Quicky book reviews

Got a load of books from the SF book club recently. So I'll do a few quicky book reviews.

First up is Charles Stross, Saturn's Children. This is a rollicking space opera that's half depraved Isaac Asimov, half warped Robert Heinlein, and half deranged Charles Stross. Think Robert Heinlein's sex-crazed Friday if she were one of Isaac Asimov's robots from I, Robot incarnated as a sexbot, combined with Charles Stross's big-picture space opera and an espionage plot that aims to bring back the slavemasters who've died out -- the human race.

I wouldn't call it a significant book. But it's rollicking good fun if you have the background in science fiction to know what novel by which author he's riffing off of at any given time (Friday is the main one of course, but he riffs off of other "classic" science fiction novels too). And oh, there is a riff on one of Robert Heinlein's favorite statements, the one where he said that a human being ought to be able to do this, that, and the other... and his lead character (the sexbot) says "but why would I need to do any of that, when I can get someone else to do it in exchange for sex?" Heh. Look for it. Also look for Stross's other space operas, most of which are better than this one, though not as much fun.

Next up... having read one space opera, I went back to my bookshelf and got one of my favorites out, C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen. I re-read this every few years and always enjoy it every time. It's a big brick of a book with a fascinating lead character who is reincarnated via cloning after she dies -- or is she? What does it mean to be "human", anyhow? As usual, I enjoyed this novel immensely, perhaps because it is more a sociological / psychological novel than a space opera even though it's set in one of her space opera universes in a space-going civilization. The only thing I'm really dissatisfied with is the ending -- her "father" who raised her for many years tries to kill her, and we never are told why. There are other issues that are never resolved too, such as who killed Ari 1.0 (or was it an accident?), and the beginning of the book (which shows Ari 1.0 as a real bitch who frankly I would have been tempted to murder too) is way too flabby, we get pounded over the head by Ari 1.0 being a bitch over and over again (okay, Carolyn, we got it the first time!). But once Ari 2.0 is birthed from her vat, all is forgiven. I wouldn't say this is a "classic" of the field, but the fact that I re-read it every few years -- which is not true of very many books -- means it tweaks something in my psyche. And maybe in yours. It didn't win the Hugo Award because it was lousy. Oh, there's a sequel coming out in January. I'll be looking for it...

And that's today's literary drive-by shootings. Tomorrow, I have a couple of real stinkers. Hint: What happens when you have right wing writers write politics into their novels instead of sticking to traditional space opera with space battles and stuff? It ain't pretty...

-- Badtux the Literary Penguin

Today's Presidential campaign update

John McCain tells lies. Press reports them with a question mark. Obama gives some speech somewhere that the press doesn't cover where he calls McCain on his lies. Nobody knows because the press only covers the lies, not the response.

Tomorrow, more of the same. And the next day. And the next day. And the next...

- Badtux the Tired Penguin

Apple is hot

Literally. And that's not counting exploding iPods, power supply cables that catch on fire, and roasting video chips. Seems that one of their IT buildings caught on fire. Luckily it apparently wasn't an important one.

As for Apple's other, err, hot, problems, oh well. Apple still makes the best personal computers on the planet. A shame they're so expensive, but so it goes...

-- Badtux the MacPenguin

My life

more cat pictures

This is my life.

-- Badtux the Pessimist Penguin

Loser

A 17 year old kid let an 85 year old granny hold him at gunpoint with a .22 caliber pistol.

If this had been one of the gang-bangers that I worked with at the center back in the day, Leda Smith would be dead. He would have had a gun in his hand when he went in, and he would have shot her and killed her the moment she emerged from the bedroom with a gun in her hand, because she came out of that bedroom ready to talk, not ready to shoot to kill. Luckily this was some neighborhood kid intent on a quick smash and grab, rather than a hard-core criminal. Otherwise there would be a dead body on the floor.

But I'm sure that the tighty righties are now going to all join together and chant, "arm the grannies!" Nevermind the body count, that's just a trifling detail...

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

PS: Found the perfect photo for the tighty righties:

Bigfoot!

He turns out to be... a rubber Halloween costume.

Yet last week newspapers were uncritically printing press releases about how these jokers had found Bigfoot, had DNA, and so forth. It just goes to show you what kind of press we have here in America -- stenographers. Useless stenographers. You could replace pretty much every reporter in the American media with a tape recorder operated by a trained monkey without any difference in the quality of the "reporting".

-- Badtux the Media Penguin

Motorin'

Over at Moto-Tux, I talk about a flying penguin and the Never-Ending Electrical Project, which is, oddly enough, *ending* shortly as soon as I get the first circuits hooked up (two circuits, one at the handlebars for the GPS, one at the side for a heated jacket or vest or etc.).

So if you are interested in motorcycle technology, go take a gander...

-- Badtux the Motorin' Penguin

Putin devises his plan for Georgia

In honor of all the looting going on in Georgia by the Vostok Brigade (Chechen brigands armed and supported by Russia), Ossetian irregulars, and pretty much every other nasty militia in the area, here is a video of Putin devising his plan for Georgia...

I don't think Putin has sent in the bull dykes yet though, but give him time!

Of course, given that the Vostok Brigade is currently persona non grata in Chechnya due to their ongoing feud with the current "president" of Chechnya (another nasty militia chief by the name of Kadyrov who is being paid by Russia to not make war against Russia much as the Vostok Brigade is being paid by Russia to not make war against Russia), this musta seemed like the opportunity from heaven for Russia for getting the Vostok Brigade out of their hair.

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Exercises in futility

Idiots:

Later in the afternoon, around 5:30, four Russian tanks rattled past the Russian checkpoint at Igoeti and drove in the direction of Tbilisi. Soldiers were piled on top, cradling Kalashnikov rifles.

As they drove past, one old man, Koba Gurnashvili, stepped into the street and yelled at the them: "Where do you think you're going!" One of the soldiers yelled back: "To Tbilisi!"

But they did not, instead turning up a side road leading to a village near the border with South Ossetia. At an intersection blocked by Georgian police cars, the Russian commander climbed off his tank and began arguing with the Georgian police officers.

The Russian officer said that he had orders to move up the road; the Georgian said that he had orders to remain on the road and asked to call his superiors for guidance. The Russian said: "You have three minutes to move your cars."

The two argued for a few minutes longer. Then the police stepped away from the cars, stony-faced, taking the keys with them. The commander ordered his tank to drive forward, and it smashed aside the cars and kept going.

A Georgian policeman looked at the dusty tanks passing, took off his hat and spat at the ground.

A word to the wise. When someone in a tank orders you to move your car, and all you're armed with is a 9mm pea-shooter, it's always a wise idea to move your car. These Georgians seem to be about as bright as your average chunk of granite...

-- Badtux the Mildly Amused Penguin

OMG It's the end of the world!

The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of that evil supervillain, The Gay Agenda, with his evil master plan to, uhm, get equal rights for gays, and says that doctors have to live up to that Hippocratic Oath thingy as well as California's law barring discriminating against gays. Oh the horror! Doctors who specialize in in-vitro fertilization must treat gays! What next, doctors have to impregnate dogs, box turtles, or mules?

No, clearly, unless doctors are allowed to discriminate, doctors will have to, uhm, serve the public instead of serving some religious agenda based on hate and ignorance. And we can't have that, can we? Why, why... if we make doctors treat people equally regardless of sexual orientation, that nasty Gay Agenda will zap us all with his Gay Ray of Gayness and then the human race will die out because nobody will reproduce (except those nasty lesbians gay-marrying each other and getting artificially inseminated of course) and ... and... uhm, what was I saying? I lost my train of thought there. For some definition of "thought". Hmm.

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

When darkness falls

I am working on a new song. It is dark, dark, dark.

For some reason I don't write happy songs anymore. Not that I really did, I've written maybe three songs in my entire life that qualify as "happy", but at least they were songs about life and lost loves and broken dreams. The best way I can describe what I've written over these past few years is... apocalyptic? Too many visions of small bodies and blood running down streets as the world runs down and everything comes to an end. It's hard to motivate myself to write them down, much less record them.

I would say I'm depressed, except it's not that, exactly. Observant, perhaps. I am witnessing a race between technology and species extinction, and unfortunately a majority of the human race seems more inclined toward the latter than toward the former When the oil runs out, people are going to start dying of starvation by the billions -- without fertilizers and farm equipment, we can raise food for maybe a billion people. And when that happens...

-- Badtux the Gloomy Penguin

Dis-concerting

Traffic was backed up this morning because of a concert/festival at Shoreline Ampitheater starting at 11am this morning. Lots of alternative/electronica/metalcore bands that I never heard of. The kids walking down the street (having parked elsewhere to avoid paying parking fees) are certainly the fashion plate. Apparently, for teen guys, skinny saggers are apparently the "in" thing. These combine tight pants that cling to the legs with low-riding waist that shows the butt crack area and gives you a good view of the dude's underwear. Call it ghetto slim. For gals, it's tight shirts and hip-huggers that showcase their fat hips and thunder thighs as they blob their pasty way down the street. None of the girls appeared to be over 20 years old or so, as you'd expect since older girls would have a job and not be going to a concert on a Friday afternoon. Almost all of them seemed to have said "super-size it, please!" more than once when grabbing chow at a fast-food place.

Sigh. Kids today. (Insert photo of crotchety old man shaking his fist and saying "you darned kids get off my lawn!").

-- Badtux the Fashion Penguin

Chinese gymnastics team

Did anybody else notice that the Chinese "women's" gymnastics team looked more like the Chinese "elementary school girls" gymnastics team? The youngest/smallest "women" on the team couldn't have been more than twelve years old!

-- Badtux the Observant Penguin

Olympic swimming

I assume my gay readers are having a really nice time watching the U.S. swim team. It's like gay porn without the sausage. As a penguin I'm not quite sure what exactly is the attraction -- their plumage is rather, err, lacking, and they swim like monkeys thrashing the waters desperately instead of elegantly like penguins -- but just for those who appreciate, here is some beefcake:

Just making sure you get your daily dose of gay porn!

-- Badtux the Helpful Penguin

That oh-so-mighty Georgian military

They might run screaming like little children anytime a Russian points a water pistol in their direction, but they sure are hard on unarmed journalists.

To be fair, if I saw a Faux News "journalist" around and I was armed with an AK-47, I might be tempted to see how fast he could run too :-).

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Put down the propaganda pipe, folks...

and step away.

Propaganda:

Lucky the Russians had conveniently built up 20,000 soldiers just north of the border on training exercises one week prior to the crisis.

Reality:

The Russians normally keep that many troops in the region because of Chechnya, which, remember, is less than 100 miles away from South Ossetia. In fact I'm wondering what the Chechens are doing right now, since the troops that normally would be chasing Chechen rebels are currently inside Georgia.

Propaganda:

And, of course, the Russian peacekeepers already in South Ossetia, who armed the South Ossetian rebels, must not actually be Russians on Georgian soil.

Reality:

That depends on whether South Ossetia is Georgian soil. South Ossetia was an autonomous province within the Soviet Union, nominally within the administrative boundaries of the Soviet state of Georgia but never ruled from Tsibili. Georgia arbitrarily declared the autonomy of South Ossetia null and void in 1993 despite the fact that Georgia had never ruled South Ossetia, ever, not even hundreds of years ago, and only Russian troops prevented Georgia from actually making good on that. South Ossetians are "rebels" in much the same that Mexicans would be "rebels" if we declared that Mexico was our 51st state -- South Ossetia never was culturally part of Georgia, and never was ruled from Tsibili, and is about as "Georgian" as Mexico is "American".

So clearly the situation is more complex than "Georgia attacks rebels". South Ossetia is obviously too small to be an independent nation. It will have to join either Russia or Georgia. The Georgians seem determined to make sure that South Ossetia joins Russia rather than Georgia. So be it. But to say that Georgia was "justified" in invading South Ossetia because it is just a state of Georgia, is like saying that the U.S. would be "justified" in invading Mexico because it is just a state of the United States. That has not been historically true, and arbitrary lines drawn on maps do not make it true.

Conclusions:

1. American media is a bunch of propaganda bullshit. But we already knew that. Pravda on the Hudson and Izvestia on the Potomac are slicker than their Russian counterparts, but put them in a mirror and they all look the same.
2. Putin is a ruthless hard-ass. But we already knew that. Beslan, anybody? The Russian theatre hostage massacre, anybody?
3. Georgian President Saakashvili is a moron. He thought a bit of training from American trainers, combined with having more up-to-date weapons than Russian forces in the area (who are armed with old 1960's and 1970's Soviet-era gear because they're equipped to take on Chechen rebels, not modern armies), would suffice to destroy the Russian forces sent against him. He didn't seal off the tunnel between South Ossetia and Russia because he wanted to engage in a spot of ethnic cleansing and drive the Ossetians through the tunnel in front of the Georgian Army, and only *then* seal the tunnel. The South Ossetians ruined that plan by fighting back far harder than Saakashvili and his Israeli Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili (yes, the defense minister of Georgia is an Israeli citizen, go figure!) expected, thereby giving the Russians time to use the tunnel first. Then Saakashvili thought the U.S. would come help him. With what troops? Riiiiight...
4. South Ossetia will never be part of Georgia. Well, you try a bit of ethnic cleansing and genocide, folks just seem to not like that. Russia is content with a de facto independent South Ossetia that in reality is part of the Russian Federation. The Georgians are just going to have to live with the fact that they aren't going to be allowed to engage in the ethnic cleansing they wanted to engage in.
5. Russia has effectively put the Trashcanistans on notice. Russia swatted Georgia using basically light forces intended to chase down Chechen guerillas. These were not top-of-the-line elite Russian units that rolled into Georgia, folks. They were armed with old 1960's and 1970's Soviet weapons that were a generation older than the ex-Warsaw-Pact weapons that Georgia was armed with. If Russia can swat Georgia so easily without even bringing their elite units into play, the other folks along Russia's Southern frontier are on notice: Don't poke the bear. Because despite being rather shabby nowdays, the bear still has teeth and claws that can maul you but good.

More than that will have to wait. But one final thing about the U.S. media coverage. It reminds me of U.S. media coverage of the Iraq-Iran War. Iraq invaded Iran. But the U.S. media was rooting for Iraq for most of the war. WTF? Georgia invaded South Ossetia. But the U.S. media was rooting for Georgia for the entire war. WTF? Since when does starting a war make you the "good guys"? Oh yeah, that's right -- when the folks who start the war happen to be U.S. puppets. Alrighty, then!

-- Badtux the Geopolitics Penguin

Sigh, 11pm and still working :-(

One of my new babies is leaving the cradle tomorrow. Just finished teaching him how to write good code and now he leaves me, boo hoo hoo! But anyhow, he has one last checkin to make into the source tree. And I have to go over it with a fine tooth comb before he leaves. And he leaves at 2AM my time because that's when the last bus leaves his time and like most people in his nation he doesn't own a car, he's reliant on mass transit. And that's it. So I may be up to 2AM working with this guy...

These multi-national software development efforts are the pits sometimes :-(.

-- Badtux the late-working Penguin

Some people ought to be aborted post-natally

To whit: this creep, Raymond Daniel Thurmond, who held his wife and three children captive for years in a mobile home. He apparently screwed the windows shut, locked the doors with padlocks, and threatened to kill them if they tried to escape.

So now he gets his own captivity. Hopefully sharing a jail cell with some 300 pound 7 foot tall brute named Bubba. Who don't like child abusers. Squeal like a pig, Gay Ray, squeal like a pig!

-- Badtux the Disgusted Penguin

Best summary of the Georgian war I've seen

No, Civil War fans, this isn't about Sherman's March to the Sea. I'm talking about the Former Soviet Georgia, which the Russian bear just slapped silly and threw against the wall as an object lesson to small nations that want to piss off neighboring large (and surly) nations. And The Political Cat has probably the best round-up I've seen on the situation so far. I especially like one of his snarky lines: He (Saakashvili) is trying to draw the U.S. and Europe into a war with Russia — a war which no one will win. Vladimir Putin is an ex-KGB man and nobody's fool. And unfortunately, the U.S. is currently in the hands of the biggest fool to ever walk the planet.

Alrighty, then!

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Busting the Anthrax myth

Stratfor brings reality into the anthrax-as-weapon discussion. Says Stratfor: It ain't as easy as sci-fi thrillers make it sound. For example:

The [Aum terrorist] group sprayed thousands of gallons of aerosolized liquid anthrax in Tokyo. This time, Aum not only employed its fleet of sprayer trucks but also used aerosol sprayers mounted on the roof of their headquarters to disperse a cloud of aerosolized anthrax over the city. Again, the attacks produced no results and were not even noticed.

Oooh, I'm so scared of anthrax!

Reality is that terrorists go with what gets them the most bang for the buck. A single suicide bombing in Iraq typically kills more people than have been killed in all the anthrax attacks in known history -- combined. And it takes less than a hundred bucks worth of explosives, not a massive R&D laboratory and fancy equipment and shit. The humble truck bomb that blew up the Oklahoma City federal courthouse is what we should be concerned about insofar as terrorism is concerned. Some bug that even the most highly weaponized version, out of our own weapons lab, can't manage to kill more than a dozen people total despite multiple attacks... uhm, yeah. About those truck bombs...

-- Badtux the Practical Penguin

Sad all around

Librarian recognizes man who ran down two old ladies, calls cops. Turns out he was a 66 year old dude who was living out of his car, who apparently has "problems".

Our society's treatment of its old, its poor, its mentally ill is abysmal, and the result is dead bodies. But hey, we don't care, because at least we don't have to pay taxes to take care of the old, the poor, the mentally ill, and money is more important than human beings, right? Right? Right?!

-- Badtux the Priorities Penguin

War on Liberals continues

Gunman invades office of Arkansas Democratic chairman, shoots him multiple times, and drives off in pickup truck. What do you bet that we're going to find out that this guy has copies of Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Rush Limbaugh's books sitting on his bookshelves?

-- Badtux the "Had enough hate speech yet?" Penguin

INCIYR

It's Not Criminal If You're Republican. Attorney General Michael Mukasey confirms that there are two laws in this country -- one if you're a Democrat, and one if you're a Republican. If you're a Democrat, it's a crime. If you're a Republican, you're not. Mukasey says the Justice Department broke the law by applying partisan political considerations to non-partisan positions, but he intents to do nothing about it because, well, INCIYR. Or as Attorney General Mr. Mugookasey put it, "Not every violation of a law is a crime."

So much for that old "equality" and "justice" bullshit, eh?

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Random natterings

This "body wash" stuff just doesn't feel right. I dunno, there's something somehow... manly... about boldly seizing a big bar of soap and rubbing that sucker all over your body. I understand the soap scum argument (which isn't a problem with "body wash"), but it just feels weird.

One of my cat towels finally managed to collect something yesterday. When I got home, I found that Mencken had puked all over the office chair in front of the computer desk. Luckily a towel lives on that office chair, so I just had to change towels.

In my never-ending electrical project on the Nightstrom, I gave up on trying to relocate the relays and fuses behind the battery to being behind the left side panel. It's just too hard to get the left side panel off. Instead I used plastic stick-on hooks to move them to a more compact location, and will put the fuse panel relay next to them. The fuse panel itself, alas, has to go into the place I didn't want to put it -- the tray where the owner's manual is supposed to go. Oh well. I've strapped on a tractor owner's manual tube to the left-side Givi rack and will simply relocate the owner's manual to there. More on that project at Moto-Tux...

-- Badtux the Busy Penguin

So much for that vaunted "U.S. training"

Georgian troops abandon their posts, run screaming in terror for home.

Shades of the ARVN running screaming like little girls from the NVA...

What is it with U.S. "training" anyhow? It seems all the U.S. is able to do is train armies to run screaming like little girls whenever someone shoots in their direction. There was an action recently in Afghanistan against the Taliban where nine U.S. soldiers were killed and fifteen wounded that exemplifies that. There were approximately 200 Afghan soldiers and 40 American soldiers involved in this action. Not one -- ZERO -- of the Afghan soldiers were injured at the end of the day. You just know that the moment the first shot came their direction, they ran like the dickens the other way and didn't come back until the U.S. soldiers had saved the day.

U.S. training of foreign militaries seems to go like this, from what I can see:

1. This is your rifle, this is your gun. One's for shooting, one's for fun.
2. If someone shoots in your direction, throw down your rifle and take your gun the other way.

I mean, c'mon. Can anybody point at a single U.S. trained military that's worth a bucket of warm spit? Iraq... Afghanistan... South Vietnam... Georgia. Bah.

-- Badtux the War Penguin

Why I'm glad I don't own a BMW

At Moto-Tux.

-- Badtux the Motorcyclin' Penguin

John Edwards

He had an affair.

That is all. End of story.

-- Badtux the Brief Penguin

Dignity

The "leader of the free world", Jenna, and Not-Jenna show the world how dignified a U.S. President can be as they watch the Olympics.

Note the scabbing on the Chimperors' right arm. Looks like Chimpy McBoozy's been hitting the bottle and falling down drunk again...

-- Badtux the More-dignified Penguin
(Probably the permanent formal wear, heh)

Motorcycle wiring sucks

That is all. At Moto-Tux.

-- Badtux the Wrenchin' Penguin

Got free speech?

Uhm... no. You have free speech only if you speak in government-approved manner about government-approved topics. It is okay to diss a member of one branch of the Party, praise a member of another branch of the Party, or otherwise engage in speech that has absolutely no effect upon the profits or power of our ruling elite. Heck, you can even say that every member of our ruling elite should be strung up by the neck from the nearest oak tree and democracy brought to America, because our rulers know that if you say this, people will just laugh at you -- after all, centuries of propaganda have convinced most Americans that democracy already is in America.

This is a softer, gentler rule that we live in here, where our rulers do not feel the need to remind us every few hours that we are ruled, this is a rule where the iron fist is well disguised in a most plush velvet glove. But if your conduct ever truly rose to the point of threatening the profits or rule of the oligarchs who run our nation... well. You, too, would find a court order slapped into your hands prohibiting you from speaking. Or perhaps even, like Eugene Debs, slammed into a jail cell for the crime of disagreeing with the ruling elite. But as long as we are merely nattering here on the Internets rather than taking any real action to bring our rulers to justice and bring real democracy to America, why would our rulers bother? It's just a way for us to let off steam. It's not as if we threaten their rule doing this nattering. That would require us to, like, actually do something, rather than just natter along...

-- Badtux the Nattering Penguin

Kosovo breaks out in the Former Soviet Union

Okay, let's recap this:

In 1999, a province of a Russian ally, Serbia, decided to declare independence. In response, Serbia sent their troops into that province to reassert control. When bombing of Serbian troops by U.S. bombers did not result in Serbian troops leaving a Serbian province, the United States started attacking civilian targets within Serbia itself -- bridges, water treatment plants, and the occasional Chinese embassy. This forced Serbia to withdraw their troops from their province of Kosovo, and U.S. troops poured in as "peacekeepers" to take their place. During all of this, Russia was fussing big-time about Western meddling in the former Yugoslavia, saying that Kosovo was a Serbian internal matter and the West should just butt out. The United States ignored Russian objections. Kosovo recently declared independence and its independence is now recognized by the United States and most Western nations, but not by Serbia or Russia.

Okay, let's fast forward to 2008. In 2008, a province of a U.S. ally, the Republic of Georgia, had declared its independence some time back. Georgia sent its troops into the breakaway province of South Ossetia to reassert control over the breakaway province. Russia responded by sending its own troops into South Ossetia just as the U.S. sent its troops into Kosovo, and by bombing Georgia just as the U.S. bombed Serbia. And, just as Serbia had to do in Kosovo, Georgia apparently has now been forced to withdraw its troops from the breakaway province of South Ossetia. And just as the U.S. ignored Russian objections to the U.S. breaking away part of a Russian ally to turn it into an independent nation, Russia is ignoring U.S. objections to Russia breaking away part of a U.S. ally to make it into an independent nation.

It's payback time for Russia. They've played the Kosovo playbook, except in reverse. And it's unclear that there's anything to be done about it. The U.S. cannot seize the moral high ground here -- the Russians did not do anything in South Ossetia that the U.S. did not do in Kosovo. And just as Kosovo wasn't worth starting WWIII for Russia, South Ossetia is not worth starting WWIII for the United States. If this were a chess game, both sides just pushed their king's pawn forward by two spaces in reciprocal moves. Now we get to wait and see the next move in this geopolitical chess game... and oh, too bad about all those dead bodies, huh?

-- Badtux the Geopolitical Penguin