Back of the Envelope

I missed last week's update, so I'll cover two weeks this time

Sluggy Freelance -- Torg is transported to the Dimension of Lame which is being invaded by the Dimension of Pain. Fortunately, he's transported with the Sword of Torgamus and one of Bun-bun's Glocks. Unfortunately, the demons are sword-proof and he's only got one bullet.

Day by Day -- Zed tries to figure out how to use a new camera, and accidentally takes an embarassing picture of Sam. Al Gore is severely mocked, and I don't think it's undeserved.

It's Walky! -- SEMME faces brainwashing, but we get a flashback from Billie's past. When we return to the present we find that Billie's in trouble. She's snuck into SEMME's facilities and it looks like she's caught in the crossfire between SEMME and the Britjas. And she's dragging poor Danny into it.

College Roomies from Hell!!! -- While April's dreaming of Mike, Mike decides not to interfere with his mother's upcoming marriage to the evil mastermind who kidnapped him and his friends. Meanwhile Thad helps Mike, the newly introduced Jay blackmails Thad, the evil mastermind finds out there's trouble, and Dave has a revelation.

General Protection Fault -- The fake Craig makes his move, Fooker and Maddie make theirs, and there's Dr. Not and her henchwomen And and Or. And there's Sharon, caught in the middle. After a couple of close run-in, she finally discovers that Fooker's in the area.

Schlock Mercenary -- Schlock is released. He isn't out of prison for more than a couple of days before he gets in trouble again. And now Tagon must figure out how to deal with reproduction among the crew. Not Schlock's, thankfully.

Old Post: I mention a few of my own recommendations below.

Doc Rampage is recommending books again, in response to Dean Esmay's post on great books no one's read. He mentions The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy. By this point it's been mentioned so many times that it's pretty clear that plenty of people have read it. I agree that it's a great trilogy, and a significant inspiration for my own writing. It was the first fantasy series I read after Tolkien (must have been around fourth grade), and it's what convinced me that fantasy was worth reading--fantasy's been my primary reading material since then.

He also mentions a bunch of other series, only a few of which I've heard of and none of which I've read. Once again, more books are added to the list of Books I Really Should Read Once I Get Through the Ones I Already Have. It's a pretty long list by now.

Old Post: Originally this was an update to an earlier post, but I decided to bump it and give it its own post. The original post is here.

In my previous post, I showed a rolling plot of the number of Americans killed in terrorist attacks. The problem was that highly successful attacks tended to cause sharp peaks which skewed the data, so I've done a plot of the number of Middle Eastern Terrorism attacks per year affecting Americans. This is also a five-year rolling average, and I think it shows a much clearer trend. Number of attacks doesn't consider the effectiveness of attacks, so it's more of a measure of intent than competence. It includes attacks that resulted in injury and deaths, as well as kidnappings where the prisoner was released. It also includes bombings on American property which didn't hurt anyone. Once again, it also includes attacks on Israeli targets which killed and injured Americans. I need to control for those at some point, but not right away.



This shows a peak in the Eighties, a decline around 1990, but a clear upward trend in the late nineties. In this chart, the whole of 9/11 counts as only one attack.

Nothing annoys me more than people pretending they're experts when they're not. Well, okay, stating speculation as fact annoys me more, but it's closely related.

What brought this to mind is something Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost said:

John Marburger, the science advisor for the Bush Administration, would make an excellent blogger. After the Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) issued a report, "Scientific Integrity In Policy Making", that listed instances of what it described as the administration's "misuse of science", Marburger fired back with a point-by-point fisking of the USC’s claims.
...
The true "misuse of science" is when reputable scientists make false claims about their area of knowledge in order to further a political agenda. The public has already grown wary of authoritative claim by scientists on such areas as politics and ethics. If they continue to erode their credibility in this manner we may find that we can't trust them on issues of science either.

[Incidentally, I think it's UCS, not USC.] What I'd like to know is whether these scientists really are making claims, false or not, about their area of knowledge. "Scientist" is a general and highly misleading term. Scientist, whether theorists or experimentalists, know a lot about their particular fields of study. When it comes to things outside their fields, even areas of scientific research outside their fields, they generally don't know much more than the well-educated layman. They may have a better generic understanding of the manner in which research is done, but they rarely know the specifics of the facts and procedures and caveats of fields other than their own. Thus I'm very reluctant to take a physicist's word on what the results of CDC research, or a biologist's word on the philosophical ramifications of quantum physics (on this subject, I'm reluctant to take anyone's word). I get very annoyed when scientists use their moniker to pretend they're knowledgeable in all things science.

I was looking into ways to self-publish A Pheonix in Darkness. It's too long for a short story and too short for a novel, so I don't see any way to publish it the traditional ways. I could self-publish it as an e-book, but there are expenses involved. I can handle the formatting myself (I put everything I write in PDF anyway). It'd be nice to have a professional copy-editor, but it's expensive, and I think I can manage on my own. Most expensive is the cover art. It's not just aesthetically pleasing, it's important for drawing attention to the story in an online bookstore. It'd be nice to be able to get someone to do it.

Then I figured, I'm no artist, but why not? I can use Microsoft Publisher just as well as the next guy, and while I can't do much in the way of freehand drawing, I didn't get an engineering degree without learning some technical drawing skills. Start with one of Publisher's templates, completely change the color scheme, add an extensively remodeled symbol from Campaign Cartographer, and I might have something half-way decent. In any case here's what I came up with:



I think it turned out pretty well. While I'm not entirely certain of copyright issues, both Publisher and Campaign Cartographer are designed to make publishable documents, so I doubt there'd be a problem.

Mark Steyn has some Memorial Day thoughts worth reading:

Like the French Resistance, tiny in its day but of apparently unlimited manpower since the war ended, for some people it's not obvious which side to be on until the dust's settled. New York, for example, resisted the Civil War my small town's menfolk were so eager to enlist in. The big city was racked by bloody riots against the draft. And you can sort of see the rioters' point. More than 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War -- or about 1.8 percent of the population. Today, if 1.8 percent of the population were killed in war, there would be 5.4 million graves to decorate on Decoration Day.

But that's the difference between then and now: the loss of proportion. They had victims galore back in 1863, but they weren't a victim culture. They had a lot of crummy decisions and bureaucratic screwups worth re-examining, but they weren't a nation that prioritized retroactive pseudo-legalistic self-flagellating vaudeville over all else. They had hellish setbacks but they didn't lose sight of the forest in order to obsess week after week on one tiny twig of one weedy little tree.

There is something not just ridiculous but unbecoming about a hyperpower 300 million strong whose elites -- from the deranged former vice president down -- want the outcome of a war, and the fate of a nation, to hinge on one freaky jailhouse; elites who are willing to pay any price, bear any burden, as long as it's pain-free, squeaky clean and over in a week. The sheer silliness dishonors the memory of all those we're supposed to be remembering this Memorial Day.

Playing by Gore-Kennedy rules, the Union would have lost the Civil War, the rebels the Revolutionary War, and the colonists the French and Indian Wars. There would, in other words, be no America. Even in its grief, my part of New Hampshire understood that 141 years ago. We should, too.

Read the whole thing.

Dean Esmay is asking for recommendations on good books which aren't widely known. He mentions Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton and Ariel by Stephen R. Boyett. Readers have offered their own opinions, including a bunch which I wouldn't consider unknown, by authors such as Patricia McKillip, Ursula K. LeGuin, Poul Anderson, and Stephen R. Donaldson, who certainly aren't unknowns (to SF readers, anyway). Admittedly, it could just be that I don't consider anything I've read unknown.

Sadly, no one's mentioned Fire yet.

Let's see, is there anything I'd add to the list? Frankly, most of the books in my library are popular books from popular writers. How about Jane Jensen's The Beast Within? Jane Jensen designs computer games, specifically the Gabriel Knight series, which are fabulous games with intricate, engrossing plotlines. Her first attempt to convert a game into a book, Sins of the Fathers, didn't turn out too well, but her second book was very good. I'm not sure she ever tried to turn the third Gabriel Knight game (Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned) into a book, but it was the weakest game in the series (not to mention host to some religious elements I found disturbing). I'd also recommend John Ringo, whom I think is pretty well-known, so I'm probably not recommending an unread author. He's written some intriguing Sci-Fi series, including A Hymn Before Battle and There will be Dragons, and he makes it clear in his books that he's a Sluggy Freelance fan.

New Post: I note that Doc Rampage has made some suggestions above.

Lileks gets a bit uppity:

Anyway. So I’m waiting at the Gap for my wife to try on some outfits. I sit down, I read the book. Later I wander up to the men’s floor, try some shorts, size Small; baggy beyond belief. But! They have X-small size. They fit. Hmm. Time, perhaps, to eat carbs again. As I buy the shorts the clerk says:

“Are you a writer?”

I think: what?

“There were some people up here,” he said, “who pointed at you as you went into the changing rooms? And they said you were a writer.”

I spread my arms out. “They were correct. I am a writer.”

“Cool.”

And I’m thinking: how nice that I was carrying around a battered 1957 book, eh? That’s just what writers do! I went downstairs and related the anecdote to my wife, who said that the clerks had been whispering about something there being a writer upstairs.

Don’t think I didn’t milk that one all night. Hello, there’s a writer in the kitchen, looking for ice! Make way, mortal. What, you want to change the channel? Don’t you know a WRITER is watching this?

I want to be able to do that someday. Well, granted, I could do it now, but I'd be a delusional jerk. It'd be better if I were just a jerk. I think I have to publish something first. You know, aside from on my website.

Each week, Captain's Quarters holds a caption contest, where he invites his readers to caption photographs of Democrats in action. Up until now, it's always been Kerry who's been captioned. I've never participated before, partly because I don't think it's dignified to make fun of people simply because you disagree with their political views, but mostly because I couldn't think of anything funny.

This week, however, Gore was the one in the photo, and it was from the insane rav--er, I mean, speech he gave in front of MoveOn.org. I looked at the photo, thought of something funny, and submitted an entry. Ten seconds later, I thought of a way to make my entry funnier, but I didn't want to make another submission. Go here to see what the winning entry was. And here is what it should have been:


Fighting to contain a violent yawn at his own words, Al Gore is mistaken for a raving lunatic. He decides to go with it.

Update: Edward Yee, who judged this week's contest, reminded me that I'm late with his bri--uh, I mean, check out his blog. You know he must have a good sense of humor.

Christian Carnival XX is up at Patriot Paradox. I submitted my post on Bible Translations. I had almost forgotten about the Carnival until I got the e-mail that the deadline had been extended. Good thing, as it was already past the original deadline when I got it. Go check out what other Christian bloggers are writing about.

I've just heard that my two-year-old niece is in the hospital with pneumonia. She's expected to be okay, but any prayers would be appreciated.

Well, I'm a week behind, but the second revision of A Phoenix in Darkness is now done. On to the third and final revision!

Update: If you're wondering why the blogging's slow, this is it. As I may have mentioned earlier, I tend to work harder when I'm near the end. I finished over three quarters of the work on Monday, got the final quarter done today by the time I put up this post, and I've been adding small touches for the rest of the day. I have a day job, but I've spent somewhere around seven hours on this project over these past two days.

Rather than using my own poor words to describe Memorial Day, I'll direct you to the speech that Bush delivered at the opening of the World War II memorial dedication on Saturday. An excerpt:

In the history books, the Second World War can appear as a series of crises and conflicts, following an inevitable course -- from Pearl Harbor to the Coast of Normandy to the deck of the Missouri. Yet, on the day the war began, and on many hard days that followed, the outcome was far from certain.

There was a time, in the years before the war, when many earnest and educated people believed that democracy was finished. Men who considered themselves learned and civilized came to believe that free institutions must give way to the severe doctrines and stern discipline of a regimented society. Ideas first whispered in the secret councils of a remote empire, or shouted in the beer halls of Munich, became mass movements. And those movements became armies. And those armies moved mercilessly forward -- until the world saw Hitler strutting in Paris, and U.S. Navy ships burning in their own port. Across the world, from a hiding place in Holland to prison camps of Luzon, the captives awaited their liberators.

Those liberators would come, but the enterprise would require the commitment and effort of our entire nation. As World War II began, after a decade of economic depression, the United States was not a rich country. Far from being a great power, we had only the 17th largest army in the world. To fight and win on two fronts, Americans had to work and save and ration and sacrifice as never before. War production plants operated shifts around the clock. Across the country, families planted victory gardens -- 20 million of them, producing 40 percent of the nation's vegetables in backyards and on rooftops. Two out of every three citizens put money into war bonds. As Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby said, "This was a people's war, and everyone was in it."
...
On this Memorial Day weekend, the graves will be visited, and decorated with flowers and flags. Men whose step has slowed are thinking of boys they knew when they were boys together. And women who watched the train leave, and the years pass, can still see the handsome face of their young sweetheart. America will not forget them, either.

At this place, at this Memorial, we acknowledge a debt of long-standing to an entire generation of Americans: those who died; those who fought and worked and grieved and went on. They saved our country, and thereby saved the liberty of mankind. And now I ask every man and woman who saw and lived World War II -- every member of that generation -- to please rise as you are able, and receive the thanks of our great nation.

May God bless you. (Applause.)

Joe Carter at The Evangelical Outpost has begun a project to update the Dictionary of Cultural References. I've submitted a few things under the Internet and Computer Games already. Go ahead and make your contribution.

I visited a couple of cousins of mine in Pennsylvania this weekend. It was fun to see them again--it had been years. My cousin Mark showed me a project he's been working on, cataloguing all 3000+ US counties, collecting demographic data (ethnicity, wealth, household data) and voting results. He's worked out a election projection based on demographics which predicts that the election may depend on Ohio. I'm not so sure about his conclusions--I think 9/11 may have changed the equation, but it was an impressive piece of work, and I've offered to share it on my blog. He's interested, but it remains to be seen whether we can distill it down to information easily shared on a blog. If we were really patient, we could do a by county map, like the famous one from the last election, but I don't think we have the patience.

I've noticed a bit of discussion on other blogs about the best Bible translations. In particular, Letters from Babylon and Parablemania have discussed their favorite translations. While I think getting a good translation of the Bible is helpful, I'm not sure it's sufficient. I have two Bibles I tend to use.

One is the NIV, which I find easy to read and understand, despite complaints about it being a dynamic equivalence--not a word-for-word translation, but one which converts idiom and language into our way of speaking. Now while dynamic equivalence involves some interpretation, so does a formal equivalence translation, which follows the original language more closely. Any translation requires finding an equivalent word, but no word in English contains the exact same history, nuance, and cultural context of the Greek word. Consider John 1:1, and the use of the word logos. In English, it's translated as Word, while in Greek it could mean word... or message, or purpose. In Stoic philosophy, it was used to signify the driving power and reason behind the Universe, and it would have been recognizable as such instantly by the Greek readers of John's Gospel. Idiom is also very tricky. Consider Matthew 12:40: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The phrase "three days and three nights" has drawn much interpretation as people tried to reconcile it with the one day and two nights Jesus actually spent in the tomb. It would be helpful to know that ancient peoples reckoned inclusively (saying that Sunday is three days after Friday, because they would include Friday in the count), or that x days and x nights was a common idiom, referring not to whole days and nights but to the day-night cycle, which we would simply call days. These are famous problems which even dynamic equivalence doesn't try to solve. While I think a dynamic equivalence does infer some interpretation, I also think that it can, when done properly, convey more of the original meaning to modern readers than a formal equivalence translation.

The other Bible I use is an interlinear one. It has one very literal translation, and the original Greek and Hebrew. The very literal translation is hard to read and follow, but it's useful, especially when coupled with the original language and some knowledge of that language. (I may be rusty, but I still remember some Ancient Greek.) Which brings me to my question: Why don't more Christians study the original languages? I don't expect every Christian to attend seminary, but there are many Christians in college who could easily take a semester or two of Greek and/or Hebrew. I'm curious why they don't.

Update: Cleared things up a bit.

I try to avoid partisan prayers. While I'll pray for political figures, I'm very reluctant to pray against them. I also don't like praying that one party or another will win the election. While I think that God is in control, well, I think He is in control, and He knows what He's doing, while I have very little idea what I'm doing when I talk about or pray about politics. So I think God will bring about His will, and I'll occasionally pray that politicians be more in tune with His will, or that this thing or that thing will be done by our government, but I don't pray about who will win elections.

During the 2000 election showdown I did pray for a quick resolution. While I prefered Bush over Gore, in 2000 I thought that Gore would do a decent job governing even if I disagreed with the majority of his policies. So when I prayed, I may have let slip that I'd really like to see Bush win, but I trusted God to choose the right candidate. After 9/11 I thanked God for doing so, because I felt Bush dealt with the situation better than Al Gore would have. Earlier this week I fervently and effusively thanked God for doing so, offering up my heartfelt thanks that Gore did not win. If you don't know what I'm talking about, try visiting here or here. Now I'm praying that Gore gets help, and that he is never allowed near the reins of power again. Meanwhile, if any of the Florida voters who voted for Bush in 2000 are in the Rochester area, let me know. I'd like to thank you for saving us from disaster.

You may be wondering why I stopped the archive review. While it was fun, it consumed an inordinate amount of time. Plus, I was out-of-town and without net access for a good bit of Memorial Day weekend. I figured the end of the Sci-fi Adventure was a good place to stop. I may pick it up again eventually, but consider it on permanent hiatus unless there is a real demand for it.