous actor and the post apocalypse.

The TV series for Fallout is remarkably well done. It’ll be great to see the second series.

Viper Pilot

Viper Pilot : A Memoir of Air Combat (2012) by Dan Hampton describes Hampton’s time as an F-16 pilot. He flew Wild Weasel Missions in the first and second US Gulf Wars. Wild Weasel operations are missions that target SAMs and anti-aircraft guns. They are decidedly dangerous.

The US has reached the point where there is very little air combat against adversaries that are a real threat. Instead SAMs have become by far the biggest danger to US aircraft. As Hampton writes

“During the Vietnam War, over eleven hundred fixed-wing aircraft were shot down from SAMs and Triple-A; seventy-seven were shot down by MiGs. The U.S. military had lost just one fixed-wing aircraft to air combat in Operation Desert Storm and Kosovo, but eighteen were downed from ground threats.”

The descriptions of air combat are well done. It’s also interesting to read about how much improved US jets and their systems were between the first and second Gulf Wars.

Unfortunately Hampton also comes across as really arrogant. This is something that fast jet pilots do appear to suffer from. However, when listening to the excellent ‘Fighter Pilot Podcast’ they also come across as super hard working and aware of just how hard they have to work to really make it and don’t come off nearly as brash as Hampton does.

Viper Pilot is quite a good read and for anyone interested in how you can target SAMs it’s worth a read.

The Little Prince

The Little Prince (1943) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a charming tale featuring a small prince who appears to the author in the desert as he is fixing his crashed plane.

The book is full of symbolism as the prince travels.

It’s a sweet, sad book that is well worth reading.

The Anxious Generation

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024) by Jonthan Haidt is a book that every parent should read. Haidt is a professor of psychology at NYU.

There is an interesting and somewhat confrontational interview with Haidt on the Conversations with Tyler podcast.

The book’s thesis is that the rapid rise in mental illness that has been seen in most of the Anglosphere and Scandinavia and particularly in the US is substantially caused by the increase in screen time for kids and in particular by smartphones and girls using social media. The mental health of boys is also being impacted by more by playing games too much.

Haidt makes his case pretty well. It is just too big a coincidence that just as smartphones and social media appear so do rates of mental illness. It could be causation, but it’s pretty unlikely. There is something interesting in that smartphones have affected kids in the Anglosphere and Scandinavia more than in other countries. Perhaps social and family ties have been better maintained in other countries.

The book makes pretty strong recommendations about how kids need more free play without adult supervision and how screen time should be limited and kids shouldn’t have accounts on social media until they are 16. Schools should also have phones locked away for the duration of the day. Where I live in Australia this has just become the policy.

The Anxious Generation is definitely worth a read for anyone with kids. The impact of screens on adults is probably the next thing that is worth writing about. That might be Haidt’s next book. Of course, the impact of screens should only be explored after I’ve finished writing this review and you’ve finished reading it.

Doom Guy

Doom Guy : Life in First Person (2023) by John Romero is Romero’s autobiography. Romero was one of the founders of id Software and one of the co-creators of Doom, Quake and thus the genre of first person shooters.

Romero grew up poor with a alcoholic and violent father and then step fathers. He overcame a lot and became fascinated with computers and managed to gain access to them and worked incredibly hard to learn how to program them. He really, really wanted to create games and managed to do so.

After getting jobs in the games industry and making a go of it he teamed up with John Carmack and they formed id Games, which would drastically change the computer gaming world. Pushing the limits of what was possible with a PC first with Commander Keen and then with the huge breakthrough of Doom.

The books section on id as they created Doom are really good. It’s a fine portrait of a small team of incredibly hard working and skilled people creating a cultural touch point. Doom Guy provides an excellent view into this and adds to what was in the also excellent book Masters of Doom.

The creation of Quake and the spit between Romero and Carmack is well described with a remarkable lack of anger by Romero. The chapters on Ion Storm are also really interesting.

Romero has led an incredible life and helped to create something that had a huge impact. Doom Guy is well worth a read for anyone interested in computer games.

Wind, Sand and Stars

Wind, Sand and Stars (1939) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry recounts the author’s experience as a pilot in the early age of global aviation flying mail around the world.

The book describes what it was like to fly when aircraft were much less reliable and the world was not as well known. The pilots were real adventurers. The book goes into detail about when the author crash landed in the desert and thought he may well die. The books final large section is about seeing the Spanish Civil War. Finally the book sumarises how we can see life.

Wind, Sand and Stars is of considerable interest as it skillfully evokes what an adventure flight was in the past and blends it with the author’s view on how this reflects on life.