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I’d forgotten what a great storyteller Michael Crichton is. I’m not particularly interested in French history, and yet I enjoyed this story, which tells of a band of scientists who are sent back in time. Much of the story takes place in France in 1400, so if you enjoy medieval history, you’ll like this. I was more interested in the modern-day aspect of the story, and the science it involves, but like many of Crichton’s books this kept me turning pages.
Amazon.com has a nice summary of the story in its “editorial reviews” section; see links below.
Patronize these links, man:
At a glance this book appears to be by Tom Clancy, but because I was unfamiliar with his Power Plays series, I didn’t realize that the book was actually written by someone else entirely.
No matter — this is a great read, replete with strong characters, mostly believable science and technology, and a page-turning plot.
The book’s antagonist has created a virus that can be triggered, or targeted, based on a variety of criteria; he releases the virus (which is harmless until triggered), and Preisler’s account of the infection is believable, and frightening. The story centers on the efforts of one victim’s staff to track down the source of the disease, to find a cure before the victim succumbs.
The end of the book contains a fairly unbelievable situation, which detracts a bit from the story: the contents of a CD-ROM are uploaded over a remote wireless connection within just a few seconds. No description is given of the hardware or bandwidth of this magical network connectivity, and no mention is made of any special effort to read or decrypt the CD-ROM contents. A soldier simply loads it, and a few seconds later a scientist a few thousand miles away has not only read but comprehended it.
Otherwise, I enjoyed this book. I think it would appeal to anyone who likes spy fiction or genetic-engineering/disease thrillers, e.g. Jurassic Park, The Rock (Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage), Outbreak (Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey), The Hot Zone, etc.
Patronize these links, man:
This is the 4th installment of the story begun in Ender’s Game. The characters are by now familiar, and this book ties up all of the plot lines opened in Xenocide. The ending satisfies. If you’ve already read the first three books of the series, you need to read this one to find out how it all ends.
Patronize these links, man:
I received a somber, informationally dense pamphlet in the mail from Chevron. It’s titled “Chevron Cardmember Privacy Statement.” When I read this, I felt a bit like I might if my doctor called to say “I need to discuss your recent chest X-ray.” This pamphlet is bad, bad news: it details the ways in which, as a matter of standard business practice, Chevron assaults my personal privacy.
I am surprised that they’ve bothered to detail the ways in which they’re abusing their customers’ rights — it’s generally safe to assume that any company that knows your name or address is making money by selling your information as many times per day as possible, but it is unusual in my experience that any company would ever admit to this.
But this is precisely what Chevron has done.
Here is the information Chevron collects about its customers: name, address, address history, social security number, employment/student status, spouse name, spouse SSN, kids’ names, telephone numbers, email address, credit history, credit rating, Chevron account balance, payment history, gasoline usage patterns.
What of this information does Chevron sell? Here’s a quote from the pamphlet: We may disclose all of the information that we collect.
Who does Chevron sell this information to? In a nutshell, anyone at all.
So apparently it’s not enough that they make money from you when you buy their gasoline — they also sell and resell your personal information. They know whether you are single or married, and whether you have any kids… they know how long you’ve worked at your current job, or whether you’re a student… they know your social security number, which is one of the two pieces of information needed for someone to steal your identity… they know whether you own or rent your home, and when you move they track your relative income by examining your neighborhood’s ZIP code… they know whether or not you commute to work… they know when you’re home… they know how frequently you travel, how long you’re gone, and whether you drive or fly on these trips. To me this is dangerous information for any corporation to have, especially any corporation that admits to selling it with total disregard for your personal safety.
Note that the Chevron credit card application does not contain an opt-out opportunity, much less an opt-in. In plain language this means that you have to ask them to stop selling your data; by default, they will not respect your privacy. You can’t opt out until after they’ve approved your application, which means they’ve already sold all the data on your application, long before your card arrives in the mail.
Here’s the best way to stop this abuse: call 1-800-CHE-VRON and cancel your account. You can use your ATM or regular credit card to buy gas at about 99% of the gas stations in the country anyway.
If you’ve temporarily lost your mind and really do want to continue doing business with this company, you can and should still opt-out of their solicitation lists: call 1-800-CHE-VRON and ask to be removed immediately.
Update: when I called, I was routed to an announcement that repeats this mantra: “We do not sell your information.” I’m not sure how to take this, because the pamphlet clearly states Chevron’s intentions. Perhaps what they mean is that they are not currently, at the moment, selling my data, but they reserve the right to sell it in the future without notice. Or perhaps they’re hiding behind the word “selling” — maybe they don’t sell my data, per se, but only trade it for, I don’t know, large sums of money disguised as a consulting payment. This duplicity offends me. Feh.
The night I first saw Stomp, I felt that my world had subtly shifted. How had I survived all those years without experiencing something so powerful? I sat on the edge of my chair for the entire performance.
Today I discovered something that I think could have a Stomp-esque effect on my world: the Blue Man Group.
My brother turned me on to the Blue Man Group. I believe he saw them in a series of Pentium ads, which I’d never seen because I don’t watch television. But the BMG has been around for about 10 years, so I was shocked to have never heard of them.
The Blue Man Group is a sort of music/theater group. The music is percussive, incorporating weird homemade PVC instruments.
The most exciting news for me is that they’ve recorded a CD. My copy is on its way. Buy yours today — see links below.
Their website is worth visiting, but if you’re in a hurry, here are some highlights: music clips from audio (see the links on the right side of the page); funny print ads from a Chicago show; an interview from Amazon.com.
Update: the good folks at memepool point out that Blue Man Group uses Macs — so why are they shilling for Intel? Damn good question. It’s the myth of Pentium.
Patronize these links, man:
