User Profile

Nibsy

Nibsy@bookrastinating.com

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

My reading interests are broad and mostly non-fiction. I typically stick to topics related to nature, the environment, and science in general. However, lately I've taken an interest in cultural anthropology, history, and the sociological factors that are driving a growing mistrust in science, scientists, and scientific institutions. I have a couple of other accounts in the fediverse, which I've joined recently. But, as a reader (and recovering GR user), this little nook of the fediverse looked particularly interesting to me.

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reviewed The Petroleum Papers by Geoff Dembicki

Geoff Dembicki: The Petroleum Papers (Hardcover, 2022, Greystone Books Ltd.) 4 stars

In The Petroleum Papers, investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki tells the story of how the American …

Well documented, but ended too soon

4 stars

This review was originally published on The Ink Smudge, March 1, 2023.

Journalist Geoff Dembicki's The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change follows naturally from an earlier book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, Merchants of Doubt, which documents a complex campaign of disinformation to discredit science on matters of political importance, such as denying the negative health effects of smoking, the ecological impact of pesticides, and human-induced climate change. Oreskes and Conway showed that these propaganda campaigns are mostly based around a strategy developed by the tobacco industry in the 1950s, usually by a relatively small number of bad actors. It involves funding scientific research that produces industry-friendly results, grooming credentialed scientists to represent industry's interests in court, and challenging mainstream science in both traditional and, more recently, social media to give the public the illusion that the science is uncertain. This …

@Emmacox@writing.exchange As Marcus Aurelius' daily journal, Meditations is one person's Stoic philosophy in practice, rather than a philosophy text. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it. Like I said in my review, it leaves you scratching your chin once you realise that almost everything he wrote in his journal 2000 years ago is probably relevant to your own life today. And, BTW, it resonates with me, too!

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations (Paperback, 2003, Modern Library) 4 stars

was born on April 26, A.D. 121. His real name was M. Annius Verus, and …

A book that transcends time

5 stars

It's difficult to review a book that has been read by many thousands or millions of people over the past two thousand years or so, including world leaders, philosophers and other academics, athletes, and everyday people who just want to live their best lives possible. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome (161-180), was never intended to be read by anyone other than its author. It is a collection of Aurelius' thoughts as they occurred to him, presumably over the course of his life. This book has no plot, no story arc, and no relatable characters, per se. Instead, it's a record of his daily journal that has been translated, interpreted, and transcribed repeatedly down through the ages. The individual entries have been compiled into 12 books, which are loosely arranged in chronological order; although there is some debate about that.

This book is remarkable for two important reasons. …

reviewed Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland

Polly Morland, Baker, Richard: Fortunate Woman (2023, Pan Macmillan) 4 stars

Humanity is not lost yet . . .

4 stars

As author Polly Morland was cleaning her mother's library she came across a misplaced book. It was, "A Fortunate Man" (1967) by John Berger, which was about a country doctor who practiced in her own community some five decades before. This book is about the doctor who replaced the Fortunate Man, who herself was inspired to pursue family medicine by the same book when she was a medical student two decades earlier.

This biography is as much about person and place as it is about the transformation of family medicine from the human connections of a country doctor to a monolithic public service focused on efficiencies, fiscal accountability, and key performance indicators. It's a story that mirrors a similar transformation of society at large. As a member of the community she serves, the Fortunate Doctor knows her patients as more than just reporting data, but as human beings, and all …

Michael Faber: The Book of Strange New Things (2014, Hogarth) 4 stars

A Sci-Fi Adventure For Self-Reflection

3 stars

Peter Leigh transformed his life from a down-and-out junkie by embracing religion and becoming a well respected pastor. He married Beatrice, the nurse who saved him from himself and cared for him through the worst of his transformation. They both offered their services to USIC, a private corporation that was trying to establish a human colony on Oasis, a far off planet light years from Earth. After a rigorous screening process, Peter was hired on a mission to bring religion to the indigenous people of Oasis, the Oasans. Bea, who did not get past the initial screening, stayed home, holding down the fort and caring for their cat, Joshua, while the world fell down around her.

This is a story about western colonialism and corporate exploitation of indigenous peoples for power and profit, and how religious indoctrination is used to achieve those ends. Despite Peter's best intentions, he was blind …

Thomas M. Nichols: The Death of Expertise (2017) 4 stars

A cult of anti-expertise sentiment has coincided with anti-intellectualism, resulting in massively viral yet poorly …

A Timely Warning; But Will It Be Heard?

4 stars

The last several years have seen a rise in contempt for expertise by a growing segment of society who seem to embrace, or even celebrate, ignorance. Examples from around the world are easy to find, but no more so than in the United States--especially since Donald Trump was elected, given his open hostility towards experts. The internet, especially social media, has provided anyone with an opinion--regardless of how misinformed it may be--with a platform that can potentially reach a global audience of millions. This has led to a growing sentiment that anyone's opinion on any matter is just as valid as anyone else's, regardless of the expertise of the person expressing it. Problem is, it's not.

But society has exacerbated this hostility towards expertise in a number of other ways beyond the internet. Shifts in reporting practices in the mainstream media that focus on engagement over veracity has led to …