| Thursday,
May 17, 2007 I am pleased to announce
that ANOTHER STEP FARTHER OUT, a non-fiction book made up of columns
and comments on science and the sciences, is now available in the subscriber
area of Chaos Manor Reviews.
This is not precisely the sequel to my original A STEP FARTHER OUT,
but it is similar. A Step Farther Out was in print for more than twenty
years. It was largely drawn from my columns in Galaxy Science Fiction
Magazine written in the 1970's and 1980's. In those times science was mostly
opposed by advocates of "appropriate technology". In addition, college
campuses were plagued with faculty who predicted doom and gloom, massive
starvation before 1995, collapse of the world economy, and so forth.
A Step Farther Out proclaimed that we were not doomed; that
mankind could not merely survive, but survive with style; indeed one of my
most popular lectures was entitled "Survival with Style."
Another Step Farther Out continues what the first book began. I am
pleased to make it available to subscribers to this web site. The book is in
pdf format.
Other works in the subscriber area include the California 6th Grade
Reader from 1912 or so, with many classic stories and poems that were once
the heritage of all children in the California public schools, back when
California public schools set the highest standard for the world. That too
is available for download.
From time to time I will be adding other works to the subscriber area.
The original A Step Farther Out is currently in preparation. I have posted
excerpts from fiction works in progress, and that will continue.
==============
Yesterday I skipped the rest of WinHEC and worked on INFERNO
2. I produced the first draft of the rest of my part of the book; that is,
there is another chapter which Niven and I have discussed, and we will both
work on it, but doing the first draft of that is Niven's thuktun. He should
have it done shortly. We should turn in a final draft in before July 1.
I will now turn to finishing Mamelukes.
Meanwhile, we have an arduous trip schedule ahead of us. I
will try to keep up with both the column, this journal, and the two mail
sections, but realistically I won't have as much time as I usually have.
I'll still be around, but I do have to take part in the conference, be GOH
at Balticon, and pitch a new book to my editor.
==========
Bacevich's son killed in Iraq.
War
Critic's Soldier Son Killed in Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6639453,00.html
Eternal rest grant him, O Lord. And let light perpetual
shine upon him. Colonel Bacevich has both my sympathy and my regards.
==========
Prince Harry
Jerry,
The politicians here in the UK have decided that it
would be too dangerous for Prince Harry to serve in Iraq. Which is against
his express wishes. In the Falklands campaign Prince Andrew, a Fleet Air Arm
helicopter pilot, had among other duties, flying as a decoy to attract
incoming Exocet missiles away from the fleet. Sitting in a helicopter waving
a damn great radar reflector at a radar guided missile capable of sinking a
warship is not the safest of duties. Keeping Prince Harry at home while his
men go to war is a terrible precedent and breaks a thousand years of the
tradition that when a British leader declared war he put his own life at
hazard. As it is the poor man will never really be able to hold his head up
again in the presence of those who did fight.
In my army the soldiers quickly formed a judgment that
their officers were either good blokes or idiots and nothing in between.
Even if Prince Harry is placed in the latter category he would be our idiot
and no bleedin' raghead is going to have a go at him without they answer to
us first. Not the least of the misjudgments of the Blair administration.
This might be one of those rare instances where the Sovereign and ultimate
head of the military should issue an actual order and over-ride our elected
leadership.
John Edwards
The troops take an oath of allegiance to the Sovereign, not
to the government. It would indeed be a good thing for the Queen to do. I
doubt it will happen. We have come to regard counting the views of the
masses as a substitute for judgment and thought.
==============
Can nothing be done about Publisher's Billing Exchange,
which keeps sending me bills for subscriptions to magazines I don't
subscribe to, and which I believe I once sent money to for a subscription to
a magazine I DO subscribe to, only they never paid the subscription?
Is this a pure scam? It seems close to mail fraud, which I
thought was a Federal crime.
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