A Random Walk through Life

Science Fiction (Eric Rabkin)

2010-06-30T20:14:00.002-04:00

I am retiring this blog. Eight posts in twenty months, and not many more pageviews than that.

I am in the process of listening to several courses by the Teaching Company that are out of print. Since they do not appear on TTC's website, I have nowhere to note my observations about them. But I have this blog, so there ya go. The first course is Science Fiction by Eric Rabkin, which consists of eight 45-minute lectures:
Lecture 1: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Emergence of Science Fiction
Lecture 2: Jules Verne and the Popular Passion for Science
Lecture 3: H.G. Wells and Science Fiction Parables of Social Criticism
Lecture 4: Pulp Culture, World War II, and the Ascendancy of American Science Fiction
Lecture 5: And the Winner Is…Robert A. Heinlein
Lecture 6: Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. LeGuin, and the Expansion of Science Fiction
Lecture 7: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Modern Science Fiction Film
Lecture 8: New Wave, Cyberpunk, and Our Science Fiction World

I was very impressed that even after completing the Drout course, I still learned quite a few things, even about the very same topics that Drout had covered (Frankenstein, pulp fiction, the "golden age", Heinlein, Bradbury, LeGuin). Nevertheless, he seems to cover a lot less ground. Drout's course is only marginally longer (1 more hour), yet covers much more. Two big gaps in Drout's course are Frank Herbert (Rabkin doesn't cover him because he think LeGuin is better, whatever dude) and Cordwainer Smith.

One serious complaint I have about the course is the bizarre interpretations that Rabkin has about many stories. On occasion, he provides a genuinely interesting comment or truly original insight. But most of the time it's the banal "critical theory" silliness that makes up so much of literary analysis these days. Dracula is an allegory for the upper class literally sucking the blood out of the working class. Them (the 1954 B-movie) isn't really about giant ants; it's about communists and the McCarthy persecution. Rinse Blather Repeat.

Most annoying of all is his repeated insertion of Oedipal conflict into stories where no such subplot exists or was ever intended. He inserts in into Wells, he inserts it into Heinlein, he even inserts it into Godzilla. Then he lectures on how you see this plot device again and again and again. Well, sure you do ... if you keep inserting it into everything you read or see.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0

Asimov

2010-06-20T11:32:00.001-04:00

I recently listened to a Modern Scholar audiobook on science fiction literature (From Here to Infinity by Michael Drout, which I HIGHLY recommend), which prompted me to think about or even re-read a lot of authors I read years ago. Among these was Asimov, of whose later works I was not really a big fan for reasons I couldn't elucidate well. This morning I ran across a review by J. Hunter Johnson that expresses my general impression quite insightfully.

Foundation's Edge is the first step in his disowning the Foundation trilogy. The entire basis of the character of the Mule is destroyed. The Seldon plan is disowned as being ultimately worthless, and a cheap-jack psionic mysticism is offered in its place.

Having returned to the worlds of his youth, Asimov determined to unite his two grand universes. There are no robots in the Foundation universe so it was necessary to eliminate them. He did this in The Robots of Dawn and Empire and Robots, in which he disowns the thesis of the human/robot cooperative culture. The Spacers are discounted as not being viable; Daneel, on the other hand, is promoted into a mind-controlling demi-god. He followed these two with Foundation and Earth, in which it is ultimately revealed that Daneel is the master mind behind human history. This was the capstone of his of his campaign to disown the work of his youth by rewriting the juice out of it. The value of the Seldon plan had been discounted; the Mule had been emasculated; and Daneel had been destroyed by deification. He wasn't done.

Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation are farragos of implausible melodrama. Concealed within them however is the final discounting - the revelation that the Seldon plan was never feasible in the first place.

Mr Johnson mentions the authorized trilogy by Benford, Bear and Brin, but I will not discuss those books. They are to Asimov's work as the Herbert/Anderson books are to Frank Herbert's Dune.

New play added to Shakespeare canon

2010-03-16T08:22:00.000-04:00

In 1727 an enterprising lawyer and writer of pantomimes with ambitions to become a leading figure in the theatre staged his greatest coup: a lost original play by William Shakespeare. The London Journal greeted Lewis Theobald’s production ecstatically, exclaiming: “The good old Master of the English Drama is by a kind of Miracle recall’d from his Grave, and given to us once again.” However, for most of the three centuries since its debut, Double Falsehood; or, the Distrest Lovers has been ridiculed as a hoax or just disregarded. Yesterday that changed when The Arden Shakespeare, one of the best regarded scholarly editions of Shakespeare’s plays, published Double Falsehood, endorsing its credentials and making it available in a fully annotated form for the first time in 250 years.

A History of Rome - Mike Duncan

2009-12-13T11:31:00.001-05:00

I am listening to a series of podcasts on the History of Rome; I strongly encourage you to listen as well. Today's episode brings the story to the assassination of Domitian in 96 AD. The fact that it has taken Mike Duncan a year and a half to get to this point should give you an idea of how detailed the lectures are. I consider myself very knowledgeable on Roman history, but these lectures still contain something (several somethings) of interest every week.

Start with podcasts 1-35 and work your way through today's podcast #77.

Star Trek

2009-12-11T22:35:00.011-05:00

Boy, was it ever BAD! Leaving aside the ludicrous handling of the time travel thing...

Kirk goes from suspended from the academy to being discovered as a stowaway and sent to the brig to being promoted to first officer? A cadet is put in charge of Star Fleet's flagship? There's no officers available? Also, Uhura is still a student, but she's also a lieutenant? It's clear that the writers know NOTHING about military protocol.

Then let's talk about the fact that Kirk is sent to a planet that happens to contain both Spock and Scotty? Seriously? It's clear the writers know NOTHING about plausible plotlines.

AJC Price Up Again!

2009-09-14T17:51:00.001-04:00

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised its price from 75 cents to a $1, after raising its price from 50 to 75 cents just around a year ago. Sales declined after that increase. Typical liberal thinking!

The Matrix

2009-08-07T18:05:00.003-04:00

My wife and I were talking just a couple of days ago about how crappy Matrix II & III were (not just in relation to the original, but on their merits) when I ran across this comic.

Patty Lupone tells it like it is

2009-01-29T14:18:00.003-05:00

Respect for the rights of others or for following the rules is at an all time low. Anybody who commutes to work can confirm this.

Well, Patty Lupone struck a blow for well-mannered people everywhere by stopping her broadway Gypsy performance in the middle of a song to tell off an audience member who repeatedly took flash photographs (depite multiple announcements forbidding this).

Too bad this idiot won't take away the right lesson from this. Instead of thinking, "Gee, I was an inconsiderate jerk; I'll be more considerate in the future," he probably left the theater (he was escorted out!) thinking that HE was the aggrieved party. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he is suing the theater and/or the producers and/or Ms. Lupone. But at least the folks in that particular theater got to enjoy their show.

Ms. Lupone ... BRAVO!

Downright scary!

2008-10-14T00:20:00.003-04:00

More than one-third of recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have been arrested or cited for a crime, according to a review of their job applications. The arrests ranged from minor offenses such as shoplifting to violent charges including assault. More than one-third of the officers had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, and more than half of the recruits admitted using marijuana. But Atlanta police say it’s not so simple. Officials have been trying without success for more than a decade to grow the department to 2,000 officers. With competition for recruits intense among law enforcement agencies, Atlanta has had to make concessions.

You know what? If all we can get are criminals, then I'd rather not have the officers at all. I'll take my chances on my own with criminals rather than give the criminals badges. These are just not the kinds of people I want protecting and serving.

Blogging

2008-10-08T21:37:00.000-04:00

I Scream for Ice Cream

2008-05-04T20:57:00.000-04:00

It was one thing when the half gallon containers quietly became 1.75 quarts. But now, they're 1.5 gallons. One-fourth the product is gone! I'm only going to buy brands that still give me a full half gallon, like God intended.

New Currency

2008-04-17T18:30:00.004-04:00

For those of you who're planning a trip to Europe, new dollar bills are being printed for use abroad.

Spitzer Scandal

2008-03-10T14:15:00.001-04:00

This just in -- Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. My friends at Mercer couldn't be happier.

ETA: Thomas Sowell, as usual, makes the best points...

What was he thinking of? That was the first question that came to mind when the story of New York governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a prostitution ring was reported in the media. Many in the media refer to Eliot Spitzer as some moral hero who fell from grace. Spitzer was never a moral hero. He was an unscrupulous prosecutor who threw his power around to ruin people, even when he didn't have any case with which to convict them of anything. What Eliot Spitzer did was not out of character. It was completely in character for someone with the hubris that comes with the ability to misuse his power to make or break innocent people. After John Whitehead, former head of Goldman Sachs, wrote an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal, criticizing Attorney General Spitzer's handling of a case involving Maurice Greenberg, Spitzer was quoted by Whitehead as saying: "I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done." When you start thinking of yourself as a little tin god, able to throw your weight around to bully people into silence, it is a sign of a sense of being exempt from the laws and social rules that apply to other people.

How is this an "election"?

2008-02-25T21:24:00.004-05:00

The news media has been widely reporting that Raul Castro "elected" to succeed his brother Fidel Castro as President of Cuba. However, that's not really what happened.

The ballot before the assembly was for 31 names for the top 31 positions in the country (not just President, but First Vice President, Assembly President, five Vice Presidents). The ballot contained only one name for each position. How is this an "election"?

Apparently, not only can the Cuban people not vote for their legislature (in the former Soviet Russia you were at least allowed to choose between two Communist Party members), but the supposed party leaders in that legislature can't vote either.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/24/america/cuba.php

Fidel Castro Stepping Down After 49 Years

2008-02-19T11:36:00.000-05:00

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fidel-castro-steps-down-president/story.aspx?guid=%7B62F99B24%2DA052%2D47A2%2D891D%2DB0B256D8F9A0%7D

The Dead Parrot - Monty Python

2008-01-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

Mr. Praline : I wish to make a complaint!

Owner : (hurriedly) Sorry, we're closin' for lunch...!

Mr. Praline : Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this parrot, what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.

Owner : Oh yes, the, ah, the Norwegian Blue... What's, ah... W-what's wrong with it?

Mr. Praline : I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it.

Owner : No, no, 'e's ah... he's resting.

Mr. Praline : Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.

Owner : No no, h-he's not dead, he's, he's restin'!

Mr. Praline : Restin'?

Owner : Y-yeah, restin.' Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, isn't it, eh? Beautiful plumage!

Mr. Praline : The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead!

Owner : Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!

Mr. Praline : All right then, if he's resting, I'll wake him up!(shouting at the cage) 'Ello, Polly! Mister Polly Parrot! I've got a lovely fresh cuttle fish for you if you wake up, Mr. Polly Parrot...

(owner hits the cage)
Owner : There, he moved!

Mr. Praline : No, he didn't, that was you pushing the cage!

Owner : I never!!

Mr. Praline : Yes, you did!

Owner : I never, never....

(Praline pulls the parrot out of the cage and screams into its ear.)
Mr. Praline : 'ELLO POLLAAAAAAAY! POLL-EE! POLLY PARROT! WAKE UP!(He bangs its head against the store counter, horribly hard.) TESTIIIING! TESTIIIING! THIS IS YOUR NINE-O' CLOCK ALARM CALL! (He does it again, harder.) POLL-EEEEEEE!(He tosses it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor. Longish pause.) Now that's what I call a dead parrot.

Owner : No, no.... No, he's stunned.

Mr. Praline : STUNNED?

Owner : Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.

Mr. Praline : Look my lad, I've had just about enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I bought it not half an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it being tired and shagged out after a long squawk.

Owner : Well, he's... he's, ah... probably pining for the fjords.

(Praline looks angrily back and forth, stuttering.)
Mr. Praline : PININ' for the FJORDS? What kind of talk is that? Look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home?

Owner : The Norwegian Blue prefers kippin' on its back! Remarkable bird, isn't it, guv, eh? Lovely plumage!

Mr. Praline : (coldly) Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.

(pause)
Owner : Well, of course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its little pecker, and VOOM!

Mr. Praline : "VOOM?"(Praline puts the cage down and take the parrot into his hands.) Look matey, this parrot wouldn't "voom" if you put four thousand volts through it! It's bleedin' demised!

Owner : It's not! I-It's pining!

Mr. Praline : It's not pinin,' it's passed on! This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch he would be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolical processes are of interest only to historians! It's hopped the twig! It's shuffled off this mortal coil! It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This.... is an EX-PARROT!

The Argument - Monty Python

2008-01-26T19:12:00.000-05:00

(A man walks into an office.)

Man: (Michael Palin) Ah. I'd like to have an argument, please.

Receptionist: Certainly sir. Have you been here before?

Man: No, this is my first time.

Receptionist: I see. Well, do you want to have the full argument, or were you thinking of taking a course?

Man: Well, what would be the cost?

Receptionist: Well, It's one pound for a five minute argument, but only eight pounds for a course of ten.

Man: Well, I think it's probably best if I start with the one and then see how it goes from there, okay?

Receptionist: Fine. I'll see who's free at the moment. (Pause) Mr. DeBakey's free, but he's a little bit conciliatory. Ahh yes, Try Mr. Barnard; room 12.

Man: Thank you. (Walks down the hall. Opens door.)

Angry man: WHADDAYOU WANT?

Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...

Angry man: DON'T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!

Man: What?

Angry man: SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS TOFFEE-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!

Man: Yes, but I came here for an argument!!

Angry man: OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse!

Man: Oh! Oh I see!

Angry man: Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.

M: Oh...Sorry...

Angry man: Not at all! (under his breath) stupid git.

(The man goes into room 12A. Another man is sitting behind a desk.)

Man: Is this the right room for an argument?

Other Man:(John Cleese) I've told you once.

Man: No you haven't!

Other Man: Yes I have.

Man: When?

Other Man: Just now.

Man: No you didn't!

Other Man: Yes I did!

Man: You didn't!

Other Man: I did!

Man: You didn't!

Other Man: I'm telling you, I did!

Man: You did not!

Other Man: Oh I'm sorry, is this a five minute argument, or the full half hour?

Man: Ah! (taking out his wallet and paying) Just the five minutes.

Other Man: Just the five minutes. Thank you. Anyway, I did.

Man: You most certainly did not!

Other Man: Now let's get one thing quite clear: I most definitely told you!

Man: Oh no you didn't!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: Oh no you didn't!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: Oh no you didn't!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: Oh no you didn't!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: Oh no you didn't!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: Oh no you didn't!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: No you DIDN'T!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: No you DIDN'T!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: No you DIDN'T!

Other Man: Oh yes I did!

Man: Oh look, this isn't an argument!

(pause)

Other Man: Yes it is!

Man: No it isn't! (pause) It's just contradiction!

Other Man: No it isn't!

Man: It IS!

Other Man: It is NOT!

Man: You just contradicted me!

Other Man: No I didn't!

Man: You DID!

Other Man: No no no!

Man: You did just then!

Other Man: Nonsense!

Man: (exasperated) Oh, this is futile!!

(pause)

Other Man: No it isn't!

Man: Yes it is! (pause) I came here for a good argument!

Other Man: AH, no you didn't, you came here for an argument!

Man: An argument isn't just contradiction.

Other Man: Well! it CAN be!

Man: No it can't!

Man: An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.

Other Man: No it isn't!

Man: Yes it is! 'tisn't just contradiction.

Other Man: Look, if I "argue" with you, I must take up a contrary position!

Man: Yes but it isn't just saying 'no it isn't'.

Other Man: Yes it is!

Man: No it isn't!

Other Man: Yes it is!

Man: No it isn't!

Other Man: Yes it is!

Man: No it ISN'T! Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says.

Other Man: It is NOT!

Man: It is!

Other Man: Not at all!

Man: It is!

(The Arguer hits a bell on his desk and stops.)

Other Man: Thank you, that's it.

Man: (stunned) What?

Other Man: That's it. Good morning.

Man: But I was just getting interested!

Other Man: I'm sorry, the five minutes is up.

Man: That was never five minutes just now!!

Other Man: I'm afraid it was.

Man: (leading on) No it wasn't.....

Other Man: I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to argue any more.

Man: WHAT??

Other Man: If you want me to go on arguing, you'll have to pay for another five minutes.

Man: But that was never five minutes just now! Oh Come on! Oh this is... This is ridiculous!

Other Man: I told you... I told you, I'm not allowed to argue unless you PAY!

Man: Oh all right. (takes out his wallet and pays again.) There you are.

Other Man: Thank you.

Man: (clears throat) Well...

Other Man: Well WHAT?

Man: That was never five minutes just now.

Other Man: I told you, I'm not allowed to argue unless you've paid!

Man: Well I just paid!

Other Man: No you didn't!

Man: I DID!!!

Other Man: YOU didn't!

Man: I DID!!!

Other Man: YOU didn't!

Man: I DID!!!

Other Man: YOU didn't!

Man: I DID!!!

Other Man: YOU didn't!

Man: I don't want to argue about it!

Other Man: Well I'm very sorry but you didn't pay!

Man: Ah hah! Well if I didn't pay, why are you arguing??? Ah HAAAAAAHHH! Gotcha!

Other Man: No you haven't!

Man: Yes I have! If you're arguing, I must have paid.

Other Man: Not necessarily. I could be arguing in my spare time.

Man: I've had enough of this!

Other Man: No you haven't.

Man: Oh shut up! (Leaves the office and enters office next door)

A very insightful article on big city living

2008-01-02T16:10:00.000-05:00

New York, like all of today's most successful cities, thrives by making ideas, not goods. The city's extreme population density enables smart people to learn from each other, which speeds the flow of innovation in fashion and insight in finance. Urban density has spread ideas ever since Socrates harassed his students on the street corners of Athens. We are a social species that learns by watching and listening to the people around us. Big cities contain a concentration of talented people and diverse experiences that turns those cities into forges of human capital that has become ever more valuable in our connected world. No business school or e-learning program can duplicate the skills produced by working at Goldman Sachs or Google.

Political Game

2008-01-02T16:07:00.001-05:00

http://markets.rasmussenreports.com/

You start with $10,000 and buy options on assorted political events. Going to try my hand, see how much I end up with by Election Day. Should be fun.

New computer

2007-12-31T14:38:00.000-05:00

Just bought a new computer - dual 1.6 GHz processors, 1 Gig memory, 160 Gig hard drive, with one of those sweet 19" flat monitors ... all for $449. Incredible ... when I think about my first PC, a 7.16 MHz machine with 640K memory and a 10 Meg hard drive (might have been a 20 Meg) that I paid over $1000 for.

Of course, the downside is that Windows Vista sucks. It crashed within a couple of hours of me booting it up b/c I tried to format a CD-RW to store pictures on. After a couple of more attempts, I still have not been able to format a CD-RW correctly on it; I'm using my old PC for that. I would gladly trade in Vista for the reliability of the DOS 3.0 that came on that first machine.

What's with dry cleaners?

2007-12-29T14:39:00.001-05:00

I had just dropped off some dry cleaning, including some shirts to be laundered when I noticed that my claim ticket was for $9 or so too much. I went back in, and the dry cleaner tells me that the last three shirts needed to be dry cleaned (something he did not mention when he took the shirts). The first shirt in fact did NOT need to be dry-cleaned although I can see why somebody might have made the mistake (although of course checking the label before deciding to do this w/o informing me might have been a good idea). The other two shirts could not have been mistaken as needing dry cleaning by anybody. I hope his attempt to steal $9 was worth losing my business because I will never be back (I had just picked up $48 worth of cleaning and was dropping off another $44). Bad move on his part, I think.

If I had a dollar for every dry cleaner who has tried this particular con on me, I would not be rich but I would definitely have enough for my wife and me to have a nice dinner at Ruth's Chris.

From the "No S--t Sherlock" Files

2007-12-12T08:45:00.000-05:00

CNN just reported that in Iran, blogs critical of the government are censored.

Visual Studio Express

2007-12-01T16:49:00.001-05:00

Microsoft recently released Visual Studio Express 2008, which consists of downscaled freeware versions of Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual Web Developer and SQL Server.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/product/default.aspx

Visual Studio is a shell of its former self

2007-04-03T16:30:00.002-04:00

Back in 1995, when I bought my first copy of Microsoft Visual Developer Studio, it contained Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual J++, Fortran PowerStation and Visual FoxPro (although this last one wasn't fully integrated yet). Soon after, Visual InterDev was added to the product line.

Fortran was the first to go; through a truly Byzantine series of corporate transactions that product is owned by Intel now. At least it still integrates with Visual Studio 2008.

Then InterDev was dropped. Good riddance; that was a truly crappy product.

Then on January 10, 2007, Microsoft announced it was retiring the Visual J# product (Visual J++'s new face after the Sun lawsuit). Not much of a loss. Since it was not actually an implementation of Java (or even close), I never really saw any reason for it to exist at all.

But today ... HORROR (gasp) !! ... Microsoft announced that they were not going to release another version of FoxPro!!

So that leaves Visual Studio with just Visual Basic, Visual C++ and the new (I guess not so new anymore) Visual C#.

North Korea

2007-02-13T20:37:00.000-05:00

A disarmament pact that the US and four other nations struck with North Korea requires the communist nation to halt its nuclear programs in exchange for oil.

Why does everybody think this is such a great deal? Didn't we already have a deal like this, brokered by President Clinton? Didn't NK ignore that one? What makes anybody think they will pay any more attention to this one? What am I missing here?

Long Weekend in LA

2006-10-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

Had a business trip to LA. Took the wife with me for a weekend getaway before the trip. We visited Santa Monica, Pasadena (CalTech is there; we've already established my wife and I are nerds), Malibu, Beverly Hills. Ate at Spago's. Met Wolfgang Puck.

Dune 7 Sucks (we knew it would)

2006-10-05T01:06:00.001-04:00

I won't expand on what others have already stated so well - the insipid writing, the assumption that the readers are idiots who need to be beat over the head with backstory and foreshadowing, the 1-dimensional cartoonish characters, the ridiculous idea of bringing all the characters from the original series and the prequels back, etc.

It's bad enough that the enemy that the Honoured Matres are running away from is Omnius (that's not a spoiler, anybody who read either the House series or the Legends series would know that). But the old couple from the end of Chapterhouse are ... Omnius and Erasmus?! Are they kidding.

We are constantly reminded that BH and KJA have access to Frank Herbert's notes. Well, that may be true, but I am 100% certain that those notes have nothing to do with this book. There is no way on Earth that Frank Herbert's notes indicated that Omnius was the unknown enemy because in Frank Herbert's universe there was no Omnius. When he was talking about domination by thinking machines he clearly had something more subtle in mind that the simplistic interpretation of BH and KJA. And he certainly didn't intend the old couple (who represented him and his wife) to be machines.

Nothing but Noodles

2006-09-10T21:48:00.000-04:00

Tonight my wife and I had dinner at Nothing but Noodles. What a great place!

First, there's the price ... how many places can one get a good meal for $7 a person?

Second, there's the food ... my wife and I both ordered the salad & noodles combo. My wife's was the Pear & Balsamic Spinach Salad with Southwest Chipotle Noodles. I had Oriental Salad with Pad Thai Noodles. It's really cool that they could do an equally good job on four such different dishes.

Third, there's the service ... very attentive. Not what you'd expect from a fast food place, but rather what you'd get from a high end restaurant.

Highly recommended.

Trip to San Francisco Day 8

2006-08-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

Had breakfast at The Buena Vista Restaurant, where Irish Coffee was first introduced to the United States (my wife had one). The place is really small and tables are shared; we shared our table with a couple from Las Vegas. We briefly peeked into the Musee Mechanique. Then it was on to Alcatraz.

Darwin Coon, one of the last 29 convicts to leave Alcatraz, was there selling his (not particularly good, if Amazon reviews are an indication) book. The time on the island was definitely interesting. We did the audio tour and spent some time wandering the facility. A little more time would have allowed us to the exhibits discussing things like the occupation of the island by Native American activists in the late 60s.

Back on the mainland, we ate cioppino at Cioppino's on the Wharf, and followed this up with a sundae at Ghirardelli's. For some reason the sundae was all melted; the one we had at the Downtown Disney store in Orlando last year was much better.

The slow meandering walk back to our hotel from the Wharf was possibly the best part of the trip, probably because we knew the city pretty well at this point. Lombard Street (the "crookedest street in the world" but not really) offerred some spectacular views. Columbus Avenue, with the best view of the Transamerica building anywhere in the city. We made a brief stop at the Fairmont Hotel, where the UN charter was drafted in 1945.

Eventually, relucatanty we got ourselves to the airport and took the redeye home. This was an excellent vacation. My wife and I have resolved not to let 2 years pass before the next one.

Trip to San Francisco Day 7

2006-08-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

Took the last of the three cable car lines today, the California Line to the Embarcadero. Saw the lobby of the Hyatt hotel, which the tour guides recommended. Eh.

We had breakfast at Noah's, a local bagel chain. Took the ferry to Sausalito. Had lunch at Caffe Trieste, a local Italian chain. Trekked out to the piers with the house boats. They were very pictureque and definitely an interesting lifestyle. When we got back to the Ferry building in San Francisco we ate at Ferry Plaza Seafood, which was one of few bad meals we had on this trip.

That night we had drinks at the Top of the Mark. The view from there is very nice, or rather WOULD BE very nice except for all the fog. We really couldn't see much. I can see why the big things there are breakfast and lunch. Breakfast and a nice view for $25 seems like a much better deal than a drink and a crappy view for $10. At least my wife and I got to dance.

Trip to San Francisco Day 6

2006-08-17T21:24:00.000-04:00

Stopped at the Westfield Shopping Mall on Market Street, then took a bus through Chinatown to Fishermans Wharf. We did one of the many bay cruises and took the trip's best pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We had lunch at Boudin's, the sourdough bakery and restaurant. The clam chowder in a bread bowl was awesome, at least as good as any we had in Boston. After lunch, we did the trolley hop tour of town, which among other things included a tour of Pacific Heights, which we had not previously seen.

Later that day, we visited the Wax Museum on Fishermans Wharf, which we would normally not pay $13 to see but it was included with the Go San Francisco cards that my wife and I had obtained prior to our trip. We were really glad we didn't pay afterwards as the wax figures were not particularly good - it was definitely no Madame Tussaud's.

We did another cable car trip, this time on the Powell Hyde Line, which is considered to be the best of the three lines. We did not do it from one end to the other, but our trip did cover the awesome scenic part of the ride. We got back to our neck of the woods in Nob Hill and had dinner at Roxanne's Cafe.

Wine Country - Trip to San Francisco Day 5

2006-08-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

Did a tour of the wine country today. We visited Kirkland Ranch and Madonna Estate in Napa, had lunch at Maya Restaurant in the Sonoma Square, then went on to Viansa in Sonoma. I'll spare you my amateurish attempts to describe the wines we sampled, but in general they were of high quality, with the best probably being the ones from Madonna Estate. We did learn quite a bit about wine making and wine tasting. Getting back to San Francisco late in the day, we had dinner at Tad's. We finished the day up with some quick shopping at Nordstrom and at the Nike and Levis stores.

Berkeley - Trip to San Francisco Day 4

2006-08-15T21:14:00.000-04:00

Another day, another college. This morning we took BART to Berkeley. The tour of the school was interesting. There were not as many freaks as I would have expected; maybe it's because school was not in session. As far as the architecture on the campus, it was a far cry from the subtle luxury of the Stanford campus, as you would expect from a public school. The school's main library is a very impressive building; my wife described it as a little piece of luxury in a generally plain campus.

UC Berkeley has six Nobel Laureates on their current faculty: George Akerlof (Economics, 2001), Daniel McFadden (Economics, 2000), Steven Chu (Physics, 1997, who won the prize while at Stanford), Yuan Lee (Chemistry, 1986), Charles Townes (Physics, 1964) and Donald Glaser (Physics, 1960).

Our tour guide pointed out parking spaces with a "NL" sign. Apparently one of the perks of winning the Nobel Prize is that you get an assigned parking space, a quite valuable benefit given the extremely tight parking situation on campus. We saw a car with the NL parking decal in one of the spaces; based on its location it was probably Dr. Lee's car. Later we saw a second car in one of the NL spaces, but it wasn't a second Laureate sighting - it was just a dumbass who got a parking ticket for not realizing a space right outside the physics building was too good to be true.

Saw the town, very pretty. Walked around Telegraph Avenue. Wanted to go see Cody's Books, about which we had heard good things. When we arrived, it had closed. At first I thought it was a shame; then I saw this diatribe posted on the door.

One would think in a society that puts so much emphasis on information that a store like Cody's would thrive. But people wanted a different kind of information that was provided by the Internet. They wanted it fast and often, they wanted it glib. Cody's was offering something that was a little deeper, a little slower. [...] Great books that couldn't get the media hype were forgotten, left on the shelves and ultimately returned to the warehouses. We resisted these trends. But in spite of this, we found that increasingly we were selling more media-driven best sellers and less of our wonderful wide ranging back list. [...] We have celebrated the diversity of the human intellect. It is with great sadness that I must say that the world does not embrace these values today.

As somebody who still reads "great books" on a regular basis and who truly celebrates the human intellect, spare me your righteous indignation. I'm inclined to think that the true reason your store had to close is that you couldn't really accept the reality of your business. Did you regularly berate your customers without even realizing it, as you did by taping this multiple-page lecture to your door? Moe's Books two doors down from your place was a very enjoyable bookstore and seems to be doing quite well.

After that we walked to the Gourment Ghetto neighborhood, which boasts some great restaurants. My wife was positively giddy as we walked around. We ate at Chez Panisse, which is consistently ranked as one of the best restaurants in the world by Restaurant Magazine (#20 in this year's list). The owner, Alice Waters, is often credited as the founder of California cuisine. The restaurant's menu changes daily, so that she can serve only the freshest ingredients. And for lunch it was quite reasonable, only $60 or so for the two of us. For desert we had Ciao Bella gelato next door to Chez Panisse.

We returned to the campus. I bought a math calendar in the campus bookstore. Continuing to tour the campus, we saw the physics building - which aside from the three Nobel Laureates previously mentioned, also boasts the authors of two of my graduate textbooks: John Jackson (Classical Electrodynamics) and Charles Kittel (Solid State Physics). The author of yet another book I used in school, Frederick Reif (Statistical and Thermal Physics), also had an office there until recently.

Our last stop was the law school, which we ran into somewhat by accident. My wife recognized it immediately, without a map, due to the ridiculously long-winded quotes engraved on plaque above the two entrances.

You will study the wisdom of the past, for in a wilderness of conflicting counsels, a trail has there been blazed. You will study the life of mankind, for this is the life you must order, and, to order with wisdom, must know. You will study the precepts of justice, for these are the truths that through you shall come to their hour of triumph. Here is the high emprise, the fine endeavour, the splendid possibility of achievement, to which I summon you and bid you welcome. (Cardozo)

When I think thus of the law, I see a princess mightier than she who once wrought at Bayeaux, eternally weaving into her web dim figures of the ever-lengthening past--figures too dim to be noticed by the idle, too symbolic to be interpreted except by her pupils, but to the discerning eye disclosing every painful step and every worldshaking contest by which mankind has worked and fought its way from savage isolation to organic social life. (Holmes)

Leaving aside that these quotes are a little too heavy and a lot too long for an inscription over a door, they both struck me as more than little pompous. "You must order the life of mankind"? Justice Cardozo had a somewhat exaggerated opinion of the value of his profession to humanity. "Figures too symbolic to be interpreted except by her pupils"? Holmes had a somewhat exaggerated opinion of the intelligence of his colleagues relative to the general public.

Stanford - Trip to San Francisco Day 3

2006-08-14T21:09:00.000-04:00

As part of our vacation, my wife and I were planning to see Stanford and Berkeley (yes, we're geeks - deal with it). We jumped on the CalTrain, to Palo Alto. Got to Stanford just in time for our tour at 11am. We learned that it is the biggest campus in the country (and the second biggest in the world behind the University of Moscow) at 8180 acres.

One of the things our tour guide discussed was the houses on campus. Many are the usual communal homes, Greek housing or dormitory setups you would expect. However, some of them have their own chefs. His own house apparently has a chef who turned down a job at a four-star restaurant to remain at Stanford. Must be nice. No wonder college tuition is through the roof!

Another interesting story that our tour guide told us concerned the physics department. A physics professor whose office was on on the first floor of the building won the Nobel Prize in 1996 (Douglas Osheroff, who shared the prize with Lee & Richardson at Cornell for the discovery of superfluidity in helium-3). A physics professor on the second floor won the Nobel Prize in 1997 (Steven Chu, who shared the prize with Cohen-Tannoudji and Phillips). A professor of physics and applied physics whose office was on the third floor won the Nobel Prize in 1998 (Robert Laughlin, who shared the prize with Störmer and Tsui for explaining the fractional quantum Hall effect). I assume at that point, the physics department started lobbying furiously for the addition of a fourth floor to their building ... alas, the 1999 prize went to tHooft and Veltman of the Netherlands.

Stanford claims 16 Nobel Laureates on their faculty, but this is a gross exaggeration because their definition is way too liberal. If you exclude fellows at the Hoover Institution (which is not in any way affiliated with teaching at Stanford) and emeriti faculty (who are retired), they really have only three Laureates. Interestingly, they are all in physics (Osheroff, Laughlin, and Richard Taylor, a professor at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center who shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics for investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons). Chu is at Berkeley now.

The first PC to run Google is on display in one of their computer science buildings. They have twin buildings donated by the estates of Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard, the HP founders. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has recently made a large donation to the computer science department.

We toured the Hoover Institution (no, there's no access to Thomas Sowell's office) and went up to the top of the tower, for a fantastic view of the campus and the city of Palo Alto.

We left campus and went into town, where we had lunch at Pluto's. (By the way, isn't it a shame about Pluto's downgrade to "dwarf planet" status?)

We got back to San Francisco and had dinner at Sears Fine Foods. Dinner was good, and for dessert we had their "world famous" pancakes.

Trip to San Francisco Day 2

2006-08-13T21:08:00.000-04:00

This morning we took our first of many cable car rides, on the Powell-Mason line. We rode it from one end on Market Street to the other right by Fisherman's Wharf. The first stop was buying a jacket (yes, that's right, a jacket in California in August). We had read that it got cold in San Francisco because of the cold air blowing in from the bay, but we were unprepared for how cold "cold" was. Our touring the day before, particularly walking on streets at the top of hills and riding on the open second floor of a double-decker bus, convinced us that we most definitely needed heavier clothes than we had packed with us. Our first purchase was a nice jacket for $17, but we were somewhat unhappy with the San Francisco logo on it. A little more looking around, and I found the nicest leather jacket. It was only $20, and it's much better than the jackets I have at home that have cost $50-$60. Tourist trap, my butt.

We walked around Pier 39, saw the sea lions on the dock (amazing sight!) and had a really nice lunch at Chic's, with an outstanding view of the bay. We toured the city further, and had dinner at Lori's Diner.

Trip to San Francisco Day 1

2006-08-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

My wife and I finally took a vacation this year. My wife and I went to Boston in August 2002 and to NYC in August 2004. There were reasons we couldn't find time to go on vacation in 2001 (got married and moved to Atlanta) or in 2003 (due to my job change), but I have no idea why we didn't take an extended vacation last year (we just did short trips to Miami and Orlando). I was way overdue for a vacation. This year's destination: San Francisco!

We arrived around noon, checked into our hotel and walked around Union Square where our hotel was located. We then took a cab to Fisherman's Wharf. [After we got back from our trip, I learned about this story which described the Wharf as "the mother of all tourist traps ... dominated by countless souvenir shops, chain restaurants and street hawkers." Crowded? Yup, no question, annoyingly so. Street hawkers? Yup, so walk around them, no big whoop. Chain restaurants? Yup, tons of them, but my wife and I didn't eat at any of them and we managed to find some good local restaurants (which were slightly pricey, but not outrageously so). Not really sure where the author is coming from.]

We bought tickets to Alcatraz; we'd been warned that you had to get them far in advance. Good thing we did too; turns out we could only fit it into our schedule on the last day we were going to be in San Francisco. We had lunch at a great mexican/deli place. Yes, you read right - at this place you could get a taco or corned beef on rye. And it was surprisingly good. (The place had free internet access; we came across quite a few places that did; it seems to be the culture there.) Then, we bought tickets for the double decker tour bus, which gave us a good overview of the town as well as transportation to get around the city to the various sights we wanted to see.

We toured the city the rest of the day. Eventually, tired and happy, we made our way back to our hotel and had dinner at Persimmon, a middle eastern place that was just alright but had the best feature of all - it was just up the street from our hotel.

Cuba

2006-08-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

More pictures of the sad state of Cuba after 47 years of Castro's government on my website.

[Thanks to LL for sending me these pictures.]

Twelfth Night

2006-07-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

My wife and I saw the Georgia Shakespeare Festival's production of Twelfth Night tonight. I had read the play but had never seen a production. As usual, the company put on a great show. With one exception (also as usual), Crystal Dickinson, who played Olivia, was horrible in her role - completely unable to carry the part in a believable way. At this point I have seen her perform Shakespeare (four times - Macbeth, R&J, Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night), I have seen her perform Williams and I have seen her perform Chekhov. And in each case, she has performed exactly the same role. I have never seen a stage actor with less range.

Yes, Prime Minister

2006-03-14T20:48:00.001-05:00

I recently ran across a used copy of The Complete Yes Prime Minister. It's brilliant; beyond reproducing the plots of the brilliant BBC comedy, it provides all sorts of interesting background material, such as Sir Humphrey's private diary, Civil Service memos, personal recollections, etc.(The premise of the book is that it's 2024 and Jonathan Lynn and David Jay are researchers at Hacker College). I read The Complete Yes Minister back in college (1989?) and loved it, but never thought to look for the sequel. I'm glad I ran across it now.

Sidenote: Here is a website that has excellent summaries of the original TV series, as well as photos and other material. Check it out.

Doctor Who

2006-03-10T23:13:00.001-05:00

Doctor Who is coming to the SciFi network today March 10 at 9pm. I'm not talking about re-runs of one of the old series, but an original production. Hopefully, it's as good as Battlestar Galactica.

Trip to Walt Disney World

2005-11-27T23:00:00.002-05:00

Haven't been to Disney World since 2000. Had a business trip scheduled for the week of November 28 to December 2, so we decided to append a small vacation to the start of it from Thanksgiving through Sunday the 27th.

Stayed at the Disney All Stars Movie Resort - this was our first time staying on a Disney property despite many trips to WDW over the years. I was pleasantly surprised.

Spent one day each in Epcot, Disney MGM Studios and the Magic Kingdom. (We had done a day at Animal Kingdom back in 2000 and were not impressed.)

Ate Thanksgiving dinner at Narcoossee's in the Grand Floridian. At Epcot we ate at the Biergarten restaurant in the Germany pavilion. The remainder of our meals were standard Disney counter service.

Who's Responsible?

2005-11-23T16:28:00.000-05:00

Gov. Sonny Perdue made it clear that he believes the responsibility of housing the evacuees rests with the federal government. "We are pleased that FEMA is willing to meet its legal responsibility to house the evacuees."

Not to be unsympathetic, but why doesn't the responsibility for housing the evacuees rest with (... radical thought coming up, try to stay with me...) the evacuees themselves?

The Machine Crusade

2005-09-25T21:08:00.000-04:00

Well, this book was the crappiest one by Herbert & Anderson so far.

The disappointments started from the very beginning. I started by reading the appendix and was encouraged when I read that "seven League representatives, all of them political rivals or people who have spoken out against Iblis Ginjo, were implicated as machine spies." My first thought was, these guys have started to get their act together. Political intrigue, and they don't even spell out whether or nor Ginjo framed them. Maybe this one will be better than the last one. However, my hopes were violently dashed after a mere 16 pages, when the authors tell me that "it might even be necessary to have someone 'discover' damning evidence of Chen's 'collusion' with the thinking machines." In hindsight, I guess it's amazing that they even held out 16 pages. The apparently overwhelming need they feel to spell everything out is SO annoying. Ginjo is married to the only remaining heiress of the Old Empire. WHY, oh why, must they tell me that he only married her for political reasons? Do they truly think their readers are as dumb as they are?

The premise that the League Parliament would spend time attempting to decipher the meaning of "archaic rune symbols" as a way to determine policy is absurd. The authors are handed on a silver platter an excellent opportunity to study the role that religion plays in governing the masses (particularly given the relevance of such topics to today's "war on terror"). That's certainly the way two authors with one brain between them would have gone with this idea; instead, we are treated to the moronic concept that the government would look for guidance in ancient prophecies of doubtful authenticity and even more doubtful relevance.

As with the earlier book, to call the characters one-dimensional would be to insult one-dimensionality. Since the authors are completely lacking in any ability to write their characters in a believable way, Iblis does not say or do anything charismatic; instead the authors TELL us that he is supposed to be charismatic. Perhaps the most ludicrous treatment of a character is Serena Butler. That she would allow herself to be a willing pawn in Ginjo's play for power, as well as the ridiculously unlikely way in which she acts, defies any sense of internal logic. That she would "hide in the City of Introspection" and "say whatever Iblis told her to say" is so at odds with everything else we have ever been told about her that it completely ruins every line of text surrounding this character. It's almost as if the authors have never met any human beings and thus cannot accurately predict human behavior. Perhaps Herbert & Anderson are thinking machines.

Other characters are equally uninteresting. Omnius continues to behave in absurdly dumb ways. The depiction of Holtzman (as a fool with little understanding of science) is incredibly stupid. The Cogitors are still idiots in jars, so devoid of logic (again, we're told they are brilliant, but this isn't really reflected in anything they say or do) that they boggle the mind. Xavier has long been extremely boring, except when his actions are just unseemly, such as the lightning speed with which he married Serena's sister after her "death." Erasmus is on his way to becoming just as boring. If Jool Noret fulfills any valuable purpose in this book, I have been unable to discern what it might be. And Norma Cenva, one of the saving graces of the first book, is portrayed in very poor fashion in this one.

The writing remains monumentally bad. As just one example of this, consider that in the span of A SINGLE PAGE, the authors used six different similies. And most of them hideous groaners: "like a hammer against an anvil", "like a hawk hunting a helpless pigeon", "like a talisman", "like a morsel of raw meat", "like a spider's egg sac", "like electronic talons". (For the record, they're writing about a space battle.) Ouch!

The last 80 pages are a veritable orgy of death and devastation, as character after character bites it. (It seems like the authors were just in a hurry to finish everyone off to set up the next book.) But the really sad part is that I couldn't possibly have cared less. The vapid characters, the abysmal writing and the improbable plot and characterization (including the amazingly unlikely coincidence through which two of the deaths are linked) all conspire to give the book a thoroughly unmemorable ending. What should have been tragic deaths are just more pages to get through in a fruitless attempt to get to the interesting and/or entertaining passages beyond, which unfortunately never materialize.

The other day I was in the bookstore looking through the first chapter of The Battle of Corrin, and some sentences in it made me realize that I didn't even remember the end of The Machine Crusade. So I went back and browsed through its final chapters again. Having done that, and remembering how truly *BAD* they were, I decided The Battle of Corrin was just not worth reading. I really don't care where Herbert & Anderson take their story.

Revenge of the Sith

2005-09-18T20:50:00.001-04:00

Just saw Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith for the second time today. I was moderately impresssed, not a bad effort at all. That was my thought after seeing it the first time, but there were many thing I felt I wanted to see again before commenting on them. Also, I figure by now anyone who wanted to see the movie has seen it, and I don't have to worry about spoilers. The movie did an adequate (if hardly brilliant) job of getting you from the end of Attack of the Clones to the beginning of A New Hope. I guess how good the movie really is depends on what the movie was about.

If the movie is meant to be about how the Republic turns into an Empire, then it is downright brilliant. Palpatine's handling of the political situation is superb. He understands human psychology intimately and can correctly predict behavior such as the Senate voting to continue the war or granting him executive powers. Furthermore, he is aware that those who prefer security to freedom ultimately get neither. His speech in the Senate chamber where he declares the Empire clearly indicates a deep understanding of the "handling of the masses." The speech in the novelization (browsed through it at Border's) is even better.

BUT ... if the movie is meant to be about how Anakin Skywalker turns into Darth Vader, then it is mediocre. Palpatine's handling of Anakin is very poor. The only reason it works is because it has to, not from any sense of internal plot logic or consistent character development. From the first scene where he tells Anakin to kill Dooku (shouldn't he be a cowed kidnapping victim, not bordering on ecstasy as he is?), through his attempts to plant distrust of the Jedi Council (transparent!), to his story of Plagueis the Wise (could he have sounded more worshipful?) - it was all strictly amateur night. Granted Skywalker isn't very bright and his thoughts have been clouded by the dark side, but shouldn't even he have seen through this crap? "Don't you wonder why the Jedi Council won't make you a Master?" "They don't trust you." "I would doubt the Council's judgment if they didn't choose you for this mission." If you look really hard, you can see the corner of Palpatine's copy of Manipulation for Dummies sticking out of his cloak. Of course, all of this is nothing compared to the scene where Skywalker barges in on Windu and Palpatine fighting. "I'm too weak. Don't kill me. Pleeeease don't kill me." Come on now! Pleeeease spare me your righteous indignation.

Some other observations about the movie.

How Anakin goes from killing Windu to becoming Darth Sidious's apprentice to killing a room full of small children defies all credibility. One can almost understand his turning on Windu, as Anakin is not particularly intelligent, Palpatine has been playing with his mind for some time and the political situation is not completely clear. However, once he sees Sidious kill Windu in cold blood, he just gets on his knees and says, "I'll do whatever you ask."? Why? The first mission Sidious gives him is to kill all the children in the temple and he goes do it without objection? Why? It's not like Palpatine told him "The Jedi Council tried to kill me. Go kill them." or "Go kill the separatist leaders." No! He said, "Go kill a bunch of innocent children." And Anakin says, "Okey dokey, boss, whatever you say." Seems unlikely. The novel (I know hard-core fans would consider this non-canonical) does a much better job of managing this transition.

The Jedi handle the Anakin situation very poorly. Clearly they are not politicians. It's almost as if they are going out of their way to insult him. It is clear that he is close to Palpatine, which would make him an obvious candidate to pass information back to the council. However, it is just as clear that he cannot be trusted with this critical task.

The visual feel of the movie was very well thought out. I particularly liked the graphic symbolism - most scenes were dark and somber, a lot of them with rain. It added quite well to the "dark side" feel of the movie. The occasional well-lit scene such as on board the Tantive IV only served to focus this feeling. The scene where Luke's uncle is looking off into the horizon did a good job of bringing to mind the famous scene from the original movie. And of course the final two battle scenes, Yoda v Sidious and Kenobi v Vader, are very stunning both visually and musical score-wise. Both battles are on a grand scale with their fantastic backgrounds, evoking thoughts of a Wagnerian opera. My only thought is that the background music could have been even MORE Wagnerian.

The "love" scenes between Anakin and Padme are still ludicrous. The dialogue between them is ridiculous (Lucas should have had someone else write those scenes). And Christensen is the world's worst actor. Their first scene where he learns that Padme is pregnant and he says it's the happiest moment of his life he looks particularly idiotic ... the post-coital scene on the balcony of Padme's apartment is also awful ... and the scene where Padme tells Anakin "you're better than this" ... and the scene ... never mind, they are ALL awful. I don't think I've ever seen two actors with LESS chemistry.

The space battle that opens the movie is unbelievably impressive visually but basically meaningless to the viewer. You definitely can't tell who's winning or what's going on. However, what is particularly unforgivable is that you can't tell who's who. The entire scene was just too busy.

I found the gratuitous attempt to introduce contemporary relevance ("Either you are with me or you are my enemy." "Only a Sith deals in absolutes.") poorly done and distracting from the story.

What could have been one of the iconic moments of American film history, the "birth" of Darth Vader, was handled absurdly - unforgivably - poorly. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO"? You have got to be freakin' kidding me!

I always found the end of "Return of the Jedi" quite good. Redemption of the fallen hero, blah blah blah. I could forgive Darth Vader his sins in light of his selfless sacrifice in doing the right thing at the end. In a civil war, each side generally believes that they are in the right. So the viewer can forgive murder, torture and other villainy. The destruction of Alderaan was a bit much, but Vader wasn't personally responsible for that (Grand Moff Tarkin gave the order). However, after learning that Vader began his career as a Sith by slaughtering defenseless children, killing the emperor to save his son hardly seems to warrant forgiveness for all his prior sins.

A final comment to wrap things up. Anakin joins Palpatine because he wants to learn the trick to cheat death. Clearly, Palpatine implied he knew it since he says Plagueis taught his apprentice everything. Yet when Anakin asks about it, Palpatine's response is along the lines of "Yeah, right, sure, we'll get right on that." Not only does he continue to follow Palpatine, but he actually remains convinced that he has the power to keep Padme alive. He really isn't very bright, is he?

Cuba kicks out some foreign companies

2005-06-30T19:37:00.000-04:00

In a further sign of economic retrenchment, Cuban officials have closed scores of foreign businesses that were welcomed here a decade ago to bail out the nation's faltering economy. Some of Europe's largest companies formed joint ventures or other arrangements with Cuba's state-run enterprises, including Swiss food giant Nestle, cigarette producer British American Tobacco and Spanish hotel-management giant Sol Melia. Sherritt International of Canada also has invested heavily in boosting Cuba's oil, nickel and energy production.

But many smaller companies also took advantage of the economic opening in the 1990s, importing everything from toys to spark plugs to hospital equipment to sell in Cuba. Diplomats and business executives say it is primarily these small and medium operators who have been asked to leave Cuba as Fidel Castro and other officials express confidence the island's economy has recovered sufficiently to withstand the companies' departure.

[...]

Rather than reaching out to European companies, Castro is strengthening economic ties with Venezuela, an important ally now providing Cuba 90,000 barrels of discounted oil daily. Cuban officials also are counting on an economic lift from China, which has promised to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to boost nickel production, a key Cuban export.

[...]

But some diplomats and business officials do not share Castro's optimism about Cuba's economic future. Local manufacturing and other activities remain severely hampered by a dearth of investment and an unmotivated workforce. Cuba also does not have the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to repair its deteriorating electrical grid, water system and other infrastructure. By pushing foreign investors out, Cuba risks permanently damaging its international reputation even though it may need those investors should the island suffer another economic collapse.

I hope the Cuban government throws out all foreign companies, so that everyone involved in propping up the regime loses their shirts.

I hate it when newspapers try to do math for me...

2005-06-01T23:59:00.000-04:00

...and get it wrong!

Since convenience stores make a profit of only 2 to 3 cents per gallon of gas pumped, owners say they have to sell an extra 3,000 gallons to make up for every sport-utility vehicle that takes off with a $30 tank of gas.

If they make 2 to 3 cents a gallon, wouldn't it take 1000 to 1500 gallons to make $30? Wouldn't 3000 gallons make them $60 to $90?

Happy Birthday to me

2005-03-30T18:14:00.000-05:00

I just learned that Baywatch actress Donna D'Errico has the exact same birthdate as me.

Also,

Nerd God

2005-03-25T17:45:00.000-05:00

Ebay

2005-02-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

I was bidding on a book on Ebay, and somebody sniped and outbid me in the last few seconds of the auction. I just learned the word "snipe", although the tactical benefits of bidding on an item at the last second had already occurred to me on my own. Now, I'm not a veteran ebayer, but even I know not to bid the price of a book beyond what the book can be had for at Amazon. D'OH!

Looking for a new dry cleaner

2005-02-18T15:45:00.000-05:00

In Cuba, they have this saying: "Hay que estar con cuatro ojos." You have to go around with four eyes, meaning you have to keep an extremely careful eye on everybody because everyone is trying to pull one over on you.

The dry cleaner in the lobby of my building recently raised his prices, so the last time I went to pick up my cleaning, it was a lot more than I was expecting it to be. Once I had gotten home, I realized that the extra charge was a lot more than could be accounted for simply by the higher prices. Unfortunately, by that time I had discarded my receipt as well as taken all the clothes out of the plastic so I wasn't even sure how many items I had picked up.

So this time, I made a conscious effort to double check everything when I went to pick it up. I was expecting it to come out to $16.95. The owner tells me $17.95. I told him, "I'm sorry. I was expecting $16.95. Are you sure?" I was taken aback by his reaction; he actually raised his voice to me, "Not $16.95; $17.95." Perhaps he thought if he was "adamant" enough, I would drop my objection. "Well, please check. I get $16.95." He pulls out two receipts, "There. Seven shirts, $7.70. And five shirts and one pair of trousers, $10.25." He pulls out a calculator and adds the two numbers, "$17.95." He was practically shouting at me by this point. I was a bit confused for a moment and was wondering if maybe I had in fact mis-added. Then I realized that if five shirts were $5.50 and the pants were $3.75 that only added up to $9.25. I pointed this out, so again he pulls out the calculator and FINALLY reluctantly hands me another dollar in change and apologizes for the error.

I don't believe for one micro-second that this was an error. But even if I'm wrong and it actually was an innocent error, the rude way he decided to approach it guarantees that I will never be back. Idiot. I dropped $440 at his establishment over the last year. Now I'm going to spend it somewhere else.

DON'T PANIC!

2005-02-16T18:46:00.000-05:00

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy coming to a theater near you April 29.

Sal Grosso

2005-02-13T21:42:00.000-05:00

My wife and I went to Churrascaria Sal Grosso for lunch. This is one of those Brazilian steak places that have become so popular in the last few years. Dinner is prohibitively expensive ($39), but lunch is slightly more manageable. The format is all you can eat, with the waiters coming to your table with skewers of meat. We had

Picanha (Rump Roast)
Filet Mignon
Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon
Alcatra (Top Sirloin)
Fraldinha (Flap Steak)
Costela de Boi (Beef Ribs)
Chicken Breast wrapped in bacon
Marinated chicken wings
Lamb Chops
Leg of Lamb
Pork Loin
Pork Ribs

To round out our meal, we had a nice Brazilian wine (Miolo Cabernet Sauvignon) and carolinas (a dessert made consisting of puff pastries filled with vanilla ice cream and covered in chocolate sauce) for dessert. An excellent experience. Everyone should do this once in a while.

Greenhouse Grill

2005-02-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

My wife and I went out to dinner at the Greenhouse Grill (in the Hyatt Regency in Marietta). We were not impressed.

Ambiance was adequate but hardly outstanding. The view was non-existent. Noise from the bar and (even more so) from the ballrooms was overwhelming at times.
Service was downright poor. It was slow (particularly when you consider that only four tables were occupied), and they made a $6 error on our bill.
The menu on their website boasted sizzling sea bass and orange beef tenderloin medallions, neither of which existed on the menu when we got there.
The food was the only redeeming quality, and even in that regard, all I can say is that the food was prepared well. It was hardly memorable, and the portions were not particularly generous.

My wife had salmon with tomato lemon jelly ($22), and I had chicken ($17). Neither plate really warranted the price.

Saigon Cafe

2005-02-11T22:29:00.000-05:00

Had lunch there with some co-workers. I was thoroughly unimpressed. I order the pho (noodle soup) with shrimp. It was passable, but not great. I've had better. A friend ordered the pad thai (despite the name, the restaurant had a number of Thai dishes in addition to Vietnamese), and that looked like it would have been a much better than the pho.

However, what really got to me was the bad service. It was slow, really slow. And they forgot one of our entrees altogether. After bringing out the missing entree, they had still not brought out our appetizers. When we asked about them, the waitress got snotty, really snotty. "You didn't have any appetizers. I asked you if you wanted rolls, and you said no." And the tone with which she said it, as if she were lecturing to unruly children. Yeah, the seven of us are all mis-remembering. Thanks for setting us straight.

More pictures of Cuba

2005-02-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

This picture looks like it was taken in a war zone. I've seen pictures of buildings in the middle of post-DDay fighting in France that looked better.

Cuba

2005-02-08T21:33:00.000-05:00

La Habana, 1958 (the year before Castro took power)

La Habana, 2004

This is not a rural road; this is Calle 35 between A and B in Vedado, La Habana. (In the very heart of the city, this was once one of its poshest neighborhoods.)

Melba Gordue cleans up debris after a building collapsed in front of her house in Havana on June 26, 2003. (And, YES, she will continue living there afterwards.)

A hotel for foreigners

A hotel for Cubans

National Factory of Mirrors (insert punchline here)

"The revolution marches well. To fight, to work, to advance. Go forward!"

La Habana's transportation system

The ration book. (Sugar is rationed.)

William Safire's Last Column

2005-02-02T13:36:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/opinion/24safire2.html?ex=1107493200&en=f4c74710a0c4c97e&ei=5070&incamp=article_popular_2

The Butlerian Jihad

2005-01-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Just finished reading Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson, the first book of their most recent trilogy set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. The book presumes to tell the story repeatedly aluded to in the Dune series, about humans overthrowing their "thinking machine" masters 10,000 years before.

The book is somewhat better than the authors' House trilogy. I think having freed themselves of the restraints of the original Dune universe, they were able to give free rein to their imaginations and put out a better product. However, the bad prose that characterized the House trilogy remains. It seems like the authors at some point in their lives took a really bad creative writing class where they were told to use lots of flowery prose with tons of unnecessary (and ridiculous sounding) adjectives. For example, Norma never runs, she is carried by her legs. And they are never just legs, they are short legs. And it's diminutive Norma (they reuse the same adjectives over and over again ad nauseaum). So "Norma ran" becomes "Norma's short legs carried her diminutive body." Rinse, blather and repeat for 675 pages. As just one more example, on page 593, a ship doesn't enter and exit Jupiter's gravity well. Instead we are treated to the following monuments to absurd prose: "the gas giant reached out to them, beckoning with a siren song of physics" and "breaking free of the elastic threads of gravity."

Even though the prose is no better, the story is. They did a relatively good job crafting the plot, and depicting the psychology of the struggle. Iblis Ginjo, Vorian Atreides, Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen are depicted realistically - if somewhat one-dimensionally. Other characters, e.g. Agamemnon, are less believable. Could he truly believe that "the barbarians didn't understand freedom or free will" even as they were revolting against the machines' rule? It is unlikely that he could be that oblivious to reality. (As an aside, the whole "brain in a jar" concept is pretty 1930s. No wonder the "philsophical" "deep-thinking" 2000-year-old cogitors are so unrealistically oblivious to the consequences of their actions. They're idiots. Only an idiot would have his brain transfered to a glass jar.) The Titans as a whole are very poorly motivated. Let's say Omnius succeeds in its goal of exterminating humans and the Titans succeed in their goal of regaining power from Omnius. What exactly would they be the rulers of? Absurd.

On the other hand, the parallel between the cymeks and the human rulers of Poritrin (whose motivations do seem more plausible than the cymeks) is quite enlightening. It goes along the lines of the "good guys vs. bad guys" theme which I explored in my review of House Corrino. In that review I pointed out that the authors took a simplistic view of good vs. evil and did not consider valuable avenues of exploration in their writing. The fact that they do so here shows considerable growth in their writing. I look forward to reading The Machine Crusade and The Battle of Corrin (the latter only when it comes out in paperback, the books are nowhere near good enough to merit plunking down $20 for).

The authors' complete ignorance of science is blatantly obvious in almost every chapter. The absence of even a hint of the science and mathematics behind the "inventions" of Tio Holtzman and Norma Cenva, despite "discussing" them at great length, is quite odd. The authors mention "arithmetic"; what meaningful science involves only arithmetic? What calculations could their solvers work on after only the most basic training? At one point, one of the solvers sabotages a result by "moving a decimal point" and claiming nobody would notice. If the authors knew ANYTHING about mathematics, they would understand that moving a decimal point is the mistake MOST LIKELY to be noticed. If I'm expecting an answer of 10, and you give me 5 or 20 I might not notice. But if you give me 1 or 100 I will definitely notice. Duh! The science-related quotes that start many chapters are meaningless as well.

Despite the derivativeness of the robot Erasmus, they nevertheless managed to make him interesting in a macabre sort of way. What is unrealistic is that he would be so completely clueless about human behavior. Think Dr. Mengele meets the Terminator. If intelligence means the ability to learn, then Erasmus must not be particularly intelligent. (After all his "study", how could he not predict the reaction to the murder he commits?) The relationship between machines and humans at large is somehow odd. Things like robots serving as drivers of a horse-drawn carriage for a human are not realistic in light of the master-slave relationship. The resources dedicated to keeping the humans alive for slave labor are inconsistent with Omnius's oft-mentioned desire for efficiency. What do humans provide for the machines that they could not more quickly provide for themselves while consuming fewer resources? Surely a machine of some sort could do any required work faster than slave labor (which has long been known to lead to low-quality results). The final chapters of the revolt and the surprise experienced by Erasmus and Omnius on the other hand could form a fascinating study in "AI psychology" if such a thing existed.

There are several gaps in the plot, a fact which I would be remiss in not mentioning. Without providing any spoilers, I can provide one example. The flaw in the defensive measures the humans used at Salusa Secundus and Giedi Prime was glaringly obvious. That the machines did not take advantage of it in their raid on Salusa Secundus AND that no human noticed the flaw either in the original design or when Xavier Harkonnen visited Giedi Prime for the specific purpose of evaluating their defenses simply defies belief.

One last disappointment in the book is that the authors clumsy attempts at foreshadowing gave me what I believe is conclusive proof of where they are headed in "Dune 7." On page 224 it says, "By the time humans expanded into those distant star systems, Omnius would already be there. Waiting." And in House Corrino, we were already treated to "ancient enemy ... future enemy" (when Navigator D'murr Pilru goes off course because of the amal). Other brief comments in House Corrino (regarding the unnamed planet that Tleilaxu Master Ajidica was setting up to take his BG axlotl tank) made me hopeful that they might head off in another direction. But now I have no doubt, the Honored Maitres and others returning from the scattering are fleeing thinking machines. This bothers me, as I am fairly certain that is NOT the path that Frank Herbert would have taken had he been alive to write Dune 7 himself.

My last thought, which really encompasses everything mentioned above, is that the story is not bad (you really want to keep reading to see what happens next), but the writing is bad, bad, bad. These guys need a good editor like nobody's business.

I live among bigots!!

2005-01-27T23:30:00.001-05:00

Last year, I attended my homeowners association meeting for the first time. Our state senator, who was running for a seat in the U.S. House, was a guest speaker. In response to a question about illegal Mexican laborers in our neighborhood, he made a comment about a building that was being refurbished next to his office and him not hearing anything but Spanish the whole time. A couple of minutes later he made a comment about "Mexicans picking peaches in south Georgia." Now, this guy knew what he was doing. He spoke for over an hour without actually saying anything. These comments were delivered in what I considered a disparaging tone, but nothing he said could be construed as offensive (since they didn't have any actual content). But he was playing his audience; he knew the anti-immigrant feelings of his audience and he played to them like a master. After his speech, I approached him and told him I didn't appreciate his comments and that some people could have found them offensive. He told me nobody could consider him a racist because he (a) supported George Bush's proposal of amnesty to illegal immigrants, (b) favored giving Georgia Hope college scholarships to illegal immigrants, (c) was opposed to a proposal before the state legislature to deputize police officers as INS agents when they stopped suspects on other grounds within the scope of their usual duties, (d) favored giving illegal immigrants driver licenses, and (e) supported the expenditure of Medicaid funds and other public assistance on illegal aliens. Well, guess what? I have the diametrically opposite position on each and every one of these items. But, hey, I was Hispanic, so I must favor these things. Another question that occurred to me was why didn't he mention these things during his speech? Well, that question had an easy answer. Because they would have run him out of town. I made it my life's work to make sure he was defeated in his bid for the U.S. House. I'm glad to report he didn't even make it into the primary runoff. Good riddance.

At this year's meeting, I had an even more annoying experience. After the meeting, one of the homeowners was ranting and raving. She wasn't intelligent enough to form a coherent thought, so I'm not sure what was up her butt, but she was talking about how our city council members must be taking money to allow "this Mexican trash..." I don't know the rest of her sentence, because I walked away. But the thought that in the year 2005 somebody doesn't know better than to utter a phrase like that boggles my mind. The fact that this person is actually my neighbor pisses me off beyond belief.

Battlestar Galactica

2005-01-24T22:38:00.000-05:00

I'm watching the most recent episode of Battlestar Galactica, which I missed on Friday. I'm a little lost because I missed the mini-series leading up to it, but still I think they've done a very good job with it. Where the original series was somewhat campy (in an enjoyable sort of way), this series is a lot darker (and just as enjoyable anyway). Of particular note, I think the treatment of Balthar is excellent. In the original series, the relationship between the Cylons and Balthar was unlikely (to say the least); in this series, I find him fascinating from a psychological point of view. The interaction between Cmdr. Adama and Pres. Roslin is also quite interesting to watch. The fact that humans created the Cylons is slightly disappointing in that the "man vs his creation the machine" story had been done to death. (I guess it doesn't help that I'm currently reading The Butlerian Jihad.)

And of course, there's always an idiot willing to write a moronic review about the show, but I hope I did at least a little better than this guy. ("Galactica was originally an allegory for Western Civilization being bullied and burned in the same way we have bullied and burned other nations for centuries.")

Happy New Year!

2004-12-31T18:21:00.000-05:00

May you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2005!

A couple of quick restaurant recommendations

2004-12-26T23:32:00.000-05:00

Marietta Diner, Cobb Parkway (just north of South Marietta Drive)

All their food is excellent, but of particular note are

Seafood bisque - it has won awards, not to be missed! Fortunately soup comes with all dinner specials. I don't even know what the other choices are. Listen to me when I say Get the bisque! Out of this world!
Desserts - they are all fabulous. And HUGE! My wife and I always split one ... and often have leftovers anyway. Today we had the Baklava Cheesecake. Baklava. Cheescake. What's not to like? Sounds great, right? Well, it's even better than that!

Cuban Sandwich Shop, Johnson Ferry Road (just south of Roswell Road)

Not bad. I had the traditional Cuban sandwich; my wife experimented with the Super Special, which came with pastrami (never had pastrami in Cuba) - the sandwich wasn't bad but there were too many conflicting flavors fighting for attention.

As far as sides, the sweet plantains were excellent - as good as I've had in any restaurant. The black bean soup, we could have left. Still, the place can be recommended. We plan to go back. I think that next time we'll try the plain pork sandwich, though.

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T11:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Festivus!

2004-12-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays

2004-12-22T13:31:00.000-05:00

In Iceland, there are 13 Santas. Instead of bringing gifts, they take turns sneaking into town and creeping out the locals. The 13 Santas live in the mountains with their troll-like mother and her giant cat, which eats all the children who don't receive new clothes for Christmas. They party for 13 nights, and then things really get interesting. "That's when people come out of their graves," said Iceland native Hoffy Steingrimdottir. "Seals take on human form. And cows develop human speech." The moral of the story? It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe. The other moral of the story? They've got some good hooch in Iceland.

[Thanks to KU for passing this along.]

Welcome to Mama's!

2004-12-18T16:15:00.000-05:00

We ate ate Mama Fu's Asian House for lunch today. It's Thai & Chinese food brought to you by the folks at Moe's who brought you burritos bigger than your head. You can't beat the price ($6.99). The food is actually pretty good ... not just good for the price, but downright good! My wife had Chicken Cashew Stir Fry (make sure to get it with the brown rice), and I had Chicken Pad Thai. We recommend both of these dishes highly. The Spicy General Fu Beef is also excellent.

Treo

2004-12-06T16:03:00.000-05:00

Just bought myself a Treo 650 in order to replace my cell phone and PDA with a single device. Really nice new toy.

Copeland's

2004-11-28T16:11:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post, I talked about Copeland's Restaurant. My wife and I went there again today. She had a favorite of hers - Eggplant Pirogue. I had the Filet Benedict from their brunch menu. As usual, everything was excellent; food and service were beyond reproach.

The main website still doesn't have a menu online, but you can look at a menu here.

Steak

2004-11-20T14:43:00.000-05:00

My wife and I went out to dinner last night. Our meal was OK, but my steak was not prepared properly. This happens to me all the time. I like my steak medium ... not rare ... not well-done ... MEDIUM! Is it so hard to get this right? More than half the time, I get a steak which is either blood red or cooked to a crisp. ARGH!!

OK, I feel better now. Just needed to vent.

No Comment

2004-11-15T16:19:00.000-05:00

An unidentified man tried to set himself on fire outside the White House fence.

A 25-year-old Athens, Ga., man who was apparently distraught over President George W. Bush's re-election shot and killed himself at ground zero.

Veterans Day

2004-11-11T13:04:00.000-05:00

Thank you for serving!

Not bad for an amateur

2004-11-03T18:11:00.000-05:00

Just going to toot my own horn here for a minute...

My predictions for the presidential election were pretty good for an amateur, not perfect but way WAY better than any of the pundits and "experts."

The final tally looks to be 286-252 Bush.

My errors were

Colorado did not pass the resolution splitting their electoral votes, so the state went to Bush 9-0 (where I had predicted 6-3).
Iowa (7 electoral votes) went to Bush (I had figured Iowa to be one of the closest races, but I thought Kerry would hang on to it).

Some of the states that were called incorrectly on some of the more popular sites.

Florida - ElectoralVote
Hawaii - ElectoralVote, Tripias, DalyThoughts, RealClearPolitics
Michigan - Wall Street Journal
Minnesota - Wall Street Journal, Tripias
New Mexico - ElectoralVote, Tripias, ElectionProjection
Ohio - PresidentElect, Wall Street Journal
Wisconsin - PresidentElect

West Virginia elector says he might not vote for President Bush

2004-11-03T01:52:00.000-05:00

If President Bush wins West Virginia, one of the state's five Republican electors says he might not vote for Bush to protest the president's economic and foreign policies.

Dune: House Corrino

2004-11-02T13:44:00.000-05:00

I finished reading Dune: House Corrino by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson. Let me start by saying it’s better than the first two. Let me continue by saying that when I got to the end of this third book, I was thinking the story could have been told (and told better) in just one book by discarding all the fluffy nonsense and keeping just the meat of the story.

Bad writing. It’s still there, and it hasn’t gotten any better. Just one example of the completely ridiculous phrases is on page 552, “hold on to the gossamer strands of her sanity.” On its own, that phrase is already ludicrous; what makes it even more so is the fact that the authors had already overused (and misused) the word “gossamer” a dozen times.

Unbelievable actions. Literally millions of innocent civilians are murdered without justification, and without repercussions. A universe where governments behaved this way would not survive the reign of one emperor, let alone 10,000 years.

Hectic ending. The last 150 pages are unnecessarily hectic as the authors try to wrap up the many threads initiated by the unbelievable actions previously mentioned. House Moritani, House Harkonnen, House Atreides and Emperor Corrino are all undertaking major military operations. Furthermore, Jessica is in labor, and Project Amal reaches its climax. As if all of this weren’t enough, the authors throw in an additional plot line involving the twisted Mentat Peter DeVries. The motivation for his actions in particular has gone beyond the realm of the unlikely into the realm of mind-boggling-ly (is that a word?) stupid. Usually, when authors have a character do something absurdly un-character-y it’s because of a specific need to move the plot forward, but this particular plot already had WAY too much going on as it was. This additional thread was nothing more than a distraction.

Inattention to detail. I have previously mentioned that the authors sometimes appear not to have read the original Dune Chronicles series. Well, now I wonder if they’ve read their own work. On page 49, they write “A few years ago, distracted by a document he’d been studying, Leto had accidentally crushed the insect.” But that’s not actually what happened in House Harkonnen; what actually happened is that Leto was distracted FROM the document BY a guard and the document fell on the insect.

Freedom. Why do “the good guys” keep using the word “free”? Leto and Rhombur might be good enlightened leaders, but that doesn’t make them any less than complete autocrats or make their peoples any more free than they would be under the Tleilaxu or Harkonnens or Corrinos. This could have provided a fruitful line of discussion had the authors been trying to paint their characters as unaware of their own failings in this regard, but Herbert & Anderson don’t seem to have given this a second thought (despite their excessive use of the word “free”) and never manage to move beyond their naïve notion of good versus evil to explore this idea.

Overall, I would rate it slightly higher than the first two books in the series, somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. Still no masterpiece.

Presidential Election Prediction

2004-11-01T10:34:00.000-05:00

Not really politics, just a little attempt at clairvoyance here. I am predicting Bush will win by an electoral vote margin of 276*-262*.

Of the ten battleground states,
Bush: Florida, New Mexico**, Ohio
Kerry: Hawaii***, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire**, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

Notes:
(*) Colorado may be splitting its electoral votes for the first time this year (if a ballot initiative on 11/2 passes), so I am predicting Bush wins 6-3 there. Nebraska and Maine can theoretically split their votes but historically one candidate has always picked up all the votes; I'm predicting Nebraska to Bush and Maine to Kerry.
(**) The only two states that I'm thinking are going to go differently than in 2000 are New Mexico (which went to Gore by just 366 votes) and New Hampshire (which went to Bush by about 7200 votes while Nader picked up about 22,200 votes).
(***) Polls show Bush leading in Hawaii, but I think Kerry will pull it out in the end.

Macbeth

2004-10-30T23:59:00.000-04:00

My wife and I have been talking about attending the Georgia Shakespeare Festival since we moved here in 2001, but somehow we never got around to do it. Finally saw Shakespeare's Macbeth tonight. A very good production. Daniel May played Macbeth and gave an adequate performance. However, Marni Penning, who played Lady Macbeth, and Brik Berkes, who played Macduff, gave truly outstanding performances.

Production was very good and very standard (no odd modernist elements or background changes, just Shakespeare as it was meant to be done). There was one interesting non-standard element in the casting - a man (Bruce Evers, who did a very credible job with the part) was cast as one of the three weird sisters. An interesting choice; between his physical size and the way he was made up he actually looked a great deal like Tim Cassidy as Ruk in Star Trek:

Thai Food

2004-10-29T23:55:00.000-04:00

Pattaya Thai Restaurant

My wife and I went to dinner at this Thai restaurant we frequent. She had baked catfish (usually we stay away from seafood at Thai restaurants but this place specializes in seafood). I went more traditional and had masaman curry, which is available with beef, pork or chicken. I asked the waiter which he recommended, and he instantly answered "beef." No hesitation, no equivocation, no fear! Beef. And he was right. Both entrees were very good, as usual. We highly recommend this place.

Bad Service

2004-10-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

Went to dinner with my wife. What a horrible experience (service, the food was good). We ordered appetizers and our entrees at the same time, so we were actually concerned that the entrees would get there too quickly, before we were able to finish the appetizer. Boy, were we worried about the wrong thing. After an interminable wait, the assistant manager comes over to tell us that they had a new computer system and our entrees had been put in but had not been relayed to the kitchen (the reason this happened may be that the system is new, but it sounds like plain old user error to me). So they tell us the order has been relayed and should be along soon. After an additional interminable wait, the manager comes over to tell us that our entrees had been prepared but delivered to the wrong table, where they were apparently promptly eaten by somebody else. So we had to wait some more. But when the food finally got there, it was really good . . . and they did comp us for our bad experience . . . which is the only reason I'm refraining from bad-mouthing the restaurant (a well known chain).

Dune: House Harkonnen

2004-10-24T11:59:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Dune: House Harkonnen by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson. (Yeah, I know, I really should be studying for my upcoming actuarial exam, but I need to take a break from memorizing actuarial material once in a while.) When I first picked this up, I was looking forward to it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dune: House Atreides was not all that great, but let's face it - bad guys are more interesting to read about than good guys, right? Unfortunately, I was disappointed. First of all, it doesn't really focus on House Harkonnen any more than the first one did. And in its entirety, the book is not awful, but it is slightly worse than the first one. My observations...

Thinking for you. This book continues the mistake of Dune: House Atreides in insisting on digesting absolutely everything for you. One particularly blatant example is explaining the true nature of axlotl tanks. This had been hinted at but never spelled out in the original Dune Chronicles; it's better that way.

Bad writing. Not only do they continue to do the reader's thinking, but they do so with annoying repetitiveness. For example, on p. 206, they write, "There was no shame in it for Kailea, either, especially with her lack of prospects." Then on p. 208, they write, "For Kailea there would certainly be no shame in becoming the chosen lover of a Duke." This is just one example; there are dozens. They do this elsewhere; for example, describing the rugs in Earl Vernius's office (pointed out by an Amazon reviewer). Their repeated use of ridiculous phrases is beyond dumb. To mention just a few, "muscular" three times on one page, Kailea's "emerald" eyes, Jessica's "bronze" hair, "barrel-chested" "burly" Rabban, and Anirul's "doe eyes." The elecran chapter was a complete distraction; what point to introducing such an absurd creature (were they trying to follow Herbert Senior's brilliant conception of the sandworms? if so, they failed miserably!) if it matters not to the rest of the book? Chapter transitions are still choppy and distracting.

Boring Sections. Some of the plot lines are monumentally boring. In particular, Duncan Idaho's 8 years at the Ginaz Swordmaster School (which for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I think are the chapters the authors would be most proud of) are beyond silly. And when you get to the end of the book and witness the Swordmasters' truly pathetic behavior, it makes you wish you had skipped all the chapters related to this particular plot line.

Clumsy Politics. The political universe which Frank Herbert created, which we believed had survived for 100 centuries, is shattered by the ridiculously clumsy actions that Herbert Junior & Anderson put their characters through. A universe in which people behaved this way wouldn't last 1 century before cataclysmic war took place.

Contradictions. The book contradicts the original Dune novel in too many places to mention exhaustively. They should have gone back and re-read the original before writing this.

Unbelievable Plot. Often the authors rely on lazy and contrived solving of plot lines (some are outright deus ex machina arrangements) just to make everything fit together. The motivations of some characters are even more ridiculous than Lady Helena's in the first book. Some actions are absurd and do not fit in with anything else we've ever read about the Dune universe (the Bene Gesserit when they are visited by the Baron Harkonnen).

Unlikeable Characters. Even after all of the above, the book would still be above average. Their worst sin, however, is that they simply write many of their characters in such a way that they are downright unlikeable. Abulurd Harkonnen needs to grow a pair. Earl Dominic Vernius is a despicable criminal, willing to commit an unthinkable atrocity simply for revenge (never mind that he lost control of Ix through his own indifferent leadership). With Rhombur, they seem to be going for the tragic hero, but instead end up depicting an ineffectual buffoon. Most unlikeable of all, Kailea is an annoying petulant beeyotch (although I think this plot line could have been infinitely improved if the readers -- like the characters -- did not find out what was really happening until the end, rather than being told at the beginning).

For all this, if you are a Dune fan, this book is still a somewhat enjoyable read. Herbert Junior & Anderson had the right plot ideas at the "macro" level (again I assume this is the result of Herbert Senior's notes and not their own brilliance) even if they failed to execute them properly at the "micro" level. I would rate this between 2 or 3 stars, a bit lower than Dune: House Atreides. Be back at ya after I read Dune: House Corrino.

Spaghetti Warehouse

2004-10-22T21:56:00.000-04:00

My wife and I ate at Spaghetti Warehouse tonight. Great Italian food; even better prices. They have trio specials for $11, where you get salad, appetizer, entree and dessert (yeah, I know that's four things). My wife has stuffed mushrooms, lasagna and brownie sundae; I had bruschetta, chicken fettucine alfredo and tiramisu. All the food was perfect. The decor of this place is really nice tool; it's decorated in early 20th century style, complete with an old train car in the center (save this for winter, though; it gets hot in there). I highly recommend this place.

The world is about to get a lot less funny, beginning in January

2004-10-20T11:20:00.000-04:00

Dave Barry, The Miami Herald's humor columnist for the past 20 years, said Tuesday that he will take an indefinite leave of absence from the newspaper. He may return in a year. Herald editors wish Barry were making it up. ''Since Dave's columns began appearing every Sunday in The Herald, an entire generation has been born, raised and reached adulthood,'' said Tom Fiedler, The Herald's executive editor. ''Yet his unique sense of humor never grew up and never got old. Learning that Dave wants a breather is like hearing that Peter Pan joined AARP.'' Barry, 57, said he wants to spend more time with his family after a hectic summer trotting from the Democratic and Republican national conventions to the Olympics in Greece and around the country on a book promotion tour.

[I guess I should thank DVD for bringing this to my attention, but I don't feel like it. To hell with not shooting the messenger.]

Copeland's Restaurant

2004-10-17T22:10:00.000-04:00

My wife and I ate at Copeland's Restaurant, a popular New Orleans style restaurant. They recently added a steak menu, but I don't recommend that. The steaks aren't any better than a steak you can get in other restaurants for less money. (For example, their 12 ounce sirloin steak runs $20.) However, their original menu of traditional Cajun dishes continues to be fantastic. My wife had the Zydeco Chicken, and I had Shrimp & Tasso Pasta, both of which were perfectly prepared. Other dishes which I can highly recommend are Crawfish Ettouffe and Grilled Chicken with Yams. Their menu on the website is down right now, and I can't provide any additional suggestions off the top of my head. Check out their menu when you get a chance; I'm sure something will strike your fancy.

Something else worth mentioning is their Sunday brunch (through 3:00 p.m.), which includes several excellent choices. Not to be missed!

Ice Cream

2004-10-16T23:37:00.000-04:00

The wife and I got some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We love their ice cream! It's very hard to go wrong with pretty much anything on their menu. We have only two pieces of advice:

Don't go too simple. The couple behind us ordered a plain vanilla and a plain chocolate. Don't do this. If you do, all you're getting is run-of-the-mill vanilla or chocolate and paying $2.99 for the privilege. If you want that, go get a half gallon in the grocery store. You go to Cold Stone for the mixings.
Don't go too complex. If you start getting all experimental and trying to put together stuff that has no business being together (like strawberries and Reese's peanut butter cups), you will not be a happy camper. Stick to classic toppings, like Heath candy bar or cookie dough. Or even better, try one of their pre-designed combinations like mint mint chocolate chocolate or Founder's Favorite. We've never gone wrong with any of those varieties.

(Marble Slab Creamery is the same set-up. Also excellent!)

Dune: House Atreides

2004-10-10T13:35:00.000-04:00

Recently finished reading Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert (son of the original Dune author Frank Herbert) and Kevin Anderson. I've been thinking for a couple of days of putting my thoughts up here, except I'm not sure what I actually think of it. Of course, it's no Dune (which was very much a book of ideas). It couldn't be. Heck, the five sequels written by Frank Herbert were no Dune. I wasn't expecting it to be. Based on those lower expectations, the book had some merit. Specifically,

Pros:

The basic stories are interesting. Herbert & Anderson have done a good job of developing the original idea (presumably this is due to the fact that they are working from Herbert Senior's notes)
The authors have done a good job of fleshing out the basic ideas into a fairly fast-paced and well-motivated plot. I was definitely interested enough to keep reading (despite the bad writing) to find out what happened next. I will be reading House Harkonnen, the next book in this series, as well.
It's an easy read.

Cons:

They spell everything out. The original Dune was well-known for its nuances and subtle writing. This book spells everything out for you; the political machinations in particular are beat to the death as the writers provide us with every single detail of how every single character arrives at a conclusion as to who's doing what and why.
The writing level is just not on a par with the original series. Herbert Junior is clearly not as smart as Herbert Senior (who is?) and because of this writes as if the reader is too dumb to follow along. Well, I may not be as smart as Frank Herbert, but I'm definitely smarter than the authors. This sometimes makes the reading monotonous when they review something for the reader for the third or fourth time. Some things (including most of what they spell out) are better left for the reader to work out on his own.
The character development is often not interesting or deep; some of the characters (e.g., Duke Leto's mother) are one-dimensional. It's often a mystery why they do what they do (can't elaborate without a plot spoiler, but trust me when I say that some plot twists are unbelievable).
They use the same short chapter technique as the original, but each section is just too short. As a result, the action often feels jerky, rather than the smooth transitions the original managed to achieve.
There are many disagreements with the original Dune series. So many in fact that they had to put out a spin sheet on the www.dunenovels.com website to explain away these discrepancies and errors.
It's an easy read.

So, where does that leave us? Still not sure, maybe 3 stars out of 5? The only thing I can say with certainty is that it's neither as good as nor as bad as some of the reviews on Amazon would lead you to believe.

One More Restaurant Recommendation

2004-10-10T13:30:00.000-04:00

Olive's Waterside

Food, service and decor are all top-notch. My wife and I especially like their Duet Specials. On Wednesday nights and Saturday Early Bird (4-7 pm), they have a special for two. For $34.95, you get

two martinis -- over fifty varieties from which to choose
an appetizer -- all of them outstanding; the calamari deserve special mention since I'm not a big fan of calamari, but I love it the way Olive's prepares it very lightly fried; the mussells are also excellent
two entrees -- excellently prepared, and huge; you will have leftovers
dessert -- the creme brulee in particular is phenomenal

If you are in the Atlanta area, this is one restaurant deal that is not to be missed.

All you can eat

2004-10-10T13:26:00.000-04:00

It happened again. My wife and I went to Famous Dave's BBQ (http://www.famousdaves.com/). I ordered the St. Louis style ribs, and what does the waiter say? "It's all you can eat night." The ribs at Famous Dave's are outstanding; I highly recommend the place. I could barely walk when I left. If this keeps up, I'm going to weigh 300 pounds by the end of the year.

47

2004-10-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

posts in one week. I very seriously doubt I'll be keeping up anywhere near that pace.

By popular request

2004-10-03T22:14:00.000-04:00

Amazingly enough, someone mentioned to me that they would like to hear more about the BBQ I briefly mentioned in an earlier post. Well, never let it be said that I refuse a reasonable request.

My wife and I went to Sonny's BBQ (www.sonnysbbq.com). We go there often; it's cheap and the food is very good. We ordered Chicken & Ribs, and the waiter tells us it's all you can eat night ... for the same price! Excellent! They have a variety of BBQ sauces that will literally leave you licking your fingers. I'm partial to the sweet sauce; my wife likes the spicier stuff. Their sides are top notch too, especially the cole slaw.

Wow

2004-10-02T17:31:00.000-04:00

I was surprised to learn today that something I posted at www.actuary.ca over a year ago seems to have surfaced in several places on the web in the last few days. I guess better late than never.

To see if this can actually generate some good discussion on education, I am going to create a separate blog where I will re-construct the original article from which my posts were created.

I must confess it was really cool to see my words all over the internet like that.

Food!

2004-10-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

I just had really good BBQ. That reminded me - I missed a category: food. My wife and I love to eat out; I'm sure I'll make lots of posts about that. I love food.

And attractive women. The problem is that my wife thinks comments like "She's attractive" are ok, but comments like "She's smokin' and I'd do her in a second if I weren't married (and she let me)" are not ok. Somewhere between those two is a line, but since I'm not sure exactly where the line is, it's best to avoid the subject of attractive women altogether.

I can talk about food, though. That's always ok with my wife.

One more blog

2004-10-01T18:46:00.000-04:00

Work, math/physics and chess. Obviously, I need another blog for personal observations ... books, music, movies, TV, etc. OK, who am I kidding, obviously it will be mostly books. I love politics too, but I'll probably refrain from discussing that here. I don't need every uninformed boob out there sending me illogical comments.

A Random Walk through Life

Science Fiction (Eric Rabkin)

Asimov

New play added to Shakespeare canon

A History of Rome - Mike Duncan

Star Trek

AJC Price Up Again!

The Matrix

Patty Lupone tells it like it is

Downright scary!

Blogging

I Scream for Ice Cream

New Currency

Spitzer Scandal

How is this an "election"?

Fidel Castro Stepping Down After 49 Years

The Dead Parrot - Monty Python

The Argument - Monty Python

A very insightful article on big city living

Political Game

New computer

What's with dry cleaners?

From the "No S--t Sherlock" Files

Visual Studio Express

Visual Studio is a shell of its former self

North Korea

Long Weekend in LA

Dune 7 Sucks (we knew it would)

Nothing but Noodles

Trip to San Francisco Day 8

Trip to San Francisco Day 7

Trip to San Francisco Day 6

Wine Country - Trip to San Francisco Day 5

Berkeley - Trip to San Francisco Day 4

Stanford - Trip to San Francisco Day 3

Trip to San Francisco Day 2

Trip to San Francisco Day 1

Cuba

Twelfth Night

Yes, Prime Minister

Doctor Who

More FEMA Katrina Problems

Trip to Walt Disney World

Who's Responsible?

The Machine Crusade

Revenge of the Sith

Cuba kicks out some foreign companies

I hate it when newspapers try to do math for me...

Happy Birthday to me

Nerd God

Ebay

Looking for a new dry cleaner

DON'T PANIC!

Sal Grosso

Greenhouse Grill

Saigon Cafe

More pictures of Cuba

Cuba

William Safire's Last Column

The Butlerian Jihad

I live among bigots!!

Battlestar Galactica

Happy New Year!

A couple of quick restaurant recommendations

Merry Christmas

Happy Festivus!

Happy Holidays

Welcome to Mama's!

Treo

Copeland's

Steak

No Comment

Veterans Day

Not bad for an amateur

West Virginia elector says he might not vote for President Bush

Dune: House Corrino

Presidential Election Prediction

Macbeth

Thai Food

Bad Service