Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-20-2015: Totalitarianism Made Easy [OregonMuse]

"I Find Your Lack of Payment For Overdue Books... Disturbing."

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. And when I type up the book thread, my pinkies remain elevated the whole time, that's how classy it is.

Here's how you can avoid #StarWars spoilers. Close up social media for a couple days and spend that time reading a book.

--Anthony Breznican

The Book Fetishist

Monty wrote a pretty good piece this week. Of course, pretty much anything Monty writes is worth reading, but I do have a comment or two about it.

I've often said that my Amazon Kindle re-ignited (appropriately enough, given the name) a passion for reading that had begun to cool as I grew older.

Similarly, my Nexus tablet got me reading again after a number of years of stagnation. Well, it was teh stoopid internets, that's what. Night after night after work, I'd be in front of the computer reading traffic from the mailing lists I had subscribed to (this was before the age of the www), and then the online news and commentary sites (any of you morons remember The Ether Zone?), and then came the blogs. And then click here and click there and click on the one weird trick you can use to prevent hair loss, and then, poof, it was midnight and time to turn in. I didn't stop to think that all that net surfing was taking up all my time, so there was none available to use for actual reading that was not a mile wide and inch deep.

I wanted to get out, but teh internet kept sucking me back in.

Stupid internet.

I'm all for getting kids to read and love reading, but this fetishization of books sort of misses the point...I am second to no one in my appreciation for the power of the written word, but that power can be delivered in any number of ways these days apart from being printed on paper and being bound between two covers.

This is certainly true, insofar as it goes. But books are not only good for information acquisition, but also information storage as well. Printed books, stored in individual libraries, serve to preserve a permanent, decentralized record of the world as it actually was at the time they were written, not one bowdlerized to fit modern sensibilities and expectations, or to reinforce narratives currently favored by the authorities.

E-texts don't have this advantage. By their nature, they are extremely malleable, and subject to the whims of whatever technician, corporation, or government agency owns the area of "the cloud" where they're stored.

Example: One of the Kindle books I purchased came with a sample chapter of one of the author's other works. And then one day when I opened the Kindle app, a pop-up window announced that an update to the book I had purchased was being downloaded. The reason given was the correction of some errors. Note that it did not ask my permission, it just did it on its own. When it was finished, the changes were evidently so small that I didn't see them, but I did notice that the sample chapter had disappeared.

Now this particular instance is relatively harmless. But you can easily see what could happen if some text became inconvenient or embarrassing to the owner of whoever you bought it from. If you still maintain the "cloud" links, your text could be stealthily revised to accommodate whatever version of reality the owner thought more congenial to his purpose. One moron commenter objected to this, saying that if the authorities put out a fake pdf doc, for example, it could easily be countered by disseminating the real one. But how can anyone to know for certain which one is the "real" one? Certainly not by the content. File date and time stamps can easily be altered. And with tools like Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop, you can make any document look any way you want.

In Orwell's classic novel 1984, Winston Smith, the main character, is employed by a government agency known as the "Ministry of Truth" where it is his job to help revise the historical record to bring it in agreement with current government policies. Newspaper clippings arrive by pneumatic tube at Smith's desk that he must edit or shove down "the memory hole" into non-existence. It's a clumsy, time-consuming process, but Orwell never envisioned e-texts and cloud storage. But if he had, he'd probably say, "yeah, that sounds about right."

Personally, I've always distrusted "the cloud". The point of having your own computer, personal computers they used to be called, is that the computer is your property that you own, therefore you control it. But now, I think, they're boiling the frog: little by little we're ceding final control over our personal information and e-texts to whoever is running the cloud. And if one fine day some Obama-fueled agency pounds on Microsoft's door (or Apple's or Google's) demanding all the files stored on their servers for you, do you think they'd put up even token resistance? I think you can bet that your data would be in the hands of the feds faster than you could say "enthusiastic voluntary compliance".

Star Wars

How about The 6 Most ridiculous Star Wars books ever written?

First, there's The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes, then there's the children's book Vader's Little Princess, which actually sounds not at all ridiculous:

In this irresistibly funny follow-up to the breakout bestseller Darth Vader and Son, Vader—Sith Lord and leader of the Galactic Empire—now faces the trials, joys, and mood swings of raising his daughter Leia as she grows from a sweet little girl into a rebellious teenager.

I mean, the cookbook sounds ridiculous. But this, I can see how this would work as a basis for an SNL skit.

But how would you like your pre-school kids taught by Jar-Jar Binks, or your 1st-grader math from the Dark Lord of Evil himself?

And as for The Extremely Unofficial and Highly Unauthorized Star Wars Kama Sutra by one "S N Herder", I question whether a book should be included on a "ridiculous books" list that is trying its hardest to be ridiculous.

Also, since the ever-litigious Disney, Inc. now owns the Star Wars franchise, I wonder what their lawyers would have to say about this book?

Pop Quiz

I was reading Winston Churchill's famous essay Fifty Years Hence and came to this part:

I read a book the other day which traced the history of mankind from the birth of the solar system to its extinction. There were fifteen or sixteen races of men which in succession rose and fell over periods measured by tens of millions of years. In the end a race of beings was evolved which had mastered nature. A state was created whose citizens lived as long as they chose, enjoyed pleasures and sympathies incomparably wider than our own, navigated the interplanetary spaces, could recall the panorama of the past and foresee the future.

I suddenly realized I knew what book he was talking about. At least I think I do. I was quite surprised to see it referenced by a great statesman. A year of AoSHQ Platinum™ content goes to the first moron who can Name That Book.

Are You Man Enough To Read Like A Squid?

As befitting AoSHQ's well-deserved reputation as a Smart Military Blog™, a couple of weeks ago I posted the official reading list of the United States Marine Corps, books that the Corps requires both officers and enlisted to read. This prompted 'ette commenter 'All Hail Eris' to provide what she described as "a more squidly perspective" with a link to the UNO reading list. And that's not just a link, that's a website with its own domain name dedicated to naval education.

Right at the top of the page, and available to anyone for download as a pdf doc is How We Fight: Handbook for the Naval Warfighter. This "ground level" book explains what the Navy is, what it does, and how it goes about its business. It's a

...concise, single volume that explains the basic, unique, and enduring attributes associated with being a Sailor, going to sea, and conducting war at sea. It highlights the fundamentals of the environment in which the Navy operates, our uniquely maritime characteristics, our history in this domain, and the way of Navy warfighting. This book should serve as a companion piece to other sources of literature enabling Sailors to understand the essence of being “a Sailor” as they develop their skills as sea going professionals.

And then there's A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy, which

...brings to life the events that have shaped and inspired the Navy of today. Its perspective is thoroughly and decidedly democratic, highlighting the role of all Sailors—from seaman to admiral. Rather than focus entirely on such naval icons as Jones, Decatur, and Nimitz, as most histories tend to do, author Thomas J. Cutler (a former gunner’s mate and retired lieutenant commander) brings to the forefront the contributions of enlisted people, such as Quartermaster Peter Williams, who steered the ironclad Monitor into history, and Hospital Corpsman Tayinikia Campbell, who saved lives on the USS Cole after the terrorist attack in Yemen. The book’s structure is unique...grouped thematically in sections named after the Navy’s core principles of honor, courage, and commitment; its traditions of “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Don’t Give Up the Ship”; and other significant aspects.

Naval personnel can download ths book for their own use, and for the rest of us, its available for purchase on Amazon.

Here's a timely book on this list, The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis, which

...examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world...The Crisis of Islam looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes the reader through the rise of militant Islam in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world...For getting into the mind of the radical Islamist, for achieving a greater cultural understanding of an insidious and relentless foe, this concise, eye-opening book is a must-read in the post-9/11 world.

Here is the link to The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror on Amazon.

I was surprised to see Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski on the list, but it

provides entertaining and informative lessons on how to build a culture of success. ...Krzyzewski's story is a great example of living the American dream through hard work and dedication. He is the son of working class Polish immigrants, who earned a scholarship to the United States Military Academy at West Point where he first played and later coached basketball...His secrets to success are built on an ethos based on communications, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. The lessons offered in the book are valuable for any leader of any organization.

I never knew Coach K's background. It makes me happy to know he's from the working class, rather than the lah-de-dah east coast elites.

Another book that looks that it might be of general interest is Fallout: The True Story of the CIA's Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking by investigative journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins who

tell an alarming tale of international intrigue through the eyes of the European and American officials who had suspicions about Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, tracked him, and ultimately shut him down, but only after the nuclear “genie” was out of the bottle. This well-researched book tells the story of how Khan managed to steal enough nuclear secrets to give Pakistan atomic weapons and then to go into business selling atomic secrets to Libya, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and others.

Ugh. Sometimes it only takes one guy to screw the world.

And I might have guessed this book would be be required reading for the Navy: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel. If you were alive in the 18th century, you knew about the longitude problem,

the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day—and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land...Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution.

But then

one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution—a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of Harrison’s forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.

Even though, as I said about the previous book, it only takes one guy to screw the world, fortunately, sometimes it only takes one man to make it demonstrably better.

God bless the Navy. The only armed service specifically authorized in the original Constitution.

And speaking of military books, here is The Year's Best Military Literature, at least according to J. Ford Huffman, book reviewer for the Military Times. I'm not familiar with any of the books listed, nor the reviewer, but the writing style has got this liberal vibe about it, like it's something you'd read in the Guardian or The Puffington Host. I'm not sure why this would be, it just feels that way to me.

Next week, we'll look into what the US Army is reading.

Books Of Note

The three novels that comprise C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength) have been collected into an omnibus edition and is currently selling on Kindle for $3.99. Don't know if this is a permanent price or a short-term sale price.

___________

The author of This Is War! Quit Sniveling e-mailed me to let me know the Kindle edition is available for 99 cents. He says:

This is a short ebook along the lines of my Guantanamo Clarity but it pertains to the overall war. Much of it will be things that AoS readers already know, but I do expect there will be a few things they hadn't seen before.

And of course Guantanamo Clarity: What You Need to Know is also available on Kindle.

___________

Kevin Trainor is one of the bloggers over at The Other McCain. He has just published his new book, which is his account of his career spent as a Russian linguist for the Army Security Agency:

You’re in the Cold War Army now as Kevin Trainor’s memoir returns you to a time of clashing superpowers and nuclear tensions. As a Russian linguist for the Army Security Agency, Trainor was an increasingly square peg in a series of round holes...Light-hearted, yet serious, Trainor’s recollections stretch from the Cold War through the first Gulf War. This collection of creative nonfiction...transports you to the realm of military intel with its annoying internal politics, frequent travel demands, and - in the Reserves - a constant disruption of any reasonable work-life balance.

Wild, fun, and informative, this eBook of approximately a hundred pages will make a pleasant evening’s read with a glass of wine or a good cup of coffee.

What Did You Do in the Cold War, Dad? is available on Kindle for 99 cents.

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:04 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Starting book 12 of history of Frederick II, start of Silesian war

Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 08:59 AM (k0xxN)

2 First!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 08:59 AM (jR7Wy)

3 Morning, Bookies!

Posted by: mindful webworker - what, me read? at December 20, 2015 09:02 AM (h6BP/)

4 Dennis Prager who has a background of Soviet history tells of old proverb - The future we know, the past is what's always changing

Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 09:02 AM (k0xxN)

5 I think Churchill's talking about Last and First Men.

Posted by: not Olaf Stapledon at December 20, 2015 09:04 AM (dbDB8)

6 The book Churchill read was Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:04 AM (u82oZ)

7 Eris- Not a chance, I'm looking for another threepeat

Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 09:05 AM (k0xxN)

8 Still working on Modesette's Recluse re-read. Up to The Order War now.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 09:07 AM (t2KH5)

9 #6 The book Churchill read was Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:04 AM (u82oZ)

Ding ding ding! Yeah, I figured this one would go quick. Your Platinum membership comes with extra ampersands, so use them wisely.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 09:07 AM (3TXtY)

10 Argh! My dreams of a year of Platinum Membership dashed by a faster typer.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:08 AM (u82oZ)

11 Wait, who is the sock at #5, you're the real winner. Oh what the heck, I'm feeling generous, so you and NaCly Dog can share the ampersands.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 09:09 AM (3TXtY)

12 Oh wait. Huzzah & Huzzah again. Ampersands!

Thank you OregonMuse.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:10 AM (u82oZ)

13 Now this particular instance is relatively harmless. But you can easily
see what could happen if some text became inconvenient or embarrassing
to the owner of whoever you bought it from. If you still maintain the cloud links, your text could be stealthily revised to accommodate
whatever version of reality the owner thought more congenial to his
purpose.

I only turn my wifi on my tablet on when I want to download something. Stays off the rest of the time.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 09:10 AM (t2KH5)

14 Sir Winston is referencing God's inerrant Word; The Bible. Merry Christmas to all!!

Posted by: Billy the Mountain at December 20, 2015 09:10 AM (cwqBc)

15 The word that the Moron was looking for in the old thread is "constancy," I think.

Posted by: Grey Fox at December 20, 2015 09:11 AM (bZ7mE)

16 I downloaded "1984" to my Kindle when I first bought it.

About six months later I got one of those messages that they were going to "edit" it, but in fact they simply removed the entire book. I imagine that it was a rights issue, but I was amused that the one free book they removed out of perhaps 50 I had downloaded was Orwell's ~~History of America 2009-20??~~ warning against revisionist history.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 20, 2015 09:11 AM (Zu3d9)

17 I stayed up a little bit too late (I am fighting a ghastly cold and my general well-being was not helped by spending all day in the Cowboy Christmas Market in Boerne's main square) in finishing A Sailor of Austria - the first of John Biggins' Otto Prohaska books - about a Austrian U-boat commander in WWI. I think it was recommended on the book thread a while ago, and it was available for free on Kindle. Yes, it is worthy of all the rave reviews - funny, wry and at the end, quite heartbreaking. Sort of a WWI submarine version of MASH is the comparison made.
As for me, and my filthy cold, off to another day at the Christmas market, selling my own books and my daughter's origami jewelry, with a short stop at the grocery store to load up on more cold remedies.

Posted by: CeliaHayes at December 20, 2015 09:13 AM (95iDF)

18 Reading "One Year After", William Forstchen's follow-up to "One Second After". By this time the threats of starvation and disease have passed, but there is still general lawlessness in the country and the looming threat of foreign takeover. The most immediate problem is now a newly arrived "federal administrator" who passes on orders from the President to draft people into the Army of National Recovery. This would drain the town of its strongest backs and best defenders.

It doesn't have the nail-biting tension of the first (of what will be a trilogy) but I'm enjoying John Matherson's sparring with the oily bureaucrat. I'm about halfway through and the masks are falling.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:13 AM (jR7Wy)

19 So does the Star Wars cookbook have such culinary masterpieces as 'Stormtrooper on a Half-Shell' or 'How to Serve Ewok' in it?

Still writing in between job searches and selling stuff on eBay.

https://www.gofundme.com/8k4zdgw9

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:13 AM (EV7bS)

20 Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 09:02 AM (k0xxN)

Speaking of Prager, I have had the opportunity recently to hear a bit of his radio show. He is extremely impressive. There is no moral relativism in his world, and I really like that!

And, I have met his brother, who is impressive in his own right!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 20, 2015 09:14 AM (Zu3d9)

21 They made a movie about the guy who invented the chronometer.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 09:15 AM (t2KH5)

22 OM, Thanks for mentioning the CS Lewis space trilogy omnibus on kindle. I downloaded it before finishing the post. I have the physical books but having the Kindle version is a nice backup.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 09:16 AM (FvdPb)

23 The book I'm reading is The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913 by Jacob Gould Schurman. I am reading the 2nd Edition, published in 1914.

It's pretty short, but has a lot of information on how stupid political leaders get a lot of their own citizens killed for greed and self-aggrandizement.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:16 AM (u82oZ)

24 Looking for an introduction to Software Defined Radio. A book and/or good website(s), whatever. I don't know my I from my Q just yet.

Posted by: doug at December 20, 2015 09:16 AM (e16Wl)

25 Excellent post, OM!
I want to read all the books you've mentioned....ack! Now where do I go for a few more hours a day?

Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 09:17 AM (NOIQH)

26 7 Eris- Not a chance, I'm looking for another threepeat
Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 09:05 AM (k0xxN)
---
*shakes gauntleted fist at Skip*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:18 AM (jR7Wy)

27 @20 Re: Prager -- Check out the Prager University videos on youtube.com. Lots of good stuff.

Posted by: doug at December 20, 2015 09:18 AM (e16Wl)

28 I'ma kinda read out. Though the naval books sound interesting, and the army especially. I'm interested in small unit tactics, and suspect it will be required knowledge during the time of fire.

The first CS Lewis 'Silent Planet' is kinda tuff to get through; a psychedelic landscape with friendly walrus and evil humans is about as far as I've gotten. It starts out with a very proper Englishman's walk through the countryside.

Posted by: Yannic Perig at December 20, 2015 09:19 AM (CoQ5M)

29 All the wars in the Balkans in 1912-1913 did was to be opening act for the Great War. Millions showed up, millions died and turned the world into wreckage and scar tissue.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:19 AM (EV7bS)

30 >>Speaking of Prager, I have had the opportunity recently to hear a bit of
his radio show. He is extremely impressive. There is no moral
relativism in his world, and I really like that!

Are you familiar with Prager University - online collection of videos that reflect Prager's moral clarity and inject the conservative point of view into current issues?

Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 09:19 AM (NOIQH)

31 16
I downloaded "1984" to my Kindle when I first bought it.

About
six months later I got one of those messages that they were going to
"edit" it, but in fact they simply removed the entire book. I imagine
that it was a rights issue, but I was amused that the one free book they
removed out of perhaps 50 I had downloaded was Orwell's History of America 2009-20?? warning against revisionist history.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 20, 2015 09:11 AM (Zu3d9)

What happened was they though it was now copyright expired and open season on it. They got straightened out by the publisher right quick. But they admitted their stealth take-back was a stupid way to go.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 09:19 AM (t2KH5)

32 I'm reading Agent Storm by Morten Storm after seeing him a couple of times on TV. Also reading Rangers and Pioneers of Texas. Very old book on the 1821 to 1845 period. Much like Wilbarger's book.

Posted by: Dave at Buffalo Roam at December 20, 2015 09:20 AM (nIjzG)

33 Almost done with "The Africans" by David Lamb. The next-to-last chapter is on South Africa circa 1980, and it's ... interesting. It's interesting because of this quote which I found a couple of chapters back, and keep in mind that David Lamb worked for the Los Angeles Times:

"Undeniably, though, the West's post-independence contributions to Africa have been paltry and often misdirected. The billions of dollars in aid money thrown haphazardly into Africa have accomplished no more than President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty did in America. They have created a welfare state mentality and governments have come to realize that there is no need to do anything for themselves because someone in Stockholm or Paris or Washington will do it for them at no cost. Poverty has become the engine that drives the African economy."

I'm surprised the Times has let him live, writing racist drivel like that, and I 'm really curious if this paragraph has survived into the updated version of the book.

My current Kindle book is "The Siege of Mecca," recommended here, and it's proving to be very interesting. I've only come across one sentence, and I'm a quarter of the way through with the siege just starting, in which the author reveals himself to be a bit silly, and I'm just ignoring it.

Posted by: Tonestaple at December 20, 2015 09:20 AM (dCTrv)

34 This week reading Dicken's Christmas stories.

A glance at the opening page of UNO reading list shows that of those, I have only read 'Neptune's Inferno'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 20, 2015 09:20 AM (9mTYi)

35 16 I downloaded "1984" to my Kindle when I first bought it.

About six months later I got one of those messages that they were going to "edit" it, but in fact they simply removed the entire book. I imagine that it was a rights issue, but I was amused that the one free book they removed out of perhaps 50 I had downloaded was Orwell's ~~History of America 2009-20??~~ warning against revisionist history.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 20, 2015 09:11 AM (Zu3d9)

Yeah, I think that wins the irony award.

Posted by: rickl at December 20, 2015 09:20 AM (sdi6R)

36 I have listened to Dennis for at least 10 years, they use to loop his show on his web site repeating every three hrs but not sure if still do as I've lost my computer.

Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 09:20 AM (k0xxN)

37 They made a movie about the guy who invented the chronometer.
Posted by: Vic
---------------

Soon, they will erecting statues of me.

Posted by: Ahmed at December 20, 2015 09:22 AM (9mTYi)

38 All Hail Eris you might want to start reading Not This August where the US surrenders to the USSR and PRC after losing WWIII. Or perhaps if post-nuclear America is your forte, star with Dean Ing's Systemic Shock. Or US post-ecological disaster Ill Wind by Kevin J. Anderson.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:23 AM (EV7bS)

39 I've always said that Dennis Prager would make an outstanding debate moderator.

But no, let's go with Wolf Blitzer and Candy Crowley instead.

Posted by: rickl at December 20, 2015 09:23 AM (sdi6R)

40 I especially like Prager's Happiness Hour and the Male/Female Hour.
His advocacy for happiness is an antidote to today's cynicism and snark.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 09:24 AM (NOIQH)

41 And, I have met his brother, who is impressive in his own right!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 20, 2015 09:14 AM (Zu3d9)

Prager has a brother? Would we have heard of him, i.e. like David Limbaugh?

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 09:24 AM (3TXtY)

42 A Sailor of Austria - the first of John Biggins' Otto Prohaska books - about a Austrian U-boat commander in WWI. I think it was recommended on the book thread a while ago, and it was available for free on Kindle. Yes, it is worthy of all the rave reviews - funny, wry and at the end, quite heartbreaking. Sort of a WWI submarine version of MASH is the comparison made.
Posted by: CeliaHayes
---------------

Yup. Finished that last week. A very good read.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 20, 2015 09:26 AM (9mTYi)

43 Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:23 AM (EV7bS)
---
Thanks for the recommendations, but I think I'll need something a little more positive after this one.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:26 AM (jR7Wy)

44 Just finished second read of Matt Bracken's Trilogy series. Downloaded from Kindle some time ago and had another go at it for it seems we are headed in that direction in the world. I have also read some of his essays on the state of Islam in Europe. Interesting thoughts.

bverwey

Posted by: bverwey at December 20, 2015 09:27 AM (Zm0fQ)

45 While a dry history even by my standards the book series I'm reading by Thomas Carlyle reminds me of the Will and Arial Durant series of civilization which I have a few volumes. I have a kindle book preview downloaded on more Prussian military history. My tastes are odd, but also see a few political books I want.

Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 09:28 AM (k0xxN)

46 I've always thought the cloud concept for data and the destruction of the physically written word is an almost perfect tool for the totalitarian.

"See children , right here it says that George Washington owned slaves and together with Thomas Jefferson formulated the precepts of white privilege in the shadow Constitution!"

IIRC, there was supposedly a ban on selling old books at garage sales and flea markets using the excuse that they might contain lead, thus we needed to destroy them for the children. Parents that feed books to their children are a very real problem in deed, but destroying old books is not the answer.

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 09:28 AM (ftVQq)

47 Good morning gentle Bookists. The LOTR read continues as they head for Edoras. Slow going as I'm savoring the words and writing. It's not as if I have to turn the pages to know what will happen next.

This week I'll be reading all the Dickens Christmas stories. But I recently learned that Washington Irving wrote several short pieces, not really 'stories' about traditional country Christmas in England. Supposedly, these pieces influenced Dickens and even American views on what a 'proper' Christmas should be like. The writing is delightful. Every few decades I seem to re-learn what a fine and fun writer Washington Irving was.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (FvdPb)

48 As we speak, last week the New Orleans city council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from the city. Led by the POS mayor Mitch Landrieu (brother of Mary) he declared them to be "public nuisances" in line with the wishes of his rabble constituencies.

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past"...Orwell.

Posted by: Libra at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (GblmV)

49 I don't keep anything on the cloud and think it is foolish to do so. I want all of my data where I can put my hands on it. That's just me though.

Posted by: freaked at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (BO/km)

50 So is there truth in this literary pie-chart?
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qz657w7

All Hail Eris, go see Star Wars again?

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:30 AM (EV7bS)

51 And speaking of military topics, the movie adaptation of the book "Ender's Game" had two most interesting audio commentary tracks on the dvd where the typical hollywood personality types were eager to lure the typical teenager 'into a conversation' where, I suspect, the eager teenager with his curiosity aroused could then be spoon fed liberal dogma at the moment when the teenager would be most receptive.

Of course, this could also just be my paranoia speaking. It would be equally effective for a conservative to inoculate a curious teenager. The dilemma at the end of the movie is 'should we have tried to negotiate', and did we have to wipe them out, and the horrors of war and violence, and et cetera and so forth.

Appropo for current events.

Posted by: Yannic Perig at December 20, 2015 09:31 AM (CoQ5M)

52 This week I've been reading some old Conan stories by Robert E. Howard -- that dude could _write_, let me tell you. Even an obvious piece of hackwork slapped together to pay the bills is still pretty good (I'm thinking of "Iron Shadows in the Moon" or "The Pool of the Black One" which are pretty much the exact same story with different proper nouns).

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 20, 2015 09:31 AM (QISEb)

53 Hrothgar, if only one child can be spared exposure to a pre-1985 copy of Little House on the Prairie, it will have been worth it!

Here's an article from the always excellent City Journal on this life-saving legislation:

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0212wo.html

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:31 AM (jR7Wy)

54 One of you morons recommended "Smartass of Mars" a while back. Just finished it. Pretty good story.

At times, the language was a bit gratuitous so reader beware. ( I work for a construction company so I know a little about language that is unsuitable for Sunday school.)

Overall, I give it 3.5 Barky's.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at December 20, 2015 09:32 AM (566ZD)

55 They made a movie about the guy who invented the chronometer.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 09:15 AM (t2KH5)
Vic, I was going to ask you how the first voyage with the chronometer went, but decided it was too close to Christmas.
The book is fascinating if you are of a technical bent, and a good read even if you are non-technical. It also supports the theory that far too large a percentage of humanity are lying cheating scum.

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 09:32 AM (ftVQq)

56 Somewhat OT, as it's not book-related, but another problem with the cloud is computer software.

At my job in a printing shop I use Adobe Creative Suite. The version I have, 5.0, we bought and paid for and it is physically installed on my computer. Newer versions are in the cloud, and you have to pay an annual subscription fee forever if you want to keep using it.

Posted by: rickl at December 20, 2015 09:34 AM (sdi6R)

57 >>I've always thought the cloud concept for data and the destruction of
the physically written word is an almost perfect tool for the
totalitarian.

Yep - Why burn when you can digitize and then alter or disappear?
So what books do Morons think are worth retaining in printed form, preferably in their personal library?

Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 09:34 AM (NOIQH)

58 How is the copyright on 1984 not expired, it wasn't a Disney property?

Posted by: Jean at December 20, 2015 09:35 AM (w5jBN)

59 Also, I will totally cop to being a book fetishist.

Sometimes I and other practitioners of this dark and degenerate lifestyle will meet in secret nooks and fondle the skins of leather-bound tomes. Oh the delicious frottage!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:35 AM (jR7Wy)

60 I don't normally pollute the good book thread with the likes of myself but that pic is funny, OM.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 20, 2015 09:35 AM (OkAU/)

61 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:31 AM (jR7Wy)

Everything is being done for the common good, comrade citizen!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 09:35 AM (ftVQq)

62 Lizzy, any book that relies on detailed illustrations stays on my shelf.

Posted by: Jean at December 20, 2015 09:37 AM (w5jBN)

63 >>As we speak, last week the New Orleans city council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from the city.

Milan Kundera know a thing or two about laughter and forgetting....

Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 09:38 AM (NOIQH)

64 All Hail Eris, go see Star Wars again?
Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:30 AM (EV7bS)
---
Soon! This time I can look for all the throwaway background details that round out a good bit of world-building. I loved all the layers of detail in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 09:38 AM (jR7Wy)

65 >>>Morons think are worth retaining in printed form, preferably in their personal library?
Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 09:34 AM (NOIQH)

I am struggling with this right now, as I try to pare down my library.

I am definitely finding myself guilty of the reading the Internet rather than books thing lately.

Posted by: Lea at December 20, 2015 09:39 AM (aUjAM)

66 52 ... Have to agree about Robert Howard's writing. I have just about everything he wrote and none of them are less than really good; just some are better than others. None of the Conan writers that followed are nearly as good.

Believe it or not, Howard wrote some humorous (and they are truly funny) short western stories for the pulps. A very gifted writer. What a shame he ended his life so young.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 09:40 AM (FvdPb)

67 There was a 600plus page history of the French Foreign Legion for sale on Kindle yesterday for 1.99.

I won't get around to reading it for years, but I couldn't resist.

Posted by: Oschisms at December 20, 2015 09:41 AM (ZsN9X)

68 By the way, the blogger who does "Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog" recently wrapped up a great series on the old fantasy and SF books in Gary Gygax's "Appendix N" in the original Dungeon Masters' Guide. You can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/osxkm7x

For an older reader like myself it's fascinating to watch a man only a few years younger than I am discover a huge culture gap -- basically, a whole canon of SF and fantasy essentially disappeared in the 1980s due to publishing trends and the Thor Power Tools decision.

Two interesting side-notes to the series. First, he encountered the now-inevitable Social Justice Warrior pushback (because Jeffro's blog was nominated by the Sad Puppies last year), insisting that there is totally not a canon gap in SF/F and anyway who wants to read sexist racist pulp stories by cishet white male authors?

The second is more specific: Jeffro gets completely furious about how Leigh Brackett's role in creating Empire Strikes Back has been shoved into the memory hole so that Disney can take some SJW bows for getting rid of the "boys' club" that made the original Star Wars.

Anyway, it's interesting stuff and you may find out about some writers you'd missed. I certainly want to check out more A. Merritt now.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 20, 2015 09:41 AM (QISEb)

69 Out of Silent Planet reads better, oddly enough, after reading Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. Three of my favorite books, both on Kindle and in hardcover.

Posted by: Lizabth at December 20, 2015 09:41 AM (3v3uS)

70 Unless I missed it, the Marine reading list did not include Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Weird because I have heard about a number of Marine leaders requiring their men to read it.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky at December 20, 2015 09:41 AM (rKAyM)

71 The latest five Prager U vids are good examinations of the differences between "left" and "right" views. Not exactly revelations to folks on AoSHQ, but well done. Dennis P himself on all of them.

How Do We Make Society Better?
How Do You Deal with Painful Truths?
How Do You Judge America?
Does It Feel Good or Does It Do Good?
How Big Should Government Be?

Also recommended,
Israel: The World's Most Moral Army
with Colonel Richard Kemp

Prager U videos list
https://www.youtube.com/user/PragerUniversity/videos

Posted by: mindful webworker - right, right at December 20, 2015 09:41 AM (h6BP/)

72 re:chronometer - "The Island of the Day Before" by Umberto Eco is a fascinating look at how longitude was solved by using dogs to...but you'd better read it instead of me spoiling it fer ya!

Posted by: geezer der mensch at December 20, 2015 09:42 AM (DE31Y)

73 I looked up Jacob Gould Schurman in Wiki. Pretty interesting guy I never heard of before. President in Cornell University, and an innovator who got the State and Feds to invest in Land-Grant University research, among other advances.

Schurman was United States Ambassador to Greece in 1912-13. He wrote the The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913 based on his personal meetings with leaders of the warring nations, and his travels through the war area. His book is not mentioned in Wikipedia.

I wonder if he has similar books based on his being Ambassador to China between 1921 and 1925, and then as Ambassador to Germany between 1925 and 1929?

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:42 AM (u82oZ)

74 It's not Kindle etc that will take over but I believe audio books.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky at December 20, 2015 09:43 AM (rKAyM)

75 53's link to City Journal didn't work for me. I searched on "lead books" and got the Walter Olson article which shows the same link 53 posted. Go figure.

Posted by: Tonestaple at December 20, 2015 09:44 AM (dCTrv)

76 Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:42 AM (u82oZ)

Wth? Looks like this guy was the societal grim reaper.

Did he go anywhere and not bring about war and revolution?

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at December 20, 2015 09:44 AM (566ZD)

77 76 weirdflunkyonatablet

Well, he stayed out of South America, so the Chaco War is not on him.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 09:47 AM (u82oZ)

78 Soon, most of the books mentioned on this thread so far will put you on a watch list.

And I don't think an election is going to change this.

Posted by: Soona at December 20, 2015 09:49 AM (Fmupd)

79 Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 09:24 AM (3TXtY)

Probably not. He is a renowned pulmonologist and the chairman of the Columbia University Medical Ethics committee.

He took care of an old family friend....the kindness and empathy he demonstrated, in addition to his medical skill, was amazing and heartening.

His son wrote a book called "The Ecoing Green," about the 1951 National League Pennant series and "The Shot Heard Round The World."

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 20, 2015 09:50 AM (Zu3d9)

80 *scratches head*

It is pretty well known how Leigh Brackett penned an initial version of The Empire Strikes Back in Star Wars fandom. It is hard to ignore a writer who has screenplay credits for movies that star Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne also.

And it is pretty darn churlish to do such to Leigh since she wrote that initial script for Lucas while on her death-bed.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 09:51 AM (EV7bS)

81 Bookshelves overflowing and hard drives jammed full. All I want for Christmas is more storage space, physical and virtual! Well, not all...

Like with the "cloud" and kindle-recall digital-book questions... I habitually download any videos. Infrequently, but occasionally, something will be disappeared from YooToob. Best to keep a personal copy.

Also, as I've mentioned before, better download than streaming because I can back up to re-watch a segment, or the whole thing, without the transmission bits "cost."

Relatedly...

Wish I could remember who posted three tips to quit helping the bad websites - one of them was, instead of linking to sites, screen-cap what you want to reference, and link to your screen-cap.

Posted by: mindful webworker - collector madness at December 20, 2015 09:51 AM (h6BP/)

82 Mindful, thanks for the Prager links. I really love his thoughtful analysis.

Posted by: Emmie at December 20, 2015 09:52 AM (AuYnk)

83 Back in 1989 I read this book "The Raft of Mohammed" by John Peroncel Hugoz.
If it is as good as I remember I highly recommend it.

Posted by: James at December 20, 2015 09:53 AM (w+uQ7)

84 This week I finished The Honor of the Queen by David Weber. It is the second book in the Honor Harrington series. As much as I liked the first in the series, On Basilisk Station, I liked this one even more. Weber does a great job of telling the background leading up to the action, a space battle. It's been an interesting, exciting, fun-read series so far.

Recommended here a few weeks ago, I read The Last Stand of Fox Company by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. During the Korean war the marines of Fox Company, Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment were ordered to take and hold a hill on the west side of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, overlooking a pass through which two marine regiments, seven miles to the north, must use to escape their encirclement. Fox Company, 246 men, are soon surrounded by 10,000 Chinese troops. Despite daily attacks of waves of Chinese troops, they hold for four days and five nights. This is the story of their bravery and sacrifice. The action produced three Medal of Honor recipients. A great story well told.

Posted by: Zoltan at December 20, 2015 09:53 AM (SYHn4)

85 I do not trust the cloud. It is another of too damn many aspects of 'property' (and life) outside my control and subject to the whims of others. I make full use of e-readers but the books that are important in some way are on my shelves. Just a few of the categories are: reference and how-to books; fiction I re-read like the Matt Helm, Vineyard mysteries, early Clive Cussler, and PG Wodehouse; books of 'wisdom' such as the Bible and associated works, CS Lewis, Chesterton, even some of the Transcendentalists; classic literature (by MY standards and for my taste); history. There are more but you get the idea.

I feel the same way about digital photography. It is convenient but has too little longevity. If I get back into photography in a serious way, it will be with B and W large and medium format film I'll develop myself.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 09:53 AM (FvdPb)

86 Have to go to the store for a few things. BBL

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 09:54 AM (t2KH5)

87 Back from another cruise, did a lot of reading.

My wife found a copy of David Drake's Tom-Clancy-inspired technothriller omnibus "Loose Cannon" in the ship's library. A bit dated but a fairly easy read . . . Star Wars and actual aliens.

Larry Correia's "Son of the Black Sword." Correia does high fantasy. Much recommended.

Slogging through (again) David Anthony's "The Horse, The Wheel and Language" about where Proto-Indo-European came from.
A Long Time Until Now, Michael Z. Williamson: a scratch squad from Afghanistan gets thrown back in time to the Paleolithic. Could be argued that a SJW feminazi is actually the main protagonist . . . but I found it very good.
And a host of other books, mostly SF, entirely Baen.

Listening to several podcasts, mainly at night in bed:
David Crowther's History of England is probably my favorite. Frequently hilarious in that special understated Englilsh way.
Mike Duncan's "Revolutions," also re-listening to his "History of Rome."
Kevin Stroud's "History of English."
Russ Roberts' "EconTalk." Russ Roberts moderating Presidential debates might be very enlightening.
Some bunch of morons do a podcast called "Ace of Clubs Podcast" or something like that.

Posted by: filbert at December 20, 2015 09:55 AM (s5o+q)

88 I'm currently working through "You Are Not Special" by David McCullough, Jr., where he expands on his commencement address from a while back. It's good--I think the Horde would agree with most of it--but he keeps throwing out barbs to let his readers know he's not a conservative, no matter how much he sounds like one.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at December 20, 2015 09:55 AM (/ciMI)

89 My wife and kids are going to Florida and Disney on Monday and Tuesday and I am being kicked out of the house as they pack since i am in the way. Sigh. Used to be I could go to a Barnes and Nobles and play there for a few hours but no more...online book stores have killed that.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 09:56 AM (DUoqb)

90 First, there's The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes

-------

It (and its sequel) is actually a pretty helpful book if you're doing a Star Wars party for young 'uns. Cheap and simple ideas for food, largely dependent on a clever Star Wars name.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at December 20, 2015 09:57 AM (/ciMI)

91 Since I'm gonna go see and probably not buy on DVD (because the money goes to H2b abuser Disney) the latest STAR WARS: Whatever, please please spoiler me.

Tell me every little stupid detail that should/would shock me or whatever.

And anyone who IS shocked by a movie spoiler, definitely has some reality issues.

Since the Phantom Menace, you can't shock me by something that occurs in the Star Wars franchise presentations.

So come on, sock it to me. (I already know the Han dies. Bit whoop)

Does Chewie get a perm? R2D2 gets a speech synthesizer and call C3PIO a Fa**ot and his shit's all fcuked up? Or Leia; did Carrie manage to diet down to something less than ORCA or did they do some creative shots or just out and out CGI'd her butt?

Tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone else.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 09:58 AM (Xo1Rt)

92 that's NOT gonna go see. (sheesh)

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 09:58 AM (Xo1Rt)

93 I'm reading Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates. It's surprisingly good.

Bad part, I bought it used and had to erase all the underlines. Someone must have been doing research or a book report. Left a piece of paper with all kinds of notes on it in the book.

Posted by: Infidel at December 20, 2015 09:59 AM (Ao1Et)

94 I forgot to mention, I requested inclusion in the AoS goodreads thingie.

Posted by: filbert at December 20, 2015 10:01 AM (s5o+q)

95 It's not Kindle etc that will take over but I believe audio books.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky

I can't stand audio books. It drives me crazy listening to other people read (and from working in libraries I know I'm not alone in this). I get the allure, especially for people who spend a lot of time driving, but I simply cannot abide them.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at December 20, 2015 10:02 AM (/ciMI)

96 I have a Kindle Paperwhite arriving today, my gift to me. I just don't see this as an either/or kind of thing. I still love physical books and I continue to buy them. But not all books are keepers. I normally go to the library and check out a stack of books. What happens if I come to a day when I don't get out much and can't make it to the library? It may turn out that I don't like reading on a Kindle. I have a few digital cookbooks and maybe it will become a tool for that. At least I'll have something to read.

Don't have anything I'm reading just yet. I am considering reading about the T.E. Lawrence era. I'd checked a book out from the library on it, but had to check it back in. Might be time to try it again.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 20, 2015 10:04 AM (Lqy/e)

97 H.G. Wells: The Time Machine

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 10:06 AM (Xo1Rt)

98 The only book on that Army reading list that interests me is :

Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban
Guerrilla by David Kilcullen.

On Amazon the blurb includes : His extensive fieldwork on the ground in a series of urban conflicts suggests that there will be no military solution for many of the struggles we will face in the future. We will need to involve local people deeply to address problems that neither outsiders nor locals alone can solve, drawing on the insight only locals can bring, together with outsider knowledge from fields like urban planning, systems engineering, renewable energy, conflict resolution and mediation.

Similar books are then listed by Amazon.

--------

Wars end when one side has lost the will to fight, (United States vs North Vietnam for example.) and their means to fight has been taken from them. Resistance fighters need sanctuary. A sympathetic population that will shelter them and provide logistics support and assist in intelligence gathering. (The Muslim invasion of Western Europe and the United States.) (Or the liberal 51% who voted for Obama a second time informing on their 'right wing extremist' neighbors.)

The critics who say that 'nation building' is a waste of time have led us to the Islamic State.

How we win an urban rebellion, from either side of the conflict, without becoming terrorists or a police state, requires active participation by society. If the GOP, or conservatives, won't fight, the conflict is already over.

Posted by: Yannic Perig at December 20, 2015 10:06 AM (CoQ5M)

99 I've often said that my Amazon Kindle re-ignited (appropriately enough, given the name) a passion for reading that had begun to cool as I grew older.

My sons are getting Kindles this Christmas. The mister came across a Facebook thingy that said Christmas gifts should be "Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read." The Kindle fulfills the last category.

Posted by: V the K at December 20, 2015 10:07 AM (G/+Ma)

100 Had reason to do some Bible reading this week due to references in other threads and elsewhere. In this case certain Psalms and the Song of Solomon. Being lazy, I looked online and kept getting the NIV versions, which were, in some way, unsatisfying. Then I checked them in a 1599 Geneva Bible (Patriot's edition) and realized the problem. The NIV versions lacked the poetry and sense of wonder out of the verses. The Geneva Bible verses were more appealing. I don't want to start a holy war and I'm not qualified to judge the validity of the interpretations, the value of the earlier Bible as both literature and inspiration was much better for my taste.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 10:09 AM (FvdPb)

101 A Long Time Until Now, Michael Z. Williamson: a scratch squad from Afghanistan gets thrown back in time to the Paleolithic. Could be argued that a SJW feminazi is actually the main protagonist . . . but I found it very good.

Posted by: filbert at December 20, 2015 09:55 AM (s5o+q)
----
I liked this one a lot too. It was interesting how they found common ground with the indigenes by piecing together a trade language from a basic knowledge of Proto-Indo-European. Also neat how the Romans were willing to accept them as the heirs to the empire based on their military structure, discipline, and tactics (and short hair/shaving).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:09 AM (jR7Wy)

102 I finished reading Gerald Durrell's The Drunken Forest. Durrell (brother to Lawrence Durrell) was an animal collector after WWII, and during a collecting trip to Argentina and Paraguay in the early 50's, but he had to leave Paraguay quickly due to a coup in 1954.
Because of the coup, he didn't get much in the way of animals out of Paraguay, but did write a book about the animals and traveling in the Chaco region of Paraguay. (The name comes from a local tree called the Palo Borracho, or the drunken tree. It has nasty spines and a potbelly)

I had read it before, and I bought another copy for a co-worker who's son is having some problems getting into reading. It is not a book for an average 10 year old to really read - Durrell delights in words and writing and his subject and is more complex than most writing you find today - but the boy's father is a veterinarian, and this is literally a book about poking things with a stick on the edge of a swamp and looking under logs for snakes, it is the sort of book I pushed through when I was that age, and went back to read later.

To follow up, Durrell wrote about his collecting expeditions and about operating his private zoo. All of his books are worth a read, but his collecting expedition books are the most exciting.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 20, 2015 10:10 AM (q2o38)

103 I'm watching "War of the Worlds"--the original one--on TV. If they remade it today, they would blame it on Trump forcing the Aliens to attack us because of the video

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:10 AM (DUoqb)

104 Stapledon?

Never heard of him.

Future prediction books always leave me empty. Because they have no way of knowing and no way to correct them once the time is long enough away.

I wouldn't bet on anyone being accurate but Ol' H.G. did a pretty good job and was proven correct about what he did write for the near future.

Once you get beyond 25 years you're in fairy tale land.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 10:10 AM (Xo1Rt)

105 If War of the Worlds was done today, the Martians would've taken New Jersey quite quickly; few guns. And a blow hard for a Governor. Unless Obama or Bruce Springsteen showed up.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 10:12 AM (Xo1Rt)

106 Just finished "The Crossing" another Michael Connelly Harry Bosch book/ Very good read. It's now on its way to my reading buddy in NV as he I recycle hard copy books. Postage all most made me want to get Amazon to just send him a copy.

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 10:12 AM (ftVQq)

107 Yes, I'm facile but I don't like Chrispie. He's a fake, phony, fraud and he's part of the plan to split the vote and wangle Jeb in his place when told to bow out.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 10:13 AM (Xo1Rt)

108 Star Wars is an attack upon me! Eff Star Wars!

Posted by: Quentin Tarantino at December 20, 2015 10:14 AM (9vLZK)

109 If War of the Worlds was done today, the Martians would've taken New Jersey quite quickly; few guns. And a blow hard for a Governor. Unless Obama or Bruce Springsteen showed up.
Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 20, 2015 10:12 AM (Xo1Rt)

Yeah but if the martians took NJ, who would notice the difference?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:15 AM (DUoqb)

110 If the War of the Worlds were made today, the President would try to defeat them with clever hashtags.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 10:16 AM (3TXtY)

111 Yeah but if the martians took NJ, who would notice the difference?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:15 AM (DUoqb)

My thought was, you mean the Martians haven't already taken over NJ?

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 10:17 AM (ftVQq)

112 Yeah but if the martians took NJ, who would notice the difference?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:15 AM (DUoqb)

The real-estate industry. The property values would go up.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 10:17 AM (3TXtY)

113 If the War of the Worlds were made today, the President would try to defeat them with clever hashtags.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 10:16 AM (3TXtY)

And Obama would be begging for the ban on "full automatic" hashtag generators to be lifted (temporarily, of course)!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 10:19 AM (ftVQq)

114 Thanks for the shoutout, OregonMuse, but one minor correction...I'm a she.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:19 AM (jR7Wy)

115 Thanks for the shoutout, OregonMuse, but one minor correction...I'm a she.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:19 AM (jR7Wy)

Well in that case are you busy tonight?

Asking for a friend

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:22 AM (DUoqb)

116 I HATE underlining in used books -- but for a reason I've never seen anyone else mention.

I hate it because I can't stop wondering WHY the previous owner underlined that particular passage.

Seriously: underliners pick the most bizarre things to mark. I have a book about the Spanish Armada and someone went through and lightly underscored every occurrence of the word "Puritan." WHY?

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 20, 2015 10:23 AM (QISEb)

117 The second is more specific: Jeffro gets completely
furious about how Leigh Brackett's role in creating Empire Strikes Back
has been shoved into the memory hole so that Disney can take some SJW
bows for getting rid of the "boys' club" that made the original Star
Wars.
Posted by: Trimegistus at December 20, 2015 09:41 AM (QISEb)

I wonder how much of that was because Brackett was originally a Warner Brothers screenplay writer.

Oh, and her Skaith books, Ginger Star et al, are very much in the Edgar Rice Burroughs vein with a tad less pulp.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 20, 2015 10:24 AM (q2o38)

118 Heh, the War of the Worlds discussions - rent "Attack the Block". I know, I've mentioned this before, but it is a silly movie about what would happen if aliens landed in the projects.

Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 10:24 AM (NOIQH)

119
115 Thanks for the shoutout, OregonMuse, but one minor correction...I'm a she.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:19 AM (jR7Wy)

Well in that case are you busy tonight?

Asking for a friend
Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:22 AM (DUoqb)

*whistle*

*flag*

Failure to demand pics.

10 yard penalty.

Posted by: eman at December 20, 2015 10:25 AM (MQEz6)

120 114 Thanks for the shoutout, OregonMuse, but one minor correction...I'm a she.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:19 AM (jR7Wy)

Oops, sorry. It's now fixed.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 10:26 AM (3TXtY)

121 Well in that case are you busy tonight?

Asking for a friend
Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:22 AM (DUoqb)
---
Our book fetishist club is holding its annual fundraising orgy at the Library of Congress.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:26 AM (jR7Wy)

122 If the War of the Worlds were made today, the President would try to defeat them with clever hashtags.Posted by:�OregonMuse

If War of the Worlds were made today, I'd warn Americans not to engage in a bigoted backlash against them. But then I'd invite them to the Whitehouse and they'd all die off after Kaci Hickox sneezes on them.

Posted by: Barack Obama at December 20, 2015 10:27 AM (9vLZK)

123 118 Heh, the War of the Worlds discussions - rent "Attack the Block". I know, I've mentioned this before, but it is a silly movie about what would happen if aliens landed in the projects.
Posted by: Lizzy at December 20, 2015 10:24 AM (NOIQH)
---
I think the guy who plays Finn in Star Wars is in that.

Worlds are colliding.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 10:28 AM (jR7Wy)

124 NaCl Dog, Morons all, have you ever heard of a website called WorldCat?

It is a searchable catalog of all participating libraries... which means just about all of them.
This is a search for Jacob Gould Schurman

http://preview.tinyurl.com/j8ypnk5

Click on the hyperlink for the book and it takes you to the listing page. Put in your ZIP and it can tell you the nearest library with that book.

Per my dad, it is amazing the reach of inter-library loan.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 20, 2015 10:30 AM (q2o38)

125 Seriously: underliners pick the most bizarre things to mark.
Posted by: Trimegistus

I knew a girl who underlined everything to keep track of progress. Every. Single. Word.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at December 20, 2015 10:32 AM (/ciMI)

126 A thanks to Grammie Winger (I'm pretty sure it was her) who mentioned the Moody Bible Commentary. It is very helpful, especially when you know as little as I do.

Last week Elisabeth Wolfe suggested A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature by David L. Jeffrey. I have a copy coming and look forward to thumbing through it.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 10:33 AM (FvdPb)

127 I grew up on the Colorado Frontrange and one thing I disliked about Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Times was how *alien* he managed to make the area (which may not have been his fault, time and technology may have indeed changed it that much).

The Horde's own Seamus Muldoon's book To Save Us All From Ruin, on the other hand, was the opposite. I was struck by the familiarity even though the details have changed over 70 years. It also reminded me that my 90 year old grandfather was one of those Colorado farm boys (though he went to the Pacific theater) and I don't even know what order he and his brothers (all deceased) were born in or if they also served. It made me realize I need to ask those questions while it is still possible to get answers.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 20, 2015 10:34 AM (GDulk)

128 JERUSALEM Samir Kuntar, perpetrator of one of the most brutal terror attacks in Israeli history, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, the Iran backed Hezbollah militant group said Sunday.

Kuntar was reportedly the target of a guided missile strike on a residential building in the Damascus district of Jaramana, according to Syrias SANA state run news agency.

Hezbollah Al Manar TV said two Israeli warplanes were behind the attack, and it aired footage of a building that appears to be completely destroyed.

Israel typically does not comment on airstrikes inside Syria. In keeping with that policy, the strike was not mentioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Sundays security cabinet meeting.

National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz said that while he usually doesnt comment on such rumors or reports, he recognized that Kuntar was known to be a very brutal terrorist and a despicable person.

He killed a civilian family, including a baby, many years ago and hes still involved in terrorism, Steinitz said, referring to Kuntars infamous 1979 attack that killed four Israelis. So if something happened to him, I think that no civilized person can be sorry.

Steinitz jested, It is possible that the Finnish intelligence service acted here, I have no idea, I know only what I see in the media.

Attack details so sickening they give pause even to some of Israels enemies

The reviled Kuntar was arrested by Israel in 1979 and sentenced to three life terms for leading a gruesome attack in the northern town of Nahariya in which four Israelis were killed. The attack is considered one of the most brutal in the Jewish states history.

Kuntar led a group of four Palestine Liberation Front terrorists who entered Israel by boat from Lebanon on April 22, 1979. They first killed a policeman, Eliyahu Shahar, who apparently discovered the breach. They divided into two groups. One group, led by Kuntar, broke into the home of the Haran family just before police reinforcements arrived.

Kuntar ran to a nearby beach, taking 31-year-old Danny Haran as a hostage as well as his four-year-old daughter, Einat. Dannys wife, Smadar, hid with her two-year-old daughter, Yael, in a crawlspace above the bedroom. Smadar accidentally suffocated Yael to death while trying to quiet her daughters screams.

Newsweek called the attack so sickening they give pause even to some of Israels enemies.

On the beach, Kuntar shot Danny in front of his daughter and then drowned him in the sea to make sure he was dead. Kuntar then smashed Einats skull with a rock, killing her on the spot.

Kuntar was imprisoned until 2008, when he was released in a controversial swap for two bodies of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Historic justice was served

Speaking to Army Radio on Sunday, Smadar Haran hailed the alleged Israeli airstrike as historic justice.

They called me at 4 a.m, I woke up and thought about the years that passed, how historic justice had been made, she said.

Danny Harans brother, Roni, told Ynetnews that he waited for this moment for seven years, since Kuntar was released from prison.

Samir Kuntar never regretted his actions, and there is a small consolation in [his assassination], although it doesnt take away the pain, he said.

I hope that this gets the message across that whoever murders Jews in Israel and in the world will end up like Samir Kuntar and the Munich murderers [of Israeli athletes], stated Haran. As it stands, in the Middle East, this seems like the only language they understand.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 10:35 AM (DUoqb)

129 If anyone has a spare dollar or ten, can you please send it to my GoFundMe page?

Jobs are meager. Book sales are meager. Bank account is empty. And mortgage is coming due along with electric bill.

So please?
https://www.gofundme.com/8k4zdgw9

Thanks.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 10:37 AM (EV7bS)

130 Greetings, O Book Thread!
(looks around, counts the kilts, makes notes in lab notebook)

About the cloud: it's just a tool. I've experienced both the joys and sorrows of the cloud, working for a company that is a fairly big name in that space. As long as take the proper precautions, it can be useful. HOWEVER, keeping your one copy of anything in the cloud is just boneheaded. Make copies. Make copies of copies. Store one outside your home. My sister and I swap backup drives every few months so even if an asteroid hits one of our homes we don't have to start from scratch (and if SMOD hits both of us well, it was nice knowing y'all).

As much as I like the cloud as a tool, what happens to a software company that loses its internet connection to the cloud is pure comedy. Unproductive comedy. Which is why, now that MicroSnot is trying to beat everyone into using subscriptions even for their OS, I am planning my next system to be Linux. Linux Mint with Cinnamon is gloriously easy to use, and all the stuff I need works with it.

I imagine, too, that as digital texts become more prevalent we will see something like versioning for software which will make it very easy to see when a change was made, what it was, and possibly who did it. They can be devious, yes...and we can be devious right back. Be not afraid.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at December 20, 2015 10:38 AM (GG9V6)

131 Bitter Clinger: Once you get beyond 25 years you're in fairy tale land.

Ooo, a hook for a poster I did a couple of years ago.

No One Expects the Future
http://bit.ly/no-one-expects-the-future

Posted by: mindful webworker - collector madness at December 20, 2015 10:41 AM (h6BP/)

132 Remember, life is too lousy to be reading short books. Wait...

Posted by: Insomniac - Pale Horse/Death 2016 at December 20, 2015 10:41 AM (kpqmD)

133 First off: This is the last day to enter to win my fantasy novel Old Habits on Goodreads. This is a print, signed copy that I'll mail out once the winners are announced.

http://tinyurl.com/jzaoweg

Old Habits is a fantasy novel about a thief on the run and in over his head.

Second, I just read a couple of westerns.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 10:48 AM (39g3+)

134 The first western I read was by Loren Estleman, who is my favorite living author. The novel Ragtime Cowboys is set in 1921 and features a young Dashiell Hammett and a old Charlie Siringo, both real people. Siringo was an operative for the Pinkerton detective agency in the old west and wrote several books about his life and activities - books that the Pinks forced him to edit to fictionalize, unfortunately.

They interact with other notables from the time period such as the old and still-living Wyatt Earp and the young Joe Kennedy. The book is not Estelman's finest work but is still quite entertaining, with great dialog and interesting plot, woven with historical characters.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 10:51 AM (39g3+)

135 Posted by: Sabrina Chase at December 20, 2015 10:38 AM (GG9V6)

Last time I worked with Word, there was a track changes option that let you see reviewers comments with a date-time stamp, of course that worked because all the reviewers and the author wanted to polish the fnal product. A traceable software versioning option is obviously very doable. Big Cloud would work from a different anti-versioning perspective I'm sure.

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 10:51 AM (ftVQq)

136 I am running Mint-Cinnamon on both our computers. I run CrossOver for a few Windows programs. I've run Ubuntu for some time, but these computers from Free Geek came with Mint. It's very impressive. It's fast and easy to use. I've been using old Macs for awhile too but I've hit the point that Im fed up with Apple.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 20, 2015 10:51 AM (Lqy/e)

137 ----
E-texts don't have this advantage. By their nature, they are extremely
malleable, and subject to the whims of whatever technician, corporation,
or government agency owns the area of "the cloud" where they're stored.
----

The an E-text can be cryptographically signed to show that it is at least as old as the signature. This process is described in Bruce Schneier's book (2nd ed -- I've never seen the first ed). I was curious about this a few years ago and discovered that there were a dozen or more such service existing on the internet at the time, including one operated by the FSF.

Posted by: gh at December 20, 2015 10:52 AM (YlqSL)

138 Finished "City on Fire," the NYT bestseller for which the author was paid a $2 million advance for his first novel.

Very well written, but the ending, which takes place during the 1977 NYC blackout, was less than satisfying. An epilogue wraps it up after that.

I would like to see something else by this guy, but it may be a case where he has only one novel in him. In this book he captured quite well the punk scene in a wrecked city, an age before his birth, so maybe he can do something else.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at December 20, 2015 10:53 AM (U6f54)

139 "Printed books, stored in individual libraries, serve to preserve a permanent, decentralized record of the world as it actually was at the time they were written"
________

True. But there's more to it than what you pointed out.

A book -- an actual book, with paper pages and cover and binding, as distinct from a collection of content that's known as "a book" nowadays -- is a connection to the past. Opening and holding and reading a record of the past in this medium recreates an activity that goes back at least five hundred years.

It may seem so trivial as to go unnoticed, but this part of the reading experience is absent when one consumes words through an electronic device.

Posted by: FireHorse at December 20, 2015 10:53 AM (sZtiM)

140 Steinitz jested, It is possible that the Finnish intelligence service
acted here, I have no idea, I know only what I see in the media.

I believe this goes back to a shipment or something similar of purported Israeli rifles that were found and a stink raised about, that the Israeli government stated that looked "suspiciously like a Finnish arm" and anyway they didn't know anything to talk about it.

I have a suspicion that this is some sort of signalling. Or running gag.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 20, 2015 10:55 AM (q2o38)

141 The second was by Bill Pronzini, who I didn't know wrote westerns. It was a small book from '83 called Gallows Land. It was okay, not a book I'd buy for myself. Pronzini is channeling Louis L'Amour so hard I half expected a mention of Shalako and the Sacketts in the book.

In the end its not bad, and Pronzini's own voice comes through but it wasn't that terrific, either.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 10:55 AM (39g3+)

142 Frontiers Saga Episode 15 is up for preorder.

Hard Military Sci Fi FTW

http://amzn.to/1IfBjsR

Posted by: Garbone at December 20, 2015 10:56 AM (9dH/8)

143 Posted by: V the K at December 20, 2015 10:07 AM (G/+Ma)

Interseting, my Mom told me a couple of years ago that the gift criteria you mentioned was what she and my dad used when we were kids. I guess it's a "thing" then.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 20, 2015 10:57 AM (GDulk)

144
129 If anyone has a spare dollar or ten, can you please send it to my GoFundMe page?

Jobs are meager. Book sales are meager. Bank account is empty. And mortgage is coming due along with electric bill.

So please?
https://www.gofundme.com/8k4zdgw9

Thanks.
Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 10:37 AM (EV7bS)

Bought some paperbacks of Golden Isis.

Hope this helps.

Posted by: eman at December 20, 2015 10:57 AM (MQEz6)

145 My favorite westerns are the few that Elmore Leonard wrote, plus McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove," and Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian."

Posted by: the littl shyning man at December 20, 2015 10:57 AM (U6f54)

146 I'm guilty of modifying ebooks to fix things. I've never taken away, but I have added slightly and done little tweaks to fix the books. The changes are things only an editor would likely spot, but they are something you could never get away with in a print book without a new edition.

That kind of bothers me, for reasons brought up here, but also in terms of honesty - I can "fix" my books to make them better, but then they aren't the book someone bought originally.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 10:57 AM (39g3+)

147 It's fast and easy to use. I've been using old Macs for awhile too but I've hit the point that Im fed up with Apple.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 20, 2015 10:51 AM (Lqy/e)

Apple and Microsoft are like the Democratic Party and the GOP. Two sides of an not very distinguishable uniparty.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 10:59 AM (3TXtY)

148 I have a book about the Spanish Armada and someone went through and lightly underscored every occurrence of the word "Puritan." WHY

====

GIMME BACK MAH BOOK!

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 10:59 AM (F+xWX)

149 By the way, those Oberlin students protesting over bad cafeteria food are... demanding to be paid to protest, now.

http://tinyurl.com/jtded85

No joke.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 10:59 AM (39g3+)

150 Seriously: underliners pick the most bizarre things to mark. I have a book about the Spanish Armada and someone went through and lightly underscored every occurrence of the word "Puritan." WHY?

heh. I had to erase it all before I started to read. Seems that person was interested in Naval History.

I found it interesting the the first photo in the middle of the book was an etching of the 20+ ways the barbary pirates tortured their Christian slaves.

Interesting may not be the right word.

Posted by: Infidel at December 20, 2015 11:00 AM (Ao1Et)

151 Kuntar was imprisoned until 2008, when he was released in a controversial swap for two bodies of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Holy crap, that sounds like a TERRIBLE deal. Two corpses for one of the most brutal terrorists in modern history? Really? Why the hell did Israel sign off on it?

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 11:01 AM (3TXtY)

152 Believe it or not, I've dived deep into Horatio Alger novels. They are inspirational, motivational type books featuring a young man as a hero who has met unfortunate circumstances, and is still making the best of it and pulling himself up by his bootstraps.

Old fashioned and kind of corny by today's standards, but evocative of a different time in our country. Titles like "Strive and Succeed", "The Young Adventurer", etc.

I read several of them when I was a kid and sick for an extended period. I enjoyed them then, and they were quick, fun reads with some crazy old fashioned dialogue.

Instead of "You seem like a real a-hole to me" you get, "Permit me to remark I have no special desire to make your acquaintance."

Anyway, I decided to check the Kindle store and found to my delight that an extensive collection of his novels was downloadable for a couple of bucks.

Doesn't get much better than that.

Posted by: RM at December 20, 2015 11:01 AM (U3LtS)

153 146 see 137

Posted by: gh at December 20, 2015 11:02 AM (YlqSL)

154 I tie flies for fishing. I know the basics but still have to get familiar with the moves. Just got a book "Simple Flies" by Morgan Lyle. It doesn't teach the stone cold newcomer how to tie but the patterns are relatively easy, as the title suggests. I foresee some new to me patterns for the spring and summer. If you like fly tying, I think it is worth a look.

Fly tying, like whittling, reloading, and other 'hand' activities is therapy. They call for focus and concentration (especially when charging the ammo cases) but they both absorb my attention and deflect the constant bombardment of irritating and enraging news that is always out there.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 11:02 AM (FvdPb)

155 I knew a girl who underlined everything to keep track of progress

=====

if I'm reading a physical book I can usually open it to exactly where I left off and my eyes fall to the right paragraph, even if I haven't picked it up for awhile. that always astounded me. no bookmark needed.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 11:03 AM (F+xWX)

156 I have a book about the Spanish Armada and someone went through and lightly underscored every occurrence of the word "Puritan." WHY

That is one of the very, very annoying things about buying used books. Cheap and available but most of them some knucklehead has marked up, often with a pen, for their own obscure reasons.

The ones I dislike the most are the editors who change words they figure weren't right or were typos. Usually they were, but now when I read I see your ink marks 10 times more prominently than the words on the page and it yanks me out of that comfortable zone where you half forget you're reading a book.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:03 AM (39g3+)

157 My favorite westerns are the few that Elmore Leonard
wrote, plus McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove," and Cormac McCarthy's "Blood
Meridian."

Posted by: the littl shyning man at December 20, 2015 10:57 AM (U6f54)

Leonard's sort of western "Cuba Libre" was very good.
McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" was excellent but I thought he lost his touch later in his writing career, and lost interest in him as an author.

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:03 AM (ftVQq)

158 An exemplary Book Thread this morning. I'll be sending out links to pals. Thank you.

Posted by: Anonymous-9 at December 20, 2015 11:04 AM (vmHHv)

159 Happy Jesus' birthday celebration week!

Over 150 comments? Time for my weekly wall o' text, then.

:/

I was raised in the heart of the Bible Belt, but in the sedate old-fash Episcopal church in which I was raised, we weren't Bible-heavy. Religion also wasn't touched on much at home, except for saying Grace at mealtime. Mom wanted us to attend church so we did. Dad didn't, except the Holidays.

Every week, the communion service included readings from the Gospels and the Epistles. The best part of the service for me (other than the end of it) were the readings from the Gospels. I loved Jesus from an early age, what I knew of him.

But readings from the Gospels don't really tell the story.

By mid-college years, I'd read and heard a lot of pro and con about Jesus, Christianity, and faith. Remember The Passover Plot? I knew the Christian teachings, but I didn't and don't necessarily buy into them all. But I wanted to know more about Jesus.

So, I first read the Gospels through for myself at 19. When I was done I had two peculiar thoughts: one, I understood at last what all the excitement was about for two thousand years, and, two, how come nobody ever told me about this? Heh.

The power of words: When I was finished, I was permanently persuaded that Jesus lived, that he said, and did, (most of) what he's reported therein to have done, including raising the dead and rising from the dead, and that he was, as he claimed, "Son of God." It's what they killed him for, after all.

Jesus I believed, but I've never been a Bible absolutist or Christian Fundamentalist. After reading the Gospels, I felt like I needed to know still more. I wondered if I ever would. Figured, probably not in this life.

1 of 3

Posted by: mindful webworker - Jesusonian at December 20, 2015 11:05 AM (h6BP/)

160 This bears repeating in case people missed it:

Frontiers Saga Episode 15 is up for preorder.

Hard Military Sci Fi FTW

http://amzn.to/1IfBjsR

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:05 AM (39g3+)

161 2 of 3

"You've got to read this book! It's the oneandonly true story of Jesus!" a relative exclaimed breathily, thrusting a Urantia Book at me a few years later. That was my introduction to the UB... but I eventually read it anyway.

About 1/3 of the UB's nearly 2100 pages is a purported revelation of Jesus's life and teachings, from incarnation through resurrection and ascension. Both his early ("lost") years and his pubic teaching are told in great detail, and from a behind-the-scenes ("angelic" narrator) perspective.

The UB's Jesus teaching does not entirely comport with the Gospels, in fact and detail - would we need a "revelation" if it was just a reiteration? - but I thought it was very much the same Jesus, in Spirit, I knew from the Gospels. Hoax or revelation, it's a good read.

After I read it, I looked for other such works. There are other "lost years" and "oneandonly true stories" of Jesus.

One I can remember reading was something called the Gospel According to Levi. I was unimpressed and never finished it. Did not seem at all to me like the Jesus I knew from the Gospels. Long decades ago, that's all I recall.

There were the Apocrypha, of course. Maybe some bits were valid, but very few bits that weren't also in the Gospels. Some fantastic tales that just don't ring true. Again, this is from long time ago memory. Reading them did leave me with great respect for the folks who decided to include only the synoptic gospels and John in the New Testament.

I liked the Gospel of Thomas. A collection of sayings and stories more than the narrative-like canonical gospels. Something like the Q gospel might've been? Didn't necessariy believe it that, when the Apostles complained about the Magdalene because she wasn't a man, Jesus said, well, then, we'll give her a man's soul. But it was amusing to me.

There's also A Course in Miracles which, while not a "true story of Jesus," does purport to speak in the Son's voice. I thought there were some things to be gleaned from the Course about how evil contends with good, but that Son's voice part annoyed me and I never finished. I found it rambling and repetitive. I'm a Course drop-out.

One thing I found weird was avid Course students who believed it really was Jesus talking, yet had never read the Gospels. How could you know if it was Jesus if you'd never read the only historical sources?

Worst thing that I read along these lines (sort-of) was Michael Moorcock's sci-fi time travel work, Behold the Man. I found it pointless, disgusting, and practically blasphemous. YMMV

I kept coming back to the UB. I should mention it encouraged me to better learn the OT scriptures, the basis for Jesus' teaching.

There are many aspects in the Urantia life of Jesus that intrigue me because the detail is so rich and the writing so well-done. Descriptions of place and time and culture - someone knew what they were talking about.

One small but fascinating "revelation" for me was in the birth of Jesus narrative. Mary delivered "with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers." V8 forehead slap "duh!" So crowded the innkeeper was renting out the barn? They weren't all by themselves off in some pasture!

No shepherds heard singing and came by, though.

2 of 3

Posted by: mindful webworker - Jesusonian at December 20, 2015 11:06 AM (h6BP/)

162 3 of 3

Which is my longwinded way of (re-)introducing my 2013 comic, "Journey to Bethlehem," illustrating the holy family, from packing for the taxman-forced trip until the Herod-induced flight into Egypt. Somewhat loosely derived from - I should perhaps say "inspired by" - the UB telling. I re-inserted a shepherd and made a few other tweaks, for illustrated-narrative purposes.

The comic was originally serialized in my "Daily Doodle" series and I got pressed for time. One thing I left out was the presentation of Jesus at the temple, where to Mary and Joseph's surprise, their newborn was praised in song. There is dark comic appeal in the spies of Herod hearing this, bringing back to the monstrous king some scraps of the song which they had heard, but failing to keep track of the holy family themselves. I imagine incomeptent minions getting the foul end of Herod's temper over that one.

Some of the comic may be a touch confusing if you don't know the UB version, or some intended-as-humorous bits might shock you if you are a Biblical absolutist, but I'd like to think it's mostly accessible and readable to all. And, I hope, reverently respectful.

The comic comes in two flavors. Full-size comic panels by themselves, all on a single page, or, a five-page reduced-size display interspersed with the UB's Birth and Infancy of Jesus text. Try the full-size.

That's my Christmas gift to the Book Thread readers. There are, ahem, PayPal donation buttons on the site. Don't know if they work, because nobody's ever used them. But they're there. (What kind of cheapskate hits for payment for a Christmas gift??) Comments may be left on the table of contents page.

http://bit.ly/journey-to-bethlehem-toc

Posted by: mindful webworker - Jesusonian at December 20, 2015 11:06 AM (h6BP/)

163 Well I'm back from the market. Went to IGA to avoid Christmas crowds at Walmart. Every other of the 70K people in this county was in IGA.

Got flustered at checkout and did not pick up my receipt so don't know what I charged on the debit card. Ts going to be one of those days.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 11:07 AM (t2KH5)

164 Posted by: mindful webworker - Jesusonian at December 20, 2015 11:05 AM (h6BP/)

You are gently reminding me that I have a Bible that needs ~~some~~ much rereading!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:07 AM (ftVQq)

165 When I was done I had two peculiar thoughts: one, I understood at last what all the excitement was about for two thousand years, and, two, how come nobody ever told me about this? Heh.

The gospel is the most exciting, amazing, stunning, and monumentally important story ever told. It is mind-blowing but Christians for some reason are almost ashamed to talk about it.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:07 AM (39g3+)

166 52
This week I've been reading some old Conan stories by Robert E. Howard
-- that dude could _write_, let me tell you. Even an obvious piece of
hackwork slapped together to pay the bills is still pretty good (I'm
thinking of "Iron Shadows in the Moon" or "The Pool of the Black One"
which are pretty much the exact same story with different proper nouns).

Too bad he didn't think of the pronoun thing. Coulda squeezed a couple more books out of it.

Posted by: Ancillary Anachronda at December 20, 2015 11:08 AM (o78gS)

167 Trismegistus - Yes, I wonder sometimes, too.

T. Ferguson - I saw one of those books once.

Lizzie - you mentioned Attack the Block a week or so ago .... thanks ! My library got it on loan from another library and we enjoyed it a lot.

Which reminds me to plug my favorite aliens-invade-earth-and-come-to-regret-it book; The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Alien invaders land in a British village just arming up for the Crusade and hilarity ensues ! Good surprise ending, and (as someone else on that thread pointed out) a funny last paragraph.
Had to re-read it after that discussion.

The cloud - I don't use it, personally, and don't plan to either.

FireHorse - yes, I had that feeling as a kid and it has stuck with me.

I plan to keep every physical book I own, and continue adding to the collection.
I am thinking about getting an ebook of some kind soon, but only for the convenience of having my top 50+ books at hand always, not as a replacement.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez (rock salt and fire-hook at the ready !) at December 20, 2015 11:13 AM (erRNA)

168 I don't keep anything on the cloud and think it is
foolish to do so. I want all of my data where I can put my hands on it.
That's just me though.

Posted by: freaked at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (BO/km)

Agree 100% I get very annoyed when co-workers wish to use the cloud (looking at you, Dropbox) to send me data. That is what e-mail is for. I don't own any e-reader, nor do I plan to get one.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 11:14 AM (7MWCL)

169 The Harrison clocks still exist. Slight bit of rebuilding in the 20th century, but they're still around and they still work.

When I went to London in '14, I made a point of hitting Greenwich to see them.

Pretty good TV movie made about it.

Posted by: Captain Comic at December 20, 2015 11:14 AM (2jjUI)

170 : I came across an amazing story of an 18th century quasi-Trump, Timothy Dexter. He was only semi-literate but is best known today for his autobiography, A Pickle For the Knowing Ones. He married a well to do widow ten years his senior. Despite no formal education, he was either the smartest or luckiest investor in history. Despite idiotic investments, bed warmers for the bitterly cold nights in the Caribbean, knit gloves and hats for those bitter winters in the South Pacific, feral cats for the Caribbean, coal to Newcastle, buying worthless currency, he always fell into clover with incredible profits.

Soon he was one of the wealthiest men in the country but he was a nouveau riche vulgarian with an enormous ego, he awarded himself a lordship and this in the new anti-nobility US, and was rejected by high society, a fact he hated. He built a gaudy mansion with huge statues of the greatest men in history only one of whom was so honored with two statues, himself. He was full of eccentricities such as deciding the French language was merely a manner of hand gestures so he gave speeches in French with no actual knowledge of the language. And then there was his relationship with his wife . . . .

Read It Ended Badly for more.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at December 20, 2015 11:15 AM (Nwg0u)

171 Got flustered at checkout and did not pick up my receipt so don't know what I charged on the debit card. Ts going to be one of those days.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 11:07 AM (t2KH5)

Yes, but don't you do online banking? I do, and so I can check my account for recent purchases so losing receipts isn't so much a problem for me any more.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 11:15 AM (3TXtY)

172 129
Jobs are meager. Book sales are meager. Bank account is empty. And mortgage is coming due along with electric bill.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 10:37 AM (EV7bS)

Done.

Posted by: rickl at December 20, 2015 11:18 AM (sdi6R)

173 A book I recently read by a independent writer who has small sales is Tears of Heaven by Rob McCandless. The cover is weak, but the insides are dynamite. He takes a bit of obscure Biblical information about the Sons of Angels and Sons of men resulting in "The Nephelim," which has been the center of confusion and discussion for thousands of years, and builds a story.

The main character Del is a Nephelim, the result of angels sleeping with humans. After a few years of letting this happen, "The Throne" (his term for God) decided that was enough and gave all these super-powered children a choice: work for The Throne or die. Del has been doing this since before Rome, and by modern day is a bit burnt out and angry.

Her job: find rogue Nephelim and demons (called "rogues") loose on earth and take them out.

The story is well told, exciting, fast-paced, creative, clever, and respectful despite its Biblical themes being written by an atheist. There is a sequel out "Hell Becomes Her" which is just as good.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:18 AM (39g3+)

174 I don't keep anything on the cloud and think it is
foolish to do so.

I'm the same way. I want my music and software in hard copy form as well. Yes, i can download mp3s but I want a CD. Yes I can get movies streamed, but I want the DVD. Yes I can store my stuff online but you're crazy if you rely on that. I want my stuff to be mine, not vapor that can be eliminated, changed, or lost.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:20 AM (39g3+)

175 124 WorldCat is great. You can borrow a copy of practically any book that ever made it into a library anywhere. You have to make requests through your local library, at least around here. It help to find the local librarian who is the specialist in inter-library loan.

Posted by: cool breeze at December 20, 2015 11:25 AM (6Cu7i)

176 Re: Linux - Mint is lovely. For older computers, a lighter-weight user interface is better. I'm running Debian Linux with LXDE UI and Libre Office on an old Acer Netbook that bogged down running Windows XP. A slight learning curve on installation, but not bad.

The LXDE version of Ubuntu, Lubuntu, is almost as light-weight and easier for Linux beginners.

Posted by: doug at December 20, 2015 11:25 AM (e16Wl)

177 171 Yes, but don't you do online banking? I do, and so I
can check my account for recent purchases so losing receipts isn't so
much a problem for me any more.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 11:15 AM (3TXtY)

Yes, told wifey to check it in a few days.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at December 20, 2015 11:25 AM (t2KH5)

178 I use the cloud a lot for books i don't care all that much about, samples I've rejected, that kind of thing.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 11:26 AM (F+xWX)

179 No way I ever would have known the name of the book Churchill was referring to, but as I read the quote, and I realize context means EVERYTHING, but I couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't part of Hitler's little tome, His Kampf.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 20, 2015 11:26 AM (Dj0WE)

180 So is there truth in this literary pie-chart?
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qz657w7

-
I see Shakespeare was a pioneer of bear rape.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at December 20, 2015 11:27 AM (Nwg0u)

181 I'm sorry to hear about your tough situation Anna. I've picked up a copy of your ebook, and will throw it a review once I get it read. Money is tight here too, so I don't buy books often but I have a bit right now due to sales.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:29 AM (39g3+)

182 Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 10:37 AM (EV7bS)
---
C'mon Morons, drop a few quatloos Anna's way. She gifts us with lots of informative content, not to mention "links of interest".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:30 AM (jR7Wy)

183 For older computers, a lighter-weight user interface is better.

===

I'm running SUSE with LXDE on an IBM laptop.

I've got some other favorites though, like the discontinued Crunchbang #! which is now Bunsenlabs Linux. minimalist and awesome

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 11:31 AM (F+xWX)

184 I'm the same way. I want my music and software in hard copy form as well. Yes, i can download mp3s but I want a CD. Yes I can get movies streamed, but I want the DVD. Yes I can store my stuff online but you're crazy if you rely on that. I want my stuff to be mine, not vapor that can be eliminated, changed, or lost.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:20 AM (39g3+)
---
Yes, I can download a simulacrum of my magnificent mind into an android replica, but I still have a few clones in storage just in case of EMP attack.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:32 AM (jR7Wy)

185 Yes I can store my stuff online but you're crazy if
you rely on that. I want my stuff to be mine, not vapor that can be
eliminated, changed, or lost.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:20 AM (39g3+)

Don't rely on single thread "self" storage either, backup, backup, and then backup.
Of course when the power grid fails, those of us with paper copies will be able to stay toasty warm (and entertained) for a while!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:32 AM (ftVQq)

186 I have to laugh every time I see this term "the cloud". It is a marketing gimmick, nothing more, given that we (network engineers) have been doing this literally from day one. All the "cloud" actually is, is a computer data network, the origins of which can be traced back to something called SAGE, built back in the 1950s.

When you use the "cloud", all you are doing is sending your data across the network, using the various communication lines (think telephone) to another physical location and storing said data on a computer there, something we have been doing quite literally forever. There is nothing at all unusual, unique or new about "the cloud". As I said before, this term is just a marketing gimmick.

Do I use the network/Internet/"the cloud"/whatever to store backup copies of my data? Hell, no. For one thing, I'd have to pay someone to store it on their machines, wherever they are. This I do not choose to do. For another, my data would not be secure. Any time Obama's minions wanted to look at my data, they could, and I trust them as far as I could throw this house. And spare me the "it's encrypted" BS. If you think the Feds don't have backdoor crypto keys to access your data if they choose, you are living in a dream world.

Instead, I use a combination of RAID arrays, thumb drives and other external data storage devices to make backup copies of my data for safekeeping, and it's right here where I can keep an eye on it, no "cloud" needed.

The "cloud", which is really just the Internet as it currently exists (yes, it's structure has changed a lot over the years) is a useful tool, not the least of which because it allows us to access sites like AoSHQ and others of interest to us. Useful, but it will never be truly safe nor secure. Keep that in mind.

Posted by: The Oort Cloud - Source of all SMODs at December 20, 2015 11:35 AM (AYY6Y)

187 Sources in Greece said on Sunday that the country's parliament is to officially recognize a Palestinian state on Tuesday, following a vote last week. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to be present at the official ceremony, and will likely arrive in Athens on Sunday.

?????

You mean GREECE is still a state? I thought it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Germany?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 11:35 AM (DUoqb)

188 I have to laugh every time I see this term "the cloud". It is a marketing gimmick, nothing more, given that we (network engineers) have been doing this literally from day one.

Yeah, although the term "cloud" is a lot older than people realize. Its a dumb word to make electronic storage sound more interesting and cool to middle management and clueless business owners.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:36 AM (39g3+)

189 Posted by: The Great White Snark at December 20, 2015 11:27 AM (Nwg0u)

From my quick look, it appears there is an unnamed form of death on the lower left hand chart between "poisoned" and "stabbed and poisoned".

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:36 AM (ftVQq)

190 I've been reading Calculus Made Easy, a book on gutenberg.org from 1914

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

I'm only in differentiation, but I'm stunned how easy he made it. I can actually derive derivatives now, not just apply the old memorized patterns.

It sure seemed a lot harder back in high school.

Posted by: t-bird at December 20, 2015 11:36 AM (oFSUK)

191 From my quick look, it appears there is an unnamed form of death on the lower left hand chart between "poisoned" and "stabbed and poisoned".
Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:36 AM (ftVQq)
---
It's called "Rasputinizing" (Stabbed, poisoned, drowned).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:37 AM (jR7Wy)

192 Apple and Microsoft are like the Democratic Party and the GOP. Two sides of an not very distinguishable uniparty.
Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 10:59 AM (3TXtY)

Have you seen that commercial? I think it's Microsoft's, but it could just as easily be Apple's. They're Christmas caroling, and end up at a building full of other workers, all dressed alike. The workers in the other building come out, and there is peace, with goodwill toward men, for all.

I didn't realize until after I had seen it a couple times, that was supposed to be the Apple building at which they were caroling.

Well isn't that special. I was supposed to recognize the Apple building? Or the color of their shirts?

Good grief, we're not that far from, likely mostly apocryphal stories of German and french (or American North and South) soldiers on a battlefield, stopping the shooting to sing together on Christmas, at midnight.

The thing I hate the most, I'm supposed to recognize the colors of the shirts for what they are. Enemy combatants.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 20, 2015 11:38 AM (Dj0WE)

193 You mean GREECE is still a state? I thought it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Germany?

Worst investment, ever.

Posted by: Germans at December 20, 2015 11:38 AM (39g3+)

194 Well....

Posted by: Secret Nazi base in Neuschwabenland at December 20, 2015 11:40 AM (jR7Wy)

195 Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

-Groucho Marx

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 20, 2015 11:40 AM (LUgeY)

196 How has nobody mentions The Bluejacket's Manual for squid books?

Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:42 AM (k1gv+)

197 @183 Crunchbang was wonderful. I used it on several machines.

I haven't checked out the Bunsen Labs effort in some time, but I think the Crunchbang leader, Corenominal, was an outstanding talent and he was the principle reason Crunchbang was so good.

I also think that he was right in saying that the maturity of the other UI alternatives made Crunchbang superfluous. Stock LXDE is awfully good.

Posted by: doug at December 20, 2015 11:42 AM (e16Wl)

198 the cloud is just shorthand, sure. on a kindle once you have the book or sample your choices are device or cloud and it doesn't cost any more since you're just leaving it at Amazon. the only way you really have a given book is to download a pdf or similar document though, thereby breaking any connection to Amazon in its chain of ownership.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 11:43 AM (F+xWX)

199 It's called "Rasputinizing" (Stabbed, poisoned, drowned).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:37 AM (jR7Wy)

Rasputin was some bad-ass. After all of those attempts failed, they brought in a bear, but it ran away howling after Rasputin raped it.

True story.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 11:43 AM (3TXtY)

200 Remember, life is too short to read a good book when there are so many bad ones you haven't gotten to get.

Posted by: StrawMan at December 20, 2015 11:43 AM (6hLK2)

201 Some Pacific commissary produce prices spike under new contracts

BUT BILLIONS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS AND SANCTUARY CITIES

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 11:44 AM (DUoqb)

202 Get = yet

Lousy touch pad.

Posted by: StrawMan at December 20, 2015 11:44 AM (6hLK2)

203 Life is too short to NOT read.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:45 AM (39g3+)

204 Worst investment, ever.

Posted by: Germans at December 20, 2015 11:38 AM (39g3+)
Just wait a bit and you'll be thinking "second worst".

Posted by: The millions of illiterate Muslims Germany is importing right now at December 20, 2015 11:46 AM (6Cu7i)

205 Mrs. Chupacabra has been hounding me to buy a cat treadmill that she saw at a client's house.

I'm having a very difficult time countering her argument.

Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:46 AM (k1gv+)

206 Wow are there a lot of adult coloring books (not "adult", but those are available too, I'm sure).

I get it, because when I'm drawing I forget everything else.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:47 AM (jR7Wy)

207 It's called "Rasputinizing" (Stabbed, poisoned, drowned).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:37 AM (jR7Wy)

When you absolutely positively have to be sure!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:47 AM (ftVQq)

208 don't the cats claw at your ankles as you treadmill em?

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 11:47 AM (F+xWX)

209 Not if you're quick.

Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:48 AM (k1gv+)

210 Grown up coloring books are a great idea that has been waiting a long time. Everybody likes colorings, its fun and easy and lets you forget bad stuff for a while. There's nothing necessarily childish about coloring things in.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (39g3+)

211 Mrs. Chupacabra has been hounding me to buy a cat treadmill that she saw at a client's house.

I'm having a very difficult time countering her argument.
Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:46 AM (k1gv+)

Does your wife like being referred to as Mrs. Goatsucker?

Posted by: StrawMan at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (6hLK2)

212 Yeah, although the term "cloud" is a lot older than people realize. Its a dumb word to make electronic storage sound more interesting and cool to middle management and clueless business owners.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 11:36 AM (39g3+)

Exactly. Hell, we used a "cloud" symbol in our network diagrams back when I first started in this racket in the early 1980s, and I can't begin to guess how long it was used before that. But it sounds so cool and new to the clueless management types out there...

Posted by: The Oort Cloud - Source of all SMODs at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (AYY6Y)

213 Rasputin was some bad-ass. After all of those attempts failed, they brought in a bear, but it ran away howling after Rasputin raped it.

True story.
Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 11:43 AM (3TXtY)
---
It was just Prince Yusupov in a "bear" costume.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (jR7Wy)

214 161 ... mindful webworker, Your mention of the Urantia Book is intriguing. In your opinion, will the paperback version hold up to use considering its size or should I look for a hardback version?

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (FvdPb)

215 Well, 'the cloud' saved me a few days ago. I had some documents in a software package and when I clicked 'remove from software package' said software deleted the files from the hard disk.

Without backup I would have been unable to recreate the documents.

And I have so many 'back up copies' I have difficulty remembering which one is the most current.

Posted by: Angus Irving at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (Cr0vq)

216 BUT BILLIONS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS AND SANCTUARY CITIES

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 11:44 AM (DUoqb)

True "leaders" have to have a sense of priorities, trust their instincts, gracefully accept the hosannas of their sycophants, and not follow the base desires of their citizens.

Being insane helps them out a lot as well!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 11:51 AM (ftVQq)

217 I don't keep anything on the cloud and think it is
foolish to do so. I want all of my data where I can put my hands on it.
That's just me though.

Posted by: freaked at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (BO/km)

By Silvanus P. Thompson? I have that in dead-tree version.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 11:52 AM (7MWCL)

218 Oh yeah, with the advent of the subscription model in OS's a transition to Linux has become inevitable.

Segueing Mrs. Eez from Adobe to Gimp will be the worst part. Is there an open-source equivalent to Illustrator ?

Posted by: sock_rat_eez (rock salt and fire-hook at the ready !) at December 20, 2015 11:54 AM (erRNA)

219 And I have so many 'back up copies' I have difficulty remembering which one is the most current.

I just back up everything overnight and add a date to the file name.

Posted by: pep at December 20, 2015 11:55 AM (LAe3v)

220 hounding me to buy a cat treadmill

Mine would sleep on it for 23 hours a day. Hey, sleeping uses calories, too!

Posted by: t-bird at December 20, 2015 11:55 AM (+c55T)

221 Posted by: freaked at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (BO/km)

By Silvanus P. Thompson? I have that in dead-tree version.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 11:52 AM (7MWCL)

Gack! Paste fail! That was supposed to be a reply to tbird's post about "Calculus Made Easy".

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 11:57 AM (7MWCL)

222 I don't think the Mrs. cares one way or the other what I do on the internet.

She just assumes I only look at gun, prepping, and conspiracy stuff anyways.

Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:57 AM (k1gv+)

223 If she hadn't taken a video of the cat getting up on the treadmill and running, I wouldn't have believed any cat would do it by choice.

Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:59 AM (k1gv+)

224 By Silvanus P. Thompson? I have that in dead-tree version.

Yes, with Chapter One: "To Deliver You From The Preliminary Terrors"

Posted by: t-bird at December 20, 2015 11:59 AM (+c55T)

225 i think there is a pshop lookalike for linux but it's been years since i looked

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 20, 2015 11:59 AM (F+xWX)

226 Posted by: freaked at December 20, 2015 09:29 AM (BO/km)

By Silvanus P. Thompson? I have that in dead-tree version.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 11:52 AM (7MWCL)

Gack! Paste fail! That was supposed to be a reply to tbird's post about "Calculus Made Easy".
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 11:57 AM (7MWCL)

It's okay, don't panic! We can fix this.

Posted by: Owners of the Cloud at December 20, 2015 12:00 PM (6hLK2)

227 Rasputin was some bad-ass. After all of those attempts failed, they brought in a bear, but it ran away howling after Rasputin raped it.

True story.
Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 11:43 AM (3TXtY)
---
It was just Prince Yusupov in a "bear" costume.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 11:49 AM (jR7Wy)

I've read the descriptions of the multiple murder attempts several times, and the one thing that stands out the most to me is how full of shinola people are.

I mean, let's start with the knowledge that it is quite common for people to survive gunshot wounds, stabbings, and apparently, poisonings aren't always carried out as effectively as they are intended.

Second, this is Russia. I never believe anything I read about Russia, and I've read a ton about Russia. You can have whatever sources you have, do all due diligence as a scholar to get to the bottom of what Catherine or Peter or Ivan or Nick and Alex were up to, and you'll never really know, because this is Russia.

Third, consider the source on the Rasputin murder attempts. Who knew what happened, after the fact? Well, pretty much only the guys who planned and carried it out. Did they tell us, just the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? In God's name, why would they?

So no, I'm not convinced Rasputin survived a bunch of things that would have killed an "ordinary" man. Because, get this, Rasputin WAS an ordinary man, and he survived them.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 20, 2015 12:00 PM (Dj0WE)

228 I must say that after perusing such books as the Gospel of Thomas and
A Course In Miracles and the Urantia Book, not to mention all the various epistles and pseudo epistles floating around, and comparing them with the actual epistles and gospels, I've come to greatly respect the historical process by which the Church preserved the good stuff and discarded the bad.

Oh yeah, and there's a "letter of Jesus" still extant somewhere. I ran into it a number of years ago. It was a real hoot.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 12:02 PM (3TXtY)

229 Since I'm kinda late to this thread, who correctly guessed the book that Winston Churchill was talking about?

I had it narrowed down to either the Bible or a Dr. Seuss book.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 20, 2015 12:03 PM (LUgeY)

230 If she hadn't taken a video of the cat getting up on the treadmill and running, I wouldn't have believed any cat would do it by choice.
Posted by: Chupacabra at December 20, 2015 11:59 AM (k1gv+)

Much of what gets posted on the internet, videos of cats doing "cute" things, looks like animal abuse to me.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 20, 2015 12:03 PM (Dj0WE)

231 Yes, with Chapter One: "To Deliver You From The Preliminary Terrors"

Posted by: t-bird at December 20, 2015 11:59 AM (+c55T)

Yes! I download the calculus book s a pdf doc from Gutenberg. That chapter title was the first thing I saw, and it made me like the book immediately.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 12:05 PM (3TXtY)

232 Re: on line banking

We have a separate account for online purchases with debit card. Move just a couple hundred into as needed. The limit of liability is $50.00, same as most credit cards. There is the potential for higher liability if you wait a bunch of months to make a claim and you don't have a good solid excuse like being out of the country or alien abduction.

Had one fraudulent purchase in two years. New debit card issued in days, received credit in two weeks.

Posted by: free range jihadist at December 20, 2015 12:06 PM (7v/r5)

233 I must say that after perusing such books as the Gospel of Thomas and A Course In Miracles and the Urantia Book, not to mention all the various epistles and pseudo epistles floating around, and comparing them with the actual epistles and gospels, I've come to greatly respect the historical process by which the Church preserved the good stuff and discarded the bad.

Its pretty stunningly clear the difference between that crap and the Biblical books. Some of the Apocrypha are a little better, but in the end you really can tell they aren't up to snuff. Its like reading the Book of Mormon, they're written by people who read Biblical accounts and tried to copy that, unsuccessfully.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 12:06 PM (39g3+)

234 I had it narrowed down to either the Bible or a Dr. Seuss book.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 20, 2015 12:03 PM (LUgeY)

Ha! See comment #6.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 12:07 PM (3TXtY)

235 JTB: ...Urantia Book... will the paperback version hold up to use considering its size or should I look for a hardback version?

All my copies (in three languages) are hardbacks from the U Foundation, so I can't say about a paperback. The hardbacks have always been of excellent, durable quality.

I do recommend buying from the Foundation, even though they no longer have copyright and others publish it. It's also online at their site, urantia.org.

Be warned, falling asleep with the hefty hardback version on your chest can leave an impression. : )

Posted by: mindful webworker - impressionable at December 20, 2015 12:07 PM (h6BP/)

236 124 Kindltot

Thank you very much.
Here's an ampersand: &.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 20, 2015 12:10 PM (u82oZ)

237 House Speaker Paul Ryan said Sunday an end-of-year deal to fund the government and solidify hundreds of billions of dollars of tax relief was a cake already baked before he stepped into leadership, but that he made the best of it and seized key GOP wins that set the table for a productive 2016.

Yeah NO..FUCK YOU

CUE THE SHILL

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 12:11 PM (DUoqb)

238 Ha! See comment #6.

Aha! Last and First Men.

I'll have to take a look at it. Maybe Gutenberg Press has it online for free.

I downloaded the Navy book mentioned upthread. Can't wait to read it.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 20, 2015 12:12 PM (LUgeY)

239 a cake already baked before he stepped into leadership

This word, leadership- it does not mean what you think it means.

Posted by: t-bird at December 20, 2015 12:13 PM (+c55T)

240 Before I head out, I gotta give a plug for my three books. If you like fantasy, check out Snowberry's Veil, Old Habits, and Life Unworthy.

For those who have, thank you so much for your purchase and I hope you enjoy them.

http://tinyurl.com/np5umrz

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at December 20, 2015 12:15 PM (39g3+)

241
If you liked "Last and First Men", Olaf did a follow-up - "Star Maker" which follows life throughout the universe until the end of the universe. the stuff that happened in "Last and First Men" takes up about a paragraph in "Star Maker".

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at December 20, 2015 12:16 PM (h53OH)

242 I got some money to spare for any tea party type who wants to challenge Paul Ryan in a primary. I'm tired of the daily BOHICA.

Posted by: free range jihadist at December 20, 2015 12:18 PM (7v/r5)

243 I liked the Gospel of Thomas. A collection of sayings and stories more than the narrative-like canonical gospels.

I used to be a big fan of that one. But its final form - which is the only form that we have - depends on the Gospels. Mark Goodacre, "Thomas and the Gospels".

(This has been mentioned here before, not just by me...)

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 20, 2015 12:20 PM (y9ZKC)

244 I'm currently reading Sydny Angelo's "The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe". The book is good, if very dense. It's an overview of the various fighting systems of the middle ages and renaissance, examining the weapons used, the methods of teaching, and how they were recorded for history.

Posted by: Colorado Alex at December 20, 2015 12:20 PM (fC9RO)

245 Facing Investigations, DOJ Claims The Right To Avoid Investigations

Investigations are for the common people.

Weasel Zippers

Most transparent Admin EVER

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 12:21 PM (DUoqb)

246 If we're going to read Books That Shoulda Made It In, I recommend the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. It was excluded because it belonged to the generation after Paul, certainly not because of any flaw in it.

The Didache is good too.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 20, 2015 12:22 PM (y9ZKC)

247 Second the Dava Sobel __Longitude__ recommendation. Great book! Some economists have recommended wider application of the strategy that the government of Britain used to motivate the solution to the ocean navigation problem: monetary prizes for the solution to "public goods" problems.

(Muse, 110): "If the War of the Worlds were made today, the President would try to defeat them with clever hashtags."
If James Cameron made __War of the Worlds__ today, Obama the Magnificent (played by Barack Obama) --would-- defeat the Martians with clever hashtags. __Mars Attacks__ as a straight drama with Keira Knightly as Samantha Power and Nicole Kidman as Marie Harf .

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at December 20, 2015 12:23 PM (IbUUZ)

248 Can't believe Ryan already opened the first envelope of "Blame Your Predecessor." This only leaves him two envelopes. The second envelope is "Reorganize" and the final envelope will advise him to "Prepare Three Envelopes." Primary his shaggy commie ass.

Posted by: DJ Jazzy Mel at December 20, 2015 12:26 PM (22uju)

249 May the SMTP relay be with you.

Posted by: Ready For Hillary!!11!! at December 20, 2015 12:26 PM (Dwehj)

250 Ok, this ain't about a book, but it's definitely worth reading.

Don't know if you all know the work of Richard Fernandez, who formerly went by the nom de plume Wretchard the Cat writing at The Belmont Club, but he's ALWAYS worth reading.

In this piece, he very aptly demonstrates the Obama administration as being nothing more than a reincarnation of Tammany Hall.

No, really. It's spot on

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2015/12/20/a-city-hall-on-a-hill

Posted by: Albie Damned at December 20, 2015 12:27 PM (HzqYP)

251 Adding to other disappointments for conservatives, the FY 2016 omnibus spending bill does not include reauthorization for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program . The Districts scholarship program serves low-income residents of the city by allowing them to use the scholarship to send their children to private schools rather than the failing D.C. public school system.

DCOSP is one of the most-studied school choice programs, and has consistently produced excellent outcomes for participating students and parents. The scholarship recipients are overwhelmingly African-American and Hispanic, and come from families making an average income of less than $22,000. Compared to an improved, but still dismal, 58 percent graduation rate in the D.C. public schools, more than 90 percent of DCOSP students graduate from high school, and 98 percent of recent recipients have gone on to attend two- or four-year colleges. Parents unsurprisingly approve of these results, and were more likely to give their childs new school an A or B on a satisfaction survey than parents in the public school system.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 12:28 PM (DUoqb)

252 UN Representatives: U.S. Abortion Protesters Are Terrorists

Breitbart

Yeah NO..go fuck yourself and that thing called a UN

Posted by: Nevergiveup at December 20, 2015 12:29 PM (DUoqb)

253 So why is preference for one medium over another (books in this case) considered a "fetish"?

There seems to be valid reasons both for hard copies (info security) and "cloud" storage (convenience), but characterizing one as a fetish is just annoying since it just comes across as signaling.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at December 20, 2015 12:29 PM (Wckf4)

254 Am I the only one here who gets a "tennis shoe / Flavor-ade" vibe when hearing about the Urantia stuff?

Be careful out there.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 12:30 PM (7MWCL)

255 Found LaFM online for free -

http://tinyurl.com/6q5e4p

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at December 20, 2015 12:31 PM (LUgeY)

256 ...so that companies hand information directly to law enforcement and intelligence agencies...

Ryan sold out the Constitution.
Civil war is on the way.
Ryan is the new Lord North.

Posted by: what I read at December 20, 2015 12:32 PM (PGh+Q)

257 235 ... Thanks, MW. This is why my bookcase shelves are so strong. I have my share of 1,000 plus page books.

At least I don't keep all those back issues of National Geographic. Besides NG pissing me off lately (haven't subscribed in many years but did keep the maps figuring they weren't infected with PC), but their combined weight was starting to form their own gravity well.

Posted by: JTB at December 20, 2015 12:34 PM (FvdPb)

258 253 So why is preference for one medium over another (books in this case) considered a "fetish"?

Posted by: Burn the Witch at December 20, 2015 12:29 PM (Wckf4)
---
It makes you feel dirty and transgressive!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 12:35 PM (jR7Wy)

259 ***"UN Representatives: U.S. Abortion Protesters Are Terrorists"***

Reminds me of an old Facebook friend who posted some simplistic and insipid meme the other day "Men don't get harassed when they go get a vasectomy."

I could help but respond with, "Where are they harassing women for getting hysterectomies?"

Her response: "It's not talking about hysterectomies, and you know it."

Me: "I know. I pointed out the accurate comparison. If you can't make a valid basic comparison, then maybe you're not ready to talk about it."

Posted by: Burn the Witch at December 20, 2015 12:38 PM (Wckf4)

260 So please?
https://www.gofundme.com/8k4zdgw9

Thanks.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 10:37 AM (EV7bS)

Done. If you'd care to share the information, Anna, what is your day job? Perhaps some among the Horde could throw work your way, or point you to potential clients.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 20, 2015 12:41 PM (7MWCL)

261 Just found another thing that Ryan and his merry band of GOPe motherfuckers bent over and accomplished, they took out school choice funding for DC.

I thought school choice was a bedrock principle of team stupid?

Apparently that's no longer who they are.

And McConnel said they will not act on Trump's Muslim ban if he's elected.

It is absolutely imperative that Ryan and McConnel be primaried and if the challange is not successful that every effort to support their Democrat opponents must be made.

They cannot be allowed to continue in office.

Posted by: Kreplach at December 20, 2015 12:41 PM (WVvzl)

262 With regards to the comments about the malleability of online data -

Mike Pondsmith, in the third edition of his Cyberpunk RPG, took things one step further. A vengeful hacker who'd been caught and killed by a megacorporation left an interesting virus behind when he died. The virus sought out any form of digitally archived information - print, audio, or video - and changed the information in ways that distorted the information but that looked real. The example that Pondsmith liked to use for the virus involved Nixon's resignation video. In Pondsmith's RPG setting, there are now a lot of people who believe that Nixon "resigned" by blowing his brains out in front of the cameras. There are also a lot of people who believe that when Nixon resigned, he dropped his trousers and mooned the press. And the people who believe those particular versions of the events have video "evidence" that "proves" it.

It's photo-shopping taken to extremes.

Posted by: junior at December 20, 2015 12:43 PM (aIiFP)

263
261 Just found another thing that Ryan and his merry band of GOPe motherfuckers bent over and accomplished, they took out school choice funding for DC.

I thought school choice was a bedrock principle of team stupid?

Apparently that's no longer who they are.

And McConnel said they will not act on Trump's Muslim ban if he's elected.

It is absolutely imperative that Ryan and McConnel be primaried and if the challange is not successful that every effort to support their Democrat opponents must be made.

They cannot be allowed to continue in office.
Posted by: Kreplach at December 20, 2015 12:41 PM (WVvzl)

I agree.

I doubt it will be enough, but it should be done anyway.

I think more and more folks are learning a diffcult truth. It is the fact there is only one choice. The only difference is the box and label.

Posted by: eman at December 20, 2015 12:47 PM (MQEz6)

264 Do gopetrolls get time and a half on weekends?

Posted by: eman at December 20, 2015 12:48 PM (MQEz6)

265 I got some money to spare for any tea party type who wants to challenge Paul Ryan in a primary. I'm tired of the daily BOHICA.

Posted by: free range jihadist at December 20, 2015 12:18 PM (7v/r5)

Dear House Leader Ryan should be at the top of Ace's dethronement and decimation list!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 12:49 PM (ftVQq)

266 They cannot be allowed to continue in office.

Posted by: Kreplach at December 20, 2015 12:41 PM (WVvzl)

There's a long history of this in the US:
'If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.'
~ M Twain

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 12:51 PM (ftVQq)

267 Dear House Leader Ryan should be at the top of Ace's dethronement and decimation list!
Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 12:49 PM (ftVQq)
--
I'd settle for defenestration.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 12:51 PM (jR7Wy)

268 "I only turn my wifi on my tablet on when I want to download something. Stays off the rest of the time."

So you don't think the software will check for updates before they allow you to update?

Posted by: I don't think so at December 20, 2015 12:55 PM (PGh+Q)

269 I would like to weigh in on Rasputin, the murder conspirators were nobleman with a leftists bent. The weapon was a small caliber but don't remember exactly just that I remember that.

And I have never underlined a word in a book, it's sacrilegious to me, but just to my books do what you want to yours.

Posted by: Skip at December 20, 2015 12:56 PM (k0xxN)

270 So sad. The Mother of All Lies is forced to admit her ISIS using Trump video as recruitment tool argument was, get this, a lie.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at December 20, 2015 01:01 PM (MYRZx)

271 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 12:51 PM (jR7Wy)

Defunding, Dethronement, Decimation, Defenestration!

The Ace political plan in four words!

Seems like Profit ought to appear as the fifth word.

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 01:01 PM (ftVQq)

272 I like Crunch Bang a lot! I used to run that on my ancient ThinkPad.

I have some sort of video issue on my husbands Dell so Cinnamon locks up. KDE works but I hate KDE. Trying Mate now.

And audio books don't work for me. I am an hour and a half away from where I work. I had Shelby Footes Civil War books on CD, so I could listen during the commute. It made the drive go by faster but I didn't retain any of it. And with those books, you really need to be able to see the maps. I work from home now, so no need for audio books.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 20, 2015 01:03 PM (Lqy/e)

273 Animal Farm gets the point across. 1984 is just depressing and in the end untrue.The civilization in 1984 was too prosperous. It should have been more like North Korea. North Korea would already have collapsed if the Chinese government wasn't propping it up. The reality is God's laws (not God's laws as revealed by one or more profits) are self enforcing.

Posted by: my opinion at December 20, 2015 01:03 PM (PGh+Q)

274 Don't worry about all this book burning and revisions. Give it 1000 years and English will be more obscure than Latin. The future is your Children and Grandchildren. Pass on your best traits and best books. :-)

Posted by: my opinion at December 20, 2015 01:08 PM (PGh+Q)

275 For those who are CS Lewis curious, the last book of the trilogy, That Hideous Strength, can be read alone, and is, IMHO, the best of the three. Not quite science fiction; to me, it's a bit of dystopian fiction mixed with a smattering of fantasy. Recommended.

Posted by: shibumi who is awash in existential dread at December 20, 2015 01:10 PM (9JJgN)

276 My takeaway from the Longitude book was how, after IIRC close to 20 years of seeking fair play for the payment and prize he never got, the inventor managed to get his story to the King, who burst out "By God, Harrison, I'll see you righted!"
That King being of course George III, noted tyrant. Harrison got paid.

There were two wealthy and famous men in the late 18th who were known by the sobriquet "Farmer George," because of their intense hobbying in agricultural experimentation and reform. One was George III. The other was Washington. I imagine that had they been neighbors, they would have become friends.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at December 20, 2015 01:12 PM (YBRsJ)

277 The scariest GOP presidential ticket for Democrats would be Ohio Gov. John Kasich with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, according to former Democratic National Committee head Ed Rendell.

I donno about the Donks but it scares the hell outta me.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at December 20, 2015 01:20 PM (MYRZx)

278 Love the Longitude mini-Series
Stumbled across it years ago on cable TV

http://tinyurl.com/zn7oy6m

Posted by: Hobbiehawk at December 20, 2015 01:21 PM (Qot/z)

279 Posted by: Stringer Davis at December 20, 2015 01:12 PM (YBRsJ)

Harrison wasn't the right sort, don't you know! Not FRS what!

And right about now, George III looks positively benign!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 01:22 PM (ftVQq)

280 Oy, I missed the book thread!
Emergency panic shopping at the msll held me up.

Anyone still reading - goodreads group needs your vote in the group reads poll.

that is all thank you!

Posted by: @votermom at December 20, 2015 01:22 PM (cbfNE)

281 "The only difference is the box and label."
30-06, 20 rounds. Remington.

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at December 20, 2015 01:24 PM (IbUUZ)

282 I loved the Shakespeare pie-chart; it shows what English majors are expected to be up-to in the digital age. Know who invented the pie-chart? Clara Barton.

There is some statistical legerdemain in there, though. If I remember my Attic Greek struggles correctly (The Greeks did, indeed, have a Word For It), there were 20-some words for throwing-spear, javelin. Different words for a javelin about to be used, one flying through the air, a javeling having found its target, and so on. I'm sure you know the urban-legendish thing about Eskimo words for snow.

About 49% of Shakespearian deaths appear to be by stabbing. But there's a world of difference between being shivved in the ribs by a misericord, slashed across the chest from behind with a short dagger, or run through cleanly with a rapier. That's lumping, and is just not the done thing, old man. Back in the day those would have been some nice distinctions, like when we see a movie scene of someone being shot and make a distinction whether it was DERRINGER, long-range sniper, EBR, six-gun and so on.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at December 20, 2015 01:25 PM (YBRsJ)

283 And right about now, George III looks positively benign!
Posted by: Hrothgar at December 20, 2015 01:22 PM (ftVQq)
---
I'm almost sorry I abused his effigy at my last 4th of July party.

We have about the same makeup now as at the time of the revolution: a third faithful to the King (Barakhenaten), a third against him, and a third oblivious/apathetic.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 01:27 PM (jR7Wy)

284 Read the question, think of the answer, check my work for spelling -- and find it was answered in comment #5.

Posted by: cthulhu at December 20, 2015 01:32 PM (EzgxV)

285 We have about the same makeup now as at the time of the revolution

Lead-based face powder, and wigs full of lice?

Posted by: Stringer Davis at December 20, 2015 01:38 PM (YBRsJ)

286 One of my pet peeves is people talking about "the cloud" as if it was a single kind of service. It bothers me when people say "I don't trust the cloud" because it seems to say that they don't really understand what "the cloud" is or why it exists.

"The cloud" is not a service or a product, it is a business model. Fundamentally, "the cloud" is about providing things "as a service." If you've heard of "software as a service" that's a cloud thing; a business model more specific than "the cloud." You can also have "storage as a service", "platform as a service", and "computer as a service." There may be others, but I'm not familiar with them.

Now, the vendors' incentive for providing "software as a service" is pretty clear. If you sell "software as a product" then the customer pays once for the software, but derives benefit forever and ever, at least in principle. In order to get more money from an existing customer, the vendor basically has to produce a new version of the product and sell it to the customer all over again. After a while, it gets hard to come up with features that are both compelling enough to convince people to buy your software, but which don't piss off your existing customer base. So, making people pay for the services they get instead of the software that you've written makes sense for the vendor.

From the customer's perspective, it also can make sense. The definitive "software as a service" is salesforce.com, and it is immensely popular because you can use it from just about any computer, as long as it is connected to the Internet, it requires no setup, and you just use it. You don't have to figure out why it gives you this one weird error message or whether or not the upgrade you need will break all your existing data. It's someone else's problem.

The other types of things as a service also make sense, for both the vendor and the consumer. Take storage, for example. There are a number of "cloud storage" vendors, and the one I use is dropbox.com. Would I store secrets there? Not on a bet! But if I need to share this 50 MB audio recording of the most recent board meeting with dozen or so other members of the board of this nonprofit I am the secretary for, and those people are scattered all across the state of Texas, it's easy to just put file on dropbox and let them get it if they want it. It would be very expensive to do that sort of thing on my own personal systems, which is why I stopped doing it.

From the customers' perspective, the other advantage of using "the cloud" is you need only pay for what you get. I have several servers that exist "in the cloud." While they're set up to bill monthly, if I needed access to 100 computers for an hour, there are ways I can do that, in the cloud. People use that sort of thing all the time to set up test loads or to handle a larger than normal volume of Web traffic. For my own part, I buy what I buy because it's what I need and because I couldn't accomplish it for a reasonable price any other way.

Now, I'm not trying to convince you to store your life, your files, or your secrets "in the cloud." I'm merely trying to explain why I "trust" (sort of) "the cloud" and I hope you'll read this with an open mind.

Posted by: Jonathan G. at December 20, 2015 01:39 PM (0HNM5)

287 Lead-based face powder, and wigs full of lice?
Posted by: Stringer Davis at December 20, 2015 01:38 PM (YBRsJ)
--
Lace, sirrah, LACE!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 01:40 PM (jR7Wy)

288 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 01:40 PM (jR7Wy)

Very, very good.

Posted by: HH at December 20, 2015 01:47 PM (DrCtv)

289 Late to the recommendations for Westerns, but I liked Leif Enger's novels "Peace Like a River" and "So Brave, Young, and Handsome".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at December 20, 2015 01:55 PM (jR7Wy)

290 I use Dropbox and Evernote and pay for both. I don't have anything up there that worries me. I work from home and there are times when I need to get into certain files. And sometimes, I've lost connection to the work computer and still need something. It's very nice to pull that stuff off Dropbox.

I am also waiting for a book that will be one of my husbands presents. It's "Irish Gangs and Stick Fighting". Will report on it when he gets a chance to look at it.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 20, 2015 01:57 PM (K8gH+)

291 Read City of Stairs (Divine Cities #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett, a pretty good mystery/fantasy with interesting characters and ideas, may look into the sequel.

Listened to The Lady In the Lake by Raymond Chandler, not my favorite Chandler but very good, as Marlowe looks into the disappearance of a man's wife.

Listened to A Christmas Carol by Dickens, a classic story of charity at Christmas. At first I didn't think I could listen to this story yet again, but once it got started it was still excellent.

Read Victory by Joseph Conrad, and it was a struggle to get through, the story just wasn't that interesting to me. One more book to read to complete my 2015 Conrad challenge, Chance.

Posted by: waelse1 at December 20, 2015 02:19 PM (9iZtc)

292 FWIW, there are a couple of copies of

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

available at ABE Books, for $2.97. These are hardbacks (paper!) , FREE shipping. This should get you there:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nvodkmx

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 20, 2015 02:24 PM (9mTYi)

293 The Horde simply rocks. To all who have helped, thank you so much. May everyone have a Blessed Christmas.

Posted by: Anna Puma at December 20, 2015 02:34 PM (EV7bS)

294 Currently reading "The Girl With All Teh Gifts," on Moron recommendation. It's bleak but interesting.

Many, many thanks to either uber book 'ette Sabrina Chase or Sarah Hoyt for recommending ereaderiq.com for FREE ebooks. I think I've downloaded a couple hundred freebies in the weeks since they posted that linky. As for "teh Cloud," free ebooks are worth trustable in it, but that's about all!

ereaderiq.com is dangerous. I spend more time perusing/downloading books I want to read than actually reading.

Posted by: RushBabe at December 20, 2015 04:06 PM (/NEnw)

295 Thanks for the plus, OM!

Also I want to second Anna Puma's recommendation of Dean Ing's Systemic Shock. The sequel, Single Combat, is also very good.

Posted by: Wombat-socho at December 20, 2015 04:06 PM (5OGDK)

296 augh, typed "plus", meant "plug". Either way, thank you!

Posted by: Wombat-socho at December 20, 2015 04:07 PM (5OGDK)

297 Kindle pop-up books are the worst.

Posted by: bour3 at December 20, 2015 04:42 PM (5x3+2)

298 Well, damn. Here's the price you pay for being a late-in-the-day reader: I knew the book Churchill was reading was Olaf Stapledon's "The Last and First Men" even before I finished reading the Churchill excerpt and got to the part about the Platinum Membership. But I just now got around to reading the blog, so I'm hours late. Drat.

Posted by: Ex-liberal at December 20, 2015 05:29 PM (XLZh6)

299 Rather late to the Book Thread, but duty called. And called and called and called.

Anyhow.

159-161 Posted by: mindful webworker - Jesusonian - While I'm known (by one or two) around here as an historian, that is actually my former career. I was ordained a few years ago, and now serve primarily as a field chaplain with EMS crews. I was raised in an atheist/aganostic-claiming & seriously confused sorta-mildly non-churched Christian family, both of whom regarded the Bible as uninspired at best and completely incomprehensible gibberish at worst, which meant I never cracked one open until coming to Christ as an adult. (after 19 years of true witness by by beloved and quite devout wife, a great if lengthy story there)

Having zero Church background growing up, and with the great advantage of going through Koine Greek and Hebrew in seminary not terribly long after reading it in English just a handful of times, the vast majority of it just struck me like a physical force, particularly for some odd reasons the apocalyptic writings in both the OT and NT. Just like you, I was overwhelmed with the thought of, "why has no-one told me all this before, and why are we talking about *anything* else?"

What I found fascinating was how much of scripture I was already familiar with, given I had never knowingly read any before, and that carries through with my work today. Most of the EMTs and Paramedics I work with are confirmed or functional atheists, who nevertheless frequently talk about deeply theological issues that fit in very well with the Gospels. I've not yet come to a conclusion if this is because scripture is so saturated in our historical culture, or in their life and death work such points naturally arise.

Or, as a good Southern Baptist pastor, I have to propose that there really is only one Truth, and that a dedicated search for truth in any manner for any reason will naturally uncover it. After all, believing in God and the risen Christ is not what makes one Christian, Satan and his demons have a perfect theology and recognize all that as well, so Truth would be revealed to anyone who seeks it out. The problem as also revealed by scripture with all of the other works you mentioned, especially the non-canonical texts, is that non-inspired writers who find Truth cannot accurately write about it, and their efforts fall shallow and flat. Like my attempts over several years to establish a pulpit preaching ministry, when it became more and more obvious over time that was not my real calling. And like those who find Truth, but due to a non-calling by God (the reformist position) or their own free-will refusal to submit (the traditional Baptist position), they cannot call it what it is, and revert to perverting what they know to be Truth in order to stay sane, either through their own writings or how they live and express their lives. Or both, in the case of some well-known atheists.

All of human history explored through the lens of submission to God or rebellion and rejection of Him, now *that* would be a great book!

Posted by: John the Baptist at December 20, 2015 06:09 PM (MPH+3)

300 Posted by: John the Baptist at December 20, 2015 06:09 PM (MPH+3)

I'm pretty sure the unabridged version of that book is the entire history of man from the beginning until today.

The transcription cost for that book has been deemed prohibitive.

Posted by: weirdflunky at December 20, 2015 06:19 PM (AiIXu)

301 300 - Posted by: weirdflunky at December 20, 2015 06:19 PM (AiIXu)

Heh. RIGHT after I posted that, I thought, "Umm, dummy, that's called the Lamb's Book of Life!" (Rev. 3:5 and 20:12) Everyone else's history is found in the "other books" also referenced in Rev. 20.

Posted by: John the Baptist at December 20, 2015 06:29 PM (MPH+3)

302 Posted by: John the Baptist at December 20, 2015 06:09 PM (MPH+3)

I just want you to know that I read your wonderful post.

Posted by: @votermom at December 20, 2015 06:35 PM (cbfNE)

303 Love reading the book thread, just sent a request to join the Goodreads group. Thanks!

Posted by: Calonexpat at December 20, 2015 06:38 PM (xpPRn)

304 Hi

Posted by: Tioma Y Tioman at December 20, 2015 11:01 PM (zh88w)

305 OregonMuse at December 20, 2015 09:24 AM

Prager is a remarkable guy. I used to listen to his weekday show ("any topic but architecture or gardening") and also his "Religion on the Line" back when he was local in Los Angeles. He formed a Center for Ethical Monotheism in response to the first Muslim terrorist hijackings, back when they didn't just automatically kill everybody.

He changed his background music and emphasis when he decided that we were in a fight for the survival of Western Civilization. He has some books out, but they seem to me sort of like shorthand versions of the themes on his radio program. He has done some absolutely remarkable interviews of people who don't agree with him.

"Authors and experts" at his website has blurbs about people he has interviewed. Worth checking out.

http://www.dennisprager.com/authors-experts/

His show is live on the web here, 9 - 12 Pacific, weekdays.
http://www.am870theanswer.com/

Posted by: KT at December 20, 2015 11:19 PM (qahv/)

306 >Personally, I've always distrusted "the cloud". The point of having your own computer, personal computers they used to be called, is that the computer is your property that you own, therefore you control it.

That's why you run your own cloud (called, appropriately enough, ownCloud):

https://owncloud.org/

Set up your own server, put your stuff (movies, music, books, etc.) on it, access it from anywhere. You can get going with something as minimal as a Raspberry Pi and an external hard drive, though an old PC you're not otherwise using (preferably not something power-hungry like a Pentium 4) will deliver better performance. They can't yank your copy of 1984 (or edit it or whatever) when it's on your server.

Posted by: salfter at December 20, 2015 11:55 PM (bwtGi)

307 I was overwhelmed with the thought of, "why has no-one told me all this before, and why are we talking about *anything* else?"

Posted by: John the Baptist at December 20, 2015 06:09 PM

----------------

Interesting. As it happens, I attended a boarding school my junior and senior years of high school. One of the students, who became a good friend, was Jewish. He was one of perhaps two Jewish students.

I did not see or hear from him for perhaps 10 years after we graduated, as he lived in New York, and I was busy with other things in other places far removed.

Then, one day I received a letter saying, "Why didn't any of you guys tell me about this?", speaking of Christianity. He was overwhelmed.

Today, he is the leader of two Messianic Jewish congregations, and humbles me by his faith every time that we talk.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 21, 2015 12:26 AM (9mTYi)

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