The review in Time mag writes that this is a retelling of heart of darkness.
A woman ethnobiologist has found a fertility drug, deep in the Amazon, and then goes feral.
She doesn't respect indigenous healers, referring to their methods as "poorly recorded gossip handed down ... from people who knew very little to people who know even less."
And here I was today, thinking of what might make a good story idea. "The Honeybadger Diaries."
A quote with no easy source:
When the same medium is used both as a store of value and as a medium of exchange, the result is an ineventable conflict between the interests of debters and savers.
...
In modern America, most people are both, with their savings equal to their debts, giving a net worth of zero.
The question on the title asks if the US should return to the gold standard OR allow a second gold-backed currency, which would be legal tender.
Came up with the phrase net neutrality, consultant.
Starts with the story of a guy at Bell Labs, who invented magnetic recording. ATT squelched out because a survey showed that 2/3rd of phone calls were "indecent". They were afraid that people would stop using the phone if they thought they were being recorded.
Will the internet stay free? reviews history of other communication breakthroughs, all of which end up with a monopoly.
Positives: internet was designed with freedom in mind.
Negatives: economic principles and human nature. Most people want the bell curve, no one likes dissenters.
He seemed strangely unprepared for the questions. Most seemed obvious given his talk, but there was no evidence that he had rehearsed answers. In many cases it didn't even seem he had thought of the question.
He was carefully neutral on everything he said. Not strongly against anything. Not a boat rocker. Very concious that if he seemed anti business, or anti any one business, he would catch hell.
Article in Herald Trib on Amanda Hocking, who is the first major breakthrough author from self/e-publishing. She writes pulp fiction fantasy romance (her description, she has no pretension). The books take about a year to develop in her head and 4 weeks to write.
She studied books in bookstores to learn what worked, what sold. She priced her books low: under 3 bucks.She used Amazon and smashwords.
My idea: I want to write pop science books.
Inspiration comes from the Wired article on the angels share, which commented that fungus live in every environment, no matter how hostile or artificial.
Thesis: single celled or simple life can maintain more diversity than larger forms, with extreme minority variants able to maintain the barest existence up until they happen upon favorable environments, such as a whiskey warehouse.
The general theme of preserving a few outliers just in case. Most of the time they are not god for much, but every now and then they save the species/civilization.
Define progress as cumulative and irreversible change. This is clearly possible in science and technology, but he maintains it is not so in politics and ethics. Evidence: a US president condoning torture.
