Dean Koontz is an amazing writer - I've read his books (when I could hold them)...
He has a style second to none!-CleverCat (October 17, 2009, 02:05 AM)
They're all much too high brow. :)
Just got the latest Discworld novel - Unseen Academicals (http://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Academicals-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0061161705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255757847&sr=8-1).-tanis424 (October 17, 2009, 12:36 AM)
For recreational reading, I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.-40hz (October 17, 2009, 07:37 AM)
For recreational reading, I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.-40hz (October 17, 2009, 07:37 AM)
I've recently been reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - 15-tanis424 (October 17, 2009, 08:24 AM)
(see attachment in previous post (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=20287.msg183818#msg183818))-Darwin (November 08, 2009, 11:01 AM)
Books? Wow do they still make them things? :D-SteveJohnSteele (November 09, 2009, 06:55 PM)
Ive opened a few PDFs recently does that count?
Ive been trying to get all my paperbacks in PDF format, then get the PC to read them to me hehe :P
Thought it might be nice to have a thread where we could talk about what books we are reading and share thoughts and recommendations, etc.
This week I finally started going through Chris Bishop's "Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning":
http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Recognition-Learning-Information-Statistics/dp/0387310738
(see attachment in previous post (http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Recognition-Learning-Information-Statistics/dp/0387310738)) (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=20287.msg181396#msg181396)
So far i'm really liking it, though its more heavy on math and lacking in higher-level discussion than i would like.-mouser (October 16, 2009, 10:03 PM)
From Publisher's Weekly: ...Kotzwinkle has imagined a disconsolate Maine professor, Arthur Bramhall, who sets out to write a bestseller, only to have a bear steal it, thinking it's something to eat. This is no ordinary bear, however; he has aspirations to becoming a person (they eat so much better, and with much less trouble, than bears do). What better way to establish an identity than by becoming a celebrity novelist? Soon, the bear has found a pseudonym, Hal Jam, an agent and a publisher. With his distinctively masculine presence, and a monosyllabic way of talking that reminds many of Hemingway, he's on his way to stardom with a novel that everyone agrees has its roots deep in the natural world. Soon, he has a Hollywood agent, too, and the admiration of a Southern writer whose specialty is angels; both of them succumb to Hal's exuberant love-making (since a bear normally does it only once a year, a lot of libido is saved up). A pillar of the Christian right wants Hal's support for a run for the presidency, and Hal is only too willing, since he thinks "candidacy," like most words he doesn't know, means something to eat. Meanwhile, Bramhall, ... is turning into a bear as fast as Hal is becoming human...
I'm also reading 2 David Lieberman books which have titles too embarrassing to post - which is too bad, because they're simply about human nature, & how to turn bad (or potentially bad) situations around.-SKesselman (February 07, 2010, 05:12 AM)
I'm also reading 2 David Lieberman books which have titles too embarrassing to post - which is too bad, because they're simply about human nature, & how to turn bad (or potentially bad) situations around.-SKesselman (February 07, 2010, 05:12 AM)
?? How can a book title be too embarrassing to post?! :o
You're among friends here, let 'er rip!-Darwin (February 07, 2010, 10:15 AM)
I know all about the desperation that comes from trying to get others to do things!Managed it quite well with Sarah, you sly devil! ;)-Darwin (February 07, 2010, 01:24 PM)
I know all about the desperation that comes from trying to get others to do things!Managed it quite well with Sarah, you sly devil! ;)-Darwin (February 07, 2010, 01:24 PM)-cranioscopical (February 07, 2010, 02:08 PM)
You don't have to dig too deep to see...The elegant social skills that I have witnessed you deploy here belie your words.-SKesselman (February 07, 2010, 04:41 PM)
The elegant social skills that I have witnessed you deploy here belie your words.
Swaying a few others to your ways would be worth a book or three!-cranioscopical (February 07, 2010, 07:53 PM)
I have one more book to try, "The Art of Manipulation (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Manipulation-People-Business-Personal/dp/0385270070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265611271&sr=1-1)". (Talk about sinking morals and values. Eeessshh...)-SKesselman (February 08, 2010, 12:45 AM)
[/spoiler]-cranioscopical (February 08, 2010, 10:35 AM)
it's best to avoid accepting help from anyone who resents the favor they're doing for you.
As far as books/articles that might help you, I can offer none. But I am sending you some DC credits to help offset the cost of a cat-sitter!-Darwin (February 08, 2010, 05:12 PM)
I am sending you some DC credits to help offset the cost of a cat-sitter!Nicely done, sir!-Darwin (February 08, 2010, 05:12 PM)
You totally made my day :) :) :) :) :) .-SKesselman (February 08, 2010, 07:12 PM)
erotic Western thriller"Erotic western" and "western thriller" don't compute! :)-zridling (February 17, 2010, 11:09 PM)
"Erotic western" and "western thriller" don't compute! :)-f0dder (February 18, 2010, 06:43 AM)
Michael Connelley's penultimate effort, "The Scarecrow (http://www.amazon.ca/Scarecrow-Michael-Connelly/dp/044640120X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266524814&sr=1-1)" (very good),-Darwin (February 18, 2010, 02:25 PM)
I have been challenged, by my wife, to read every one of the books in my massive collection (just over 150) of Isaac Asimov literature.:o that's quite an Asimov collection, indeed! I've only read "I, Robot", which I really liked, btw. I've got a few more that I want to read eventually.-parkint (February 19, 2010, 11:03 AM)
I have been challenged, by my wife, to read every one of the books in my massive collection (just over 150) of Isaac Asimov literature.-parkint (February 19, 2010, 11:03 AM)
One of the old collections of Van Vogt (SF writer from way back, once famous for writing 'Slan'). I'm away from home right now, so I can't look in my read-and-going-to-pass-it-on box to check the title, but I think it was either 'Destination: Universe!' or 'The Book of Van Vogt'.Wikipedia page on A. E. van Vogt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._van_Vogt). You do realise that DC supporting members and above are Slans, don't you? 8)-slowmaker (February 21, 2010, 02:21 AM)
An exceptional piece of writing that ushers you directly into the heart and nature of God in the midst of agonizing human suffering. This amazing story will challenge you to consider the person and the plan of God in more expansive terms than you may have ever dreamed.
David Gregory, author of Dinner with a Perfect Stranger-about 'The Shack'
it takes away the veal that may be covering what is already in front of you.-Curt (March 02, 2010, 05:42 PM)
40hz -- thank you for posting about that book!
i'm often asked to recommend a first c++ book to someone and this may be the new book i will start suggesting. :up:-mouser (May 29, 2010, 07:23 AM)
IMHO, the best feature of the book is what it leaves out. Overland doesn't get into GUI programming, templates, or the STL. His feeling is those topics add a layer of complexity that goes beyond the scope of a basic introduction to C++ and deserve their own separate books and treatments.GUI programming doesn't belong in any language book, but I hope the guy doesn't entirely avoid STL... going in-depth is not the best approach to an introductory book, but using new/delete instead of std::vector or char* instead of std::string should be rewarded with capital punishment.-40hz (May 29, 2010, 11:26 AM)
It's an education you'd have to read 20+ books to obtain, with over 175 recipes, fully indexed so you can look up recipes that use ingredients you have on hand. Each step has time- and money-saving tips. The intro and appendices give lots of info about getting kids and spouses on board, learning what's true and false in nutrition, understanding kitchen tools and high-nutrition ingredients (and where to get them), and so much more.
@Deozan - what's a green smoothie? :huh:-40hz (June 01, 2010, 10:00 PM)
Anyone will enjoy this easy first-timer’s concoction, including children and those with finicky tastes!
- 1¾ C water
- 1 Tbsp. honey or agave
- 1 10-oz. bag spinach
- 1 banana (preferably frozen in chunks)
- 2 C frozen mixed berries
- 1 peach, pear, apple, or orange
- Blend all until very smooth. Pour in glasses and enjoy, or refrigerate for up to 48 hours, shaking well before serving. Makes about 3 pints.
We received the blender this morningCool! Thanks for sharing the details of your experiences :up:-Deozaan (June 03, 2010, 01:13 PM)
We received the blender this morningCool! Thanks for sharing the details of your experiences :up:-Deozaan (June 03, 2010, 01:13 PM)
May I ask how the experience of cleaning is and also the noise level when blending? We have a VitaMix [1], and the cleaning experience of it (particularly near the blades) leaves much to be desired. Although in retrospect, it has helped me to consider the issue of cleaning and maintenance when considering new additions to our household :)-ewemoa (June 03, 2010, 03:44 PM)
Recommended blade assembly removal with wrench
(Caution: Do not remove blades unless absolutely necessary!)
I started writing this book in the winter of 1998. (Here, in the southern hemisphere, that means the middle of the year. And "winter" is more like a mild autumn.) At that time, Lua was still in version 3.1. Since then, Lua went through two big changes, first to version 4.0, in 2000, then to version 5.0, in 2003.
It is quite obvious that those changes had a big impact on the book. Some parts lost their raison d'être, such as the detailed explanation around the complexity of upvalues. Whole chapters were rewritten, such as those about the C API, and whole chapters were created, such as the one about coroutines.
What is not obvious, however, is the big impact that the writing of this book had on the evolution of Lua. Not by chance, some of the biggest changes in the language were in areas not yet covered by the book at the time of the change. As I worked through the book, sometimes I suddenly got stuck in a chapter. I could not figure out how to start or even how to motivate it. It is when you try to explain how to use something that you better feel how easy it is to use it (or not). So, those difficulties were strong hints that some things in Lua needed improvement. Other times I succeeded in writing a chapter, only to discover, later, that nobody could understand or agree with what I wrote. Frequently it was my fault (as I writer), but occasionally we spotted another corner of the language that deserved some improvement. (For instance, the transition from upvalues to lexical scoping was triggered by complaints over a feeble attempt, in an earlier draft of this book, to describe upvalues as a kind of lexical scoping.)
The changes of the language deferred the completion of this book; now the completion of this book will probably defer significant changes in the language. There are at least two reasons for that: First, Lua 5.0 is cleaner and more mature than earlier versions of the language (partially thanks to the book). Second, the book adds weight to the culture around the language and therefore increases its inertia. This cultural-weight increase is the first of my main goals with this book. My second main goal is to increase even more the spread of Lua.
I have this memory / image-in-mind of a jar that has a bottom piece (which has a blade attached) that can be unscrewed from the jar. Perhaps such things used to exist (still exist even), though I wonder about leakage...-ewemoa (June 04, 2010, 03:35 AM)
[/url])[/i]
Currently reading Greg Bear's "Blood Music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music)". I'm on a sci-fi/fantasy kick of late.-Darwin (June 03, 2010, 03:13 PM)
First Self-Replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell
First Self-Replicating, Synthetic Bacterial Cell Constructed by J. Craig Venter Institute Researchers
ROCKVILLE, MD and San Diego, CA (May 20, 2010)— Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit genomic research organization, published results today describing the successful construction of the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. The team synthesized the 1.08 million base pair chromosome of a modified Mycoplasma mycoides genome. The synthetic cell is called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 and is the proof of principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the laboratory and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled only by the synthetic genome.
This research will be published by Daniel Gibson et al in the May 20th edition of Science Express and will appear in an upcoming print issue of Science.
from Jurassic Park -"Broadly speaking, the ability of the park is to control the spread of life forms. Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way." Malcolm shook his head. "I don't mean to be philosophical, but there it is."
First Self-Replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell
First Self-Replicating, Synthetic Bacterial Cell Constructed by J. Craig Venter Institute Researchers-40hz (June 04, 2010, 08:08 AM)
Be really cool if they could relocate their facility to either the moon or the international space station until they're absolutely sure about the safety and ramifications of what they're doing. From the documentary running on the Science Channel, it doesn't look like they practice a high degree of containment at their labs. No 'bunny suits' or isolation rooms to be seen anywhere. And the staff gets to go home at night so there's also that vector for something getting out.
[...]
Sorry if I sound paranoid. But in the wake of Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez, Chernobyl and BP's latest fiasco in the Gulf, I'm no longer comforted when an expert says "Trust us! We've though of everything that could possibly go wrong - and planned for it."-40hz (June 04, 2010, 08:08 AM)
The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. -The Call of Cthullu
Possibly Gilman ought not to have studied so hard. Non-Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of the Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension.
But he was still content, for at one mighty venture he was to learn all. Damnation, he reflected, is but a word bandied about by those whose blindness leads them to condemn all who can see, even with a single eye. -Dreams in the Witch House
If the thing did happen, then man must be prepared to accept notions of the cosmos, and of his own place in the seething vortex of time, whose merest mention is paralysing. He must, too, be placed on guard against a specific, lurking peril which, though it will never engulf the whole race, may impose monstrous and unguessable horrors upon certain venturesome members of it. -Through the Gates of the Silver Key
Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earth’s masters, or that the common bulk of life and substances walks alone.
The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them They walk, serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen.
Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate.
Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth’s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.
By Their smell can men sometimes know them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man’s truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them.
They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites.
Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath?
The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones where Their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles?
Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä! Shub-Niggurath!
As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold.
Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet.
Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now.
After summer is winter, and after winter summer...
They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.
If the descriptions seem vague, the quotations from the Necronomicon maddeningly short, the 'known' facts incomplete and sometimes even contradictory, don't be surprised. Lovecraft deliberately wrote it that way.-40hz (June 30, 2010, 03:03 PM)
Currently reading Greg Bear's "Blood Music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music)". ...-Darwin (June 03, 2010, 03:13 PM)
Currently reading Greg Bear's "Blood Music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music)". ...-Darwin (June 03, 2010, 03:13 PM)
Haven't yet read a Greg Bear book that wasn't excellent.-AndyM (June 30, 2010, 08:41 PM)
.... I'm no finishing off "Oath of Fealty" by Elizabeth Moon, having devoured the first three books in the Deed of Paksenarrion series earlier this month. ...Thanks, those look good. I will definitely check them out.-Darwin (June 30, 2010, 09:42 PM)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This one puts your life on hold until you finish it!
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz-kyrathaba (October 05, 2010, 08:11 PM)
Another of my limited number of favourite authors, his Frankenstein series is excellent.
Just finished "Life Expectancy" by Dean Koontz. Have started reading "Dragon Tears" by same.Hmm Dragon Tears is for me one of the best from DK !-kyrathaba (October 17, 2010, 02:39 PM)
Here are the elements I recall : at the beginning of the story, a mother and her son (or daughter) are living in our world but are in fact of some kind of a royal family from another realm somehow connected to ours, and some people would like them to disappear so that the throne remains theirs.
It would be a "fantasy" novel from DK.-MerleOne (October 20, 2010, 03:47 PM)
Not sure I did, but I will ! Thanks. In the mean time, if someone here recognizes the synopsis...
Have you checked the list at his website, maybe one of the titles will jog your memory - there are excerpts from the ones still in print. Maybe his earlier SciFi stuff, (all out of print)?
Dean Koontz (http://www.deankoontz.com/all-books/)
He has/does write under a few pseudonyms - almost all the books I've read under his name, (and Leigh Nichols), have been Suspense/Thriller with a touch of SciFi, (barring childrens and non-fiction).-4wd (October 20, 2010, 05:07 PM)
In the mean time, if someone here recognizes the synopsis...
Occasionally interesting, often repetitious, and chock full of the author's inflated notions of self-importance. Much like the Wolfram|Alpha engine itself, there's a good chance there's far less here than meets the eye.
I also have an occasional problem with his making personal claims to "discoveries" and insights that have obviously been made by others long before him. Either this guy has an ego the size of a truck, or he is painfully oblivious to all the mathematical research going on around him.
I'm halfway through, and enjoying thoroughly:
"The D Programming Language (http://www.amazon.com/D-Programming-Language-Andrei-Alexandrescu/dp/0321635361/)" by Andrei Alexandrescu:
(see attachment in previous post (http://www.amazon.com/D-Programming-Language-Andrei-Alexandrescu/dp/0321635361/)) (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=20287.msg223614#msg223614)
D is heavily based on C++, but attempts to modernize the language while still keeping a focus on efficiency and systems level programming. It's an interesting language, with a lot to like about it for those who want to keep as close to the C++ spirit while still breaking away from backward compatibility and avoiding the messiness of C++0x (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B0x).
I've previously read the earlier book "Learn to Tango with D (http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Tango-D-Kris-Bell/dp/1590599608)" which is a good fast intro to the language, but recently D underwent a fairly dramatic change, labeled itself D 2.0, and this book is a much different fish. Alexandrescu's book is deep, interesting, and serious. It's a great book for those of us who are perhaps not as much interested in USING the language, but are keenly interested in programming language design decisions. Very enjoyable reading, especially coming from a C++ background.
i'll note that this represents a redemption of Alexandrescu in my mind, since his previous book that i've read, Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied (http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Design-Generic-Programming-Patterns/dp/0201704315) represented an impressively cool and twisted book on the use of C++ template programming that i think serves as a good example of exactly how not to program.-mouser (November 13, 2010, 12:19 PM)
@Mouser: well...that ringing 'endorsement' is enough to make me decide to cut my losses and stop reading Wolfram. I've got enough far more interesting books I want to get caught up on that there's no point in my wasting the effort to chug through those last 800 pages.
Thx for the input. :Thmbsup:
(And all this time I thought maybe it was just...me!)
---
P.S. If anybody wants this book, drop me a PM and I'll mail it to you if your address is in the USA. :mrgreen:-40hz (November 13, 2010, 02:50 PM)
The premise is a dystopic future in which computers and an internet-type feed are hardwired into our bodies and integrated directly into our thoughts. So... people walk around with constant advertising targetting them depending on what they are looking at/passing, and carry on private text conversations with others, share memories,-Darwin (November 10, 2010, 10:28 PM)
I MUST read "The Ring of Solomon"-Darwin (November 14, 2010, 04:54 PM)
I MUST read "The Ring of Solomon"-Darwin (November 14, 2010, 04:54 PM)
Don't overlook Heroes of the Valley either 8)-rjbull (November 15, 2010, 03:24 PM)
I can heartily recommend "The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay.2nd that, pretty much anything by Guy Gavriel Kay.-kyrathaba (November 15, 2010, 08:23 PM)
I can heartily recommend "The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay.
2nd that, pretty much anything by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Sandman Slim.. provides biting humor, an over-the-top antihero and a rich stew of metaphoric language in this testosterone- and adrenaline-charged noir thriller. James Stark spent 11 years killing monsters in Lucifer's arena for the entertainment of fallen angels, but now he's back in seedy, magic-riddled L.A., trying to avenge his girlfriend's murder and hunt down Mason Faim, the black magician responsible for getting him sent downtown. He meets with some initial success, beheading second-rate magician Kasabian (whose head becomes Stark's smart-mouthed sidekick), but he can't find Faim. Instead he encounters Homeland Security agents, a near-psychotic angel and some odd nonhuman, nonangelic beings called the kissi. Darkly atmospheric settings, such as a posh gentlemen's club where angels are tortured in an attempt to bring about Armageddon, bring this violent fantasy into sharp, compelling focus.
Review
“If Simon R. Green wrote an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter, it would read much like Sandman Slim – violent, vivid, non-stop action of the supernatural kind. I couldn’t put it down.” (Charlaine Harris )
“The most hard-boiled piece of supernatural fiction I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. … all confident and energetic and fresh and angry. I loved this book and all its screwed-up people.” (Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother )
“The best B movie I’ve read in at least twenty years. An addictively satisfying, deeply amusing, dirty-ass masterpiece, Sandman Slim swerves hell-bent through our culture’s impacted gridlock of genres…it’s like watching Sergio Leone and Clive Barker co-direct from a script by Jim Thompson and S. Clay Wilson.” (William Gibson )
“Sarcastic, irreverent and ridiculously enjoyable riff on the Urban Fantasy genre. … a lot like a mosh pit -- rough, exuberant, unpredictable -- and a heck of a lot of fun.” (Miami Herald )
“Nicotine and octane in equal parts might come close to the high-energy buzz from Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim. Crisp world building, recognizable and fully-realized characters, and a refreshingly unique storytelling style make for an absorbing read.Sandman Slim is my kind of hero.” (Kim Harrison )
“Paced like greased lightning (watch out for friction burns on your turning finger), blend the movie-ish delights of tough guy noir and such smart-mouthgore-fests as “Reanimator” and “Army of Darkness”, seasoned by soupcons of Gaimanian romanticism and Koontzian sentiment.” (Booklist )
You're only licensing the limited right to read something - and that right is subject to change at Amazon's discretion.
You're only licensing the limited right to read something - and that right is subject to change at Amazon's discretion.
Does that mean Amazon could deny me the ability to read something I've paid for and downloaded?-kyrathaba (December 05, 2010, 01:20 PM)
Just finished: The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins.
The original ley-line book, that was later to inspire a multitude of nutters. The ley-line fuss seems to have died down at present.-rjbull (December 05, 2010, 04:34 PM)
true havent heard anything about leylines in a while -
so what was your opinion of that one ?
just had a quick look in Amazon, I see it's from the 1920's-tomos (December 06, 2010, 08:15 AM)
He doesn't go in for soggy mysticism of the "earth energies" variety either. He comes over to me, lacking qualifications for sensible criticism myself, as having been carried away by his idea.-rjbull (December 06, 2010, 02:29 PM)
It made the middle ages sound very appealing compared to our current Western capitalist culture, and I'd like to read more about the European guilds system. Any one know a good book on the subject?-Ampa (December 06, 2010, 02:44 PM)
I know nothing about them myself. There could well be a scientific/archaeological basis for it, but once, eh, enthusuaists start talking about 'spiritual' powers related to some site or concept, the archaeologists/scientists tend to avoid the whole thing like the plague.-tomos (December 06, 2010, 02:52 PM)
Which means it's nearly impossible to find out what's really the case. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line) is disputed and doesnt really have very much info, although it is interesting to read what the dowsers have to say about it [In the 1930s, two British dowsers...]- I grew up in a town in the west of Ireland, but in the surrounding countryside dowsers were used to find a location for a well. From what I heard they would even be able to tell how deep you'd have to go. So I have great respect for dowsers...
...Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson.
I'm reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Good stuff if you're a fantasy reader like me. Really deep, take-no-prisoners type of style-skwire (December 18, 2010, 09:12 PM)
When it comes to fantasy, there aren't too many series that I don't enjoy.-skwire (December 19, 2010, 10:42 AM)
kyrathaba (and any other Martin fans), did you know that HBO are making a series based on the Song of Ice and Fire books called Game of Thrones? It looks completely badass.
Just downloaded "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" to my Kindle! OooOooOoohh, excited.-kyrathaba (January 03, 2011, 06:01 PM)
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson, 2nd of the Millenium trilogy. He sure keeps you turning pages...-rjbull (January 02, 2011, 10:24 AM)
Just downloaded "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" to my Kindle! OooOooOoohh, excited.-kyrathaba (January 03, 2011, 06:01 PM)
You won't be sorry - all three books left me wanting more (and hoping that Steig Larsson's estate gets sorted out soon so that whatever nuggets that remain unpublished WILL be published (from what I understand, there is one more book, about 80% finished, along with outlines for 6 more)!-Darwin (January 03, 2011, 10:42 PM)
A review in the New Yorker
Man of Mystery
Why do people love Stieg Larsson’s novels?
by Joan Acocella January 10, 2011 (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/01/10/110110crat_atlarge_acocella?currentPage=all)
Very critical initially* (or should I say superficially? - critical of the writing & translation) but also a very interesting indepth analysis-tomos (January 07, 2011, 10:57 AM)
A review in the New Yorker
Man of Mystery
Why do people love Stieg Larsson’s novels?
by Joan Acocella January 10, 2011 (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/01/10/110110crat_atlarge_acocella?currentPage=all)
Very critical initially* (or should I say superficially? - critical of the writing & translation) but also a very interesting indepth analysis-tomos (January 07, 2011, 10:57 AM)
Hmmm... I'm glad I'm just a reader, not a critic!-rjbull (January 07, 2011, 05:37 PM)
Hmmm... I'm glad I'm just a reader, not a critic!-rjbull (January 07, 2011, 05:37 PM)
Yeah, I didnt mean to post it to knock his books - it was the psychological stuff I found interesting.-tomos (January 08, 2011, 03:30 AM)
In British military intelligence, deniable operations is the most dangerous tightrope you can walk. Ex-SAS man, Nick Stone, has no choice in the matter. He may be tough, resourceful, ruthless, highly trained, but he still must do what his masters want, whatever that might be.
Sarah Greenwood is beautiful, steel-willed, intelligent, cunning - the only woman Stone has ever let under his guard. And now he's been sent to hunt her down...
As the pair are pursued through the backwoods of the American South, Stone's mission becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse, and a journey to the heart of a terrifying conspiracy to which only Sarah holds the key. And as the tension builds to breaking point, the two are led to a confrontation that echoes our worst nightmares.
Being fiction, and going off his own memory, I guess it would be hard to recall every single event...-Stephen66515 (January 15, 2011, 03:51 PM)
Being fiction, and going off his own memory, I guess it would be hard to recall every single event...-Stephen66515 (January 15, 2011, 03:51 PM)
Do you mean it's fiction or non-fiction? Or is it a fictionalization of real events? I read Andy McNabb's first couple of books and enjoyed them, but never got the impression that they were factual.-Darwin (January 15, 2011, 09:09 PM)
Being fiction, and going off his own memory, I guess it would be hard to recall every single event...-Stephen66515 (January 15, 2011, 03:51 PM)
Do you mean it's fiction or non-fiction? Or is it a fictionalization of real events? I read Andy McNabb's first couple of books and enjoyed them, but never got the impression that they were factual.-Darwin (January 15, 2011, 09:09 PM)
Well, according to him, everything in the book actually happened, so i am somewhat inclined to believe him, although some of the stuff in the book makes you wonder whether he would be allowed to publish under the Secrets Act.
Who knows :huh:
And yeah, I meant non-fiction...always get that the wrong way around (non-fiction being based on actual events)-Stephen66515 (January 16, 2011, 09:37 AM)
"Delete" looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we've searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten, and this has profound implications for us all. In "Delete", Viktor Mayer-Schonberger traces the important role that forgetting has played throughout human history, from the ability to make sound decisions unencumbered by the past to the possibility of second chances. The written word made it possible for humans to remember across generations and time, yet now digital technology and global networks are overriding our natural ability to forget - the past is ever present, ready to be called up at the click of a mouse. Mayer-Schonberger examines the technology that's facilitating the end of forgetting - digitization, cheap storage and easy retrieval, global access, and increasingly powerful software - and describes the dangers of everlasting digital memory, whether it's outdated information taken out of context or compromising photos the Web won't let us forget. He explains why information privacy rights and other fixes can't help us, and proposes an ingeniously simple solution - expiration dates on information - that may. "Delete" is an eye-opening book that will help us remember how to forget in the digital age.
Just finished Book I of the KingKiller trilogy, The Name of the Wind.-kyrathaba (April 21, 2011, 09:28 PM)
My most recent books have been:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson (reread)
Huckleberry Finn - Twain (reread)
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
The Stranger - Camus (reread)
and
Toddler 411
I feel rather out of place in this thread...-cthorpe (April 22, 2011, 12:13 AM)
Just recently, I also was thinking about reading my old high school literature class books. True, it was a chore at the time. You know, I've never read Catcher in the Rye?! I still remember...there were two literature classes, and the one I took skipped that book and read something else like Lord of the Flies. So I have to read Catcher. Oh! And what was that story about the guy who had a friend who was like really gifted in certain ways, or something like that? Shit, that's the worst possible explanation ever! But I remember one scene: the friends go to a swimming pool, and the guy swims and breaks the record, but nobody other than the friend witnesses it. Then there was a scene with the guy falling out of a tree and breaking his arm or something. What was that book?My most recent books have been:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson (reread)
Huckleberry Finn - Twain (reread)
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
The Stranger - Camus (reread)
and
Toddler 411
I feel rather out of place in this thread...-cthorpe (April 22, 2011, 12:13 AM)
You shouldn't.
A few years ago I sat down and started to reread (or sometime just read) all those books they gave us in High School that I didn't really care about. (I was so much more "into technology" at the time.)
And guess what?
I discovered they were all very good books. OK, maybe I wasn't too crazy about Wuthering Heights, but that was the sole exception.
Since books can't change (unless you're living in Ocenia under Ingsoc) the only thing that could have was me.
So I guess I just needed to mature enough - and broaden my interests enough - to be open to what these books were about.
Glad I took the time to do it. Because some of these authors (Dickens, Twain, and Melville in particular) are far too good to pass up.
:Thmbsup:-40hz (April 22, 2011, 07:29 AM)
Oh! And what was that story about the guy who had a friend who was like really gifted in certain ways, or something like that? ****, that's the worst possible explanation ever! But I remember one scene: the friends go to a swimming pool, and the guy swims and breaks the record, but nobody other than the friend witnesses it. Then there was a scene with the guy falling out of a tree and breaking his arm or something. What was that book?
There you go! Yeas, I'm going to reread that.Oh! And what was that story about the guy who had a friend who was like really gifted in certain ways, or something like that? ****, that's the worst possible explanation ever! But I remember one scene: the friends go to a swimming pool, and the guy swims and breaks the record, but nobody other than the friend witnesses it. Then there was a scene with the guy falling out of a tree and breaking his arm or something. What was that book?
The book you are talking about is called A Separate Peace by John Knowles. It's a great book.-cthorpe (April 22, 2011, 09:57 AM)
In The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World, Discover the 28 Principles of Freedom our Founding Fathers said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, and freedom. Learn how adherence to these beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5000 years. These 28 Principles include The Genius of Natural Law, Virtuous and Moral Leaders, Equal Rights--Not Equal Things, and Avoiding the Burden of Debt.
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.
Your every movement is being tracked, your every word recorded. Your spouse may be an informer, your children may be listening at your door, your best friend may be a member of the secret police. You are alone among thousands, among great crowds of the brainwashed, the well-behaved, the loyal. Productivity has never been higher, the media blares, and the army is ever triumphant. One wrong move, one slip-up, and you may find yourself disappeared -- swallowed up by a monstrous bureaucracy, vanished into a shadowy labyrinth of interrogation chambers, show trials, and secret prisons from which no one ever escapes. Welcome to the world of the dystopia, a world of government and society gone horribly, nightmarishly wrong.
.
.
.
When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state.
Bones are not organs, under the Protocols. I've got that stuck up on the wall in the locker room, the briefing room, big signs, all caps: BONES ARE NOT ORGANS.
That leaves a lot of running room.
***
Before the pinpoints, before Suspensions, we couldn't keep a guy from passing out. Wake him up with ammonia, it's not the same as keeping him alert. Now we've got pinpoint synthetics that allow sustained equilibrium. No fainting, no grogginess, no euphoria. It isn't quite the same as True Awake; Dr. Ghose calls it a simulacrum. It's better than True, in some ways. Ali's awake sans certain defenses. With catheters and drips, we can preserve that balance - not for hours, but weeks, months. Last week I left a Session, went home, played kickball with my son, dinner with my wife, long night's sleep, woke up, breakfast, walked the dog, read the paper, when I come back in Ali's still going from the night before. With pinpoints we don't have to take the Rests, and there's not the same concern about organic damage.
***
In any interrogation, there are multiple pivot points. The first is when Ali discovers he no longer has the power to end his life. Everything before that moment is pre-interrogation, as far as I'm concerned. That's why in the Chair, we keep him ventilated and catheterized. We decide whether and when you can eat, shit, piss, breathe - and we can keep you here as long as we like. And we can. We can keep these guys alive forever.
***
There are some, I know, who'd assume, just based on my family background, that I must be motivated by a desire for revenge. People will believe what they want. But nothing could be farther from the truth. As soon as I sense that a member of my interrogator corps is motivated by revenge - revenge, or a perverse enjoyment of cruelty - I strike him from my team; he's gone.
It's true - it may be true - that a soldier has to hate his enemy, but we aren't soldiers here, contra the official narrative. Here, strange as it may sound, we have to love our enemy...
Harlan Ellison's brilliant "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman.-40hz (June 03, 2011, 08:44 AM)
What if the government issued (at random) special cards which gave the bearer a single use permit to kill any one person
Recently finished Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories (http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-Worlds-Dystopian-Stories/dp/1597802212/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307103987&sr=8-1), an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams.-40hz (June 03, 2011, 08:44 AM)
Harlan Ellison is a minor deity. However he's just starting to become eclipsed. I Have No Mouth is fading just a little to 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.-TaoPhoenix (June 12, 2011, 03:23 PM)
Synopsis:
We could tell you about the bodies. We could tell you their names, where they were found, the state they were in. We could tell you about the suspects too, the evidence, the investigators; join a few dots, even throw you a motive. But what would be the point? You’re going to make your own assumptions anyway. After all, you know these people, don’t you? You went to school with them. We all did. Granted, that was twenty years ago, but how much does anybody really change? Exactly. So if you really knew them then, you’ll already have all the answers. If you really knew them then…
Put on your uniform and line up in an orderly fashion for the funniest and most accurate trip back to the classroom you are likely to read, as well as a murder mystery like nothing that has gone before it. Forget the forensics: only once you’ve been through school with this painfully believable cast of characters will you be equipped to work out what really happened decades later. Even then, you’ll probably guess wrong and be made to stand in the corner.
I'm about half-way through "Behind Deep Blue (http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Deep-Blue-Building-Computer/dp/0691118183/)", the accidental story of the Deep Blue, the first computer chess machine to get good enough to beat the world's best human chess players. It's written by the engineer who led the team (Feng-hsiung Hsu).-mouser (June 01, 2011, 07:58 AM)
With over one million copies sold fifty years after its first printing, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones has inspired countless lives. Hailed as the most profound religious philosophy ever, this far reaching system of aesthetics truly tackles the question: What is Zen?
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones has been sharing wisdom and enlightenment with readers since 1957. An inspirational four-books-in-one volume at your fingertips, this collection of Zen and pre-Zen writings includes: 101 Zen Stories, a collection of tales that recount actual experiences of Chinese and Japanese Zen teachers over a period of more than five centuries; The Gateless Gate, the famous thirteenth century collection of Zen koans; Ten Bulls, a twelfth century commentary on the stages of awareness leading to enlightenment; and Centering, a 4,000 year-old teaching from India that some consider to be the roots of Zen. ..
About the Author
Paul Reps was the author of several books of poems and prose inspired by Zen, including Zen Telegrams.
Nyogen Senzaki, an internationally renowned Buddhist scholar, was a homeless monk studying and wandering the land from monastery to monastery. His wandering eventually brought him to the United States, where he lived for over 50 years.
40hz, i live for recommendations like this.. thanks, ordering..-mouser (August 03, 2011, 12:29 AM)
[Meyer Lansky]: "You read much, Bernie?"
"More and more," I admitted. "And for me it's like the French Foreign Legion. I do it to forget. Myself, I think."
Nope, it's Book 5, I see. I guess I've only read the first four...Yep, it's the fifth. Huge book, too...over 1000 pages.-kyrathaba (August 30, 2011, 05:34 PM)
Now, I'm reading the Kindle edition of China Mieville's Perdido Street StationThe Ur-text of New Weird? I also read the sequels, of sorts, The Scar and Iron Council. I'd rate Perdido Street Station the best, though the others have their moments.-kyrathaba (August 30, 2011, 05:15 PM)
Finished Newton's Cannon, and have begun the sequel. I give Newton's Cannon 5 out of 5 stars. Fantastic!-kyrathaba (October 03, 2011, 08:43 PM)
I remember going to a lecture where 'electron spin' got mentioned. The lecturer took pains to point out that what are called particles aren't really what we think of as physical particles. I remember his saying something like " Spin is a way of thinking about it. It's not like there's actually an object that's spinning down there."Man!! I had an eerily similar experience when I first started learning about spin in my quantum physics class in college. I remember that it didn't really quite make any sense to me, like in a special way though. It was like I thought "this is...kind of...bullshit", but I wasn't sure if I just wasn't understanding it or something. It was one of those weird, profound moments in my life. That spin thing was the first time I realized that they created this concept deductively from just the math of it, rather than observing something and then fitting the math to it which is the more usual scientific way of doing stuff.-40hz (October 04, 2011, 08:39 AM)
Spin is a way of thinking about it.Such a bizarre statement. Yet here we are with the result of all of this progress and technology. And at the very core of it, the very most fundamental part...the electron spin...we don't even know what that really is.
Just finished War Is a Lie (http://www.amazon.com/War-Is-A-Lie-ebook/dp/B004BDOVSE/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A2ZHC53Q5OYSS4) by David Swanson, amazing book. Even if you already know much of the facts, seeing them all compiled into a cogent narrative is a big red pill everyone should swallow once.
Now reading Unequal Protection (http://www.amazon.com/Unequal-Protection-ebook/dp/B003M5HK4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1317732503&sr=1-1) by Thom Hartmann
Kindle editions all, since I have no more space on my shelves.-tranglos (October 04, 2011, 07:56 AM)
both sound very interesting, especially the corporation one.-tomos (October 04, 2011, 10:52 AM)
Kindle editions all, since I have no more space on my shelves.
I remember going to a lecture where 'electron spin' got mentioned. The lecturer took pains to point out that what are called particles aren't really what we think of as physical particles. I remember his saying something like " Spin is a way of thinking about it. It's not like there's actually an object that's spinning down there."Man!! I had an eerily similar experience when I first started learning about spin in my quantum physics class in college. I remember that it didn't really quite make any sense to me, like in a special way though. It was like I thought "this is...kind of...bullshit", but I wasn't sure if I just wasn't understanding it or something. It was one of those weird, profound moments in my life. That spin thing was the first time I realized that they created this concept deductively from just the math of it, rather than observing something and then fitting the math to it which is the more usual scientific way of doing stuff.-40hz (October 04, 2011, 08:39 AM)Spin is a way of thinking about it.Such a bizarre statement. Yet here we are with the result of all of this progress and technology. And at the very core of it, the very most fundamental part...the electron spin...we don't even know what that really is.-superboyac (October 04, 2011, 10:00 AM)
daddydave, yes, those orbitals (s,p,d,f) are fascinating! I used to love that stuff, it really motivated me to learn more about chemistry and quantum physics, even though the actual work and math exercises (pain in the ass) took the fun out of it. If I'm not mistaken, those orbital shapes were first described mathematically using the Schroedingers equations, and THEN it was observed physically. Just amazing stuff.-superboyac (December 28, 2011, 09:36 AM)
Velocity, by Dean Koontz
Shadowfires, by Dean Koontz
One Door Away From Heaven, by Dean Koontz
Night Chills, by Dean Koontz
Marker, by Robin Cook
The Ends of the Circle, by Paul O. Williams
House of Thunder, by Dean Koontz
Ring, by Stephen Baxter
The Shadows of God, by J. Gregory Keyes
Empire of Unreason, by J. Gregory Keyes
A Calculus of Angels, by J. Gregory Keyes
Newton’s Cannon, by J. Gregory Keyes
Iron Council, by China Mieville
Printcrime, by Cory Doctorow
Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
The Omega Point, by Whitley Streiber
Plague Ship, by Andre Norton
By the Light of the Moon, by Dean Koontz
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
The Gap Cycle: Forbidden Knowledge, by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Gap Cycle: A Dark And Hungry God Arises, by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Gap Cycle: The Gap Into Madness, by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Gap Cycle: This Day All Gods Die, by Stephen R. Donaldson
Mission Earth: The Invaders Plan, by L. Ron Hubbard
Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
The Forge of God, by Greg Bear
Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Calculating God, by Robert J. Sawyer
The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged, by Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings, by Joe Abercrombie
The Kingkiller Chronicles: The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicles: The Wise Man’s Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
Blindsight, by Peter Watts
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
The Kinshield Legacy, by K. C. May
The Door Through Space, by Marion Zimmer Bradley (c1961)
Deathworld, by Harry Harrison
But her question - "...why did Hitler hate the Jews so much?" - was what got me reading Mein Kampf. I wanted to be able to understand his rationale for what he did, and explain it to her. I told her that was why I was reading it, and that I had not actually wanted to read it, though I had been steeling myself for the time when I would have to.
I am reading this English translation, here, if you want to take a look: Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf (James Murphy translation).pdf (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9rIby-RfgLNMWIxYzA4NWEtNDdlYi00ZmRjLTk2NjgtZTU1MjQ5NzIyNDY5)
I am finding myself quite fascinated by its cold, insidious horror. It seems reasonably lucid, coherent, and well-written.-IainB (December 31, 2011, 10:21 AM)
Crikey! That's some list. Thanks for posting it.
I looked through it - recognized most of those titles. I think I have read roughly 90% of those books/stories. I shall follow up some of them with interest.
Recently finished "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall. I found it very educational and entertaining, but I'm a used-to-be runner.Did you ever read "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Alan Sillitoe? I liked that a lot, and it motivated me to start cross-country running when I was about 12 years old. I ran over several of the Welsh hills in Snowdonia National Park (where I lived).-berry (December 31, 2011, 09:27 PM)
If, like me, you have a logical turn of mind, a self-indulgent nature, and a frequently dormant conscience, there is a certain aspect of human behavior that can put an immense strain on the patience. It's spoken of, always in sanctimonious tones, as moderation - not too much of this, not too much of that, diet and abstinence and restraint, colonic irrigation, cold baths before breakfast, and regular readings of morally uplifting tracts. You must have come across all this and worse if you have any friends from California. Personally, I'm a great believer in the philosophy of live and let live, as long as you keep your proclivities to yourself. Follow the road of denial if that's what you want, and all I'll say is more fool you and spare me the details.
"Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen"I heard part of a program on BBC Radio that suggested that the Greeks who rowed triremes might have been the greatest every athletes - and that their like has died out.-berry (December 31, 2011, 09:27 PM)
Finished "A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire". Great.That's been out for some years, but seems to be getting very popular. My county library stock has multiple copies, at least one of which has its home at the branch I use, but it's never on the shelf and there's a constant waiting list.-berry (December 31, 2011, 09:27 PM)
"Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen"I heard part of a program on BBC Radio that suggested that the Greeks who rowed triremes might have been the greatest every athletes - and that their like has died out.-berry (December 31, 2011, 09:27 PM)-rjbull (January 02, 2012, 01:46 PM)
Finished "A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire". Great.-berry (December 31, 2011, 09:27 PM)
That's been out for some years, but seems to be getting very popular. My county library stock has multiple copies, at least one of which has its home at the branch I use, but it's never on the shelf and there's a constant waiting list.-rjbull
Since being formed as a shadow peacekeeping organization, Section 9 has faced almost countless adversaries both in the real world and in cyberspace, but none like "The Awakened," a group of terrorists who seem to have the ability to take over the minds and bodies of almost anyone and use them to commit crimes against the state, leaving their pawns unaware of who was controlling them. When Major Motoko Kusanagi is able to capture one of the boys used as a pawn she hacks into his cyberbrain to find out who the ringleader is, but what she discovers will take her and the operatives of Section 9 on a journey deep into the heart of cyberspace, and the answers she finds will shake Section 9 to its core.
Ha! I just dropped in here to recommend Arnaldur Indridason (I'm working through the Erlendur series) an see that rjbull has beaten me to it. I'm currently reading "Arctic Chill" (book number 4) and am very impressed with Indridason's plot development and "mood".It's a great series, and from the little I know of Iceland (I visited years ago on photographic holidays, and read a bit about it), the backdrop of the merciless landscape is exactly right. Indridason had me worried with Outrage, the 7th in the series, in which Erlendur ominously doesn't feature, but I see there's now an eighth, Black Skies, to be published this June.-Darwin (May 06, 2012, 08:54 AM)
Just started Games of Thrones from Georges RR Martin-MerleOne (May 20, 2012, 03:00 PM)
Just started Games of Thrones from Georges RR Martin-MerleOne (May 20, 2012, 03:00 PM)
Settle in; you're in for a long ride. =]-skwire (May 20, 2012, 03:11 PM)
Can you reduce it down to a tweet? :P-TaoPhoenix (May 21, 2012, 06:10 PM)
My ISP is broadcasting now the season 2 of the HBO TV show made after the series, but I doubt I'll be able to catch up... I am still in the part where Jon is staring is "job" at the wall....-MerleOne (May 21, 2012, 02:36 PM)
Just finished: Dark Fire, by C.J. Sansom, the second in his "Shardlake" series, that starts with Dissolution. These are outstanding historical thrillers, set at the time of Henry VIII.-rjbull (August 26, 2012, 02:58 PM)
Throughout mathematician Philip Masyrk's peripatetic life, there has been only one constant: Irma Arcuri. Their ongoing love affair has endured his two marriages and her countless travels. But now Irma has vanished, leaving Philip her library of 351 books, including five written by Irma herself. Buried somewhere within her luxuriously rebound volumes of Cervantes and Turgenev, Borges and Fowles, lies the secret to her disappearance-and Philip soon realizes that he is trapped within their narratives as well. Who is Irma Arcuri? What is really hidden in the library? And most importantly, whose story is this?
(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. :nono2:)There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)
(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. :nono2:)There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)-f0dder (August 29, 2012, 11:16 AM)
otherwise smart people...
But if you find yourself too readily buying into her Objectivist Philosophy, do yourself a favor and read this (http://www.rotman.uwo.ca/2012/the-system-that-wasnt-there-ayn-rands-failed-philosophy-and-why-it-matters/) and this (http://www.scribd.com/doc/102657523/On-the-Randian-Argument-Nozick) afterwards.-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)
The Machine That Changed The WorldBut if you find yourself too readily buying into her Objectivist Philosophy, do yourself a favor and read this (http://www.rotman.uwo.ca/2012/the-system-that-wasnt-there-ayn-rands-failed-philosophy-and-why-it-matters/) and this (http://www.scribd.com/doc/102657523/On-the-Randian-Argument-Nozick) afterwards.-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)
Now, that was quite interesting and fun read.-Attronarch (August 29, 2012, 05:39 PM)
(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. :nono2:)There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)-f0dder (August 29, 2012, 11:16 AM)
Yes two. One consisting of an old part and a new part, plus its "next generation" sequel. Put them together and they've probably provided the 'rationale' and the 'justification' for more bloodshed and suffering than anything else ever written.
8)-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:20 AM)
(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. :nono2:)There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)-f0dder (August 29, 2012, 11:16 AM)
Yes two. One consisting of an old part and a new part, plus its "next generation" sequel. Put them together and they've probably provided the 'rationale' and the 'justification' for more bloodshed and suffering than anything else ever written.
8)-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:20 AM)
The sequel...would that be the one from the L.D.S.? (We would be in total agreement if that is the case)-Shades (August 30, 2012, 12:37 PM)
Thanks to 40hz, got hands on 101 Zen stories book. Worth a read.
Two books in queue -
48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene
What every BODY is saying.-mahesh2k (August 30, 2012, 03:45 PM)
Thanks to 40hz, got hands on 101 Zen stories book. Worth a read.-mahesh2k (August 30, 2012, 03:45 PM)
Which 101 Zen Stories?-TaoPhoenix (August 30, 2012, 03:51 PM)
(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. :nono2:)There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)-f0dder (August 29, 2012, 11:16 AM)
(Please don't ask me what I consider to be the the most dangerous books ever written. :nono2:)There's two of them, isn't there? (Perhaps three, if you consider the first book to consist of and old and a new part).-40hz (August 29, 2012, 11:03 AM)-f0dder (August 29, 2012, 11:16 AM)
Bibles don't kill people, people kill people...;)-daddydave (August 30, 2012, 05:31 PM)
..... I consider those books extremely dangerous ....-40hz (August 30, 2012, 06:13 PM)
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. - Luke 9:26
..... I consider those books extremely dangerous ....-40hz (August 30, 2012, 06:13 PM)
I've seen a number of like minded comments in other threads by other board members over the last few months but I've not said anything.
40hz, don't take this reply a personal affront, it is not specifically aimed at you.
Perhaps we need a new thread for this where things can be discussed civilly.
Not that there are not enough other discussion boards on this subject where one could have a field day, so perhaps not.
Much wrong is done in the name of "religion" when what was done has no relevance with regard to the fundamentals of the actual faith.-NigelH (August 30, 2012, 08:13 PM)
I happen to agree with your stance, NigelH, as seen here (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=31705.msg295327#msg295327), but you will discover as I have that our metaphysical views are a distinct minority here. Still, I congratulate you for standing up for our faith.-kyrathaba (August 30, 2012, 08:45 PM)
in a world that has largely lost faith.-kyrathaba (August 30, 2012, 09:50 PM)
As for delusion, unfortunately Richard Dawkins at the end of his life will discover to his eternal horror how deluded he really was.Goddamn, you religious people are so full of yourselves >_<
The same comment applies to those who believe similarly.
[...]
Again, I'm referring only to the Bible.
There is no other divinely inspired book.-NigelH
As for "Theological discussion and debate, in actual practice, is something best left to professionals.", that is a disastrous assumption to make.-NigelH (August 30, 2012, 11:05 PM)
Again, I'm referring only to the Bible.
There is no other divinely inspired book.
And perhaps it's best if we let it rest here.Amen.-40hz (August 30, 2012, 11:47 PM)
Perhaps you want to read something like this (Atheism and Mass Murder)*conservepedia when you refer to dangerous.As for delusion, unfortunately Richard Dawkins at the end of his life will discover to his eternal horror how deluded he really was.
The same comment applies to those who believe similarly.Divine threat or something?
There is no other divinely inspired book.
In an effort to reduce the number of books around the abode, trying (again) to get through the following:
- The Fabric of the Cosmos (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22435.The_Fabric_of_the_Cosmos)
- de Bono's Thinking Course, Revised Edition (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98482.de_Bono_s_Thinking_Course)
- The Second Brain (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/636974.The_Second_Brain)
They are all turning out to be more interesting this time through...-ewemoa (August 30, 2012, 11:31 PM)
... you religious people are so full of yourselves >_<That word again ;)-f0dder (August 30, 2012, 11:42 PM)
I will neither agree nor disagree.Absolutely - I'm good with that.
And perhaps it's best if we let it rest here.
As Mouser has previously pointed out, DoCo's forum is generally not an appropriate place for ongoing discussions or debates about political or religious subjects. Let's get back to talking about books as simply things to read. And maybe leave the issue of divine or inspired authorship for another place and day?-40hz (August 30, 2012, 11:47 PM)
As Mouser has previously pointed out, DoCo's forum is generally not an appropriate place for ongoing discussions or debates about political or religious subjects.
Hey 40...do I get a degree if I read and watch all this stuff?-superboyac (September 09, 2012, 04:02 PM)
Cuz if I don't, you're just wasting my time!! I could be getting my EE PhD and get on the fast track to --> $$$
:(
Fantasy but in a non euro-medieval setting. Really got me, and I am picky and jaded when it comes to fantasy or magical realism.There are some good fantasy series set in pseudo-mediaeval, pseudo-North European milieus, but it's been done to death. It's a refreshing change to find something different, so thanks for that one.-iphigenie (September 10, 2012, 02:16 AM)
Fantasy but in a non euro-medieval setting. Really got me, and I am picky and jaded when it comes to fantasy or magical realism.There are some good fantasy series set in pseudo-mediaeval, pseudo-North European milieus, but it's been done to death. It's a refreshing change to find something different, so thanks for that one.-iphigenie (September 10, 2012, 02:16 AM)
FWIW, authors of fantasies that I've enjoyed, who set their works in relatively unusual worlds, include Sarah Ash, Garth Nix, Caroline Stevermer, Michael Marshall Smith, Steph Swainston, Naomi Novik, P.C. Hodgell, Chris Wooding, Jonathan Stroud, Marcus Sedgwick, Jan Siegel/Amanda Hemingway, and Chris Wooding.-rjbull (September 10, 2012, 03:28 PM)
pHp - which (from my admittedly limited experience with it so far) has to be the single most sloppy, poorly implemented, and sprawling of any scripting language.
my pipedream: a freeware software writing IDE that has the elegance of C#Isn't that called a mouser? (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/esmileys/gen3/1Small/WHISTLE.GIF)-kyrathaba (September 22, 2012, 07:25 PM)
Design
If you're going to build a simple stick-through-a-box guitar, you don't need to invest a lot
of time in design. You're not exactly making a precision instrument, so it's pretty safe to
figure things out as you go.
Once you start adding details like scale, frets, standard bridges, and 100 other features,
you'll want to start planning things out on paper first before you take a saw blade to any
wood. Especially when you get to a point that you're using more expensive woods,
you'll want to plan everything out on paper first as mistakes become costly.
One of the challenges we face when we make what I would describe as a precision
cigar box guitar (accurate scale length, frets, string spacing, etc) is that we are
constrained by the size of the box we are using. Conventional guitar makers have a lot
more freedom than we do because they get to design the shape and size of their guitar
body around the features that they want the guitar to have. Cigar box guitar makers
have to design their guitar around the box to ensure that everything will fit correctly.
I'm having a very difficult time finding anybody playing the big ray brown bass around here.-superboyac (September 24, 2012, 10:35 AM)
That's true. never considered that angle. yet another reason to buy one for myself and loan it to whoever gigs with me. Also lends itself to my idea of purchasing a used shitty van for gigs.I'm having a very difficult time finding anybody playing the big ray brown bass around here.-superboyac (September 24, 2012, 10:35 AM)
You might have better luck if you'd guarantee the player a roadie plus convenient free transportation for the thing. ;D
Time was (maybe still is) when you booked a union musician for double bass they'd get a "portage" fee along with the appearance money. I think that started when people finally realized you couldn't bring a bass onto a subway car so bassists who were packing the "doghouse" needed to call a cab to get them to the clubs they were playing at. Or at least they did if they wanted to arrive with their instrument in one piece.
FWIW, the biggest I've ever schlepped was the 3/4 - and that was a royal pain in the butt getting places with. Even with a ride.-40hz (September 24, 2012, 11:04 AM)
^^That sounds like a GREAT read! I'm going to get it.-superboyac (October 11, 2012, 09:49 AM)
About the Author
Mitch Gallagher has been chasing guitar tone for more than 30 years. He toured as a lead guitarist/vocalist in rock and country bands and has played with big bands, with fusion and experimental music groups, and as a classical and steel-string guitar soloist. As a music technology specialist, he has taught college courses, lectured, given clinics, consulted with manufacturers, and spoken at festivals, conventions, and conferences around the world. His musical compositions cover genres from classical to experimental to heavy metal. His work Prophecy #1: At First Glance, an experimental percussion ensemble/synthesizer work based on the Fibonacci number series, received a 1991 NARAS (Grammy) award in the Best New Music/New Classical category. The former senior technical editor of Keyboard magazine and former editor-in-chief of EQ magazine, Mitch has published well over 1,000 articles in music, guitar, and recording publications. His monthly column, "Guitar Tracks," currently appears in Premier Guitar magazine. He appears in well over 100 YouTube videos. In addition to freelance writing and editing, he is an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University/Purdue University Fort Wayne; he operates The Sound Sauna/MAG Media Productions, a recording and mastering studio; and he is the editorial director for Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
...How the Corrupt, Wasteful EU is Taking Control of Our Lives...Surely not? ;)-panzer (November 06, 2012, 03:05 AM)
Sometimes the most useful books on a given topic weren't actually written about the topic itself. A good example is Scott McCloud's classic book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.
(see attachment in previous post (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=20287.msg305745#msg305745))
Although ostensibly about the design and construction of "comic strips" (or what cartoonist Bill Eisner used to half-jokingly refer to as "sequential art") Scott's book is really a study in how we process visual information. It's also a crash course in how we construct continuity and closure from discrete images and sensory impressions. Students of gestalt psychology will feel right at home with the concepts presented in this book.-40hz (November 06, 2012, 06:02 AM)
Thanks 40! I'm on it!-superboyac (November 06, 2012, 09:08 AM)
Right on, you read my mind. I've been planning on how to do my first short film, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to utilize some comic book style shortcuts to make up for the fact that I am lacking in money, actors, and live footage, etc. It will work. I'll make up for the lack of pricey footage with strong story arcs and music-heavy ambiance. But I'll have more ideas after going through a couple of these books. It's a very slow, methodical process, I have to learn to be patient with myself without stagnating.Thanks 40! I'm on it!-superboyac (November 06, 2012, 09:08 AM)
Hey SB! I was hoping you spotted my post. Remember: comic strips are the poor man's motion picture studio. Yep! So says 40hz - and you heard him correctly. You can do much (if not most) of what you can do in a movie with a comic strip. In some cases more easily too.
Maybe that's why movies use storyboards (i.e. comic strips) during development - and comic strips can so easily (and often effectively) be made into decent movies.
:Thmbsup: 8) :Thmbsup:-40hz (November 06, 2012, 11:36 AM)
Listen to your users, absolutely. But giving a shit about your users is *way* better. People listen but they don't do *anything*. Doing something, answering those emails, giving a crap, caring about your user base – that's what you need to do.
In an effort to reduce the number of books around the abode, trying (again) to get through the following:
- The Fabric of the Cosmos (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22435.The_Fabric_of_the_Cosmos)
- de Bono's Thinking Course, Revised Edition (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98482.de_Bono_s_Thinking_Course)
- The Second Brain (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/636974.The_Second_Brain)
-ewemoa (August 30, 2012, 11:31 PM)
The third book is very interesting but I'm finding it takes a lot-ewemoa (November 16, 2012, 04:16 AM)
^I have all of them ;D. No, they're out of print.-kyrathaba (March 19, 2013, 10:54 PM)
The third book is very interesting but I'm finding it takes a lot-ewemoa (November 16, 2012, 04:16 AM)
Perhaps you need a second brain to get through the third book? :P-Darwin (March 21, 2013, 09:10 AM)
the action scenes, specifically with regard to combat, are good. I may cease and desist if it gets too lurid. then again, I may increase my reading pace ;D-kyrathaba (March 21, 2013, 10:13 AM)
I have a 75 watt, glare free, long life
Harmony House light bulb in my toilet.
I have been living in the same apartment
for over two years now
and that bulb just keeps burning away.
I believe that it is fond of me.
A man wrote a letter to the IRS saying, "I have been unable to sleep knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. I have understated my taxable income and have enclosed a check for $150. If I still can't sleep, I will send the rest."
@TaoPhoenix: I tried out the Scientific and Text Doc Viewer (http://www.stdutility.com/) you referenced. Excellent program. Thanks for the tip! :up:-kyrathaba (March 29, 2013, 05:40 AM)
@kyrathababa - out of curiosity...what did you think of Kushiel's Dart?
I'll have to get back to you on my final opinion of Kushiel's Dart. What did you think of it?-kyrathaba (April 30, 2013, 05:08 PM)
re: 50 Shades of Gray
Read it and I'm not impressed. I found it rather predictable and juvenile.
Book 3 throws all of that out. Suddenly, it's omniscient third person narration with countless points of view, few of which are familiar characters from the previous books. What started as survival horror is now a mashup of government conspiracy, tactical shooter and science fiction. Yeah, there's aliens in it now.-allen (April 30, 2013, 10:17 PM)
There ought to be a law mandating disclosure when this is done.-kyrathaba (May 01, 2013, 07:31 AM)
Just read a couple of books on Django in my ongoing quest to design the next best web framework..-mouser (May 01, 2013, 07:50 AM)
Just read a couple of books on Django in my ongoing quest to design the next best web framework..-mouser (May 01, 2013, 07:50 AM)
Maybe these guys can help!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22249490
:P-TaoPhoenix (May 01, 2013, 08:18 AM)
^What's up with these Google AdSense robot pseudo-posts in the forums? :huh:
Something new DoCo is doing?-40hz (May 01, 2013, 08:48 AM)
I was a prolific reader in those days and I very soon exhausted our own library, fortunately the Abbot gave me a special dispensation to go into the local town every couple of weeks to use the public library.:)
He considered me to be quite studious but it wasn't strictly true. In one of our unused storerooms I had found a big old copy of a commentary on the bible, you know the sort of thing, leather cover and a clasp to prevent it coming open. I cleaned it up and carried it everywhere but what he didn't know was that I had hollowed it out and used to use it for storing books by authors like Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, and D.H. Lawrence, none of whom were on the order's list of required reading.
My visits to the public library carried on for some time but they sadly came to an end when I took out this young librarian.-pilgrim (May 13, 2013, 11:44 AM)
Yep, it's a great series. He has a new one out called (IIRC) The Rithmatist.-kyrathaba (June 14, 2013, 03:48 PM)
Now what we call "bourgeois," when regarded as an element always to be found in human life, is nothing else than the search for a balance. It is the striving after a mean between the countless extremes and opposites that arise in human conduct.
If we take any one of these coupled opposites, such as piety and profligacy, the analogy is immediately comprehensible. It is open to a man to give himself up wholly to spiritual views, to seeking after God, to the ideal of saintliness. On the other hand, he can equally give himself up entirely to the life of instinct, to the lusts of the flesh, and so direct all his efforts to the attainment of momentary pleasures. The one path leads to the saint, to the martyrdom of the spirit and surrender to God. The other path leads to the profligate, to the martyrdom of the flesh, the surrender to corruption.
Now it is between the two, in the middle of the road, that the bourgeois seeks to walk. He will never surrender himself either to lust or to asceticism. He will never be a martyr or agree to his own destruction. On the contrary, his ideal is not to give up but to maintain his own identity. He strives neither for the saintly nor its opposite. The absolute is his abhorrence. He may be ready to serve God, but not by giving up the fleshpots. He is ready to be virtuous, but likes to be easy and comfortable in this world as well. In short, his aim is to make a home for himself between two extremes in a temperate zone without violent storms and tempests; and in this he succeeds though it be at the cost of that intensity of life and feeling which an extreme life affords. A man cannot live intensely except at the cost of the self.
Now the bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self (rudimentary as his may be). And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he does comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire. The bourgeois is consequently by nature a creature of weak impulses, anxious, fearful of giving himself away and easy to rule. Therefore, he has substituted majority for power, law for force, and the polling booth for responsibility.
;DJust a newbie question : how to I load it onto my Kindle. I can transfer files using either the cable or an e-mail attachement using a special address, but I don't know which format to use, should I convert one of the included files ? If yes, with which tool. Thanks !!!
Thanks for the plug, 40hz!
Just uploaded new revision, in the OP (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=35166.msg328376#msg328376), containing Chapter 11. The novel's about 40% done at this point. Of course, there will be a sequel. Maybe a trilogy.-kyrathaba (June 19, 2013, 09:17 AM)
MerleOne, hope you enjoy! I've written up through chapter 15: that's approximately half the book.Thanks for giving us the opportunity to discover your work !-kyrathaba (June 23, 2013, 07:12 AM)
Just a newbie question : how to I load it onto my Kindle. I can transfer files using either the cable or an e-mail attachement using a special address, but I don't know which format to use, should I convert one of the included files ? If yes, with which tool. Thanks !!!
Edited : issue solved, I sent the .mobi file as an e-mail attachment to my kindle address and it worked perfectly. I am really looking forward discovering this book...
I've finally started reading "Tragedy and Hope" by Carroll Quigley:good luck with that one! i've skimmed through it a couple of times, really interesting. i wish i could find more online academic debates for the book instead of the conspiracy-focused thoughts people usually write about it.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Tragedy_And_Hope_By_Carroll_Quigley.png)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_And_Hope
You can download it for free here:
http://archive.org/details/TragedyAndHope_501
I've heard and read a lot about it, and it sounds fascinating.
It will take me a while as it's around 1,300 pages. So far, it's really good. Extremely well written and simply packed with information.-Renegade (August 05, 2013, 10:42 AM)
good luck with that one! i've skimmed through it a couple of times, really interesting. i wish i could find more online academic debates for the book instead of the conspiracy-focused thoughts people usually write about it.-superboyac (August 05, 2013, 10:19 PM)
Just asking : how to you get to read that edition ? Might not be easy...
... read the front page of the January 2nd, 1945 New York Times. :P (I'm not kidding.)
...-Renegade (August 06, 2013, 12:52 AM)
Not sure how trustworthy this version is (it's transcribed)
http://ufoupdateslist.com/1998/jul/m15-022.shtml-tomos (August 06, 2013, 04:39 AM)
Not sure how trustworthy this version is (it's transcribed)
http://ufoupdateslist.com/1998/jul/m15-022.shtml-tomos (August 06, 2013, 04:39 AM)
Thanks. I fail to see how I could get to jail by reading this. Unless it's an alien jail and I get abducted...-MerleOne (August 06, 2013, 04:42 AM)
Bagus: The Tragedy of the Euro
Pdf version is free: http://mises.org/document/6045/-panzer (August 06, 2013, 05:02 AM)
Bagus: The Tragedy of the Euro
Pdf version is free: http://mises.org/document/6045/-panzer (August 06, 2013, 05:02 AM)
Bagus: The Tragedy of the Euro
Pdf version is free: http://mises.org/document/6045/-panzer (August 06, 2013, 05:02 AM)
Do post back your thoughts on that. I'd like to hear. My reading load is a bit heavy at the moment. (Tragedy and Hope is my "fun" reading.)-Renegade (August 06, 2013, 06:34 AM)
Bagus: The Tragedy of the Euro
Pdf version is free: http://mises.org/document/6045/-panzer (August 06, 2013, 05:02 AM)
thanks for that.
FWIW I've tried to understand economics - mainly Keynesian vs. Austrian - a little better, but people seem to believe one or that other 100% and that's it. Make's it difficult for the noob ;-) Anyways, looking forward to reading that :up:-tomos (August 06, 2013, 05:28 AM)
I liked it. No nonsense included - less than 200 pages.-panzer (August 07, 2013, 03:29 AM)
Explains why Euro was created in the first place and why the current system is flawed.-panzer (August 07, 2013, 03:29 AM)
[/quote]I liked it. No nonsense included - less than 200 pages.-panzer (August 07, 2013, 03:29 AM)
Ah! That's good! Far too many books just blather on with complete nonsense that just wastes your time. I really like when they just cut to the chase and get to the point.-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 04:17 AM)
ok...40hz...what is the source of that awesome Cthulhu illustration?-superboyac (December 03, 2013, 03:09 PM)
Office Space CthulhuHmm...I'd like to know who the artist is, it's a really nice piece of art.-40hz (December 03, 2013, 03:54 PM)
Winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize 2013 Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The Six Killer Apps of Western Power is a vital, brilliant look at the winning tools of power. In 1412, Europe was a miserable backwater ravaged by plague, bad sanitation and incessant war, while the Orient was home to dazzling civilizations. So how did the West come to dominate the Rest? In this vital, brilliant book, selected as a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year, Niall Ferguson reveals the 'killer applications' that did it: competition - How Europe's small, piratical states built modern capitalism; science - How innovation gave the West the military edge; property rights - How the laws of private property built the United States; medicine - How colonialism transformed the world's health; the consumer society - How shopping made the industrial revolution; and the work ethic - How Western religious ideas brought it all together. But has the West now lost its monopoly on these six things? Or is this the end of Western ascendancy? "A dazzling history of Western ideas ...epic". (Economist). "Vivid and fascinating". (Daily Telegraph). "Superb ...brings history alive ...dazzling".
Civilisation - Niall Ferguson-Redhat (December 17, 2013, 02:11 PM)
I'm currently reading The Towers of the Sunset by L. E. Modesett, Jr.-kyrathaba (February 28, 2014, 10:03 PM)
Just finishing up: "Biological Learning and Control: How the Brain Builds Representations, Predicts Events, and Makes Decisions" By Reza Shadmehr and Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi-mouser (February 28, 2014, 10:59 PM)
I'm happy to be done with "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (http://www.amazon.com/How-Create-Mind-Thought-Revealed/dp/0143124048)" by Ray Kurzweil
You can file this one away as another famous narcissist with money getting more famous with a self-indulgent book that is mostly empty of insight and full of self promotion. Blech. Terrible.-mouser (March 04, 2014, 12:00 PM)
I'm happy to be done with "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (http://www.amazon.com/How-Create-Mind-Thought-Revealed/dp/0143124048)" by Ray Kurzweil
You can file this one away as another famous narcissist with money getting more famous with a self-indulgent book that is mostly empty of insight and full of self promotion. Blech. Terrible.-mouser (March 04, 2014, 12:00 PM)
Blech?
Terrible?
You're far too kind. For some reason the phrase "sucks out loud" keeps popping into my head every time I think back on reading that book.
;D-40hz (March 04, 2014, 01:27 PM)
Valiant's past contribution to machine learning was a useful way of formalizing some guarantees about a class of "Probably, Approximately Correct (PAC)" algorithms. His attempt at branding that as a theory of intelligence falls painfully short.-mouser (March 07, 2014, 09:29 AM)
The Dresden Files are Jim’s first published series, telling the story of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard P.I.
The file he is reading frightens him.
Once, when Roger was a young boy, his father took him to an open day at Nellis AFB, out in the California desert. Sunlight glared brilliantly from the polished silverplate flanks of the big bombers, sitting in their concrete-lined dispersal bays behind barriers and blinking radiation monitors. The brightly coloured streamers flying from their pitot tubes lent them a strange, almost festive appearance. But they were sleeping nightmares: once awakened, nobody -- except the flight crew -- could come within a mile of the nuclear-powered bombers and live.
Looking at the gleaming, bulging pods slung under their wingtip pylons, Roger had a premature inkling of the fires that waited within, a frigid terror that echoed the siren wail of the air raid warnings. He'd sucked nervously on his ice cream and gripped his father's hand tightly while the band ripped through a cheerful Sousa march, and only forgot his fear when a flock of Thunderchiefs sliced by overhead and rattled the car windows for miles around.
He has the same feeling now, as an adult reading this intelligence assessment, that he had as a child, watching the nuclear powered bombers sleeping in their concrete beds.
There's a blurry photograph of a concrete box inside the file, snapped from above by a high-flying U-2 during the autumn of '61. Three coffin-shaped lakes, bulking dark and gloomy beneath the arctic sun; a canal heading west, deep in the Soviet heartland, surrounded by warning trefoils and armed guards. Deep waters saturated with calcium salts, concrete coffer-dams lined with gold and lead. A sleeping giant pointed at NATO, more terrifying than any nuclear weapon.
Project Koschei.
Puzzle Palace
Roger isn't a soldier. He's not much of a patriot, either: he signed up with the CIA after college, in the aftermath of the Church Commission hearings in the early seventies. The Company was out of the assassination business, just a bureaucratic engine rolling out National Security assessments: that's fine by Roger. Only now, five years later, he's no longer able to roll along, casually disengaged, like a car in neutral bowling down a shallow incline towards his retirement, pension and a gold watch. He puts the file down on his desk and, with a shaking hand, pulls an illicit cigarette from the pack he keeps in his drawer. He lights it and leans back for a moment to draw breath, force relaxation, staring at smoke rolling in the air beneath the merciless light until his hand stops shaking.
Most people think spies are afraid of guns, or KGB guards, or barbed wire, but in point of fact the most dangerous thing they face is paper. Papers carry secrets. Papers can carry death warrants. Papers like this one, this folio with its blurry eighteen year old faked missile photographs and estimates of time/survivor curves and pervasive psychosis ratios, can give you nightmares, dragging you awake screaming in the middle of the night. It's one of a series of highly classified pieces of paper that he is summarizing for the eyes of the National Security Council and the President Elect -- if his head of department and the DDCIA approve it -- and here he is, having to calm his nerves with a cigarette before he turns the next page.
After a few minutes, Roger's hand is still. He leaves his cigarette in the eagle-headed ash tray and picks up the intelligence report again. It's a summary, itself the distillation of thousands of pages and hundreds of photographs. It's barely twenty pages long: as of 1963, its date of preparation, the CIA knew very little about Project Koschei. Just the bare skeleton, and rumours from a highly-placed spy. And their own equivalent project, of course. Lacking the Soviet lead in that particular field, the USAF fielded the silver-plated white elephants of the NB-39 project: twelve atomic-powered bombers armed with XK-PLUTO, ready to tackle Project Koschei should the Soviets show signs of unsealing the bunker. Three hundred megatons of H-bombs pointed at a single target, and nobody was certain it would be enough to do the job.
And then there was the hard-to-conceal fiasco in Antarctica. Egg on face: a subterranean nuclear test program in international territory! If nothing else, it had been enough to stop JFK running for a second term. The test program was a bad excuse: but it was far better than confessing what had really happened to the 501st Airborne Division on the cold plateau beyond Mount Erebus. The plateau that the public didn't know about, that didn't show up on the maps issued by the geological survey departments of those governments party to the Dresden Agreement of 1931 -- an arrangement that even Hitler had stuck to. The plateau that had swallowed more U-2 spy planes than the Soviet Union, more surface expeditions than darkest Africa.
Stross! The man
Create mobile apps for Android phones and tablets faster and more easily than you ever imagined. Use “Processing,” the free, award-winning, graphics-savvy language and development environment, to work with the touchscreens, hardware sensors, cameras, network transceivers, and other devices and software in the latest Android phones and tablets.
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
In D&D there are certain attributes you start with, just as in life there are certain things you’re born with: Strength, Will, Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence and Constitution. Whether you’re a veteran convention attendee, a con-virgin, a volunteer, vendor or a guest, everyone can use a bump in their life stats.
Do you know what the 6-2-1 rule is? What do Barbarians and cell phones have to do with hygiene? Do you know when it’s okay to take a photograph? How do you flirt with that cute girl or guy across the room? Who are Booth Babes really?
Thinking-Fast-Slow-by David Kahneman.
It's excellent. Read it! :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:-40hz (February 13, 2015, 09:04 PM)
The book on the history of the Amiga was very nice.
Now, I just started Becoming Steve Jobs (http://www.anobii.com/books/Becoming_Steve_Jobs/9780385347402/01ff60fb28f390a8db).
(http://i.imgur.com/1aCBzzQ.jpg)-Mark0 (March 28, 2015, 06:02 AM)
Just finished the first 3 books of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein. Non especially deep, but a nice light page turner.
Now I'm reading The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga (http://www.anobii.com/books/The_Future_Was_Here/9780262017206/01b6d1f83ccde3dc84), by Jimmy Maher.
(http://i.imgur.com/TQa6YJZ.jpg)-Mark0 (March 16, 2015, 10:36 AM)
Currently I am reading Idoru (http://www.amazon.com/Idoru-William-Gibson/dp/0425158640) by William Gibson. It is the first of his works for me. The protagonist is a genius researcher. His gift is the ability to sift massive amounts of data and intuitively pursue productive threads.
The plot beings to focus when he is hired by the high tech equivalent of a Tabloid juggernaut. I am only a few chapters in. But the hero seems to be moving inexorably (do they not always move inexorably in novels?) toward the nexus of idols, fame, entertainment, tabloid journalism and scandal.
The book is classified SciFi and as yet the only thing that would distinguish it as such is the rebuilding of Japan using nanotechnology. I am hoping this changes as the plot gains momentum.-MilesAhead (May 05, 2015, 07:38 AM)
dead dog slow-MilesAhead (May 23, 2015, 09:42 AM)
dead dog slow-MilesAhead (May 23, 2015, 09:42 AM)
That's one of the reasons I like short stories. :)-Renegade (May 27, 2015, 06:49 AM)
I am currently reading: the name of the wind
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle/dp/0575081406/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430825924&sr=8-1&keywords=name+of+the+wind
It is actually pretty amazing if you are any into fantasy. The development of characters is quite nice.-hisroyalhighness (May 05, 2015, 06:40 AM)
I have no idea what I'm going to be reading over the next month or so, but I think "The Law" will be about at the top.
I will have a good amount of time available to read at length, and have got my mini-library ready.
While there are a few "must reads" that I want to get to, "Our Enemy, The State.pdf" just seems too tempting. :) I gotta see what that's about.-Renegade (May 05, 2015, 11:28 AM)
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
This is the twelfth expedition.
Chapter 1
The tower, which was not supposed to be there, plunges into the earth in a place just before the black pine forest begins to give way to swamp and then the reeds and wind-gnarled trees of the marsh flats. Beyond the marsh flats and the natural canals lies the ocean and, a little farther down the coast, a derelict lighthouse. All of this part of the country had been abandoned for decades, for reasons that are not easy to relate. Our expedition was the first to enter Area X for more than two years, and much of our predecessors’ equipment had rusted, their tents and sheds little more than husks. Looking out over that untroubled landscape, I do not believe any of us could yet see the threat.
There were four of us: a biologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist. I was the biologist. All of us were women this time, chosen as part of the complex set of variables that governed sending the expeditions. The psychologist, who was older than the rest of us, served as the expedition’s leader. She had put us all under hypnosis to cross the border, to make sure we remained calm. It took four days of hard hiking after crossing the border to reach the coast.
Our mission was simple: to continue the government’s investigation into the mysteries of Area X, slowly working our way out from base camp.
The expedition could last days, months, or even years, depending on various stimuli and conditions. We had supplies with us for six months, and another two years’ worth of supplies had already been stored at the base camp. We had also been assured that it was safe to live off the land if necessary. All of our foodstuffs were smoked or canned or in packets. Our most outlandish equipment consisted of a measuring device that had been issued to each of us, which hung from a strap on our belts: a small rectangle of black metal with a glass-covered hole in the middle. If the hole glowed red, we had thirty minutes to remove ourselves to “a safe place.” We were not told what the device measured or why we should be afraid should it glow red. After the first few hours, I had grown so used to it that I hadn’t looked at it again. We had been forbidden watches and compasses.
When we reached the camp, we set about replacing obsolete or damaged equipment with what we had brought and putting up our own tents. We would rebuild the sheds later, once we were sure that Area X had not affected us. The members of the last expedition had eventually drifted off, one by one. Over time, they had returned to their families, so strictly speaking they did not vanish. They simply disappeared from Area X and, by unknown means, reappeared back in the world beyond the border. They could not relate the specifics of that journey. This transference had taken place across a period of eighteen months, and it was not something that had been experienced by prior expeditions. But other phenomena could also result in “premature dissolution of expeditions,” as our superiors put it, so we needed to test our stamina for that place.
We also needed to acclimate ourselves to the environment. In the forest near base camp one might encounter black bears or coyotes. You might hear a sudden croak and watch a night heron startle from a tree branch and, distracted, step on a poisonous snake, of which there were at least six varieties. Bogs and streams hid huge aquatic reptiles, and so we were careful not to wade too deep to collect our water samples. Still, these aspects of the ecosystem did not really concern any of us. Other elements had the ability to unsettle, however. Long ago, towns had existed here, and we encountered eerie signs of human habitation: rotting cabins with sunken, red-tinged roofs, rusted wagon-wheel spokes half-buried in the dirt, and the barely seen outlines of what used to be enclosures for livestock, now mere ornament for layers of pine-needle loam.
Far worse, though, was a low, powerful moaning at dusk. The wind off the sea and the odd interior stillness dulled our ability to gauge direction, so that the sound seemed to infiltrate the black water that soaked the cypress trees. This water was so dark we could see our faces in it, and it never stirred, set like glass, reflecting the beards of gray moss that smothered the cypress trees. If you looked out through these areas, toward the ocean, all you saw was the black water, the gray of the cypress trunks, and the constant, motionless rain of moss flowing down. All you heard was the low moaning. The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.
As noted, we found the tower in a place just before the forest became waterlogged and then turned to salt marsh. This occurred on our fourth day after reaching base camp, by which time we had almost gotten our bearings. We did not expect to find anything there, based on both the maps that we brought with us and the water-stained, pine-dust-smeared documents our predecessors had left behind. But there it was, surrounded by a fringe of scrub grass, half-hidden by fallen moss off to the left of the trail: a circular block of some grayish stone seeming to mix cement and ground-up seashells. It measured roughly sixty feet in diameter, this circular block, and was raised from ground level by about eight inches. Nothing had been etched into or written on its surface that could in any way reveal its purpose or the identity of its makers. Starting at due north, a rectangular opening set into the surface of the block revealed stairs spiraling down into darkness. The entrance was obscured by the webs of banana spiders and debris from storms, but a cool draft came from below.
At first, only I saw it as a tower. I don’t know why the word tower came to me, given that it tunneled into the ground. I could as easily have considered it a bunker or a submerged building. Yet as soon as I saw the staircase, I remembered the lighthouse on the coast and had a sudden vision of the last expedition drifting off, one by one, and sometime thereafter the ground shifting in a uniform and preplanned way to leave the lighthouse standing where it had always been but depositing this underground part of it inland. I saw this in vast and intricate detail as we all stood there, and, looking back, I mark it as the first irrational thought I had once we had reached our destination.
“This is impossible,” said the surveyor, staring at her maps. The solid shade of late afternoon cast her in cool darkness and lent the words more urgency than they would have had otherwise. The sun was telling us soon we’d have to use our flashlights to interrogate the impossible, although I’d have been perfectly happy doing it in the dark.
“And yet there it is,” I said. “Unless we are having a mass hallucination.”
“The architectural model is hard to identify,” the anthropologist said. “The materials are ambiguous, indicating local origin but not necessarily local construction. Without going inside, we will not know if it is primitive or modern, or something in between. I’m not sure I would want to guess at how old it is, either.”
We had no way to inform our superiors about this discovery. One rule for an expedition into Area X was that we were to attempt no outside contact, for fear of some irrevocable contamination. We also took little with us that matched our current level of technology. We had no cell or satellite phones, no computers, no camcorders, no complex measuring instruments except for those strange black boxes hanging from our belts. Our cameras required a makeshift darkroom. The absence of cell phones in particular made the real world seem very far away to the others, but I had always preferred to live without them. For weapons, we had knives, a locked container of antique handguns, and one assault rifle, this last a reluctant concession to current security standards.
It was expected simply that we would keep a record, like this one, in a journal, like this one: lightweight but nearly indestructible, with waterproof paper, a flexible black-and-white cover, and the blue horizontal lines for writing and the red line to the left to mark the margin. These journals would either return with us or be recovered by the next expedition. We had been cautioned to provide maximum context, so that anyone ignorant of Area X could understand our accounts. We had also been ordered not to share our journal entries with one another. Too much shared information could skew our observations, our superiors believed. But I knew from experience how hopeless this pursuit, this attempt to weed out bias, was. Nothing that lived and breathed was truly objective—even in a vacuum, even if all that possessed the brain was a self-immolating desire for the truth.
“I’m excited by this discovery,” the psychologist interjected before we had discussed the tower much further. “Are you excited, too?” She had not asked us that particular question before. During training, she had tended to ask questions more like “How calm do you think you might be in an emergency?” Back then, I had felt as if she were a bad actor, playing a role. Now it seemed even more apparent, as if being our leader somehow made her nervous.
“It is definitely exciting . . . and unexpected,” I said, trying not to mock her and failing, a little. I was surprised to feel a sense of growing unease, mostly because in my imagination, my dreams, this discovery would have been among the more banal. In my head, before we had crossed the border, I had seen so many things: vast cities, peculiar animals, and, once, during a period of illness, an enormous monster that rose from the waves to bear down on our camp.
The surveyor, meanwhile, just shrugged and would not answer the psychologist’s question. The anthropologist nodded as if she agreed with me. The entrance to the tower leading down exerted a kind of presence, a blank surface that let us write so many things upon it. This presence manifested like a low-grade fever, pressing down on all of us.
I need to find a fresh SciFi author soon.-MilesAhead (August 11, 2015, 01:22 PM)
I just started on Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8520610-quiet). I'm only a couple pages into Chapter 1 (but I read the introduction) and it seems like it will be an interesting book.
_____________________________-Deozaan (August 11, 2015, 03:02 PM)
I'm OK, You're OK by Thomas Anthony Harris is one of the best selling self-help books ever published. It is a practical guide to Transactional Analysis as a method for solving problems in life. From its first publication during 1969, the popularity of I'm OK, You're OK gradually increased until, during 1972, its name made the New York Times Best Seller list and remained there for almost two years. It is estimated by the publisher to have sold over 15 million copies to date and to have been translated into over a dozen languages. -
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_OK,_You're_OK)
____________________________________
Richard Forthrast, a multi-millionaire marijuana smuggler, has parlayed his wealth into an empire by developing T'Rain, a billion-dollar online role-playing game with legions of fans around the world.
But T'Rain's success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold, unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player's electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game's virtual universe - and Richard is caught in the crossfire. Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho, Reamde traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which computer hackers and mobsters, entrepreneurs and religious fundamentalists face off in a battle for survival, Reamde is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century.
I'm currently reading reamde (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15810595-reamde). As other stuff by Neal Stephenson, it's pretty great, and even at page 380/1044 I'm not entirely sure exactly what the story is about, or how it's going to unfold - and that in a positive sense. It also features at least one shootout scene, which I'm not usually too big a fan of in books... but it's great in this one.
***Richard Forthrast, a multi-millionaire marijuana smuggler, has parlayed his wealth into an empire by developing T'Rain, a billion-dollar online role-playing game with legions of fans around the world.
But T'Rain's success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold, unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player's electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game's virtual universe - and Richard is caught in the crossfire. Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho, Reamde traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which computer hackers and mobsters, entrepreneurs and religious fundamentalists face off in a battle for survival, Reamde is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century.-f0dder (August 12, 2015, 03:51 PM)
British novelist Priest (The Prestige) creates a mind-bending, head-scratching book (already much lauded in the U.K.) that pretends to be a gazetteer of the Dream Archipelago, uncountable islands spread around a world whose temporal and spatial anomalies make such a project futile. The dispassionate descriptions of separate islands include odd references out of which it's possible to begin assembling a cast of characters: maniac artists, social reformers, murderers, scientific researchers, and passionate lovers. Some of these categories overlap, and all the actors are maddeningly fragmented, apt to fade away or flash intensely to life. Interpolated bits of directly personal narratives sometimes clarify and sometimes muddy the story (or stories), while uncanny events struggle to escape the gazetteers' avowedly objective control and Priest's elegant, cool prose. The result is wonderfully fascinating, if occasionally frustrating, and entirely unforgettable.[
It looks like they may finally be making a movie from it.I hope they don't - it's a pretty good book, no reason to screw it up with a bad teal-and-orange Hollywood crapover :)-MilesAhead (October 05, 2015, 02:58 PM)
It looks like they may finally be making a movie from it.I hope they don't - it's a pretty good book, no reason to screw it up with a bad teal-and-orange Hollywood crapover :)-MilesAhead (October 05, 2015, 02:58 PM)-f0dder (October 05, 2015, 03:22 PM)
Dedoimedo-panzer (October 21, 2015, 03:14 AM)
http://www.thelostwordsbooks.com/2015/10/17/more-free-books-2/-panzer (October 21, 2015, 03:14 AM)
http://www.thelostwordsbooks.com/2015/10/17/more-free-books-2/-panzer (October 21, 2015, 03:14 AM)
FWIW, the above worked from here.-ewemoa (October 21, 2015, 08:11 AM)
Mike Hernandez's classic Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design Still the single best book on the topic of relational database design AFAIC. Now in its 3rd edition. I'm reading it to see what's changed since the previous two editions - both of which I own and read. :
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]-40hz (November 30, 2015, 01:59 PM)
Volume 2 of Joe Haldeman's Mars Bound trilogy-MilesAhead (December 17, 2015, 04:14 PM)
Damn! You're either a VERY fast reader or you have a lot of time on your hands!-Renegade (December 18, 2015, 12:51 AM)
Free e-books if anyone is interested:@panzer,-panzer (December 21, 2015, 05:14 AM)
Little more than 10 years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war's massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations' fledgling air forces. The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air 'aces' who became national heroes. The reality was horribly different. "Marked For Death" debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy aircraft and unprotected pilots who had no parachutes; of burning 19-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots freezing and disorientated as they flew across enemy lines at 15,000 feet. James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battle-field was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare for ever.
what is convenient to get out of the public library is drying up.Advanced Book Exchange (ABE) (http://www.abebooks.com/) :)-MilesAhead (February 18, 2016, 07:37 AM)
I am trying another scifi author-MilesAhead (February 18, 2016, 07:37 AM)
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]Little more than 10 years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war's massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations' fledgling air forces. The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air 'aces' who became national heroes. The reality was horribly different. "Marked For Death" debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy aircraft and unprotected pilots who had no parachutes; of burning 19-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots freezing and disorientated as they flew across enemy lines at 15,000 feet. James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battle-field was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare for ever.-rjbull (February 29, 2016, 03:59 PM)
I've been looking at this for a while - how is the book? I couldn't decide if I wanted to read it or not.Informative, interesting, even fascinating, but grim, as anything to do with the First World War would be. The author doesn't purvey triumphalist BS or derring-do, but tells it like it was, using a vast array of documents from the time, including quite a few memoirs from the airmen themselves. It took me a while to read as it's hardly lightweight, but it's well and clearly written. Includes unusual areas such as the physiology of flying, which was as little understood at the time as aerodynamics.-wraith808 (February 29, 2016, 05:24 PM)
Posted on February 21, 2016This artificial discussion does not seem to be polemic or propaganda, but merely puts both sides of the issue out in the open using the device of a fictitious discussion between an adult (a Christian) and a child - viz: the Turn the Other Cheek Christian teaching on the one hand, and, on the other hand, why this may not be pragmatic/rational in our everyday life (particularly in the world of reducing peace that we might find ourselves in today).
“If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should–so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.” [said Jane Eyre]
“You will change your mind, I hope, when you grow older: as yet you are but a little untaught girl.”
“But I feel this, Helen; I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.”
“Heathens and savage tribes hold that doctrine, but Christians and civilised nations disown it.”
“How? I don’t understand.”
“It is not violence that best overcomes hate–nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.”
“What then?”
“Read the New Testament, and observe what Christ says, and how He acts; make His word your rule, and His conduct your example.”
“What does He say?”
“Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you.”
“Then I should love Mrs. Reed [Jane’s abusive aunt and foster parent], which I cannot do; I should bless her [abusive, bullying] son John, which is impossible.”
— from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
______________________________
Jizya or jizyah (Arabic: ????? gizyah IPA: [d?izja]; Ottoman Turkish: cizye) is a religiously required per capita tax on non-Muslims under Islamic law, levied by an Islamic state.[1][2] Jizya tax was not paid by Muslims, who however paid zakat (alms) tax instead.[3]
Jizya is an example of taxes that depended on the religion of the individual. However, historically, the Jizya tax has been rationalized as a fee for protection provided by the Muslim ruler to non-Muslims, for the permission to privately practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state, and as material proof of the non-Muslims' submission to the [supreme] Muslim state and its laws.[3][4]] - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizya
http://www.amazon.co...rds=isabella+vedichi (free until March 11th)-panzer (March 09, 2016, 03:21 AM)
Free e-books:
Declutter Your Mind: Twelve Secret Steps to Clear Mental Clutter for A Lifetime of Peace and Bliss (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ADPADHQ) (free only today)
The Coincidence Makers (http://www.amazon.com/Coincidence-Makers-Yoav-Blum-ebook/dp/B014E5VMVW/) (free today)
Guitar: For Beginners (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XD01LZM) (free until March 12th)-panzer (March 10, 2016, 05:01 AM)
And purely for recreation, Haven Kimmel's A Girl Named Zippy. One of the best coming of age autobiographical essays ever. There isn't a page without at least one funny anecdote of quotable sentence on it.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]-40hz (November 30, 2015, 01:59 PM)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EKNN4LE (free until April 28th)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C2334GO (free until the end of the week)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X2G2JCQ-panzer (April 25, 2016, 08:06 AM)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EKNN4LE (free until April 28th)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C2334GO (free until the end of the week)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X2G2JCQ-panzer (April 25, 2016, 08:06 AM)
It would be really helpful if you'd include the titles of the books at the very least, if not a short description of what they're about so we can tell if we're interested or not. Just because a book is free doesn't mean we're interested.
And clicking links can be "dangerous" due to trackers. I don't want to click a mystery link to a product and then start seeing ads or other "you might be interested in this" links everywhere on the internet related to a product/subject that I have no interest in.-Deozaan (April 25, 2016, 02:58 PM)
Own Your Self: Master Your Character, Rise To Any Challenge, Find True Inner Peace (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EKNN4LE) (free until April 28th)
The Maiden Voyage of the Destiny Unknown (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C2334GO) (free until the end of the week)
Car Buying on a shoestring budget: for college kids and single parents who need reliable transportation (Auto Tips Book 1) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X2G2JCQ)-panzer (April 25, 2016, 08:06 AM)
It would be really helpful if you'd include the titles of the books at the very least, if not a short description of what they're about so we can tell if we're interested or not. Just because a book is free doesn't mean we're interested.
And clicking links can be "dangerous" due to trackers. I don't want to click a mystery link to a product and then start seeing ads or other "you might be interested in this" links everywhere on the internet related to a product/subject that I have no interest in.-Deozaan (April 25, 2016, 02:58 PM)
Very much this. Which in turn leads to me ignoring the post, which might actually be a good recommendation.-wraith808 (April 25, 2016, 05:58 PM)
Fixed it for you... :)-Shades (April 26, 2016, 03:05 PM)
Own Your Self: Master Your Character, Rise To Any Challenge, Find True Inner Peace (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EKNN4LE) (free until April 28th)
The Maiden Voyage of the Destiny Unknown (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C2334GO) (free until the end of the week)
Car Buying on a shoestring budget: for college kids and single parents who need reliable transportation (Auto Tips Book 1) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X2G2JCQ)-panzer (April 25, 2016, 08:06 AM)
It would be really helpful if you'd include the titles of the books at the very least, if not a short description of what they're about so we can tell if we're interested or not. Just because a book is free doesn't mean we're interested.
And clicking links can be "dangerous" due to trackers. I don't want to click a mystery link to a product and then start seeing ads or other "you might be interested in this" links everywhere on the internet related to a product/subject that I have no interest in.-Deozaan (April 25, 2016, 02:58 PM)
Very much this. Which in turn leads to me ignoring the post, which might actually be a good recommendation.-wraith808 (April 25, 2016, 05:58 PM)
Fixed it for you... :)-Shades (April 26, 2016, 03:05 PM)
^ the difference is in panzer's embedded quote-tomos (April 26, 2016, 04:35 PM)
ACHIEVE: Find Out Who You Are, What You Really Want, And How To Make It Happen :
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EK2LPYS (free today)-panzer (April 27, 2016, 09:18 AM)
Electronics-all-in-one for Dummies:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronics-All-One-Dummies-Doug/dp/0470147040
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (http://www.amazon.com/Electronics-All-One-Dummies-Doug/dp/0470147040)
I figured it was time to learn some electronics.. Not a bad book at all.-mouser (April 30, 2016, 10:16 AM)
I didn't know this. I wont post here anymore ...-panzer (May 01, 2016, 06:23 AM)
I didn't know this. I wont post here anymore ...-panzer (May 01, 2016, 06:23 AM)
You can post here... that's not what Tom was saying. Just post things that you're reading and you think worthy after reading to share. We don't want just a list of books- what we'd like is a list of books that have been experienced and are being recommended based on that. :)-wraith808 (May 24, 2016, 05:12 PM)
what we'd like is a list of books that have been experienced and are being recommended based on that. :)-wraith808 (May 24, 2016, 05:12 PM)
Includes Mrs. Miller's strategy for reading War and Peace, "the only book you'll ever need:"SpoilerFive-point plan for anyone thinking of taking this book on:
1. Read fifty pages a day. N.B. the Millers both commute by rail, so have a fair amount of dead time to fill][/i]
2. Utilise the list of principal characters at the front.
3. Pay attention! Soon you'll discover that Tolstoy is doing the heavy lifting for you.
4. Don't fret if you are not enjoying the Peace, there will be a bit of War along shortly.
5. When you get to the end, read it again.
Preferred translations, in order:
(1) Louise and Aylmer Maude
(2) Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
(3) Rosemary Edmonds
Avoid Constance Garnet - "prissy"-rjbull (May 24, 2016, 04:50 PM)
Made a note of that one, MilesAhead :up:-kyrathaba (June 18, 2016, 08:51 AM)
Running man, Wedlock?-panzer (June 18, 2016, 08:09 AM)
What was the point in including the screenshot of the review? The only part of it that was helped by being an image was the image of the video clip, but even that was too blurry to read who the quote was attributed to.
________________________-Deozaan (June 17, 2016, 03:20 PM)
[See attachment in previous post]-IainB (June 18, 2016, 02:52 PM)
There are members of this forum and other fora who have vision problems. Posting a screenshot of text is really unhelpful. Regular text is nice because it is easy to resize, or recolor (for better contrast, etc.), depending on the needs and wants of the person attempting to read it.
I can't be bothered to do the extra work you are requiring of me to read what you said.
_____________________-Deozaan (June 18, 2016, 03:39 PM)
The citizens under his control wear a "torc" which is an explosive necklace [...] I seem to remember some SciFi movie or series that used the idea. But I cannot recall the name.Probably the Saga of the Exiles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_Pliocene_Exile) by Julian May (http://manycolored.wikia.com/wiki/Julian_May).-MilesAhead (June 18, 2016, 07:30 AM)
The citizens under his control wear a "torc" which is an explosive necklace [...] I seem to remember some SciFi movie or series that used the idea. But I cannot recall the name.Probably the Saga of the Exiles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_Pliocene_Exile) by Julian May (http://manycolored.wikia.com/wiki/Julian_May).-MilesAhead (June 18, 2016, 07:30 AM)
There's also a "faceless man" in Ben Aaronovich (http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.co.uk/)'s "Peter Grant" series, but he's attempting to become an evil overlord.-rjbull (June 29, 2016, 09:11 AM)
It is a cold, dark, windy night in Oslo, and Igi Heitmann pores over
the debris in her dead fathers office, trying to piece together the
last days of his life as a failed private eye. She discovers a curious
butterfly medallion in his desk - which in turn leads to the discovery
of a young woman, Siv Underland, in a snow-drift, two bullets in her
head and a gun in her hand. Igi learns that her father and the young
woman died within hours of each other. Who killed Siv Underland, and
did the same person kill Andreas Heitmann? Igi is an under-employed
research psychologist, with more than enough problems of her own: her
husband is a transvestite who often wakes up next to very attractive
men instead of next to her. But she soon finds herself in the role of
detective, on a trail that leads not only to the final days of her
father and Siv Underland, but to the city's underworld of corruption,
sadism and child abuse. Igi is caught amongst the shards of a dozen
shattered lives. She must tread carefully if she is to reconstruct the
violent and tragic truth of those lives, and not be killed herself in
the process.
Igi Heitmann is being stalked In the suburb of Oslo where she lives
with her cross-dressing husband and their daughter, someone is spray-
painting the walls of the houses. HEITMANN = CHILD KILLER, the
graffiti says. Who would think this, and how do they know where she
lives? On a bitter winter's evening, Igi attends the opening of the
exhibition of an avant-garde artist whose use of violent sexual
imagery has caused great controversy. Moving between the world of
pornographic art and the happy life she shares with her husband and
daughter, Igi must follow a dangerous and shocking path to the truth.
Looks interesting. Which one of these is the first saga?Who are you addressing?-phitsc (July 15, 2016, 08:21 AM)
This is an interesting take on the concept of hell and tells one man's journey through this temporary plane of existence.If you like weird stuff, you might like Flann O'Brien (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/o/flann-obrien/)'s The Third Policeman.-Josh (July 16, 2016, 03:04 PM)
It was related to a book series for which I can't see the post anymore. Either I was addressing a post which has been removed, or I had a digital hallucination.Looks interesting. Which one of these is the first saga?Who are you addressing?-phitsc (July 15, 2016, 08:21 AM)
If it's me for the two books by Pernille Rygg (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/pernille-rygg/), then original publication dates (don't know whether these are original Norwegian, or more likely English translation) are:
The Butterfly Effect (1997)
The Golden Section (2003)-rjbull (July 15, 2016, 05:09 PM)
It was related to a book series for which I can't see the post anymore. Either I was addressing a post which has been removed, or I had a digital hallucination.Looks interesting. Which one of these is the first saga?Who are you addressing?-phitsc (July 15, 2016, 08:21 AM)
If it's me for the two books by Pernille Rygg (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/pernille-rygg/), then original publication dates (don't know whether these are original Norwegian, or more likely English translation) are:
The Butterfly Effect (1997)
The Golden Section (2003)-rjbull (July 15, 2016, 05:09 PM)-phitsc (July 18, 2016, 07:36 AM)
As a long time C++ coder, I'm still skeptical of the benefits to releasing new versions of C++, but it's a good book, and one of those books where you learn interesting things about language design. Note: Not suitable for learning C++ only for those with lots of C++ coding experience.There's been a lot of important development in C++, especially C++11 - threading and memory model, auto, lambdas.-mouser (July 22, 2016, 07:37 PM)
I kinda wish for
What we need is a new language, inspired by C++ and taking the lessons learned from these new C++ versions, but free from the historical burdens.-mouser (July 25, 2016, 02:59 PM)
Well, the D programming language (https://dlang.org/) was done in this spirit. There is a good book or two on it. I never thought it would survive but it has. Still didn't feel "perfect" to me.-mouser (July 25, 2016, 03:49 PM)
What we need is a new language, inspired by C++ and taking the lessons learned from these new C++ versions, but free from the historical burdens.-mouser (July 25, 2016, 02:59 PM)
Well, the D programming language was done in this spirit. There is a good book or two on it. I never thought it would survive but it has. Still didn't feel "perfect" to me.Last time I tried D was several years ago. The languaged felt kinda nice, but iirc it fell into the "meh, garbage collection and no deterministic destructors" language bin, and felt like it wouldn't be suitable for the kind of systems-level programming you can use C++ for. Also, tooling was bad. My impression was "decent enough language, but I might as well use C#".-mouser (July 25, 2016, 03:49 PM)
Isn't this what Go was designed for?Go was designed by people who haven't heard about languages newer than C.-Deozaan (July 25, 2016, 05:09 PM)
'[Vyleta is] the heir to the throne left empty since
the death of Graham Greene. Yes, he's that damn good'
SAN FRANCISCO BOOK REVIEW
Vienna, 1939. Professor Speckstein's dog has been brutally killed and
he wants to know why. But these are uncharitable times and one must
be careful where one probes... When an unexpected house call leads
Doctor Beer to Speckstein's apartment, he finds himself in the bedroom
of Zuzka, the professor's niece. Wide-eyed, flirtatious and not detectably
ill, Zuzka leads the young doctor to her window and reveals a disturbing
view of the neighbours across the courtyard. Does one of them have
blood on their hands? Beer reluctantly becomes embroiled in an
enquiry that forces him to face the dark realities of Nazi rule.
'Nimble, nuanced, fierce, scrupulous' TLS
'A compelling rumination on watching and watchfulness,
served up with Nabokovian glee' GUARDIAN
'Truly a work of art ... one of the best — and most quietly
disturbing — books of the year' NATIONAL POST
'A sharp and confident novel that captures the social
paranoia and mistrust fomented by Nazism ... Vyleta's
subtly engaging thriller is tense with violent acts'
INDEPENDENT
I have already said that while our village contained much of what humanity has to show, it did not contain everything, and one of the things it conspicuously lacked was an aesthetic sense; we were all too much descendants of hard-bitten pioneers to wish for or encourage any such thing, and we gave hard names to qualities that, in a more sophisticated society, might have had value.
Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous. Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.
i think that was made into a movie ive seen.-mouser (August 06, 2016, 07:40 AM)
[The Quiet Twin - Dan Vyleta]-rjbull (August 04, 2016, 05:25 PM)
The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it.
It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.
We do not fear the flame, though it burns us,
We do not fear the fire, though it consumes us,
And we do not fear its light,
Though it reveals the darkness of our souls,
For therein lies our power.
-- Blood Oath of the Iron Elves
First in a stunning debut series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon...bow and arrow...magic, diplomacy, and oaths -- each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.
Wow, that's even good depiction of Zagreb main square, with the statue of governor Josip Jelačić in the background. I'll have to pick it up just to see what is it about.There isn't much about Zagreb as such, but a fair section about the age-old and horrible enmity between Serb and Croat. Bernie is a non-Nazi German detective; the novels span the early 1930s through to the Cold War, with all that implies. As a character, he is very much in the 'noir' tradition of e.g. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.-Attronarch (August 12, 2016, 05:29 AM)
I haven't seen any reviews of it - I picked it up when I saw it in the library, because I'd read his first novel, Pavel and I (for which I had seen positive reviews), and thought well of it.[The Quiet Twin - Dan Vyleta]did you find that one as good as the reviews suggested?-rjbull (August 04, 2016, 05:25 PM)-tomos (August 12, 2016, 06:24 AM)
It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2457253.A_Darkness_Forged_in_Fire), that almost lost me in the beginning. But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.A dangerous strategy for an author. I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/steven-erikson/)'s Malazan Empire (http://www.malazanempire.com/site/index.php) series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever. I put the book down. I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.-wraith808 (August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM)
It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2457253.A_Darkness_Forged_in_Fire), that almost lost me in the beginning. But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.A dangerous strategy for an author. I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/steven-erikson/)'s Malazan Empire (http://www.malazanempire.com/site/index.php) series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever. I put the book down. I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.-wraith808 (August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM)-rjbull (August 14, 2016, 03:58 PM)
[...] I think he fell victim to two things.That sounds like he needed a good editor to suggest improvements. Perhaps publishers and agents don't bother any more.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy. That first part was pure fantasy.-wraith808 (August 14, 2016, 04:27 PM)
[...] I think he fell victim to two things.That sounds like he needed a good editor to suggest improvements. Perhaps publishers and agents don't bother any more.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy. That first part was pure fantasy.-wraith808 (August 14, 2016, 04:27 PM)
You said you read a lot. How do you pick what books to read next, given the vast number available and limited time to read? Do you frequent favourite review sites, and if so, which?-rjbull (August 15, 2016, 03:38 PM)
(I loved The Crow Road on BBC from about 2000, which Banks said was in some ways better than his novel! The device of Rory speaking to Prentiss was a clever invention of the script.)-derekbd (August 20, 2016, 07:21 AM)
When I need a new book, my nook suggests books in the genre that I read.Thanks... I'm still stuck in the print age, on the whole. I used to get suggestions for general books from various print sources, e.g. the book reviews pages of a decent newspaper, but as I don't take a paper now, that's gone. A pity, as I miss recommendations for travel books in particular. I scan such sources as come my way, of course.-wraith808 (August 15, 2016, 03:55 PM)
Finally! A book about economics that won’t put you to sleep. In fact, you won’t be able to put this bestseller down. In our challenging economic climate, this perennial favorite of students and general readers is more than a good read, it’s a necessary investment—with a blessedly sure rate of return. Demystifying buzzwords, laying bare the truths behind oft-quoted numbers, and answering the questions you were always too embarrassed to ask, the breezy Naked Economics gives readers the tools they need to engage with pleasure and confidence in the deeply relevant, not so dismal science.-http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7937510-naked-economics
Public service is a way of life for Americans; giving is a part of our national character. But compassionate instincts and generous spirits aren’t enough, says veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton. In this groundbreaking guide, he reveals the disturbing truth about charity: all too much of it has become toxic, devastating to the very people it’s meant to help.
(http://i66.tinypic.com/35jb291.jpg)[...]A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay has been mentioned on DC before, originally by joiwind; my reply is here - Re: Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading List (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=26567.msg247457#msg247457)
Started reading them, but they weren't attractive enough (at least not for me) so I abandoned them.-panzer (September 14, 2016, 06:07 AM)
A Voyage to Arcturus-rjbull (September 19, 2016, 05:47 PM)
I bought it used for $0.01-app103 (October 12, 2016, 06:18 PM)
String theory physics book written for the layman but unfortunately largely incomprehensible to me.. Feels like I'm mostly reading about analogies that don't quite clarify things.-mouser (October 13, 2016, 07:41 AM)
(http://i68.tinypic.com/152kot0.jpg)-panzer (September 27, 2016, 06:10 AM)
[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/152kot0.jpg[/img]-panzer (September 27, 2016, 06:10 AM)
all your images have disappeared here :-(
Here with BBCode disabled:-tomos (November 04, 2016, 06:10 AM)
(http://i68.tinypic.com/152kot0.jpg)-panzer (September 27, 2016, 06:10 AM)
all your images have disappeared here :-(
Here with BBCode disabled:[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/152kot0.jpg[/img]-panzer (September 27, 2016, 06:10 AM)-tomos (November 04, 2016, 06:10 AM)
That is why it is generally preferable to upload images directly to the DC forum itself rather than use an external image hosting service: So that images attached to posts will stick around as long as the forums do, rather than for as long as the external site keeps them around.
We've lost some good stuff due to 3rd party image hosting. :(-Deozaan (November 07, 2016, 09:10 PM)
littoral /"lIt(@)r(@)l/I learned that what was special about this word was that, for a biologist, it described a narrow environmental band along all seashores around the planet - an environment that provided a unique ecosystem that supported a diverse collection of flora and fauna specialised to survive in that environment and not generally found elsewhere - i.e., usually only in that band between low and high tidal marks.
· adj. of, relating to, or on the shore of the sea or a lake.
· n. a littoral region.
– ORIGIN C17: from L. littoralis, from litus, litor- ‘shore’.
Concise Oxford Dictionary (10th Ed.)
__________________________
"... Speaking of the happy new year, I wonder if any year ever had less chance of being happy. It’s as though the whole race were indulging in a kind of species introversion — as though we looked inward on our neuroses. And the thing we see isn’t very pretty… So we go into this happy new year, knowing that our species has learned nothing, can, as a race, learn nothing — that the experience of ten thousand years has made no impression on the instincts of the million years that preceded. ..."- but he went on in very thoughtful and philosophically optimistic vein for the future of the good in mankind.
This is an interesting take on the concept of hell and tells one man's journey through this temporary plane of existence.If you like weird stuff, you might like Flann O'Brien (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/o/flann-obrien/)'s The Third Policeman.-Josh (July 16, 2016, 03:04 PM)-rjbull (July 16, 2016, 04:22 PM)
(http://i65.tinypic.com/jubwnc.jpg) (http://i65.tinypic.com/fvyefo.jpg) (http://i63.tinypic.com/2cfefxk.jpg)(http://i68.tinypic.com/160ye1c.jpg)-panzer (July 23, 2016, 05:11 AM)
I didn't like it. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found it boring and slow paced ... But that just me; you should give it a chance ...Yes, always a good idea to give a book "a chance". Maybe get a pleasant surprise. One never knows what one risks learning from a book until one reads it. :D-panzer (January 03, 2017, 04:20 AM)
I didn't like it. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found it boring and slow paced ... But that just me; you should give it a chance ...Mind you, I'd usually have a preference for non-fiction if I expected to learn something, though sometimes fictional stories can be quite thought-provoking, if not educational - especially SF.-panzer (January 03, 2017, 04:20 AM)-IainB (January 03, 2017, 04:58 AM)
Questioning Islam (https://www.amazon.com/Questioning-Islam-Questions-Answers-Religion/dp/1500336203)
Great book.
It's objective and calm. There's no hyperbole or anything. Everything is directly from primary sources and Islamic scholars.
Highly recommended for anyone looking to learn a bit more about Islam.
It doesn't get into political Islam or Sharia much though. That's not the scope of the book. It's simply about the actual scriptures, history, etc.
Fun bits include Islamic prescriptions for drinking camel urine, as well as others.
_____________________________________-Renegade (February 06, 2017, 09:20 PM)
Various forms of the 2 editions (3 volumes in all) can be downloaded from Gutenberg Press and Wayback Machine.-IainB (February 07, 2017, 08:49 PM)
Questioning the Quran (https://www.amazon.com/Questioning-Islam-Questions-Answers-Religion/dp/1500336203)-Renegade (February 06, 2017, 09:20 PM)
One of the best ways of learning about Islam would probably be to study the Quran itself - an English or other language translation of it.-IainB (February 07, 2017, 08:21 PM)
Why did you change the title of the book when you quoted Renegade?Oops! Thanks for spotting that. I hadn't realised in my haste that I had cut-and-pasted the wrong title (fortunately the link was still correct though). Corrected now.-Deozaan (February 08, 2017, 02:56 AM)
Various forms of the 2 editions (3 volumes in all) can be downloaded from Gutenberg Press and Wayback Machine.I have searched https://www.gutenberg.org/ but can't find the book. Do you have link to the book? Thank you very much.-IainB (February 07, 2017, 08:49 PM)
___________________________-erikts (February 07, 2017, 11:05 PM)
Investing takes a lot of effort though. Read, read, watch, watch, think, think, buy... hold... SELL! Timing is everything.
Below that in the Wikipedia page are links to the Internet Archive/Wayback machine and Project Gutenberg where you will find various formats of file for the abridged 2nd edition (1902).
You will also be able to find there some .mobi and .mbp files, and others - e.g., HTML conversion of 2nd Ed. (1902) version: http://gutenberg.readingroo.ms/4/9/4/4943/4943-h/4943-h.htm-IainB (February 08, 2017, 09:38 AM)
Below that in the Wikipedia page are links to the Internet Archive/Wayback machine and Project Gutenberg where you will find various formats of file for the abridged 2nd edition (1902).
You will also be able to find there some .mobi and .mbp files, and others - e.g., HTML conversion of 2nd Ed. (1902) version: http://gutenberg.readingroo.ms/4/9/4/4943/4943-h/4943-h.htm-IainB (February 08, 2017, 09:38 AM)
Thank you very much Iain for the information and write up.
After reading your post, I found the book page on Project Gutenberg:
The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan by Winston Churchill
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4943-erikts (February 08, 2017, 08:04 PM)
Aliette de Bodard's trilogyAliette de Bodard is one of the panellists in the 2017-03-13 edition of:-iphigenie (September 10, 2012, 02:16 AM)
BBC Radio 4 - Beyond Belief, Science Fiction (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hm0x9)Podcast available from the web site above.
Science fiction has perhaps been unfairly dismissed by many critics and academics; seen by some as a niche genre, not befitting the elite group of literary works deemed to be 'high art'. While some examples ofscience fiction could be criticised for perpetuating fantasy clichés, others undoubtedly explore the biggest questions of life. Fans argue that the Sci-Fi universe allows the audience to suspend their disbelief about what is conventional, and opens up a space to explore philosophical, ethical and religious ideas in a relatable, absorbing and entertaining way. So how has religion been explored in the most influential works of science fiction? And what does science fiction have to tell us about faith and religion?
Robert Beckford discusses the role of religion in science fiction with Aliette de Bodard, a writer with an interest in the interplay between science fiction and religion; Roz Kaveney, a writer, poet and critic; and Dr Sarah Dillon, author and Cambridge academic who explores science fiction in literature and film.
"...all matter exists in a vast web of connection"-cranioscopical (April 10, 2017, 08:44 PM)
found this site this morning, and if any of you are anything like me (who hates picking up a book only to find you're half way through (or worse, at the end!!) a series it's likely useful
http://www.orderofbooks.com/ - purports to list book series in order. Its clearly not comprehensive, but its certainly worth keeping up your sleeve :)-Target (April 17, 2017, 06:05 PM)
My father's favorite expression was "It's not what you know. It's who you know." :)
Unfortunately he never introduced me to anyone useful. :(-MilesAhead (April 11, 2017, 07:06 AM)
My father's favorite expression was "It's not what you know. It's who you know." :)
Unfortunately he never introduced me to anyone useful. :(-MilesAhead (April 11, 2017, 07:06 AM)
Well, what do you know!-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 02:33 PM)
The comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)
Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)
The comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)
Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o-Target (April 20, 2017, 06:42 PM)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o-Target (April 20, 2017, 06:42 PM)
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.-cranioscopical (April 20, 2017, 07:03 PM)
It's a struggle to keep in step but I discovered that there's no pace like ohm.I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o-Target (April 20, 2017, 06:42 PM)
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.-cranioscopical (April 20, 2017, 07:03 PM)
I can always rely on you to keep current on these threads.-MilesAhead (April 21, 2017, 09:03 AM)
It's a struggle to keep in step but I discovered that there's no pace like ohm.I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o-Target (April 20, 2017, 06:42 PM)
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.-cranioscopical (April 20, 2017, 07:03 PM)
I can always rely on you to keep current on these threads.-MilesAhead (April 21, 2017, 09:03 AM)-cranioscopical (April 21, 2017, 04:28 PM)
Say watt?It's a struggle to keep in step but I discovered that there's no pace like ohm.I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o-Target (April 20, 2017, 06:42 PM)
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.-cranioscopical (April 20, 2017, 07:03 PM)
I can always rely on you to keep current on these threads.-MilesAhead (April 21, 2017, 09:03 AM)-cranioscopical (April 21, 2017, 04:28 PM)
I erg you to resist making these puns. But obviously I ignore my own advice.-MilesAhead (April 21, 2017, 08:43 PM)
Say watt?It's a struggle to keep in step but I discovered that there's no pace like ohm.I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.Wire you saying that Shades? :)Are we really going down the wire with this? :PThe comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.-MilesAhead (April 18, 2017, 03:37 PM)-cranioscopical (April 18, 2017, 09:32 PM)-Shades (April 19, 2017, 01:26 AM)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 07:04 AM)-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 01:30 PM)
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 01:37 PM)
knot funny...-Target (April 19, 2017, 05:55 PM)
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)-MilesAhead (April 19, 2017, 06:28 PM)
clearly we need better shielding :-\-Target (April 19, 2017, 07:42 PM)
Down to earth, as ever.
-cranioscopical (April 19, 2017, 09:58 PM)
just lightning the tone-Target (April 19, 2017, 10:12 PM)
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")-MilesAhead (April 20, 2017, 07:03 AM)
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o-Target (April 20, 2017, 06:42 PM)
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.-cranioscopical (April 20, 2017, 07:03 PM)
I can always rely on you to keep current on these threads.-MilesAhead (April 21, 2017, 09:03 AM)-cranioscopical (April 21, 2017, 04:28 PM)
I erg you to resist making these puns. But obviously I ignore my own advice.-MilesAhead (April 21, 2017, 08:43 PM)
-cranioscopical (April 21, 2017, 09:56 PM)
The comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."
Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.
Are we really going down the wire with this? :P
Wire you saying that Shades? :)
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.
knot funny...
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)
clearly we need better shielding :-\
Down to earth, as ever.
just lightning the tone
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
(http://images.zaazu.com/img/Like-Like-approved-agree-smiley-emoticon-001275-medium.gif) (http://"http://zaazu.com")
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.
I can always rely on you to keep current on these threads.
It's a struggle to keep in step but I discovered that there's no pace like ohm.
I erg you to resist making these puns. But obviously I ignore my own advice.
Say watt?
(Somebody had to shorten it... or buy me a better magnifying glass.)As William Bendix said in every episode of The Life of Reilly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045406/)Guilty as charged.
"what a revolting development this is!"-MilesAhead (April 24, 2017, 07:27 AM)-MilesAhead (April 24, 2017, 07:27 AM)
The law says that one cannot be charged if one does not possess the necessary capacity.-IainB (April 24, 2017, 10:18 PM)
Perhaps, in the case of a bipolar junction trans-sister.The law says that one cannot be charged if one does not possess the necessary capacity.-IainB (April 24, 2017, 10:18 PM)
Hmm, I wonder if a "trans-sister" is someone who starts out like Bruce Jenner but ends up like Caitlyn?-MilesAhead (April 25, 2017, 10:28 AM)
Perhaps, in the case of a bipolar junction trans-sister.The law says that one cannot be charged if one does not possess the necessary capacity.-IainB (April 24, 2017, 10:18 PM)
Hmm, I wonder if a "trans-sister" is someone who starts out like Bruce Jenner but ends up like Caitlyn?-MilesAhead (April 25, 2017, 10:28 AM)-cranioscopical (April 25, 2017, 05:56 PM)
Not to be a spoilsport, but this has gone on for several pages, and this is a thread I keep track of to see new books. Should I just stop keeping track of it? Or can we perhaps take the puns to a different thread?:-[-wraith808 (April 26, 2017, 08:24 AM)
The comment started out as a play on "vast web of connections."
/quote
Yeah, I got that. Now that you say so, I think I spied a pun in there somewhere.
/quote
Are we really going down the wire with this? :P
/quote
Wire you saying that Shades? :)
/quote
I'm surprised you couldn't gauge his intent.
/quote
Ah well, mystery is the splice of life.
/quote
knot funny...
/quote
What can I say? Cranioscopical and I are a twisted pair. :)
/quote
clearly we need better shielding :-\
/quote
Down to earth, as ever.
/quote
just lightning the tone
/quote
Just the spark needed to start off the day!
/quote
just so long as you guys don't start flashing us :o
/quote
No, no, no! One always must protect the crown joules.
/quote
I can always rely on you to keep current on these threads.
/quote
It's a struggle to keep in step but I discovered that there's no pace like ohm.
/quote
I erg you to resist making these puns. But obviously I ignore my own advice.
/quote
Say watt?
/quote
As William Bendix said in every episode of The Life of Reilly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045406/)
"what a revolting development this is!"-MilesAhead (April 24, 2017, 07:27 AM)
Taking a break from some of the books I'm plodding through on my Kindle (Columbine by Dave Cullen, Steve Jobs by
Walter Isaacson), A book I'm currently reading is:
Persuader by Lee Child (A Jack Reacher novel)
I haven't seen any of the Tom Cruise movies, but the description of Jack Reacher has him at six foot five or so - and I keep on thinking how muchbiggertaller and tougher the guy in the novel is in comparison to the actor.-exjoburger (June 06, 2017, 01:05 PM)
Taking a break from some of the books I'm plodding through on my Kindle (Columbine by Dave Cullen, Steve Jobs by
Walter Isaacson), A book I'm currently reading is:
Persuader by Lee Child (A Jack Reacher novel)
I haven't seen any of the Tom Cruise movies, but the description of Jack Reacher has him at six foot five or so - and I keep on thinking how muchbiggertaller and tougher the guy in the novel is in comparison to the actor.-exjoburger (June 06, 2017, 01:05 PM)
Taking a break from some of the books I'm plodding through on my Kindle (Columbine by Dave Cullen, Steve Jobs by
Walter Isaacson), A book I'm currently reading is:
Persuader by Lee Child (A Jack Reacher novel)
I haven't seen any of the Tom Cruise movies, but the description of Jack Reacher has him at six foot five or so - and I keep on thinking how muchbiggertaller and tougher the guy in the novel is in comparison to the actor.-exjoburger (June 06, 2017, 01:05 PM)
I don't view the actors in the movies as anything according to the descriptions in the novels. Lestat is also not described in a way that would make one think "Tom Cruise", but he was excellent in the role. I find that those who look at the novels in the same manner as the movie/TV series end up being disappointed by what is truthfully in my opinion the most superficial thing about the descriptions.-wraith808 (June 06, 2017, 01:27 PM)
Taking a break from some of the books I'm plodding through on my Kindle (Columbine by Dave Cullen, Steve Jobs by
Walter Isaacson), A book I'm currently reading is:
Persuader by Lee Child (A Jack Reacher novel)
I haven't seen any of the Tom Cruise movies, but the description of Jack Reacher has him at six foot five or so - and I keep on thinking how muchbiggertaller and tougher the guy in the novel is in comparison to the actor.-exjoburger (June 06, 2017, 01:05 PM)
I feel the same way about Daniel Craig in the Bond films. At least Sean Connery was a physical match for the character. Roger Moore was probably too much of a sophisticate. But even so he had some size to him. You could believe he would win a lot of the fights. Craig needs to carry a machine pistol to a fist fight to stand a chance. :)-MilesAhead (June 06, 2017, 01:29 PM)
I'm not sure what @panzer means by "dumped"-IainB (June 06, 2017, 08:11 AM)
I'm not sure what @panzer means by "dumped"-IainB (June 06, 2017, 08:11 AM)
Dumped - not finished.-panzer (June 06, 2017, 02:44 PM)
I'm not sure what @panzer means by "dumped"-IainB (June 06, 2017, 08:11 AM)
Dumped - not finished.-panzer (June 06, 2017, 02:44 PM)
I have a hard time doing that with a book. Currently, I'm reading the Magicians by Lev Grossman, and the TV show is actually better IMO... the book is rather a slog. But I'm still trying.-wraith808 (June 06, 2017, 02:53 PM)
MilesAhead - I actually never realized Daniel Craig was not "tall/tough". I actually enjoyed his portrayal as Bond, I thought he was one of the better Bonds, excluding Sean Connery of course.-exjoburger (June 06, 2017, 01:51 PM)
I'm not sure what @panzer means by "dumped"-IainB (June 06, 2017, 08:11 AM)
Dumped - not finished.-panzer (June 06, 2017, 02:44 PM)
I have a hard time doing that with a book. Currently, I'm reading the Magicians by Lev Grossman, and the TV show is actually better IMO... the book is rather a slog. But I'm still trying.-wraith808 (June 06, 2017, 02:53 PM)
I have 900+ books on the list so if I don't like a partiicular book, I just stop reading it and start reading another one. I mean, why bother?-panzer (June 07, 2017, 04:03 AM)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2vc8hlx.jpg)-panzer (June 28, 2017, 11:00 AM)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2vc8hlx.jpg)-panzer (June 28, 2017, 11:00 AM)
The Long Walk is one of my favorite Steven King books. I had it in an anthology called The Bachman Books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachman_Books) (a lot of his stories written under the Richard Bachman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bachman) pseudonym), and to tell you what it's about would be to ruin the pathos of dawning horror. But it is very good and recommended. Also in that anthology are Roadwork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadwork)(arguably- at least by me- Falling Down is based on that) and the Running Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(novel)) (nothing like the tepid Schwartzenegger flick)-wraith808 (June 28, 2017, 12:30 PM)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2vc8hlx.jpg)-panzer (June 28, 2017, 11:00 AM)
The Long Walk is one of my favorite Steven King books. I had it in an anthology called The Bachman Books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachman_Books) (a lot of his stories written under the Richard Bachman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bachman) pseudonym), and to tell you what it's about would be to ruin the pathos of dawning horror. But it is very good and recommended. Also in that anthology are Roadwork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadwork)(arguably- at least by me- Falling Down is based on that) and the Running Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(novel)) (nothing like the tepid Schwartzenegger flick)-wraith808 (June 28, 2017, 12:30 PM)
Only problem with it is that King had no clue how fast a human can walk. Hundred of miles with speed over 4 miles per hour (6-9) is just not realistic. Not for a bunch of teenagers ... I can do almost 7 km in one hour (average speed of 7,5 km/h on a distance of 500 meters and 8,4 km/h on same distance on uphill road with small elevation) but after several hours I would surely drop below minimum speed ... And they walked that fast while eating, smoking and speaking with each other ... I feel he should do some more research on the matter ... Otherwise it is a good book, a little bit too long, but good ...-panzer (June 29, 2017, 02:19 AM)
Amazon review:Also came across a video of Varoufakis being interviewed about the book by a Swedish TV interviewer.
https://www.amazon.com/Adults-in-the-Room/dp/1847924468
A Number One Sunday Times Bestseller.
What happens when you take on the establishment? In Adults in the Room, the renowned economist and former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis gives the full, blistering account of his momentous clash with the mightiest economic and political forces on earth.
After being swept into power with the left-wing Syriza party, Varoufakis attempts to renegotiate Greece’s relationship with the EU?and sparks a spectacular battle with global implications. Varoufakis’s new position sends him ricocheting between mass demonstrations in Athens, closed-door negotiations in drab EU and IMF offices, and furtive meetings with power brokers in Washington, D.C. He consults and quarrels with Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Lagarde, the economists Larry Summers and Jeffrey Sachs, and others, as he struggles to resolve Greece’s debt crisis without resorting to punishing austerity measures. But despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of Varoufakis’s arguments, he succeeds only in provoking the fury of Europe’s elite.
Varoufakis’s unvarnished memoir is an urgent warning that the economic policies once embraced by the EU and the White House have failed?and spawned authoritarianism, populist revolt, and instability throughout the Western world. Adults in the Room is an extraordinary tale of brinkmanship, hypocrisy, collusion, and betrayal that will shake the global establishment to its foundations.
3 Readers' reviews:
- 5.0 out of 5 stars - The Emperor's New Clothes
By ZLF on May 9, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
"Adults in the Room" is actually a much better title than the one I use for this review, for its acerbic irony if for no other reason. But the book does show, with great clarity, that the Emperor has indeed no clothes on.
This is a book every European, or any person who cares about Europe, should read. It is part memoir, part expose, part impassioned plea for a democratic, humane, rational European Union.
Iirrationality breeds irrationality. The "I know I'm wrong but don't you dare say so" attitude, so forcefully portrayed and so minutely detailed in this book, is one of the reasons why larger and larger numbers of Europeans vote against what they regard as a lying, rotten, despotic establishment.
One other reviewer notes that Mr. Varoufakis doesn't see Mr. Schäuble as a monster, but rather as a tragic character. Be that as it may, the hubris displayed by Mr. Schäuble, Mr. Dijsselbloem and others was nothing short of monstrous.- 5.0 out of 5 stars - Brilliant
ByAmazon Customer on May 30, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
At last a truth teller.Yanis Varoufakis is a breath of fresh air revealing what goes on behind the wizards ragged curtain.- 5.0 out of 5 stars - Read this book - it is the real deal
By Amazon Customer on June 16, 2017
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
Pulls back the political curtain & tells some unconventional truths that need to be read. Also, Stateside or in Europa, an excellent primer to the pushback that voted Brexit & Trump
Also came across a video of Varoufakis being interviewed about the book by a Swedish TV interviewer.thanks for this :up:-IainB (July 01, 2017, 05:56 AM)
No proponent of ... quantitative easingthis thread is no place for debate, (and all I know about this guy is this interview), but he appears to agree with it @ 3:23 of that video:-IainB (July 01, 2017, 05:56 AM)
It seemed to me he spoke of it derisively.-Deozaan (July 02, 2017, 04:01 PM)
It seemed to me he spoke of it derisively.-Deozaan (July 02, 2017, 04:01 PM)
He calls it 'pragmatic', and bemoans the ECB's workaround for not being able to do the same.-tomos (July 02, 2017, 04:10 PM)
@tomos: I listened to it all again, wondering whether I had missed something YV (Yanis Varoufakis) said about QE (Quantitative Easing). I think you are probably correct where you say "I suppose I may have projected my own opinion of the situation into my interpretation of his meaning."-IainB (July 02, 2017, 09:34 PM)
@IainB -- we are largely in agreement,
you appear to have misunderstood my point though - I do not "want him to be perceived as speaking as a proponent of QE". FWIW I have no vested interests in seeing him in any particular way -- I have no reason to project here.
I was simply pointing out his seeing it as pragmatic when things get that bad. That was it.-tomos (July 04, 2017, 03:45 AM)
Look up a few Tomos. He just misquoted- it was Deo.-wraith808 (July 04, 2017, 09:44 AM)
I think you may be unconsciously doing what @Deozaan says of himself, "I suppose I may have projected my own opinion of the situation into my interpretation of his meaning."-IainB (July 02, 2017, 09:34 PM)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2vc8hlx.jpg)-panzer (June 28, 2017, 11:00 AM)
The Long Walk is one of my favorite Steven King books. I had it in an anthology called The Bachman Books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachman_Books) (a lot of his stories written under the Richard Bachman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bachman) pseudonym), and to tell you what it's about would be to ruin the pathos of dawning horror. But it is very good and recommended. Also in that anthology are Roadwork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadwork)(arguably- at least by me- Falling Down is based on that) and the Running Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(novel)) (nothing like the tepid Schwartzenegger flick)-wraith808 (June 28, 2017, 12:30 PM)
Only problem with it is that King had no clue how fast a human can walk. Hundred of miles with speed over 4 miles per hour (6-9) is just not realistic. Not for a bunch of teenagers ... I can do almost 7 km in one hour (average speed of 7,5 km/h on a distance of 500 meters and 8,4 km/h on same distance on uphill road with small elevation) but after several hours I would surely drop below minimum speed ... And they walked that fast while eating, smoking and speaking with each other ... I feel he should do some more research on the matter ... Otherwise it is a good book, a little bit too long, but good ...-panzer (June 29, 2017, 02:19 AM)
I didn't find it unrealistic. Especially with the other factors considered that I don't really want to go into for concern at spoiling the novel. But we can agree to disagree on that.-wraith808 (June 29, 2017, 09:54 AM)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2vc8hlx.jpg)-panzer (June 28, 2017, 11:00 AM)
The Long Walk is one of my favorite Steven King books. I had it in an anthology called The Bachman Books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachman_Books) (a lot of his stories written under the Richard Bachman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bachman) pseudonym), and to tell you what it's about would be to ruin the pathos of dawning horror. But it is very good and recommended. Also in that anthology are Roadwork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadwork)(arguably- at least by me- Falling Down is based on that) and the Running Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(novel)) (nothing like the tepid Schwartzenegger flick)-wraith808 (June 28, 2017, 12:30 PM)
Only problem with it is that King had no clue how fast a human can walk. Hundred of miles with speed over 4 miles per hour (6-9) is just not realistic. Not for a bunch of teenagers ... I can do almost 7 km in one hour (average speed of 7,5 km/h on a distance of 500 meters and 8,4 km/h on same distance on uphill road with small elevation) but after several hours I would surely drop below minimum speed ... And they walked that fast while eating, smoking and speaking with each other ... I feel he should do some more research on the matter ... Otherwise it is a good book, a little bit too long, but good ...-panzer (June 29, 2017, 02:19 AM)
I didn't find it unrealistic. Especially with the other factors considered that I don't really want to go into for concern at spoiling the novel. But we can agree to disagree on that.-wraith808 (June 29, 2017, 09:54 AM)
This would only be possible only if King meant professional walking like you see on competitions like WC or Olympics (funny leg, arm and hip movement) and not the ordinary one. In ordinary walking, at six miles/hour you are not walking anymore - you are running. But even if we assume that, walking at the speed of 10 miles/hour means that some of those teenagers (amateurs) for some time walked faster than the average speed of the current world record on 50 kilometers.
<snip discussion>-panzer (July 05, 2017, 02:56 AM)
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]-Perry Mowbray (November 09, 2009, 07:48 AM)
In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.
Synopsis Review notes:
After years of working as a respected journalist, Nick Davies broke the unwritten rule of the media by investigating the practices of his fellow colleagues. In this eye-opening exposé, Davies uncovers an industry awash in corruption and bias. His findings include the story of a prestigious Sunday newspaper that allowed the CIA to plant fiction in its columns; the newsroom that routinely rejects stories about black people; the respected paper that hired a professional fraudster to set up a front company to entrap senior political figures; as well as a number of newspapers that pay cash bribes to bent detectives. His research also exposes a range of national stories that were in fact pseudo events manufactured by the public relations industry and global news stories that were fiction generated by a machinery of international propaganda. The degree to which the media industry has affected government policy and perverted popular belief is also addressed. Gripping and thought-provoking, this is an insider’s look at one of the world’s most tainted professions.
________________________
Copied from: Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media: Nick Davies: 9780099512684: Amazon.com: Books - <https://www.amazon.com/Flat-Earth-News-Award-Winning-Distortion/dp/0099512688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513916742&sr=8-1&keywords=Book+Flat+Earth+News>
Great investigation into how news is made
Reader: Grue (https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AEEP25RY63HQWCO52EXJ5C3PIUIQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_gw_tr?ie=UTF8)
December 2, 2012
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
If you're like me, you know that the news is "biased", but you haven't really thought much about specially which forces shape the news and how. After reading this book you will have a much better idea of how news organizations function and what they do and don't do. The main parts of the book are:
1. Economics of newspapers - why pressure to publish is often not conducive to truth
2. News ecosystem - describing the roles of journalists, newspapers, and suppliers such as the Associated Press
3. Outsiders - how companies, lobbyists, and politicians can manipulate the media by exploiting (1) and (2)
4. Details about English newspapers - mostly about how some newspapers in England do illegal stuff
Not being British, I didn't care much about section (4), even though the author is arguably most famous for precipitating the whole Murdoch/Daily Mail scandal. However, the other three sections are excellent and I know of no better book covering similar material. The author clearly has an insider's point of view, not an academic's, but despite some heuristic thinking and proof-by-example, the reader will be forced to admit that there is no reason to believe that the output of the current news system is even roughly true. In short, I was vaguely skeptical before; now I look at most news as being little more than entertaining fiction.
In my opinion the main two faults of the book are that
1) it is parochial and only describes British newspapers in any detail
2) it offers very little constructive guidance on how people _should_ stay informed.
Still, a very thought provoking book. Anyone who reads or watches news (i.e. basically everyone) should read this book or one on the same topics.
______________________________
Copied from: Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media: Nick Davies: 9780099512684: Amazon.com: Books - <https://www.amazon.com/Flat-Earth-News-Award-Winning-Distortion/dp/0099512688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513916742&sr=8-1&keywords=Book+Flat+Earth+News>
...So the gatekeepers of knowledge and culture in 1530, on losing their gatekeeper position over the narrative, didn’t counter with higher-quality reporting, but instead attacked the technology enabling competition, calling it out as spreading misinformation and irresponsible fake reports. Does any of this seem… familiar?
The law was a complete fiasco. Once people had learned to read competing reporting, there was no unlearning it. The law was repealed shortly thereafter. England went another route to prevent the success of the printing press by establishing a censorship regime with printing monopolies, known as copyright, but that’s a story for another day.
As a final touch, let’s consider the words of Paul Graham, in his excellent essay “what you can’t say”: “No one gets in trouble for saying that 2 + 2 is 5, or that people in Pittsburgh are ten feet tall. Such obviously false statements might be treated as jokes, or at worst as evidence of insanity, but they are not likely to make anyone mad. The statements that make people mad are the ones they worry might be believed. I suspect the statements that make people maddest are those they worry might be true. […] If Galileo had said that people in Padua were ten feet tall, he would have been regarded as a harmless eccentric. Saying the earth orbited the sun was another matter. The church knew this would set people thinking.”
Privacy and narrative remain your own responsibility.
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Copied from: The great “Fake News” scare of 1530 - <https://falkvinge.net/2017/01/02/great-fake-news-scare-1530/>
Welcome, gorens.
Your post reminded me to post.
I have recently been reading a ton of "relationship" books lately.. At least a half dozen of them. These are self-help type books with different theories of, and advice about, relationships with your significant other.
Growing up I never gave much thought to such things, and never spent significant time "working" on having a relationship. I just figured it would all come naturally. And I am mostly a loner, and happy that way, so I have never been overly concerned with making a relationship "last". Now almost 50 years old I find myself shocked that these kinds of relationship and self-help subjects aren't taught in school. Some really useful life lessons and advice...
As to why I've been reading so much about making a relationship work lately.. Well that will have to wait for another day and another post. But in the next few days I will try to post some mini-reviews about the books I have been reading. I encourage everyone, whether currently in a relationship or not, to read some books on making a relationship work -- the earlier in your life the better.-mouser (May 27, 2018, 12:13 PM)
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| Shadow of the Winter King |
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| Shield of the Summer Prince | Mask of the Blood Queen |
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| Core |
This is a really good (real life) story about the development of a font. A bit of a who dun it. Higfhly recommended, especially if you have some interest in font design. I didn't know I had, so discovered quite a lot.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]-Dormouse (May 28, 2018, 08:34 AM)
This (Marcel's Letters) sounds like my cup of tea, thanks!And seems to be on offer today!-tomos (May 28, 2018, 11:35 AM)
...This is a book by someone who has studied relationships academically, and he has written many books on the subject. ...- I would respectfully suggest that this could implicitly seem to be:-mouser (June 01, 2018, 04:16 PM)
it was a psychology textbook written by a man and wife team (2 academics and psychologists) who had expanded in the book the theoretical boundaries of what is called TA ("Transactional Analysis") - a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy. I was reading it simply out of interest and to get up to speed with the current methodology, having studied and been very interested in the earlier development of TA (sort of "I'm OK, You're OK").You dont name the book?-IainB (June 02, 2018, 02:38 AM)
In general, all of these books are way too bloated with the same information repeated over and over again... All of them could have half of their pages removed without losing anything.I'm reminded of two 'self-help' books from years ago:-mouser (June 01, 2018, 04:16 PM)
Dr. Gottman has spent decades studying relationships and is the foremost expert on them.Hesitate to weigh in here, but I think it is an exaggeration to call John Gottman the foremost expert on relationships. Or an academic. He was a clinical academic, which is quite a different thing. His research and statistical approaches were somewhat problematic, although that isn't unusual in clinically oriented research. If you want an academic view, you could try one of the books by Steve Duck (though his interests have widened in recent years).-Deozaan (June 02, 2018, 10:27 AM)
“Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.”That is, recommending therapy - rather than a book - might be more likely to produce a positive/beneficial result for the individual concerned. Egos can be both terrible and pretty fragile things.
That is, recommending therapy - rather than a book - might be more likely to produce a positive/beneficial result for the individual concerned.-IainB (June 03, 2018, 05:53 AM)
[...] I read Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark, which I read a few months ago. This brilliant fantasy [...]I hope you are also aware of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gatesw. I only read it once, long ago, but it seemed to me a fantasy masterpiece.-Dormouse (June 02, 2018, 02:56 PM)
The Screaming Staircase
When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .
For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.
Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.
Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again.
I hope you are also aware of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gatesw. I only read it once, long ago, but it seemed to me a fantasy masterpiece.I became aware of it when I checked out what else he'd written. Haven't read it yet, but intend to. Glad to see a recommendation.-rjbull (June 03, 2018, 03:53 PM)
Completely Updated and Revised
This revised edition of Peter Senge’s bestselling classic, The Fifth Discipline, is based on fifteen years of experience in putting the book’s ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories in the book demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas in The Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published in 1990, have become deeply integrated into people’s ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices.
In The Fifth Discipline, Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning “disabilities” that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations—ones in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create results they truly desire.
The updated and revised Currency edition of this business classic contains over one hundred pages of new material based on interviews with dozens of practitioners at companies like BP, Unilever, Intel, Ford, HP, Saudi Aramco, and organizations like Roca, Oxfam, and The World Bank. It features a new Foreword about the success Peter Senge has achieved with learning organizations since the book’s inception, as well as new chapters on Impetus (getting started), Strategies, Leaders’ New Work, Systems Citizens, and Frontiers for the Future.
Mastering the disciplines Senge outlines in the book will:
• Reignite the spark of genuine learning driven by people focused on what truly matters to them
• Bridge teamwork into macro-creativity
• Free you of confining assumptions and mindsets
• Teach you to see the forest and the trees
• End the struggle between work and personal time
Covering blurb copied from: <https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254 (https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254)>
The Prevailing System of ManagementThis could largely explain the EDS toxic management syndrome. Perhaps unsurprisingly, management seemed incapable of seeing/assessing the value of the pearls of wisdom (the 5th Discipline) strewn before them, and naturally fell back on learned (toxic) behaviours.
...a short paragraph written by Dr [W. Edwards] Deming [as a comment for the book jacket of the 1st 1990 ed.]...
"Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people.
People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers - a prize for the best Halloween costume, grades in school, gold stars - and on up through the university. On the job, people, teams and divisions are ranked, reward for the top, punishment for the bottom. Management by Objectives, quotas, incentive pay, business plans, put together separately, division by division, cause further loss, unknown and unknowable."
The exemplary dogmatism and intellectual deafness of US business management schools and their inability to learn new things was - and still seems to be - egregious, with Harvard Business School arguably being there steadfastly leading the way back into darkness, most of the time.- and:-IainB (November 06, 2012, 09:27 PM)
...mentioning W.E. Deming. I've pretty much read his entire corpus and found 99% of his thinking spot on. His "seven deadly diseases" of business still rings true despite them being so widely ignored.The 7 Deadly DiseasesThe "Seven Deadly Diseases" include:
- Lack of constancy of purpose
- Emphasis on short-term profits
- Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance
- Mobility of management
- Running a company on visible figures alone
- Excessive medical costs
- Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees
"A Lesser Category of Obstacles" includes
- Neglecting long-range planning
- Relying on technology to solve problems
- Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions
- Excuses, such as "our problems are different"
- Obsolescence in school that management skill can be taught in classes[27]
- Reliance on quality control departments rather than management, supervisors, managers of purchasing, and production workers
- Placing blame on workforces who are only responsible for 15% of mistakes where the system designed by management is responsible for 85% of the unintended consequences
- Relying on quality inspection rather than improving product quality
-40hz (November 07, 2012, 08:08 AM)
Another fun novella by Mark Clifton:couldn't get the book (Error 403: Forbidden) but still made for an interesting read:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27595
If you have problems with authority figures I suspect you will enjoy his stories. Written in early sixties but really applies in the post 9/11 USA.-MilesAhead (June 18, 2018, 03:37 PM)
ironic that Project Gutenberg gets blocked in Germany...Indeed - especially the whole of it, not just the books the plaintiff wanted removed. Sounds a bit petulant.-tomos (June 18, 2018, 03:53 PM)
...PGLAF complied with the Court's order on February 28, 2018 by blocking all access to www.gutenberg.org and sub-pages to all of Germany. ...Yes, ironic, and brilliantly simple from an administrative POV.-tomos (June 18, 2018, 03:53 PM)
[...] author of several dark fantasy novels that comprise his Western Lights series, set in an alternate world in which the last Ice Age never ended. [...] where Victorian society exists alongside prehistoric beasts. The books are written in a style reminiscent of 19th century authors that has often been referred to Charles Dickens mixed with H. P. Lovecraft. His stories portray eccentric and (mostly) likable characters set within detailed locations that, on the surface, seem mundane and sometimes even cheery, but sinister plots and presences are slowly and carefully revealed.I've never read Lovecraft, but I see the Dickens. And these are most definitely dark fantasy - very, very dark, especially in the case of the bleak The House in the High Wood.
I'd heard good things about the series, but the beginning made me think that they were wrong. She uses a lot of glue words, and they slow down reading. The dialog of the Beast is quite gimmicky. But as I read, and was caught up in the backgrounds and mystery, my reservations faded. It became enjoyable instead of a chore, and the story was quite good. I'm not sure if I will continue the series, but it was an enjoyable read, and I am considering more of the Jane Yellowrock books- more for the characterizations and background than anything else.
It started out slowly, though it rapidly picked up the pace, and enthralled me with the story of flying islands far in the sky and their winged protectors. I'd thought it predictable, but it took an unexpected but welcomed turn into other territories. I'm looking forward to the next book to continue the story!
| [ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55399.Gardens_of_the_Moon) |
| Gardens of the Moon (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55399.Gardens_of_the_Moon) |
| Malazan Book of the Fallen #1 |
| by Steven Erikson |
Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven EriksonI had a false start with that too, I think because it opens on a scene of World War One-level carnage, with no explanation whatsoever. Something must have grabbed me because I went back and finished it; also read the next one, Deadhouse Gates. Erikson absolutely does not hold your hand. I liked his description of the Crimson Guard mercenary army as "500 men and women in brown leather with not a single shiny buckle between them." Much more realistic than the flowery heraldry and romanticised conflict you sometimes get in fantasy.
[...]
I bought this several years ago on a recommendation, started reading it, and put it down. [...] I figured I must have missed something, and picked it up again, and haven't been able to put it down. It is quite dense but quite enthralling.-wraith808 (August 07, 2018, 09:53 PM)
I am reading anything I can get by Clifford D. Simak. Just fun SciFi.Ah, takes me back... Way Station, Time Is The Simplest Thing, City... great stuff.-MilesAhead (August 08, 2018, 07:50 AM)
I am reading anything I can get by Clifford D. Simak. Just fun SciFi.Ah, takes me back... Way Station, Time Is The Simplest Thing, City... great stuff.-MilesAhead (August 08, 2018, 07:50 AM)-rjbull (August 15, 2018, 03:19 PM)
Erikson absolutely does not hold your hand. I liked his description of the Crimson Guard mercenary army as "500 men and women in brown leather with not a single shiny buckle between them." Much more realistic than the flowery heraldry and romanticised conflict you sometimes get in fantasy.-rjbull (August 15, 2018, 03:17 PM)
Speaking of old times, remember those scifi paperbacks with two novels and a book cover on each side?-MilesAhead (August 15, 2018, 03:33 PM)
Speaking of old times, remember those scifi paperbacks with two novels and a book cover on each side?-MilesAhead (August 15, 2018, 03:33 PM)
No! I'm in the UK, and that may be why. :( Cover art was a problem for me in itself. I never bought, say, Analog as a teenager, worried I think about the flak I might get others seeing the lurid covers... I must have missed out on a lot of good stuff.-rjbull (August 15, 2018, 04:07 PM)
Another fun novella by Mark Clifton: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27595couldn't get the book (Error 403: Forbidden) but still made for an interesting read:-MilesAhead (June 18, 2018, 03:37 PM)
https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html
ironic that Project Gutenberg gets blocked in Germany...-tomos (June 18, 2018, 03:53 PM)
Q: Who are the authors? Why are they copyrighted in Germany, but not in the US?------------
A:
Heinrich Mann, who died in 1950.
Thomas Mann, who died in 1955.
Alfred Döblin, who died in 1957.
In Germany, they are copyrighted based on "life +70 years" of copyright protection (so, copyright will expire after 2020, 2025 and 2027, respectively). In the US, copyright protection for works published prior to 1978 is based on the number of years since publication.
The first is the Powder Mage Series (https://www.goodreads.com/series/99602-powder-mage), by Brian McClellan. It starts with A Promise of Blood (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790883-promise-of-blood)
(https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1350337505l/15790883.jpg)The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it.
It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.
It's brilliantly paced, with visceral battle scenes that other than the presence of the Powder Mages and other Magic are very well done, and might as well be right out of a Sharpe novel, and well written characters that are intelligently developed.-wraith808 (August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM)
...I am reading an interesting book at the moment, as I explained in a separate post......I had not actually wanted to read it, though I had been steeling myself for the time when I would have to.
I am reading this English translation, here, if you want to take a look: Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf (James Murphy translation).pdf (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9rIby-RfgLNMWIxYzA4NWEtNDdlYi00ZmRjLTk2NjgtZTU1MjQ5NzIyNDY5)...-IainB (December 31, 2011, 10:21 AM)-IainB (December 31, 2011, 09:07 PM)
From Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler - from pages 78 and 79:
... By far the most effective branch of political education, which in this connection is best expressed by the word 'propaganda', is carried on by the Press. The Press is the chief means employed in the process of political 'enlightenment'. It represents a kind of school for adults. This educational activity, however, is not in the hands of the State but in the clutches of powers which are partly of a very inferior character. While still a young man in Vienna I had excellent opportunities for coming to know the men who owned this machine for mass instruction, as well as those who supplied it with the ideas it distributed. At first I was quite surprised when I realized how little time was necessary for this dangerous Great Power within the State to produce a certain belief among the public; and in doing so the genuine will and convictions of the public were often completely misconstrued. It took the Press only a few days to transform some ridiculously trivial matter into an issue of national importance, while vital problems were completely ignored or filched and hidden away from public attention.
The Press succeeded in the magical art of producing names from nowhere within the course of a few weeks. They made it appear that the great hopes of the masses were bound up with those names. And so they made those names more popular than any man of real ability could ever hope to be in a long lifetime. All this was done, despite the fact that such names were utterly unknown and indeed had never been heard of even up to a month before the Press publicly emblazoned them. At the same time old and tried figures in the political and other spheres of life quickly faded from the public memory and were forgotten as if they were dead, though still healthy and in the enjoyment of their full viguour. Or sometimes such men were so vilely abused that it looked as if their names would soon stand as permanent symbols of the worst kind of baseness. In order to estimate properly the really pernicious influence which the Press can exercise one had to study this infamous Jewish method whereby honourable and decent people were besmirched with mud and filth, in the form of low abuse and slander, from hundreds and hundreds of quarters simultaneously, as if commanded by some magic formula.
These highway robbers would grab at anything which might serve their evil ends.
They would poke their noses into the most intimate family affairs and would not rest until they had sniffed out some petty item which could be used to destroy the reputation of their victim. But if the result of all this sniffing should be that nothing derogatory was discovered in the private or public life of the victim, they continued to hurl abuse at him, in the belief that some of their animadversions would stick even though refuted a thousand times. In most cases it finally turned out impossible for the victim to continue his defence, because the accuser worked together with so many accomplices that his slanders were re-echoed interminably. But these slanderers would never own that they were acting from motives which influence the common run of humanity or are understood by them. Oh, no. The scoundrel who defamed his contemporaries in this villainous way would crown himself with a halo of heroic probity fashioned of unctuous phraseology and twaddle about his 'duties as a journalist' and other mouldy nonsense of that kind. When these cuttle-fishes gathered together in large shoals at meetings and congresses they would give out a lot of slimy talk about a special kind of honour which they called the professional honour of the journalist. Then the assembled species would bow their respects to one another.
These are the kind of beings that fabricate more than two-thirds of what is called public opinion, from the foam of which the parliamentary Aphrodite eventually arises.
Several volumes would be needed if one were to give an adequate account of the whole procedure and fully describe all its hollow fallacies. But if we pass over the details and look at the product itself while it is in operation I think this alone will be sufficient to open the eyes of even the most innocent and credulous person, so that he may recognize the absurdity of this institution by looking at it objectively. ...
(https://s33.postimg.cc/3z5nj1w1b/meg.jpg)(https://s33.postimg.cc/rddmv1ben/gravity.jpg)
Dumped:
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The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067403256X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=skilluminati-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=067403256X) by HUGH Wilford. This is certainly one of the best books I've read, period. Wilford takes on an insanely ambitious and important subject that's been obscured by secrecy and history. He does it great justice and the writing itself is amazingly good. Once the premise and reality is established, Wilford kicks things into high gear, providing hundreds of pages of eye-opening connections that will change the way you think about the past six decades of US popular culture. It is a source of great amusement to me that so few self-proclaimed "conspiracy theorists" have even heard of this book, because their paranoia pales by comparison to what Wilford is laying out in abundantly documented detail here.
(https://s33.postimg.cc/3z5nj1w1b/meg.jpg)(https://s33.postimg.cc/rddmv1ben/gravity.jpg)
Dumped:
(https://s33.postimg.cc/djpa60le7/body.jpg)-panzer (September 10, 2018, 10:30 AM)
This book is available from Amazon for (Kindle $12.99), (paper $9.91) here (https://www.amazon.com/This-Bodys-Not-Enough-Both-ebook/dp/B079KV34Y7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). Panzer, what was your opinion of it?-Arizona Hot (September 29, 2018, 07:01 PM)
Catherine Fisher writes: I have always thought the idea of Time Travel fascinating, full of paradox and speculation and opportunities for adventure.[ You are not allowed to view attachments ][ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
If you had the power to change previous events to bring back someone that you loved, would you do it, even if it changed the world? In Venn I wanted to invent a man so deep in guilt that he has lost the ability to care about anyone else.
Into this dilemma I wanted to mix all the old folklore: the wintry isolated house, the dark wood, the beautiful, deadly Shee and their ageless, changeless land; the eccentric inventor, the opium dens and alleys of Victorian London.
I wanted a story full of variety and mystery. And above all, enjoyment.
Why are we all so damn stupid?- i.e., we can't help it. The reason seems to be that our paradigms and perceptions of reality and especially our thinking are filtered through a primitive ego-centric mechanism that is hard to disassociate our thinking from, in a sort of intellectual deadlock, and the smarter the individual (IQ), the more secure the deadlock and the harder it becomes to be objective (De Bono in the book Teaching Thinking). The Vedic philosophers of 3,000 years ago knew about this and called it ahamkara - a state of illusion in the mind, which is perceived to be reality and is connected to the concept of the Self and the survival of the ego. The concept of ahamkara can be found in Hinduism today - as part of the lower (physical) mind below the Buddhi intellect.
Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures roughly contemporaneously. Karl Jaspers termed the intense period of philosophical development beginning around the 7th century and concluding around the 3rd century BCE an Axial Age in human thought. - per Ancient Philosophy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_philosophy)I used to feel pretty pessimistic about humanity's forward evolutionary progress, as otherwise "democratic" nations leading the way often seemed to be (especially in the US or Europe, for example) in a near-perpetual state of unrest driven by internecine divisive and antithetical religio-political ideologies intent on destruction/suppression of "the other" - leading to implicit brown-shirting, political correctness, de-platforming and oxygen starvation against "incorrect" thinking and the loss of freedom of thought and speech and ultimately self-destruction of the democracy. In the US for example - the torchbearer for freedom and democracy - think Univ. of Berkely (that bastion of free speech) and where organised riots and apparently complicit administrators shut down freedom of speech, and a US presidential candidate who divisively publicly labelled the voters (potentially half the plebiscite) of their opponent as "a basket of deplorables", or some such, and people apparently still cannot safely walk in a public place in the US wearing the "wrong" sort of hat. In Europe, the Mother of Democracy - the British Parliament - has passed laws limiting freedom of speech - i.e., loosely-defined "wrong" or "incorrect" speech - and on the world stage, the manipulative Google and Facebook seem to be opportunistically encouraging yet more government intervention and regulation of freedoms for self-serving purposes as they attempt to externalise the cost of and their responsibility for mitigating harms to cultures and societies arising directly and indirectly from the delivery of their services (situation normal for a corporate psychopath, which always seeks to externalise the costs of its environmental footprint). Singly and together, these things represent a seemingly remorseless onslaught on privacy and freedom. I could go on, but you get the idea.
...An image may be appropriate for one phase in the development of a society, but once that stage is accomplished, the use of the image as a continuing guide to action will likely create more problems than it solves. (Figure 1 illustrates, in a highly simplified way that will be further developed in Chapter 3, the interaction between "changing images of man" and a changing society.) While earlier societies' most difficult problems arose from natural disasters such as pestilence, famine, and floods (due to an inability to manipulate the human's environment and ourselves in unprecedented ways, and from our failure to ensure wise exercising of these "Faustian" powers-as Spengler termed the term).The SRI report provides a hypothetical semi-sinusoidal model in a diagram and which intriguingly effectively suggests that cultural and social outcomes could be a de facto weighted average of individual desires (in the minds of people). If so, a freedom-negative outcome that most people dislike - e.g., having been pulled into that state by (say) a dictatorship - can't persist over time and will be pushed into an upwards development, through some form of dynamic change (e.g., activism, revolution).
Science, technology, and economics have made possible really significant strides toward achieving such basic human goals as physical safety and security, material comfort, and better health. ...
pp 4 - 6, Changing Images of Man - SRI report
...I thought it was an old hat hypothesis - I mean, I was taught - and thought I understood - that the only real current human evolution that was taking place was in cultural developments...I usually try to substantiate what I write with examples, but I couldn't find my old lecture notes as I lost them in a fire. However, after scratching my head a bit and using duckduckgo, I eventually managed to come up with this:-IainB (June 30, 2019, 03:11 AM)
The very concept of progress — of the continual betterment of the human condition through the application of science and the spread of freedom — was a product of the European Enlightenment, as Kishore Mahbubani reminds us. These thinkers were among the first to advance the idea that humanity’s problems are soluble, and that we are not condemned to misery and misfortune. The spectacular progress that ensued, first for the West and then increasingly also for the rest, was a matter not of historical necessity, but of diligent human effort and struggle. Pessimism is not just factually wrong, it is also harmful because it undermines our confidence in our ability to bring about further progress. The best argument that progress is possible is that it has been achieved in the past.
– Maarten Boudry
@MilesAhead: Thanks for the post. I hadn't known of either book. They both look interesting. I shall have to read them now...(SF addiction).-IainB (August 01, 2019, 04:49 PM)
Sam Quinones Dreamland Part 01 Audiobook (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLNm_H508ug) 6h 57mI just thought to add, Lay Z Boy recliner with vibrator, or just a wooden rocking chair. My folks used to have an easy chair that was a swivel and rocker.
Sam Quinones Dreamland Part 02 Audiobook (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsavEiR2PMY) 6h 58m
Sam Quinones - wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Quinones#Books)
quote: Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury Press, 2015) is story of the evolving opioid epidemic in Mexico and the United States. Quinones describes the "explosion in heroin use and how one small Mexican town changed how heroin was produced and sold in America."
Additional reading;
THE ORTHOMOLECULAR TREATMENT OF DRUG ADDICTION
A FIRST AUSTRALIAN REPORT
by Archie Kalokerinos A.M.M., M.B.B.S., Ph.D., F.A.P.M., Glen Dettman A.M.M., BA, Ph.D., F.A.P.M.
http://whale.to/v/kalokerinos2.html (http://whale.to/v/kalokerinos2.html)-holt (March 09, 2020, 08:07 AM)
since we're going down the rabbit hole anyway
Simply search on the title and either borrow the book or add yourself to the wait list.-MilesAhead (February 29, 2020, 10:34 AM)
Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack VanceMine's paperback too, but it's quite old, a UK edition published in 2000. Publishers seem to have a habit of changing the artwork when they re-publish, as well as by country.
I own a paper version, but with different cover:-panzer (October 24, 2020, 03:57 PM)
Mort by Terry Pratchett. A nice (and not too big) hardback.enjoyed that to the end and went for the second in the series -- "Reaper Man". It's a bit all over the shop (almost halfway through). Definitely not as good as the first
about 70 pages in -- a very easy and entertaining read so far. My first book by Pratchett.-tomos (January 26, 2021, 04:47 PM)
Finally reading something by William Gibson. Pattern Recognition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_Recognition_(novel))I remember really enjoying a couple of his books before I ever had a computer -- or had much understanding of the internet (the reality was pretty boring in comparison).-MilesAhead (February 19, 2021, 09:09 AM)
Mort by Terry Pratchett. A nice (and not too big) hardback.enjoyed that to the end and went for the second in the series -- "Reaper Man". It's a bit all over the shop (almost halfway through). Definitely not as good as the first
about 70 pages in -- a very easy and entertaining read so far. My first book by Pratchett.-tomos (January 26, 2021, 04:47 PM)-tomos (February 18, 2021, 04:34 AM)
I remember really enjoying a couple of his books before I ever had a computer -- or had much understanding of the internet (the reality was pretty boring in comparison).-tomos (February 19, 2021, 01:45 PM)
how the nose worksDon't forget Turin's archenemy, Nobody Nose.-mouser (April 17, 2021, 01:23 AM)
how the nose worksDon't forget Turin's archenemy, Nobody Nose.-mouser (April 17, 2021, 01:23 AM)-cranioscopical (April 17, 2021, 06:08 AM)
Having exhausted the available Jack Reacher novels I have been going through the Mitch Rapp series. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Rapp)
Seems like a weird name for a hero. Perhaps it has to do with character ownership rights. I do not imagine very many character name collisions with that moniker. :)-MilesAhead (April 20, 2021, 09:07 AM)
Having exhausted the available Jack Reacher novels I have been going through the Mitch Rapp series. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Rapp)
Seems like a weird name for a hero. Perhaps it has to do with character ownership rights. I do not imagine very many character name collisions with that moniker. :)-MilesAhead (April 20, 2021, 09:07 AM)
I like those and have read all of them. Never thought it was a weird name, though. Rapp is a relatively known if not overly so last name.-wraith808 (April 20, 2021, 10:52 AM)
No wonder the hero is an assassin! Having a single syllable for both first and last name must generate anger management issues. :)-MilesAhead (April 20, 2021, 11:41 AM)
Having a single syllable for both first and last name must generate anger management issues.-MilesAhead (April 20, 2021, 11:41 AM)
Having a single syllable for both first and last name must generate anger management issues.-MilesAhead (April 20, 2021, 11:41 AM)
I guess I should be a lot angrier than I am then. Maybe I should try to be an assassin!-wraith808 (April 20, 2021, 02:00 PM)
chain saw on the corps-MilesAhead (April 21, 2021, 03:12 PM)
chain saw on the corps-MilesAhead (April 21, 2021, 03:12 PM)
"corpse" actually.-Arizona Hot (April 21, 2021, 03:34 PM)
chain saw on the corps-MilesAhead (April 21, 2021, 03:12 PM)
"corpse" actually.-Arizona Hot (April 21, 2021, 03:34 PM)
I have to stop using that Opera extension that automatically dis-corrects my spelling. :)-MilesAhead (April 22, 2021, 09:21 AM)
chain saw on the corps-MilesAhead (April 21, 2021, 03:12 PM)
"corpse" actually.-Arizona Hot (April 21, 2021, 03:34 PM)
I have to stop using that Opera extension that automatically dis-corrects my spelling. :)-MilesAhead (April 22, 2021, 09:21 AM)
Yeah, I figured you just left off the -e.-wraith808 (April 22, 2021, 08:17 PM)
In this age of anxiety, anger and contestations between the West and the Islamic world, many epoch-shaping stories of intellectual exchanges between our cultures are often forgotten.
A powerful example comes from literature. Millions of Christian, Jewish and Muslim readers across the world have read that famed tale of the man stranded alone on an island: “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe, the 18th-century British pamphleteer, political activist and novelist.
Few know that in 1708, 11 years before Defoe wrote his celebrated novel, Simon Ockley, an Orientalist scholar at Cambridge University, translated and published a 12th-century Arabic novel, “Hayy ibn Yaqzan,” or “Alive, the Son of Awake,” by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl, an Andalusian-Arab polymath. Writing about the influence of Ibn Tufayl’s novel on Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe,” Martin Wainwright, a former Guardian editor, remarked, “Tufayl’s footprints mark the great classic.”
Ibn Tufayl’s novel tells the tale of Hayy, a boy growing up alone on a deserted island, with animals. As he grows up, Hayy uses his senses and reason to understand the workings of the natural world. He explores the laws of nature, devises a rational theology and entertains theories about the origin of the universe. He develops a sense of ethics: Out of mercy for animals, he turns vegetarian, and out of care for plants, he preserves their seeds.
...
She sees them as a precursor to writing.-tomos (April 23, 2021, 01:26 PM)