This quarter marked a milestone: I have posted every day for 3K days in a row!
That’s more than eight years, now. I guess we’re going for a decade?
Readership-unknown
That’s nice, but..
Is anyone reading the posts? I don’t know. The stats are running far fewer hits than last year, but I don’t know what that means. Is this an artifact of the reporting system? Is this an artifact of something I don’t see, such as WordPress publicizing? Perhaps WordPress has improved its robot filtering, killing a lot of bogus traffic. Is this a side effect of larger factors, such as the fragmentation of the internet? (E.g., I get no hits from China, and now from Russia.)
Or are people just not looking at my stuff?
Not that it matters. I’m blogging for my own benefit. If other people like it, that’s pure bonus for me.
Recurring Features
Some Dave Barry Tribute Band Names
A few ideas for band names, from real science and technology articles.
“Leidenfrost effect“
“Structured Thermal Armour”
“Embayment”
“Foehn wind” (which is “A warm, dry, downslope wind”)—so
“Downslope wind”
Books Reviewed This Quarter
6 non-fiction, 19 fiction this quarter
Special mention for: Math Without Numbers by Milo Beckman and The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Non-Fiction
Treasured by Christina Riggs
Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies by Barry Meier
The Modern Detective by Tyler Maroney
The 1619 Project ed. by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein
Math Without Numbers by Milo Beckman
Otherlands by Thomas Halliday
Fiction
Anthem by Noah Hawley
Quantum of Nightmares by Charles Stross
Escape From Yokai Land by Charles Stross
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Goodbye Coast by Joe Ide
Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
Mermaid Confidential by Tim Dorsey
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
D (A Tale of Two Worlds) by Michel Faber
Creative Types by Tom Bissell
White on White by Ayşegül Savaş
Harrow by Joy Williams
Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner
Constance Verity Destroys the Universe by A. Lee Martinez
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Robert McGrath's Blog 