Monday Book Pick: The Man of Bronze & The Land of Terror
The Man of Bronze and The Land of Terror by Lester Dent.
The first two Doc Savage novels.
The first Doc Savage novel I read was The Land of Terror back in either 1971 or 1972. It was a Bantam reprint that I picked up at store in Panama City just outside the Balboa Gate. Since then, I have read over 160 of the original 181 Doc Savage novels, as well as several by Philip Jose Farmer (licensed or otherwise) and Will Murray. IMNSHO, Doc Savage was the greatest of the Pulp Era Heros.
Stone Lion in the Snow
One of the stone lions outside the Sigma Alpha Epsilon headquarters in Evanston, IL.
Originally published at Slices of Life Photography Blog.
Condolences to Vice-President Biden
Vice-President Biden’s mother, Catherine Biden, passed away yesterday at the age of 92.
Our heart felt sympathy goes out to the Vice-President and his family.
Two new Android phones
AT&T is finally carrying an Android based phone, this one is made by Dell, and called the Mini 3. This phone has been selling overseas already, so the specs are pretty well known. 3.5-inch 640×360 display, Bluetooth, 3 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, microSD, and GPS. Two things catch my eye, no WiFi and and microSD support. So that is the bad and good points right off the bat. No WiFi was one of the major complaints about the Crackberry Storm.
The inclusion of a microSD slot is a big, big plus. The lack of an additional memory source is the biggest strike against the iPhone hardware, IMNSHO.
The other new Android phone is Google’s own Nexus 1. We’ll see how long that name lasts. The estate of Philip K. Dick is already taking legal action against the name. Otherwise, this is an impressive bit of hardware. It sports a one-gigahertz processor, a 3.7-inch display, a five-megapixel camera, light and proximity sensors, and dual microphones that allow for noise cancellation. Woot! This phone also has a removable battery! The serious road warrior can pack a spare for emergencies. The phone itself only has 512 Meg of flash memory, but it comes with a 4 Gig microSD card. The phone will support up to 32 Gig in that slot, so expansion is available.
You can buy an unlocked phone direct from Google fro $529.
Originally posted at Urbin Technology.
Friday B-Movie Pick: True Lies
From 1994 comes this action comedy with actual Middle Eastern Islamic terrorist bad guys! Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere and Tom Paxton lead the casting, and are clearly having fun with this James Cameron flick.
Even lefties at CNN are waking up to Obama’s lies
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics, Video
This is just a short step from “I’m as mad as Hell and I’m not taking it anymore!”
Update: A big old “Hi ya!” to all the folks arriving here from some email thread. I’m waiting for it hit my inbox. 🙂
What is it that the democrats are afraid to show the American People?
House and Senate democrat “leaders” are planning on keeping deliberations secret as they work out the compromise “heath care” bill behind closed doors.
Openness and transparency in the political process. That is what the democrats ran on, but are refusing to implement.
The reality is the the democrats really don’t want any honest and open debate. If that happens, the American people could see exactly what they are trying to shove down their throats without their knowledge.
A wise woman spoke the truth when she said, “They win in the dark; we win in the light.”
The last thing the democrats want is the ObamaCare bill to be brought out of the cover of darkness and into the cleansing light of the public.
Avatar spoilers
This is a comment I left on a review of Avatar on Dark Worlds blog that raises issues with the lousy science in Avatar:
Then there is the subject of evolution on Pandora. All the animals have six limbs. Four up front and two in the back. All of them, including the Pterodactyl like creatures. Four wings and pair of legs. Four eyes as well. One pair above sightly farther out than the inner pair.
Everything except the Terminator Smurfs. Two eyes, and four limbs.
Radically different biology, yet they could mesh their nervous system with the local animals.
Did the Terminator Smurfs braid their hair to protect the nerve bundle or did it grow like that naturally.Oh, why did the Pterodactyl like creatures naturally develop stirrups for the Terminator Smurfs?
With all the “scientists” they had on that planet, why didn’t any notice that the Terminator Smurfs obviously didn’t evolve there?
Originally posted at e-Ramblings
Update: One of the comments points out that the story line is remarkably similar to a Poul Anderson short story, “Call Me Joe.” There are also comments about the movie drawing from Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The World for World is Forest.” I would add Alan Dean Foster’s Midworld as well.
Monday Book Pick: Melody of Vengeance
Melody of Vengeance by Michael A. Black.
A rousing good pulp adventure that pays tribute to the two greatest pulp heros, Doc Savage and the Shadow!
Quote of the Day
“I made it to 2010 and all I got from the SciFi books of my youth was the lousy dystopian government.”