Follow the Science?

In a recent opinion piece for aljazeera.com [In science we trust], Andrew Mitrovica tells us that now that the "white-coat army" of scientists and physicians have lead the way to realizing humanity’s salvation by kinda-sorta-almost-very nearly tackling COVIS-19, we should finally address the problem of climate change by.......ta da !!!!..... following the science.

Of course, it might have been helpful if Mitrovica had actually explained what he means by that.

Groups such as Fridays for Future demand that we
1) Keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels.
2) End Fossil Fuel Investments, and
3) Listen to the best united science currently available.

How do we keep global temperature below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels? One way, activists say, is to end fossil fuel investments world wide. Unfortunately for activists, people have a need for energy. How can those in the "global North" survive in winter without heating? We need fossil fuel to power the trucks and trains that transport food from one location to another. Can we reasonably expect people to sit back and freeze and face starvation?

People all over the planet have come to expect a certain lifestyle which depends on reliable energy sources. Electricity and clean water come with a cost.

What does it mean to "Ensure climate justice and equity" and secure "Climate justice and equity for everyone"? Should the poor in the Third World do without the "luxuries" that First World people call "basic necessities" ?

I agree that certain changes in the environment need to happen, but those changes can't happen without a one world, totalitarian government in control of the planet. In spite of what many may think, we're nowhere near that yet.

Literary References

 

I find it interesting, while reading a work of fiction, to come upon the name of another author or the mentioning of a book that one of the characters in the fictional work has read or is reading. I find it of particular interest if I'm familiar with the book mentioned.

One example is in a work of Agatha Christie which I've just finished, Death on the Nile . In the novel, Christie notes that one characters has a copy of Erewhon by Samuel Butler. Erewhon was one of the dystopian novels I read this past April.

Another example is from the Christie novel I've just began reading last night - Appointment with Death.  In the very opening of the novel, Hercule Poirot overhears a bit of conversation which reminds him of a story he once heard concerning the writer, Anthony Trollope. According to this story, Trollope was crossing the Atlantic at the time, and overheard two passengers discussing the last published installment of one of his novels.

"Very good", one man said, "but he ought to kill off that tiresome old woman".
Trollope was said to have told the men,
"Gentlemen, I am much obliged to you! I will go and kill her immediately!"

There is no mention of which Trollope novel was being referred to. I spent a good deal of time in April reading Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire ; I don't know if the reference is to one of those novels. If it is, I suspect the "tiresome old woman" might have been the wife of Bishop Proudie.

I suppose I'll never really know for certain.

Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Upon finishing Murder on the Orient Express , I immediately consulted the Agatha Christie bibliography to find my next book. I discovered, Why Didn't They Ask Evans? . For me, a more proper title might have been, Why Did I Bother to Read This Book?

This is far and away the strangest, most bizarre Agatha Christie novel I've read to date. The amazing thing is that when it was published in 1934, the book received glowing reviews. That is the greater mystery.

Often times Christie would come up with an off the wall ending to her mystery novel. She outdid herself in offthewalledness with Why Didn't They Ask Evans? . Had this been my first exposure to the work of Agatha Christie, I would not have read anything else written by her. I really can't say enough about how much I disliked this book.

Murder on the Orient Express

At the half-way point of my month of reading the works of Agatha Christie, I've just finished reading one of her more famous books, Murder on the Orient Express. Of course, I've watched film and television adaptations of the novel - although it's been several years.

It has been so long, in fact, I had forgotten most of the details of the story. Once I had begun reading, however, most of the plot came back to me, even though certain details remained forgotten.

I had not realized that the novel was "inspired" by the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's son in 1932. I had not put 2 and 2 together, but it would have been evident to the readers of the book in 1934 when it was first published. Seems a bit exploitative to me. 

Be that as it may, it was worth the time I put in reading the e-book.

The Agatha Christie Bibliography

 

When I began my quest to read the works of Agatha Christie, I decided to read the novels in the order they were published. I've managed to do that - more or less. To facilitate the process, I've followed the Agatha Christie bibliography as posted on Wikipedia.

Having finished The Murder at the Vicarage , I checked the bibliography for the next novel - Giant's Bread - which Christie wrote under the nom de plume, Mary Westmacott. I immediately went to the website where I fetch my Christie novels as EPUB and discovered that the works of Mary Westmacott are not included. I've been unable to locate any Mary Westmacott novels for free download.

Next on the list came The Floating Admiral . This was a collaborative detective novel written by fourteen members of the Detection Club in 1931. Unfortunately, this isn't available in the Agatha Christie collection were I obtain my efiles.

It's been my habit to download the files in groups of three. The next three on the list are The Sittaford Mystery, Peril at End House and Lord Edgware Dies . The last two are in the Hercule Poirot canon. I finished reading The Sittaford Mystery last night and will proceed to Peril at End House later today.

I did not realize at first that the Agatha Christie bibliography on the Wikipedia page lists the novels and short story collections separately. Accordingly, I should have read the short story collections, Partners in Crime and The Mysterious Mr Quin before The Murder at the Vicarage. As neither of those collections include my favorites - Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot - and as I have already uploaded the next three novels to my Kindle, I will read those three before dealing with the two short story collections.

The Murder at the Vicarage

I've finally reached the point, in my quest to immerse myself in the works of Agatha Christie , to where I've gotten to the first novel featuring Miss Marple - The Murder at the Vicarage. Until recently, my exposure to works featuring Miss Marple (and Hercule Poirot) has been through movies and television only. As I write this, The Murder at the Vicarage. is the 11th Agatha Christie novel I've read.

I've found that I'm not as fond of her novels which do not feature either Marple or Poirot. I'll continue to read those, of course. As much as I love the Poirot character, I'm putting The Murder at the Vicarage as my favorite, so far. I'm taking into account the fact that the ending of the first Miss Marple novel has similarities to the ending of the first Hercule Poirot novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

It never ceases to amaze me that I'm always surprised when the killer is revealed in an Agatha Christie novel. I can never predict who he or she will turn out to be in the end.

The novel was adapted twice for British television. Once in December 1986, with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and a second time in 2004 with Geraldine McEwan in the leading role. It's quite possible that I've watched both, but that would have been ages ago. Neither helped me solve the mystery in the novel.

The Seven Dials Mystery

For me, April of this year had become the month for reading dystopian novels, while May was the month for mostly Anthony Trollope, with bits of Agatha Christie thrown in at the end.

With my having just finished reading my 9th Agatha Christie mystery for this month, it should be obvious that June will become a full blown Agatha Christie month.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've discovered a website that has all of Christies' novels available for download as EPUB files. Of course, these files are unreadable on a Kindle until converted into MOBI. Fortunately, there's another website which can accommodate.

In addition to the eight novels read so far in June, I read two of the earliest novels at the end of May, making the total, so far, ten. I've tried, for the most part, to read these books in the order in which they were published.

Last night, I finished The Seven Dials Mystery. This novel was the second Christie novel to take place in and around the fictional estate - Chimneys (the first being The Secret of Chimneys ). There are a number of characters appearing in both books, and I suspect that Christie may have intended to develop this into a larger series. However, The Seven Dials Mystery received mostly unfavorable reviews when it was released, so Christie may have changed her mind on that.

I tend to agree with the reviewers of the time who thought that the novel started out well, but found the ending absolutely far fetched - The New York Times reviewer calling the solution "utterly preposterous".

I will say one thing; the ending took me by surprise.

Having finished The Seven Dials Mystery , I'm on to the first in the Miss Marple canon - The Murder at the Vicarage.

Climate Scientist Jane Fonda

Climate scientist Jane Fonda is upset with President Joe Biden, who she says is not moving fast enough on climate change.

According to Fonda,
"He's done a lot and we're really grateful. But the crisis is too severe to do a few good things here and then not do anything where bad stuff is happening."

Climate scientist Jane Fonda is also quoted as saying
"The scientists say we have less than nine years to cut our emissions in half."

I'm sorry to say that it is impossible for the people on this planet to cut emissions in half in nine years. If what she says is correct then it's all over. If we only have nine years, as climate scientist Jane Fonda tells us, then you might as well kiss your ass goodbye.

More Agatha Christie

At the end of May, I left off reading Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series and took up reading the works of Agatha Christie. I had read her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 2014, when that was the only novel written by her that was in the public domain and free for download at Project Gutenberg. Since that time, five additional books have become available for download there.

With a bit of searching, I discovered that all of Christie's novels are available somewhere for download, although those novels are not in the public domain. One particular website makes them all available as EPUB files. Of course, these cannot be read on Kindle in that format. There are however, sites which will convert EPUB to MOBI free of charge. I was able to download a few and convert and place into the queue. I'm not sure if posting a link to the website where I found the EPUB files is a good idea.

In the past week, I've managed to read six Christie novels (with a 7th novel currently being read). Four of the six are in the Hercule Poirot canon. Of the works I've read so far, I prefer the Poirot.

Book seven is The Secret of Chimneys . When I've finished this one, I'll return to the Poirot canon with The Mystery of the Blue Train. I've still have a few more to read before I come upon the first novel featuring Miss Marple, The Murder at the Vicarage.

Is Google AdSense Worth the Hassle?

 

Since day one of this blog, I've attempted to display Google AdSense ads. So far, I've been unsuccessful. I've found this to be odd on Googles' part as I've had AdSense on two others blogs for quite a long time.

I regularly receive emails from Google AdSense letting me know that the site isn't ready for ads. The emails suggest that the problem lies with a lack of content on this blog. That's a puzzle to me, as I try to update this blog on a regular basis. I suspect that the problem may actually be that Google doesn't particularly care for the content I place into this blog. Fair enough, I suppose.

When these emails appear in my inbox, I'm told to go to the "sites" area on the AdSense website. Going there, I see that this blog, robertsimms.blogspot.com isn't "ready", although my other blogs, sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com and dumaguetewebsite.blogspot.com are shown as being OK. Everything says the AdSense status of those two blogs is working fine, however, as I write this, AdSense is not working on either of those blogs.

I suppose Google AdSense is dissatisfied with my performance. That works both ways. My sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com blog has been active on AdSense for quite a long time, but it has been years since I've received any money from Google. As a matter of fact, my last payment was received in Sept. 2013. The program really isn't as profitable as Google would have us believe.

I have to wonder if it's even worth the hassle.

May's Reading List

For several years, it had been my habit to keep a list of the books that I've read and I would post the list for an entire year on to one of my blogs. Naturally enough, my last annual book list was for the books read in 2020.

Beginning this year, I began posting my book list for each month - the first monthly book list being my January's Book List. Continuing in that new tradition, I'm posting today the books I read in May.

I've commented on these books earlier during the month. My first thought was to read all six novels in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series. However, after finishing the 4th book in the series, I decided to take a break from Trollope and read a different writer. I decided to read what I could find of Agatha Christie's work.

I was able to read two of her novels before the month of May came to an end. I've finished a third one today and it will go on the list for June.

So now, without further delay..... the list of novels I'd read in May, 2021

The Warden                          Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers               Anthony Trollope
Doctor Thorne                     Anthony Trollope
TaoTe Ching                        Lao Tzu
Framley Parsonage              Anthony Trollope
The Secret Adversary          Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Links     Agatha Christie