Books Archives
See the trailers and a new featurette at apple.com. And they could not have chosen a better band/song than Arcade Fire's Wake Up to embody youthful enthusiasm and rebellion.
I have been in something of a theme with my current reading and when you are keenly aware of a topic it is hard not to notice an aggregation and honing of ideas starting to happen both within me and in the world at large. And since it is Blog Action Day and the both the topic of this year's action and the one I have been immersed in are the environment, a post seems in order. I have been meaning to post on several environmental topics recently but now these will all just be jumbled into this one post.
Cradle to Cradle by By William McDonough & Michael Braungart is a great book I have had on my to read list for many years and really got me thinking about the way we make things. The mindset we have when we create (and ultimately purchase, use, and dispose of) things is crucial to starting to see the full life of that thing - far past its initial use.
I have just begun reading The World Without US by Alan Weisman (more on the book, with interviews) and it mirrors nicely with the last fiction book I read: Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (which I highly recommend). Both deal with life after the fall of mankind, albeit in much different capacities.
Jason posted about green accounting and included a great excerpt:
When a majestic, 300-year-old red-wood is cut down and turned into picnic tables, the logging and picnic table-building activities add to the gross domestic product (GDP), while no deduction is made for the loss of that tree and all the nonmarket services it provides. When a paper mill dumps dioxin-laden wastes into a river, the paper-making boosts the GDP, but no deduction is made for the costs associated with the water pollution. Conversely, no addition is made to the GDP for the air and water cleaned by wetlands or old-growth forests.
It is long overdue that we start accounting for non-monetary assets in the way described.
Lastly, this article about bottled water really got me thinking. "We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic." I drink bottled water, or I did, and never really thought much about it (typical brain-dead consumer). The amount of energy that it takes to make the bottles, fill them, transport them , and consume them (not to mention market them) is astronomical. The article tackles the issue of bottled water from many angles and presents varying viewpoints - it is worth reading. One of the facets of this topic that most interests me is the mentality that bottled water is somehow better than tap water in the United States and how the bottling and selling of water takes a large toll on the environment and that this tool, at least in the U.S. is mostly unnecessary, and as it turns out, very costly on a personal level, too.
In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.
We do quite a lot in this country to make sure we have potable drinking water in every home, we pay for the infrastructure in taxes and when we build our homes. Why not make use of this resource and forgo the petroleum-based container variety?
New Line has been quick to compare their latest fantasy film, to their most successful as is evident in the opening of the trailer (large Quicktime) for the upcoming film The Golden Compass. And while I wouldn't go so far as to say they will be comparable, I am excited about the prospects of a new trilogy that could be on its way - starring a compass rather than a ring this time around.
Having some similarities with the Harry Potter series, but even more with the Chronicles of Narnia books/films, The Golden Compass or Northern Lights the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.
An important difference between the Narnia and Dark Materials series can be explained by looking at the beliefs of the authors and how C.S. Lewis injected Christian themes into Narnia, whereas Pullman's fantasy world is grounded in science. There is even a book dedicated to these scientific themes:
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is renowned for its mystery and magic. What’s the truth behind it all? Is the golden compass actually based in science? ... [edit for potential spoilers] ... Drawing on string theory and spacetime, quantum physics and chaos theory, award-winning science writers Mary and John Gribbin reveal the real science behind Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy trilogy in entertaining and crystal-clear prose.
Taking the unfinished manuscripts of The Children of Hurin has been completed by J.R.R's son, Christopher Tolkien, who claims he did not editorialize during the process.
Seeing a billion dollars out there ripe for the picking, movie studios are showing interest in adapting the book to the big screen, however the family claims to be in no hurry to do so.
Here is more on the book, a brief version of which appear in The Silmarillion can be found courtesy of wikipedia.
Though the page is in Russian, the trailer needs no translation. It would be astounding in any language (audio is in English). More info at IMDB as well as the official movie production blog, which now has 7 video journal entries.
- Patent Room is a very neat site showcasing drawings submitted with patent applications of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
- I really need very little reason to post a link about Daniel Quinn's novel Ishmael Jason's post/mini review of it seems like reason enough. I have been thinking more and more about these issues lately. These things go in cycles.
- Flash + Evangelical Christianity + Kirk Cameron = A maddening desire to kill
- Nice CSS dropshadow technique that doesn't use CSS hacks or javascript.
- If you saw any of the following: Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, A Knight's Tale, The Animal, or The Patriot in a theater you may be entitled to your money back (pdf). Looks as though Sony used a made-up film critic named: David Manning to hype those films. God, if I could just get the same deal for: American Psycho, Blade, Congo, The Haunting, Malibu's Most Wanted, and Mr. Deeds.
- Snopes' list of unanswerable questions they have received that have a sense of urgency to them. Some favorites include mention of: Cat's eating a dead person's face off, hickies, penguin eggs, bananas, witches, and Corona among many other bizarre requests. Some of the requests however really give Snopes a lot of credit. Here is my favorite:
if anyone understands what im (sic). saying please e-mail me at this e-mail adress (sic).
does anyone here bilieve (sic) that there are aliens in other planets? who really made us is there really a god? im not saying there isnt (sic). but who made god? seriously please answer back at me
- Ever wanted to compare Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth side-by-side?
Atheist. Agnostic. Thanks to the writings of Kurt Vonnegut, I now have a new label to use when describing my views: Humanist
* If you ever corner me in a bar or such place have me tell you the story about Bob Sagat that Paul Provenza told the entire theater at SXSW 2005 after the preview screening.
They are to the second story. The recent snow and rain has caused some delays, though they say it should be no more than 60 days away from completion.
We have moved again. Now we are in a much better neighborhood, with a fenced in yard and 3 bedrooms. I feel better now. if I could only unpack all these boxes - I just can't do it with another move less than 3 months away. My life is a disorganized mess.
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White Oleander was a
good book and a
decent movie. I thought it was well acted all around. There was a lot left out and the movie definitely felt less yucky than the book, but so did the sense of the main character's ordeals and the true, deep reach and hold that her mother had on her life. Worth seeing with your significant other even if you have not read the book.
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Buy this for your loved ones this holiday season.
I like Star Wars as much as the next guy, unless of course the next guy is one of
these people. Here is a link to
their site.
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This book looks very interesting and I plan on picking up a copy soon (I am trying to get it from the library - part of my cost saving measures lately - and as it turns out slightly more environmentally friendly). It is about "how humans relate to their environment" - meaning that in a closed environment like the one we are basically in (not including the input from the sun) we (humans) alone create waste that is not readily used by other organisms and broken down. And that we must strive to create products, but also the means of making the products, that are more in harmony with the ecosystem in which we live.
There is a nice review on this book, titled
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things to be found
on slash dot here.
Excerpts from the review:
"Our model of technology and development is completely counter to the natural cycles and principles that worked for millions of years to create the environment we so cleverly manipulate"
"The authors envision a world where, when a material item gets worn out, you simply throw it on the ground to decompose. Buildings should produce more energy than they use. Eliminate the concept of "waste" entirely. "
Did you know that many states use 4th grade literacy tests to estimate future prison populations? That and other facts can be seen by watching PBS's new
Misunderstood Minds series.
In this series (and
companion website) researchers and experts try to explain why millions of American children struggle in school today due to what many believe are just normal differences in the way each of us learn.
The
site is a very good resource for those dealing with a child who is having problems in school (or even before) and there are many interactive tests you can take that can help determine how differences in the way you learn may affect your performance.
I was turned on to this idea because, in so many ways, my little bother Kelby (from the Big Brother Big Sister Program) is very intelligent when speaking, however he has a very tough time reading things that I think a 9 year-old should be able to read. Underscoring my experiences with him is the fact that he has to attend special remedial classes for reading and math. This is a source of great embarrassment for young Kelby, and he often tells me how he wishes he didn't have to be separated from the "normal" kids. Aside from the hit to his self-esteem, I am not so sure the remedial classes help him as much as they could because they may not take into account the way Kelby learns.
A recent
episode of Oprah (yeah I watch it) was devoted to this idea that people learn in different ways and we are just now beginning to understand that. Some common differences in the way we learn are:
-Some children are very creative and write imaginatively, but do poorly in history because weak memory skills prevent them from retaining facts.
-Some students are weak in sequential ordering and can't follow directions. They may test poorly, and often don't do well in mathematics.
-Some students cannot process information when it comes to them in large "chunks" and it is only when it is broken down that they can comprehend it and retain it.
More information can be found in the book
A Mind at a Time by Dr. Mel Levine.
The only problems with these specialized techniques for teaching individual students stem from the fact that there already are not enough teachers and the ones we do have must cope with classroom sizes upwards of 35 children per class. Teachers cannot be expected (within the current system) to seek out the differences in the ways each of their pupils learn and then structure lessons that are unique for them. Even with awareness (there are
programs that teachers can go through to become better at dealing with these problems), the job of the teacher must be increasingly frustrating.
I couldn't find any contact information of the site for this so I thought I would post here. The City of Saint Paul is having a contest of sorts or really a rally, I don't know. It is having an event that is designed to get every citizen to read one book. It's called
St. Paul Reads and they have narrowed down a list of over 2000 suggested books to ten.
I am posting about this because one of the suggested books is Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I urge everyone to read this book. I wish there was some way to rig the selection process and get this book chosen because I would love to live in a city where everyone has read that book. (think about a world doing the same!)
Here are the ten finalists:
- Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
- Life as a Daymaker by David Wagner
- Father and Child Reunion: How to Bring the Dads We Need to the Children We Love by Warren Farrell
- A Murderous Yarn by Monica Ferris
I do not want to slight any of these books, but I know that
Ishmael is a much better book than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and certainly sounds better than A Murderous Yarn.
So, if you have any sway in this selection, or know someone that does, use it and get people to read this book. And use the sway you have in your own mind and make yourself read it too.
If you didn't know it yet, I have been working nights for a little extra money. Yep, I have been taken on as muse for writers of Harlequin Romance novels. The latest work you can find me in is
In Too Deep by Tori Carrington. Don't think this is really me they are talking about? Maybe this
"character card" will change your mind.
"...the figure stretched out beside him wasn't his pet potbellied pig, Elvis, or, worse, his longtime butler, Newerth..."
If that doesn't say Pulitzer Prize, than I don't want to know what does.
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Of interest to: me.
Wally Szczerbiak and his problems with teammates. This article seems to contradict some things I said in a
previous post, but since most of these occurrences are from last year and training camp and have since been resolved, I don't really think they do. Basically it is an interesting read (if you like basketball) about how a young player - even a gifted young player - has to follow some basic rules of etiquette when dealing with teammates. Hey I like Wally's energy and if that means he is sometimes a little reckless or yells out when he does something good or someone else does something bad - well I can live with it.
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On the home building front, we finally agreed to terms on the lot we fell in love with. Photos - to follow. More updates of only marginal (if that) interest to you - threatened.
I have been reading a book recently,
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins and to be honest I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have. Robbins' writing style is like nothing I have read before and many of is ideas echo other things I have read and adds pieces to the puzzle I am constructing that is my view of the world. Incidentally, if you have seen the movie,
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues you may have a bad taste in your mouth for this book. I haven't seen it but I have heard it was pretty bad - which it really had no right to be but Gus Van Sant's projects are sort of hit (Good Will Hunting, Drugstore Cowboy, Finding Forrester) or miss (To Die For, Psycho - remake) I guess.
Anyway, one point it stated, that I truly believe but that many people have a really tough time swallowing is the idea that early man lived better than we do now.
"In General, primitive man enjoyed great stability...Primitive culture was diverse, flexible and completely integrated with Nature at the level of the particular environment. Primitive man took from the land only what he needed, thus avoiding the hassles that result in modern economics from imbalances of scarcity and surplus. Hunting and gathering tribes worked only a few hours a week. To work more than that would have put a strain on the environment, to which they related symbiotically."
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We put in an offer on a piece of land yesterday. I assume we will find out if it is accepted today. Because the lot is much more than we were thinking of spending we will be looking for less expensive ways of building our home - possibly doing it in phases over the next 10 years or so. Who knows - we still haven't found a builder to build our home anyways. That comes now.
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I miss
Ad Critic
OK I promise this will be the last post about the
Lord of the Rings for a while. But after seeing the film for the third time I can say without a doubt, that it gets better with each viewing. When I saw it for the second time, I was able to relax and let the film wash over me without being all swept up in it like the first viewing. The third time (I had to bring my Dad and my wife's parents) I was able to see many details that show how much love went into the film despite the
alleged 37 errors found in the film.
I keep expecting to be tired of the movie or to be satisfied but I am not. I could see it again! During this third viewing, I was able to check out some of the supposed errors in the film. Many people say, for example, that they could see cars driving in the distance. Cars in the distance? I didn't see any cars but I did look for some of the other
so-called-errors and verified some while others seem less like mistakes and more like misconceptions.
The AFI just named The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings as its
Best Picture of 2001. If it wins the Best Motion Picture - Drama Golden Globe that it has been nominated for, it will have a very strong chance of winning the Best Picture Oscar.
Because of the timing of its release and its recent nominations and awards, I look for this first Lord of the Rings movie to be very successful at the box office. How successful? When all is said and done (which might not be until the 2nd movie releases - or even beyond that) I expect The Fellowship of the Rings to come in 6th or 7th all-time, or just over $300 million. As a franchise and in the very long run the movie could do as well as Titanic's $600 million, but I won't be holding my breath. Here is
a site that is watching LOTR's progress vs. Titanic. Maybe if I see it a couple more times...
There's some good news for fans disappointed by some of LOTR's omissions (they had to cut something - it was already 3 hours). "The DVD, being released later this year, should have an extra thirty to forty minutes of footage on it. The additions would include some more interaction and development among the members of the Fellowship. Another addition would include the sequence in which Gimli falls for Galadriel, a turning point for his distrust of Elves." I really hope that the additional footage is in added right into the movie as it runs, or there is an option to do so, rather than in some extra features or deleted scenes.
Finally, my favorite quote from someone reviewing the Lord of the Rings movie: "The movie's length is its only possible deterrent: I really wanted it to be longer." - Brendan L. Agnew
I purchased
The Lord of the Rings at Barnes and Noble (can you believe their site doesn't even have this?) in Albuquerque, New Mexico on the way down to Phoenix last week and listened to all 13 cassettes on the trip there and back. This was the 13-tape BBC dramatized recording of the Tolkien masterpiece. And can you believe that this was
abridged from the original master recording of 38 tapes!? There was a cast of at least 2 dozen, including Ian Holm as Frodo and an orchestra and sound department which added to the feeling and background of this classic tale. It was a great way to indoctrinate my wife to these books before I drag her to the movie 3-4 times.
