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We wrote and published an e-book with our family

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Soovikivi Erik ja Lisandra on tänapäeva lapsed ja head sõbrad, kes elavad Tabasalu kortermajas, käivad koos lasteaias ja eelkoolis ning saavad mõlemad oma 7. sünnipäeval kingituseks tükikese meteoriiti, mis nende sünniaastal Maale langes. Järgmisel ööl avab kivi lastele ukse unenäoilma, kus nende teejuhiks on liivakass ja õpetajaks küüron, kus taevast sajab pannkoogimaitselisi kukeseeni, ringi lennatakse seebimullide sees ja sõnumivahetuseks on lendavad raamatud. Viie päeva ja nelja öö jooksul toimuvas lõbusas loos üritavad lapsed mõista, kuidas saavad unenäoilm ja meie maailm korraga olemas olla, millal ja kuidas need maailmad tekkisid ja mis oli kõige alguses. Teadushuviline Erik on ettevaatlik ja kahtlev, aga koos energilise ja rõõmsameelse Lisandraga jõuavad nad läbi mänguväljakute, safiirmetsa, lasteaia ja õhus hõljuva ukse Peaaegu Läbipaistvale Mäele ja võibolla leiavad ka tee otsitud vastusteni. E-raamat on tasuta. Lae alla omale sobivas formaadis:  PDF (5MB)  | MOBI (Kindle jao
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Apocalyptic prophecies for the pandemic

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Good Omens N. Gaiman, T. Pratchett There was a time, in high school, when a number of my friends were reading and praising Terry Pratchett books. I wouldn't touch one. Not because I have something particularly against Terry Pratchett, I don't. Partly, it was because I had developed a somewhat allergic reaction to fiction. We had to read a lot of fiction in literature and English literature classes, most of which I found hard to relate to, if not downright boring. It's never made sense to me, for example, why Steppenwolf is in the compulsory reading list, while Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game are not. Not only are the latter two superior books, they are also far more interesting. Hence, I heavily gravitated towards non-fiction, going to sleep at night with a copy of Capitalism and Freedom on my bedside table where normal people would keep a bible or a paperback. My reading table was also quite full of Economist and The World Press Review magazines as well as va
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A Good Book I Didn't Finish

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Meditations Marcus Aurelius In order to eat an apple, first pick up the apple. Then bring your hand, with the apple still in it, to your mouth. Open your jaws wide, put the apple between your open jaws and press them closed, thereby biting off a piece of the apple. Now remove your hand, with the rest of the apple, from your mouth … Would you read a book like that? More precisely, how long would you read a book like that for? The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is a rare one in my experience. First, I seldom leave a book unfinished. Very seldom. Second, I’ve never done it to a good book. But here you have it, a good book that I’m leaving unfinished. I agree with nearly everything that is written in the book. Which is why I find it tedious. I read about 15% of it word by word, then a further 15% skimming. Then from 30% I made two almost random jumps to about 2/3 of the way through and to about the final 10% of the book, just to check for any changes. There were none i
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A Road Movie in Writing

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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig This is a difficult review to write. I have started twice and both times found my mind walking multiple paths and selecting none. This is the third attempt. Part of the reason, why this is difficult, is that the book has at least four interwoven narratives. There’s the road trip. There’s the life of Phaedrus. The father-son relationship. And the story of Quality. These narratives intertwine, one becomes a metaphor for the other, merge and separate again. Admittedly, the fame and influence of the book derived from the narrative of Quality, but should that be the one to review? Or should all four be reviewed? Should you choose to pick up the book, please allow me to give you two warnings. First, it’s no quick read. At times, I was captivated, turning page after page into the wee hours of the night. At others, while remaining a good read, it slowed down to the point where I had days, perhaps as much as a week betw
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A Search for Terrestrial Intelligence

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The Eerie Silence Paul Davies "Are there other people out there in the Universe?" the excited eyes of a primary school kid looking at her with a sparkle. Ellie smiles. "The most important thing is, that you all keep searching for your own anwsers. I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... it seems like an awful waste of space. Right?" The book is about the Fermi paradox - "Where is everyone?" And it's about SETI. How do you define "life"? Not the most pertinent question here on Sol 3, which has enough life for eight planets, to borrow a phrase from Prot. But inescapable, if you're tasked with finding it elsewhere in the Universe. What exactly should you look for? And what is "intelligence"? Are we searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, because the evidence for intelligent life
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Thursday Readings

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Norse Mythology Neil Gaiman 6000 years ago in Sumer, at the roots of our present civilization, people worshipped Enlil, the god of air, wind, and thunder. Enlil was not a lone deity, the Sumerian pantheon had many other gods besides, but Enlil was one of the most important. In Sumer, gods and goddesses were closely associated with astronomy. Many deities were paired with specific stars or constellations. The most important gods were paired with planets of the solar system and Enlil's planet was Jupiter, which Sumerians new to be the largest planet in orbit around the Sun. A thousand years later, Babylonian thundergod and later the main god Marduk took the place of Enlil. Marduk was, like Enlil before him, associated with the planet Jupiter. When Ancient Greece flourished, it was Zeus, who was the god of thunder, the king of gods and the protector of the largest planet in the solar system. Naturally, that planet was then also called Zeus. Romans followed the Greek, and it
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Time(less) discussions

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The Order of Time Carlo Rovelli I understand what this book stems from. Carlo Rovelli is one of the foremost theoretical physicists of our time, pun intended. As a co-creator of the loop quantum gravity theory, his work comes close to giving us a complete, unified understanding of the physical world. Being privy to this, his human intellect compels him to share this vision with others. If you have an understanding that has given you peace from the daily suffering and ignorance, but you see others around you continue to suffer, metaphorically or literally, you want to shout the truth to them from the rooftops. This book, I suspect, is his shouting. Luckily, Rovelli is one of the not too many, who has writing and explanatory powers to complement his command of formulae. Two thirds of the book are therefore dedicated to walking the reader through current frontiers of physics, including loop quantum gravity, with a focus on time. Rovelli first proceeds to dismantle the concept of ti
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