... How Like a God

I just finished Being Human by Peter David. I hope the links work for it. As you may have noticed I use pictures from Barnes and Noble for the books and as compensation I link to the purchase page for the book there as well. That has worked great for every other book I have put on here. This book however doesn’t appear on B&N’s web site. It’s like they don’t acknowledge its existence. It’s funny cause even if they don’t have a copy or picture of other books they usually have a page and allow you to search affiliated book stores for copies. So instead I used Amazon. I’m just not sure how stable the links are. But enough about that, lets ramble on about the book.

As I’ve said before I like the way Peter David writes, and this book is no exception. David takes on one of the first journeys with Captains Calhoun and Shelby on their own ships, the Excalibur and Trident. They each have their own missions- that end up being related, big surprise. What really makes this story is that David works some old characters and adversaries into it. As mentioned this is the first book with Shelby’s new crew. One of the crewmen you meet is Lieutenant M’Ress, a Caitain or feline race. She is supposed to have been displaced in time from The Enterprise captained by Kirk. Her character actually did appear on the Star Trek: Animated Series. David does nice things like that, but her appearance is explained in another book he wrote that isn’t in this series. Now I want to get that one. That’s the one annoying thing about David’s stories. He has no problem referencing anything he has done in previous books, and he always does it in a way that gives you all the information you need but not as much as you want. In the end you want to get the book to see what the hell he’s hinting at. Some call it good marketing, but I call it a way to pump me for money. Right now it seems to be working. Also David reaches back to The Original Series to the episode “Who Mourns For Adonais?” for adversaries in this book. As usual he expands on what was originally done and integrates it into the ST universe well. It’s really enough to make a ST geek giggle like a schoolgirl. I didn’t giggle, but I did sit bolt upright in my chair when I figured it out. Yeah I have problems.

Anyway, this is an excellent continuation of the series. I used to point and laugh, or at least chuckle under my breath, at people that followed some of these book series. Mostly because some of them were just poorly written and weren’t very cohesive. David has fought that by creating his own space to work in, with his own characters and some minor ones no one else was using, and by integrating well with the history of the series. I like it. The only downside is that it makes me want to buy more books, and this one is “To Be Continued.” Oh well. The prices we pay for entertainment.

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Building a Corpus Callosum

As some of you know or have guessed I have a nearly unrelenting want to collect and read books. I know I want to read far more books than I will ever be able to. Of course that also goes for movies, television series, plays, music, art, classes, and various other things. I find myself torn between all of these and the needs for daily activities of life. That means that I am also loath to get rid of books. Periodically I will go through and throw away a lot of stuff that I don’t need, but books always seem to escape the trash can or the giveaway bin. So I have slowly gathered a collection of books from classes and such. The Civilized Engineer by Samuel C. Florman is a prime example of that. Anyone who knows engineers knows how long we can ramble on the subject, and how emotional we can get. Feel free not to follow the link if you have no interest in an engineer’s rant.

I had to buy TCE for a Mechanical Engineering class. It was one of those books that had designated readings for it, but I never really got into it or read many of the passages. It was just that at the time I was preoccupied with taking 17-19 hours of engineering curricula a semester. However, I kept the book, because I did like some of what I read. I hoped beyond hope that I might actually take time to read it one day. In fact I foolishly purchased a previous book that Florman had written entitled The Existential Pleasures of Engineering. That book is on my list for reading later. In fact an Architect friend of mine saw it on my bookshelf and was rather taken aback at the name. He seemed to think it smacked of oxymoron. It’s a common view point that is mirrored on both sides of the Engineering (Useful Arts) and Liberal Arts divide. And it seems that the current educational culture and environment are set up to reinforce that divide rather than attempt to bridge it.

In fact that’s what this book is primarily about. Florman has a bachelor’s degree and civil engineer’s degree from Dartmouth plus a M.A. in English literature from Columbia University. He laments the divide between the two areas of study. Primarily the book traces the origins of the divide back to the change from engineers being the larger than life, classically trained Eiffels and Roeblings through the development of the land grant schools whose charter was to teach the sons of mechanics and farmers to be engineers. The book posits that this shift from upper class, classically educated engineers to lower class engineers of rather poor backgrounds, maintained the class distinction of the time. This was also reinforced by the classical Greek notion that thinking was a much nobler and more favored task than mere doing. My understanding is that in the end the Greeks transferred much of their doing and building responsibilities to their slaves, under this notion. An interesting thought considering the plebian view some maintain of engineers. Then you have the other professions that look down on one of the few professions that still only requires a 4 year degree. I too have felt the downcast gaze as I passed under the upturned noses of these “true” professionals and “high thinkers.” But I digress.

Florman is one of the individuals from the profession that trumpets the changing of the engineering curriculum and training to include more of the liberal arts that have slowly been squeezed from it. I read as he told of his life and saw parallels to my own. We both became swept up in the wonder and joy of learning of machines, designing, and improving the world around us. The elation at problem solving and increased control and understanding of the world around us can be truly intoxicating. That’s hard for some people to understand. I don’t think I quite lost touch with other interests as badly as many. I have known engineering students and others in programs like computer science that saw no need for classes not related directly to the degree they were seeking to attain. I always felt that showed narrowness of view, but for some it allows them to focus an intensity that few can achieve. As I got farther into the program I noticed that my interests and tastes were expanding. I became dissatisfied with the limitations of the required curriculum and set out to supplement it with large numbers of classes I didn’t have to take but wanted to.

As the book continued I realized that I had begun a journey that he advocates, but that I hadn’t completely intended. Florman advocates a percentage of engineers seek additional more liberal education. Some engineers prefer focusing on the technical, but some need to expand their education and abilities in order to move up the management ladder, serve as interfaces with less technical public, and provide a much needed technically proficient part in government. The expanded education is a difficult thing. All of the time for a 4 year degree is taken up by the current curriculum. Any expanded education will require more time and money. It’s difficult to justify to a student without seeing any certain future monetary benefits.

Florman, like most people, thinks highly of his profession, and I admit I do as well. Of course I am slightly biased. Non-engineers might not find the book that compelling, but reading it might inspire a little more understanding of what they see as the dull and drudging engineer. He puts a lot of interesting things in the air in ways I hadn’t thought of them. I’m going to have to ponder them and decide if it’s time I got off my duff and chased some things of which my conservative nature has previously steered me clear.

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But I don’t smell that sweet.

I like odd bits of information and the internet definitely gives that to you. A friend of mine pointed me to a site that provides statistics about the occurrence of your name. Mine turned out to be a little rarer than hers.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 11 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

That’s kind of neat. Interestingly I know of one person on the Vietnam memorial that has my name, sans middle initial.

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Motivate This

A friend found a site that allows you to make your own motivational posters. I had to make one, and now I’m awaiting some from some of my other friends.

So go out there and make the world a poster.

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Yard work

I’ve been writing late about some things recently. It’s probably due to being busier and wanting to spend some of my free time relaxing. Anyway a friend of mine came up this weekend. I think Ty needed to get away and do something else. I went to the botanical gardens last week and bought a couple of things. I had planted everything except the maple tree and the camellia. He offered to help with that. Ty talked about his recent purchase of an electric chain saw at Sears, and offered to bring it up. I took him up on it, but I’ll ramble on about that following the link.

So Saturday we set out and first on the list was for me to finish some lawn mowing and using the string trimmer. I set Ty on cutting down and cutting up three sweetgum trees in my back yard. The things look nice, but they drop those dadblamed seed pod things that roll under your foot and trip you. He started them while I finished up the yard. When I finished the yard I noticed he was nursing the saw a bit. Upon inquiry he said it looked like it broke. From the symptoms we surmised that one of the gears stripped. But as it so happened he bought the saw at Sears and got the 2 year replacement warranty on it. We took it in later and Sears promptly replaced it on the spot. Man I like Sears sometimes.

While we were still talking about the saw, before we took it in, we looked at a fourth sweetgum I was thinking of removing. We had been using my double bladed ax for limbing the carcasses of the other three trees. I took a swing at the tree and was surprised to see the ax sink in a good inch. I like to keep my ax sharp. I took another swing to equal success. I looked at Ty and we basically said why not? I kept swinging until I was about 1/3 through. You know I’m not used to that. I got fairly winded. Ty stepped up with those huge arms of his and chopped through the other 2/3s from the other side. We got the thing down. I limbed it up and then we went to Sears. It gave us incentive to get the saw replaced for use the next day.

Sunday we got up and cut up the rest of the last tree. Then we cut down a diseased and dying tree in the front yard. We planted the maple out front, and then we went to plant the camellia. Well there were roots, and we cut some of them. Ty was using the mattock and got it hung on a root without knowing it. He sheared the back completely off the tool. I was actually impressed, though I’m missing a mattock now. Anyway I figured it was payback for my trees breaking his saw. Anyway it was a cheaper cast head, and now I’m looking for a forged one. If that one breaks then something is wrong.

So At least I got my plants planted and 4 trees cut down. Now I only have to get the other 2 sweetgums cut down. Yeah I had 6 in the back yard. At least it will give me room for a magnolia, a beech, and maybe some fruit trees.

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Never being “It” again

What the hell is wrong with this country? I mean seriously. I just saw over at CNN that schools are banning Tag, touch football, and other chasing games from recess, because students could get hurt. My God people, of course they can get hurt. It’s called LIFE. What the hell do you want to do, raise your children like veal? Children get banged up. It’s part of life, and usually helps train them away from getting banged up worse later on. The elimination of recess and chasing games, it’s no wonder children are getting so fat. Maybe they have a really good reason for it, but fear of scrapes, bruises, and broken bones should not be some of them.

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Shattered, Part 3

If you want to understand this review better, I suggest you read the first and second parts first. If you have done so then let’s get going. Excalibur: Restoration is actually quite a bit longer than the first two books. It’s not just because it’s around 100 pages longer. It also seems that the publisher switched from a 12 point font to a 9 point font. It made my eyes do funny things when I jumped from one to the other. Anyway, that probably kept them from having to change to thinner paper.

Finally you get to hear what happened that caused the ship to blow up, all of the crew to survive. After teasing you for two it’s somewhat of a letdown until you get farther into the book and see how it’s connected to other events. You follow Shelby as she accepts her first command and gathers her crew. She goes on her first mission and realizes that she is no longer the strict by the book commander she used to be. That’s too bad because she picked the rest of her crew to be just that, and there is some tension. You also get to see what happened to Calhoun just before and since the ship blew up. He’s stuck somewhere and has to try to figure out how to get back. It ties up a few loose ends, loosens a few more, and gets you ready for the next book.

This book had a quote on the front from SFX magazine that sums up Peter David’s work on this series. It says, “An established Star Trek novelist whose name is a … guarantee of quality.” I agree.

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Shattered, Part 2

If you want to understand this review better read the first one first. If you have done so then feel free to continue. This lime I’m looking at the second book Excalibur: Renaissance. This book doesn’t happen after the first, it basically happens in parallel. The basic story lines in this one are Burgoyne and Selar having disagreements about how and where their child should be raised that creates quite an incident on Vulcan and Morgan and Robin go to Risa on vacation only to run into an old friend and more excitement than they ever wanted. And oddly several of The Original Series’ (TOS) characters make an appearance, to the glee of fan freaks. Little touches like that that tie into the television series are nice.

And speaking of tie-ins there is a good one in here that some people would miss. At the front of the book is a letter from Morgan Primus, Robin Lefler’s mother, to ‘Xana from “Aunt” Morgan. From the hinting you get the idea David means the reader to make the connection to Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi’s mother. In the book Robin and Morgan run into Scotty at Risa, and Scotty and Morgan react in shock to seeing each other. Scotty calls Morgan Christine. This and hints of Scotty talking about Christine leads one to link to Christine Chapel off TOS. What you have to realize at this point is that Morgan is supposedly nearly immortal. She never gets sick, all physical harm visited on her heals in minutes, and she has apparently been around for centuries. So she could indeed be Christine. Now what’s even funnier is that I have read a book that occurs later in the series, and Morgan, through some event, gets her consciousness trapped in the computer. She literally becomes the voice of the computer. If you haven’t made the connection yet, all of these characters and voices were or are portrayed by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the widow of Gene Roddenberry. That, is nice.

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Shattered, Part 1

I’m doing this set of book reviews a little different. I’ve read all three books before writing a review, because they are all related. Firstly Peter David ended the last book with basically a cliffhanger. Captain Calhoun was talking and wrapping up the book like one would expect. David quoted Calhoun and the last part of the sentence was, “Said Mackenzie Calhoun, five minutes before the Excalibur blew up….” The Excalibur is the ship by the way. The next three books deal with the aftermath of that event, hence them all being named Excalibur.

First is Excalibur: Requiem that takes place after the disaster and the inquest. The command crew meets in a bar for a last toast and then heads their separate ways for the downtime that Star Fleet allots a crew if their ship is destroyed. It’s a recuperative thing. David has some fun with the reader by dancing around the reason behind the ship being destroyed, because no one wants to talk about it. It’s actually kind of annoying, because he’s so blatant about it. Anyway he splits the characters and follows them as they explore parts of their lives you have gotten hints at earlier in the series. Each chapter takes a limited third person view that has intimate knowledge of the mental workings of the character being followed. David also names each chapter after the character on which you are focusing, which I like in books that jump between characters. It makes it easier to follow. You jump between Soleta going to see her father on Vulcan and then chasing down her biological father, McHenry and Kebron doing a little side mission for Star Fleet that creates more questions about them than it answers, and Si Cwan and Kalinda seeking the cause of one of her visions.

It’s nice and well written. You learn a lot about the characters in the stories, and it compels you to read the next in the series. That review is next.

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Literary Consolidation 11 - 20

Or the Reader’s Digest Condensed Edition 2^nd Ed. Well it’s time to reduce the page length again by creating a post of ten books. I’ll give the picture as a link to where it can be purchased, in exchange for using the picture, a little bit about each book, and a link to my original take on the book.

20.

This is an excellent book that covers that roll women have played throughout the colonization of the current United States. It’s a recommended read for all history fans.

My Take


19.

I bought this book because of the title and the author. It was a great read for a lighthearted, punrific, and introspective book.


My Take


18.

This is book 5 of the series. It sets the series high quality and entertainment goals.



My Take


17.

This is the fourth in the Hinges of History series. It gives a great overview of the Greek civilization at it’s greatest, and what Western civilization owes them.


My Take


16.

This actually represents the first 4 books in the series. It’s a good place to start if you want to enjoy the word Peter David has created.


My Take


15.

This is the first in The Time Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. It follows in the tradition of The Space Odyssey series.


My Take


14.

This is the third in Thomas Cahill’s hinges of History series. This covers the shift to Christianity and what it meant for Western culture.


My Take


13.

This is one of later books in the Star Trek New Frontiers series by Peter David. I recommend the series to anyone who is a fan of Star Trek.


My Take


12.

This is a decent second book in the Hinges of History Series by Thomas Cahill. While not as compelling as the first, it helps set the series on its path.

My Take


11.

This is another good book by Stephenson, author of Snow Crash. It takes place over two different time periods and three connected families.


My Take

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Florida gets Bully’ed

I put a post up earlier about Rockstar, their new game Bully, and Jack Thompson. I didn’t cover the topic in all the detail I felt like, because it was getting too long as it was. Well as it turns out the Judge has watched several parts of the game instead of the whole thing, and has decided to decline the move to restrict the sale of the game in Florida. Jack Thompson of course declares it a miscarriage of justice. The Judge said the game is no worse than what is on television. Thompson probably wants to shut down most of that as well. Basically the Judge came up with the same ruling that I was thinking about. The game is free to be sold, and it’s the parents’ responsibility to monitor what their children play. Wow what a novel concept. Too bad more parents don’t follow it. If you let your kids do whatever they want then you don’t get to gripe about the activities they choose afterward. Here’s a novel idea. Why don’t you watch them play some of these games? I’ve played a couple of RPGs in my life, but I’ve spent more time watching friends play. I usually play the part of lookout and provide assistance in problem solving and direction choice. Of course all that is with permission of the person playing. It becomes a socializing event much like some of the online gaming has become. Now lets see what happens next.

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“I cut you so bad. You no wish I cut you so bad.”

“Those are some bad roaches.”

“I blame the schools.”

Rockstar Games has been in the news a lot over the years. They garner a lot of attention because they have published a lot of games that depict or involve the user in violence, like the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Revolver, Manhunt, etc. These games received a lot of finder and tongue wagging because “Depictions of violence are bad. MMkay.” In the past couple of years there was another big uproar about Rockstar. They were stupid enough to leave some code in the game that allowed a player’s character to have badly rendered and acted sex. The code wasn’t accessible in the normal game, but there are modders out there that live to make this kind of stuff work. Apparently it was alright for little Timmy/Tammy to shoot someone in the head, but God forbid he/she has poorly simulated sex on the screen. Basically it was a stupid mistake to leave the code in there to begin with, but the situation blew way out of proportion. The game was recalled, the code was removed, and the rating was upgraded. Which if parents had been paying attention to the rating in the first place young children wouldn’t have been playing the game. It just makes me angry and when I’m angry I ramble.

That got a small number of very noisy people worked up because they didn’t have any other way to make a name for themselves at the time or justify the existence of their organizations. They screamed that the ESRB, the organization that rates the games, had failed in their job. That started a whole bunch of bad legislation to “monitor” games, whose sole purpose was to waste taxpayers’ money and make it look like someone was doing something for the upcoming elections. Why bother trying to do something good when you can just make a showing. I say that, because most people in government knew the laws were unconstitutional to begin with. Haven’t we had that document tread upon a little too much in the past 6 years already? Personally I think the ESRB is doing a fairly decent job. They recently added punitive clauses to ratings agreements that allows them to fine companies for including material not disclosed to the ESRB. And more stores are following the ratings in refusing to sell some games directly to kids below the rated age level than previously. Plus I believe that there is no complicated situation that government regulation can’t screw up even more. The focus should be keeping it private, self regulating, encouraging store adherence, and educating parents. Maybe more lobbying will fix it with a little fight fire with fire. Think of the dent we could make in the deficit with the lobbying money spent in this country.

Anyway, it’s a complicated issue, which brings me to what I wanted to say. Rockstar has a new game coming out shortly, Tuesday in fact. It’s called Bully, and apparently it’s shoved a big hornets’ nest on a long stick up a bunch of people’s collective asses. Given Rockstar’s history of violent games and the “Hot Coffee” mod lots of people drew conclusions about the game way before anyone had played it. Now that is looks like it’s coming out, and some people have played it, their hyperbole about the game had shrunk, and they appear to be grasping at stuff to say about it. Surprisingly, Jack Thompson, of Penny Arcade fame (start at the second post on the page), gave an interview about the game and was surprisingly coherent, logical and showed some valid concerns. I think they may have finally gotten his medication straightened out. Well Jack has been spearheading a court case to allow him to see the game before it is released for sale. I’m not entirely sure why he and only he is qualified to judge the game for appropriateness, but apparently he is. I guess everyone else lacks the intelligence or moral fortitude to do it. So a Florida judge had ordered Bully brought to the court so that the judge can observe and direct someone playing the game. Considering the game is dozens of hours long, this could result in severe butt trauma. The real question is what does this mean for future games and other forms of entertainment. Will law suits and judicial review become standard fair for somewhat controversial games, movies, books, plays, TV shows, newspaper articles, etc? I’m waiting on the answers and hoping they will be good ones.

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Leave the dead alone

Ok so I reviewed the Blood Rayne move a while back. It was a mediocre game made into a bad movie. Somehow they got approval for another one, and they are using the same damned director, Uwe Boll. I just don’t understand that.

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The not so Nobel

So a couple of days back I wrote about being proud of the US for receiving so many Nobel prizes. Well the literature prize has been awarded and the US streak is broken. It was good while it lasted. But the primary purpose is to remind everyone that the Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded last week. For those that don’t know the Ig Nobels celebrate research that “could not or should not be repeated.” Give the list a gander and imagine the glamorous life of a researcher. Yup. Makes me want to sign up. The literature one sounds like something Smitty wouldn’t have minded writing. The biology one may get the WTF award. The physics one could actually have produced techniques that could apply to other materials and shapes, but I doubt it actually did. The winner for weird, but may actually be useful in a last ditch effort sort of way, goes to the one for medicine. Man those hiccups would have to really, really be annoying. Those crazy scientists.

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That’s right Rebo

There’s a line in the episode “Day of the Dead” from Babylon 5 that Rebo, of Rebo and Zooty fame, delivers. I can’t remember the exact quote, but Rebo and Zooty are a fantastically popular comedy team, and they are thinking of getting out of the business and going into politics. When asked why Rebo explains that they didn’t make a difference, and they had wanted to help during a time the Earth President had declared martial law and disbanded or killed most of the Senate. One of the show’s main characters said that they had made a difference in helping give people strength to carry on. Plus he said they had said things on their show that no one else could say for fear of retaliation from the President. Rebo said that no one paid any attention to them. They said that comedians say serious things in a funny way and everyone laughs it off, but politicians say funny things in a serious way and get support. Anyway, they convinced Rebo and Zooty to stay in comedy.

I thought of that because last week I read an article on Ars stating that a study indicated that “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” apparently has as much real news analysis on it as most of the “real” news shows on television. I have suspected as much, and I have to say, that’s sad. Oh it’s good for The Daily Show, but bad for other news shows. I will admit that I don’t watch the news much. I usually don’t because it only deals with sensational stuff. I really should start checking out some of the few programs that actually teach the audience about the topics that are being discussed. It’s time to get the TV Guide and check out PBS some more. I’m sure Smitty has some good recommendations. I also need to find a way to add more hours to the day or give up sleep. One or the other. But I’m probably going to watch the election coverage that The Daily Show offers again this year. It’s just funnier and I remember more of it.

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Flora Sale

This past Saturday I was taken off guard by something I had forgotten about until I saw a sign about it last week. It was time for the semi-annual sale at the SC Botanical Garden at Clemson. I have been to two Spring events, but last year I missed the Fall sale. Check out the page they had for the Fall sale. Follow me while I ramble down that path.


Previously I had purchased items for family as presents or requests. I like shopping there since it helps support the Garden and because of the things they have for sale. They usually have good quality plants in fairly large containers. None of that oversized tree in a small pot like some places. Plus they always carry unusual plants that you don’t find at most nurseries. Not to mention that but the horticulture students from Clemson work the sale. Most of them helped grow the plants and can offer extensive help on picking good plants for particular needs, planting tips, pruning tips, fertilization, and general plant care.

Well this year I had the opportunity to go to the sale for the first time to purchase things for me. Well I could have purchased stuff for me before, but this is the first time I have my own yard in which to plant them.

First I was looking for a tree to put in the front yard. I had a pine tree cut down nest to the driveway, because it had a lot of ice damage from last year, had pine beetles and was dying, and it was ugly (primarily from the effect of the previous two items). There is another tree about 25 – 30 feet from where the pine tree was. I’m not sure what it is, but I cut about 1/3 of the branches out because they were dead. Now more appear to be dead. I think it’s suffering from the ice damage it received as well and will have to come down. That will leave a 40-50 ft hole between the driveway and the Post Oak farther down the ditch by the road. Some idiot ran into the Post Oak several years back and ripped the bark off one side, but it’s alive and slowly healing. I hope it makes it because I love Post Oaks. My Parents had one at the end of the driveway, and looking at the typical figures on Wiki it was a big one ( 4+ ft diameter and 50+ ft tall with leaves 15” by 6”). To me it typifies a “real” oak, huge leathery leaves that make deep loose piles on the ground, huge acorns, and slow growing. Anyway, that hole heeded to be filled and I have enough oaks on the lot, the Post Oak being the crown jewel. I wanted something different. They had a very nice selection of magnolias at the garden, and several other shrubbier trees. I finally decided on a Acer truncatum Maple tree. There are several varieties, and I think mine is either Shantung Maple or Painted Maple. It’s supposed to turn brilliant yellow and orange to red in the Fall. I’ll have to wait t few years to make sure. I should be able to keep the lower branches high enough not to block the view, but the color show in fall should light up the yard as you come down the road. I may get one of the magnolias or a beech for the side yard later. Of course I want to add a coupe of fruit trees as well. Slow and steady.

As for the other plants, I purchased a Camellia Japonica ‘Grace Albritton’ for use under some of the trees in the back yard and behind a split rail fence. It will have plenty of space to do whatever it wants. I sincerely hope it has the chance to reach its full 10’ -15’ height and 5’ – 10’ width. This particular variety is supposed to have light colored spots variegating the leaves and white, pink, and red variegated double blossoms.

I bought several perennial flowering plants as well. I picked up two Coreopsis ‘Limerock Ruby’ or Red Tickseed for the driveway. I also picked up two Gazania ‘Colorado Gold’ that I planted by the driveway as well. By the walkway to the back yard I planted two Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip.’ It should provide a great ground cover for the fairly moist shady area. I love the dark foliage and blue flowers.

Finally I did something I hadn’t intended. I bought three ferns to plant near the wooded area in the back yard. First I got a Dryopteris marginalis or Eastern Wood Fern to be a standard fern. Then I picked out an Osmunda cinnamomea or Cinnamon Fern that has colored reproductive fronds in the spring. Finally I bought an Athyrium Angustum forma rubellum or Lady in Red Fern (pic). I hope they live. I planted them near the woods in the shade where the ground slopes toward them. I may have to mulch the area more to keep the ground from drying out.

I’m looking forward to getting more stuff in the spring.

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Chest Stuck Out

I just wanted to say that I’m feeling quite some level of pride that the US has been awarded 6 out of the 6 Nobel Prizes awarded so far. I wanted to congratulate them all and bask in the glow a short while.

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Freshly dead trees or ancient ones

I saw an article over at Ars technical the other day about an item that I have been awaiting the arrival of for some time. I had put a comment in reference to the technology on a friend’s blog last month, but I got busy and didn’t realize he had requested more information about it. Since both events conspired to happen at the same time I’ll ramble about it all here.

Basically Sony has finally released their new e-book reader. “What is that?” you say. For quite some time it has been easy to get electronic versions of typewritten material. You are doing it right now in fact. The problem has been that the material was almost always presented on a computer screen. While that’s fine, it makes it really hard to transport the material, like you would a book, newspaper, or magazine. Then you have the problem of the battery life of a laptop just so you can read a book. PDAs helped with the portability, and with some of the battery problems, but the screen size and readability left something to be desired. Backlit screens don’t generally read well in sunlight, and seem to cause more eye strain and tiredness during long sessions of reading inside.

Basically what was needed was an entirely new kind of imaging technology in order to combat these problems. That’s where electronic ink (e-ink, Why does everything have to have a friggin’ e or i in front of it.) comes into play. If you follow the link about it covers the reader and the technology in detail. Basically though, the display is more akin to a reactive ink. The device charges the pixels on the screen to move white or black pigments to the surface. Once the writing is done, the screen draws practically no energy until the current display is erased and a new one is written. The battery life is measured in pages turned, though batteries will slowly discharge of their own accord. Being as the screen is illuminated by ambient light reflected from the surface, it’s much closer to being like reading a printed page behind a thin sheet of glass or plastic. Plus it’s supposed to be readable in direct sunlight.

Personally I think it holds great promise. The technology is very young still, and will take many years to reach maturity. I would like to see this type of technology replace text books that students have to carry. Swapping in 20+ lbs of books for one less than a pound tablet that holds all your texts would be a welcome sight. Perhaps they will even develop color technology as well. In fact I’d bet that if the tech takes off they will break their necks to do it. Imagine every day your favorite newspaper arrives via Internet to your reader that holds the past month’s back issues as well. You keep the past year’s magazines you get on there as well. Plus you still have room for the next 3 novels you want to read.

Then there are the current limitations on the tech and system. The reader only really comes in one size. There isn’t the capability for color. The resolution is ok for it’s size, but graphics would look better at higher res. There is the $350 price, that while it’s not bad doesn’t inspire much. The biggest let down is the price of material. Sony is reporting a 20% discount on books, but places like Amazon may already be beating that. Then the big one is that it’s Sony, and Sony and I haven’t had a good relationship recently. I’ve bought a few things from them, but their more recent antics have turned me off.

So what do I think. I think the tech holds great promise, but it’ll be easy to kill it in the crib. However, something that solves this problem will eventually come about. Right now I’m waiting on more versions to come out from other manufacturers. Electronic books will probably undergo similar growing pains to the music and movie industry, but the book industry will take the trip at a more leisurely pace. People like paper books, magazines, and newspapers. Text books should be the primary initial target, but that is limited by the lack of color on the device. Hard back books are bought for the fact they are out first and are hard backs. Paperbacks won’t be impacted until there is a substantial cost benefit to the electronic book. Printing a paperback is probably of little cost. You have the writing, editing, and marketing costs that will be pretty much fixed. The primary cost that electronic book distribution eliminates is warehousing, shipping, and floor space at a store. Realistically I expect a 35-50% price difference is needed to inspire everyday paperback readers to switch to electronic text. But we will just have to wait and see.

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Now you are free

So yesterday I had to get out and go see a movie. I have wanted to see Jet Lee’s “Fearless” for weeks, and I finally went. I must say that was well worth it. I always like going to see the Chinese fighting movies. They have such an excellent combination of beautiful surroundings around breath taking fight scenes. It was worth it just go and sit and enjoy 2 hours of well executed beauty. I recommend this to anyone who likes Jet Li’s martial arts epics. It’s good even at full price.

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First and Foremost

Whew, I’ve been busy, busy, busy with work and class and house. I’ve been finished with His Excellency for several days, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to write the review of the Joseph J. Ellis book. The first book I read by Ellis was Founding Bothers that I reviewed over a year ago. That one was a Pulitzer Prize winner. After reading this one I bought American Sphinx, a National book Award winner itself. As you can tell Ellis knows his stuff about this era of American history, and has a knack for turning it into a good book. I’ll ramble on about the book after the link.

This book has been sitting on my ever growing pile of “To Be Read” books for a while. A friend of mine actually managed to read it before me and write his own review. I’ve been interested in history for along time, and right now I seem to be in a US history phase. I might switch to Europe or Asia later.

Washington is interesting as a historic figure because his influence is so great and yet knowledge of the man himself is so limited. He falls into that category of People that are known for centuries by one name that everyone recognizes as this singular individual. Someone would ask me what I was reading and I would replay, “A biography of Washington.” They knew immediately who I was talking about. There are a limited number of people with that much staying power.

Ellis has this knack in books of turning historical figures into people. There have been trends with History’s greats first of building them up to near godhood and then tearing them down to nothingness. Ellis admits this in the book. He takes a different tack. He tries to reconstruct the person and the motivations and experience that lead them to the points and decisions on which most of history focuses. What you end up with is a previously enigmatic persona that dissolves in the light of realistic human wants and needs. It discards the common view of the inherent “goodness or rightness” of some of these individuals to show how very fallible and self motivated people could do such great things. In my view it’s infinitely better than the mythos that normally surrounds the founding of this country.

So don’t read this book if you like all the divine goodness talk about the Founding Fathers. Do read it if you want to see history as closer to real life. And do read it if you really want to see how amazing and necessary Washington was to the birth of this country. For a long time people forgot that half the beauty a portrait are the cracks, flakes, and other distress marks.

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