Which is Smarter - MI or AI?

Raebsamen, Lynn.  Artificial Stupelligence: The Hilarious Truth About AI.  n.p.: Lyra Press, 

       2025.   ISBN: 9783952622308 

 

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) an oxymoron or a "contradiction in terms" which is what many folks say about military intelligence (MI) or is AI just an overly broad term that covers so much territory that almost anything can be shoved in?  Lynn Raebsamen does not weigh in on MI, but she does cover most all the fronts of the ongoing war AI enthusiasts insists on waging on common sense with a nice blend of facts and anecdotes.

 

 Lynn Raebsamen opens the book with an overview of where AI came from and how we got to the present day.  She covers voice controls ordering doll houses; self-driving cars and their quirks; crazy issues with facial recognition and their ethical implications; chat bot mishaps, missteps, and hallucinations; AI crashing markets; IBM Watson misdiagnosing patients; AI running amok in HR; AI trying to "create" art; content moderation, cybersecurity, and image recognition; as well as AI visiting the classroom, politics, and "saving" the environment.  She finishes the book with a visit to virtual reality and then a few success stores of AI actually working as designed.

 

If you want something more then the AI hype found in most news stories, check out Artificial Stupelligence for a chance to laugh as you learn!   
 

The Long Road to the Medal of Honor!

Davis, Paris.  Every Weapon I Had: A Vietnam Vet's Long Road to the Medal of Honor.  New York: 

        St. Martin's Press, 2025.  ISBN: 9781250387653 

 

 

So how much do you know of the Green Berets' operations in Vietnam during 1965?  Just the movie?  Well, settle yourself down and follow Green Beret Captain Paris Davis on his most harrowing time on a knoll in Binh Dinh Province on 18 June 1965!  And stay seated as he describes his journey to finally being presented the Medal of Honor by President Biden on 3 March 2023.

 

Paris Davis sets the stage with a brief description of the action on 18 June 1965, but takes the reader to his family setting in Cleveland (OH) and the circumstances that led him to attend Southern University (LA) where he joined the ROTC which lead him to an Army career,  He joined Airborne and jumped out of planes, then Ranger School before heading to Korea in 1960.  In 1962, Davis attended Q School to become a Green Beret and had his first tour in Vietnam, after which he got married to his college sweetheart.   In 1964, he went to Okinawa to lead an A-Team in the Green Berets which led to him leading the team into Vietnam to train indigenous residents in counter-insurgency operations.  It was on a training mission to take out what was that to be a North Vietnamese company that led Capt. Davis, members of his team, and trainees into the firefight on 18 June 1965.   His commanding officer put in the paperwork of a Medal of Honor award (the paperwork disappeared).   Later that year, Capt. Davis was severely wounded in an ambush and sent home to recover.  Davis went on to serve at the Pentagon and eventually as commander of the 10th Special Forces Group that would handle counter-insurgency operations in Europe if war broke out there. Col. Davis retired in July 1985 due to medical issues and eventually started a paper in the Washington, DC area.  But he kept wondering what had happened to the Medal of Honor paperwork that had been submitted multiple times, but no records of the paperwork could be found.  Finally, with the assistance of multiple people and the assistance of several congressmen, Col. Davis was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Biden in March 3, 2023.  

 

If the reader is looking for an engaging story of courage, endurance, and grit, pick up Col. Davis' Every Weapon I Had!

Mars on Our Mind!

Baron, David.  The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-
       Century America.  n.p.: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2025.  ISBN: 9781324090663

 

"Why Mars?" is the question asked not only by the author, but of the reader.  Why this fascination with the red planet, one of Earth's closest neighbors?  And why was there this fixation on canals and intelligent life on Mars?  Where did that come from and what has it spawned?  Those are some of the questions that David Baron seeks to answer in The Martians.

 

David Baron divides his tale into three parts - Part One - Century's End - 1876-1900, Part Two - A New Civilization - 1901-1907,  and Part Three - The Earthlings Respond - 1908-1916.  David Bruce brings in all of the big guns of the day - Percival Lowell who became enthralled with the Far East before he turned his vision onto the heavens,  the Widow Guzman who funded the Pierre Guzman prize for communication with another planet, or star, Camille Flammarion, a French astronomer,  and color-blind Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli who mapped Mars and drew in the canali or channels that he saw on the surface which caused much confusion when the term migrated into English as "canals."  Later on Nicoli Tesla makes his appearance along with H. G. Wells who brings a Martian invasion to his local village.  A whole host of British and American astronomers who argue both for and against the concept of Martian life spend decades going back and forth over the evidence that Lowell and others produce until newer and better telescopes clarify the view of Mars from Earth.  David Baron not only tells the tale of the Martian craze, he also provides the context in which it occurred giving the reader a feel for the popular culture that existed alongside it and the consequences and influence the craze had on American and world culture. 

 

If a well-written true science tale mixed with popular culture is what you crave, pick up David Baron's The Martians and be prepared to enjoy yourself!