Black and White and Read All Over

I just finished reading Writing for Comics with Peter David, by Peter David of course. A friend got this book for a project, and thought I might like reading it. I must say that was a good assumption.

I’ve read quite a bit of David’s novel work, seen some of his TV work, but not so much of his comics work. The man is a prolific writer and story teller. I mean he has Hulk, Spiderman, and Wolverine under his comic writing belt, besides others. Safe to say he has enough experience to write a book like this. That experience and David’s engaging writing style come through.

There are tons of books and courses out there for people that want to write novels. There are even resources for writing plays or screenplays, but few cater to the media of comics or graphic novels. David takes a pretty good, broad approach to the subject. He provides easy to understand examples of the current trend of comics to present more like film on paper, and how the media is more visual and less language than it was 30 years ago. He shows differences between comics and novels or screenplays. He breaks down basic plot and conflict styles into their simplest forms. It’s just an excellent resource for anyone who has good stories to tell and feels drawn to the medium. Pardon the pun. Though I wouldn’t dream of starting out in an endeavor like this myself, it gives me a better understanding of the peculiar difficulties of the art style. I think it’s a worthwhile read for anyone that enjoys comics or good literature in general. And it’s a definite tool an aspiring comic writer should consider for their reference library.

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Myopic, Lethargic, and Rapacious

I’m reminded of a quote from Abraham Lincoln that goes, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” I thought of that, because I just finished read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond this past weekend. That quote sums up a great deal of what the book is about. The other measure of the book concerns studying the past in order to understand ourselves. I recommend reading the reviews of friends here and here.

This is the second of the books by Diamond I have read. I reviewed Guns Germs and Steel earlier. Whereas that book coved why certain civilizations became the world conquering powers of today, this one explores the civilizations that didn’t make it. Well that’s not true. It covers some that made it and some that didn’t. Then it delves into the differences between the two.

This is a long book and it took me longer than normal to read it. I was distracted by other things and had to steal time away to read it. However, it was well worth it. GGaS may have won Diamond a Pulitzer, but I see this book as more important. Almost anyone who can read a book of this length can understand where Diamond is coming from here. In chapters he lays out societies from early civilizations to pretty modern nation-states that that have collapsed due to essentially mismanagement of their environment. He then examines similar societies that survived, and in some cases thrived, because they undertook the steps necessary to secure their future.

As my friend Smitty commented in his review, the brilliant thing is that Diamond doesn’t get preachy about saving the horned owl or some such thing for its own sake. The point he does make is that saving a little money right now by ignoring pollution, overpopulation, overfishing, and overworking the environment is going to cost taxpayer a hell of a lot more money down the road. He explains it all in dollars and cents manner rather than appealing to altruism. I think that method will appeal to far more people than most others.

So as you might be able to tell I really liked this book. It’s probably one of the best I’ve read in a long time, and I think most people should read it. I let my father borrow GGaS to read, and I’ll probably send this one after that.

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His Shadow

Well finally, after two months, I finished reading American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis. I’ve read two of Ellis’s other books, Founding Brothers and His Excellency. I can’t believe it took me that long to read the book. I guess I got distracted and found it difficult to get back to. I probably only read the book for about 2-3 weeks, with breaks in the middle. I’ll ramble out a review after the link.

It’s funny. Ellis wrote Sphinx first followed by Brothers and Excellency, but I read it last. Also, I should mention that Sphinx also won a National Book Award complimented by the Pulitzer Brothers received. Anyway, the first thing you notice when you compare the books is that this one is much thicker. The paperback I have is 440 pages long. But you must realize that the last 70 pages are index and notes. Even with that, it is much longer. I assume being the first may have something to do with it, but there are other reasons.

Ellis decided that others had written much more expansive biographies of Jefferson before, and that he didn’t want to duplicate that. He wanted to do what he has continued to do in the later books. Ellis wanted to provide better understanding of the man named Thomas Jefferson rather than simply communicate dates. Therefore the book covers some things in detail with much analysis, and it skips other things. The book doesn’t always follow chronology either. Both can be somewhat annoying, like when he talks about something that happens later or skips the second term only to disperse some of the information in later chapters. It makes me want to read another biography just to fill in the gaps.

However, Ellis does an excellent job at what he sets out to do. As you get into the book you start to realize the reason for the length. It’s necessary in order to help you get a grasp on one of the most enigmatic characters in US history. Jefferson is often quoted by varied and conflicting groups in order to support their stance on certain topics. This occurs because people misinterpret Jefferson’s words, and because he seemed able to hold more than one contradictory ideal to be true without ever letting them touch or realize they were incompatible with each other or the realities of the world itself. It is truly amazing the complexity and peculiarity of the man.

I look forward to reading more about the Revolutionary Generation, and I thank God we were lucky enough to have them when we needed them.

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The Design of Designing

This semester I’ve been taking Industrial Engineering 201: System Design. In the class we are divided into groups. Each group is given a design project for someplace on or near campus. Our group was given the project to improve Freshman Move-in day. We narrowed the cope of the project to the High rise dorms, and have been working on the project ever since. All along we have been studying how to manage a design project to develop the best solution in the time and in the constraints provided. The book we have been using to facilitate this is Product Design and Development by Karl Ulrich, Steven Eppinger, Steven Eppinger. If you want a taste of the cost of engineering textbooks follow the link. Since we are in the final parts of the project, we have finished with the book, hence the review.

Basically the book does a pretty good job at what it is supposed to do. It helps direct you down the path of product design and development. You start at finding a need, defining the need and constraints, and moving on from there. The book works best in an environment where an instructor fills in some info and provides additions reasoning and points of view. You can read it on your own, but you really need a project to get the most out of it. When we finish with the other book I’ll post a review of it. Now we have to finish the project report, and maybe they will implement it next year.

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Our Place

I feel bad because I haven’t written anything in a while. I had an unusual short reprieve from work and class work that allowed me to post an unusual amount of stuff, catch up on others blogs, read web sites, and read books. Well that kind of ended. Now I have to steal time where I can. So I wanted to write something and kept thinking about it. Well in reading my web sites, listening to people, and reading two of the books I’m reading led me to this. I’m sitting here drinking a 22oz. K and decided to write. I’m not sure what it’s going to be or how long I’ll ramble about it, but follow along if you will.

One of my daily routines is to read “Noble Intent,” a journal on Ars Technica. They cover all types of scientific endeavors, but over the time it has been around they have published a large portion of evolution related posts. It stems form some of the pro-intelligent design shenanigans that occurred over the past few years. They also cover many things about human initiated global climate change, also due to rampant denial. It’s kind of their way of making a point and fighting for what the writers think is right. I enjoy it, but I digress.

I read several entries in the journal recently, and combined with the Florman and Attwood books I started thinking about my point of view. In the first Journal entry the author indicates that “Myopia is such a human trait.” I find that interesting and insulting. Humans are probably the most far sighted organisms that live on this planet. But the true question is, is it myopia if you can see forward and do nothing, can see forward and do some things but not everything, or if you can’t see forward at all. Well people can’t do everything. That’s essentially removing humans from the environment. Short of killing everyone, we can’t realistically do that. One must realize that all the organisms are opportunistic and short sighted in trying to reproduce the most and spread the farthest. Algal blooms and zebra muscles are opportunistic to the point of destroying ecosystems. That’s not far sightedness. Humans are less opportunistic than any other organism on Earth. But arguably we aren’t doing as much as reason indicates we should. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about a point of view.

Shoot my K is empty. Hmm. Might have to break out the whiskey.

Anyway, both sides of this argument have a tendency to separate nature and man with this artificial barrier. I always get a chuckle when I hear people say, “these are organic tomatoes,” or some such thing. I should hope so. Silicon based tomatoes would probably be hard on the digestion. Yes yes they are talking about natural fertilizers rather than processed chemicals, but one must also realize that crude oil is organic and arsenic is completely natural. These are artificial terms placed on things that make people feel better about categorizing. Essentially one type of system adds processed chemicals and oil byproducts to plants and the other throws shit on them. You choose which you prefer, but remember, the spinach fiasco seems to have been caused by unwanted “organic” fertilizer.

So, what am I getting at here. People like to think of us as different from nature. Maybe it is my engineering side coming out, but I don’t see that there is a separation. We are part of nature. Us studying the universe is the universe studying itself. We aren’t fucking nature up. Nature is fucking itself up. We are just the primary component causing all the turmoil. Humans are natural. In their current state they are natural. They may not be doing smart things, but they are natural. We are what evolution and nature have made us.

Essentially it all boils down to information storage. For billions of years information storage and reproduction took place primarily in DNA. This information storage technique allowed it to change slowly over time to allow organisms to carry the most important information forward and still be able to change to the environment: genetic evolution. There was always a drive to make the best organism for a situation. Sometimes that meant the one that could adapt to changes the fastest. That’s where it happened. Humans and our ancestors came about. I’m not sure how, but the DNA was slowly augmented by another information storage and reproduction system, the advanced brain and communication techniques. It requires both, because a brain with no way to communicate information to others is a dead end street. This allows information and techniques to be passed down the line of progeny just like DNA. It also allows it to grow and change, much faster than DNA can, learning evolution.

Mmmm. Whiskey.

So what good is this learning evolution. It can’t change our bodies in any manner. What it does do is allow humans to take a common animal ability to an extreme. Bats nest in caves and trees, hermit crabs take empty shells as homes, and birds build nests. All of that is programmed from genetic evolution, GE. Humans use their far faster learning evolution, LE, to perform similar feats of environmental change and item manipulation. We pick up a sharp flake of rock and use it to skin an animal. We use a mass on a stick to apply blunt force to objects like nails. We cover ourselves with items that allow us to survive sub-freezing temperatures for long periods, and we use a spiral piece of metal to make holes in objects.

What nature created was a creature with conscious control over its evolution. The human became a modular animal. It became a powerful and flexible central control system that could consciously evolve modular components that it could attach and detach in order to do specific tasks. By attaching a shovel it can dig a hole effectively, a car attachment provides rapid ground transit, and a plane attachment provides even faster air transport. Essentially all of these creations, from hair curlers, to homes, to nuclear power plants are LE extensions of the human.

The problem is that our LE method of advancement far outstrips the ability of most other organisms t keep up. In fact only the fastest reproducing organisms can keep up using GE. That of course would be bacteria and viruses. That's why our LE, medical advancement, has such a tough time keeping up with them. Maybe now that we are beginning to understand the GE method of information transfer we can get an advantage.

Essentially all the technology that is lamented as a prison is a part of ourselves. It is not a prison any more than the lobster’s shell is a prison. But we have an advantage. We can control out evolution and change directions if we see we are headed to folly. It is no use to blame technology, because it is merely an extension of ourselves. The only thing we can do is recognize our mistakes and change the course of our evolution. The problem is that we are still the GE organism at the center of the LE mechanisms. We still are drawn by the lure of the quick gain and growth. Myopic growth is a basic component of all biological organisms. Our only hope is that our LE changes and teaches us fast enough to overcome that biological shortcoming. From the looks of the last link from the Noble Intent journal, education, the heart of LE, appears to be our best hope.

It’s sleepy time now. Mmmm. Whiskey.

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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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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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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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