CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Uncle Tungsten" a memoir of wartime boyhood by Oliver Sachs.

Done. An inneresting family. And an inneresting man. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Top Secret Ultra" by Peter Calvocoressi: yet another book about Enigma, which seems to have been somewhat of an obsession for many years.

[Zigenare]

Done. An inneresting family. And an inneresting man. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Top Secret Ultra" by Peter Calvocoressi: yet another book about Enigma, which seems to have been somewhat of an obsession for many years.

I always thought that Tommy Flowers didn't get the recognition he deserved.

[DoctorStrangelove]

I always thought that Tommy Flowers didn't get the recognition he deserved.

He doesn't get any recognition at all in "Top Secret Ultra", there's no explicit mention of Colossus, it being largely about the author's experiences in Hut 3.

It's more inneresting than "Secret Days" by Asa Briggs*, which isn't saying much.


*which last has departed to Oxfam without being reread.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Top Secret Ultra" by Peter Calvocoressi: yet another book about Enigma, which seems to have been somewhat of an obsession for many years.

Done. Thankfully shorter than some tomes on same. Off to Oxfam with it (whence it came about 9 years ago).

Next: Star Trek(tm) Memories by the WWWC's avatar.


And, to celebrate a dead bird**: https://siliconshelf.files.wordpress..._lesson_ss.pdf

(No idea now what the dead bird reference was about, but that's the Arthur C. Clarke story about the Venusians finding a canister of film after mankind is wiped out by a snowball Earth event).

Then there's "Lucifer" by Roger Zelazny:

http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/ZELQZNY/Lucifer.txt

**I suspect the dead bird reference is the last Hawaii male bird singing to a female who would never appear. Tragic. Easily found on the interweb.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaua%C...8D%CA%BB%C5%8D

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: Star Trek(tm) Memories by the WWWC's avatar.

Done. He seemed quite surprised in 1993 that his colleagues weren't overly enamoured of him. James Doohan wouldn't even speak to him for the book.

I'd forgotten (it being 20 years since I read it) the ins & outs of the 3rd season.

Next: Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith, being a biog of Marie Curie.

I suppose dissolving tons of pitchblend in acid and subsequently performing fractional crystalization some 15,000 times to separate out the radium & polonium might be regarded as slightly single minded.

Stone me:

https://lamethodecurie.fr/en/article27.html

The Curies received two tons of residues in 1899, six tons in 1900 and five tons in 1902.

By 1902, after a great deal of effort, they had managed to extract 0.1 gram of radium chloride from the 13 tons of residues.

.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith, being a biog of Marie Curie.

An inneresting & surprisingly easy read. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Oh. 23% chance of death in service due to flying accidents. Not including combat.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Oh. 23% chance of death in service due to flying accidents. Not including combat.

I think I preferred the film. . Off to Oxfam with it. Dunno when I bought it, must be 10 years ago at least.

Next: TBD. "Breach of Promise: Labour in Power 1964 - 1970" by Clive Ponting.

It's been on the bookshelf for decades, time to read it & get shot of it.

Stone me, full of names from yesteryear: SEATO, CENTO. Ray Gunter, Barbra Castle, Harold Wilson, Roy Jenkins, Tony Crossland.

No sign of Tony Benn so far.

Impressive that Sir Stuart Hampshire was doing a report on GCHQ whilst the funnies were busy investigating if he was a KGB spy or not. Just as well the Septics never found out or they'd have been really irritated, since he visited the NSA as well.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Google Story" by David A. Vise. Totally up to date having been written in 2005.

Of marginal innerest, really, in Chapter 25 there's a mention of one of their "friends" who has this ambition to found a colony on Mars, so they suggest he starts a rocket company. Not named but it's not much of a guess. .

Off to Oxfam with it.

The GLAT test in the back proves that I had no fecking chance whatsofeckingever of working for Google.

Just as well I couldn't be arsed to then.

https://thegooglestory.com/the-glat/

Beyond Uhura by Nichelle Nichols. Another book by someone less than enthusiastic about the WWWC.

[DoctorStrangelove]

I think I preferred the film. . Off to Oxfam with it. Dunno when I bought it, must be 10 years ago at least.

Next: TBD. "Breach of Promise: Labour in Power 1964 - 1970" by Clive Ponting.

It's been on the bookshelf for decades, time to read it & get shot of it.

Stone me, full of names from yesteryear: SEATO, CENTO. Ray Gunter, Barbra Castle, Harold Wilson, Roy Jenkins, Tony Crossland.

No sign of Tony Benn so far.

Impressive that Sir Stuart Hampshire was doing a report on GCHQ whilst the funnies were busy investigating if he was a KGB spy or not. Just as well the Septics never found out or they'd have been really irritated, since he visited the NSA as well.

Stone me. That took some doing. Wilson was a remarkably wily character and thoroughly unimpressive as PM. As someone remarked, he'd have made a good permanent secretary in full on Yes Minister mode. .

Next: TBD there being so little choice. .

"Why can't elephants jump?". New Scientist book of Important Questions That Need Answers. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: TBD there being so little choice. .

"Why can't elephants jump?". New Scientist book of Important Questions That Need Answers. .

Done. Gosh that was an easier and more pleasant read. Off to Oxfam with it!

Next: "Beam me up Scotty" by James Doohan who very probably has very little good to say about the WWWC's avatar. .

Then again, he's not exactly alone in that. .