Show Notes - Week of June 24, 2019

Hello from 53.5° north latitude. It was a fairly quiet week with most of the effort this week channeled towards preparing for a bit of time off work. 

Hypersonic Missiles:
A new arms race is underway, bringing with it the threat of a new Cold War. This article in the New York Times describes what the US is doing to develop a hypersonic missile system. Hypersonic is apparently defined at any speed over Mach 5, with some of the systems described in the article operating at Mach 10, 15, even 20. The weapons travel at "mile-per-second" velocity and are largely unstoppable. They operate too low for one defense system, too high for another, and could take out missile bunkers, seats of power, individual leaders, or even the US aircraft carriers. 

Compare and contrast this with the Titan II missile system from a few decades ago. I just started reading "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser, which documents a nearly catastrophic disaster with a Titan II missile silo in Arkansas. These things are huge, stories high, requiring dozens of people, and constant maintenance. The missile prototypes, like that pictured here to the right, is a few meters long, and could be launched from a fighter jet. The world is much different if a single fighter could dispatch regional air superiority provided by an aircraft carrier, not to mention if a nuclear warhead was attached. 

This technology is not limited in scope to the American or Russian militaries. The Chinese, Indians, French, Japanese, EU, and Australians are also investing in the technology, according to the article. Interesting, scary, fascinating, and unbelievable, all rolled into one topic. 

Roosevelt quote on "The Man in the Arena":
I came across this quote in a meeting this week. It is from Theodore Roosevelt in 1910:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." --Theodore Roosevelt

That's some weird cloud, but fairly typical of the weather this past week.

Reading Pile:
Reading this week was focused one book, "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson. This was the easiest Gibson novel I have read to date, with fairly limited new concepts to have to assimilate. It was also his first novel after 9/11, and so I found it interesting to read a novel written a year after 9/11 depicting a time a decade or so after the fact, and how the characters processed and were still affected by what happened. Clearly the events of September 11, 2001 were fresh in Gibson's mind as he wrote the novel.

As far as a story goes, it was good. Not great though. I was hoping for some sort of Wintermute meets Putin meets Versace-clone, but that didn't happen. It did have some memorable characters, but not ones that were memorable enough to feature in other interrelated stories. I suppose that might be too much to expect again from his novels, but I would love to see it.

On a lighter note, Gibson penned a new acronym that I love: LOMBARD - lots of money but a real dick. 

Other reading started at the end of the week: the aforementioned "Command and Control" and a re-read of "On Basilisk Station" by David Weber.

New beer:
Only one new beer this week, and that was the Ebony Dragon from Alley Kat. I didn't really like it too much but I wasn't sure why. I read a few reviews on Untappd and "resin" came up a few times. I wonder if that is indicative from the Denali hops. Something to explore. (3.25 / 5)

I also unlocked Level 14 of the Beer Explorer badge on Untapped. I don't know what is the difference between the 25 countries unlocked last week and the 70 regions unlocked this week, and unfortunately the stats in Untappd are a bit lacking. I am contemplating becoming a Supporter again to figure out if I can parse that sort of detail out of the stats provided to Supporters. 

Speaking of stats, I hit 600 beers with 563 unique entries since March 23, 2015, which means a net new beer every 2.77 days. 

New words:

at·a·vis·tic
[ˌadəˈvistik]
ADJECTIVE

1. relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.

lan·guid
[ˈlaNGɡwəd]
ADJECTIVE

1. (of a person, manner, or gesture) displaying or having a disinclination for physical exertion or effort; slow and relaxed
   
2. weak or faint from illness or fatigue.

apophenia
[ap·​o·​phe·​nia]
NOUN

1. the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas) 

pri·a·pism
[ˈprīəˌpizəm]
NOUN
medicine

1. persistent and painful erection of the penis. (Hey, it was from Pattern Recognition! Really!)

Oc·ci·dent
[ˈäksidənt]
NOUN

1. the countries of the West, especially Europe and America.Contrasted with orient.

vi·cis·si·tude
[vəˈsisəˌt(y)o͞od]
NOUN
(vicissitudes)

1. a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.

lim·i·nal
[ˈlimənl]
ADJECTIVE
technical

1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
2. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

ci·bo·ri·um
[səˈbôrēəm]
NOUN

1. a receptacle shaped like a shrine or a cup with an arched cover, used in the Christian Church for the reservation of the Eucharist.
   
2. a canopy over an altar in a church, standing on four pillars.