At a convention in Las Vegas, 70,000 people are murdered in a brutal terrorist attack using stolen nanotechnology. As a result, a concerted effort is made by political activists to destroy the nanotech industry. The man who invented the stolen technology is the only person standing in between a government witch hunt and the forward progress of scientific development. Ok. That, I think, is an interesting premise for a book. That’s the premise that led me to pick this book up. The belief that this […]
Great expectations brought low
I don’t know who has written the book on Grover Cleveland, but I don’t think this book is it. It’s an insightful appraisal of the man, and an informative snapshot of the era, but it isn’t nearly detailed enough in the latter respect to be able to draw much of a parallel to current affairs, and the subject perhaps isn’t interesting enough to safe the former respect. I liked the book, but it’s a fairly middling biography, for a president often ignored and little taught […]
In Search of an Unsolved Mystery involving a Monkey’s Paw
From Wikipedia: “Tom Wallace lived an ordinary life, until a chance event awakened psychic abilities he never knew he possessed. Now he’s hearing the private thoughts of the people around him and learning shocking secrets he never wanted to know. But as Tom’s existence becomes a waking nightmare, even greater jolts are in store as he becomes the unwilling recipient of a message from beyond the grave.” I’m almost certain I saw this movie at some point, but remember almost nothing about it. It’s somehow […]
Outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned….
I’ve long been interested in the American presidency. I’ve read, perhaps, more about the various men to have served that role than any other particular historical subject. Over the last 2+ years participating in the Cannonball, I’ve read about 20 biographies of various presidents. I have books on the office itself, not just the men who’ve sat in it. I’ve read countless articles and think pieces. And in all of this, Jefferson Davis, one and only president of the Confederate States of America, is never […]