There's this absolutely, astoundingly fantastic series of novels called "The Baroque Cycle," by Neal Stephenson which would have been better named as the 3rd book in the series actually is named: "The System of the World." And while the story is about many things, more than anything else it all conspires to make the reader realize that everyone has their own motivations (cough*almostalwaysmoney*cough*butalsosometimesirrationalemotion*cough) to make a big fuss over their own priorities, and the people who find their way to real power are the people who learn to take advantage of humanity's inability to come together, cooperate, and actually focus our efforts on a small set of priorities that could actually make life better for all people.
No idea what makes me think of that this morning.
The Roundup:
- More info about Mark Herzlich's fight against Ewings Sarcoma.
- Looks like someone can already see Kiffen staring down the JuCo cookie jar, and they're yelling, "No! No! No! No!"
- A Michigan (sucks!) RB was arrested for... failing to live up to his probation agreements made for whatever he'd been arrested for before.
- Yeah, we'd forgotten the whole Paulus to play a year of Football story too, but Nunes didn't.
- Oh, Nunes talked to the new SU HC too. That's right, a blogger interviewed a real HC.
- The Coaches want to become less transparent, and BGS sees right through it.
- Some thoughts on what Malcolm Gladwell doesn't know about football, or basketball, or, really, probably sports in general.
- John Elway says he's ok with his son quitting the game of football. No doubt Thanksgiving this year at the Elway house will seem a little weird.
- Yeah, UCLA Fans are enjoying the SoCal scandal.
By Bad Kermit May 15, 2009 - 11:32 am
What a coincidence. I’m almost done reading Stephenson’s Snow Crash right now, and I’m listening to his newest, Anathem, on CD. Snow Crash is cyberpunk goodness. Anathem gets a bit weighed down by his desire to make up a bunch of words that I can’t be expected to remember. The Baroque Cycle is next on my list.
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By domer.mq May 15, 2009 - 12:36 pm
BK,
Though it’s not required, you might want to read Cryptonomicon before the Baroque Cycle. Oddly, it’s a prequel to the Cycle, despite the story lines occurring a couple hundred years after the stuff that happens in Cycle.
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By AnnArborIrish May 15, 2009 - 1:13 pm
Minor correction, domer, my friend. Isn’t that a Michigan (sucks!) RB?
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By domer.mq May 15, 2009 - 2:51 pm
My mistake, AnnArborIrish. It is, in fact, a Michigan (sucks!) RB.
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