Clive Oppenheimer. Mountains of fire: a nothing burger.

 I checked out the book of Professor of Volcanology in Cambridge (sic!) to learn about 1) why volcanoes exist, 2) how they operate, 3) what is their geological function, 4) how they influence biosphere, 5) what instruments scientists use to study volcanoes. All I got was a crummy travelogue. 

P. Zeihan, Disunated nations: the scramble for power in an ungovernable world.

 The endless wars since 2001 bred "security consultants" and "defense contractors" so much so that even the deep pockets of CIA could not feed them all, so they turned to literature. They all subscribe to neocon dogma because they know the hand which feeds them. If fact, no other way of thinking about international affairs survived the onslaught of the "New York Times", WP, CNN and the web censorship by Microsoft and Google. 

Even the title of this book is plagiarized from a number of manuscripts (Sean Byrnes, Suga Chen and onwards to 1957). The chapter about the US is lifted from the opus by Mandelbaum and Zakaria with its (half-right as almost everything Mandelbaum in the new century) assertion that the US de-facto performed the functions of the world government in the field of defense, trade, circulation of currency, etc. etc. and extended it to the XVIII-XIX century UK. First, the model of the "World Government" was successful only because in the other parts of the world another power, the USSR, maintained some semblance of the world order. Equally, Britain could have ruled the world in the XIX century but never Europe (A paraphrase of Metternich's that "I sometimes ruled Europe, but never Austria"). Other powers -- the Ottomans, the Austrians, the Prussians and the Russians did the same in their spheres of influence. I.e. they suppressed local nationalisms, established and kept trade routes, provided protection for the allies and defense from enemies and promulgated uniform legislation and religious observance. 

    For China, 5.2% of the annual GDP growth is proclaimed a "crisis" by the Economist's neocons; with the same op-eds, they celebrate UK growth in excess of 1% as a triumph of British economic policy. Equally, he pommels on (totally invented) depopulation of Russian Federation, while at the same time oblivious to the fact that Japanese death rate exceeds the birth rate, one of the lowest in the entire world, by almost twice. Japan's population "pyramid" has two peaks -- one at 50 and another at 75, with overwhelming preponderance of population after 50 and experiences monotone fallout below that age.  

     His most ridiculous conclusion is that China and Russia are spent powers, while he predicts rising of France and Japan. Of France there is no discussion -- for he proposes that it reestablishes its colonial empire and takes over the Suez. Some of his pronouncements suggest that he might have had too many tequilas at lunch. Gas and oil pipelines between Russia and China will never be built (they are already functioning). The Japanese Navy is superior to the Chinese. At least, numerically, there is no comparison. Or, because of his racial prejudices, he considers Japanese perennially superior in technology? In fact, technological prowess of Japan is largely a myth -- it is enough to compare Japanese and Chinese rocket and nuclear programs. Of all defining modern technologies, only in industrial robotics, they are leading, yet followed closely by SK. 

  Koreans, Indonesians, Philipinos, etc. will agree to occupation by Japan in a new incarnation of the "New Sphere of Co-Prosperity in Asia" -- a nickname for the wartime Japanese empire-building. Given wartime behavior of the Japanese on the occupied territories, the understanding by the Japan's neighbors of its good intentions is certainly sweet. And Zeihan's craziness continues on every other page.