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Comments · 185
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Yay! Good to see some publicity for Lem
I've written a review of The Futurological Congress , but not of his other books, which include some other gems. Cyberiad is a great piece of fun, and His Master's Voice has dated much better than most of the alien contact stories from the 1960s.
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anthropomorphism as the origin of religionA good argument for the origins of religion in anthropomorphism is Stewart Guthrie's Faces in the Clounds (link is to my review).
"Attributing human or animal agency to events is an explanatory strategy which, while it sometimes fails, is in general extremely effective. Since other humans and, after them, animals are the most important things in our environment, it is vitally important to take them into account when they are there -- important enough that erring on the side of caution means accepting regular anthropomorphic and animistic 'errors'."
Danny.
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what about Roger Zelazny?His best book is I think Lord of Light - the link is to my review - which may be a bit complicated for pre-teens. But what about the Amber books?
I might have been too precocious a reader for my experience to be useful, but I remember enjoying Heinlein, Keith Laumer, Andre Norton, and a lot of other authors. Have a think about short stories - they're often more approachable than novels, both in complexity and size.
Danny.
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Re:Time Limits
That is the evil of Communism, when you think everything belongs to everyone, individuals have nothing and the government owns everything. Anarchic Communism is even worse, because everyone thinks they have the right to everything, and without any government to keep the order, we'd be in a constant state of war.
Actually anarchist don't like communists as much as you don't. Anarchists don't believe in government but communism requires big government. During the Russian revolution there were 2 different groups fighting against the Czar, communists or Bolshevik and anarchists. After they won the Bolsheviks turned on the anarchists, who were outspoken critics, though some did join the Bolsheviks.
Falcon -
Permutation City - fun novel about this ideaIf you enjoy thinking about this kind of stuff, a fun novel to read is Greg Egan's Permutation City (link is to my review). There's not much in that as a novel, but it's got some great ideas.
Danny.
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hard work, not "genius"An excellent book on this topic is Michael Howe's Genius Explained (link is to my review).
Danny.
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negative book reviewsI wouldn't want to see a precedent for suing book reviewers... Most of my 1000 book reviews are positive (I try to avoid wasting my time reading crap) or neutral, but there are a few where I've just totally panned a book. So far I haven't hit anyone crackpot enough to sue me, fortunately.
Danny.
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776 is a few too many for me!I've been trying to improve the subject/category classification of my book reviews, but that currently has 150 categories (including fiction genres) and expanding it to 700 isn't practical.
So I'd love to see a similar chart with 100 categories - then one could conceivably try to read a book about each of them!
Danny.
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Re:Extortion fee?
Having the thing doesn't give you a right to download a copy. I've yet to see a respected scholar in the field of IP law say anything like that.
Note that a number of scholars not only say that this should be a moral right, but go further and question the entire notion of "intellectual property" having value to society. For instance, Stephan Kinsella has written against intellectual property, and in Brian Martin's book Information Liberation he simialrly argues against the existence of "IP". These are but a few examples. In the debate about the "ethics of intellectual property" there are many scholars on both sides.
Perhaps what you meant (although not exactly what you said) was that no respected lawyer would argue that it is legal to download a copy based on already owning a copy. I'm not a lawyer, but it doesn't seem so far-fetched a defence to claim that since you already bought a copy, and could have made a copy for your own personal use under fair-use, you simply downloaded a copy for convenience. If this use doesn't limit the copyright-holder's market, then it may not be judged infringement. At the very least I can imagine a lawyer using such an argument for a client... although of course in the end it's up to the judge to decide the merit of the argument. -
Erwin's book ExtinctionA great read for anyone curious about the P-T extinction is Douglas Erwin's book Extinction . He doesn't come to any definite conclusions, but thinks the balance of evidence is against an extraterrestrial impact as a cause.
Danny.
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newspapers used to be really clueless about SEOSix or seven years ago, I ranked #1 on a search for "book reviews" at most search engines. Eventually the print media cottoned onto sensible TITLEs and link anchors, and I was displaced by the NRYOB and NYT (and I think I'm now down to 10th on Google). There are still some really poorly thought-out major sites, but things are getting harder for small web sites.
The Sydney Morning Herald has not only replaced its old-style "meaningless without context" headings with "boring" ones, but it's stuck them into its URLs - which is another SEO idea.
Danny.
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'Sherriff Bonobo'???
I understand bonobos have more appealing methods of conflict resolution, maybe assisted by not having attained a population density where STDs became a selection factor.
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Marge Piercy: He, She and It
My favorite is Marge Piercy's He, She and It. From Danny Yee's Book Reviews:"Stand aside William Gibson and Bruce Sterling! Body of Glass (He, She, and It in the United States) is a combination of future history and cyberpunk that is a match for Neuromancer in excitement and breadth of vision, but it is also a far greater novel. Not only is it better written, with a less artificial plot and deeper characterisation, but it also works through the consequences of its ideas in a far more sophisticated fashion. Shira has lost custody of her son to her husband, and has left the Y-S "multi" that employs her to return to her home "free town". One of the town leaders, feeling danger threatening, has built Yod, an illegal cyborg (full artificial intelligence in a human shaped vehicle) to defend them. But Y-S is after Yod... The narrative contains enough political intrigue, biologically enhanced assassins and data piracy to keep the cyberpunk fans happy, but it also has some serious meat in it. It tackles head-on some of the philosophical and ethical dilemmas likely to be involved in the development of artificial intelligence. Interlaced with the main story is a secondary narrative. This is the story (as told to Yod by Shira's mother Malkah) of a Jewish Rabbi in 17th century Prague who creates a clay golem to defend his people from a threatened pogrom."
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Re:For Slashdot?I've been reading a lot of Serbo-Croatian literature... Some great books - there seem to be enough really top-notch novels to keep most people in reading material for a year - but probably not Slashdot-fare.
Danny.
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actually, my review of the Bible is here*grin*
Actually, my review of the Bible (well, one edition of it, anyway) is here.
Danny.
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review of volumes 1 to 3You might be interested in my review of volumes 1 to 3.
I'm off to ask Addison-Wesley for a review copy of volume 4!
Danny.
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book reviews, link to Le Guin discussion listCheck out my reviews of the Earthsea trilogy, Tehanu and The Other Wind .
The ekumen mailing list has been discussing possible adaptations of other Le Guin books:
In the Halmi "Dispossessed", Shevek is so happy to be off of that horrible socialist prison planet that he applies for asylum on the mercy of the Urrasti government (they only have one) and happily goes off shopping. Of course he never returns to Anarres.
Danny.
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book reviews, link to Le Guin discussion listCheck out my reviews of the Earthsea trilogy, Tehanu and The Other Wind .
The ekumen mailing list has been discussing possible adaptations of other Le Guin books:
In the Halmi "Dispossessed", Shevek is so happy to be off of that horrible socialist prison planet that he applies for asylum on the mercy of the Urrasti government (they only have one) and happily goes off shopping. Of course he never returns to Anarres.
Danny.
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book reviews, link to Le Guin discussion listCheck out my reviews of the Earthsea trilogy, Tehanu and The Other Wind .
The ekumen mailing list has been discussing possible adaptations of other Le Guin books:
In the Halmi "Dispossessed", Shevek is so happy to be off of that horrible socialist prison planet that he applies for asylum on the mercy of the Urrasti government (they only have one) and happily goes off shopping. Of course he never returns to Anarres.
Danny.
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Re:generalization of morality
Ethics and legality are certainly closely linked. Acts widely considered unethical will eventually become illegal (if politicians don't enjoy doing it). From what I've seen in the news over the last few years I think laws apply to citizens and companies, whereas ethics only apply to citizens.
In the Slashdot tradition I'll use an example:
BHP used to mine a mineral in Papua New Guinea at Ok Tedi. They used to allow a highly carcinogenic chemical used in their process to wash into the local river. That river was the drinking, washing and bathing water for thousands of natives downstream. The natives suffered horribly, the "interests of shareholders" and the legality of the process was used as the defense for the grossly unethical behaviour of BHP.
Now there were no specific laws in PNG to stop companies dumping into waterways so it was completely legal, yet only the most scummy lowlife executive or the lawyer who represents him would think it was remotely acceptable.
Ethics has nothing to do with religion. Ethics is about respect for your fellow man, his property and empathy for his feelings. Religion is about skimming enough cash from the surrounding community to support the local witchdoctor.
If anyone is having problems understanding ethics, try this.... Would I like to have Mr XYZ do to me, what I just did to him?
The Ok Tedi Settlement: Issues, Outcomes and Implications
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Ok_Tedi.html
Rio Tinto and Ok Tedi back in the courts?
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Company/rio15.h tm
Ok Tedi mine closure--BHP and PNG government in conflict
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/ok-s14.s html -
students using my book reviewsSome students have a very poor understanding of plagiarism. I've had people mail me along the lines of "Thank you, you have saved my life - I had to hand in a book report on X and your book review was the only one I could find." -- They clearly didn't understand that that wasn't what they were supposed to do.
But the turnitin bot spiders my site regularly, so anyone copying one of my book reviews now is likely to get into trouble.
Danny.
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I'd never heard of Sonic the HedgehogUntil I read Campbell-Kelly's history of the software industry, From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog , I'd never heard of Sonic the Hedgehog. But then I was never much of a gamer.
Danny.
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I wasn't impressed - see my review for detailsI thought Core CSS was bloated and not that well laid out. See my my review for the details.
Danny.
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December 1994I can still remember the huge spike in traffic to my web site in December 1994, after Lycos indexed my web site (then hosted at my university). Altavista came along nearly a year later, but Lycos was the first full-text web search engine (that I noticed, anyway).
Danny.
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Eddings 20 years onI kept telling people who flamed me over my Belgariad review that they should breathe deeply, go back to their lives, and see what they thought about Eddings in a decade. And I haven't received any hate mail over that for some time now...
Danny.
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reviews, and a query about creative controlCheck out my review of the Earthsea trilogy and other le Guin reviews.
I would be surprised if Le Guin sold the film rights without retaining tight creative control... Or did she sell them a long time ago, before she became famous enough to be able to set her own terms?
Danny.
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reviews, and a query about creative controlCheck out my review of the Earthsea trilogy and other le Guin reviews.
I would be surprised if Le Guin sold the film rights without retaining tight creative control... Or did she sell them a long time ago, before she became famous enough to be able to set her own terms?
Danny.
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Braudel!And points for using Braudel's The Structures of Everyday Life (my review).
Danny.
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I'm not convincedI think there are better arguments for caring about langage extinction. For a good overview, David Crystal's Language Death is a decent little book.
But it's a political (in the broad sense) question in the end - what aspects of human existence matter, and how are resources to be allocated between them?
Danny.
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I've only read one of the booksAnd I think it's the only one that's been translated from a foreign language: my review of Cosmos Latinos .
Danny.
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Re:Worst: Clancy's "Teeth of the Tiger"Heh, I got email from Clancy himself complaining about my review of Clear and Present Danger
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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of 70 books reviewed this year...Six books I read this year made it onto my all-time best books list.
- The Marx Family Saga (Juan Goytisolo)
- The Viceroy of Ouidah (Bruce Chatwin)
- Ka (Roberto Calasso)
- China: Empire of the Written Symbol (Cecilia Lindqvist)
- The Visual Display of Quantiative Information (Edward Tufte)
- The Earthsea Trilogy (Ursula Le Guin)
Danny.
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my reviewHey, my review of The Art of UNIX Programming might be more interesting than rereading this one
Danny.
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anaconda-debian, apt-redhatFirst they ported apt to Redhat, now they're using anaconda for Debian installs! This is a great illustration of the flexibility of free software.
(Review of The Art of UNIX Programming )
Danny.
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Re:For the love of all that's good and holy
For a good read on this topic, check out: Disposable People
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Re:Not a good emblem
My vote for a 'resident historian' would be the dude who wrote A Quarter Century of UNIX, or some other old timer, not someone who showed up late and copped an attitude.
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Infidels!
Scientists say, however, the risk of being killed by a falling meteorite is not worth worrying about.
Unless you discover heaven, of course.
(if you don't know what I'm talking about, read/see The Discovery of Heaven by Dutch wannabe Novel prize winner Harry Mulisch.
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popular science reviewsYou might find my popular science book reviews useful.
Danny.
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readably long linesGetting readably long lines of text, for any user choice of font size, is doable. But it took me a couple of days fiddling with CSS to get a single column of text, centred on the page, of comfortable reading width... most of that was running around finding different versions of IE, NN, etc to test things with.
And there are still some bugs - try resizing my reviews to a very narrow window in Mozilla, for example.
Danny.
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other worksAnother not so well known work is The Monsters and the Critics - that's an academic work, of course, not fiction, but it's still reasonably broadly accessible.
Danny.
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my recent readingWell, I can recommend The Faculty of Useless Knowledge and Forbidding Wrong in Islam . You might want to browse through my 700 other book reviews.
Danny.
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my recent readingWell, I can recommend The Faculty of Useless Knowledge and Forbidding Wrong in Islam . You might want to browse through my 700 other book reviews.
Danny.
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my recent readingWell, I can recommend The Faculty of Useless Knowledge and Forbidding Wrong in Islam . You might want to browse through my 700 other book reviews.
Danny.
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ahem..
See sig.
Actualy my personal webserver is down, but you can find a lot of the novel at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cokere/re/index2.ht m.
I just finished The Diamond Age My Neil Stephenson. It's a good book but gets pretty bizzare at the end.
Danny Yee's book reviews are always intresting. He seems to be the #1 search result on google for book reviews.