There's a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name

Beware of pretty faces that you find
A pretty face can hide an evil mind
Ah, be careful what you say
Or you'll give yourself away
Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name

------ lead guitar ------

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name

Swingin' on the Riviera one day
And then layin' in the Bombay alley next day
Oh no, you let the wrong word slip
While kissing persuasive lips
The odds are you won't live to see tomorrow

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name

Secret agent man

(Johnny Rivers) more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:40 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The omnibus review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Via BoingBoing, Lego projects that will bring back memories of the oft-repeated phrase...You'll put your eye out!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Locus Online has posted retro-reviews of several of Heinlein's works. This ties in nicely with my completed review of Beyond This Horizon.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via BoingBoing, not quite worksafe flowcharts. But ones that probably best describe your day-to-day crisis management...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Michael Swanwick has written a book on James Branch Cabell? I'm off to the bookstore to order this puppy right away!

Direct link to the book here.

Addendum (January 11, 200 : Swanwick follows up on some questions generated by the book.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You can build anything with Lego! Feeling some pain in your chest?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A medly of Pooh-ish whimsy in multiple literary genres. My favorite?

Pooh paced the deck, hands clasped behind his back. "Rabbit! Where's that blasted honey?"

Rabbit's whiskered face appeared in an instant, delivered the unwelcome verdict "Which it's already gone!" and disappeared again, leaving behind only muttering concerning something of a very little brain—fortunately at a low enough volume that Pooh could pretend to not have heard. Indeed, Pooh looked down and saw the honey pot was indeed there and empty. "Bother."

A sudden decision, and he swung his rather round and soft body into the shrouds and climbed to the crow's nest. There, he took out his glass and surveyed the horizon. Was that a sail? A sail that might be attached to a French merchant vessel, its hold stuffed full of honey? The crew hadn't had a real prize in months and Pooh's fortune at home could desperately use such a stroke of good fortune.

"Tigger!" he bellowed to the deck far below. "Fetch me Dr. Robin!" For he instinctively knew that he would need his friend's advice before proceeding.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When you look at something like this (a 1965 miniature library), you get a sense of how far technology has gone (and might still go). I routinely carry around several hundred books and stories with me on a storage card the fraction of the size of this gadet.

Why stop at some books? Why not the universe in a library? more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Change the planet! However, I would suggest an even better solution would be to re-engineer our entire Solar System. If that's no good, what about a disk, or a ring, or even cosmic spaghetti?

Don't go backwards. Leap forwards.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:06 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The Ultimate Guide to Free eBooks. Get downloading! Read! Expand your mind!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You can build anything with Lego! Even interstellar probes! Presenting a Lego version of the British Interplanetary Society's Daedalus probe to Barnard's Star.

Barnard's Runaway Star? You know the Medusae would never have stood for us poking around in their neighborhood!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:33 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Robert A Heinlein: Beyond This Horizon (Baen Books, 2001; ISBN 0-671-31836-5)

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:19 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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David Weber: In Enemy Hands (Baen Books, 1997; ISBN 0-671-87793-3). Echoes of Honor (Baen Books, 1998; ISBN 0-671-87892-1). Ashes of Victory (Baen Books, 2000; ISBN 0-671-57854-5).

The review can now be found here.

Free copies of all three of these books can be found here and here, but I would encourage you to purchase them from here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The review can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The list can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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List can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. That is the idea that we all hope you have learned in studying science in school—we never say explicitly what this is, but just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and speak of it explicitly. It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty—a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid—not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked—to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can—if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong—to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition.

In summary, the idea is to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

(Richard Feynman, Ph.D.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via Moleskinerie, an interesting article on journaling. This is something that I sporadically take up on paper and I'm determined to do it more going forward. Of course, since I've been blogging (on several platforms) since 2001 (9,000+ bits and pieces posted, good gravy!), you could say that I've been doing this all along. However, the internet, for all its wonders, is somewhat more temporary than paper.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, to hold conversations with men of unseen generations; such is a pleasure beyond compare."

(Yoshido Kenko, Essays in Idleness, 1340 A. D.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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