The Dead Hand

The Dead Hand by David E. Hoffman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great read, particularly for those looking to get a better sense of what transpired during the Cold War in the 80s, all the way up to the end of the Cold War; the coverage ends in the mid-90s.

Hoffman writes clearly and covers a massive amount of historical data without inundating the reader and boring the reader to death. It is a job well done, and masterfully orchestrated. Also great is the new data that is available to the reader: this book incorporates a lot of previously classified data from the American and Soviet sides.

This is a great book for anyone interested in the Cold War.

Also important is the detail that the story really isn’t finished, hence the title of the book, The Dead Hand. Read it if you want to know what the “Dead Hand” really is all about.

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UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities

UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities by John B. Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good preface in how to properly start a UFO investigation “2.0″ for the 21st century. Essentially, don’t count on the military or other defence mechanisms to investigate, at least not in the U.S. As long as UFOs are not considered a “threat,” than most organizations want nothing to do with them.

Thus, it will be up to the private, professional, and skeptical-minded scientists, researchers and investigators who will need to heed the investigative call.

Unfortunately, the biggest challenge to proper investigation are the kooks, crazies and pranksters out there who continually disrupt investigation. That, and also the closed-minded skeptics who, ironically, have a lot more in common with “true-believers” than they’d like to realize. They unthinkingly and unflinchingly believe nothing is out there just like those who religiously believe that aliens exist.

There has to be some middle ground.

Also, there are some very interesting and outright weird events that are discussed in this book that appear to be bullet proof. Note: they aren’t your typical re-hashed stories you usually see on TV.

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Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson is a great read for anyone interested in technology, good biographies, good reading, or anyone interested in reading about eccentric and childish megalomaniacal tyrants. Although the book covers Steve Jobs from birth to death, the book is quite long enough; I wouldn’t want it to be any longer (it is rumoured Issacson will be adding more material for a “second edition”— Isaacson having a plethora of information that didn’t make it into the book). To Isaacson’s credit, the book is researched and written well, and the supporting cast (Jobs’ friends and family) is round, full and vibrating with humanity. Jobs, not so much.

I wish I could go on and on about how great Steve Jobs was, but other than having a tyranical bent that enabled him to push and bully everyone around him (is that really all that awesome?), he truly wasn’t that “great” of a person. Driven, yes; passionate, oh yeah; charming, you bet — when it worked in his favour. Compassionate about others’ thoughts and feelings? Never in a million years. He also wasn’t an engineer, trained in computer sciences, or even a college graduate. To his credit, he was really good at stealing other people’s ideas and taking credit for them.

In the end, Karma is a bitch. Not heeding the advice of medical professionals and family, Jobs willfully left his cancer unchecked for well over a year, choosing only to drink health-food store potions that were “supposed” to make him better. That stubborn against the grain attitude didn’t get him very far.

After reading Steve Jobs, I am worried that there are probably countless wannabe CEOs out there lapping this shit up as gospel, morph into the next Steve Jobs with the hopes of starting “the next Apple.” It is really too bad: being a dick and treating people like garbage is not the way to go about it in the long run.

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Built-in HTML Editors

Interestingly, on a Windows-based PC I’ve discovered that the built-in HTML editors when posting on Blogger and WordPress to be the easiest to use, and most useful.

Hello World by TJ

Hello World, by TJ

This code was written by TJ. How awesome is that?

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<meta charset=”utf-8″>

<title> Hello World </title>

</head>
<body>

 

<h1> This is me saying “hello world.”  </h1>

<p>

This code is written by hand, and long-form. How awesome is that?

</p>

</body>
</html>

Trying my Hand at HTML via P2PU

Hey longtime readers, I’ve always wanted to learn web coding, especially HTML5, and so I’ve started down a path at P2PU. This looks really cool.

11/22/63 by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed 11/22/63 but I cannot give it a five-star rating. It was enjoyable, but it started to drag a little bit three-quarters of the way in. I’m not sure why. It wasn’t like King’s prose was obtuse, complicated or hard to read — it wasn’t, the prose actually flowing quickly throughout the whole novel. There was just something about the novel that dragged. No offence Mr. King.

I also had a hard time getting past certain historical inadequacies. I guess that’s the problem with historical fiction: once a reader spots a mistake, it is very hard for the reader to let it go.

Here are the ones I had a hard time getting over (I’m certain other readers will find more):

• When King makes reference to hunters in the late 50s, he mentions that they are wearing bright orange clothing. However, I don’t think blaze orange clothing was in widespread use in the 50s, and I don’t believe its use was mandated by law. Instead, red and black checkered clothing was the cultural norm.

• At one point a character from the novel (set in the early 60s) mentions “swag” in a sentence. I am positive that no one used the acronym for “shit we all get” back then.

• King also uses the word “pix” in reference to photographs in that long-ago setting — again hearkening back to the present (the mind reels!), slang-infused and otherwise lazily written 21st century.

These are just the ones that prevented me from having a seamless, suspension-of-disbelief read. I’m sure there are tons more in the novel, available for eagle-eyed readers the world over. And this is the problem with historical fiction; you never know what the reader will actually think, interpret, and see. It’s important to get the facts right.

All nay-saying aside, I did enjoy 11/22/63. Kudos to King for at least writing such an ambitious novel. In the case of 11/22/63 it is a pseudo-historical fiction, but mostly the novel is good ol’ Speculative Fiction.

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World War Zed

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well I finally got around to reading World War Zed and now I’m kicking myself in the asterisk for having waited so long. It’s literally great, literal in this case bringing with it all the best that one can expect from a literary text, minus the snobbery or pretense.

World War Zed falls in line with the best satirical allegories out there. It isn’t as funny as Vonnegut, or as optimistic as George Orwell’s best. But we live in pretty pessimistic times so Brooks can be forgiven for providing such a downer allegory. As such, it is a zombie outbreak that encapsulates the best our society has to offer: shuffling inhuman automatons devouring everything in their path — our best minds. Weapons of mass destruction — our greatest strengths. Consumers consuming — you get the drift.

Learn from this book. If you don’t like what you are reading, reject it — after all, you’re supposed to see yourself, your society, mirrored in the pages.

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https://www.mozilla.org/sopa

 

Protect the Internet

Help us stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

On November 16^th, Congress holds hearings on the first American Internet censorship system. This bill can pass. If it does, the Internet and free speech will never be the same.

Join us to stop this bill.

• Why?

  A few infringing links are enough to justify censoring an entire site, blocking good content along with the bad.

• How?

  The US will be able to block a site’s web traffic, ad traffic and search traffic using the same website censorship methods used by China, Iran and Syria.

• Who’s at risk?

  Your favorite websites both inside and outside the US could be blocked based on an infringement claim.

• Could this pass?

  Yes. The Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act have widespread support in Congress and are expected to pass.

Take Action Now!

Stand with Mozilla · Spread the word on your website

Learn More: Watch the video · American Censorship page · View the Infographic
Read SOPA on OpenCongress · Read PIPA on OpenCongress