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LOS ANGELES - In a speech to labor journalists here Sept. 6, one of the nation's most powerful union leaders made the case for building a union movement very different from the one that exists in America today.
"There are 800,000 full-time workers in this city who work long hours to support their families but they are not in unions and despite their hard, often back-breaking work they live in dire poverty," said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
"This, I submit, should be a major concern of the labor movement if it intends to survive in a society where 90 percent of the people are not in unions. Too many have worked and struggled for too long to either stay in the middle class or get into it to let the union movement die. A new invigorated labor movement is the only hope we have and we can't build it alone."
Durazo was addressing journalists attending the national convention of the International Labor Communications Association, an organization of journalists who write for some 100 union publications and independent labor papers including the Peoples World.
She is preparing for the participation of her Los Angeles unions in the national convention of the AFL-CIO, which will open here Sept. 9. It is the aim of her unions and many others gathering here for the big convention to build a new type of labor movement, one which extends beyond the confines of traditional unions to include workers centers, immigrant rights groups, environmental groups, civil rights groups, LGBT organizations, youth groups and many others with a common interest in turning back what they see as a corporate-backed attack on all labor and progressive groups in America. Durazo, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, began her career in the labor movement fighting for the rights of immigrant workers in the hospitality industry.
"The workers were immigrants and they spoke Spanish and other languages," she explained. "The old union leadership didn't allow stuff to be translated into Spanish. This is an extreme example of how you create a communications problem and it is obvious it was something we had to change if the labor movement was going to survive.
"Today, we have new communications problems we have to solve. You've all heard our slogans at public gatherings: 'We are the union, the mighty mighty union.' Well even that slogan can be a problem. To a lot of people it communicates the idea that we are a closed and exclusive club that they, the majority, don't belong to
"What does it mean to the public when they see signs with letters and numbers, like AFCTWU 21 or AFT 21? It's a mystery. But if they see a sign that says we are the community college teachers they may be more apt to say 'teachers - they are good people.'"
Here is what Durazo and others who want to change the labor movement for the better seem to be saying here: Unions must communicate to the public that the fight is not just the union vs. the bosses but also the bosses vs. the best interests of the public, with the unions being one of many allies the public has in its fight with those bosses.
"Yes, we have to fight like hell for our members in their battle for a fair contract," Durazo said, "but we have to ally with the public and show how the people who want to hurt our members will harm the general well-being if they get away with doing what they want. It will impact our safety, our environment, how long or whether our libraries and schools stay open, and so much more."
Durazo said the labor movement won't be able to do this alone and that's the reason unions are reaching out. She herself had just come from a demonstration by fast-food workers in downtown LA demanding $15 an hour. "The workers there aren't ready yet to fight for a union but they understand they are being exploited and they are willing to risk their jobs to fight for $15 so we have to be there with them," she said to applause from the labor journalists.
"And there are so many allies out there in the community for us to work with," she said. "Who can't be brought around to understanding that if you pay $15 to everyone now making poverty wages today that will translate into thousands of pot holes that can be fixed on the street, that will translate to more and better public services, that will translate to thriving businesses that can employ even more people?"
Durazo and her fellow Los Angeles union leaders haven't waited for this week's national AFL-CIO labor convention to put their money where their mouths are.
Just this summer, she explained in an interview after her speech, the LA Federation of Labor hired 15 sons and daughters of immigrants, most of them Dreamers, undocumented immigrant youth who have won permission to work through an executive order by President Obama.
"Our goal was to teach them how to reach out to low-wage immigrant workers for unions, organizing in car washes, grocery stores, hotels and construction," she explained. "They had their own ideas, including not wanting to wear the union T-shirts we offered them. But after the Dreamers signed up over 1,000 undocumented immigrants we realized they could teach us."
Video: Los Angeles County Federation of Labor leader Maria Elena Durazo addresses labor journalists at the International Labor Communications Association convention:
Video edited by Eli Halbreich.
Photo: Los Angeles County Federation of Labor leader Maria Elena Durazo, center, at an immigrant rights caravan, Aug. 14, 2013. lacountyfed


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" Intro GR07, Vsonic's statement in the IEM world. Featuring a Sony-licensed 11mm bio-cellulose driver, it was unlike anything out in the market. IEM's have come and gone, upon release many get hyped and overrated, but loose their sparkle over time. GR07 has proven to be able to withstand time, because it is simply a great product. At this time, despite the VC1000, GR07..." --Inks
" Summary: These require deep insertion. Once inserted they are neutral, extended and adaptable. They don't really have any sound signature that shines through recordings but instead adapts to what is being played. Great for the price. Very versatile. I bought these used from a fellow head-fier. Coming straight from the GR07, they sounded bright, dry, flat, grainy and..." --MoonYeol
VSONIC GR07 Bass Editon
" Introduction VSONIC is a well-known name in audiophile circles, with rave reviews coming from their GR07 monitors, which have recently seen an upgraded Mark II version and, the version I'll be covering today, the Bass Edition. As a natural basshead, I was intrigued when I..." --TheGame21x
VSonic GR06 Pro Dynamic Noise Isolation Earphones Earbuds
"The Vsonic GR06 is the little brother of the legendary Vsonic GR07 that are highly praised here on Headfi, but is it tall enough to compete with earphones of his price range nowadays? My answer will be, huuuuuuuum...pretty much yeah. The GR06 have so much exciting aspect that make them stand out from the over crownded earphones market that it still impose themself as a solid..." --Nymphonomaniac
"I've spent the past week auditioning these new VSD1S by VSonic. Before this I was listening extensively to my dual dynamics JVC FXT90's and my dual armature UE 700. For a single dynamic driver that is priced below $50.00, you get something tuned to compete with above $100.00 IEM's. Within a few hours, I realized that my VSD1S sounded as accurate and sonically equal to my dual FXT90! Though the..." --IEMagnet01
VSONIC VSD3S Black High Fidelity Professional Quality Stereo Inner-Ear Earphones
"My video review for those interested: The VS3S is a VSONIC's latest earphone, and they have made a big claim. That is that these VS3S as well as their brother VSD3(at the current price of $45-50) were tuned with the Westone 4R in mind ($499 earphone with 4 Balanced Armatures). Now I, myself have not tried the Westone 4R, but I can say that VSONIC proved yet again, that you can get..." --Tom22
Creative Aurvana In-Ear3
"Creative Aurvana In-Ear 3 Plus Review Hello, my name is Oscar and this is my review of the Creative Aurvana In-Ear 3 Plus. Creative sent these to me as part of a tour and I did not pay for anything, nor am I in any way affiliated with the company other than for this review. I had for a while been wanting to get a listen at these, but unfortunately I wasn't able to purchase them without..." --Fidelity King
" I received my GR07 MK2 a few weeks back, and they have gone through the hundreds of hours supposedly required for burning in their bio-cellulase drivers. Having gotten over my new toy effect, I still enjoy them immensely, so I figured it's time for my first review. This is modeled after the reviews of legends like |Joker| and Swimsonny. I hope this helps you as much as they have..." --tzjin
Creative Headphones EP-630
" They're a cheap set of IEMs with decent sound for the £10 price. Not much more to say. " --TheJesusGuy
Creative Aurvana 2 In-Ear Headphones
" Comfort and Fit: This pair is very comfortable in the sense that their presence in your ears won't be very noticeable. I fell asleep a few times while listening to music through these earphones, so thats all I can say about them. For fit however, I had to use the largest size of earbuds to fit it into my ears. Isolation isn't very good though because background noise can still be heard even..." --hawk9598

subset: commoncrawl


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Simple, works.
I've been using this to extend the login timout well beyond the default Remember Me of 2 weeks, and have had no issues.
I used .1 hour and after 6 minutes, users are kicked out of the pool.
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GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) _ Nicole Richie is following her best friend Paris Hilton to jail.
Richie has been sentenced to four days behind bars after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of drugs. She was also given three years probation.
The judge chastised Richie, saying she was lucky nobody was killed when she drove the wrong way on a freeway.


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Red Steel
Ubisoft's Revolution shooter utilizes the controller as if it were the actually gun. Subtle touches such as the way you hold or tilt the controller affecting your on screen weapon ushers in a new sense of interactivity to the game.
Red Steel Blogs
After Dead Space, it's back to gaming ADDby Bill Jones October 14, 2009 1 6
The Video Games Menu-- updated 11/12/2006The Video Games Menu-- updated 11/12/2006
by Dude The Man August 08, 2005 12 39
More Shooter Games
More Wii Games


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Arab World Built Colleges, but Not Jobs
Unemployment, Broad Among Region's Angry Youth, Is High Among Educated
The anger of demonstrators in Tunisia and Egypt runs, too, through 25-year-old Saleh Barek al-Jabri.
Mr. Jabri, the son of a Yemini bus driver, says he answered his government's call for young people to study petroleum engineering, enrolling in a course at Yemen's Hadhramaut University for Science and Technology. Officials visited his school to offer encouragement. An oil minister came through to promise jobs. Mr. Jabri excelled, finishing fifth in his class.
But after graduating last year, he has yet to find work. Classmates with family connections got what few jobs existed. Mr. Jabri moved to Yemen's capital, San'a, where he shares a single room with two other unemployed recent graduates.
"I had dreams," Mr. Jabri says. "They've all evaporated."
Protests erupting across the Middle East are fueled by frustrations ranging from the lack of political freedom to police brutality. But in countries wracked by protest and those that have remained peaceful, a common thread runs: Governments have expanded universities and educated a swelling cohort of youth, without laying the groundwork to employ them.
"Surprisingly," International Monetary Fund economists Yasser Abdih and Anjali Garg wrote recently, "unemployment in the [Middle East and North Africa] region tends to increase with schooling." In the U.S., the opposite is true.
In Egypt, where the region's protests are at their most pitched, the ranks of the college-educated have grown steadily in the past few decades. In 1990, according to World Bank, 14% of college-age Egyptians were enrolled; in 2008, 28.5% were. Egyptian schools expanded, and a crop of European universities opened campuses there. The Egyptian government doubled the funding for higher education in its 2007 five-year plan and sought international advice on revamping the system.
But a 300-page examination of higher education in Egypt by the World Bank and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, published last year, noted "a chronic oversupply of university graduates, especially in the humanities and social sciences," mixed with complaints from business employers that they couldn't find workers with the skills they needed.
In Egypt, it said, high-school graduates account for 42% of the work force—but 80% of the unemployed. One in every seven college graduates in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia is unemployed; many more are overqualified for the jobs they have.
The twin forces of education and technology have interwined to create a new dynamic. Education has raised expectations and broadened world views. Technology—TV, the Internet, omnipresent mobile phones—has armed the young not only with a clear sense of how the rest of the world, particularly China, is changing, but also given them the wherewithal to create a movement that is now reshaping their countries.
None of this is a surprise to students here. A 2008 World Bank report on education reform in the region delicately noted that "the region has yet to create the necessary conditions to maximize the economic contribution of education to society." The consequences of that are only now becoming obvious to all.
Trying to provide schooling to the largest number of people, many Arab countries spent heavily on higher education.
"The objective was to boost economic growth, boost employment and realize equity in society," says the World Bank's Mourad Ezzine, a former Tunisian education expert who worked on the report. "It didn't work out well. For two reasons. First, the education system delivered quantity, not quality…. And, second, on the economic side, the creation of employment to meet the profile of those graduates didn't happen. Why? Because the reforms in these countries did not go far enough, fast enough."
Differences between the Middle East and other developing economies the world are telling:
• Fertility rates stayed higher longer in the Middle East than in East Asia or Latin America. That means many more workers to employ. Over the past decade, labor forces in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia have grown by 2.7%, faster than anywhere outside of Africa.
• Economies haven't grown nearly fast enough to absorb these new workers. Egypt, a country of about 80 million, would need 9.4 million jobs to employ the existing unemployed and new entrants to the labor force, the IMF estimates. That would take economic growth of nearly 10% a year, much faster than the 6% average of recent years.
• Unemployment among the young, of all education levels, is particularly pronounced. In Egypt, according to the most recent IMF data, overall unemployment was 8.9%—but stood at 25.4% among those under age 25, the IMF says. In Tunisia, overall unemployment was 14.2%; youth unemployment was 30.3%.
For decades, the safety valve for the region's jobless—including for Jordanian, Egyptian, Yemeni, Palestinian and other college grads—was to emigrate, either to the prosperous oil-producers of the Middle East or to Europe or the U.S. But some rich Middle East rich countries region grew fearful in the 1990s and 2000s that they were importing potential unrest, so they replaced Middle Eastern immigrants with workers from Asia.
For educated workers without jobs, the other safety value was to Europe or the U.S. Lebanon's biggest export, it is sometimes said, is white-collar workers. Indeed, one reason to get a college degree for many is that it was seen as ticket to a job in another country.
Mohamed Refaat, a 24-year-old Egyptian who followed his brother to the U.S. in 2008, is living in Queens, N.Y., and working toward a master's degree in finance at Brooklyn College. He is applying for jobs at Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the United Nations. "You don't have to be educated there," Mr. Refaat complains about his hometown, 30 minutes outside of Cairo. "It's not worth your skill. It's all about the connections."
Mr. Refaat worked as a financial analyst at the Egyptian stock market, but says he hit a ceiling there after only one year on the job. "Every morning I would wake up and research credit ratings," he says. "And it was all about the U.S. I dreamed of coming to America."
But for many of Mr. Refaat's counterparts, the global recession of the late 2000s closed an escape valve for Egypt.
By almost every measure, the disaffection among the young in Egypt was even greater than in neighboring countries. In survey of 2,000 people in the Middle East between 18 and 24 by public-relations firm ASDA'A Burson Marsteller, released last year, two-thirds said their countries were moving in the right direction. In Egypt, only 26% did.
While China and other booming economies were cultivating private sectors, Egypt clung stubbornly to a state-dominated model. Outside of agriculture, 70% of Egyptian workers work for the government. Few college grads sought, or even were offered, courses aimed at landing private-sector jobs.
The number of graduates overwhelmed the government's capacity to hire, leaving many of them with few options. The "dominant role of the public sector as an employer"—particularly in Egypt, but throughout the region—has inflated the graduates' wage expectations, put a premium on diplomas over useful skills and diverted talented workers from what might have been more dynamic private-sector enterprises, the IMF says.
Amid the recent unrest, governments across the region have announced measures to create economic opportunities. Earlier this week, Yemen promised to hire more college graduates for government work, among other measures.
In Yemen, Ahmed Issa majored in French at Dhamar University, near his home region of Wasab, in the central western part of the country. He was the first in his family to go to college. After graduating in 2005, he applied for a civil service job.
"Until now, no job," he says. Mr. Issa lives with distant, better-off relatives, does occasional electronics-repair work and gets a little money from an older brother, who after a 12-year job hunt, finally found work as an electrical engineer earlier this year.
Mr. Issa says he isn't uncomfortable, but is angry that he can't find work and start a family. He says protests in Tunisia and Egypt inspired him, but he didn't attend protests.
In Amman, Jordan, Ibrahim Taya is the youngest of 12 born to Palestinian refugees. Mr. Taya, 33 years old, didn't go to college, but took technical training courses, first by correspondence in Jordan and then by going to Canada and China to learn how to maintain pieces of equipment.
Today, he is unemployed and seething. For about a dozen years, he bounced around, working as a technician for mobile-phone networks in Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He returned to Jordan in 2008, started a business that collapsed, he says, when a partner absconded with company funds. He started another last year.
The second company grew, eventually employing 21, he said. But it got whipsawed by the global recession and, by his account, demands for kickbacks from companies to which he was trying to sell. After blowing through all his savings, he laid off the workers and shut the company.
The contrast between his life and those of his older brothers is striking. Four received military-sponsored university scholarships. One became a internist, and found work in Saudi Arabia; another other served as an eye doctor for the Jordanian Army and then began his own practice. A third taught high school in Saudi Arabia, and the fourth became a computer programmer.
Today, Mr. Taya is on the streets of Amman with other protestors. He says he dreams of a "miracle—like they have in Egypt."
—Joel Millman in Amman, Jordan, and Mary Pilon in New York contributed to this article.
Write to David Wessel at firstname.lastname@example.com and Chip Cummins at firstname.lastname@example.com


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By Ralph Hipp
Governor Sam Brownback is in his first full day on the job Tuesday, and no doubt one of the things his administration will be watching is e-mails, cards and letters from its Kansas constituents. If there's a big backlog early, I want to offer my blog page as a way to get your message through! Just write a note to the Governor, and tell him what you'd like to see him get done in his first legislative session as gov, wish him well, or any quick "tweet-size" message you might have for his office.
As for me, I would write a note to offer my congratulations -- and hope he can get more people in Kansas back to work.
We'd love to peek in and see what you write! Ralph


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Qualifications for Participation
Participation in the IUHPFL is available to schools and high school students from Indiana. Please read below for more information about program qualification guidelines.
High School Qualification
The IUHPFL is open to all public, private and parochial secondary schools in Indiana. It is also open to homeschooling institutions in the state of Indiana.
To be eligible to participate in the IUHPFL, a high school must offer or plan to offer four or more years of instruction in Chinese, French, German or Spanish. Upon returning from their trip, students are required to actively support their foreign language department and contribute to the classroom. If your school would like to participate in the IUHPFL, but is not able to offer four years of a language, please contact the IUHPFL office at firstname.lastname@example.com for alternative suggestions to meet this eligibility requirement.
Participating IUHPFL high schools are also asked to cooperate in the various steps of the program application, selection and pre-departure process. Teachers and counselors should encourage participants to join school or community clubs and organizations that incorporate their language and culture of study and to provide participants with any other resources to further their study of the language.
Student Qualification
The IUHPFL limits its application pool to residents of the state of Indiana who attend and complete the program cycle's school year at an Indiana high school. Students who are residents of the state of Indiana who attend institutions outside the state may apply and will be considered on a space-available-basis.
Prospective applicants must have completed a minimum of two years of the language to which they are applying and be enrolled in their third year of study of the language in which they are applying at the time of application to the IUHPFL. Sophomores and seniors may apply to the IUHPFL, but it is important to note that high school juniors are given preference for selection.
Prospective applicants must attend an interview during the application process, if invited, in order for his or her application to be considered. A student's acceptance into the program is contingent upon attendance at Orientation.
Participants are required to continue the study of the language after their summer abroad, either at their high school or at a local university, and also pledge to help the school's language program in any way possible. If the opportunity to continue classes in the foreign language is unavailable at the student's school or in the local community, the student is asked to contribute to the school's language program to the best of his or her ability.
The personal qualities that distinguish successful participants of the IUHPFL include a profound desire to learn, intellectual curiosity, social maturity, a willingness to adjust to new customs and habits, and a sincere commitment to adhere to the Honor Code, a set of norms all students are required to follow.


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scottie wrote:Is it MTB??
Yup. Mee too. Asked in a local shop yesterday. He told 100rs and didn't look bad. Today will give a try. The decathlon one I have now is 499 I guess. Much of a waste now.scottie wrote:At last I bought the local bar end sleeve for it and its much better now. Along with the gloves it gets better again.
Srivathsa wrote:Try rubbing the pad with sand paper..
utopian wrote:any plans of changing the brake ?
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Min 0.5 yard, incr. of 0.25 yard
Tea time is made even more delightful with a selection of vintage teapots and cups decorated in cupcake sweet colors and delicate designs. Earl Gray, Darjeeling, and oolong all taste better when contained in these fragile pots! Larger teapots are about 5", by Wendy Bentley for Timeless Treasures.


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City Letter of the Day
posted by June 26 at 13:34 PMon
Sorry I didn't get to see the [Pride] parade (I had to work), but I hope you all had fun. However, what are the rules for cleanup afterward? I stay at a friend's on Fourth Ave. when in town on, and the litter and detritus was even thick on the streets and sidewalks late at night. And yeah, The Stranger's little area by the Two Bells was f'd up as well! Is the city responsible? Organizers? Citizens? It looked like a John Glenn ticker tape parade! I live in Portland, and even after the Grand Floral Parade, where a quarter million or so watch on the sidelines, you can eat off the streets within hours. I hope for the best in keeping your city cleaner. This one was bad.


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Ultraporous 3D polymer meshes by low-temperature electrospinning: Use of ice crystals as a removable void template
Version of Record online: 1 NOV 2007
DOI: 10.1002/pen.20914
Copyright © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers
Polymer Engineering & Science
Volume 47, Issue 12, pages 2020–2026, December 2007
Additional Information
How to Cite
Simonet, M., Schneider, O. D., Neuenschwander, P. and Stark, W. J. (2007), Ultraporous 3D polymer meshes by low-temperature electrospinning: Use of ice crystals as a removable void template. Polym Eng Sci, 47: 2020–2026. doi: 10.1002/pen.20914
Publication History
- Issue online: 1 NOV 2007
- Version of Record online: 1 NOV 2007
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
While electrospinning provides an excellent preparation method for the manufacturing of polymer fibers with defined diameter, controlling the overall porosity of the resulting fiber assemblies has remained elusive, particularly at higher porosities. In this study, the use of a low-temperature fiber collection device in air with controlled humidity allowed the simultaneous deposition of polymer fibers and ice particles from condensing humidity. The ice particles were intimately embedded within the polymer fibers and served as a pore template thus defining the mesh porosity after drying of the collected fiber assemblies. The amount of water condensation therefore contributes to the control of the mean interfiber distance and the resulting porosity. This simple and well accessible use of ice crystals as void templates gives access to the preparation of biodegradable tissue engineering scaffolds with an up to four times higher porosity if compared to conventional fiber electrospinning. The successful application of low-temperature electrospinning using polyesters or polyurethanes suggests a broad, material independent applicability of the process for the preparation of highly porous polymer structures. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:2020–2026, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers


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Marthasville couple Jim and Patty Grafrath celebrate their new windfall with family and friends at the Infield Sports Bar and Grill in Marthasville. The Grafaths matched all six Lotto numbers Jan. 2, netting a $2.3 million jackpot. They were the first Missouri Lottery winners of the new year.


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"Words are just a way we communicate. Images are a way we communicate. And I couldn't figure out why they had to be in different baskets."
"Having a boy play a girl (and when I say 'play a girl' I don't mean that he is represented as a girl, because he is represented as a young man) is complicated. He knows he's looking at photographs of a girl and copying those poses. So the audience sees him as a man, but he can only see himself as a woman, because that's the model he's looking at. It was a really interesting exchange."
- Collier Schorr


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Review of Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams
Filed under: Reviews
Sea of Silver Light (Otherland Book #4)
By Tad Williams; Read by George Newbern
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: 17 March 2015
[UNABRIDGED] – 37 hrs, 32 mins
Themes: / science fiction / cyberpunk / virtual reality / virtual worlds / serial killer / Otherland /
Publisher summary:
A group of adventurers searching for a cure for comatose children find themselves trapped in a sequence of virtual worlds, the only opponents of a conspiracy of the rich to live forever in a dream. Now, they are forced to make an uneasy alliance with their only surviving former enemy against his treacherous sidekick Johnny Wulgaru, a serial killer with a chance to play God forever. Few science fiction sagas have achieved the level of critical acclaim-and best-selling popularity-as Tad Williams's Otherland novels. A brilliant blend of science fiction, fantasy, and techno thriller, it is a rich, multilayered epic of future possibilities.
The finale to the Otherland series, Sea of Silver Light wraps up the multitude of story lines that began in City of Golden Shadow. While the book dragged in places, and some may find that the book (and the series, especially in the middle books) wanders a bit too much, it is hard not to appreciate Tad Williams' amazingly prescient series, especially if you're a fan of a) the internet and b) classic literature. It's probably safe to say that the wandering will not be for everybody, but for those that enjoy the mystery and the references to other works, the series could be a lot of fun.
A series written in the mid-late 90's, the books cover amazing breadth of topics with a wide cast of characters in this world and in a parallel online world. What started as a cyberpunk story quickly unfolded into a much larger world with many players with significantly different motivations–on all sides of the story. With unlikely/atypical heroes (a South African woman, an African "bushman", a blind woman, two teenagers, a mom, and a guy who doesn't know his own past, not to mention a 5 or 6-year old girl, an ancient man…the cast is huge!) and a sprawling world, it's easy to see why some people are overwhelmed. The more intriguing part, though, is trying to piece together the entire story, trying to figure out who's involved in the world and for what purpose…and what the online world really is. I will admit that when the world was pieced together, it seemed pretty out there…but I was so engrossed that I didn't really mind. The only part I really did mind was the end; the book felt maybe a little too neat, and a little too drawn out at the end. That said, it does leave an opening for Williams to return to the world (and looking on Goodreads, it seems as if he may have done just that with a short story in Legends II.
It's hard to describe the book and what happened in the series without venturing into spoiler territory. Basically, Renie, a young South African woman who is a sort of professor or teacher of computer engineering-type classes at a local university, finds one day that her brother is in a coma of sorts, a result of playing an online game. Games in the future world that Williams created are played online in a virtual reality simulation type schema, where users have different levels of gear that immerse them (fully or to varying degrees) into a virtual world. Some users go so far as to get neural cannulas, so that they can "jack in" and have the VR system provide a direct link to their brain, become fully immersed. Renie, wanting to try to find out more about how her brother came to be in the coma, went online to try to learn what she could of what he got into. Unsurprisingly, she found herself sucked into and literally stuck in a virtual world, unable to disconnect (sort of like Sword Art Online). While there, she meets others who have family members with the same affliction as her brother, and still others who have been recruited by an unknown agent to help Renie and those who are trying to help their children/family members. In parallel, there is the story of the Grail Brotherhood, a private group of the world's most powerful and wealthiest elite, who wish to achieve immortality, and invest heavily in a system to do so. In a third story line, there is additional intrigue about a psychopath who calls himself "Dread" and seems to seek out ways to torture and kill others, online and in reality. His story ends up weaving and in some ways connecting the Grail Brotherhood and those of the people trying to help the children. Throughout, there are a multitude of worlds created by various users of the online system, many with literary references (such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The War of the Worlds) or other evolving schema (such as a virtual rainforest that actually begins to evolve in the simulation world, similar to how it might have on earth). Williams uses cyberpunk, the idea of virtual/simulation worlds, and some more fantastical elements (some characters have special abilities, particularly abnormal/special mental powers) to weave a tale that leaves the reader picking up puzzle pieces and slowly piecing things together, just as the heroes do in the story.
I'm most amazed at how prescient Williams was. The book was written in the mid-90's, yet there are references to things in the world today, innovations that were barest ideas of science fiction in the 90's. The first and most obvious observation is that the VR world, while more immersive than anything we really have today, is very much akin to the internet of today, with people spending entire lives and making entire livelihoods on the internet. People use tablet-like devices to connect to the networks, to make calls, to shop, to go into their simulation worlds–much like an iPad or other tablet of today. People watch movies on the internet, so-called "Net Flicks" (I really wonder if that's how Netflix's name came to be), and an automated robotic floor-sweeping robot (Roomba, anyone) makes an appearance or two. Kids have "storybook sunglasses" which sound a bit like more immersive (and frankly more fun) versions of Google Glass. Just today, I read an article on Slashdot about body hacking through the vagal nerve, a topic that's actually brought up in the book (as a therapy that is abused, oddly enough). There are other examples, which reading in 2015, are fun nuggets to pick up along the way. It's crazy how forward-thinking this book was, how much it got "right" even for 2015 (I think the book is supposed to take place closer to 2050).
I liked this book and really enjoyed the series. I think that listening was a fantastic way to experience the book, to be able to lay back and shut my eyes and become immersed in the book as the characters are immersed in their world. The narration was (as I've said in my other reviews) great, if a little slow. But that meant that I could speed the book up slightly in the playback, cutting down some of the listening time.
The book (and series) may not be for everyone. I think it's fair to criticize this book for going on a little "too long" or for being a little "too neat," and it's equally fair to think that Book 1 started slow or that books 2 and 3 wandered a bit (they absolutely were "middle books" in a series, which not everybody enjoys). But I still really liked the series. I look forward to reading it again in the future, maybe in a few years, to see how much I can pick up in advance, knowing as I do now, how the book ends.
Posted by terpkristin.
Review of Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams
Filed under: Reviews
Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland #3)
By Tad Williams; Narrated by George Newbern
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: 17 March 2015
[UNABRIDGED] – 27 hours, 17 minutes
Themes: / techno-thriller / science fiction / Greek mythology / game simulation /
Publisher summary:
Mountain of Black Glass is the third volume of Tad Williams's highly acclaimed four-book series, Otherland. A truly unique reading experience combining elements of science fiction, fantasy, and techno-thriller, it is a rich epic tale in which virtual reality could prove the key to a whole new universe of possibilities for the entire human race – or become the exclusive domain of the rich and the ruthless as they seek a technological pathway to immortality.
The sequel to City of Golden Shadow and River of Blue Fire, this is the third installment (of 4) in the Otherland series. As with River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass picks up where the last one left off. Where I rated River of Blue Fire 3 stars (it was a solid "middle book" in a series), this one gets 4 because of the time spent in Greek mythology, something I've always loved.
As a "middle book" in a series, it's hard not to say things about Mountain of Black Glass that I didn't say in my reviews for City of Golden Shadow or River of Blue Fire. The story started with key characters still separated (as they were at the end of River of Blue Fire), though much of the book was spent either a) moving them back together, b) exploring their pasts, learning more about their history, or c) giving the reader more insight into the Otherland network itself and the motivations of the people running the network. Unlike River of Blue Fire, in this book, many details seemed to "finally" be pieced together, so more complete histories of characters were formed. It was also a transformative time for some of the Otherland network owners/operators, as they put the final pieces together to try to gain immortality. Other characters, such as the psychopathic servant of the Otherland founder also get a lot of time in this book, as do the police officers looking into his murderous ways. Sellers, the old man who remains quite a mystery but seems to be some of the force that brings the heroes together, also has a key storyline, though it took quite a different turn from what I expected going into the story.
An adventure from proverbial cover to cover (since I listened to the audiobook), a lot of time in this book was spent with the characters all trying to reach the Otherland's version of Troy. One of the characters is actually Odysseus, while others play key characters in the Trojan War, including Achilles, his companion Patroclus, and even Diomedes. The character who became Odysseus was forced through the Otherland simulation to re-enact Odysseus' story somewhat in reverse, having seemingly gone through the events of The Odyssey prior to living through the Trojan War, as told in The Iliad. Our other heroes also eventually ended up in Troy, but not without enduring some trying circumstances in a few different worlds. As one might expect, though, these experiences allowed them to learn more about the network itself, and will undoubtedly help them in their quest to overthrow the Otherland founders (The Grail Brotherhood) and save the children who seem to be trapped by the network.
It's not all sunshine and roses, though. After finally learning more about each character, becoming significantly more invested in each of them, it seems that one or more of them may have actually died through the course of the narrative. It's hard to tell for sure, and I suspect I'll find out what exactly happened when I finish the series with Sea of Silver Light, but the emotional gut punch was harder than I expected it would be. It's a credit to Williams' writing that I could simultaneously know how literally frail each of these characters are, playing a life and death game where they don't know the rules and the rules seem to change, yet still be surprised and saddened when harm (or death) comes to a character. Or how much I really hate Dredd, the servant turned monster, preying on Otherland users/members for his own fun and games.
Tad Williams again seemed to have fun with the simulation worlds, making alternate worlds of popular stories such as the previously-mentioned The Iliad and The Odyssey. There were at least two other worlds explored in this book. One seemed to be an "empty" world, what someone might consider the null space of code to be…since the Otherland network is only code, after all, it does make some sense that the users (our heroes and our villains) would sometimes find literally empty space. There was another world, a world of a house, the reference I didn't connect (if there was a literary reference, which I suspect that there was). Still, the worlds all felt real, were able to bring me in. This is especially true for the Trojan War. I have long been a fan of Greek mythology, and it was a fun but unexpected surprise to spend so much of this book in that world…at least, that simulated world.
The audiobook was great to listen to, if the narration was slightly slow. I listened to it slightly sped up (using the 1.5x feature for spoken word playback on my iPhone) and it seemed perfect. George Newbern does a great job making the characters come to life. Where some narrators can seem flat or one-note, he always makes it clear which character is talking, and further engages the listener by taking on the exclamation, the feeling of the words. If someone is surprised, for example, his voice lets you know it, you don't have to rely solely on supporting descriptors. He brings the book to life.
I'm looking forward to starting into Sea of Silver Light, which is queued up and ready to go. It's a good bit longer than any of the other books in the series (~10 hours longer than this one), but that just means I'll have to find more excuses to listen.
Posted by terpkristin.
Review of River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams
Filed under: Reviews
River of Blue Fire (Otherland #2)
By Tad Williams; Narrated by George Newbern
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: 30 October 2014
[UNABRIDGED] – 24 hours, 24 minutes
Themes: / cyberpunk / virtual reality / science fiction /
Publisher summary:
Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the 21st century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known – to those who know of their existence at all – as The Grail Brotherhood. Though their purpose in creating Otherland is still a mystery, it may not remain so for long. For they have exacted a terrible price from humanity in the process, and even their highly organized global conspiracy cannot hide the nature of their crimes forever. And now a small band of adventurers has penetrated the veil of secrecy that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland.
But having broken into the amazing worlds within worlds that make up this universe, they are trapped, unable to escape back to their own flesh-and-blood bodies in the real world. And as dangers and circumstances split their party into small, widely scattered groups, their only hope of reuniting lies in returning again and again to the River that flows – in one form or another – through all the worlds. But the odds seem to be completely against them as they – and the one outsider with whom they might join forces – become hopelessly lost in realms where an Ice Age tribe's fears can only be quenched in blood – where insects are as large and deadly as dinosaurs – where they are caught in the war between a man made of straw and one made of tin – where cartoon ads take on a life of their own – where humans strive to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion – and where one among their party is actually The Grail Brotherhood's most terrifying weapon – a sociopathic killer who has never failed and whose current mission is to make certain that not even one member of this little invasion force lives long enough to reveal the truth about Otherland to the people of Earth.
The sequel to City of Golden Shadow and the 2nd book (of 4) in the Otherland series, River of Blue Fire is a solid "middle book" in the series.
Picking up where City of Golden Shadow left off, this book moved the pieces of all the players in the story without seeming to progress the plot too much. This is a common feature of "middle books" so was expected, though made the reading (listening) slow sometimes. At the point that City of Golden Shadow left off, the "hero" group was somewhat divided, with Renie and Xabbu in one simulation, Orlando and Fredericks in another, and the rest of the "hero" group in yet another sim. Paul Jonas' sim, too, went through a few worlds, separated from the rest of the crew. Much of this book was spent with them still spilt, each learning more about the rules of the simulation world through their experiences in the world. Martine's character, and her disability, were explored in detail in this book, bringing her to the forefront of the third hero group as a main character (to go along with Renie and Orlando). The bad guys also moved, and some of their motives were identified…and the mysterious Sellers, while staying in one (hidden) location, seemed to be doing more to try to help bring down the Otherland.
All in all, there isn't much to say about this book that I didn't say about City of Golden Shadow. I enjoyed this book, though didn't think it was as strong as the first book in the series. In this book, author Tad Williams had some fun with the simulation worlds, making alternate worlds of popular stories such as The War of the Worlds and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was fun to go through the book and try to see what book was referenced (if any) for each sim world. The book was fun and the cyberpunk ideas were interesting, but there was nothing new introduced in this book. The rules were better defined through the course of the plot, but there wasn't a lot of actual progression towards the heroes saving the day (or not).
The audiobook was great to listen to, if the narration was slightly slow. I listened to it slightly sped up (using the 1.5x feature for spoken word playback on my iPhone) and it seemed perfect. The only downside to listening to these books in audio is that now I want the 3rd book in the series, Mountain of Black Glass to come out in audio…I'm not sure when or if it will be done, but I hope that it does come soon so that I can continue listening instead of having to switch to some printed media. Audiobooks are a great way to experience this series (so far).
Posted by terpkristin.
The SFFaudio Podcast #304 – READALONG: Time Out Of Joint by Philip K. Dick
Filed under: Podcasts
The SFFaudio Podcast #304 – Jesse, Paul, and Marissa talk about Time Out Of Joint by Philip K. Dick
Talked about on today's show:
1959, New worlds, the Wikipedia entry, the New Worlds triptych, facial tattoos, A Clockwork Orange, Back To The Future II, body modification, terrible lifestyle choices, patois, Ragle Gumm, drugs, themes, the most 1950s story ever, Marilyn Monroe, fear of nuclear war, why keep evolving the culture?, no radio, Lawrence Olivier, The Prince And The Showgirl (1957), The SF Masterworks cover, Life magazine, The Truman Show (1998), pens, Mrs. Kittlebine is a Lunar spy, the model, the planted magazines, who was Ragle's minder, The Prisoner, Mr. Black's real wife, Philip K. Dick was extremely interested in cheating wives, marital infidelity, the breakdown of the nuclear family, being a writer, "your channeling yourself here Phil", living in a false reality, mental illness, The Thirteenth Floor (1999), a horror trope, The Matrix (1999), Craig Bierko is a leading man from an alternate universe, "everything is a little off", the colour palettes are off, very 1999ish, the future (2024) is the present, a much more coherent Matrix, it came from an alternate world, a little too much dancing, eXistenZ (1999), The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod, The Tunnel Under The World by Frederik Pohl (from 1955), running advertizing experiments, what is the purpose of simulated worlds?, rough day at work? … go out and be a serial killer (in a simulated world), they're working from home (like Ragle Gumm), The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, Pohl worked on Madison Ave., robots, was the world physically real?, the slips of paper, the bus isn't quite really there, the bus station, the solider, endless problems, progress is never made, one step forward three steps back, the diner, the malt, is he on a treadmill with hypnosis?, are they in drawers?, it's in Wyoming, Kemmerer, Wyoming, technically insane, more insane?, Brazil (1985), Sucker Punch (2011), which reality is real?, any clues?, there's no satisfaction, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, stacked problems, the guy learning to be a patrolman, the bus driver who doesn't know how to drive a bus, they're actors, brainwashing, falling through the cracks, mirrored scenes, 'it borrows unapologetically', thinking hard, we're all happy at the end of The Truman Show, the outside world, our future is in the stars, Time Out Of Joint could never be a Hollywood movie, imagine The Truman Show minus the love interest, conservative endings, science class in a fake high school, there's no existential crisis, Truman's soul, he wanted to be an explorer, shilling the products, product placement, his happy ending is to escape the simulation, the rich father-in-law, 0% crime, how would they know?, turtles all the way up?, the granddaddy of all these stories, Hamlet, William Shakespeare was the original meta-man, to catch the conscience of the King, The Taming Of The Shrew's induction, Christopher Sly, it's Trading Places (1983), a very weird framing device, plays within plays, Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, a really good conversation, Dick's worst books, Dick's early books, Dr. Futurity, Eye In The Sky, carbon tetrachloride, coffee, the lasagna, existential crises, after his safe was blown up, an invitation from V-Con, X-Kalay, pretending to be a heroin addict, amphetamines, a mind like a Ferrari, Dick's unsold mainstream novels, suburban 1950s reality falling apart, Ragle Gumm's name, a character named Phil, half a prison of his own making, choosing to return to reality, the power station, The Kettlemen's, surreal and weird, based on a real incident, monitoring devices, a mad person ranting, are they faking?, how brainwashed can they be?, borderlands, defense in depth, "this is Ragle Gumm", the whole business with the light-cord, "I have to get back to my base," he said. "Phil and I have to be in by eight o'clock or we're AWOL.", "Is that you Wade?", author insert, post-it notes, 3M, "soft drink stand", "SOFT-DRINK STAND, DOOR, FACTORY BUILDING, HIGHWAY, DRINKING FOUNTAIN, BOWL OF FLOWERS", virtual reality, so intuitive, pattern recognition skills, nonsense, white noise, paranoid psychosis, another Jim Carrey movie, The Number 23 (2007), creepy and weird, on the list, Virginia Madsen, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004), Adjustment Bureau vs. Adjustment Team, a dog falls asleep, a talking dog, the least good, Imposter (2001), the short film, the original story, a robot that thinks its a scientist, why him?, Total Recall, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, implanted memories, don't watch the remake, machinations, a secret agent, false endings, which story is the real one?, sitting on a park bench, why is this whole world being built up?, consider the scene…, the fake pressure, even if…, back to Shakespeare, the whim of a Lord, an essential skill, for advertizing, Rene Descartes, cogito ergo sum, imagine an evil demon, post-religious people, we don't require a purpose, our purpose is to read Philip K. Dick books and drink coffee and watch old movies, a poetic polish by J. Michael Straczynski, Bishop Berkeley, its not a toaster its a post it with the word "toaster" on it, a rock on the dark side of the Moon's existence isn't contingent on our perception of it, God perceives everything, the elevator scene, their building up the world as it goes, Dick's thinking hard and we're thinking with him, the object or the word, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tibor McMasters from Deus Irae, "this book [Time Out Of Joint] doesn't end it disintegrates" -Frederik Pohl, missing words, narrator Jeff Cummings, this book requires more study or less, 110.5 slips of paper, the Truman Show delusion, why they're Tweeting so much, Skype is completely transparent to the NSA (computers), The Thirteenth Floor is beautiful to look at, what our reality is like, computer games, not knowing the difference, does the world (the GAME SERVER) exist when you're not playing it?, what if it's robots (AIs) running around in there?, Minecraft, when they built an 8-bit computer inside Minecraft, a giant physical object in a simulated world, there will be a computer program inside the Minecraft computer that can run Minecraft, what's wrong with The Thirteen Floor, the time is wrong, a simulated world within a simulated world would take more time every time they go up a level, assuming the laws of physics, Inception does that, an infinity of time as a moment, all Science Fiction can be tied together by this novel, is it a Masterwork, it itself is not luminous but it is a conductor of light, it feels very inspired by, a good book for people who'd never read Science Fiction, a peek behind the curtain of reality.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Review of City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
Filed under: Reviews
City of Golden Shadow (Otherland #1)
By Tad Williams; Narrated by George Newbern
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: 30 October 2014
[UNABRIDGED] – 28 hours, 42 minutes
Themes: / cyberpunk / virtual reality / science fiction /
Publisher summary:
Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource – its children.
I hate to admit this, but I judged this book by the cover at first. I knew nothing about the book when I started listening, I hadn't even read the blurb in the description. I saw a fantastical-looking image on the cover and, knowing that Tad Williams typically writes fantasy novels/series, I just assumed it was a fantasy novel. I was wrong. This is actually a cyberpunk book, a quite good one at that. There was only one downside to the book, which I may as well get out of the way now: it's not a complete story. The book ends with no plot lines resolved and more questions than answers…so, if you read this book, be prepared to read at least the next book in the series (River of Blue Fire. I say "at least" because I have only just started that book (and it's 24.3 hours long!), and I have no idea if it resolves any of the story. There are 4 books in the Otherland series in total (City of Golden Shadow, River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass, and Sea of Silver Light, the first two of which are available in audio so far).
The plot is intriguing. In a future-world setting (the book was written in 1996), virtual reality (VR) in the form of using an avatar to explore the "net," is fairly commonplace. Many people, instead of congregating/living in cities with malls and town centers and such, live good parts of their lives in the virtual world. At least, the younger people seem to do this. Main character Reny (a nickname for Irene) is a teacher of computer science/VR manipulation at a university. One day she comes home to find her little brother, Steven, comatose after spending some time in the VR world. Setting out to try to figure out what left him in the coma, she comes across a hint of a world called "Otherland," a world within the VR world. In parallel, a kid named Orlando is exposed to "Otherland" in a part of his online video game. They find themselves searching for answers on Otherland, enlisting the help of some others who have also found out about the mysterious world, all seeking answers for what it is and why it's harming kids. There is another story in the book, of a man named Paul. He may or may not have been a soldier in World War II, but somehow has found himself stuck in the world of Otherland without the ability to escape. There is also the story of those running Otherland, some with more nefarious reasons than others…
The entire plot is engaging, if sometimes a little confusing to keep track of who is where (especially at first, as the world and characters are introduced). That said, the book drew me in more or less from the get-go, and I found excuses to listen more as I went about my days. Williams, unlike many authors I've read recently, is able to describe the world and the technology organically through the telling of the story. Where some people would spend time info-dumping, Williams is able to make the world comprehensible by explaining things to characters, or having the reader go along with the process of discovery with the characters. For a book written in 1996, Williams was somewhat a visionary of technology and how people use it. In the book, there are VR systems (think: Oculus Rift taken to the extreme), normal day-to-day use of the internet, tablets, videophony…things that are in the early years of widespread adoption now.
The characters in this book are very interesting. I've read a lot of complaints, recently, from people who wish that there were more women and/or minorities in the books that they read, especially genre fiction. This book doesn't have that problem. Reny is a South African black woman, and one of her closest friends through the story is a native African. One of the main villains is Australian and there seem to be people from across the globe involved in either the world or trying to study the world. When Reny needs help, she turns to another woman (another professor in computer science-type fields) for aid, and though men are involved, they are on an equal footing with the women. While I normally don't fault a book for having weak female characters, it was refreshing to have such diversity in the book.
George Newbern's narration was fantastic, if a little slow. I found that I had to bump up the playback speed slightly, otherwise it felt like the pauses were a little too long, the speech a little too slow. This made some of the characters or world aspects a little hard to understand at times (pronunciation-wise), but that didn't detract from the story. It was always easy to keep track of who was talking and what was going on, thanks to Newbern's voices for the characters and for the main narration.
All in all, I really liked this book. I wish it had come to some form of closure, or at least given some more hints on the motives of the villains, but that's a minor complaint. I've already started the second book and can't wait to see where the story goes.
Posted by terpkristin.
Review of Chimpanzee by Darin Bradley
Filed under: Reviews
Written and narrated by Darin Bradley
Publisher: Resurrection House via Audible
Publication Date: 9 October 2014
[UNABRIDGED] – 5 hours, 46 minutes
Themes: / dystopia / unrest / cognitive theory / virtual reality / revolution /
Publisher summary:
Unemployment has ravaged the U.S. economy. Foreclosures are rampant. People struggle everywhere, exhausted by the collapse that destroyed their lives . . .
Benjamin Cade is an expert in cognition and abstract literature, and before the flatlined economy caught up to him, he earned his living as a university instructor. Now, without income, he joins the millions defaulting on their loans—in his case, the money he borrowed to finance his degrees. But there are consequences.
Using advances in cognitive science and chemical therapy, Ben's debtors can reclaim their property—his education. The government calls the process "Repossession Therapy," and it is administered by the Homeland Renewal Project, the desperate program designed to salvage what remains of the ravaged U.S. economy. The data Ben's repossession will yield is invaluable to those improving the "indexing" technology—a remarkable medical advance that has enabled the effective cure of all mental disorders. By disassembling his mind, doctors will gain the expertise to assist untold millions.
But Ben has no intention of losing his mind without a fight, so he begins teaching in the central park, distributing his knowledge before it's gone in a race against ignorance. And somewhere in Ben's confusing takedown, Chimpanzee arrives. Its iconography appears spray-painted and wheat-pasted around town. Young people in rubber chimpanzee masks start massive protests. A new use of the indexing technology shows up in bars across the country. It's called "chimping" . . . named after the mysterious protest movement, and it uses goggles and electrodes to reverse the curative indexing process, temporarily (recreationally) offering those inclined a mental illness of their own choosing.
As Ben slowly loses himself, the Chimpanzee movement seems to grow. And all fingers point to Ben . . . or maybe the voice that speaks to him every time he uses the chimping rig. As civil unrest grows, and Homeland Security takes an interest, Ben finds himself at the center of a storm that may not even be real. What is Chimpanzee? Who created it? What does it want?
And is there even enough of Ben left to find out?
What I prefer in my dystopia is realism and possibility, that it could happen here, in my lifetime. I read dystopia for the horror, for the thrill. That is the brilliance Darin Bradley brings to his novels, both in Noise and in Chimpanzee. It helps that Chimpanzee takes place in a town an hour from where I live, a place I visit often, particularly the arts district, where quite a bit of the action takes place. The events are very vivid to me, described in that place. They will be vivid to others for different reasons, but basically anyone watching the news in the last few years will feel they know the world of this novel.
The premise of Chimpanzee (see description above) may be even more chilling to those of us working in academia, who have seen the impact of the various economic downturns on expensive liberal arts educations. Now that there are no job guarantees, and no guarantee on the investment made (often by the students through hefty loans), people are starting to question the benefit of the system we have maintained for so long. I hate this conversation, because I work at one of those schools, and depend on it for my livelihood. So did the author, for a while. And that's where reality and the terror of this possible future start to blur within the novel.
There is a lot in this novel that might feel over the reader's head. I would encourage people who don't understand every word from the rhetoric of cognitive theory to press on – treat it like a classic science fiction info dump. Let it wash over you, grasp what you can. You will be in the same place as the students in the story, who also are put into a position of creating their own meaning, applied to their real situations.
There is a concept of virtual reality in this novel that I liked, called chimping, something you can do at a bar with your friends. It becomes an important part of the story in ways I will not give away here.
The audiobook has a story to its making. In the insert, it talks about the initial difficulty Resurrection House had in distributing the audio version. It includes a warning:
"Because some books aren't meant for sedans on highways. They may have too many voices, or they may have jagged corners that snag plots, or they may have things with no business being in stories… like symbols or formulae or languages we don't understand. You can listen to them, if you're ready to pay attention."
I did not heed the warning and listened to some of this audio production while driving around. The first time I encountered a repossessed memory, the sound used to represent the hole, the deletion, it almost sent me off the road. When I played it at home, my husband jumped out of his skin. It would be remiss not to warn you.
Otherwise, the audio moves back and forth between a radio-play style performance from multiple readers with sound effects and music, and the author's own narration. I liked the music choices and the sound effects were generally effective. Having sound effects in some parts magnifies the silence of the others. Benjamin Cade spends a lot of time inside his head, and losing what is in his head, so I think that silence is well warranted. It takes some getting used to, but I ended up appreciating it. The author also does a good job delivering his narration in a noirish tone, where short sentences shine.
Posted by Jenny Colvin


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I just went live with my website and my mini calendar which has been working awesome now shows all the pop ups for the month displayed hiding the calendar and I can not close them.
Have a look. I would love to get this back to it's awesome-ness.
Thanks, Dave


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I am happily married, but I would never pass up the opportunity to explore a connection with someone. I would love the opportunity to bring more love into the world with another partner or two, or however many my schedule would permit. That's not to say I am opposed to the occasional one-time hook-up, though. My wife and I also like to play together with interested parties.
We do dream of someday bringing another partner into our lives for the long-term. However, if that is not you or your vision, feel free to contact me anyway. As I say, it is a "dream," and we would not pass up the opportunity to have some fun because we are holding out for something "meaningful." I can find meaning in just about any encounter.
Movies: Dune (the one with Kyle Mcglaughlin, not that Sci-Fi Channel piece of crap remake), The Empire Strikes Back, Superman Returns, Torch Song Trilogy, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Night of the Living Dead (1990 Tom Savini Remake), and Flash Gordon.
Music: Drum Sex, Def Leppard, Ray Lynch, Enya, and Jazz.
Food: Veggies! I love veggies!
2. Loving
3. Laughing
4. Good Food
5. Good Friends


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World powers were set Tuesday to revive stalled talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear ambitions, with all eyes on what Tehran's top diplomat would put on the table.
Two days of closed-door negotiations were due to begin at 9:30 am (0730 GMT) at the United Nations' European base in the Swiss city of Geneva.
On the eve of the meeting, however, both sides downplayed chances of any major advance despite hopes raised by the more moderate government at the helm of the Islamic republic since conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrapped up two terms in office.
His successor President Hassan Rouhani took office in August, promising transparency on the nuclear drive and engagement with the world to eventually lift the sanctions strangling Iran's economy.
His foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif -- set to present Iran's positions to the P5+1 group of the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany -- said Monday that its three-step proposal could be implemented "within a year."
While not going into details, he said the initial step could be achieved "within a month, or two, or even less."
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who chairs the talks, said Monday she had come "with cautious optimism but a real sense of determination," with the goal to go into details of proposals and explore possibilities.
Ahead of the meeting with Iran's team -- expected to be led for the bulk of the talks by deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi -- a senior US administration official also said detail would be the key.
"We are quite ready to move. But it depends what they put on the table," the official told reporters.
"We are hopeful, but that has to be tested with concrete, verifiable actions," the official said.
"In the past, Iran has taken the negotiated time and just kept moving forward with its nuclear programme. We cannot allow that to be the case."
Zarif for his part admitted to difficulties in the negotiations, on hold since a round in April in the Kazakh city of Almaty where Iran refused to curb some sensitive enrichment activities in exchange for a moderate relief of sanctions.
"The nuclear issue cannot be resolved in one session, as mistrust has been accumulated over years," he said.
"I am not pessimistic about the talks, but we need to see the good intentions and political will of the other side in action," he said.
Western powers and Israel suspect Iran is developing a military capability via what it calls a peaceful atomic energy programme, a claim vehemently denied by Tehran.
Iran has already drawn its red lines for the talks, saying it will not accept any demand to suspend uranium enrichment or ship out stockpiles of purified material.
The US official highlighted sources of concern in the West, including "basis of the enrichment programme, transparency of the programme and the stockpile of enriched uranium" as well as a heavy water reactor in Arak.
The Arak facility could provide a second path to the bomb by producing plutonium, which the US official called "a subject of enormous concern."
A first meeting between Zarif and his counterparts from the six powers took place last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, accompanied by a landmark bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
After meeting Ashton in London on Sunday, Kerry said the window for diplomacy with Iran was "cracking open."
Israel has repeatedly called on its US ally not to fall for "sweet talk" from the new Iranian president, insisting that actions not words are essential to ensure Tehran never acquires an atomic bomb.
Tackling such concerns, Kerry underlined Sunday that Washington meant what it said when it insisted it would never allow room for a nuclear-armed Iran.
"I believe firmly that no deal is better than a bad deal," he said.
Iran currently has 6,774 kilogrammes of low-enriched uranium, and a lesser quantity of enriched uranium.
The enriched uranium sparks the greatest concern in the West and Israel, which fear Tehran could divert some for further enrichment towards a level required for nuclear weapons.


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Lexington local legends, Johnny Conquero, rocked it this year at our annual Give into the Groove Event. We wanted to share with our readers the inside scoop on the bands inspirations and upcoming events. So excited to share our interview with the band.
Full story-- http://www.giveintothegroove.com/#!Johnny-Conqueroo-Roots-in-Blues-Freedom/c1lbm/561e9f5e0cf297bd686432cc
Save the date for Tuesday December 4 for a Hot Sauce Holiday
Here's some background on the newest addition to the Give into the Groove event in 2013: The International Book Project is an non-profit organization the promotes literacy, education and global friendships by sending over 200,000 books annually to schools, libraries, churches, community organizations and Peace Corps Volunteers throughout the developing world and in the United States. Since 1966, the International Book Project has sent more than 5.8 million books abroad. For more information, be sure to check out the IBP website here: http://www.intlbookproject.org/ WELCOME!
Give Into The Groove needs volunteer groovers! This event depends on its volunteers to run smoothly. Help us continue to Groove by volunteering! If you're interested in volunteering on the day of the event [April 26, 2013 @ Buster's in Lexington, KY] , we need plenty of help! There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer before or during the event. For more information e-mail 2012[at]giveintothegroove[dot]com to get plugged in!
GIVE INTO THE GROOVE loves the March Madness Marching Band!
Ready to for a summer Groove? The March Madness Marching Band will be the headlining band TONIGHT (June 22) in DOWNTOWN FRANKFORT at the Farmers Bank Summer Concert Series! Start grooving at 7:00PM on the Old Capitol Lawn! – For more information about the Summer Concert Series and all the Frankfort has to offer here: http://www.downtownfrankfort.com/ Keep up with The March Madness Marching Band here: http://m-m-m-b.org/
GIVE INTO THE GROOVE 2013 Friday April 26, 2013 @ Buster's in Lexington, KY Give Into The Groove is a feel-good community benefit featuring live music, multimedia art and fashion with the purpose of drawing attention to community needs, FOR ALL AGES! www.http://giveintothegroove.com/wordpress/
Read my latest interview in the Summer issue of The Tub magazine. The 6 page article starts on page 55. Go to www.thetubmagazine.com to read now and enjoy!
Listen to my songs on SNOCAP & purchase them :) OR feel free to enjoy the freebies on this site!
Thanks for your continued support!!
ellee ven


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PoZestbyDesigncommented on a video on YouTube.
I can't find the recipe for these brownies on your website Kristina. Could you please send me a link? I need to know the exact quantities to use when making these.
Thanks! They look so yummy!
Thanks! They look so yummy!


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Yves Logghe, Associated Press
BRUSSELS — The European Union agreed Tuesday to impose new sanctions against officials deemed responsible for Russia's actions in Ukraine, amid mounting international anger after a Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down over rebel-held territory.
European foreign ministers stopped short, at least for now, of more forceful sanctions that would hit full sectors of the Russian economy.
The decision came soon after bodies of those killed in the crash reached Ukrainian government-controlled territory, leaving a war zone en route to the Netherlands after delays and haphazard treatment that put pressure on the Europeans to inflict tougher pressure on Russia.
The crash last week in eastern Ukraine has heightened diplomatic tensions over the conflict in Ukraine and focused anger at Russia, from Washington to EU headquarters in Brussels to Malaysia. But Russian President Vladimir Putin remained combative Tuesday, lashing out at Ukraine's military Tuesday for trying to dislodge the rebels.
The EU agreed to impose visa bans and asset freezes on more Russian officials, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said. He did not say how many officials were targeted or reveal their names.
He said the ministers also asked the 28-nation bloc's executive arm to prepare for more sweeping sanctions — including targeting the arms, energy and financial sectors — if Russia fails to back down from destabilizing Ukraine.
"Russia has not done enough to contribute to a de-escalation of the conflict," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
The crash site itself, in farmland held by the pro-Russian separatists whom the West accuses of shooting down the plane, remained unsecured five days after the disaster — another source of frustration for officials around the world eager to establish what happened.
After a 17-hour journey from the town of Torez in rebel territory, the train carrying the bodies pulled into a station in Kharkiv, a government-controlled city where Ukrainian authorities have set up their crash investigation center. The train gave a low-pitched blast from its horn as the grey corrugated refrigerator cars slowly rolled through weed-choked tracks onto the grounds of a factory where the bodies were being received.
Government spokesman Oleksander Kharchenko said Ukraine "will do our best" to send the bodies to the Netherlands on Tuesday. Of the 298 people who died aboard the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight, 193 were Dutch citizens.
But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says his government aims to have the first bodies returned on Wednesday. "It is our aim — and at the moment our expectation — that sometime tomorrow the first plane carrying victims will leave for Eindhoven," he said.
Rutte said that the identification of some bodies will be quick. But he has warned grieving families of victims of Thursday's crash that the identification of some others could take "weeks or even months."
In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers were discussing Tuesday what action to take response to the disaster. Europe and the United States have imposed targeted economic sanctions against Russia for supporting Ukraine's five-month insurgency that began after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by protesters in February.
In Moscow, Putin said Russia would do "everything in its power" to facilitate the investigation including putting pressure on the rebels. But he said that "was not enough" to resolve the situation. During a meeting with Russia's Security Council, he again criticized Kiev for its military offensive to dislodge the rebels.
Putin again challenged the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, saying, "people came to power in an armed, anti-constitutional way."
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On the Menu: Kelly's leaves customers full
Anchoring one of Fountain Valley's lesser-known shopping centers is the relatively new Kelly's Donuts and Burgers.
Kelly's is in the former Red Claw building at Bushard Street and Heil Avenue, about a half-mile from the city's recreation center.
This restaurant could just as easily be named "Donuts and Burgers and Breakfast Burritos and Bagels and Croissants and Salads and Smoothies and More." It's not difficult to find something that will satisfy your appetite, no matter the time of day.
Regulars will tell you the breakfast burritos are large, satisfying and a deal – a bacon, egg and cheese burrito is $3.75. It comes with salsa and hash browns.
Breakfast sandwiches are served on a freshly baked croissant or toasted bagel and run from $3 to the $4.25 Ultimate Works that has sausage, ham, bacon and eggs.
Since we're talking breakfast, check out the unique selection of doughnuts, like the bacon maple bars and blueberry frosting on blueberry cake.
The lunch menu features burgers, deli sandwiches, grilled sandwiches and a couple of specialty items such as the Ranch Chicken Club ($5.75) served on a grilled 8-inch French roll with bacon and avocado.
You can make any burger a combo and add fries and a soda for an additional $2.
The caf
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text: We stayed at Highland Manor B&B for a wedding nearby and it was perfect. It was a great find for the price and Tim was super helpful with tips about where to go and what to see. His breakfasts are also pretty incredible. If you're looking for a clean, cozy getaway look no further. We really loved it here. There are also two dogs on site in case you miss your pets :)


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Hey, I'm Robert And Samantha!
Melbourne, Australia · Member since October 2011
After traveling the world, and enjoying what airbnb had to offer we decided to offer our spare room. We love sharing travelling stories and connecting with new people. If we could travel all year round woud be perfect, but hosting is the next best thing.
Robert- I grew up in Australia, I'm a film-maker and musician. I can offer good advice for where to go for movies, gigs or galleries.
Samantha is a Scottish import and has worked as an accountant and chemical engineer, she loves gardening.
We're both into cooking, bikes and movies.


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Walter Salles's Kerouac biopic On the Road had an uneventful drive-by this year, along with Joyce Johnson's The Voice Is All: the Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac, a stab at critical biography by the author of several memoirs of the Beat writer, with whom she was romantically involved a half century ago. Lamenting these two weak offerings on the Kerouac aftermarket, Andrew O'Hagan opined recently how real life—not just Kerouac's but seemingly everyone's around him—has "spoiled the magic" of On the Road." He spares neither the deadbeat dads and wife-pimping husbands of the Beat Generation (more on that later), nor its "bit part playing" women. He is rightly appalled by Johnson's score settling. She "abuses" Carolyn Cassady, "splats" Ann Charters, and "kick's" Patti Smith's "butt." In the biography business, it's better not to sleep with your subject if you don't want your book labeled a memoir.
Along comes The Cool School, Glenn O'Brien's anthology of "writings from America's hip underground," to establish a more ecumenical tone among Beat women and others on the margins of literary society: beboppers, rockers, hippies, punks, standup comedians, and spoken-word and performance artists. (In O'Brien's rainbow coalition, a performance artist is a tummler who went to art school.) O'Brien cuts such a broad swath that someone who wasn't there might believe for a minute that Beatnik cats and chicks were on equal footing. To some extent he's right. Forget that William Burroughs shot his wife to death playing William Tell, that Jack Kerouac made himself judgment-proof to avoid paying child support for his only child (who died destitute in a trailer park at 42), or that Alexander Trocchi turned out his wife to pay for his drug habit. By widening his net, O'Brien demonstrates that notwithstanding the Don Draperesque baggage of the marquee Beats, there was real creativity among their female counterparts.
Take Iris Owens. She put up with Trocchi, her sometime lover, to get a gig writing dirty books in Paris for the Olympia Press before returning to New York and writing the wonderful After Claude (reprinted by NYRB in 2010). O'Brien also gives us Annie Ross's "Twisted" and Fran Landesman's "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men" (from the Beat musical The Nervous Set), anthems of, respectively, the overanalyzed and the gay underground. Ross had an affair with Lenny Bruce, the father of modern comedy, and a child with drummer Kenny "Klook" Clarke, present at the creation of bebop. Landesman was married for 61 years to Jay Landesman of Neurotica fame. (Both husband and wife are sympathetically portrayed in The Cool School in "The Pop Imagination,"by John Clellon Holmes, whose 1952 novel Go was the first of many romans a clef featuring Kerouac et al.) O'Brien puts Bobby Louise Hawkins's spoken-word routine "Frenchy and Cuban Pete" shoulder-to-shoulder with Mort Sahl's "The Billy Graham Rally" and Bruce's "Pills and Shit: the Drug Scene." Hawkins was married to poet Robert Creeley and retired from teaching at the Naropa Instituteat the age of 80 (though apparently she still returns there intermittently as a guest lecturer). These women are not merely glorifying their men. Nor have they based a lifetime of cultural production on the unrequited love of a famous writer, as Johnson has.
O'Brien continues his deft balancing act into the '80s and beyond. Lynne Tillman ("Madame Realism Asks: What's Natural About Painting") complements "The Velvet Wall," artspiel by another art world tummler, Richard Prince. Emily XYZ's spoken-word piece for two voices, "Sinatra Walks Out," dovetails with Nick Tosches's seminal psychobiography Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams. Finally, there's Diane di Prima, whom O'Hagan acknowledges as the exception to the groupie memoir genre. I prefer to think of her as the pinnacle. O'Brien's selection from Memoirs of a Beatnik captures her life-changing discovery of radical art as she describes the arrival on the scene of Howl just as her slum neighborhood gives way to Lincoln Center. The simple fact of its publication is, for Di Prima, a harbinger that it would become more difficult to "keep our cool":
I was frightened, and a little sad. I already clung instinctively to the easy, unselfconscious Bohemianism we had maintained at the pad, our unspoken sense that we were alone in a strange world, a sense that kept us proud and bound to each other. But for the moment regret for what we might be losing was buried under a sweeping sense of exhilaration, of glee; someone was speaking for all of us, and the poem was good.
Ever a gentleman of the old school, O'Brien tips his hat to Ms. Johnson by including a selection from Minor Characters, her first memoir of the Beat period, though it is by far among the weakest elements of The Cool School. Ironically, Memoirs of a Beatnik and Minor Characters bracket a post-On the Road article for Playboy by Jack Kerouac, "The Origins of the Beat Generation," which begins, "This article necessarily'll have to be about myself." Kerouac comes off as a self-absorbed jerk, and Johnson as a doormat.
The missing text, from both The Cool School and Andrew O'Hagan's otherwise honorable attack, is a book by Bonnie Bremser (nee Frazer): Troia: Mexican Memoirs, reprinted in 2008 by Dalkey Archive. The fact that it was first published as For Love of Ray, Ray being Beat poet Ray Bremser, tells you something. Bremser turned her out to feed his drug habit, but her complicity is embraced, even celebrated, an act of free agency, not submission. Troia is a protofeminist riposte to Kerouac's Mexico City Blues. Stylistically derivative of Kerouac (as is her husband's poetry), it is far more groundbreaking.
On the theme of race, O'Brien is similarly inclusive. The Cool School lays down a lot of musical prose: Miles Davis, Mezz Mezzrow, Babs Gonzales, Art Pepper, King Pleasure, Bob Dylan, and Richard Hell among them. O'Brien embraces the musicality of hip while acknowledging the conundrum of Norman Mailer's "white negro." Tenor sax titan Lester Young, a famously illiterate and inarticulate jazz genius, has his way with his earnest French jazz critic Francois Positif. Positif: Do you play the same thing every day? Young: Not unless you want to get henpecked. Terry Southern's "You're Too Hip Baby," set in Beat-era Paris, explores the fault lines of race through the stalking of a jazz musician by an underemployed and overeducated white expatriate. O'Brien includes both Mailer's "The White Negro" and Anatole Broyard's "Portrait of a Hipster" (1948), with its potent opening line: "As he was the illegitimate son of the Lost Generation, the hipster was really nowhere." (Broyard, who was black but passed for white, was supposedly the inspiration for the character of Coleman Silk in Philip Roth's The Human Stain, although Roth has denied this.)
There is no underground today, and O'Brien is not trying to sell us one. Youth subcultures are devoured stillborn by the culture industry. Even rappers with bona fide rap sheets are Donald Trump wannabees. In an embarrassing pas de deux, Jay Z and the contemporary art world validate each other as safely edgy. (Richard Prince once described this state of affairs as mainstream cult.) Where is today's Hunter Thompson to take it apart? It is questionable whether the idea of a counterculture, first coined by Theodore Roszak in 1969, remains a valid sociological construct. When "nothing is true and everything is permitted" (O'Brien quoting Hassan I Sabbah in his introduction), what can one be against? "Hipster" is now a term of derision connoting tattooed Brooklyn lumberjacks with highly nuanced consumer radar.
Though he pays lip service to the green shoots of the Occupy movement, O'Brien is not putting down any serious markers on what might be emerging beyond that. He is man enough to admit it was Maynard G. Krebs's bongos and goatee, notHowl, that drew him into the maelstrom of hip in the first place. Of course he was only, like, 12 years old, man, when Krebs—or was it Kerouac?—popularized "like" and "man" as metalinguistic units in our rhythms of speech.
Indeed, The Cool School is ultimately about language. "Cool" is necessarily opaque, a slang not understood by the mainstream. It is playful and instantly mutating, converting exclusion to exclusivity. Originally the province of blacks and Jews, gays and junkies, bootleggers, gamblers, and second-story men, its ironical vernacular became the medium of exchange among beatniks, hippies, yippies, Panthers, Diggers, Pranksters, and punks. Now, however, we have a black president, the hippies and yippies are running Silicon Valley, gays can marry, with benefits, and even dope—at least pot—is sort of legal. Beyond the identity politics, the words still enchant.
Robert Melvin Rubin is a cultural historian. In 2011, he curated Richard Prince: American Prayer at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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Sustainability Saturday: Take 20% off 1+ yards of Eco Canvas Fabric Through 11:59 PM EDT July 30th.
I am retired and my main passion is digital art followed by quilting . Once I discovered Spoonflower I could see this as the next step in joining these two interests together.
© 2008-2015 Spoonflower Inc


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UTF-X Doc - An XML Documentation System
UTF-X Doc is a very simple XML documentation package (similar to DocBook but much, much simpler). UTF-X Doc has special features for documenting XML systems.
UXRPS - Extensible Role Playing System. Allow to play multi-session (realtime) online stories written by others. That's all what fantasy RPG games need.
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Unit Testing Framework - XSLT (UTF-X) is a JUnit extension for testing XSLT stylesheets.3 weekly downloads
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Editor for formal grammars. Attempts to be universal – customizable for any grammatical formalism and any syntax. Provides features such as syntax checking and highlighting, transformations (refactoring) and advanced rule editor.1 weekly downloads
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Urdu internationalization utilities. Three utilities: Inpage converter, typing tutor and collating/search will be made available initially.
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WYMIWYG KnoBot is a content management system for the semantic web designed to promote the exchange of content with a P2P and reputation based system. The aim is to create a socio-topical space, a perspective dependent space of information and knowledge.5 weekly downloads
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A web unstructured file system using UUIDs to uniquely identify the files.
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Web Services Interoperability Profile Environment is a toolkit for managing and using "service profiles" needed for SOA realisation. Core is an inheritance resolver library, used by a document generator and conformance test suite generator.1 weekly downloads
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Lawmakers read a newspaper showing a picture of the bloodied face of the Italian Premeir Silvio Berlusconi, as Interior Minister Roberto Maroni addresses the Lower Chamber of Parliament, in Rome, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, on the attack which Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi during a rally in Milan Sunday. Hospital officials say Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi must stay in the hospital until at least Wednesday and recommend that he cancels all public activities throughout the Christmas season. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)