Father Emilio Sandoz, S.J., is the sole survivor of the first expedition to an alien planet, an experience that has left him physically maimed, trau­ma­tized, and reviled. He doesn’t want to talk about it, but the Jesuit order who sponsored the expedition require answers.

Russell’s narrative weaves two tales together: the expedition itself and the inquiry afterwards. This is a first contact for which the expedition crew, Jesuits and lay people alike, are not adequately prepared. The two alien races are more alien than they seem at first, operating from fun­da­men­tal­ly different …continue.

Another book from the 1632 series. This one largely develops a new plot. The arch­duchess Maria Anna of Austria is sent to Bavaria to marry the newly widowed Duke Maximilian, and finds that she’d rather not. She flees Munich in the company of two Grantville women, triggering a major crisis.

The book is en­ter­tain­ing but it’s marred by ob­ses­sive­ly detailing the enormously com­pli­cat­ed re­alpoli­tik of Mit­teleu­ropa. Still, it’s one of the good books in the 1632 series.

Cursor’s Fury is the third book in Jim Butcher’s fantasy series, Codex Alera, and the sequel to Academ’s Fury.

Tavi is now a cursor, a special agent of the First Lord. Planted undercover in a newly-formed legion, Tavi suddenly becomes its leader when all the other officers are as­sas­si­nat­ed, just as an invading force of Canim have landed nearby. Meanwhile, his aunt Isana, is trapped in a besieged city, when one of the High Lords, Kalare, attempts a coup. Isana’s brother Bernard and his wife Amara lead an attack against Kalare.

Exciting and en­ter­tain­ing, …continue.

George Cautley, a young gentleman of in­dif­fer­ent background, comes to London in 1770 and attempts to enter society, hoping to make his way as a painter. He becomes obsessed with Lady Beauclair, who sits for her portrait and spins him a tale of a castrato opera singer, who fifty years earlier fled Italy for London.

Lady Beauclair is not what she seems. Indeed, nothing is what it seems in this novel. Everything is a mask. Or a masquerade. Arch whispers. Veiled glances. Layers of face paint hiding blemishes. New portraits daubed on top of old. Deception. Intrigue.

I sent this letter to the New York Times this morning:

I was struck by the jux­ta­po­si­tion of Anya Kamenetz’s thoughtful column and Maureen Dowd’s puerile nonsense on today’s op-ed page.

Anya Kamenetz’s makes a sensible proposal on empowering ready teenagers by lowering the age thresholds for voting, drinking, credit cards when they demon­strate maturity.

Maureen Dowd continues in her usual rut, going on again about Ch­eneyesque paranoia, Bill’s legacy, Obambi, and tough dames.

Perhaps Ms. Dowd could take Ms. Kamenetz’s maturity test.

We attended a Super Tuesday party last night. As a PCO, I know a fair bit about the local caucus process, but I was unable to give a good answer about who the super …continue.

Use O’Reilly Maker to generate book covers. I’ve always wanted to write a book for cousin Tim, and now I have!

Via Pavel: Adolf Hitler - Vista Problems (YouTube).

The Pho­tog­ra­ph­er’s Right: a handy one-page guide.

The general rule in the United States is that anyone may take pho­tographs of whatever they want when they are in a public place or places where they have permission to take pho­tographs. Absent a specific legal pro­hi­bi­tion such as a statute or ordinance, you are legally entitled to take pho­tographs. Examples of places that are tra­di­tion­al­ly considered public are streets, sidewalks, and public parks.

The tiny <code> font in Firefox has been bugging me for a long time. I finally figured out the …continue.

Mis­cel­la­neous links.

• I’ve uploaded Vim syntax high­light­ing for Socialtext, the wiki we use at Cozi. Amusingly, it’s derived from code that I found on the Socialtext website, which in turn is derived from my syntax high­light­ing for Flexwiki.

• Ignite Seattle is back on 2/19. There were lots of in­ter­est­ing, geeky talks the last time I went.

• Via Slashdot, Walter Kirn on the failure of mul­ti­task­ing

  Through a variety of ex­per­i­ments, many using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity, [sci­en­tists have] torn the mask off mul­ti­task­ing and revealed its true face, which is blank and pale and drawn.

  I have a moderately bad case of mul­ti­task­ing myself.

Mis­cel­la­neous links.

• Are you plagued by User Access Control prompts every time you run Notepad++ on Vista? See Notepad++ and the GUP for a fix.

• According to The Onion, Bill Clinton is running again.

  We saw him speak at a fundraiser for Jim McDermott a couple of years ago. It was impressive to see him stand up for an hour and riff on all manner of topics without notes. The current incumbent is truly a mental midget.

  Not that I especially enjoyed the Clinton years. I often felt left down.

• Larry Lessig is unhappy with the sleaze emanating from Hillary Clinton.

• Joel Spolsky’s article on the Five Whys showcases a useful technique to find the root cause of problems by …continue.

Mis­cel­la­neous links.

• Do you see the subliminal arrow in the negative space of the FedEx logo at right? Neither did I until I read about it at Edward Tufte’s joint. Now I can’t stop seeing it.

• One more year to go until the next pres­i­den­tial in­au­gu­ra­tion on 2009/01/20. Who knows how much more damage Bush can pull off by then? Stick­er­Giant.com has com­mem­o­ra­tive swag.

• Im­peach­ment is in the air. Watch Rep. Wexler‘s speech before the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Read about State Sen. Oemig‘s hearing in the Washington Leg­is­la­ture.

• Three days ago, I was sent email by Draft­Bloomberg.com, asking me to sign a petition to draft Mike Bloomberg as an in­de­pen­dent candidate for President. I promptly wrote back, …continue.