I found another free book for download on my Kindle: Weapons of Choice. It’s apparently the first of three books in an alternative-history trilogy that has acquired a cult following by an Aussie journalist named John Birmingham. The idea is… Continue Reading
I agree with the guy who says he won’t dive with Humboldt squid for the same reason he won’t walk into a pride of lions on the Serengeti. Some things in the water are dangerous and sharks are actually only… Continue Reading
I’ve just finished reading Jeffrey Toobin’s book The Nine. In it, he paints a series of pictures — moments in time in the institutional history of the Supreme Court, shifting focus between the political dimensions of the Court’s work and… Continue Reading
When I let my blog reader utility go unused for more than 24 hours, the number of posts from the many blogs I read — some political, some related to cooking, some of friends and family, some legal, some historical,… Continue Reading
While some of the commenters to this article act like this was common knowledge, I did not know this fact and I consider myself fairly sophisticated about employment matters. There are lots of reasons for “use it or lose it”… Continue Reading
This early novel by Neal Stephenson is ambitious in its scope and several times had me cursing him under my breath for anticipating some ideas I’ve been playing with in my free time. It is confusing, immersing, and thought-provoking, but… Continue Reading
If I were going to produce a movie — more like an HBO mini-series, I should think — based on Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle, here’s some ideas for who I’d like to cast (if money were not much of… Continue Reading
Six countries where before there was one? That’s what a Russian political scientist says is a little bit more likely than not to happen in the next twenty-four months. My initial reaction is, “This guy doesn’t understand much about American… Continue Reading
The answer to the question, as we now know, is “Fox, not Warner Brothers.” In a summary judgment ruling on the issue of who owns the distribution rights for the movie Watchmen, the U.S. District Court for the Central District… Continue Reading
I didn’t pick books for last week’s poll that were necessarily published in 2008. I wanted to find out which book had the biggest impact on 2008. And I wanted books that have only relatively recently entered the public consciousness;… Continue Reading