Skip to main content

Posts

After watching some of the coverage of the Petraeus hearings, it makes me think - if there were a nuclear war, I'd probably have to listen to NPR just to get the facts, because FOX and CNN would be unwilling to report anything that might inconvenience the Bush Administration. I can see it now - "Yes, there has been a limited nuclear exchange, but so far casualties have been low according to our expectations, and we are confident survivability remains possible despite what must must seem to outsiders to look like overwhelming odds."

The name's Penguin. Penguin Putnam.

Bond gets shaken. Not stirred In May 2008, to mark the centenary of Sir Ian Fleming's birth, Penguin UK will publish a new Bond novel - Devil May Care , written by one of Britain's most admired novelists, Sebastian Faulks. The novel was commissioned by the Fleming estate and will be set in "several of the world's most thrilling cities" during the Cold War. Faulks enjoyed following Sir Ian's lead, he said "In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling."

MAGPIE » Nunatak

What must surely be the coolest gig in this summer’s Live Earth concerts takes place at the British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) Rothera Research Station. On 7 July the science team’s indie-rock house band, Nunatak will debut in the global event that features over 100 of the world’s top musical acts. Concerts from all 7 continents will raise awareness of climate change world-wide.

Jeremy Soule - Composer & Symphonist

I enjoy great music, but I don't enjoy being made to feel as though I'm inside a 19th-century ballroom. Jeremy Soule is a prime example of a contemporary composer who uses the instruments of an orchestra to great effect, while neither remaining tied to premodern forms, nor engaging in modern ism . He has provided the soundtracks for Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and from the look of his current projects, it appears his career has only grown since then.

Google conquering the enterprise space

Holy cow - GOOG is getting serious about competing against MSFT in the enterprise. My wife, who is a manager in a SMB, says she wouldn't want to leave the familiarity of Office, but apparently some Fortune corporations are willing to give Google Apps a shot. How about you?

Watch FRONTLINE

As always, FRONTLINE is the premier current events program on television. It's amazing how you can live through these events and not understand what has happened until someone places it in context. And PBS is the only network objective enough to host a show like FRONTLINE. By contrast, CNN has been a dismal failure in covering the war. What amazed me as I watched was the consistent view among the military advisers in the show that this is still mainly our problem, and that if we leave and chaos and suffering ensues, it will be mainly our fault. We have such a sky-high-minded view of ourselves - we think the rest of the world will blame us if we leave. In reality, the rest of the world is criticizing us for staying - and the future is up to the Iraqis themselves. We cannot stop people who do not want peace from engaging in violence within their own country. We need to return to a more realist view of foreign policy, hyperpower or not. The standard for justifying foreign i...