New technologies are coming in the near future that have the potential to radically change what it means to be human. This book looks at why democratic societies must respond to things like cloning, genetic engineering and nanotechnology, instead of pretending that they don’t exist.

What the author calls "bio-Luddites" are opposed to such new technologies, because they feel that mankind should be happy with its 70 (or so) years of life, characterized by increasing bodily disfunction in its later stages. Another reason for opposition is the vague, but always there, possibility of a disaster unleashing some new plague on the world. Some people say that taboos and gut feelings are the path to wisdom. If a new technology feels spooky, ban it immediately. The Catholic Church opposes such things because they are supposedly offensive to God.

On the other hand, if a person is found to be a carrier for, or genetically susceptible to, Disease X, don’t they have the right to fix their DNA (assuming a safe and reliable method can be found to do so)? Those who call themselves transhumanists (based on humanism) believe that people should have the right to modify their bodies, whether the quest is for greater intelligence, longevity or a happier outlook on life. They are the first to assert that there must be adequate discussion beforehand, and adequate safeguards after the introduction of a new technology. Such things must also be available to all people, through some sort of universal health insurance, not just to the rich. Transhumanists have no desire to take over the world, but one of the subjects for social consideration has to be how to extinguish potential schisms between humans and posthumans. To those who think that some new regulatory agency is needed, the author does not agree. Agencies like the FDA and EPA will be able to do the job, if they ever get the funding and authority needed. Don’t forget that 25 years ago, in vitro fertilization was considered an abomination; now it is practically mainstream.

This is a pretty specialized book, but it shouldn’t be. Like it or not, the new technologies described in this book are coming in the near future. It is better to start discussing, now, how to deal with them, instead of just saying No. The reader may not agree with everything in this book, but it is an excellent place to begin that discussion.

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In general, things go exceptionally well. There are the usual ups and downs as with any startup, but for Margaret and Angee, it’s mostly up. They experience double-digit growth each year, their winery becomes known internationally, and their business reputation is excellent. They also go through a number of salespeople, of varying degrees of competence.

After six years of long nights and weekends, and after failing to get financing for expansion, the decision is made to close the winery. Margaret and Angee already had a plan in place to take 90 days to complete the closing. That way, the creditors would be paid, and it could all be done the "right" way. The bank said No; they wanted their money now. Throughout the whole closing process, the (unnamed) bank exhibits a level of professional incompetence that borders on unreal. At one point in the process, Margaret and Angee are refused entrance to the winery, by the bank, in order to sell bottles of wine already on the shelves to raise money to pay off creditors. At another point, a barrel of unbottled wine has to be dumped because it has gone bad. Margaret and Angee are refused entrance into the winery in order to bottle and sell the wine.

Around this time, Angee contracts an undiagnosed, chronic pain condition that puts her out of action for much of the closing process. A poorly planned auction for the winery’s assets is held by the bank. It nets them a couple of percent of the value of the assets; if the bank had followed the Margaret and Angee Plan, they would have received over 90 percent of the value of the winery’s assets.

The reason for the bank’s strange behavior is discovered later in the book. They are in trouble with the FDIC over their debt level, and have been told to reduce it, now. The American Dream of entrepreneurship becomes a nightmare of lawyers, bureaucracy and court appearances.

This is an excellent book. It isn’t just an interesting startup story, it’s also a must-read cautionary tale for all small business owners. Don’t assume your bank is one of the Good Guys; prepare yourself, financially, ahead of time. A good place to start is to read this book. At the risk of sounding like a cliche: This could happen to you!

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Worth first met Fox when he played an organ concert at a church in California. Worth was totally blown away by the things Fox did that day; he didn’t just play the organ (from memory, which was unheard of in the organ world), he mastered the organ. Is there a word beyond "virtuoso"? That is how good Fox was on the organ. After years of practice, Worth became one of the Fox "group" and became an organist on his own.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Fox was the organist at the Riverside Church in New York City. His gay lover, Richard Weagly, was the Choir Director. The unpleasant end to their relationship was played out in front of everyone. Fox spent a lot of time on tour, playing in churches and concert halls all over America. After each concert, Fox loved spending hours greeting everyone who stood in line to chat or get an autograph. He was a natural showman who wanted people to know who he was, and demanded to be able to be seen by the audience.

It was also the era of pipe organs (before electronics) where each pipe had to be tuned individually. Fox was extremely picky about the sound of whatever organ he was playing, frequently driving organ tuners nuts. In the late 1960s, Fox was asked to resign from the Riverside Church; he had gotten "too big" for the Church.

This book chronicles many ups and downs in Fox’s life, both personal and professional. To replace Richard, his lover, Fox brought home a much younger man named David. He was not well liked by the people around Fox, including his manager, and David did little to endear himself to the group. In the late 1970s, Fox entered the hospital for a prostate operation. He was told that the whole tumor was removed, and everything was fine. Fox did nothing about it for a year, only to be told that just half the tumor was removed, and the cancer had spread. He died in October 1980.

This is an excellent, but specialized, book. Anyone who is interested in organ music, or the life of Virgil Fox, should read this book. For everyone else, Fox was a person who enjoyed life to the fullest, and it shows here. It is very much recommended.

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Ferruginous hawks are the largest hawk in North America. They are also very shy birds, so they are considered a good barometer for measuring the encroachment of man. Flying away, and abandoning a nest, if people get too close, is possible for them. The author chose to study ferruginous hawks because so little was known about them.

Several nests in southern Idaho and northern Utah were chosen for observation. Some nests are set up in juniper trees, only a few feet off the ground, and some are set up on the ground. Most of the observations had to be done from blinds set up a couple of hundred yards away. The nests are big, anywhere up to several feet across. The hawks, especially the chicks, have developed ways to deal with the sun beating down on their nests (there is no shade nearby). The nests in the trees are not high enough to prevent attacks by predators, especially coyotes, as the author observed one day.

A couple of times, while the adults were away, Powers would climb up to the nests and feed the chicks miniature transmitters. These were intended to measure their internal body temperatures. After excretion, the transmitters were not found at the base of the trees, as expected. Adult hawks pick up bones, caracsses and droppings, and deposit them several hundred yards away, so the smell will not attarct predators. For a time, there was a shortage of jackrabbits (the main food source for the hawks) in the area. Powers was interested in seeing if the hawks would make do with whatever they could find as substitutes, like snakes, rats and lizards.

This is a really interesting book. The author’s passion for his work and "his" hawks shows through everywhere. For those interested in nature and the environment, whether actively or of the armchair variety, this is very much worth reading.

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Here are some examples. If someone close to you has recently lost a loved one or has been in an accident, send them a card, to express how you feel. Really listen when someone tells you about their day. Call your parents and/or siblings for no reason, other than to say that you love them. Be open to constructive criticism from someone you admire and respect. Read to a child. Call or visit your grandparents and ask them to tell you stories about themselves when they were younger.

Remember someone in your life who has died. Call or visit a person you know who also knew this person and talk about the great times the three of you had together. When invited into someone’s home for a gathering, always bring a small gift of appreciation. It is only in the silence that we can hear God’s voice. Become your own best friend. This way you will never be lonely. Help an elderly person carry their groceries to the car. Practice patience. Find at least one positive characteristic in everyone you meet. When talking to someone in a wheelchair, lean over or sit down, to be at their eye level. Get involved in at least one "cause" to make this world a better place.

This is a really good book. At one time or another, everyone will need a book like this, or knows someone who will need a book like this. It’s short, with one suggestion per page, it’s very easy to read, and it says a lot. Highly recommended.

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There is a piece on having cataract surgery. What happens when chestnuts roasting on an open fire are left on the fire for too long? It is much easier to find a new job than it is to put the shine back on a tarnished reputation. Local TV news seems to consist of about 15 minutes of real news, and 1 hour and 45 minutes of advertising, filler trivia and political sucking up. There is a piece on people who feel this overwhelming need to shout in public, even if the person they are talking to is only a couple of feet away. Bible thumpers are the worst in the shouting department; it is as if they want everyone to know that they are a holy person.

The author talks about the mechanics of producing a book, from original idea to finished product. He talks about death and funerals, which is a way to celebrate a life and to let the survivors begin the emotional healing process. Computer tech support people generally treat everyone as if they know nothing about computers.

In this book are limericks, short stories, a couple of songs, sayings, and rants about HMOs and about getting old; both humorous and serious. This collection of writing is really good. It is the sort of book that can be picked up and read starting anywhere in the book. There is something in it for everyone. If a particular piece is not appealing, give it a few pages and it will change. Well worth checking out.

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A year later, Hesper is your average high school student. One day, she meets an interesting boy in a wheelchair who likes hang gliding. Tristan has found a way to travel between planes and keep his memory. He just had to give up some other part of his body, like use of his legs. Hesper is reluctant to accept that she may have had a previous life with wings, but accept she does. The two travel to another plane, called the Barren Plane, where supposedly nothing lives. They meet a race of light beings called Dyaphinees, who tell Hesper that the Sending of Alulas to the human plane, is not the solution, but the problem. Hesper also discovers, to her shock, that her friend Tristan is not exactly who he says he is.

This is a young adult novel that is not just for young adults. It’s fresh, interesting, very easy to read, and well worth the reader’s time.

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In his early teens, he is sent to a faraway castle, run by a man named Dodo, to learn how to be a soldier. He spends his winters at the monastery at Metz to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, a rarity. He marries, and starts a family, knowing that if Plectruda gets her hands on any of them, their life span will be very short. Charles rises through the ranks at the castle, becoming Captain of the Guard. Meantime, the throne in Cologne keeps changing hands, usually through assassination. One night, Charles receives the wife and teenage daughter of Grimwald, the latest occupant of the throne and one of Plectruda’s sons. They tell a harrowing tale of fleeing at night, with just the clothes on their backs. Charles and the daughter have a child and get married, almost wrecking his marriage to Rotruda, his wife, but there is a reason for it.

Around the year 700, the Franks in northern Europe were a bunch of disorganized tribes, constantly attacking each other. Charles unites them under his banner, and takes the name Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). The book ends with the first battles with a heretofore unknown group, the Muslims, coming from the southwest.

This is a gem of a book. As much as possible, it is based on historical fact. The author can trace her ancestry back to this time period, to a man named Pepin the Vain (read part 1 of this trilogy). It’s interesting, very well done and recommended.

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Isaac is an eccentric scientist studying Chaos Theory. One day, he is approached by Yagharek, a member of a race called the Garuda (half-man, half-bird). Yagharek’s wings had been chopped off his back as punishment for a major crime, so he commissions Isaac to make him a new set of wings. As part of his research, Isaac acquires hundreds of species of flying things, from the smallest bug to the largest bird. He also studies the process by which caterpillars turn into butterflies. Deciding that his research is going in the wrong direction, Isaac gets rid of the rest of his "collection," and keeps a strange, multi-colored caterpillar that thrives on a very powerful and addictive drug. One night, it emerges from its cocoon as a slake-moth.

Slake-moths are flying, nocturnal creatures, whose wings show an ever-changing color pattern, hypnotizing anyone instantly. This gives the slake-moth the chance to feed on a person’s thoughts, feelings and fears, leaving them in a permanent vegetative state. The Ambassador from Hell is asked to help in stopping the moths (there are now 5 of them terrorizing the city) and declines. The Weaver, a giant spider that can easily move between dimensions and has a liking for scissors, joins the hunt. How does one stop, or even slow down, creatures who can hypnotize anyone instantly?

This is a great steampunk novel. Put Charles Dickens, Franz Kafka and Neal Stephenson together in a blender, add a dash of Neal Gaiman and H.P. Lovecraft, and this is the result. It’s a long novel, about 700 pages, and the body count gets rather high by the end, but this novel is very much recommended.

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Tom Wright is a CIA agent who has been sent to Guatemala with the mission of rescuing Mr. Gray, an Australian banker. He has supposedly been kidnapped by the EGP, a guerilla organization. Wright must deal with the Guatemalan government to complete his mission. His past catches up with him in the form of Sandra Herrera, the first love of his life. She has married into one of Guatemala’s most powerful families. Their sudden meeting causes Tom to lose his professional equilibrium and puts him in great danger.

Like many others in Guatemala, Herrera’s motives are murky, and she seems to have multiple connections (to the drug trade, the EGP and the oligarchy). Their rekindled relationship gets Tom in trouble with the Guatemalan army and the US Embassy, increasing the possibility of his own abduction by other guerilla groups who know of his presence.

This is a fine piece of writing. It’s a rather "quiet" spy novel, more Graham Greene than Tom Clancy. It does a good job of showing that people, even past loves, are not always what they seem. This is well worth reading.

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Kyle Pemberton is a Wall Street IT whiz. He takes on a special overseas assignment at his firm after the death of his friend, and predecessor, under mysterious circumstances. Kyle notices that one of the firm’s freelance consultants is acting strangely, so he, electronically, follows the consultant. After running into the Control Grid, Kyle enlists friends and colleagues to launch an incursion into the shadowy world of networks and communication lines.

The group attracts the attention of Cyberjihad, of which the consultant is a member, a terrorist organization trying a different approach to destabilize the world’s security and economy. They have released a sort of super-virus into the Grid. It grows and grows, sucking up more and more of the Grid’s computing power, until, for instance, the decision needs to be made to shut down America’s missile shield, or let it collapse due to lack of computer power to keep it operational. The terrorists attempt to use the Control Grid to eliminate Kyle and friends, bringing about an international crisis.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is very much of a modern-day, high-tech thriller in the Tom Clancy mold. This story has "movie" written all over it. For anyone who wants an exciting, action-packed read, this is very much worth the time.

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This might not be so significant, except for the fact that the end of the Golden Circle Alliance had long been prophesied. Also prophesied was the emergence of a human heir, King Thine’s daughter, that would re-forge the bonds between the races. After many years of fear and distrust between former allies, few are willing to consider this alleged savior as anything more than a folk legend. Does Pax really exist, or is this just a tale to raise people’s spirits?

This story may seem a little basic, but keep in mind that at the time of publication, the author was only 16 years old. If this is the work of a teenager, then keep an eye on this author, for in the future she will be a force to be reckoned with. This is a good story to introduce people to fantasy fiction, and fantasy veterans will enjoy it.

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The most practical documents to obtain for an identity thief are a Social Security Card or a driver’s license (usually stolen and altered). With those, anything is possible, from getting new credit cards to cleaning out bank accounts. Administration of these systems is chaotic, and faking is easy.

The lead federal agency dealing with identity theft is the Federal Trade Commission. A problem with any federal investigation of a specific case is that the amounts are usually small, perhaps a few thousand dollars, and the victim and perpetrator usually live in different states (cost efficiency and jurisdiction). Therefore, the first responder will most likely be the local police department.

Preventing identity theft starts with the consumer. It is not possible to fill in all ID "holes," but things can be done, like safeguarding personal information, to make a thief go elsewhere. The consumer is responsible for notifying the authorities of illegal activity; the bank or credit card won’t do it. Clean out your wallet or purse. Keep a photocopy of your license, credit cards, etc. in a safe place, in case it is stolen. Get things like bank account numbers, PIN numbers, passports and birth certificates out of there, and into a fireproof box at home. When ID theft is discovered, document all letters and phone calls, no matter what.

This book is excellent. It’s small, so it can easily fit in a pocket or purse, and it is packed with easy to understand information. For those who are concerned about, or are victims of, ID theft, this is very much worth reading.

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For months, they lived in an unheated, unfinished cottage paid for by Tom that used to be stables. He suddenly became demanding and inconsiderate, spending as little time with the girls as possible. He was away at work all day, and when he was home, he spent most of his time on his laptop computer. Later, after they moved to a real apartment, the two separated, Lana keeping custody of the girls. Lana’s family, in America, begged her to take the girls and return to America. That window was closed when Tom asserted his visitation rights in court, even though he wasn’t the birth father, mandating that the court confiscate Lana’s passport.

After one overnight visit with Tom, both girls came home showing strong evidence of sexual abuse. Lana couldn’t understand why Tom isn’t thrown in jail. Many trips to the local doctor later, the injuries haven’t healed. After a considerable period away from Tom, and the injuries still haven’t healed, the only "logical" answer is that Lana, their mother, has been sexually abusing her children (a charge she strongly denies).

There are many court appearances at which Tom asserts that Lana has deliberately turned the girls against their father. Custody of the children is taken away from Lana, and they are placed in foster care. Lana falls into a deep pit of depression, taking to alcohol and pills. Suicide is suddenly very tempting. Her visits with the children are strictly controlled and take place at the local social worker’s office. They are monitored for any "evidence" that Lana is controlling or manipulating the girls. Throughout this whole process, both girls make it as clear as possible that daddy hurts them and that they want to live with Mommy. Part of the reason why Tom wins every battle in the courts is that he is a fellow British citizen and Lana is, as one social worker put it, a "rude and obnoxious American."

To anyone who is moving overseas to live with a new spouse, especially if children are involved, be prepared. Know the laws of the other country ahead of time. Don’t assume that Mr. or Ms. Right “would never do something like that.” Also, don’t assume that the US Embassy will be there to help. Then, read this book. It’s rather unpleasant reading, but recommended.

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