When you initially think of the word joy, something like tidying up and cleaning don’t usually come instantly to mind. Marie Kondo’s method Kon Mari, transformed what it means to tidy-up one’s life (literally and metaphorically) and all the surprising benefits, often quite emotional benefits that come as a result.
Her newest Netflix series will premiere on August 31, 2021. In celebration of the pending release, we present, below, a selection of her best books to date.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Marie Kondo’sfirst book, one that has inspired millions to change ones mindset on the act of simplifying your living spaces.
Within, readers will understand her category system which differs from the typical room-by-room cleaning system. Below is her companion text which is a must have as well. Click to check out “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up“.
Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
In the companion volume, Spark Joy (above), the de-cluterring guru gives readers an illustrated guide, with detailed steps on how to organize almost everything. From drawings of how to fold pesky socks and shirts, to perfecting the art of organizing your closet and drawers, this is a detailed tour-de-force on the unique perspective of Kon Mari.
Her concept on joy and material also makes you rethink what is “necessary” in life. If material things are not bringing you happiness, then perhaps, it is time to let go and simply enjoy life. Click to see more on “Spark Joy“.
Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life
If the need to declutter your home and living spaces are necessary, more times than not, your workplace will also be in need for some TLC.
Stacks of unorganized paperwork, notes and emails can be a drain on career progress. This kind of disorganization can easily create a negative feeling about work.
Marie Kondo utilizes her KonMari method to overcome that workplace mess so you can focus on productivity and happiness. For more details and information, check out “Joy at Work“.
LA shook on July 4, 2019 – felt from Vegas to the Pacific in largest quake since Northridge
A large rolling earthquake centered in Searles Velley, CA was felt all the way to LAX. The epicenter was in the vicinity of Ridgecrest, approximately 100 miles from downtown Los Angeles, in San Bernardino County.
Reports of people noticing the quake came from as far away as Las Vegas and all the way to Newport Beach. The tremblor was at first clocked at 6.6, but subsequently downgraded to 6.4 – still the biggest since the infamous Northridge earthquake that all local residents recall. Fortunately this one was centered in an relatively remote area and no significant damage has yet been reported.
The full moon that happens in June is often referred to as the strawberry moon. Although, if you look to the sky, the moon will look full starting Wednesday night and into Friday night, the moon will be 100% full starting 2:40 P.M. EDT Thursday, June 24, 2021. This will mark the first full moon after summer solstice and the last supermoon of the year.
Despite the sweet name, the moon will not really resemble any coloring of a strawberry, rather it will have more of a golden color. The reference to the fruit was often used by Native American tribes, like that of the Algonquins to signal the ripening of strawberries that were ready to be harvested.
What makes a full moon a “Supermoon”, according to NASA, occurs when the Moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth at the same time as when the moon is full, making the moon appear much brighter and larger than the usual full moon.
In addition, any full moon that comes within 224.791 miles/ 361,766 km of Earth is categorized as a supermoon. For the Strawberry Supermoon on the 24th, the moon will be 224,662 miles / 361,558 km away from Earth.
More sky news: mercury has gone direct
In an alternate celestial observation, the dreaded retrograde mercury ended when mercury went direct on June 23rd. Astrology buffs always welcome the end of the mercury retrograde periods, known for confusion and, in particular, technological snafus and breakdowns.
Fortunately the full moon due on the 24th / 25th is seen, astrologically speaking, as a highly positive force and should help us all to celebrate the escape from mercury in retrograde and it’s chaos, as we glide smoothly into a more productive phase into July and beyond.
To get additional information on when the moon will rise and set in your area, click on the moonrise and moonset calculator.
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Not everyone is a Prime member of the giant retail behemoth. And not everybody wants to be. And independent booksellers have not exactly benefited from the rise of the giant. If you love books, appreciate bookstores in your local area, or just know a great deal when you see it, today is your day.
In an unprecedented move, bookshop.org is offering free shipping, no membership required, no strings attached, on purchases made on June 21st and 22nd. We have compiled a list of ideas below, but feel free to just head over and browse, or even search right here:
Lynxotic may receive a small commission based on any purchases made by following links from this page
Above: Photo Credit / Publishers / Various
In music the famous example is Pink Floyds “Dark Side of the Moon” which, incredibly, remained in the top 100 charts for more than 18 years. When it comes to popularity and longevity, there are certain works of art and literature that exist on a whole other level.
When it comes to books, classics remain on must-read lists for centuries. During more recent times we have these examples of books that remain the most popular around for decades. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho was first printed in 1988, 33 years ago. Rich Dad Poor Dad, meanwhile, was published by Robert Kiyosaki and resonated immediately with readers, and has never lost its appeal, still hovering near the top of best seller lists. The Four Agreements, similarly, has remained immensely popular for 24 years. And, finally, The 48 Laws of Power has fascinated and attracted readers, with a nearly unmatched power for 21 years.
Below we are happy to feature these incredible, evergreen wonders, along with some information on the titles.
In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering.
Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.
– A New York Times bestseller for over a decade – Translated into 46 languages worldwide
In the 20th Anniversary Edition of this classic, Robert Kiyosaki offers an update on what we’ve seen over the past 20 years related to money, investing, and the global economy.
Sidebars throughout the book will take readers “fast forward” — from 1997 to today — as Robert assesses how the principles taught by his rich dad have stood the test of time.
In many ways, the messages of Rich Dad Poor Dad, messages that were criticized and challenged two decades ago, are more meaningful, relevant and important today than they were 21 years ago.
Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.
Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure.
His quest will lead him to riches far different–and far more satisfying–than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.
First published in Spanish in 1988 and in english on April 15, 1993
In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.
Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.
There are many new books emerging recently covering health and wellness that align with the goal to make healthier lifestyle choices. Whether looking for alternative health options, proven ways to build good healthy habits, wholesome food recipes, mind and bodyoptimization, or to find the best ways to shed weight, it’s better than ever now to choose a book to get started.
The books below are chosen to represent an eclectic selection on health and wellness featuring the authors’ wide ranging expertise in their respective fields. Clinical herbology, integrative medicine, neuroscience, naturopathy, nutrition, and human behavior are all represented.
Our curated selection contains the best selling and most recommended in the category of health and wellness thus far for 2020:
Click to Buy “Wild Remedies” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
Millions of people are interested in natural or alternative health–but many of them are missing out on the most important ingredient: Nature itself Wild Remedies inspires readers to rekindle their connection with nature by identifying, tending, and harvesting the plant medicine they find growing around them. Experts Rosalee de la For t and Emily Han explain the benefits of 25 commonly found wild plants, many of which are also easy to grow. Readers will also find a wealth of recipes, remedies, crafts, and activities to bring the healing and transformative powers of these herbs to life. After reading Wild Remedies, readers will view their lawns, parks, community gardens, and other natural spaces in a whole new way. Instead of “weeds,” they will see delicious foods like Dandelion Maple Syrup Cake, Nettle Frittata, and Mallow and Quinoa Patties. They will also begin to revel in nature’s medicine chest as they make remedies like herbal oils, salves, teas, and more.
Click to Buy “Atomic Habits” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
Click to Buy “The Defined Dish“and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
Alex Snodgrass of TheDefinedDish.com is the third author in the popular Whole30 Endorsed series. With gluten-free, dairy-free, and grain-free recipes that sound and look way too delicious to be healthy, this is a cookbook people can turn to after completing a Whole30, when they’re looking to reintroduce healthful ingredients like tortillas, yogurt, beans, and legumes. Recipes like Chipotle Chicken Tostadas with Pineapple Salsa or Black Pepper Chicken are easy enough to prepare even after a busy day at work. There are no esoteric ingredients in these recipes, but instead something to suit every taste, each dish clearly marked if it is Whole30 compliant, paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, and more. Alex includes delicious variations, too, such as using lettuce wraps instead of taco shells, to ensure recipes can work for almost any diet. And for anyone looking to stick to their Whole30 for longer, at least sixty of the recipes are fully compliant.
Click to Buy “In the Flo” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
The bestselling author of WomanCode presents a biohacking program for women, teaching them how to use their natural 28-day cycle to optimize their time, diet, fitness, work, and relationships.
Women have a important biological rhythm they experience every month that affects productivity, weight, sex drive, energy, and mood. It is essential to be aware of and take care of this rhythm, but it has been widely ignored by medical, nutrition and fitness research. So as women, we diet, we deprive, and we cram as much as possible into our day, striving to accomplish impossible to-do lists, and scheduling our lives based on a 24-hour time cycle, ignoring the intuitive time our bodies naturally keep: a monthly cycle with four hormonal phases that offer incredible advantages.
Click to Buy “Boundless” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
What if the ability to look, feel, and perform at peak capacity wasn’t the stuff of lore but instead was within easy reach? Sure, some of us find ways to hit peak performance in one area or another–there are professional poker players, computer programmers, and race car drivers hunched over card games, keyboards, and steering wheels with optimized minds; UFC and NFL gladiators fighting for glory on television with optimized bodies; and monks and meditators roaming the planet with optimized spirits. But in a perfect world, you would be able to have it all: complete optimization of mind, body, and spirit.In Boundless, the New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Training and health and fitness leader Ben Greenfield offers a first-of-its-kind blueprint for total human optimization.
Click to Buy “The Keto Reset Diet“and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
Mark Sisson–author of the mega-bestseller The Primal Blueprint–unveils his groundbreaking ketogenic diet plan that resets your metabolism in 21 days so you can burn fat forever. Mounting scientific research is confirming that eating a ketogenic diet could represent one of the greatest nutritional breakthroughs of our time–and that it might be the healthiest and most effective weight loss strategy ever. Going “keto” by eating high fat, low-to-moderate protein and low-carb foods enables you to break free from the disastrous effects of carbohydrate dependency by resetting your metabolism and promoting metabolic flexibility–where your body learns to burns fat instead of sugar for energy, even when you go off plan.
Click to Buy “The Healing Self” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
After collaborating on two major books featured as PBS specials, Super Brain and Super Genes, Chopra and Tanzi now tackle the issue of lifelong health and heightened immunity.We are the midst of a new revolution.
For over twenty-five years Deepak Chopra, M.D. and Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D. have revolutionized medicine and how we understand our minds and our bodies–Chopra, the leading expert in the field of integrative medicine; Tanzi, the pioneering neuroscientist and discoverer of genes that cause Alzheimer’s Disease. After reaching millions of people around the world through their collaborations on the hugely successful Super Brain and Super Genes books and public television programs, the New York Times bestselling authors now present a groundbreaking, landmark work on the supreme importance of our immune system in relation to our lifelong health.
Click to Buy “The 10-Day Belly Slimdown” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores
“This isn’t another gimmicky diet–it’s a powerful eating strategy that will take your extra pounds off quickly, safely, and permanently.” –Mark Hyman, MD, Director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Fat Get Thin“The best gift you can give yourself is a slim, beautiful, healthy belly–and in this book, Dr. Kellyann, an expert I trust, tells you exactly how to get it.” –Mehmet Oz, M.D. The New York Times bestselling author of Dr. Kellyann’s Bone Broth Diet reveals her powerful belly-slimming plan that will help you lose up to 10 pounds in 10 days
Although a hit ‘The Bomber Mafia’ is less known than previous Gladwell bestsellers
With “Blink” (2007) and “The Tipping Point” as well as “Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell burst onto the scene with a new kind of popular non-fiction. Rather than being another single minded academic focused on a particular specific niche, it was in choosing what phenomena to study, and then taking his now patented unique approach, that he was able to excite and inspire the minds of millions of readers.
Drilling down into the exact aspects of his chosen topics to focus on just what made him choose them in the first place, and doing so with an excited air of adventure and discovery, Gladwell continues to delight, and for some, his entire body of work consists of one page-turner after another. Even his titles, like outliers and the tipping point, though in usage before, after he nailed them into more expansively defined concepts, were brought into more popular use and the widespread level of understanding to a whole new level.
Below we feature a broad selection, including his latest, for fan and the curious alike.
To make it easier they are featured front and center, below, along with descriptions, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the various publishers), and with some links for a variety of options of where to purchase.
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?
In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?” Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge.
Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news.
He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland–throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know.
And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David’s victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn’t have won.
Or should he have? In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwellchallenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.
Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms—all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.
In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?
His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.
Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate.
This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.
A unique talent for choosing and presenting exactly the theme and subject of the moment, and for posterity
Above:Photo from ‘The Big Short’ courtesy of Paramount
Very few authors have the intense feeling for the “zeitgeist” that Michael has shown throughout his long career. The ability to capture the spirit of the times so well is also possibly the reason why so many of his books have been snapped up and made into successful films. Examples are “The Big Short” (Christian Bale), “Moneyball” (Brad Pitt), “The Blind Side” (Sandra Bullock), all three of these also received Best Picture Oscar nominations.
While perhaps not an author to be remembered as a high literary genius such as James Joyce or William Shakespeare, the body of work, as a chronicle of modern times seen through the lens of his minds eye is, nevertheless, substantive and engaging. While “The Big Short”, both the book and subsequent film, capture with amazing clarity a confusing period that has been in many ways glossed over, even willfully, by those that were partially responsible but never held to account.
Though it remains to be seen how the future will look back on the 2020 novel coronavirus era, “Premonition” has, once more, the same potential to become one, potentially definitive portrait, of the crisis and it’s emergence into a full blown worldwide pandemic.
Now, soon, “The Premonition” is set to be produced by Amy Pascal for Pascal Pictures, with Rachel O’Connor. Directors are slated to be Phil Lord and Chris Miller who are mostly known for lighter fare.
To make it easier a great selection of Michael Lewis’ books are featured front and center, below, along with descriptions, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the various publishers), and with some links for a variety of options of where to purchase.
Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control.
A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society.
A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.
Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.
The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts.
The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.
Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar’s Poker.
Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.
Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms.
During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years–a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business.
From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.
Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball.
In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-budget Oakland A’s, visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball theorists. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge–insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money. Also made into a hit movie starring Brad Pitt, Moneyball is a book that exposes human nature, and how it can suddenly be overcome when unique perspectives lead to innovative choices.
When we first meet him, Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write.
He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family’s love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost.
Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback’s greatest vulnerability, his blind side.
In Michael Lewis’s game-changing bestseller, a small group of Wall Street iconoclasts realize that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders.
They band together–some of them walking away from seven-figure salaries–to investigate, expose, and reform the insidious new ways that Wall Street generates profits. If you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you. Billions have been spent by Wall Street firms and stock exchanges to gain the advantage of a millisecond. “Is it a scam?” 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft asks during his interview with the author, It’s bigger than a scam, Lewis says.
Lewis further explains how ordinary investors are affected and argues that high-frequency traders have created instability in the stock market — for everyone. A reoccurring metaphor Lewis uses in his book “Flash Boys” is one of “prey and predators.” According to Lewis, the prey is “anybody who’s actually an investor in the stock market.”
Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative of the Trump administration’s botched presidential transition takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed.
The government manages a vast array of critical services that keep us safe and underpin our lives from ensuring the safety of our food and drugs and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black market uranium before the terrorists do. The Fifth Risk masterfully and vividly unspools the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works.
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original papers that invented the field of behavioral economics.
One of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, Kahneman and Tversky’s extraordinary friendship incited a revolution in Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. In The Undoing Project, Lewis shows how their Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.
So much is going on in the area of Crypto-currencies, Blockchain, Alt Coins, and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) that it can make your head spin. And that is not to even mention Crypto Mining, Farming, Baking and Trading, all of which have had skyrocketing activity recently.
How much interest there is runs the gamut from the curious onlooker to the serious professional. And then there are predictions regarding the future of the world financial system, the political and legal ramifications of the rise of crypto and all the opinions going every which way, and more.
Based on all of the above it only makes sense to put together a list of fundamental ground floor guidebooks to help anyone who wants and needs to really understand what all the fuss is about. Bitcoin and the whole area of blockchain technology has come so far already, and is so established and entrenched that it is unlikely to disappear completely anytime soon, no matter which way the political winds may blow.
So if you are a beginner an intermediate or even advanced learner that wants to know more, these are the best books to really dig into the phenomena and explosion of information and viewpoints. To make it easier they are featured front and center, below, along with descriptions, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the various publishers), and with some links for a variety of options of where to purchase.
Mastering Blockchain – Third Edition: A deep dive into distributed ledgers, consensus protocols, smart contracts, DApps, cryptocurrencies
Blockchain technology is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, and it has applications in finance, government, media, and many other industries. With a legacy of providing technologists with executable insights, the third edition of Mastering Blockchain is thoroughly revised and updated with the latest blockchain research, including four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Serenity (Ethereum 2.0), tokenization, and enterprise blockchains.
Apart from covering the basics, including blockchain’s technical underpinnings, cryptography, and consensus protocols, this book provides you with expert knowledge on decentralization, decentralized application development on Ethereum, Bitcoin, alternative coins, smart contracts, alternative blockchains, and Hyperledger.
Furthermore, you will explore how to implement blockchain solutions beyond cryptocurrencies, such as the Internet of Things with blockchain, blockchain scalability, enterprise blockchains, and tokenization using blockchain, and the future scope of this fascinating and disruptive technology.
By the end of this book, you will have gained a thorough understanding of the various facets of blockchain technology and be comfortable applying them to diverse real-world scenarios.
Updated with four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Ethereum 2.0, tokenization, and enterprise blockchains
Dive deep into foundational pillars of blockchain technology such as decentralization, cryptography, and consensus protocols
Get to grips with Solidity, Web3, cryptocurrencies, smart contract development and solve scalability, security, and privacy issues
Discover the architecture of different distributed ledger platforms including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, Corda, and Quorum
Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain Technology& Altcoins For Beginners: Explore The Decentralized World, Investing in Crypto Blueprint, Mining Basics+
Do you want to understand what Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency actually is? Do you want to understand how it could change the world & finance industry FOREVER? Do you want to discover how you can get started investing in Crypto TODAY?
By now we’ve all heard of it, yet few of us understand it, and without understanding it how could you even dream of investing in it?
You hear all the tech ‘bros’ talking about it, you hear the media slandering it, you can see the bankers are scared by it’s potential, but you still don’t quite get the fuss.
Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.
But, luckily, this book has been written for people just like you.
The purpose of it is to demystify the world of Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Decentralization & The Blockchain.
And, if those 4 words currently sound like a foreign language to you, you’re not alone. But, after this book, you’ll be the one explaining about the ‘Crypto Craze’ to everyone you see!
Inside, we will go over the origins & history of Bitcoin, it’s potential to change the world, as well as how it could all go wrong.
And, of course, we will go over how you can invest in potentially the greatest wealth transfer the world has ever seen.
Here’s a tiny Example of what’s inside..
Exactly What Bitcoin Actually Is And How It Is Drastically Disrupting The Global Economy
Everything You Need To Know About The ‘Bitcoin Halving’ Cycles & How To Maximize Your Gains From Them
What Is A ‘Blockchain’ And How It Could Quite Literally Revolutionize EVERY Aspect Of Your Life In The Coming Decades
What Are ‘Altcoins’ And How They Are Different To Bitcoin & What Their Purpose In All Of This Is…
Why We Are Still In The VERY Early Days Of The Crypto ‘Boom’
And SO Much More!
So, If You Want To FINALLY Understand The World Of Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency So You Can Actually Understand What All The Fuss Is About And Whether You Want To Get Involved, Then Scroll Up And Click
From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus–how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.
Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn’t have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.
Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz’s brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it’s about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number–infinity–to tackle real-world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes “backwards” sometimes; how to make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.
The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally-accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications.
While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse.
With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for final settlement of large payments–a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure.
Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders.
International Report Documents Expanded Risks from All Sides…
For decades, the human species has been treating its oceans poorly. Oil spills, pollution, overfishing, melting ice caps, and above all climate change have made our seas into perpetual punching bags. As a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows, however, the ocean is now at its most fragile. If we do not help it, then it will soon start punching back.
The report is based on an extensive review of more than six thousand studies from scientists in 36 countries and the results are voluminous and, frankly, very scary for any sane observer. These compounded dangers are becoming harder to dispute, and previously challenged assertions such as how to measure the acceleration of the rising sea levels are being more clearly defined and more confidently confirmed by scientists.
The ocean has always been one of the earth’s most crucial natural deterrents to global warming. As a pool of water that covers over seventy percent of the world’s surface, the ocean is an enormous carbon drain. Like a forest, it sucks in lots of our carbon emissions and uses it to sustain its ecosystem.
Unfortunately, as climate change evolves and accelerates, the ocean’s ability to absorb that carbon diminishes. There is so much CO2 in the atmosphere that the ocean is all but overwhelmed. Simultaneously, other kinds of pollution—such as plastic or oil—are also taking their tolls on the seas’ ecosystems.
Rising Sea Levels, Extreme Weather Events, other threats are in Extreme Acceleration
The biggest threat that the ocean poses if climate change is not effectively combatted is rising water levels. The IPCC report shows that with our current level of carbon emissions, arctic ice will start to melt at a more rapid pace, and sea levels will rise significantly. By the next century, certain coastal communities and entire island nations could be uninhabitable. As a huge percentage of the world lives by the water, this could leave millions of people incredibly vulnerable.
The water is not only getting higher, though. It is also getting warmer. As the world’s temperature increases with an oversaturation of atmospheric carbon, the oceans follow suit. Water temperatures are rising and the rate of that rise is increasing.
Warmer water has already brought with it a whole new line of ecological issues. When the temperature changes, it affects marine life behavior and migratory patterns. This is impacting everything from the food chain to the fishing industry, making it a far greater issue than just a few confused fish ending up on the wrong side of the sea.
Furthermore, hurricanes thrive off of warm water, so as the ocean gets hotter, we are already seeing larger and more brutal storms washing up on our coasts. The IPCC report underscores an increased occurrence of powerful storms, with category 4 and 5 hurricanes becoming far more frequent. Flooding will also continue to occur more frequently, and beachside infrastructure will find itself in dire straits all-year around.
Dangers Lurk beyond rising Sea Levels: Pollution, Disease and Contagions Threaten to Rise as well
Then, there is also the fact that our oceans are getting dirtier. Acidification and pollution have led to the extinction of certain species, the eradication of coral reefs, and numerous health problems that find their way to the surface. More foodborne illnesses are turning up in seafood; Marine heat waves affect seabirds and amphibious mammals as well as fish; And a summer dip in the ocean may soon become a grimy bath that leaves you sick and dirty.
The ocean is powerful and beautiful. Ever since humankind evolved out of its depths millions of years ago, the great blue saltwater haven has been helping sustain us on land. Its wondrous waves and illustrious currents have inspired many, and mystified even more. Conscienceless as a silent part of this humble planet we call home, the ocean has asked for nothing in return for her millions of years of ecological service. Now, however, in no small part due to our exploitative nature, she is suffering. If we do not help her now when she is desperate, then her years of docility will soon run out, and we will feel her wrath.
Simple yet mighty green drink filled with many health nutrients
Looking for a way to kick-start your day? Since a lot of us are basically stuck at home due to COVID-19, starting the day on a healthy note could be much needed. Many are turning to an unlikely source: a cool cocktail of celery juice. Best known as a very low calorie, high-fiber stalk for chomping while dieting, the juice option for celery is catching on as a healthy, refreshing drink.
Celery juice consists mainly of water, which can help in keeping your body hydrated. Staying hydrated and having adequate water intake is essential; proper hydration can help regulate body temperature, manage blood pressure and also supports gut and kidney health.
Long known as a low-calorie vegetable, it is also high in vitamins such as Vitamin A, K and C as well as being a source of potassium and, of course, the aforementioned high dose of fiber (even in juice form, apparently). Additionally, celery juice is said to be an anti-inflammatory agent and a contributor to gut health and ease of digestion. (And who doesn’t need that!). You can either DIY the juice with a home juicer or visit a juice bar.
The influence of Anthony Williams, the self-proclaimed pioneer of the celery juice movement, also known as the Medical Medium has been one contributor factor for celery juices’ newfound popularity. Williams is an author of four New York Times bestselling books with a strong celebrity following, including Gwyneth Paltrow, whom posted on Goop about him. On his site, he layouts the “miracles” of celery juices and how drinking sixteen ounces daily on an empty stomach can promote, heal and reverse many health related issues.
Below we have included some information from Williams book from the publisher as well as information on where to purchase if interested. Be safe and be well!
Celery juice is everywhere for a reason: because it’s saving lives as it restores people’s health one symptom at a time.From celebrities posting about their daily celery juice routines to people from all walks of life sharing pictures and testimonials of their dramatic recovery stories, celery juice is revealing itself to ignite healing when all odds seem against it. What began decades ago as a quiet movement has become a global healing revolution.
In Celery Juice: The Most Powerful Medicine of Our Time Healing Millions Worldwide, Anthony William, the originator of the global celery juice movement, introduces you to celery juice’s incredible ability to create sweeping improvements on every level of our health: Healing the gut and relieving digestive disorders, balancing blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, and adrenal function. Neutralizing and flushing toxins from the liver and brain. Restoring health in people who suffer from a vast range of chronic and mystery illnesses and symptoms, among them fatigue, brain fog, acne, eczema, addiction, ADHD, thyroid disorders, diabetes, SIBO, eating disorders, autoimmune disorders, Lyme disease, and eye problems. Also Available on Amazon.
The next global catastrophe movie is coming to Netflix, its called “Awake” and the premise has quite the spin. This apocalyptic thriller makes surviving even more difficult because the Earth’s population no longer has the ability to sleep, which leads to mass hallucinations, disorientation, and ultimately death.
“Awake” hopes to garner the same success as the Netflix original film “Bird Box”, which was a watch-at-the-end-of-your-seat apocalyptic horror/thriller where upon one glimpse of something terrifying would drive a person to deadly violence. The Netflix film released back in 2018 starred Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson and John Malkovich.
The cast includes: Gina Rodriguez as Jill, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Shamier Anderson, and Ariana Greenblatt as Matilda, the young girl who may hold the key to figuring out the film’s mystery. The film will debut on the Netflix streaming platform starting June 9, 2021.
A strange global event suddenly wipes out all electricity as well as strips humankind’s ability to sleep, which inevitably leads to insanity and chaos. Only Jill (played by Gina Rodriguez), an ex-soldier has a potential solution and key to a cure, her own daughter. What viewers will have to see is the major question, will Jill be able to safely deliver her daughter and save the world before she herself loses her mind from sleep deprivation.
Directed by Mark Raso known for his work on “Kodachrome”.
This is a feel-good story if it works and then it’s Hallelujah!
Ok, other than to be a benign stalker or to monitor your girlfriends actual ETA, do you even use the Apple “Find My” network? Were you aware that it applies to people, devices and now “items” using air tags? And that you can also find yourself, in case you don’t know where you are?
Well, all that has been expanded into a new realm, at least for those that want to hang onto expensive audio gadgets as long as possible. You guessed it, Apple has now added AirPods Pro and AirPods Max to the devices list.
This was announced at WWDC2021 but it is not, I repeat, not, something that you need to wait for a software upgrade to make use of. It’s live now if you have iOS 14.
Above: Photo Credit / Apple
Why the jubilation? I think because so many of us suffer from extended anxiety, even early symptoms of PTSD from the thought of losing those $250 or yikes(!) $549 babies.
Losing both or even one of these could be a life changing event, triggering depression and doubt and sadness. And Apple appears to understand this, indeed, they assure us that, not only is the Find My network supposed to geolocate your AirPods, they even have a new feature called “Separation Alerts”.
They specifically describe this feature thusly: “Separation Alerts notify a user if they leave an AirTag, Apple device, or Find My network accessory behind in an unfamiliar location…”
“Separation Alerts”, admittedly, sounds like a term for childhood trauma but, again, if you walk out of a Starbucks on 5th Ave. in NYC and you get a notification that you are sans your AirPod Pros, hallelujah, all is not lost, instead, you are running back in to grab those babies, STAT! (From the Latin word statim, meaning “immediately.”)
These subtle, free and unheralded improvements are seemingly the wave of the future, if you are an inhabitant of the Apple ecosystem, which is on the verge of turning into a kind of pre-metaverse training ground for future digital life pioneers.
Hardware Schwardware updates, who needs ’em?
WWDC2021 was, perhaps cleverly, devoid of hardware news or release announcements. This trick worked like a charm. Various top and sub-top media outlets spent the weeks ahead of the show and keynote, touting leaks, speculation and sources regarding, mostly, what turned out to be non-existent hardware updates.
Those will no doubt still be forthcoming, just not at the WWDC2021 keynote, as that ship has sailed.
Instead, and this is a good thing, we can all begin the journey to learn more about what is in store for the annual pilgrimage to the next generation of software enhancements for the Apple ecosystem, meaning macOS 12 Monterey, iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and all the rest too numerous to name here.
See our latest posts from the show for more details.
As per Apple release:
”Find My introduces new capabilities to help locate a device that has been turned off or erased, as well as live-streaming locations for family and friends who choose to share their location. Separation Alerts notify a user if they leave an AirTag, Apple device, or Find My network accessory behind in an unfamiliar location, and the Find My network now supports AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. A new Find My widget offers an at-a-glance view directly from the Home Screen.”
Multi-talented author and political force of nature
Hearing the name Stacey Abrams, you’d likely think of a woman who ran for governor in 2020 in Georgia, or the role she played in registering hundreds of thousands of voters and becoming a Democratic power broker. You might be surprised to learn that before she was well known in the political realm, Stacey Abrams wrote romance novels, under the nom de plume “Selena Montgomery”.
Abrams has also written non-fiction, including “Lead from the Outside” and Our Time is Now“. And now, in an interesting departure from previous works, her newest book is a political thriller. This is her 11th book, under her various names, but it is the first work of fiction published under her real name.
Recently the news broke that her novel is going to be adapted for a TV series to be produced by NBC Universal International Studios.
We provide a look at “While Justice Sleeps“, by Stacey Abrams, below, along with a description, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the publisher), along with some links for a variety of purchasing options.
Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her life together–excelling in an arduous job with the court while also dealing with a troubled family.
When the shocking news breaks that Justice Wynn–the cantankerous swing vote on many current high-profile cases–has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down.
She is immediately notified that Justice Wynn has left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. Plunged into an explosive role she never anticipated, Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court–a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field.
She also discovers that Wynn suspected a dangerously related conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington. As political wrangling ensues in Washington to potentially replace the ailing judge whose life and survival Avery controls, she begins to unravel a carefully constructed, chesslike sequence of clues left behind by Wynn. She comes to see that Wynn had a much more personal stake in the controversial case and realizes his complex puzzle will lead her directly into harm’s way in order to find the truth.
While Justice Sleeps is a cunningly crafted, sophisticated novel, layered with myriad twists and a vibrant cast of characters. Drawing on her astute inside knowledge of the court and political landscape, Stacey Abrams shows herself to be not only a force for good in politics and voter fairness but also a major new talent in suspense fiction.
Three and a half million likes in less than 24 hours? Sure, if you are Jason Stratham on TikTok. And it’s the first video on a brand new account. The only video on the account so far. And you are dancing while you divulge your stats.
Looking at the comments, however, nearly 70,000 of them, a large number are asking “is this real”. Deep-fakes are most definitely real. Several accounts used Tom Cruise Deep-fake video to try to spoof an official TikTok account for the star. And a few stray clips of Brad Pit at a script reading spawned a series of fake accounts trying to look like Brad’s personal “rogue” account.
But, wait, there’s also Billie Eilish who started a “secret” personal account in November 2020 and posted some fascinatingly bizarre ukulele footage, apparently just for kicks, as she surely has no need for more publicity. The account was so unique and, well, strange, that it was hard to imagine that it could be fake.
Sure enough, yesterday what appears to be an outtake from her recent music video with some hilarious captions and stickers popped up on the, mostly dormant, account and has since gone viral. All of which pretty much cements the “it’s definitely real” theory.
As for Jason Statham? We are going to go out on a limb here and say that he is following Billie Eilish’s lead and this is a real account. The fact that there is a single video with a full body dance clip of what absolutely appears to be the star is a tip-off. Secondly if this is his head deep-faked onto someone else’s body, that’s a pretty perfect body double.
Also, the original sound mix seems to indicate that there was method that went the extra mile.
What’s your take? Send us comments or your detective results and let us know if you think this is real, like we do, or if this is just some amazing wizardry at a next level of deep-fake-ness, which thousands of comment writers on TikTok seem to believe…
Above: Official Trailer for “Wrath of Man” Credit: MGM
In addition to Statham, he is joined by a slew of actors including: Alex Ferns, Holt McCallany, Scott Eastwood, Jeffrey Donovan, Laz Alonso, Josh Hartnett, Niamh Algar, Raúl Castillo, Post Malone, Lyne Renee, Anthony Molinari, Deobia Oparei, Tadhg Murphy, Babs Olusanmokun, Darrell D’Silva, Chris Reilly, Matthew Illesley, Rebecca Calder, Jason Wong, Alessandro Babalola, Cameron Jack, Montana Manning, Rocci Williams, Josh Cowdery, and Eve Macklin.
Which new series and films are looking like a good bet to stream this month
These days, it seems at times like finding something worth watching, and, more importantly, devoting precious free time to, can be a challenge. Sure, you can just randomly try the next thing in your recommendation queue and take your chances.
We’ve all been there; a tried and true classic we know is pretty good but we’ve seen it three times or a new item, marketed hard by the platform, but of unclear quality or interest. Sometimes you find a gem, by sheer luck. Other times it takes some deep digging to come upon an acceptable risk profile. The last thing we want is to get twenty minutes into a film, or worse yet, a unknown series, and have to “abort plan” due to low quality or just a theme that doesn’t tickle our fancy.
With some luck, and based on prior research and experience, the recommendations below might fit the bill. “Lupin” was a bonafide smash hit and, as any who devoured the first season can attest, once hooked, this series is a top notch binge-fest. Hopefully season two will turn out to be as good.
Based on prerelease buzz, the cast, the concept and the trailer, “Awake” looks quite interesting so far. A bit in the direction of “Bird Box” another big success for Netflix, it will be the differences, rather than the similarities that will be the test.
“Sweet Tooth” is already stirring discord among reviewers and the press. Perhaps due to the “sacred” and known DC Comic origin, and the pedigree of the production team, while the critics wariness could be warranted, it’s interesting enough to give this one a good test run before discounting it out of hand…
Lupin: Part 2– Netflix Original Series – 6/11:
Assane’s quest for revenge against Hubert Pellegrini has torn his family to pieces. With his back to the wall, he now has to think of a new plan, even if it means putting himself in danger.
Awake – 6/9:
Chaos ensues after a global event wipes out all electronics and takes away humankind’s ability to sleep. But Jill (Gina Rodriguez), an ex-soldier with a troubled past, may hold the key to a cure in the form of her own daughter.
Sweet Tooth – 6/4:
Based on the beloved DC Comic, and Executive Produced by Susan Downey & Robert Downey Jr., Sweet Tooth is a post-apocalyptic fairytale about a hybrid deer-boy and a wandering loner who embark on an extraordinary adventure. All episodes of Sweet Tooth premiere June 4th, 2021, only on Netflix.
Workin’ Moms (Season 5) – 6/15
Warm, loyal PR executive Kate and her longtime friend, no-nonsense psychiatrist Anne, attend a judgmental mommies’ group, where they meet timid IT tech Jenny and blindly optimistic real estate agent Frankie. The four quickly form an unlikely friendship, sharing struggles of urban motherhood filled with the chaos of toddlers, tantrums, careers, and identity crises, all while trying to achieve the holy grail: a sense of self.
It’s nearly June and that means new films and shows to stream on Netflix
Every month a kind of sudden house cleaning happens these days at Netflix. out go the “old” but sometimes classic films and in come a batch of new shows and movies. Sometimes a new season of an established show like The Kominsky Method, now already starting season 3, or a long term binger like Lucifer already at season 7!
Also there’s a film that’s only now getting to Netflix’s streaming availability like Collateral Beauty, which admittedly has a funny name, what? Is it like “American Beauty but with collateral? Or do collateral “damage” victims suddenly get very beautiful? Well, with Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Keira Knightley all showing up, perhaps it’s worth a bit of your time to try to solve that riddle.
The Kominsky Method – Season 3:
The third and final season is here. The show will be leaving with a bang with six Emmy nominations. Although its often sad to see a great series end, with the finality of any show, you are able to binge 1-2-3 seasons all in one go. Another bonus is the all-star cameos for the season which include Morgan Freeman and Barry Levinson.
The show follows the once-famous, now aging acting coach Sandy Kominsky played by Michael Douglas. Alongside him his longtime agent Norman Newlander played by Alan Arkin. The two navigate their later years together and all the crazy curveballs thrown out them, all the while, keeping each other laughing.
Lucifer- Season 5 / Part 2 :
Don’t sleep on Lucifer. It does not disappoint. Netflix picking up the show when it was cancelled from Fox appears to be right on the money. The show has been doing so well that Lucifer will be renewed for a 6th season. Fans know that it has felt like a considerably “long” time since the Part 1 of Season 5 initially dropped on Netflix (back in August 21, 2020). Now the final half of the season, with another 8 episodes will be available May 28.
The show, which originally was released in 2016 aired on Fox until 2018. The series follows, well, Lucifer Morningstar, the original fallen angel, who becomes dissatisfied with spending his life in hell and comes to live in Los Angeles. Lucifer runs the nightclub LUX as well as working as a consultant to the police. He loves indulging in the pleasures of women, drinking and nightlife. Yet after a murder takes place outside his club, something changes him, awakening the buried feelings of what he thinks is compassion and empathy, ultimately begging Lucifer to wonder if there is hope for HIS soul.
Collateral Beauty:
The 2016 drama/romance film is another title dropping on the streaming platform Friday. I honestly had not heard of the movie, yet there are some big name stars that definitely make me interested to add this to the weekend watch cue. The cast includes: Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Keira Knightley.
The movie follows, Will Smith who plays a successful New York executive, who after suffering a tragic loss, retreats from his life. As a way to search for meaning, he begins to write letters addressed to Love, Time, and Death. The notes end up bringing about unexpected and revealing responses to how love, time and death connect to every human being on Earth.
Dog Gone Trouble:
If you are looking for more of a light and fluffy, feel-good, goofy movie, look no further. The animated film was originally released in 2019 under the title “Trouble”. Netflix acquired the rights under the new name “Dog Gone Trouble”.
A pampered dog name Trouble has his world turned around when his owner passes away and he finds himself lost. He has to figure out how to survive big-city life and all the adventures that come along with it. Voices by Big Sean, Lucy Hale, Wilmer Valderrama, Snoop Dogg, Betty White.
How many times have you searched or browsed the various suggestions prepared for you by the Netflix algorithm, only to get lost in confusion? Perhaps it’s a little like a self-driving car or a spell-checker, when it works you feel magically guided to your destination (or spelling) but when it doesn’t work, you are likely in trouble.
Choosing the newest or the most watched is no fool-proof either. Often, when a better movie rises organically to the Netflix top ten, it’s an older film that people discovered all at once, for some reason, rather than a new release or “original” production.
Such was the case when, after I made a series of unwatchable depressing choices, and then stumbled on “The Professor and the Madman”.
In this time of mandatory streaming, big screen production values are more important than ever
Unlike many featured Netflix titles which come across as budget-conscious direct to streaming productions the fist thing noticeable in the opening sequence is that this is a “real movie” with a serious cinematic presentation. It only gets better from there.
Above: Photo / Netflix
Starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O’Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, Laurence Fox, and Steve Coogan, there’s a rare combination of megastar acting talent in a setting that is both age appropriate (the lead characters are both late in life as the drama unfolds) and produced with absolutely impeccable and ensemble acting.
Unlike so many films that appear to have a concept that was half based on a calculation in the production budget – for example “An Imperfect Murder” and “The Midnight Sky” which seem to reduce the number of characters and screen time as a way to produce something with a higher change of recouping costs and producing profit, rather than any artistic or aesthetic inspiration, “The Professor and the Madman” is a full cinematic experience that translates to any screen.
The Ice Road is the latest venture for Liam Neeson, who, no stranger to action packed thrillers, already boasts a huge list of theatrical hits including: “The Marksman“, “Honest Thief”, “Cold Pursuit“, “Non-Stop“, “Taken” and more.
This time, he’s back at it in the Netflix produced Ice fest. Neeson’s character, Mike, plays a big rig driver traveling through the dangerous icy roads of Canada. A remote diamond mine collapses, trapping workers with only a limited time to survive without freezing. Mike must lead a seemingly impossible rescue mission transporting necessary equipment needed to save the 26 trapped miners.
In a sense with plot is a hybrid of Neeson’s two most dominant sub-genres, the violent triumph of the good guy against obvious pure evil and, initially in this case, the survival hero against the odds. As the trailer shows, the evil enemy does emerge, apparently in the form of the corrupt mine company that conspired in the collapse and thereby add even more tension to the already dire straits.
Though not a surprise in terms of genre, there is a sense that Liam Neeson is pushing all the buttons he’s pushed so well before, and with a star cameo from Laurence Fishburne as the man charged with putting together the crack team of misfits to make the rescue happen, it looks like this could be another winner.
Along with Liam, cast includes: Benjamin Walker, Amber Midthunder, Marcus Thomas and Laurence Fishburne. Check out the official trailer that just dropped. “The Ice Road” will be available to watch on the streaming platform starting June 25, 2021.
New Braided Solo Loop & Pride Edition Nike Sport Loop announced via Apple Newsroom
Apple first launched the Apple Watch Pride Edition in 2016. The company’s unique bands have been a visible illustration of the ways in which Apple supports, and is proudly made up of members of the LGBTQ+ community. On on May 17th, 2021, the New Braided Solo Loop and announced with the subheading that it “represents the breadth of LGBTQ+ communities and experiences”.
The reactions on twitter were all over the map, to say the least. Many were sniping about the high price of the special band. Others seems to just be sniping as anti-Apple folks will do, but there were also plenty of defenders of the empire and Tim Cook himself.
Some of the criticism, sad and hilarious at the same time, was from people knocking Tim Cook as a presumably “straight-white-male” and defenders felt the need to remind them in a reply that he himself, is in fact publicly gay, giving him a different perspective on the LGBTQ+ movement and it’s importance overall.
“Apple's commitment to support the ongoing work toward equality.” More like, “ Apple's commitment to support the ongoing work toward fill up our pockets” Give the money made to a charity, then we talk.
There also seemed to be a lot of confusion over finances. The fact that there were associated donations to charities and pro-LGBTQ+ orgs seemed to be widely misunderstood or not recognized by would-be detractors. Again there were defenders who came to the aid of the reading-impaired:
There are obviously further questions people can ask about how much of the money goes to LGBT+ supporting organizations, or whether the organizations are the correct ones to support or whether there are better ways to support people.
Another aspect of the special product launch was the timing: “On International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT), Apple debuts the new Apple Watch Pride Edition band and dynamic watch face, both of which incorporate a broader set of colors inspired by multiple Pride flags that have represented the diverse LGBTQ+ community throughout its rich history.”
In case the explanatory text above was not 100% clear the following is also spelled out in the Apple press release:
Apple donates all the proceeds to International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (IGLA), The Trevor Project, and LGBT+ youth charity GLSEN.
The 2021 edition of the Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop includes black and brown strips that symbolize Black and Latinx communities, in addition to those who have passed away from or are living with HIV/AIDS.
The light blue, pink, and white stripes represent transgender and nonbinary individuals.
Cook, who in 2014 became the first chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out as gay, also added the following:
Black, Brown and transgender activists have always been at the heart of the LGBTQ+ movement. The new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop honors their legacy and reaffirms Apple’s commitment to support the ongoing work toward equality.
Tim Cook / Twitter
Thanks for the visibility and for taking actions, so proud to have you on the LGBTTTQIA+ community 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Coming from Focus Features, “Stillwater” follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to the French city Marseille, to see his daughter, who is now in prison for a murder she said she did not commit.
FIRST LOOK: Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin and Lilou Siauvaud in #STILLWATER, a film by Tom McCarthy. In theaters July 30. pic.twitter.com/3FP4CKkAvd
Matt Damon stars as the father, Bill Baker, who at every turn is confronted with obstacles; language barrier, cultural clashes and navigating complicated foreign legal systems. No matter, Baker immerses himself into life on the other side of the world in order to exonerate his daughter.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Director Tom McCarthy explains Damon’s character – “He’s a guy that’s had a difficult life, he’s struggled, but he sort of tried to make amends and do what’s right, I think, when we meet him”.
This dramatic thriller will be in theaters only starting July 30th, 2021. Directed by Tom McCarthy, the Oscar Award winning filmmaker responsible for “Spotlight”. Along with Damon, the film stars Abigail Breslin and Camille Cottin.
Echoes of the Amanda Knox ordeal, as well as “Taken” with Liam Neeson come to mind but neither quite fit, which is a good thing. Not even gonna mention the Bourne Identity connections! Check it out below for yourself and see if it feels derivative or original and if Matt is inhabiting the cowboy-esque character in an interesting way…
New challenges as the two “try” to get their way to parenthood
The Apple Original series, which in Season 1 followed Nikki, played by Esther Smith, and Jason played by Rafe Spall, as a London couple. Unsurprisingly, as the title gives away, they are trying and having some difficulty conceiving. With the realization that maybe adoption is the only route for them to raise a child, the two are put to the test and experience a rollercoaster of emotions along the way.
Season 2, which is set to release to Apple TV+ users on May 21, will continue to follow the journey to the next level as the two have finally been approved to adopt and take the huge step of welcoming a child into their home. This leads to challenges, such as finding a child they connect with and making a decision between a girl or boy. Juggling all the adoption events, school visits, all while also maintaining work schedules, wannabe family life soon becomes a whole lot more to deal with than Nikki and Jason anticipated.
The cast will also include the return of the Season 1 primary ensemble including: Imelda Staunton, Oliver Chris, Ophelia Lovibond, Darren Boyd and Robyn Cara.
Check out the below official trailer for “Trying” Season 2: The first two episodes will debut globally on May 21 and the remaining six episodes will be released weekly every Friday.
The plot for Netflix’s newest original series, “Jupiter’s Legacy” is comprised of eight episodes is based off Mark Millar’s comic book series of the same name, originally published in 2013. The original comic book, with 5 issues printed, consisted of the plot of which spanned decades and centered around the world’s first generation of superheroes and their children, with the expectation their offspring would carry out in their parents’ legacy.
The series stars Josh Duhamel, Leslie Bibb, Ben Daniels, Elena Kampouris, Andrew Horton, Mike Wade, and Matt Lanter. Executive producers include Millar, Quitely, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Dan McDermott, Steven S. DeKnight, James Middleton, and Sang Kyu Kim.
“Jupiter’s Legacy” will be Netflix’s latest venture build another mega-hit original franchise – maybe even following in the footsteps of “Stranger Things” and “The Umbrella Academy”. Comic book adaptions already have built-in fan bases so the appeal is definitely there and Netflix plans to bank on it.
Millar has a long history of his comics being adapted to the big screen. Some of which include: “Kick-Ass” and “Kick-Ass 2” films, which released in 2010 and 2013, respectively, the four “Kingsman” films, the latest of which is set for premiere later this year in August. As well as the more popular titles like the “Fantastic Four”, “Captain America: Civil War” and the“Logan” films.
Netflix acquired Mark Millar’s comic-book publisher Millarworld in 2017 so there are much more Millar adaptions in store for the streaming platform for future release. Some other series that are still currently in delvelopment include “The Magic Order”, “American Jesus”, and “Super Crooks”.
Check out the trailer for “Jupiter’s Legacy” below. The show debuts May 7 on Netflix.
Nomadland was added to the AP best films and National Society of Film Critics 2020, and as well as beingan Oscar contender will now be available for viewers to watch starting February 19, 2021. Movie-goers can either visit the big screen available anywhere movie theaters are open, or opt for a stay-at-home watch.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers
Apple TV+ announces new original documentary special
As a way to take some of the doom and gloom away from reporting and documenting climate change and global warming, and to celebrate Earth Day 2021, Apple will showcase three new earth related programs.
First, ‘The Year Earth Changed’ narrated by Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning broadcaster David Attenborough will go live on April 16th. In addition, both documentary series “Tiny World” and “Earth At Night In Color” will return for second seasons.
The hour long documentary special release will focus on the way a world-wide crisis, in this case the global pandemic of 2020, can impact human behavior, travel restrictions, closed beaches and lock-downs, which then in turn, surprisingly in this case, led to positive adaptations by wildlife around the globe.
“During this most difficult year, many people have reappraised the value and beauty of the natural world and taken great comfort from it,” said Attenborough. “But the lockdown also created a unique experiment that has thrown light on the impact we have on the natural world. The stories of how wildlife responded have shown that making even small changes to what we do can make a big difference.”
David Attenborough
All three productions also highlight the commitment of Apple TV+ & the respective production units (BBC Studios Natural History Unit, along with director Tom Beard for The Year the earth Changed) to the highest quality visuals and using the uplifting images to inspire through the beauty of the natural world.
It is being called “a love letter to planet Earth, highlighting the ways nature bouncing back can give us hope for the future” in Apple’s words.
Above: Original Trailer for ‘The Year Earth Changed’
In an educational and entertainment corollary to other green initiatives Apple is using its resources to influence positive change
Seasontwoof “Tiny World”, which was narrated and executive produced by Paul Rudd (“Ant-Man”), used high-end macro filming techniques to capture 3,160 hours of rarely seen “ant’s eye views” of over 200 species. The resulting final edit gives the viewer entry into a fascinating miniature natural world that is otherwise unseen all around us.
Paul Rudd’s participation is not without note, since he is literally known as “Ant-Man” and therefore in a unique position to narrate and executive produce “an illuminating the ingenuity and resilience of the planet’s smallest creatures”.
Above: Original “Behind the Scenes” Trailer for ‘Tiny World’
As per Apple: “Returning for season two, “Tiny World,” narrated and executive produced by Paul Rudd, grants viewers a unique perspective into the natural world, illuminating the ingenuity and resilience of the planet’s smallest creatures. With over 200 species filmed and 3,160 hours of footage, the six-episode docuseries shares surprising stories and spectacular cinematography that spotlight small creatures and the extraordinary things they do to survive.”
Above: “earth At Night In Color” Credit: Apple
“Earth At Night In Color” is also returning for a second season with six all-new episodes narrated by Tom Hiddleston (“Avengers”).
Once again, the production values are designed to wow and elicit awe, “with the use of cutting-edge cameras and a revolutionary post-production process, “ the series seeks to reveal “nature’s nocturnal wonders with striking new clarity.”
Further, as per Apple;
“Some never-before-seen behaviors of animals after dark, captured using low-light cameras and light from a full moon, include elephants battling hyenas around starlit waterholes and kangaroos embracing under the cover of darkness to find a mate.”
Other animals in the new season include pumas, polar bears, manta rays, and tiny planktonic life at night in the ocean. “Earth At Night In Color” is produced by Offspring Films. The series is executive produced by Alex Williamson and series produced by Sam Hodgson.
As big a splash as last year? Predictions are affirmative
Apple revealed its schedule for this year’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). To take place in an all online format on June 7th through 11th there will be a large audience due to the unlimited size of the venue (virtual) and, as was the case last year, the software and app developers event will also be an opportunity for Apple to highlight plans for new hardware designs.
As is customary, of course, the keynote address will thoroughly update the progress on the upcoming OS versions; iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8 and tvOS 15. Rumored expectations of hardware such as the highly anticipated iPad Pro, possibly a new MacBook Pro, new iMacs and the new Apple TV that is overdue and oft talked about.
Any or all of these, as yet unconfirmed, predictions could be upended by a prior release date, the iPad Pro for one, is rumored to be likely to get an announcement before June.
Above: Photo / Apple
The bulk of the conference is devoted to the software and if the upgrades are anywhere near as substantive as they were in 2020 that will be a lot to dive into.
Bring the Luck of the Irish to your nearest streaming device
The Boondock Saints
We found a collection of Irish movie favorites ranging from action packed to love stories – movies both old and new that you can surely indulge from the comfort of your couch (while also enjoying a pint of Guinness if you’re into that kind of thing). Check out our pick of movies below with trailers that star big names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Norman Reedus, Gerard Butler, Hilary Swank, Judy Dench and more. Enjoy!
Directed by Troy Duffy. Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe), an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.
Also a sequel: The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day – From Troy Duffy, writer and director of The Boondock Saints, comes the much anticipated sequel to the tough, stylized cutting edge saga of the MacManus brothers (Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery). The two have been in deep hiding with their father, Il Duce (Billy Connolly), in the quiet valleys of Ireland, far removed from their former vigilante lives. When word comes that a beloved priest has been killed by sinister forces from deep within the mob, the brothers return to Boston to mount a violent and bloody crusade to bring justice to those responsible. With a new partner in crime (Clifton Collins Jr., Star Trek) and a sexy FBI operative (Julie Benz, TV’s “Dexter”) hot on their trail…the Saints are back! Available on Amazon and Walmart.
South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes under cover to infiltrate the organization of gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). As Billy gains the mobster’s trust, a career criminal named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrates the police department and reports on its activities to his syndicate bosses. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin must figure out each other’s identities to save their own lives. Available on Amazon and Walmart.
A 2015 romance and historical drama. Young Irish immigrant Eilis Lace (Saoirse Ronan) navigates her way through 1950s Brooklyn. Lured by the promise of America, Eilis departs Ireland and the comfort of her mother’s home for the shores of New York City. The initial shackles of homesickness quickly diminish as a fresh romance sweeps Eilis into the intoxicating charm of love. But soon, her past disrupts her new vivacity, and Eilis must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within. Available on Amazon and Walmart.
A 2007 romantic film. When Gerry (Gerard Butler), the husband of Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank), dies from an illness, she loses the love of her life. Knowing how hard Holly will take his death, Gerry plans ahead. Beginning on her 30th birthday, she receives the first in a series of letters written by him, designed to ease her grief and encourage her to move forward to a new life. Available on Amazon and Walmart.
In a 2013 drama film directed by Stephen Frears, based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by journalist Martin Sixsmith. 1952, Irish teenager Philomena (Judi Dench) became pregnant out of wedlock and was sent to a convent. When her baby, Anthony, was a toddler, the nuns took Philomena’s child away from her and put him up for adoption in the United States. For the next 50 years, she searched tirelessly for her son. When former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) learns of the story, he becomes her ally. They travel together to America to find Anthony and become unexpectedly close in the process. Available on Amazon and Walmart.
2007 Irish romantic musical drama film written and directed by John Carney. The film stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as two struggling musicians in Dublin, Ireland. A vacuum repairman (Glen Hansard) moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova), who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love. Available on Amazon and Walmart.
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