Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 211
September 20, 2011
The "new Russia"…
Some time ago I wrote about Russia ("Did the Soviet Union Really Fall," my March 10, 2009 post). One tends to forget about the Russian bear and what big teeth it has. The Russian spy scandal is forgotten (OMG, spies here in Montclair, NJ—practically neighbors of Stephen Colbert), elections are approaching, President Medvedev doesn't know whether he's running for re-election, and the various murders of Russian journalists have never been solved (surprise, surprise—but we can guess who...
September 15, 2011
Review of Jim Bruno's Tribe…
(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...
September 13, 2011
The battle against retrograde conservatism…
We bandy about terms like liberals and conservatives and try to pin these labels on the Dems or the GOP. What is unclear in all this polemic is whether either party is really one thing or the other, at least historically. In many ways, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower were progressives. George Wallace was certainly conservative. However, at any one time, and the 2012 election is no different, one party can be more identified with one of these labels.
The real war for America's soul...
September 8, 2011
Review of Philip Yaffe's Science for the Concerned Citizen…
(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 ...
September 6, 2011
Cheney vs. Powell and Rice – do we care?
The infamous Dick Cheney, ex-VP and ex-Halliburton exec, in a blatant attempt to create controversy in order to sell more books, has it in for ex-Secretarys of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. They are fighting back. All this infighting in ex-President Dubya's cabinet can be extrapolated forward to the future to give Americans an idea of what a Rick Perry administration might look like. Anyone that yearns for Texas politics again at the national level should think twice.
Of course, ...
September 1, 2011
Review of Carla Neggers' Saint's Gate…
(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...
August 30, 2011
Who has the football?
It is now clear what Mr. Perry's campaign strategy is: mindless, emotional rants against big government and turn all of the Northeast of the U.S. into a scapegoat for America's problems. The latter is consistent with an earlier threat he made for secession of Texas from the Union and causing bodily harm to Mr. Bernanke if he ever showed his face in Texas. In summary, it's like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown and additionally taunting, "I have the football and I ain't...
August 25, 2011
Visiting an old friend…
I was reminded of Simon and Garfunkel's song "Bookends" these last few days. It's the one that talks about two old friends on a park bench reminiscing over old times. The two form the bookends. My old friend was a book.
Sometimes (very rarely now) I have the occasion to look at an old research paper of mine and wonder, "Gee, who was the guy that wrote this stuff?" (some of my papers are very old). I just had that experience while writing the second edition of my sci-fi thriller Full...
August 23, 2011
The GOP's anti-science crusade…
GOP candidate Rick Perry: "God is how we got here…." GOP candidate Michelle Bachmann: "I support intelligent design…I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of a scientific issue…." These are some of the statements the GOP candidates are making in an effort to appeal to their extreme Christian fundamentalist base. I hope they continue to do so because the GOP will alienate saner voters who do not swallow this anti-science message.
Let's analyze these two...
August 18, 2011
Pricing of eBooks…
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...
