Cortez Law III's Blog, page 16

What the Candidates Need to Know About Yucca Mountain

*Here's another background story on America's issue with nuclear waste fromThe Waste Lands Report.*

THE DAILY SIGNAL
By Katie Tubb & Jack Spencer | October 18, 2016

The final presidential debates take place Wednesday in Las Vegas. Given the location, a controversial issue sure to come up is that of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The repository is designed to hold spent nuclear materials from national security activities and commercial nuclear power reactors. Billions of dollars hav...

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

MOVIE REVIEW

***out of ****
Led by the Magnificent One, Denzel Washington, The Magnificent Seven depicts a thrilling western action/adventure. His quiet, confident and mellow, until the gun cylinders spin, Bounty Hunter Sam Chisolm, rides into town in his signature black with an aura of dread. His characters always command the screen, so what else is new with Denzel? Well, most of his fellow cast members, which includes one of my favorite actors, the always quirky Vincent D'Onofrio and Jurassi...

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

MOVIE REVIEW

1.5* out of ****
Starring Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Jaz Sinclair, and Michael K. Williams, star in this urban/domestic thriller in which John and Laura Taylor (Chestnut and Hall) have difficulty conceiving a child. In a last ditch effort, they decide to use a surrogate. Demure in the beginning and in cahoots with her rather slimy boyfriend Mike (Theo Rossi), Anna (Sinclair) hatches a plan to take the baby, her fee, and split. However, it seems that Anna develops a love jones f...

A review from the Regal Sisterhood Book Review Committee

S.Y.P.H.E.N Review:

This book touches the real life media stories of ISIS. The main character, Lincoln Boddies, along with the assistance of his friends whom refer to themselves as the “The Unit”, are faced with the difficult challenge of destroying a dangerous terrorist group before anyone else is harmed! A suspicious middle eastern woman and man, whom at one point are potential suicide bombers, lead Lincoln along with “The Unit” from an earthquake in Vegas to Yucca Mountain. This extremely d...

'SPHERE' BOOK REVIEW

I EXPECTED AND WANTED MORE

While gripping, Michael Crichton’s SPHERE didn't fulfill more of what I thought should, might or could happen by the end.

A crew of American scientists, including psychologist Norman Johnson, discover an alien spacecraft at the bottom of the South Pacific. Where did it come from? Who sent it here? How can we present-day humans study it, use it, learn from it? The military element, led by the US Navy and Project Commander Captain Harold C. Barnes, have their objective...

I EXPECTED AND WANTED MORE

Sphere by Michael Crichton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I EXPECTED AND WANTED MORE

While gripping, Michael Crichton’s SPHERE didn't fulfill more of what I thought should, might or could happen by the end.

A crew of American scientists, including psychologist Norman Johnson, discover an alien spacecraft at the bottom of the South Pacific. Where did it come from? Who sent it here? How can we present-day humans study it, use it, learn from it? The military element, led by the US Navy and Project Commander Captain Harold C. Barnes, have their objectives of adding it to the Navy weapon stockpile. Others, like astrophysicist/planetary geologist Ted Fielding and mathematician/logician Harold Adams, want to apply hard science and logic to the findings. But, it’s not just the spacecraft in question that galvanizes the crew a thousand feet below the surface. There’s the titular SPHERE, with its mysterious power that each of them and others in the tale, find out has a very peculiar effect on those who dare to engage its enigmas. A number of the specialists do dare, which results in tragedies to themselves, their colleagues and the temporary habitats in which they dwell.

The mystery of the SPHERE draws the reader in, of course, and Crichton keeps the fingers turning the pages through the various scientific, logical, and psychological theories, facts, and truths via all the main characters. Everyone contributes to the tension with the, ‘What If’s?’ What did creep me out was the first communique with the SPHERE. From there, Crichton effectively bounces the evolution of the SPHERE's properties through the dialogue exchanges and Johnson’s POV. All these characters are an interesting lot with their staunch intellectualism, which based upon Crichton's other works I'm sure is a mainstay to his science fiction/thriller craft. There’s ingenious to this layman’s mind on how some of the characters decipher the alien communique that eventually leads to the showdown or series of showdowns until the ending. It’s here where I was a bit like, huh? Is that all? The power of the imagination or the mind to construct any entity or alter that entity or a situation was the key power within the SPHERE? Did I miss something? It is what it is as the saying goes, but I was looking for more revelation than that. If I did miss the gist of the story, somebody in the group tell me different, please. So, on the basis of my understanding, the fact that I did turn the pages and it is a hard R rating read, I give it three or three and a half stars.





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The 5 Biggest Fiction Writing Mistakes (& How to Fix Them)

May 3, 2016
1. Happy People in Happy Land

Chief among the most common problems, in first chapters especially, are scenes presenting characters who are perfectly happy in their ordinary worlds. The writer thinks that by showing nice people doing nice things, readers will care about these pleasant folk when the characters are finally hit with a problem.

But readers actually engage with plot via trouble, threat, change or challenge. I call the first hint of this the opening disturbance. It can be...

Heller: Don't force Yucca on Nevada

by Nevada Appeal.com

Sen. Dean Heller says the nation needs a program to dispose of and store nuclear fuel and radioactive waste but Yucca Mountain isn’t the answer. In a letter to House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee chairman John Shimkus, the Nevada Republican urged him not to try to revive the defunct Yucca Mountain repository project. Shimkus is holding hearings focused on doing just that.

“I fully appreciate the importance to Illinois, which is home to more nuclear power plants than any...

Amazing Stories Magazine S.Y.P.H.E.N. Review

Review By Ricky L. Brown, Amazing Stories Magazine

The novel S.Y.P.H.E.N. byCortez Law IIIis an engaging adventure of current global concerns mixed with a darker science fiction future. Published in October 2015 from Metro Black & Blue Books, readers will find a unique kind of military science fiction where reality and imagination are woven into a maze of suspense and patriotism.

Lincoln Boddies is the commander of “The Unit,” a select team of special operatives whose primary role is to prevent t...

Amazing Stories Magazine S.Y.P.H.EN. Review

Review By Ricky L. Brown, Amazing Stories Magazine

The novel S.Y.P.H.E.N. byCortez Law IIIis an engaging adventure of current global concerns mixed with a darker science fiction future. Published in October 2015 from Metro Black & Blue Books, readers will find a unique kind of military science fiction where reality and imagination are woven into a maze of suspense and patriotism.

Lincoln Boddies is the commander of “The Unit,” a select team of special operatives whose primary role is to prevent t...