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<h2>Book Notes</h2>
Started Jan 2017. Ordered chronologically by when I read them.

<h3>Isaac Newton by Mitch Stokes</h3>
Finished reading Dec 2016.
It is a quick, easy read, touching lightly on many aspects of his life.
It illuminates some philosophical debates at the time, especially regarding science
and physics.
<ul>
  <li>3 - born 1642, posthumously, the year that Galileo died</li>
  <li>3 - Devised gravitation "by thinking on it continually"</li>
  <li>11 - Obsessive organizer.  Arranged 2400 nouns in his notebook</li>
  <li>11 - Childhood was solitary reading and building (avid builder)</li>
  <li>21 - Cambridge founded in 1200s upon Oxford dispute. Still taught scholasticism = aristotle + Christianity</li>
  <li>21 - First 1-2 years at Cambridge he took copious notes on scholastic topics</li>
  <li>21 - Tutor Pulleyn was absent; allowed autodidact Newton to do his own thing</li>
  <li>22 - On Pentecost, age 20, listed 58 sins in his notebook</li>
  <li>27 - Copernicus made no new observations; simply offered simpler math</li>
  <li>28 - Galileo introduced quantity, measurement, and experiment into natural philosophy</li>
  <li>28 - Descartes died 1650. His philsophy had ether, vortices, and no desire or forces</li>
  <li>31 - Newton began notebook sections with a list of questions</li>
  <li>31 - Wrote <i>Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles, magis amica veritas</i></li>
  <li>33 - Writings on theology > chemistry/alchemy > physics</li>
  <li>34 - Taught himself trig to understand an astrology book. Began Euclid but discarded as a waste of time.</li>
  <li>36 - Masted Descartes' Geometry by restarting book whenever stuck. Sometimes progress was 2 pages per restart.</li>
  <li>41 - Plague in 1665. Moved back to Wollsthorpe for two years. Great fire 1666.</li>
  <li>44 - Boyle's <i>Christian Virtuoso</i> says experimental philosophy assists in being a good Christian</li>
  <li>47 - Developed calculus in seclusion at Woolsthorpe</li>
  <li>53 - Hooke emphasized <i>experimentum crucis</i></li>
  <li>56 - Returned as Cambridge Fellow 1667. Experimentalist.</li>
  <li>62 - Lucasian chair and scarlett robe at age 26 (1669)</li>
  <li>67 - Elected to Royal Society (1672) due to handmade reflecting telescope</li>
  <li>70s - Publicity of Optics caused undesired controversy & correspondence</li>
  <li>77 - "shoulders of giants" is from private correspondence with Hooke</li>
  <li>83 - Millions of words on religion; more than any other topic</li>
  <li>85 - Was familiar with all works of church fathers</li>
  <li>85 - Consider reading Manuel, <i>Religion of Isaac Newton</i></li>
  <li>86 - Several references on the trinity, heresies, consubstantiation, Athanasius</li>
  <li>88 - Prepared to resign Lucasian chair rather than take holy orders. King granted dispensation.</li>
  <li>89 - Posthumously published religious works: <i>CHronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended</i> and
    <i>Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John</i></li>
  <li>90 - Thought Egypt and Greece had secret wisdom from Noah, lost as they became corrupt</li>
  <li>93 - That concept found in charter of Royal Society: "attempt the recovery" of knowledge</li>
  <li>96 - Confessed reading Christian Champions as a violation of the Sabbath</li>
  <li>108 - Verified Kepler's ellipses would arise from 1/r2 force in 1679, but kept it secret</li>
  <li>108 - Philosophical point: simple mathematics was seen as proof of correctness</li>
  <li>109 - Gravity was contra Descartes's matter system, in which force reuired contact (ether).
            Jesuits decreed no action at a distance.</li>
  <li>116 - In 1684 Royal Society's big topic is path under 1/r2. Halley travels to Cambridge
            to ask Newton, who immediatly responses: ellipse; I worked it out year ago.
            Newton couldn't find the papers and rederiving it rekindled his interest in math.</li>
  <li>120 - Halley published at own expense the Principia. Third volume done in July 1687, age 44.
            Undermined Descartes with invisible action at a distance.
            Used proposition system like Euclid. Axioms were inertia, F=ma, equal & opposite force.
            Reasoned from those to universal gravitation.  Was ridiculed on the continent</li>
  <li>129 - Pythag -> Plato -> world: God ordered universe with mathematical laws</li>
  <li>131 - Byron's poem: reverse Adam's curse and steam engines will take us to the moon</li>
  <li>137 - Lifetime friend with Locke. Conversed on theology.  Sent letter on corruptions of 
            scripture.  James II was Catholic; William & Mary protestant, appointed Newton to parliament</li>
  <li>139 - Bentley's A Confutation of Atheism was developed with Newton</li>
  <li>142 - All this while mercury poisoned from alchemy</li>
  <li>144 - Was stymied by the 3 body problem and lack of moon data. Gave up chair in 1696, presumably
            due to Trinity stance.</li>
  <li>148 - Took over royal mint. Death for clipping coins.</li>
  <li>148 - Bernoulli issued roller coaster challenge. Newton solved immediately but was annoyed
            at being "teezed by forreigners about Mathematical things"</li>
  <li>154 - Was never married or romantic</li>
  <li>155 - Hooke died in 1703; Newton returned to Royal Society & was elected president</li>
  <li>156 - Published Optics in 1704, which was more accessible</li>
  <li>160 - Leibniz accused gravity as introducing miracles into philosophy</li>
  <li>163 - First serious illness was kidney stones at age 80 (1722)</li>
  <li>165 - Died March 1727, age 84.</li>
  <li>168 - Interesting postscript reference to Nobel Wigner's Unreasonable Effectiveness
            of Mathematics.</li>
</ul>

<h3>How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen</h3>
Finished Dec 2016.
It is a business-school-type book with principles and research for contemplating
and planning your career and family life.  The chapters stand by themselves and are
only loosley coupled.
<ul>
  <li>Chap 1 -- History & "advice" is too anecdotal; experience is too slow (do you want N marriages
      before you get good?); theory is required.  This book gives a framework, not answers. 
      The framework is built on fundamental research.  Ancillary point: convince smart people through
      allegories that they apply to themselves (Grove Intel example). </li>
  <li>Section 1 Intro -- Goal is to form a strategy to wake up every morning feeling lucky to be doing
      what you are.</li>
  <li>Chap 2 -- Incentives are popular but are only narrowly useful.  Herzberg's motivation theory
      proposes hygiene & motivation factors.  Once hygiene are good enough, you should ignore them.
      Motivation factors are the primary drivers of your personal energy & satisfaction.  Hygiene are
      comp, status, work conditions & policies; motivation are challenging work, recognition,
      responsibility, and personal growth.</li>
  <li>Chap 3 -- Initial strategy should be malleable to accomodate emergent opportunities
      (eg Honda dirtbikes).  Analyze new initiatives with a ranked list of assumptions that must
      be true for the strategy to work.</li>
  <li>Chap 4 -- Your actual strategy is where you spend your time, money, and energy.  Most people
      choose immediate gratification over long term strategy.  Analyzing your time/money/energy
      helps clarify things.</li>
  <li>Chap 5 -- Plant saplings before you need shade.  In business, seek profit first and growth
      later (eg Honda dirtbikes vs Iridium).  In personal life, family and friends will tolerate
      neglect, but time and words are long term investments that shouldn't be procrastinated.</li>
  <li>Chap 6 -- What job does it sole?  Eg Ikea, milkshakes.  Personal: apply to relationships:
      what job does my spouse need me to do?  It's a type of practical approach to empathy.</li>
  <li>Chap 7 -- In outsourcing, each step is rational, but end result is failure (eg Dell & Asus).
      Capabilities = resources (what) + processes (how) + priorities (why).  Household chores
      develop these skills in kids; outsourcing them is like Dell.  Don't outsource your role as
      parent.  (This chapter was a little long and convoluted)</li>
  <li>Chap 8 -- Choose experiences for your children that prepare them for life.  I didn't find
      anything compelling worth noting.</li>
  <li>Chap 9 -- Culture is created by doing things together, over and over.  Eg Clay only did
      housework when a kid was helping.  Important to work together and celebrate successes
      together.</li>
  <li>Chap 10 -- Marginal cost analysis is dangerous.  Eg Blockbuster, US Steel.  
      A bit of an encore on the intrasitive property of decisions: each increment may be
      prudent, but the end result is worse.  Applies marginal cost to moral realm: don't 
      take the first wrong step.  It is hard to measure the marginal cost of not doing good
      things.</li>
  <li>Epilogue -- Business needs a purpose. Your life does too.  Purpose has a
    <ul>
      <li>likeness - a sketch of what the end of the path looks like</li>
      <li>commitment - maybe even a conversion, to adapt and perservere</li>
      <li>metrics - a few measures (or just one) to keep focus</li>
    </ul>
    The how (how you get there) is typically emergent.
    The world does not deliver purposes; you must conceive, choose, manage. 
    Purpose itself can develop with time.  Clay's likeness was dedicated to improving
    lives, be kind, honest, forgiving, selfless husband/father/friend, and man who
    believes God.  His commitment was structured daily time to pray.  His metric took
    15 years to develop, and is one-on-one impacts on people's lives.  The more he focused
    on his own problems, the more despair he felt.
  </li>
</ul>

<h3>Chartism - Thomas Carlyle</h3>
<p>Chartism is the name for a working class (the poor) political movement in
mid 1800s in Britain.  It is named after their 6-point Charter, which focused on
political representation for the poor through universal male suffrage and fewer
requirements for parliamentarians. </p>

<p><b>Chapter 1 - Chartism</b>
Carlyle states that condition of the working class is an enormous political question.
Their "chartism" is a symptom of an underlying problem, but what causes it, and what
will satisfy it?  The disease may be real or may be imagined; either way, Coercion will fail as a remedy.  
The condition of the body of people is equivalent to the condition of the nation;
popular political issues are a distraction.  Parliament itself is a distraction and works
for its own sake.  Our main question is why the working classes are discontented.
If we can identify the reason, and the right way to fix it, then men will fight for right;
no one chooses to fight for the wrong.  All battle is the exercise of ascertaining might or right.</p>

<p><b>Chapter 2 - Statistics</b>
His introductory paragraph is incredible; it should be the foreword of every statistics textbook
and class forevermore.  It describes the dangers of statistics and the necessity of wisdom.
There are innumerable circumstances, and omitting just one may omit the single vital lynchpin.
He questions whether the statistics of his day are representative or were sampled too narrowly.
He describes how wages is a meager measure of success; can a man improve himself by thrift and
industry, can a willing man find work, what are his relationships?  
Banks open and have deposits but a local knows that his
fellows are saving less than before: the modern practices are deceptive.</p>

<h3>Charlie Munger, Daily Journal 2017 Meeting</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN1rLv1mIoQ">Video</a> of the meeting</p>

<p><b>0:14</b>
It’s a long slow kind of business.[…] I love that kind of stuff, when I think we’re taking territory.  It doesn’t look good when we write it off and we don’t report wonderful numbers or anything. But if it makes sense in the long term, we just don’t give a damn what it looks like over the short term. And we know it’s good for a bunch of shareholders that share our ideas.  After all we’re running a cult, not a normal company.  And I think mostly the feel is that you’re willing to wait.<br/>

I’ve lived all my life with people who were into deferred gratification. In fact, most of them will never have any fun.  They’ll just defer gratification all the way to the end, that’s what we do.  And it does cause you to get rich.  So we’re going to have a lot of rich dead people.  
</p>

<p><b>0:38</b>
Well, I coined that term, the lollapalooza effect, because when I realized that I didn’t know any psychology and that was a mistake on my part, I bought the 3 main textbooks for introductory psychology and I read through them. And of course, being Charlie Munger, I decided that the psychologists were doing it all wrong and I could do it better.  </br>

And one of the ideas that I came up with which wasn’t in any of the books was that the lollapalooza effects came when 3 or 4 of these tendencies were operating at once in the same situation.  I could see that it wasn’t linear, you got lollapalooza effects, but the psychology people couldn’t do experiments where 4 or 5 things were happening at once because it got too complicated for them, and they couldn’t publish. So they were ignoring the most important thing in their own profession.  <br/>

And of course the other thing that was important was to synthesize psychology with all else.  The trouble with the psychology profession is that they don’t know anything about all else.  You can’t synthesize something you know with something you don’t know if you don’t know the other thing.
</p>

<p><b>1:34</b>
That’s a good lesson, that’s a good question. What happened is the value of my partnership, that I was running, went down by 50% in one year. Now the market went down 40% or something. It was a once in 30 year recession;  monopoly newspapers were selling at 3-4x earnings.  And at the bottom tick I was down from the peak 50%, or right about that.  And that has happened to me 3 times with my Berkshire stock.  So I regard it as a part of manhood: that if you’re going to be in this game for the long haul, which is the way to do it, you better be able to handle a 50% decline without fussing too much about it.  So my lesson to all of you is to conduct your life so that you can handle a 50% decline with aplomb and grace.   Don’t try to avoid it.  It will come. In fact, if it doesn’t come, I would say you aren’t being aggressive enough.
</p>

<h3>AntiFragile - Nassim Taleb</h3>
<i>(read in Jan 2017)</i>
<ul>
 <li>Less is more</li>
 <li>Volatily == stressor == time == uncertainy == entropy</li>
 <li>Action is superior to language, theory, or study.  Ex: Greeks excelled in the sea but had no word for blue</li>
 <li>Worst-case historic anlysis is inately foolish: when the worst case occurred, it was worse than anything ever seen before</li>
 <li>Nonlinear systems have unclear causality.  "Causal opacity."  Do weak bones cause senility or vice versa or circular?</li>
 <li>Ancestral life lacking chronic stress. Acute stress is good but requires a recovery period.</li>
 <li>City states are antifragile</li>
 <li>Noise helps systems: simulated annealing, donkey between hay piles</li>
 <li>Iatrogenics is harm caused by healer. Tonsillitis, Semelweis, etc.</li>
 <li>Procrastination is a natural sign of unimportance</li>
 <li>Harvard social science library has 9000 years of reading and most of it is useless</li>
 <li>Stalin could not exist in a municipality. Small things are more antifragile.</li>
 <li>1/N investing: invest in every Nth company. Has high optionality.</li>
 <li>Rank options in terms of optionality; choose the one with unbounded payoffs and bounded risks</li>
 <li>Invest in people, not plans</li>
 <li>(Munger also talks about big biased bets; he favors a few big vs Taleb many small)</li>
 <li>History is written by theorists because the doers are too busy doing.  They pretend
     that theory led to application. Mostly the opposite is true. Tinkering creates something,
     theory arrives at maturity to explain it.</li>
 <li>Antifragile items exhibit power law survivorship: remaining life expectancy is proportional to age.
     The longer a book has been in print the longer it will be on expectation.</li>
 <li>Timely material (newspapers, etc) are instantly obsolete</li>
</ul>
<p>Volatility happens.  Same things get worse (fragile). Some things don't change (robust). Some things
   get better (antifragile).  Think in terms of optionality: how to capture unbounded upside surprises
   with bounded negative surprises.  Expert knowledge is often wrong due to unmeasured negatives.
   They are by nature impossible to predict.  History books are wrong because they are written by theorists.
   Common sense heuristics are best; they exist for a reason; the longer something existed the longer
   it will continue.  Structure your life to be antifragile where you can.</p>

<h3>Breath</h3>
Read June 2020.<br/>
<br/>
It is a combination personal story and a survey of main ideas and big personalities in the 
theraputic breathing area.

<p><b>Intro: Motivation</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>personal health change after 1 hour/week of breathing exercises</li>
  <li>freediving research uncovered outrageous claims like fighting <i>e coli</i></li>
  <li>ancient texts discuss breathing, particularly through the nose</li>
  <li>modern medicine has almost nothing to say</li>
  <li>other modern sciences are finding links between breathing and health</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 1: Worst Breathers</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Personal history: bad diet, developmental issues --> small mouth, health issues</li>
  <li>Nayak, Stanford rhinology: 10 day mouth breathing study, costs $5k, did with Anders Olsson</li>
  <li>Morton skull collection: nasal openings twice as large, straight teeth; we are only mammals
      with common overbite, underbite, and snaggles</li>
  <li>Prehistory: man is only species that dies easily by choking; low larynx, big brain, narrow nose, 
      agile (small) tongue --> small jaw/sinuses</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 2: Mouth Breathing</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Stanford experiment plugged nose: by fifth day, bp up, hr variability down, pulse up, temp down.
      By 10th day, snoring up 50x, sleep apnea began</li>
  <li>Douillard: cycling experiments; aerobic endurance higher with nose breathing</li>
  <li>Aside on Aerobic: 16x ATP than anaerobic, key for exercise (contra HIIT?), 180-age as max of target range</li>
  <li>Harrold monkey studies: forced mouth breathing changes face & teeth in 6-24 months, due to reduced pressure on soft tissues; changes back after 6 months of nose breathing</li>
  <li>Patrick McKeown: "leading expert on nasal breathing"</li>
  <li>Pituitary: vasporessin interrupted by apnea or lack of deep sleep, causing kidney water release --> urination and thirst [me: observed in high altitude camping]</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 3: Nose</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Has genital tissue that is used to cycle open/closed</li>
  <li>Right nostril = go = raises circulation, temp, cortisol, bp, language</li>
  <li>Left nostril = stop = oppsite</li>
  <li>Turbinates and mucus/cilia perform filtering</li>
  <li>George Catlin: traveled Great Plains to S America, made portraits of tribes; noticed great teeth, 
      no illness, rarely opened mouths; wrote Breath of Life in 1862</li>
  <li>Sinuses release nitric oxide --> 18% higher O2 absorption</li>
  <li>Several Stanford doctors recommend taping mouth shut while sleeping (3M Nexcare Durapore)</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 4: Exhale</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Five Tibetan Rites recorded by Peter Kelder in 1939 The Eye of Revelation</li>
  <li>Framingham Study: lung capacity predicts lifespan better than diet, exercise, genetics</li>
  <li>Freedivers can increase lung capacity by 30-40% (to 14 liters)</li>
  <li>Schroth: cured own scoliosis, had 1940s German institute, won Federal Cross or Merit</li>
  <li>Carl Stough: mysterious Dr Breath, treated empysema, trained Mexico City olympic team without O2.
      Said typical adult uses 10% of diaphragm full range.</li>
  <li>Lynn Martin: protege. Exhalte counting out loud to 10, repeating til down to sub whisper</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 5: Slow</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Olsson's obsession is CO2. Ties it to Cambrian explosion. Heavy breath bad because depletes CO2</li>
  <li>10lbs of fat loss = 8.5 lbs exhalted (CO2 + H2O) + 1.5 lbs sweat or urine</li>
  <li>Christian Bohr: discovered high CO2 releases more O2 from hemoglobin</li>
  <li>Henderson dog experiments: killed dogs with over breathing</li>
  <li>Douillard (cycling) again: endurance at 6 breaths/minute</li>
  <li>Many prayers -- Buddhist, Jain, yoga, Ave Maris -- are clauses that yield 5.5 breaths/minute</li>
  <li>5.5s in + 5.5s out is called resonant breathing, coherent breathing</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 6: Less</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Theory is to reduce not just rate, but volume. Like fasting.</li>
  <li>Jogged at 3s inhale, 4s exhale, building up to 8s exhale</li>
  <li>Buteyko: invited to Akademgorodok, largest breathing experiments ever. Healthy = 10 br/min, 5-6l/min, 6.5-7.5% CO2 in exhale. Unhealthy = 15l/min, 4% CO2 in exhale</li>
  <li>Zatopek: Gold medal 1952 in 5km, 10km. Gold in marathon. Held breath while training. "He does everything wrong but win"</li>
  <li>Trick is holding at half full. Called hypoxic training, Buteyko, normobaric hypoxia training</li>
  <li>Very unpleasant</li>
  <li>Esp good for asthma (?) Oral steroids cause blindness, decreased lung function.
      Alicia Meuret, 2014 study, breathe less to keep exhaled CO2 at 5.5%+</li>
  <li>Summary: optimal is 5.5L/min, 5.5 breaths/min, 5.5s per inhale/exhale</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 7: Chew</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Agriculture --> soft food --> face changed shape</li>
  <li>French Catacombs have skulls with wider jaws, straight teeth. 99% of Catacombs illegal to visit</li>
  <li>British avg height 1730 = 5'7, 1830 = 5'5</li>
  <li>Weston Price: believed diet was key. Bad = white flour, rice, jams, juices, canned veg, processed meats</li>
  <li>Should chew things that are hard to chew</li>
  <li>Mouth is too small</li>
  <li>Mew, British dentist: 90+ years old, living in castle, explored palate expanding.</li>
  <li>Mike Mew (son) says good oral posture is: lips closed, teeth touching, tongue on roof of mouth, head straight, breathe nose</li>
  <li>Dr Belfor: must chew a lot for facial bone growth</li>
  <li>Robert Corruccini: hard food research with pigs & humans</li>
  <li>Author added 1658 mm3 of bone in 1 year of expander device</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 8: More, on occasion</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Irritable heart syndrome noted in Civil War, extreme sympathetic stress</li>
  <li>Tummo = "inner fire" = Tibetan practice to deal with cold </li>
  <li>Alexandra David-Neel: My Journey to Lhasa</li>
  <li>Benson: published in Nature: ability to raise finger temp by 17F</li>
  <li>Wim Hof: promoter. Ran arctice marathon in no shirt; desert marathon with no water; 2 hours in ice bath</li>
  <li>Hof technique: lie on back, pillow under head, relax shoulders chest legs, take very deep breath to pit of
      stomach and out quickly. Repeat 30x through nose or pursed lips. Exhale to quarter full, hold as long as 
      possible. Huge inhale and hold 15s, "moving around chest." Exhale. Repeat pattern 3-4x. Also do cold
      exposure 2-3x/week [a bit non-sequitor]</li>
  <li>Key is flip flop: extreme stress vs relaxation, O2 vs CO2, etc</li>
  <li>Olsson dislikes, possibly damaging due to adrendaline society</li>
  <li>Maurice Daubard, acolyte of David-Neel: cured himself, ran 150mi in Shara, ice bath 55min, 
      currently 89, leads ice water swims in Alps</li>
  <li>Sanislav Grof (Czech psychiatrist): "tummo cranked to 11": dark room, loud music, breathe as hard and
      quickly as possible for 3 hours to exhaustion. Some clinical success. Some hallucination. Related to
      40% bloodflow reduction to brain upon CO2 depletion</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 9: Hold It</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Kling: monkeys with no amagdyla (no fear) die within days in wild</li>
  <li>Urbach-Wiethe: patient who cannot feel fear. One breath of 30% CO2 created panic, fear, anxiety</li>
  <li>Holding breath trains self to accept anxiety</li>
  <li>Concious apnea is good</li>
  <li>CO2 therapy used for 100 years; vanished in 1950s; replaced with pills; was never disproven</li>
  <li>Overbreathing is related to anxiety</li>
  <li>Olsson says optimal is 7% CO2: no panic or hallucination</li>
  <li>Author tried one breath 35% CO2: panic</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chap 10 Fast, Slow, Not at All</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Brazil - DeRose - 30 books on yoga [but not much value add in this part]</li>
  <li>Elmer Green,  Menninger Clinic, measuring Swami Rama: delta waves, 20bpm HR, zero HR, 11F temp diff</li>
  <li>Yoga: changing poses is 20th century invention; old style is hold one position for hours</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Epilogue: A Last Gasp</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Dr Weil says: if he could say one thing only, breathe better</li>
  <li>Mouth breathing very bad</li>
  <li>Exhale</li>
  <li>Chew hard things</li>
  <li>Breath more sometimes (Tummo)</li>
  <li>Hold breath sometimes</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Appendix</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Alt Nostril: relax. In slowly L nostril. Pause. Out slowly R nostril. Repeat</li>
  <li>Coordination: sit straight spine and chin. Gentle in through nose. Out while counting to 10 
      over and over until empty. Repeat 10-30x</li>
  <li>Resonant: sit straight. 5.5s inhale, 5.5s exhale, like a circle. Repeat 10x</li>
  <li>Buteyko: (a) sit straight. pinch nose. exhale mouth fully. start timer and hold max. Soft inhale.
      (b) exhale gently and hold for half of timed A. Repeat 100-500x/day. (c) breathe through nose and
      hum 5min/day (humming = NO2). (d) 1min run with normal nose breathe. exhale and keep pace. When
      needed, breathe gently at half desired capacity for 10-15s. Back to regular for 30s. Repeat 10x.</li>
  <li>Chewing: hard mastic gum, palate expansion</li>
  <li>Tummo: (see above)</li>
  <li>Kriya: difficult. Need guidance</li>
</ul>

<h3>The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico -- Bernal Diaz del Castillo</h3>
Read in Jan 2023. The book is a memoir of a solider who was with Cortes for the
entire conquest, from leaving Cuba, through the scuttling of the ships, through
accepting the surrender of Montezuma's successor (Montezuma had previously died).
It is the main primary source on the expedition, aside from a few of Cortes's letters, and two
other firsthand accounts of smaller subsets of the expedition.  The memoir was written in old age,
about 40 years after the events, and contains considerable details given such a large time gap.
The editor's notes indicate only a few of the details (places or dates) that mismatch other sources,
so perhaps it is indeed uncannily accurate.
<br/><br/>
Page numbers are from the 1956 edition by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy (Library of Congress Catalog No. 56-5758)

<h4>On Cortes the man</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(32) Book 2, xi -- Most of us soldiers who were there said that we should prefer to go again under
    Juan de Grijalva, for he was a good captain [... but Cortes formed a secret partnership with] two great
    favourites of [Governor] Velasquez [who] agreed that they would get him to appoint Cortes Captain General
    of the whole fleet, and that they would divide between the three of them, the spoil of gold, silver and jewels
  which might fall to Cortes' share.</li>
  <li>(41) Book 2, xvi -- The Pilot named Camacho who was in charge of our ship paid no attention to the orders
    of Cortes and went his own way and we arrived at Cozumel two days before Cortes [...] Cortes arrived with all
    the fleet, and after taking up his lodging the first thing he did was to order the pilot Camacho to be put
  in irons for not having waited for him at sea as he had been ordered to do.</li>
  <li>(49) Book 2, xix -- When Cortes saw how matters stood he ordered us to wait a little and not to fire any
    shots from guns or crossbows or cannon, for as he wished to be justified in all that he might do he made
    another appeal to the Indians through the Interpreter Aguilar, in the presence of the King's Notary, Diego
    de Godoy, asking the Indians to allow us to land and take water and speak to them about God and about His
    Majesty [...] Then they boldly began to let fly arrows at us [...] Now we all joined together to drive the
    enemy out of their strongholds, and we compelled them to retreat [...] Cortes then ordered us to halt, and not to
    follow on and overtake the enemy in their flight.  There and then Cortes took possession of that land for His
  Majesty.</li>  
  <li>(63) xxii -- One other thing Cortes asked of the chiefs and that was to give up their idols and
    sacrifices, and this they said they would do, and through Aguilar, Cortes told them as well as he was able
    about matters concerning our holy faith, how we were Christians and worshipped one true and only God,
    and he showed them an image of Our Lady with her precious Son in her arms and explained to them that we paid
    the greatest reverence to it as it was the image of the Mother of our Lord God who was in heaven. [...]
    Cortes said that the image should be given to them, and ordered them to make a well-constructed altar,
    and this they did at once.</li>
  <li>(102) Ch xxxv -- Cortes received [the gift of eight damsels] with a cheerful countenance, and thanked
    the caciques for the gifts, but he said that before we could accept them and become brothers, they must
    get rid of those idols which they believed in and worshipped, and which kept them in darkness, and must
    no longer offer sacrifices to them, and that when he could see those cursed things thrown to the ground
    and an end put to sacrifices that then our bonds of brotherhood would be most firmly tied. He added that
  these damsels must become Christians before we could receive them.  </li>
  <li>(103) Ch xxxv -- Cortes spoke to us about it and reminded us of certain good and holy doctrines and
    said: "How can we ever accomplish anything worth doing if for the honour of God we do not first
    abolish these sacrifices made to idols?"  and he told us to be all ready to fight should the Indians try
  to prevent us; but even if it cost us our lives the idols must come to the ground that very day.</li>
  <li>(108) Ch xxxviii -- [after the mutiny] the sentence which Cortes delivered was that Pedro Escudero
    and Juan Cermeno should be hanged; that the pilot Gonzalo de Umbria, should have his feet cut off, and
    the sailors, Penates, should receive two hundred lashes each [...] I remember that when Cortes signed that
    sentence, he said with great grief and sighs: "Would that I did not know how to write, so as not to have
    to sign away men's lives!" (translator note says that the sentence was probably not executed, due to
  the existence of letters from Juan Cermeno at a later date)</li>
  <li></li>      
</ul>

<h4>On Battle conditions</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(59) xx - After this we bound up the hurts of the wounded with cloths, for we had nothing else,
    and we doctored the horses by searing their wounds with the fat from the body of a dead Indian which we
    cut up to get out the fat, and we went to look at the dead lying on the plain and there were more than
    eight hundred of them, the greater number killed by thrusts, the others by cannon, muskets, and crossbows,
  and many were stretched on the ground half dead. </li>
  <li>(129) xliii -- They told [Cortes] that Xicotenga [...] had five captains with him and each captain
    had brought ten thousand warriors. [...] The next morning, the 5th September 1519, we mustered the horses.
    [...] All the plain was swarming with warriors and we stood four hundred men in number, and of those
    many sick and wounded.</li>
  <li></li>  
</ul>


<h4>On Spanish good behavior</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(4) Book 1, i -- (from the pre-Cortez Cordova expedition) -- we purchased three ships [...] on credit from
    the Governor, Diego Velasquez, on the condition that all of us soliders should go in the three vessels to
    some islands lying between Cuba and Honduras, which are now called the Islands of the Guanajes, and make
    war on the natives and load the vessels with Indians, as slaves, with which to pay him for his bark.  However,
    as we soldiers knew that what Diego Velasquez asked of us was not just, we answered that it was neight
    in accordance with the law of God nor of the king, that we should make free men slaves. When hesaw that we had
    made up our minds, he said that our plan to go and discover new countries was better than his, and he helped
    us in providing food for our voyage</li>
  <li></li>
  <li></li>  
</ul>

<h4>On Spanish bad behavior</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(25) Book 1, ix -- When the General saw that the Indians were not bringing any more gold
    to barter, and as we had already been there six days and the ships ran risk of danger from the
    North and North East wind, he thought it was time to embark. So we took [formal] possession of the
  land in the name of His Majesty.</li>
  <li></li>
  <li></li>  
</ul>

<h4>On Mexican human sacrifice</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(26) Book 1, ix -- we found two masonry houses very well built, each house with steps leading
    up to some altars, and on these altars were idols with evil looking bodies, and that very night
    five Indians had been sacrificed before them; their chests had been cut open, and the arms and thighs
  had been cut off and the walls were covered with blood.</li>
  <li>(78) Ch xxvii -- Montezuma had sent order to avoid further conversation with Cortes and those in
    his company; for it appears that Montezuma was very much devoted to his idols, named Tezcatepuca,
    and Huichilobos, the latter the god of war, and Tezcatepuca the god of hell; and daily he sacrificed
  youths to them so as to get an answer from the gods as to what he should do about us</li>
  <li>(85) Ch xxix -- When Pedro de Alvarado reached these towns [...] he found in the <i>cues</i>
    bodies of men and boys who had been sacrified, and the walls and altars stained with blood and the hearts
    placed as offerings before the Idols. He also found the stones on which teh sacrifices were made and the
    stone knives with which to open the chest so as to take out the heart. [...] he found most of the bodies
    without arms or legs, and that he was told by some Indians that they had been carried off to be eaten, and
    our soldiers were astounded at such great cruelty. I will not say any more of the number of sacrifices, although
  we foudn the same thing in every town we afterwards entered.</li>  
  <li>(90) Ch xxxi -- the Cacique and chiefs of the town addressed Cortes, relating their many causes of
    complaint against Montezuma [...] Besides relating the way that they had been brought into subjection,
    they told us that every year many of their sons and daughters were demanded of them for sacrifice, and others
    for service in the houses and plantations of their conquerors; [...] that Montezuma's tax-gatherers
    carried off their wives and daughters if they were handsome, and ravished them, and this they did
  throughout the land where the Totonac language was spoken</li>
  <li>(102) Ch xxxv -- Every day we saw sacrificed before us three, four or five Indians whose hearts were
    offered to the idols and their blood plastered on the walls, and the feet, arms and legs of the victims
  were cut off and eaten, just as in our country we eat beef brought frmo the butchers.</li>
  <li>(119) Ch xl -- I remember that in the plaz where some of their oratories stood, there were piles of
    human skulls so regularly arranged that one could count them, and I estimated them at more than a
  hundred thousand.</li>
  <li>(160) Ch liii -- I must tell how in this town of Tlaxcala we found wooden houses furrnished with
    gratings, full of Indian men and women imprisoned in them, being fed up until they were fat enough to be
    sacrificed and eaten.  [...] From now on, in all the towns that we entered, the first thing our
  Captain ordered us to do was to break open these prisons and set free the prisoners.</li>
  <li>(215) Ch lxv -- Then there were other wares consisting of Indian slaves both men and women; and
    I say that they bring as many of them to that great market for sale as the Portuguese bring negroes
    from Guinea; and they brought them along tied to long poles, with collars round their necks so that
    they could not escape, and others they left free. </li>
  <li>(220) Ch lxv -- All the walls of the oratory were so splashed and encrusted with blood that they were
    black, the floor was the same and whole place stank vilely.</li>
  
</ul>

<h4>On Legends of White Man from the Sunrise</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(24) Book 1, ix -- It is a fact, as we now know, that their Indian ancestors had foretold that men
  with beards would come from the direction of the sunrise and would rule over them.</li>
  <li>(72) Ch xxiv -- It happened that one of the soldiers had a helmet half gilt but somewhat rusty,
    and this Tendile noticed, for he was the more forward of the two ambassadors, and said that he
    wished to see it as it was like one that they possessed which had been left to them by their ancestors of
  the race from which they had sprung, and that it had been placed on the head of their god - Huichilobos</li>
  <li>(158) Ch liii -- These Caciques also told us that they had learnt from their forefathers that one of their
    Idols, to which they paid the greatest devoation, had told them that men would come from distant lands in the
  direction of the rising sun to subjugate and goven them</li>
  <li></li>
  <li>(204) Ch lxiii -- Montezuma began a very good speech, saying that he was greatly rejoiced to have in his
    house and his kingdom such valiant gentlemen as were Cortes and all of us. [...] that it must indeed be true
    that we were those of whom his ancestors in years long past had spoken, saying that men would come from where
    the sun rose to rule over these lands, and that we must be those men.</li>
  
</ul>

<h4>On Cooperation</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(94) Ch xxxii -- Cortes replied with the most cheerful countenance that he and his brothers who were
    here with him would defend them and would kill anyone who wished to molest them. Then the Caciques and other
    townsmen vowed one and all that they would stand by us in everything we ordered them to do and
  would join their forces with ours against Montezuma and all his allies.</li>
  <li></li>
  <li></li>  
</ul>


<h4>Miscellany</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(3) Book 1, i -- (great opening sentence) -- I, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, citizen and Regidor of the most loyal city
    of Santiago de Guatemala, one of the first discoverers and conquerors of New Spain and its provinces,
    and the Cape of Honduras and all that lies within that land, a Native of the very noble and distinguished
    town of Medina del Campo, and son of its former <i>Registor</i>, Francisco Diaz del Castillo, who was also
    called "The graceful" (may his soul rest in glory), speak about that which concerns myself and all the true
    conquerors my companions who served His Majesty by discovering, conquering, pacifying, and settling most of
    the provinces of New Spain, and that is is one of the best countries yet discovered in the New World, we found
  out by our own efforts without His Majesty knowing anything about it.</li>
  <li>(14) Book 1, v -- (same era as Ponce de Leon) -- We did as the pilot advised, for it seems that he had
  accompanied Juan Ponce de Leon on his voyage of discovery to Florida fourteen or fifteen years earlier.</li>
  <li>(26) Book 1, 28 -- (first mention of The Royal Fifth) -- Then the officers of the King took the
  Royal Fifth</li>  
  <li>(190) Ch lxi -- when we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great
    towns on dry land and that straight and level Causeway going towards Mexico, we were amazed and said
    that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of Amadis, on account of the great towers
    and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even
    asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream. [...] And then when we entered the city of Iztapalapa,
    the appearance of the palaces in which they lodged us!  How spacious and well built they were, of beautiful stone
    work and cedar wood, and the wood of other sweet scented trees, with great rooms and courts, wonderful to behold,
    covered with awnings of cotton cloth.  [...] I say again that I stood looking at it and thought that
    never in the world would there be discovered other lands such as these, for at that time there was no Peru, nor
  any thought of it.  Of all these wonders that I then beheld to-day all is overthrown and lost, nothing left standing.</li>
  <li>(214) Ch lxiv -- [full page description of palace life of Montezuma -- dancers, stilt-walkers, botanical gardens, etc</li>
  <li></li>    
</ul>


<h3>War as I knew it -- George S. Patton</h3>
Read in Jan 2022. Contains a subset of his diary from World War 2. 
Most of the content are daily details such as troop movements and meetings.
Contains some good lines and reflections, but is not chock full of them.  
Some memorable lines/sections (page numbers are from the Bantam War Book illustrated edition):
<h4>On History</h4>
<ul> 
  <li>(5) Nov 2, 1942 - Just finished reading the Koran - a good book and interesting</li>
  <li>(89) July 1944 - I also read <i>The Norman Conquest</i> by Freeman, paying particular
  attention to the roads William the Conqueror used in his operations in Normandy and Brittany.
  The roads used in those days had to be on ground which was always practicable. Therefore, using
  these roads, even in modern times, permits easy by-passing when the enemy resorts, as he always
  does, to demolition.</li>
  <li>(107) Aug 1944 - The Melun crossing is the same as that used by Labienus with his Tenth Legion about 55 B.C.</li>
</ul>
<h4> On Attacking</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(104) Aug 1944 - As of August 14 the Third Army had advanced farther and faster than any army in history</li>
  <li>(108) Aug 1944 - [a French General] stated that when he heard an armored division was heading for Brest,
  he knew I was in command. I asked him why the French Army had done so badly in 1940. He replied at once
  that for ten years prior to that time the French Army had thought, taught, and practiced defense - never attack.</li>
  <li>(108) Aug 1944 - The plans, when they came into my mind, seemed simple, but after I had issued
  the orders and everything was moving and I knew that I had no reserve, I had a feeling of worry and, as usual,
  had to say to myself, "Do not take counsel of your fears." </li>
  <li>(108) Aug 1944 -  If I had worried about flanks, I could never have fought the war.</li>
  <li>(129) Sep 1944 - The nineteeth, instead of being the day I hoped it would be, was bad. 
  The 35th Division had been pushed off a hill northeast of Nancy, so the enemy had observation
  and could fire into the town.  The 4th Armored was being heavily attacked and the XV Corps had not
  yet reached Luneville.  To cheer Eddy up, I told him two stories: first, that Grant once said,
  "In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten; then he who
  continues the attack wins"; second, what Lee is supposed to have said at Chancellorsville, "I
  was too weak to defend, so I attacked."  As a result, Eddy retook the hill at once.</li>
  <li>(170) Nov 1944 - [We also passed] innumerable lines of trenches, all of which had been passed
  by our men, because, almost invariably, they had not been adequately defended. The amount of
  man-hours used in digging these futile defenses is appaling.</li>
  <li>(171) Nov 1944 - Harriman told me that Stalin, in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the Russian
  Army, had paid the Third Army a very high compliment when he stated, "The Red Army could not have conceived
  and certainly could not have executed the advance made by the Third Army across France."</li>
  <li>(172) Nov 1944 - In driving from Chateau Salins to St. Avold, we crossed the Mginot Line
  and were impressed by its lack of impressiveness.</li>
  <li>(192) Dec 1944 - Christmas dawned clear and cold; lovely weather for killing Germans, although the
  thought seemed somewhat at variance with the spirit of the day.</li>
  <li>(209) Jan 1945 - Personally I was opposed to it, as it prevented me from attacking. [...]
  I still adhered to my theory, that in order to keep the Germans from attacking, we had to attack.</li>
  <li>(223) Feb 1945 - Certainly at this period of the war no reserve was needed - simply violent
  attacks everywhere with everything.</li>
  <li>(227) Feb 1945 - On the tenth, Bradley called up to ask me how soon I could go on the defensive.
  I told him I was the oldest leader in age and in combat experience in the United States Army in Europe,
  and that if I had to go on the defensive I would ask to be relieved. He stated I owed too much to the
  troops and would have to stay on.  I replied that a great deal was owed to me, and unless I could
  continue attacking I would have to be relieved. I further suggested that it would be a good thing
  if some of his Staff visited the front to find out how the other half lived.</li>
  <li>(335) Reflections - The best is the enemy of the good By this I mean that a good plan violently
  executed now is better than a perfect plan next week. War is a very simple thing, and the determining
  characteristics are self-confidence, speed, and audacity. None of these things can ever be perfect,
  but they can be good.</li>
  <li>(365) Earning My Pay XXXII - I was told to wait until the First Army had closed on the Rhine.
  However, after we crossed the Kyll River, I started to break the 4th Armored Division loose and,
  fearing that I might be ordered to stop it, I sent in no reports for twenty-four hours until it
  was so committed it could not be ordered to halt.  It reach the Rhine River without difficulty.</li>
</ul>
<h4> On protection of civilians</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(23) Dec 8, 1942 - I then told him [Moroccan Vizier] that, in spite of my most diligent
  efforts, there would unquestionably be some raping, and that I should like to have the
  details as early as possible so that the offenders could be properly hanged.</li>
  <li>(272) April 1945 - Mr. McCloy and I discussed what, to me, was the seemingly barbaric 
  bombardment of the centers of the cities. The Secretary stated that he had talked to Devers
  and Patch and they both agreed with me that it was a useless and sadistic form of war.</li>
  <li>(274) April 1945 - [the Medical Corps] were cluttering up the road with transportation
  which would later be needed by the German civilians to rebuild the country. We therefore
  issued orders for the sequestration of these vehicles.</li>
  <li>(305) May 1945 - We were very nearly killed by a bull-cart, which came out of a side
  street so that the pole missed us only by about an inch. The American soldier is absolutely
  incapable of enforcing the rule that civilians stay off the roads during active operations.
  His goodness of heart is a credit to him, but I am sure it has cost us many casualties.
  In war, time is vital, and bull-carts cause waste of time and therefore death. <br/><br/>
  If I were to fight another war, I would make it an inflexible rule that no civilian vehicle,
  horse, cow, or motor-drawn, appear on any axial road, and I would enforce this by shooting
  the animals and destroying the vehicles.  I did this in Sicily and was criticized by an
  ignorant press, who considered it very brutal to kick a few donkeys off bridges, and
  ignored the fact that by so doing we took Palermo in one day and at very low cost.</li>
</ul>
<h4> On Leadership</h4>
<ul>
  <li>(141) Oct 1944 - a General should command one echelon down, and know the position of units
  two echelons down.</li>
  <li>(188) Dec 1944 - As usual on the verge of action, everyone felt full of doubt except myself.
  It has always been my unfortunate role to be the ray of sunshine and the backslapper before action,
  both for those under me and also those over me.  I can say with perfect candor that, at that time,
  I had no doubt as to the success of the operation.</li>
  <li>(220) Feb 1945 - I counted over a hundred American armored fighting vehicles along the road,
  and, as a result, issued an order, subsequently carried out, that every tank should be examined
  and the direction, caliber, and type of hit which put it out made of record, so that we would have
  data from which to construct a better tank.</li>
  <li>(336) Reflections - In cold weather, General Officers must be careful not to appear to dress
    more warmly than the men.</li>
  <li>(336) Reflections - A General Officer who will invariably assume the responsibility for
    failure, whether he deserves it or not, and invariably give the credit for success to others,
    whether they deserve it or not, will achieve outstanding success.</li>
  <li>(336) Reflections - letters of commendation and General Orders presenting to the command the
    glory and magnitude of their achievements have a great influence on morale.</li>
  <li>(336) Reflections - Corps and Army Commanders must make it a point to be physically seen by as
    many individuals of their command as possible - certainly by all combat soldiers.</li>
  <li>(337) Reflections - Generals and their principal staff officers should keep diaries.</li>
  <li>(338) Reflections - the issuance of an order, or the devising of a plan, is only about five
  per cent of the responsibility of command. The other ninety-five per cent is to insure, by
  personal observation, or through the interposing of staff officers, that the order is carried out.</li>
  <li>(338) Reflections - Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you
  with their ingenuity.</li>
  <li>(338) Refletions - In planning any operation, it is vital to remember, and constantly repeat
  to oneself, two things: "In war nothing is impossible, provided you use audacity," and "Do not
  take counsel of your fears."  If these two principles are adhered to, with American troops victory
  is certain.</li>
  <li>(356) Earning My Pay (about July 1943) - The landing beach was under fire, but most of the
  projectiles were hitting about twenty-five feet beyond the beach, in teh water, where they
  did little harm. There was a great deal of confusion on the beach and nobody was working.
  I walked up and down the beach for some time, accompanied by my Staff, and we restored the
  confidence of the people there, particularly when we failed to take cover when the Germans flew
  along, strafing the beach.</li>
  <li>(363) Earning My Pay - fatigue produces pessimism</li>
</ul>


<h4>General anecdotes</h4>
<ul> 
  <li>(23) Dec 8, 1942 - The Grand Vizier ended up by saying that it was necessary to converse
  with a great man to realize his greatness, and that there was an Arabic saying to the
  effect that those who said all men were equal were either fools or liars, and that he and
  the Sultan were neither.</li>
  <li>(30) Jan 12, 1943 - Most of the Viziers are around ninety, so could not climb up the ladder,
  and I remained with them and we got very intimate and told jokes. The theory that the
  Arab has no sense of humor is absurd.</li>
  <li>(63) October 1943 - When we came to the temple of Hercules, which was the biggest but
  in the worst state of repair, I asked him [the mayor & tour guide] had it been 
  destroyed by an earthquake. He said "No, General, it was an unfortunate incident of the
  other war." When I asked which was the other war, he said that this temple was destroyed
  in the Second Punic War.</li>
  <li>(94) July 1944 - [the Headquarters] was deeply engrossed in the study of maps. I asked why
  they had not crossed the Sienne. They told me they were making a study of it at the moment,
  but could not find a place where it could be forded. I asked what effort they had made to
  find such a place and was informed that they were studying the map to that end. I then told
  them I had just waded across it, that it was not over two feet deep, and that the only
  defense I knew about was one machine gun which had fired very inaccurately at me. I repeated the
  Japanese proverb: "One look is worth one hundred reports," and asked them why in hell they
  had not gone down to the river personally.  They learned the lesson and from then on were a very
  great division.</li>
  <li>(181) Dec 1944 - war is not so difficult as people think.</li>
  <li>(259) Mar 24, 1945 - When we got to the far side [of the Rhine], I also deliberately
  stubbed my toe and fell, picking up a handful of German soil, in emulation of Scipio
  Africanus and William the Conqueror, who both stumbled and both made a joke of it, saying,
  "I see in my hands the soil of Africa" or "... the soil of England." I saw in my hands the
  soil of Germany.</li>
  <li>(274) April 1945 - When we first encountered the autobahns, we looked forward to them as
  of great military value, but after some experience it was evident that, as immediate routes
  of attack, the secondary roads were better, owing to the fact that the autobahns overpass the
  secondary roads and these points are easily destroyed by demolition. In fact, we captured a 
  German colonel who was quite proud of himself because he said that through the use of five
  hundred kilo aviation bombs he had certainly delayed the Third Army two days; which was probably true.
  After an autobahn had been in our possession for three days, it was extremely valuable,
  because by that time the Engineers had repaired the damage.</li>
  <li>(279) April 1945 - Lieutenant Graves and I flew to Mainz to be present by invitation of 
  General Plank, of Com Z, at the opening of the railway bridge over the Rhine, which had been 
  built by my friend and former classmate, Colonel Frank Hulen. Hulen, it seemed, was much
  depressed because he had built the bridge in nine days, twenty hours, and fifteen minutes, which,
  according to him, was some twelve hours longer than Caesar had taken to build a similar bridge.
  We pointed out to him that Caesar did not build a railway bridge. </li>
  <li>(276-284) April 1945 - At Walker's suggestion, we drove to Ohrdruf and visited the first
  horror camp any of us had ever seen. It was the most appaling sight imaginable. [...]
  General Walker and General Middleton had wisely decided to have as many soldiers as possible
    visit the scene. This gave me the idea of having the inhabitants themselves visit the camp.
    I suggested this to Walker, and found that he had already had the mayor and his wife take
    a look at it. On going home those two committed suicide. We later used the same system
    in having the inhabitants of Weimar go through the even larger slave camp (Buchenwald)
    north of that town. [...]
  One of the most horrible points about [Buchenwald] was that all these executions were carried
  on by slaves. There was a further devilish arrangement of making the various groups select 
  those who had to die. Each racial group had a certain number of men who represented it. These
  men had to select those from their group who would be killed locally, or sent to camps like
  Ohrdruf, which were termed "elimination camps." </li>
  <li>(311) May 1945 - After lunch, General Walker arranged for us to witness one of the exhibitions
  [of the Imperial Spanish Riding Academy, which had been running in Vienna since the time of
  Charles V of Spain], which was extremely interesting magnificently performed. However, it struck
  me as rather strange that, in the midst of a world at war, some twenty young and middle-aged
  men in great physical condition, together with about thirty grooms, had spent their entire
  time teaching a group of horses to wiggle their butts and raise thie feet in consonance with
    certain signals from teh heels and reins. Much as I like horses, this seemed to me wasted energy.
  On the other hand, it is probably wrong to permit any highly developed art, no matter how fatuous,
  to perish from the earth -- and which arts are fatuous depends on the point of view. To me the
  high-schooling of horses is certainly more interesting than either painting or music.</li>

</ul>
<h4>Memoranda</h4>
<ul> 
  <li>(61) Aug 22, 1943 - General Order #18 - Soldiers of the Seventh Army: 
    <blockquote>
  Born at sea, baptized in blood, and crowned with victory, in the course of thirty-eight days
  of incessant battle and unceasing labor, you have added a glorious chapter to the history of war.
  Pitted against the best the Germans and Italians could offer, you have been unfailingly 
  successful. The rapidity of your dash, which culminated in the capture of Palermo, was equalled
  by the dogged tenacity with which you stormed Troina and captured Messina.
  </blockquote></li>
  <li>(199) Jan 1, 1945 - General Order #1 - To The Officers and Men of the Third Army:
    <blockquote>
      From the bloody corridor at Avranches, to Brest, thence across France to the Saar, over the
      Saar into Germany, and now on to Bastogne, your record has been one of continuous victory.
      Not only have you invariably defeated a cunning and ruthless enemy, but also you have overcome
      by your indomitable fortitude every aspect of terrain and weather. Neither heat nor dust nor floods
      nor snow have stayed your progress.  The speed and brilliancy of your achievements are
      unsurpassed in military history.
      [...]
      My New Year wish and sure conviction for you is that, under the protection of Almighty God
      and the inspired leadership of our President and the High Command, you will continue your
      victorious course to the end that tyranny and vice shall be eliminated, our dead comrades
      avenged, and peace restored to a war-weary world.
      </blockquote>
  </li>
</ul>

<h3>Tim Ferriss #217: Martin Gibala on HIIT</h3>
<ul>
  <li>Burpee is the single best exercise; only downside is it's hard to perservere long term</li>
  <li>3x week HIIT is adequate. Less is ok if you have trouble tolerating it.</li>
  <li>2min @ 50-75W warmup; 3min cool down at same intensity</li>
  <li>1min program: 20s, 2m, 20s, 2m, 20s : at highest intensity possible</li>
  <li>20min option 1: 15 mins at near peak effort, 3-5 minute intervals with recovery</li>
  <li>20min option 2: 10 intervals of 1min on, 1 min recovery</li>
  <li>target is 85-90% of max heartrate by end of interval</li>
</ul>

<h3>Pascal's Pensees / Krailsheimer translation (1966)</h3>
Read in 2021. This edition follows the First Copy. Numbers are Lafuma/Brunsvigch. <br/>
My note-taking was inconsistent. This is only a small subset of interesting points from the
latter sections of the First Copy.
<ul>
  <li>(Struggle vs boredom, prefiguring Voltaire's distracting inquietude or lethargic disgust) [136/139]</li>
  <li>There can be no doubt that the soul is either mortal or immortal: this ought to make all the difference
      in ethics, and yet philosophers have drawn up their ethics independently of this question. They debate
      to pass the time. [612/219] </li>
  <li>Anyone who does not hate the self-love within him and the instinct which leads him to make himself into a God
      must be really blind.  Who can fail to see that there is nothing so contrary to justice and truth? [617/492]</li>
  <li>All their principles are true, sceptics, stoics, atheists, etc... but their conclusions are false, because 
      the contrary principles are also true. [619/394]</li>
  <li>It is good to be tired and weary from fruitlessly seeking the true good, so that one can stretch out one's arms
      to the Redeemer [631/422]</li>
  <li>Few speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, dubiously of scepticism. We are nothing but lies,
      duplicity, contradiction, and we hide and disguise ourselves from ourselves. [655/377]</li>
  <li>When everything is moving at once, nothing appears to be moving, as on board a ship. When everyone is
      moving towards depravity, no one seems to be moving, but if someone stops he shows up the others who are rushing on,
      by acting as a fixed point. [699/382]</li>
  <li>To make a man a saint, grace is certainly needed, and anyone who doubts this does not know what a saint, or a man, really is
      [869/508]</li>
</ul>
</body>