Weekly Reading 3-10-12

10 Mar 2012

Books

This week, I finished reading Richard Matheson’s Other Kingdoms, Sherman Alexie’s Flight, Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain, Tamora Pierce’s Tortall and Other Lands, Jonathan Hickman’s Red Wing, and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera’s What If Latin America Ruled The World. Of these, Crystal Rain was by far my favorite, and you should read it.

Articles

• The Disappearing Virtual Library - An article examining the demise of library.nu. Particularly interesting because it deals with the phenomenon as a failure of publishers to meet demand.
• Publishers Oppose Bill on Scholarly Open Access - . . . because they feel that we have no right to research that we have collectively funded. If they can’t make enough money from work that was taxpayer funded, that sounds like a them problem.
• Siri’s big brother from Google - I don’t care how shiny it is, I don’t want to talk to my phone.
• States’ Rights? - I really wish the government would stop curtailing my right to curtail other people’s rights. An excellent analysis of how most of the people calling for states’ rights are doing so in the interest of discriminating on a local level.
• Locke Lamora: It came from Burger King! - Some cool meta about one of my favorite fantasy books, which you should read if you have not already.
• You Don’t Need a Cyber Attack to Take Down The North American Power Grid - Security Theater is the best kind of theater.
• US Attn General Eric Holder on The US Killer Drone Policy - More disturbing news from DC.
• Playing the Game in Afghanistan - A glimpse into the Afghani psyche as well as a suggestion for a strategy that actually has a chance of succeeding. My favorite bit was her talking about “buzkashi, in which mounted horsemen vie for possession of a dead goat or calf. . . . Journalists compared the game to polo, apparently never having seen a game of polo.  Take my word for it: it is not like polo.”