1 It's now "irrelevant" where the President is during a crisis.

Remember "My Pet Goat?"

I do.

Fuck 'em.

2 Just bought Bob Mayer's "Chasing the Lost," after reading and enjoying his earlier title with the same hero, "Chasing the Ghost." Horace Chase is the man. Better than Reacher.

3 Another thing: I was talking with a mid-LIV yesterday and the IRS thing came up.

One thing I had to explain to him is that the delay of the approval of status is no small thing. It's not merely the delay of the system and bureaucracy as normal.

Delay of status denies them the ability to fund raise. A lot of donors won't give unless it gets them the tax deduction.

That's what the whole point of the IRS action was: To deny these groups the ability to raise money based on their perceived political views.

That's why there needs to be felony jail terms and executions ought to be an option.

4 So does this mean Mayer manages to avoid being a lefty twit and always picking from the vast RWC for the villians? 

5 Great zombie book: Dead Drunk by Richard Johnson. It's zombies vs. Morons. Well-written, action-packed, and very funny.

6 "Female action writers are sort of rare..." If they write female protags the way movies portray them, (a man with female body parts), then I can understand why. Closest thing I've read to a female action write I guess is Janet Evanovich and that first Stephanie Plum novel she wrote. Fun little afternoon read.

7 How about another cartoon with Obi-Wan outside the IRS headquarters: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

8 That last Mage Guardian looks interesting and I liked Chase's other books.  I will probably get that one.

So what am I reading now?


I re-tried some old Philip K. Dick stuff based on recommendations from last weekÂ’s book thread.  Still could not get into it.  Have gone back to old Mercedes Lackey stuff until something new comes along on Kindle under $10.   I refuse to pay more that $10 for anything on the Kindle. (And very few for over $5)

9 Star Wars is better than Star Trek, and here's how I know.  When people screw up Star Trek, nobody cares.

10 "Posted by: RoyalOil at May 19, 2013 11:08 AM (VjL9S)" Was that the same LIV with the big ol' brain that calculated 600 million split evenly between every American netted us all a cool 2 mil apiece? Or was that a different Moron's experience? It's no wonder we're fucked.

11 Lita Ford and that is about it.

12 I just finished No Easy Hope, first book in a zombie apocalypse trilogy. Not bad, and free for Amazon Prime members.

13

Family History Books

 

Last week, I wrote about how I stumbled into genealogy and listed free sources for family history books. http://tinyurl.com/bcx476n.

 

Here are a few of my people I found in family history books.  Anne Marbury Hutchinson, the religious troublemaker and my 10^th GGM, is the only direct ancestor I recognize from American history books. My 9^th GGM, Mary Barrett Dyer, was the only woman hanged in America for her religious beliefs.  Another xth-GGM, whose name I forget, was thought to have died in her Atlantic crossing.  Her husband prevailed upon the shipÂ’s captain to not throw her body overboard as they would reach America in a day or two.  When they removed her body for burial, they discovered she was still alive and *voila!* you get me!  Another xth-GGM was tomahawked by indians as a child in Kentucky.  Obviously she survived and *voila!* me again.

 

This week, IÂ’ll write a little bit about how to extend your family tree back far enough to get into the family histories.  For many of you, it will be easier than you think but may take some time.

 

The best way is to talk to your relatives.  If you are lucky enough to have your parents or grandparents living, ask them about their parents and grandparents and their siblings.  Try to find out the dates and places of birth, marriage and death.  Who were the other children?  What else can they tell you about their lives and the family lore?  If they immigrated, try to find out when, where (to and from), how and why.  Let them know what youÂ’re up to; they may well have family records stored away.  Talk to your siblings and cousins.  They may have been given family materials or have done their own research.  Older siblings in particular may know more about your closer ancestors.

 

One of the goals is to have as much data as possible when you go skipping off to look at census records and other government documents.  The recently released 1940 census is fully indexed and searchable at FamilySearch.org and HeritageQuestOnline.com.  Baby BoomersÂ’ parents should be listed with their parents.  I usually use FamilySearch, but Heritage has images of some census records that FamilySearch mysteriously lacks (use HeritageÂ’s census browse function with the census location data available at FamilySearch).

 

You can work backward through the censuses as far as possible. (The 1890 and parts of the 1800 and 1810 censuses have been lost or destroyed).  Maiden names can often be found in marriage and death records as well as childrenÂ’s birth records at FamilySearch.  Other sources are the user-submitted family trees at FamilySearch and the free portion of ancestry.com.  http://tinyurl.com/5q4g62  These trees can be unreliable.

 

The farther back you can go, the better chance you have of finding a history of a relevant family.  I think the nearest relative I found is a great-grandfather who was born in 1850.  So, armed with family names, go to the book sections at FamilySearch, HeritageQuest and Archive.com and search away!

 

Next week, IÂ’ll write a little more about my favorite site for finding connections to notable people, George Larson IIÂ’s An Extended Family.  http://tinyurl.com/bqpwh88 .  IÂ’ve read some good books recommended here because they involved ancestors or cousins.

14 "Female action writers are sort of rare..."


If they write female protags the way movies portray them, (a man with female body parts), then I can understand why.


I usually feel the same way,  but I recently read a series by Lindsay Buroker called The Emperor's Edge with a woman protagonist that I actually liked. Sometimes the woman protag is an overly macho PITA that wouldn't even be attractive in a male.

15 One book to avoid, is a supposed memoir by a fellow from one of those very obscure fmr Soviet Republic, Nicolai Lilin, Marketed as Sniper, known abroad as Free Fall, it's about his time in Chechnya, it turns out he made up a large part of the preface, which makes one doubt the rest of the tale,

OTOH, I read this other crime drama, In for a Rubble, about a fmr Russian zek, that's Gulag inmate, who ended up in the KGB, and subsequently became an information broker, of sorts, a Russian Marlowe who ends up running into his old boss, and his exwife, in the course of the tale,

16 I find your lack of faith...disturbing.

17 Poor "Firehearted" gets no love...

Recently read and enjoyed "The Martian". Went out to Amazon to maybe post a review and discovered that not only had about 1400 people beat me to the punch, but that it had been picked up by a publishing house and is no longer available until said publishing house gets done pushing it around.

Currently reading "The Impossible State" by Victor Cha, about North Korea. Most of the 1-star reviews complained that he spent a lot of time talking about the Bush administration's actions with respect to North Korea; natual, since Cha was part of Bush's North Korea team. Since I've long been curious about what Bush was up to, that only piqued my interest. I'm still in the early portion of the book, talking about Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il and enjoying it so far. Didn't know that Kim Jong-Il's *real* name is Yuri Irsunovitch Kim, having been born in the Soviet Union.

Also recently re-read "The Long Dark Teatime Of the Soul", the second of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently novels. Re-enjoyed it, of course.

18   I just finished a biography of Miyamoto Musashi by William Scott Wilson, "The Lone Samurai,"  I recommend it for any moron who wants to read an account of the legendary swordsman that isn't tainted by romantic, Hollywood BS.  It almost makes you want to grow a top-knot and take up Kendo.  If nothing else, it will make you more cautious about taunting that teenager you always see running around with a walking stick in your neighborhood (Musashi killed his first man in a duel when he was 13.  According to Wilson, he used a wooden practice sword to beat the guys head in.  Sounds like a good Lesson #1 - Don't underestimate your oppenent).

19 Just downloaded The Last Mage Guardian

20 I only read one Mayer novel before, the one with hero Horace Chase, and set in Boulder, CO. The bad guy in that one was not someone from the vast RWC, but a Boulder official making a bundle on the side in the drug trade, and involved with some militia-types.

21 Yay! Not comment #437 in the book thread, for once! Lots of talk here and other places about the new world of self-publishing, and it seems to be accelerating the downward spiral of large-house traditional publishers. Tomorrow marks one year since my last proposal was accepted "for consideration" by the house that did most of my books. Since then, complete silence about it. For some odd reason, I don't think they are going to green-light the project. (it's about irregular/militia/guerrilla actions in the South during the Revolutionary War, centering around a Loyalist militia commander from Augusta named "Burnfoot" Brown) Possibly in an unrelated bit of news, seems they are also dropping at least a couple of long-running series, while purchasing even more small house publishers about to go under. It really looks like direct to Kindle or other such self e-publication may turn out to not only be the preferable way for authors to go, but the only realistic way non-bestselling sorts will have as an option. The editor who has been back-dooring me some information about her house said that there is some talk in the industry of viewing self e-pubs as a sort of farm team system for the big houses, who would then "call up to the big show" authors who show real promise. Not really such a bad idea, if the big houses can stay in business while all this sorts out. And assuming hardcover and paperback sales remain high enough to keep any of them in business.

22 The editor who has been back-dooring me Ooo-la-la.

23 That would be a weighty tome.  One that would probably collapse a coffee table.  Which book am I talking about?  Well the Collected Words of Chris Matthews in Praise of President Obama.  Will even come with a leg tingler, a back brace, and a dolly.

24 Oh, and what i'm reading this week (besides Sgt Mom's work, again); not the usual fare discussed in these parts, but I found a most marvelous Christian devotional book a few months ago, and take great pleasure in meditating over it each morning - "Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence," by Sarah Young. There has been a look of sickness and eath in my family over the past year, and we've shared the daily devotionals many times as a point of specific comfort; today's seemed apt as well for some issues our family and friends are facing this morning: I WANT YOU TO KNOW how safe and secure you are in My Presence. That is a fact, totally independent of your feelings. You are on your way to heaven; nothing can prevent you from reaching that destination. There you will see Me face to Face, and your Joy will be off the charts by any earthly standards. Even now, you are never separated from Me, though you must see Me through eyes of faith. I will walk with you till the end of time, and onward into eternity. Although My Presence is a guaranteed promise, that does not necessarily change your feelings. When you forget I am with you, you may experience loneliness or fear. It is through awareness of My Presence that Peace displaces negative feelings. Practice the discipline of walking consciously with Me through each day. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 CORINTHIANS 13 : 12 The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace. PSALM 29 : 11 Young, Sarah (2004-10-12). Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence (p. 147). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

25 Phillip K. Dick

Posted by: Vic at May 19, 2013 11:12 AM (53z96)

My experience also.

I'm trying to introduce Clavell to my wife. I got her Tai Pan for her trip to Hong Kong, but she didn't read it.

It's time to reread him, starting with Shogun!

26
Tables, scrawls and diagrams. A collection of notes penned by writers including James Salter and J.K. Rowling are a fascinating look at how authors plan out their novels.

DailyMail
http://tinyurl.com/a7weojl


Interesting to see how writers plan out the overall structure of a book.

27 Meme of the day - Over reach! Drink!

28 Posted by: Nash Rambler at May 19, 2013 11:19 AM (h+OzC) Ahh, the genealogy bug. I'm currently suffering a massive infection. The Ancestry.com 2 week free trial is worth it. I'd recommend anyone seriously interested in genealogy that is able to set aside plenty of spare time for two weeks to take advantage of it. Yes, their user submitted trees are notoriously unreliable, but they can be useful in getting around a roadbock sometimes. I've found things in their record collections I wasn't able to find at familysearch I'm so deep into the dead ends in my tree I've almost maxed out the various resources like usgenweb and other more localized sites. I'm pretty much at the personally-going-to-courthouses stage. Never tried heritagequest though, but seem to have issues accessing it.

29 O/T (I'll spend time in the barrel, I know)... Someone in the open thread suggested this pic with Ben Kenobi and the IRS. I was bored, so I made this. http://tinypic.com/r/2qutdtt/5

30 It's time to reread him, starting with Shogun!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 19, 2013 11:33 AM (O6Tmi)

I have all of his books and the only one I found wanting was King Rat.  I struggled through it, but it is one I will not re-read.

I kind of got the idea that he did not like Americans even though he became a naturalized American citizen.

31 I read the Orphan Master's Son and it is an amazing, amazingly well-written and funny, dramatic, touching novel - set in North Korea of all places.

32 BTW CBD, if she is going to read them she should do them in order starting with Shogun.

33 First up: Toby Frost, "Space Captain Smith, Hero of the British Space Empire".
http://spacecaptainsmith.com/

This is comedic SF. Smith is a stiff-upper-lip public-school-boy; now in command of a ship.

It's amateurish and obvious, like Spaceballs or the old Space Quest games, relying too much on direct pop-culture references. That shit gets dated. Mocking the tropes of SF is one thing; sending readers on an easter-egg hunt is another.

On the other hand, the main characters are pretty well drawn. Smith is hilarious as an uptight and slightly racist imperialist of the old school. To him, almost everyone else is "foreign", except for his friends who are, um, aliens and androids. No, he hasn't the self-awareness to figure this out. But he has a good heart underneath all that fuddy-duddy bluster.

I also liked that when they go to Planet Louisiana, or whatever it's called in the book, the author doesn't go off on a wholesale anti-American / anti-South tirade. This is extremely fucking rare in the SF authors' community, especially comic SF. So that aspect alone wins points from me.

I encourage Frost to write more books and get more into practice. The man has potential.

34 I just finished "Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, by Annalee Newitz, and based on an Instapundit recommendation.  Unfortunately, the book doesn't live up to the premise.  It is supposed to be a review of mass extinctions, past and present, and potential human strategies for dealing with them.  Unfortunately, the author turns out to be an English major, and although she talks with many smart technical people, my sense is that she just reported the ones that fit her naive preconceptions.  The necessary technical proficiency is sorely lacking for a book of this sort.  More importantly, she can't keep her politics out of the thing, especially global warming, which she defines as the most dangerous threat we face.  It was when I read that that I knew the book would disappoint.  There isn't even a single mention of scientific skepticism about AGW, and even worse, the 15 year absence of rising temperatures.  I can live with someone saying it's a potential problem, but not if they simply ignore the contrary evidence.  That tells me that they aren't serious, and I immediately distrust anything else they have to say. 

Finally, the author discusses how we could live underground in the event of a megavolcano or gamma ray burst, without ever discussing how we would repopulate the biosphere.  She seems to think we will grow crops underground, without really addressing what will provide the energy to generate the light they need.  She does say we need to move to solar and wind energy generation, without talking at all about the limitations of those forms.

Long story short, this was a potentially interesting topic, but badly mishandled by a technically ignorant ideologue.  Pity.

35 I've been reading Solzhenitsyn for tips on living in the IRS camps.

36 The latest tactic is to hype things like "Umbrellagate" to induce scandal fatigue and to make everything else by extension just Republican ridiculousness.  The Low Information Voter is to be shown the absurdity of Umbrellagate and prodded to make the leap that using the IRS to intimidate political opponents, tapping the phone lines of reporters and Congressmen, and lying to the public about what happened in Benghazi are also absurd, just like the propaganda machine tells him to.

37 And, uh, thanks for the mention, OM, but I'm "always perky and vivacious" just like Sabrina, too! Just in a tubby, bearded, old-guy in the recliner shouting at the TV sort of way.

38 So, if I tell the police that my speeding was unacceptable and won't happen again then the law becomes irrelevant?  I don't pay a fine nor do the jail time?

39 Thank you John the Baptist. I needed that this morning. The Sunday Shows? Unwatchable. I don't know why I bother. But Nixon, But Reagan, But Bush. Unbelievable. Just as sure as I sit here, Obama will get away with it all. Just watch.

40
Recently read:

Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-seven Unbuilt Designs
by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer

Projects of  architect Frank Lloyd Wright that never made it to the starting line. Includes sketches and history of each building. Especially of note is the section on Wright's proposed Mile High skyscraper.

41 From the October 1964 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, read two of the short stories.

The first was by Leigh Brackett.  When Mars was still viable as a planet with life and civilization.  Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon.  Earthman gets in over his head with Martians.

Second was a short little magic story by Damon Knight called Maid to Measure where a young girl annoyed at her boyfriend transforms herself via potion into a bikini that her swain's other girlfriend then wears to go swimming.

42 Saw "Star Trek: Into Darkness" last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. Fun summer movie and almost non-stop action. JJ Abrams method for Star Trek is now clear in that there will basically be the same people in the universe but their roles, arcs of development, fates and actions may be significantly different. If you're are a bit of a "every Thursday night is pork chop night, dammit" guy or gal, you may not like it. Personally, I enjoyed the variations being run. Everybody I saw coming out of the movie had a smile on their face, however YMMV.

43 Posted by: Vic at May 19, 2013 11:40 AM (53z96)

Agreed.

The first two are the best. After Tai Pan I lost interest.

44 I got a pile of books from Amazon this week, mostly on the topic of That Religion.

One was Levy-Rubin, "The Continuatio of the Samaritan Chronicle". This is the Samaritans' own account about life under Caliph al-Mansur (754-775 AD) and afterward. I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say that the Abbasid empire gave the dhimmis a long hard shaft.

Unfortunately I wanted to know about the Umayyad period, and there the Samaritans left me SOL. They thought that Muhammad was an improvement over the Byzantines, and that the Umayyads were fine. So they didn't report much of anything from the 640s-740s. This much they appear to share with the Jews, who also kept quiet during that period.

45

28 I'm so deep into the dead ends in my tree I've almost maxed out the various resources like usgenweb and other more localized sites. I'm pretty much at the personally-going-to-courthouses stage.


Never tried heritagequest though, but seem to have issues accessing it.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 19, 2013 11:36 AM (NcPjb)

 

I'm about at the going to the courthouse stage myself although several of my roadblocks exist because courthouses have burned down.  Most of my road blocks are on the east coast which is slightly inconvenient.

 

To access HeritageQuestOnline.com, you need to have a library card from a subscribing library.  I'm not sure if you have to access it through your library's website.

 

I thought I would compile as much as possible before using Ancestry's free trial, but I'm sure I have at least two weeks of search topics.  I can also access Ancestry.com through my library, but I have to be at the library to use it.

46 Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 19, 2013 11:50 AM (QTHTd)

Anything that Bernard Lewis wrote will be worthwhile.

47 Eyre. Jane Eyre.

48 Posted by: Vic at May 19, 2013 11:38 AM (53z96) Hey Vic, Have you ever seen the movie of "King Rat"? It's one of my favorites. And features a knock-out performance by George fucking Segal of all people. "King Rat" is one of those books where the tone is crucial and it's much better caught by the movie.

49 I finally got through the last part of Gibbon talking about the Roman Empire post Charlemagne, which was pretty confusing as a series of weak leaders pretty much fucked things up and led to things getting split up.  Maybe his contemporaries had a better idea of just what the fuck was going on then but it was pretty confusing to me.


Anyway I'm finally to chapter 50 (that's what L is in roman numerals, no?) where he approaches things from the Arab point of view.  He gives a fairly romantic Lawrence of Arabia view of them but where he's losing me is when he talks about Mo the Pederast (piss all over him) and how the Christians have been so meeeean to him.  Too bad, Ed, but you're just another dhimmi turd when it comes to that horseshit and it's pretty much completely fucked your country over.


Have any morons read "An Army at Dawn:  The War in North Africa 1942-1943" by Rick Atkinson?  The WSJ gave a glowing review of his last book of a trilogy, of which this is the first, about the US war experience in Europe that got me interested in this.

50
The Ancestry.com 2 week free trial is worth it.
Posted by: Burn the Witch



For the thrifty, many public library have free access to Ancestry.com.  For the Los Angeles Public Library system, it available only while at an actual branch, but free is free.

The LAPL does however offer free access to Heritagequest.com from their webpage.  Check under "Research and Homework".

Libraries often have similar access to additional specialized databases.  Check around your system's webpage or ask a reference librarian.

51 Hi, I hope everyone is getting their "Read On". One more week of school. I've currently been reading The American Society of Non-Destructive Testings Ultrasonic Classroom training Manual. It makes Ambian seem like Meth. Currently Writing Amy Lynn II, "Golden Angel". Should be hitting it hard next week after school. Love you guys, have a great week.

52
And looks like most of that got posted at #45 while I was spellchecking.

Oh cruel fate!

53 Have any morons read "An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943" by Rick Atkinson? The WSJ gave a glowing review of his last book of a trilogy, of which this is the first, about the US war experience in Europe that got me interested in this.

It's been a few years, but I read it and enjoyed it immensely.  If you can get past Atkinson's affiliation with WaPo, you'll like it too.

54 I've been on a SciFi tear recently and this week I began reading a Kindle version from my local library of  Austin Grossman's first novel, "Soon I Will Be Invincible". So far it is a hoot. The main character has attempted to take over the world 12 times already and we meet him in a special lockup where he is plotting his 13th attempt. He suffers from a very serious case of  Malign Hypercognition Disorder, the  evil genius  syndrome, and he is a very refreshing character. Austin Grossman is the video game creator of a ton of titles, ranging from Ultima Uunderworld II, to Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (one of the very best games ever and one that has inspired many, many others) on to his most current release, Dishonored. Some here might find this book to be entertaining, I think.

55 Gabriel Said Reynolds, "The Qur'an and its Biblical Subtext". This (specialist) book begins with thirteen essays, "test cases" he calls them, of aspects in this book which, he thinks, derive from Christian and Jewish thought of the 600s AD. The remainder attempts a theory of Qur'anic use of the Bible from these test-cases.

It's much like the essays in parts 3-6 of Ibn Warraq's "What the Koran Really Says"; some test-cases in fact respond to some of those essays. I think that Reynolds ties it together better than did Ibn Warraq.

56

I was fortunate to have a bunch of relatives who have already done my family tree. When I went to my first big family reunion, I had the great honor of adding my little family's  stats to the tree, which was printed out on a J-sized engineering sheet of paper (14 ft by 36 in).

 

Naturally, as  a Moron, my first thought was, "Gee,  my relatives  sure do   enjoy sex..."

57 I just finished In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin. Lyrical, romantic. I am now starting Amy Lynn by some moron called Jack July.

58 Currently reading "The Stake" by Richard Laymon. So far so good. More humorous than most of his books. Laymon, who died of a massive heart attack at 53 about ten(?) years ago, was regarded as a horror writers horror writer. Very clean prose, very gory action. He won the Bram Stoker award a couple of times. Most recently for "The Traveling Vampire Show", a coming of age novel with horror elements.

59 Interesting that "The Martian" got picked up by a publisher. Self published author gets noticed. I'm reading it now, having run to Amazon and purchased it when it was first recommended here. Enjoying it immensely. As I read I'm imagining it as a movie but I can't seem to pinpoint who I'd cast as the hero and the ground crew.

60 Just finished re-reading back to back Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and "Executive Orders" They were more scary this time through realizing what an incompetent we have in the White House and how very possible some of the alignments Clancy puts forth would be.

61 Thanks pep; were you aware of his new book?

62 For those of you with ESPNU: 2013 NCAA Div I Lacrosse Tournament Quarterfinals are on today: On right now- North Carolina vs Denver Two top ranked teams so should be an excellent game. Check it out.

63

I'm poised to start on Vince Flynn's American Assassin  that I picked up in a local Goodwill store for the low, low price of $2.00  in hardback. 

 

They  had a good selection of books, all at that price. I highly recommend   GW.

64 I've been reading physical books this week, for the first time in a while, and found myself getting irritated that they don't light themselves, as my Kindle does.

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons was as superb as I remembered it. Vivid characters, lots of action, world-spanning plot.

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum was as wonderfully awful as I remembered it. I had forgotten about his egregious overuse of the passive voice, but I had not forgotten the hysterically overwrought writing exemplified by passages like this:

QUOTE
The rapid cracks of his own footsteps on the pavement frightened him. It was the sound of a man running in panic in the middle of the night, and that man in panic was himself.
Footsteps. Racing footsteps. They were his, but more than his! Behind him, steady, heavy, gaining on him. There was someone running after him! Someone running in silence, not calling his name, not demanding that he stop!...Or was his hearing playing tricks on him? The hammering in his chest vibrated throughout his entire body; were his footsteps echoing in his ears? He dared not turn, could not turn. He was going too fast--into light, into shadow.
END QUOTE

65
Another good source for census records is archive.org. They have pdfs of most of the censuses, segmented by year, state and set of counties.  They are usually big files, 100s of mb each.  However, if you're expecting to spend a lot of time looking at one area, being able to just read the book or compare documents in separate windows can be very useful. The interface at ancestry can often get in the way.

66 Thanks pep; were you aware of his new book?
Posted by: Captain Hate

It's on my list, but I haven't paid much attention to it yet.   I will definitely read it, though. 

67 The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum was as wonderfully awful as I remembered it.

I've read a grand total of one Ludlum book, largely because I liked the Bourne movies.  I remember thinking "I cannot believe someone publishes something this bad".

68 Thank you John the Baptist. I needed that this morning. The Sunday Shows? Unwatchable. I don't know why I bother. But Nixon, But Reagan, But Bush. Unbelievable. Just as sure as I sit here, Obama will get away with it all. Just watch.

Posted by: Truck Monkey at May 19, 2013 11:44 AM (jucos)

I have no doubt about it. The MFM had a little lovers spat with Barry but even AP by the end of the week was running North Korean level propaganda for him again

69 staff i know a kid who is going to denver next yr to play lacrosse......

70 The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum was as wonderfully awful as I remembered it. I had forgotten about his egregious overuse of the passive voice, but I had not forgotten the hysterically overwrought writing


I remember sitting on the beach at Ocean City Maryland in the early 80s reading a Ludlum book that was roughly contemporary, when I thought "everything in this is implausible crap that I'm expected to buy into.  Life is too short to spend it reading garbage so this is the end of opening anything by him."

71 59 Interesting that "The Martian" got picked up by a publisher...As I read I'm imagining it as a movie but I can't seem to pinpoint who I'd cast as the hero and the ground crew.

-----------

Tom Cruise, of course!

Only fly in the ointment, of course, is that his shit don't stink. He'd have to do some actual acting.

72 64 Posted by: Splunge at May 19, 2013 12:12 PM (bKA83) (70, 67 too ) Thank you for this. I'd been debating rereading some Ludlum and couldn't remember why I'd stopped before. Now I do.

73 71 Nooooooo. Not Cruise!.

74 I always got Ludlum confused with Brian Lumley for some reason.

I don't recommend Lumley, by the way. "Hero of Dreams" is Lovecraft fanfic, with his Mary-Sues roaming the same landscape. Go ahead and write this shit if it gets your rocks off, but don't make me pay for it.

75 And Dan Simmons is great. Anyone here read his anti-Obama book, "Flashback"?

76 Another book that I made some progress in this week was "Phi:  A Voyage From the Brain to the Soul" by Giulio Tononi.  Galileo is now interacting with Alan Turing on how to think of consciousness and is being presented with some incredible mind games.  Turing was incredibly brilliant and weird.  For some reason I'm finding this book more welcoming than "Godel, Escher, Bach" which didn't appeal to me as much as I was led to believe (I'm sure it had to do with my state of mind at the time) and I put it aside to pick up later.

77 Posted by: phoenixgirl at May 19, 2013 12:17 PM (GVxQo) phoenixgirl, Good for him. It's a great game. And Denver was one of the middle of the pack team that got serious a few years ago and are now perennial contenders. Although you wouldn't know it by this game so far. They are really getting spanked by NC. Your friend's son should have a shot at a nat'l championship at some point in his college career.

78 71 Now I'm thinking mini series. Cruise wouldn't be interested in a mini series would he?

79 Now I'm thinking mini series. Cruise wouldn't be interested in a mini series would he? Posted by: Tuna at May 19, 2013 12:27 PM (M/TDA) If it's Cruise, it HAS to be a mini series. (Yes, a short joke. I'm short, it's allowed.)

80 Drudge headline inneresting. Chris Wallace committed journalism today

81 The first two are the best. After Tai Pan I lost interest.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 19, 2013 11:49 AM (O6Tmi)

After Shogun my next favorite was Noble House.

82 The Zombie Chronicles, a great zombie series by Mark Clodi and Mike Keleman, starts with "Outbreak" Nice twist on zombies and not for the squeamish.

83 Reading the Drudge headlines, we're going to need a bigger thread. Or this book thread is going to get hijacked. I'm starting to get the angry-face again

84 Have you ever seen the movie of "King Rat"?

It's one of my favorites. And features a knock-out performance by George fucking Segal of all people.

"King Rat" is one of those books where the tone is crucial and it's much better caught by the movie.

Posted by: Staff at May 19, 2013 11:54 AM (ZR4Xh)

I think I have but it has been long ago.

85 80 Saw that this morning. Love the photo of Air Force One in the fog.

86 Re #49

"I finally got through the last part of Gibbon talking about the Roman Empire post Charlemagne, which was pretty confusing as a series of weak leaders pretty much fucked things up and led to things getting split up. Maybe his contemporaries had a better idea of just what the fuck was going on then but it was pretty confusing to me."

That's why they called it "The Dark Ages" - we know diddly about it since people forgot how to write.  The bigger questions about the Dark Ages are how communications and trade fell apart - politics sits on top of economics - that was one insight of Karl Marx that was on the money - so to speak.

"The Little Book of Secret Societies" that I picked up on the remainder table at B&N was a wash.

The good news is that it told the reader that the DEPOSIT for membership at Bohemian Grove is $25k with a 15 waiting list and a $5k annual dues.

The bad news is not a word on E Clampus Vitus.  Everyone in California knows an alcoholic Clamper!

There are a few gems in the book, like how to join Bilderberg - "Make a billion dollars, get elected to high office, or make friends with a member of the steering committee." 

Another is how to join the Molly Maguires - "Frequent bars in a a company town where Irish workers are subjected to 19th century labor conditions, pretend to be a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and mention that you own a dress."

87 Why won't they say where he was?

88 78 71 Now I'm thinking mini series. Cruise wouldn't be interested in a mini series would he?

--------

I'm thinking more a series of films branching off from the Mission: Impossible movies. Watney's clearly a government agent, what with being a NASA astronaut and all, but the book doesn't clearly portray the tension between his overt role as an astronaut and his covert role as a spy working to sabotage potential Chinese Mars landing sites in Acidalia Planitia.

89 84 George Segal. Whoa. Blast from the past. Haven't heard his name in ages.

90 So it's "irrelevant" where SCOAMF was while the Benghazi crisis was unfolding. I've said it once and I'll say it again. Show me where Reggie Love was and I'll find the President for you.

91 And motorcycles. At some point, Tom Cruise would have to hastily build a motorcycle from indigenous materials so that he can dash out to wipe dust off the solar cells in order to power his computer to receive the warning about the comet that's about to smash into the hab.

92 88 Ok. You've now convinced me that the idiots in Hollywood would probably ruin the story. My mental casting agency will go on hiatus as I finish reading the book.

93 56 Naturally, as a Moron, my first thought was, "Gee, my relatives sure do enjoy sex..."

 

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at May 19, 2013 12:02 PM (+z4pE)

 

No kidding.  I think one of my ancestors had 11 kids by his first wife and 9 more by the second.  Small communities, large families and common migration paths led to many 3rd and 4th cousin marriages, sometimes closer.  Some neighboring families intermarried for generation after generation.  All of these factors lead to the conclusion that our pool of ancestors is smaller than people think and make it more likely that many Morons are related.

94 That's why they called it "The Dark Ages" - we know diddly about it since people forgot how to write.

Over out East, people remembered, but didn't bother. The Greeks figured that all the news was depressing. Where's the glory in putting up a big monument to "woohoo! we lost everything from Spain to Armenia and we'll NEVER get it back!"

The Jews and Samaritans hunkered down and the Zoroastrians were busily getting killed. The Arabs rewrote their past, so whatever they were writing then, they burned later. The only people doing any scribal work were, it seems, Syrian Christians - maybe some Copts.

95 The Irrelevant Adminstration.

96 Nash, thanks for the genealogy stuff. I really enjoy it. I haven't done any in years, and I'm sure there is a lot on the interwebs that wasn't available then. Re: Clavell. King Rat was my favorite. Also loved Shogun and Tai Pan. I think he got some horrible cancer and after that his books became so dark and grim I hated fhem. Right now I am reading The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell. I am liking it, though it hard to tell it apart from the Saxon Chronicles or whatever they're called.

97 ...and make it more likely that many Morons are related. Posted by: Nash Rambler at May 19, 2013 12:38 PM (h+OzC) Howdy, cuz!

98 As far as the Dark Ages in the West, the Frogs and Italians managed some stuff. Mostly lives of saints, but also some chronicles. Gregory of Tours is a standout IIRC.

We English have Saint Bede, who was great. I suspect that we'd have a lot more from England if it weren't for the Vikings burning everything down.

99 Best case scenario is he went to bed and didn't care. Worst case? I would believe almost anything now

100 Posted by: Whitehall at May 19, 2013 12:33 PM (k876Y)


Thanks for putting it in the proper context.  Was the term "Dark Ages" used during Gibbon's time or arrived at subsequently?  Of course he may have assumed that a contemporary reader would know the context.

101 I think the term "Dark Ages" comes from Italians. It's at least implicit in the term "Renaissance"; it implies that society had been alive, and then was dead, and had to be reborn. That'd predate Gibbon.

102

96 Posted by: matt in maine at May 19, 2013 12:41 PM (dcLM4)

 

Matt, thanks for the feedback.  For better or for worse, mostly for better, the amount of genealogical information available on the internet is incredible.

103 here we go, wikipedia: "The term "Dark Age" itself derives from the Latin saeculum obscurum, originally applied by Caesar Baronius in 1602 to a tumultuous period in the 10th and 11th centuries"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_%28historiography%29

104 Maybe somebody advised him he does not want us to know about

105 98 Also the dissolution of the English monasteries and the subsequent destruction of their great libraries by Henry VIII

106 Thanks boulder t'hobo; you guys are filling in a lot of blanks today.

107
The 2012 Nebula Awards were presented May 18.  The Nebulas are given by the SFWA and have traditionally been considered, at least by themselves, the more high-faulting "writer's" award as compare to the pleb Hugos.

Novel

Winner

2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Losers

Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz Â’13)
Ironskin, Tina Connolly (Tor)
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

108 I suspect that we'd have a lot more from England if it weren't for the Vikings burning everything down. Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 19, 2013 12:43 PM (QTHTd) Those would be my ancestors. Bring me some mead. Hand over your gold, cattle, and prettiest daughter. And...uh...your jet-ski...

109
and make it more likely that many Morons are related.
Posted by: Nash Rambler



Perhaps "inbred" would be closer to the mark....

110 Historians no longer use the term "Dark Ages" because they almost all agree, they were not so "dark" after all.


What actually happened was the Roman empire fragmented into a series of small city-states and communication between them was not so good.

111 108 Every once in a while you'll read a story about someone in England or Ireland finding a stash of valuables buried for safe keeping during the Viking era.

112 Re #103 -

OK, maybe not "Dark Ages" but how about "The Dim Ages?"

113
Also given at the Nebulas just to prove what an elitist clad of self-congratulatory goits writers can be:

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Winner

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Losers

The Avengers
The Cabin in the Woods
The Hunger Games
John Carter
Looper



Watch a commercial movie? Moi?

114 and make it more likely that many Morons are related.
Posted by: Nash Rambler



Perhaps "inbred" would be closer to the mark....

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 19, 2013 12:52 PM (kdS6q)

From "kindred souls" to kin...

115 Nash, Backwards Boy, I was amazed by this article when I read it in 2002, and obviously ive never forgotten it. It was in the Atlantic magazine called The Royal We, and talks about how people are more closely related than one might suspect. Here is my feeble attempt at a link http://tinyurl.com/a6l4y2j.

116 Historians no longer use the term "Dark Ages" because they almost all agree, they were not so "dark" after all.

They were agreeing on that "late antiquity" bullshit... in the 1990s. Peter Heather, Bryan Ward-Perkins and others have raised the point that, yeah, life did start to suck when power went from the Empire to local German bandits.

Then there's that revival of the Pirenne hypothesis, that the Greek-Persian war began a cascade of Fail over first the eastern Med, then all of it. But admittedly it's still mostly just "counter jihad" essayists saying this now.

117 I read Old Man's War, which was mentioned many tomes here, on Thursday, and the sequel on Saturday. I recommend staying away from them if you want to accomplish other things besides reading, like sleep. I'm going to read the third one today.

118 110 I read "Barbarians to Angels" by Peter Wells several years ago. It is a good short introduction to that subject.

119 Everything, Benghazi, IRS targeting, thelaw, is irrelevant. These are not the droids you are looking for.

120 I am reading a synopsis of the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild and I am getting Faulkner As I Lay Dying vibes.  I also vaguely remember seeing commercials for this movie and going 'meh' in reaction.

121

13-Last week, I wrote about how I stumbled into genealogy and listed free sources for family history books. http://tinyurl.com/bcx476n.

Nash, a great resource for anyone, not just members, are the LDS family history centers. They have folks to assist in doing research to include requesting microfiche for various documents and access to the genealogy resources from SLC. They have massive collections of documents from around the world and family books too.

122 Of course with that movie how can I forget the whole subtext of Katrina.  I think Ray Bradbury would be seriously cheesed.

123 matt in maine,
here's a short article that goes into what you're discussing and why people find common ancestors many, many generations back
http://tinyurl.com/beq788l

124 For better or for worse, mostly for better, the amount of genealogical information available on the internet is incredible.

Posted by: Nash Rambler at May 19, 2013 12:47 PM (h+OzC)

Just checked....apparently you are related to Michelle Obama.

Care to change that evaluation to: "catastrophically awful?"

125 115 It was in the Atlantic magazine called The Royal We, and talks about how people are more closely related than one might suspect. Here is my feeble attempt at a link http://tinyurl.com/a6l4y2j.

Posted by: matt in maine at May 19, 2013 12:57 PM (dcLM4)

 

Man, that is some small print.  Coincidently, the New England Historic Genealogical Society's weekly newsletter just had a link to the Chang study.  http://tinyurl.com/cg6ksfu

 

On the one hand, I think it does take some of the thrill out of genealogical research, but it may also encourage people who wish to see where their family tree leads.

 

Duty calls.  I have an appointment to go drink bottomless mimosas.

126

124 Just checked....apparently you are related to Michelle Obama.

Care to change that evaluation to: "catastrophically awful?"

 

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 19, 2013 01:10 PM (O6Tmi)

 

I have not found my link to Michelle, but I have two lines to the JEF.

127 I am totally going to put "..perky and vivacious..." -AoS Literary Review as a review blurb on the back of my next book. I have arrived! For those Morons of a literary bent, be VERY VERY CAUTIOUS dealing with these "back door" epub services offered by publishers. They are frequently just a cutout to Author Solutions, a well-known and much vilified scammy outfit. You may as well light twenty-dollar bills on fire your own self than hire them. Put it this way -- they will have control AND you will be expected to pay the expenses. Don't do it. Check out the WriterBeware site if it looks dodgy to you. (Other names they use are AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, and Trafford. Penguin bought Author Solutions, and they also backend Simon (and) Schuster.). In more positive writerly news, indie writers can now get their print books in the big catalogs, NOT shoved in the "self-pub" ghetto but right alongside all the other publishing houses. This is VERY BIG NEWS and I have been furiously touching up my print books on CreateSpace and going for the Extended Distribution (costs $25) to get my books in these catalogs. Downside to the readers, I had to raise my prices because the bookstores expect a discount and otherwise I'd owe *them* money. I'm investigating discounts for ordinary folks too, because I'm all about getting my books out and read.

128 "CHEESE OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" "George, I wish you'd look at the Cheesery." "What's wrong with it?" "I don't know." "Well, then." "I just want you to look at it, is all, or call a psychologist in to look at it." "What would a psychologist want with a Cheesery?" "You know very well what he'd want." His wife paused in the middle of the kitchen and watched the stove busy humming to itself, making supper for four. "It's just that the Cheesery is different now than it was." "All right, let's have a look." George opened the door to the Cheesery and peered within. "Well, the Stilton does look a little-" He screamed as the wheel of Stilton cheese leapt from the clean wire shelf and bit his face off. The last thing George heard was his wife's high reedy scream, "Not the Baby Swiss. Dear God, the holes. So many hoo-o-o-ooles!" dissolve into wet gurgles. Their children peeked from the hallway and smiled. For lunch they had tomato soup with grilled cheese and parental spleen sandwiches. THE END

129 I just read a book by a moron called, "The Best Congress Money Can Buy", written by Oren Litwin. It's free if you're an amazon prime member. These are short stories imagining scenarios if new legislation is enacted, e.g., corruption becomes legal because the congress can no longer rein it in. My favorite story was about legislation allowing citizens to file civil suits against politicians for corruption, and one politician's panic when he is sued. I highly recommend this book. Prime members in particular have nothing to lose and I think they would like it.

130 I am reading a synopsis of the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild and I am getting Faulkner As I Lay Dying vibes. I also vaguely remember seeing commercials for this movie and going 'meh' in reaction.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 19, 2013 01:07 PM (zxYv0)

I hadn't thought of that connection, mainly because it's about a person who is dying rather than transporting a dead body (which really starts to reek after a while), but they do share the situation about too much water causing problems.  I enjoyed the movie a great deal, mainly that it really was like nothing I'd seen previously.  Just a quirky story about this weird community.

131 i don't post much since you guys! are so damn funny and i got nothin'.  but i do love good action books. re informationist/taylor stevens, 2 cool things further about her,  she actually responds to her email.  i have a buddy who knows "jihad jane" nada prouty, not the rose woman also given that moniker, who was set up by fbi after doing great things in iraq.  i recommended her book to taylor, and we emailed back and forth.  very cool woman.  the jane book is "uncomprised". fbi were big penis's in that bit of covering their ass, payback agst an operator that showed them up. and, taylor's book, informatiomist, is set for the big screen--optioned by james cameron. it is also her first published writing.  amazing, no formal education.

132

I watched Mclaughlin just now (don't ask me why).  Eleanor and this fat son of a bitch I never heard of dismissed everything about IRS as no big deal.  Then fat left wing pile of shit tells us Obama is a good manager of things.  These people are like fucking cancer.

133 132 I watched Mclaughlin just now (don't ask me why). Eleanor and this fat son of a bitch I never heard of dismissed everything about IRS asno big deal.

----------

Just remember, "irrelevant" is a fancy word that means "what difference, at this point, does it make?"

134 There is a new thread up on the lying jackholes today.

135 +1 for anything Sabrina Chase has written. I didn't care as much for "Scent of Metal" as I did for the rest of her stuff, but it was still a good book. It just didn't interest me like the others did, I can't really say why.


Also, read Raymond Fiore's books and they're good, the only complaint I have is "Wings Over the Pacific" seems unfinished somehow.


On the Kindle right now: The Last Pendragon by Holly Chism, if you like Aurthurian tales this one is worth your while.


"The Privateer" by William Zellman, followup is "An Honest Living", both of them are sci-fi. Not bad.


"Inception" by Andrew Beery, a Horatio Hornblower sort of space opera. Meh, I could take it or leave it, my biggest complaint is that the protagonist is too perfect, she seems to make the right decision every time.


"The Makers" by Daniel Cohen, first contact sort of book, probably won't invest in the rest of the series because it just didn't interest me, YMMV.


"The Man who Would Be King" by Rudyard Kipling. It's Kipling, nuff said.


Two authors I have loaded up right now (haven't read the books yet, so can't say how they are), Forever Gate by Isaac Hooke and "Alastair" by Scott McElhaney, I also have the follow-on to "Alastair" called "Ghosts of Ophidian" and a five book set by the same author, the Mystic Saga. I'll let you know how they go.

136 I've just discovered Jim Thompson, a writer in noir from the 50's-- he wrote "The Getaway" and "The Grifters" which many morons will remember as great movies-- I just finished "The Killer Inside Me" about a psychopathic deputy sheriff... wow, highly recommended-- i'm now reading his "Pop. 1280" by the same author-- this guy will blow you away-- can't believe I've never heard of him until now

137 my vote is for Jeremy Renner as the astronaut in the filming of "The Martian"

138 Thanks for the "Perigee" shout-out. Can't have enough pimping mentions on the interwebs!