A massive effort is underway to kill around 180 million rats on various Galapagos Islands. Using specially developed bait targeted at the invasive rats, the plan is to completely wipe them out within a decade.
Month: November 2012 (Page 5 of 8)
Now available for pre-order, Robin Guthrie’s latest album, entitled Fortune.
Coming soon, an iPad app for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. I’ll be in line to buy it, that’s for sure.
Neat article at BBC on the revolution of the mind in Egypt. Might be more important in long run than the first one.
Finished my fifth half marathon today, in a personal best of 1:43:06, despite persistent injury and limited training. Lack of serious training made itself known around mile 10, when I felt the leg strength fade. Turnover slowed drastically for two miles, then picked up again the last mile. I hope the injury finally heals in 2013 so I can keep working on my 1:35 goal pace.
When did the zombie genre decide that shambling, staggering undead walkers no longer were cool or scary, but now zombies need to move like a cross between hyperactive ants and piranhas? The trailer for World War Z certainly makes the zombie horde look terrifying, but at what cost in terms of the story?
In this interview from July 2012, Slattery discusses his latest novel, Lost Everything, a dark dystopian tale. I enjoyed Spaceman Blues and Liberation, but this books seems far darker than the previous two books.
Interesting and not completely uncritical review essay on The Guradian‘s web site on Anne Applebaum’s latest book, called The Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956. Heard a recent radio interview with Applebaum regarding the book, which focuses a great deal on popular culture as well as government, and the creation of dissent. Applebaum’s book on the Gulag was vast and illuminating, and I look forward to reading this book.
Subterranean Press is one of the best modern small press publishers, with gorgeous covers, a wide range of authors, and a steady stream of new and classic books of fantasy, mystery, science fiction and horror. Their latest Jack Vance re-issue, Desperate Days, collects three Vance mysteries. Two of these are set in an imaginary county in northern California, and the third about a young woman on a steamship bound for Europe. Each of the books are virtually impossible to locate today; the first two might show up in a used mystery store or online, and the third appeared in two fairly limited publication runs. Kudos to Subterranean Press for re-issuing these books, and for their on-going effort to publish some of the earlier and harder to find Vance stories.
Tattered Cover Book Store’s author podcast series recently posted one with brilliant writer Jasper Fforde, author of a dozen novels, including The Eyre Affair, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Last Dragonslayer, and others. Hearing Fforde talk is as amusing and fresh as reading his fiction.
