The last time I read a science fiction book, I was climbing up Kilimanjaro and had few opportunities. It was The Wreck of the River of Stars, with a strong focus on slow-moving character development, that I probably would have put down if I were not scaling a mountain with frequent rests at high altitude. I was glad I read it, but it really lacked the excitement that I enjoyed in books by Heinlein, for instance.

Following several recommendations from technology geeks I find insightful (including Jerry Pournelle, one of the authors), I picked up The Mote in God's Eye and then quickly read its sequel, The Gripping Hand, by Larry Niven and Pournelle. Fascinating reading.

These are older sci-fi books, ones that expected the U.S. versus U.S.S.R. standoff would continue long into the future, when man left the Earth. The books are set long in the future, when interstellar travel is practical but humans have not yet discovered alien life. And boom, they do. The twist is that the aliens are much older, and better at just about everything, than humans but had not developed interstellar travel (the human invention of the interstellar drive was an accident - something I have no trouble believing).

I was captivated by the books but hard core science-focused science fiction readers should beware because these are not Stephen Baxter or Greg Bear books. The focus is more on sociology and a good story line. I'm not actually sure that Pournelle has any science credentials, though he clearly has a strong mind for technology. In listening to him speak, his understanding of how science works is quite weak.

I thought both books were well worth reading but I seem to remember daddYman being ho-hum about them, so take it for what it is worth. I had never considered such a plot line and it hooked me from the start (well, after 40-50 pages anyway... I always struggle to follow characters in the beginning of a book).

If you believe Fox News or the Tea Baggers (to the extent one can differentiate), then we are on the verge of a massive socialist takeover. I just read this great comment to a news story about the public power company in Virginia ... it was attributed to Bill Meyer, but I don't know who that is.

I have inserted some additions in bold for funsies.

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by socialist electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the socialist clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the socialist radio to one of the FCC regulated channels to hear what the socialist National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using socialist satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of socialist US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the socialist drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as kept accurate by the socialist National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my socialist National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the socialist roads build by the socialist local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the socialist Environmental Protection Agency, using socialist legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the socialist US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the socialist public school. I avoid numerous collisions due to socialist stop signs, signals, and other conventions established by the local government. If I get lost, I can use my socialist GPS navigation technology developed by the United States Department of Defense and made available to the public in 1996 by President Bill Clinton who issued a policy directive declaring socialist GPS to be a dual use military civilian system to be managed as a national socialist asset.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the socialist workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor (which also mandates an eight hour day, no children working) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the socialist USDA, I drive my socialist NHTSA car back home on the socialist DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the socialist state and local building codes and socialist fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the socialist local police department. I take a deep breath of fresh air, thanks to the socialist Environmental Protection Agency that prevents the noble private companies from discharging all their pollutants in to the air.

I then get on my computer and use the socialist Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and browse the socialist World Wide Web using my graphical web browser, both made possible by Al Gore’s socialist High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991. Briefly, I consider how lucky I am that the socialist programs Medicare and Social Security have dramatically reduced elderly poverty, allowing me the freedom of not sharing the house with my parents.

I then post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

After spending September, October, and November shooting sports constantly and frequently editing, I was left with a massive backlog of magazines to read. So in December, I made it a priority to catch up so I could get back to reading books. Success! By the beginning of 2010, I reduced the backlog to 5 magazines! I took a photo of all the magazines, though a few in there where from Michelle.

I have lots of ideas for posts, but trying to get used to working after a well-needed week off.*

In the meantime, I just got published in Ars Technica - which is a pretty big deal. I think of Ars as the NY Times of the tech world. My column about broadband is here but if you want to help it get more exposure, you can digg it up here.

* I'll discuss just how relaxing that week "off" was in an upcoming post

Foreign Policy magazine has a special end of year issue chronicling the top 2009 global thinkers - someof whom did not necessarily have "good" ideas (says me). Nonetheless, I was intrigued by a short feature on Sayyid Imam al-Sharif:

How the prison writings of Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, one of al Qaeda's founders now labeled a turn coat, are doing more to expose the terrorist group's hypocrisy than anyone else.

This dude is now in prison in Egypt - after first writing books justifying al-Qaeda's butcherous activities, he suddenly decided it might not be in the best interests of God to kill everyone with which they disagree:

He claims he came to realize that the haphazard use of violence by Islamist groups causes more harm than good with respect to Islamic law, an idea he had been pondering since he left terrorism in the early 1990s.

So long as al-Qaeda keeps killing other Muslims, I think we can expect support for them to continue plummeting amongst those who used to support them as a check against the power of the West.

Fascinating video showing how beautiful Norway is and how they prevent unexpected rockfall, I guess...

Thanks to daddYman for pointing this one out.

Jacob Weisberg's recent piece on slate.com asked, "Are Republicans Serious About Fixing Health Care?" The answer, unsurprisingly, is "no." What is more important about the article is that it reminds us who created the massive deficits and debt that the Republican cannot stop talking about (and blaming Dems for it, of course).

Jacob discusses the last time the Republicans tinkered with health care - changing the prescription-drug coverage under Medicare when Republicans controlled the Executive and Legislative branches. Republicans used so many low-down dirty tricks in getting that legislation through that they have absolutely no credibility when it comes to accusing the Dems of abusing their power currently.

Remember that they were also greatly cutting taxes on the rich at this point - so not only were the Republicans reducing revenue to the government, they were greatly increasing its expenditures while also still not providing quality health care reform! Weisberg sums it up nicely:

Thanks to something called the "doughnut hole," drug coverage disappears when out-of-pocket costs reach $2,400, returning only when they hit $3,850. Simply stated, the bill cost a fortune, wasn't paid for, is complicated as hell, and doesn't do all that much—though it does include coverage for end-of life-counseling, or what Grassley now calls "pulling the plug on grandma."

Read the rest of the article for more helpful context on just how much damage the Republican health care reform has done to the federal fiscal future.

In my lifetime, the vast majority of federal debt comes from Republican Administrations whereas Democratic Administrations are more responsible and tend to legislate within their means. As my friend James wrote awhile back, the Republicans are like arsonists that bitch about the fire department wasting water.

Left unmentioned, but worth bringing up is that Republicans have always hated Medicare and would prefer to let old people fend for themselves in the market to a functioning government program that has greatly reduced poverty amongst the elderly as well as reducing the load on people my age who might otherwise be saddled with the massively greater debt if my parents became ill after retiring (I hope they get to retire!)

I previously embedded a video refuting some Fox News talking points against rational drug laws. Fox News responded to that video and here is the next iteration of the saga. Not only does it show the stupidity of Bill O'Reilly (who demonstrates time and time again that he has zero knowledge of what statistics mean or how to use them), but it offers more evidence that our approach to the problems of narcotics cause more problems than they solve.