I never met the man, although I can say he was very much a part of my life—for most of my life as a scientist, at least.  He was the consummate snake-oil salesman, giving most people what they needed and convincing them they needed it whether they knew they needed it or not.  While that need was often a fix to satisfy an addiction to new technology—in other words, a perceived need, as a child needs new toys—there is no doubt that he was a genius in bringing to market many user-friendly devices that have changed how the world uses computers.

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On Tuesday, I received an “urgent alert to the APS membership:  funding cuts to NSF, NIST.”  Let me translate the acronymese.  APS is the American Physical Society.  I’m a member.  Although I am now a full-time writer, I used to be a physicist, among other things (people have called me many things, in fact).  NSF, of course, is the National Science Foundation.  NIST is the lesser known National Institute of Standards and Technology (the name is a late addition, probably to get more funding—it used to be called National Bureau of Standards).  The issue is that the Senate Appropriations Committee, that august body of mostly senile and small-minded thinkers who often sit in the Senate for a lifetime, has proposed cuts to both NSF and NIST in its FY 2012 budget for Commerce, Justice and Science agencies.  (Since NIH, the National Institutes of Health, does research for the drug companies, I’m not sure whether they’re a commerce or science agency, but they weren’t mentioned by APS.)

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To my readers,

This will appear as an occasional feature as part of my blog.  In lieu of a newsletter, I will post things here that are newsworthy, little bulletins about fellow authors or yours truly.  Some of these will be repeated on my Facebook Fan Page, but the FB programmers are really starting to get on my nerves, so this is the first place to check.

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To my readers,

My book reviews, especially those for Bookpleasures.com, are often long and more detailed than the average ones you’ll find on Amazon, for example.  Since I read many more books than those I review, I thought a few words and ranking about other books might help readers sift through the chaff to find the grain.  Information is useful, even in abbreviated form.

Another reason for adding this blog category is that I just don’t have time to weed through all the new features on Facebook and user-unfriendliness of Goodreads.  Since my blog is RSS’d to Goodreads anyway, this seems like an alternative that provides the same information to readers and is user friendly to me.

Finally, what I read and what I review is part of me, take it or leave it.  I’m often cynical about what’s going on in the publishing world and that cynicism creeps into my reviews (see my review of Deaver’s 007 entry, for example).  I expect that this will happen even in these mini-reviews.  Expect some politics sprinkled around too—when I can’t resist (I’m not as caustic as Stuart or Colbert).

Don’t look for these reviews on any regular basis.  My reading often goes in spurts, so reviews and mini-reviews will come in spurts too.  They will all be catalogued here, so, if you wonder about an old book a few years down the road, you might want to check here.  Most of these books will be eBooks.  These mini-reviews will not appear on Amazon, by the way.  I have no desire to compete with any Amazon reviewer who is out to win the “king of reviewers” title—I’d rather be writing!

With that wordy preamble, here are my first mini-reviews (be forewarned, some of these books are old; also, my stars are not given so freely as those you might find on Amazon):

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I don’t like to gloat, especially in these circumstances, but I told you so.  The U.S. government, through the loose lips of Mr. Mullins, has finally spoken the words—Pakistan is playing a duplicitous role in the war against terrorism.  This was no secret, at least not for me.  All the evidence was there.  Every sane person on the planet knew this was happening, but no one in officialdom would or could admit to it.  Why do you think we went after OBL without telling the Pakistanis?  Why do you think they shouted “foul” at not being told?  The claim that the spy agency is helping terrorists is no surprise.  What is a surprise is that the Afghan government is so weak that the spy agency’s bloody fist can strike all the way to Kabul and the U.S embassy.

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I’m referring to the Doomsday Clock, of course.  Last time I checked it read six minutes to midnight.  The case of the hikers in Iran and that country’s constant saber rattling might change the clock.  The instability in Pakistan and that country’s increasing animosity towards the West also might change the setting.  Al Qaeda threats, especially those related to revenging the death of OBL, are also a factor.  Add in then tensions between Pakistan and India and the posturing of North Korea, just to name a few hot spots in the world, and one can see that life was much better with the old U.S.S.R. and the Cold War, at least in some sense.  The West had thousands of warheads pointed in its direction, but only one enemy.  Now we’re not even sure who our enemies are!

The proliferation of nuclear arms is akin to a schoolyard of kids who each receive an automatic to play with.  Too many countries and citizens of those countries treat nuclear arms lightly now, like schoolchildren with their video-games education.  Even here in the U.S. (and we should know better), crazies that believe in Armageddon and Rapture have even infiltrated the U.S. Air Force, the very organization in charge of our atomic arsenal (see “The Theology of Armageddon” by Robert C. Koehler, 9/15/2011 CommonDreams.org).  It turns out that in a Vandenberg Air Force Base course titled “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare,” the organizers wanted to give officers in the first week of missile-launch training a religious indoctrination in “Just War Theory,” often called “Jesus Loves Nukes” by its detractors.  Officers of numerous faiths complained and the course was canceled, one small victory for sanity.

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(Jim Bruno’s Tribe, Bittersweet House Press, ISBN 0983764204)

From sites in the Middle East where oil wars are fought to the public venues and secret backrooms of Washington D.C. where the puppeteers pull the strings of the men and women who fight them, this thriller provides an inside view of a future plan to control the oil reserves in the former Soviet republics around the Caspian Sea.  Both here and abroad, the violent action is punctuated by soft pastel glimpses into the lives of the families that suffer under the whims of the players of real politik.  There is no moral high ground here, not even for the flawed hero, the C.I.A. agent Harry Brennan.

Brennan is a rarity, a superman that can fight side-by-side with Arab and Afghan freedom fighters as well as against rapacious U.S. politicos and oil interests.  Black gold is the corrupting agent here, but many of the people involved are already corrupted—the oil just provides a hook to hang their corruption on.  Corruption, whether by nature or through nurture, is an equal opportunity trait in this gritty story—Afghans, Arabs and Americans are prone to the disease and Afghans, Arabs and Americans can strive to develop the antibodies needed to fight it.

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(Philip Yaffe, Science for the Concerned Citizen, eBook, ASIN B005G0JH2G)

This pleasant and educational little book is a potpourri of tidbits about science and scientists.  Mr. Yaffe’s motivation for writing it is commendable:  there are many popular misconceptions about and outright hostility to science among many laypersons.  None of this is healthy.  His reason is the same as mine, but I’ll state it more strongly:  If society’s average knowledge level is only that of a technological savage (a person that uses gizmos without understanding anything about how they work), society can only through pure damn luck find smart and ethical solutions to global warming, cloning, alternative energy, water usage, and so forth.  In other words, we have a moral imperative to learn enough science to vote wisely.  In a representative democracy, this also goes for the representatives of the people (their ignorance sometimes is frightening).

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(Carla Neggers, MIRA, Saint’s Gate, ISBN 978-0-7783-1235-2)

A convent on the rugged coast of Maine is the scene of a vicious murder in Carla Neggers’ new novel Saint’s Gate.  With this book, Ms. Neggers also introduces a new series and two new protagonists, FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan.  It is a dark mystery, full of intrigue and suspense.  The characters are interesting, the locales spectacular, and the plot well constructed.  Relax in your recliner, pour yourself a taoscan of fine Irish whiskey (see later why this is appropriate), and enjoy.  It is fun to read.  I read it in two evenings—it displaced all my other writing and reading activities.

I had the uncanny feeling that the author has a psychic hold over me—to use modern vernacular, she knew how to jerk my chains.  First, the locales:  the California and Maine coasts are my two favorite spots in the U.S.  Except for climate, they are similar—waves pounding against steep, craggy cliffs topped with pines and other magnificent trees.  Big Sur and Mt. Desert Island hold a special place in my travel memories.  I grew up in California; my father painted its coastline.  My first trips to Ogunquit and Bar Harbor left me yearning for more.

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As a continuation of my post about the digital publishing revolution, I’m dedicating this post to eBook pricing.  One reason:  I’ve decided that the emphasis in my future participation in this revolution will be on eBooks.  While my main motivation for this decision is control—my control—over the publishing process, there are many others.  I touched on some of those reasons for all self-publishing options in that previous post.  One aspect of that control, of course, is determining the pricing for your eBook.

Barry Eisler’s new John Rain thriller, The Detachment, is priced at $5.99 for a Kindle download.  That price is right in the middle of the standard Amazon range of $2.99 to $9.99.  OK, for purists, the middle would be $6.50, give or take a few cents, so, if you take dollar steps from $2.99, it could be $5.99 or $6.99.  Don’t ask me why the used car salesperson’s 99 is present—why not $6.50?  This is all part of the craziness—and the fun!  Will you be more likely to buy a book at $5.99 than $6.50?  For one of my books, maybe.  For Barry Eisler, the price might not matter much.

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