AllPeers is a Firefox extension -- a plug-in that creates new capabilities in the browser -- that provides a basic peer-to-peer sharing capability in the remarkably popular browser.
It represents itself as a basic buddy list, with all of the simple presence capabilities such a list entails. But discovery and sharing of files is also supported. You can choose to share a file on your network with one or more buddies.
RSS feeds are also integrated. Newly shared files appear as RSS content and can be downloaded with a single click.
Obviously, corporate honchos should be aware that Firefox now has a P2P-sharing component and should act accordingly.
read more | digg story
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Monday, January 02, 2006
First 15 minutes of 9/11 attacks on the web
The Toronto Star has some original -- and riveting -- descriptions of the first 15 minutes of live TV/radio coverage of the 9/11 attacks.| The coverage of those fateful 15 minutes is among the most engrossing ever broadcast — and some of the most inadvertently telling, too, since it clearly reveals who among the anchors and correspondents got it right and who blew it, who could think on their feet and who couldn't, as the ultimate breaking news story unfolded. There are surprises. For example, Charles Gibson, co-anchor of ABC's Good Morning America, did an unexpectedly fine job of covering the moment when the second plane hit and was the only anchor on the three major U.S. networks to immediately speak up and tell us what had happened. Others, like Bryant Gumbel, the now-departed anchor of CBS's The Morning Show, contributed astonishingly awful reportage... "If Gumbel seemed to somehow miss the crash of the second plane, he was the only anchor who thought he saw non-existent third and fourth jets approach the burning towers at 9:41. "Hold it, hold it!" said a near-panicky Gumbel to his guest. "Two jets right now, approaching the World Trade Center! We're watching! Hold on!" |
read more
IMSDB -- not IMDB -- The Internet Movie Script Database
The world's largest collection of movie scripts: IMSDB. And, yes, they even have the script for Reservoir Dogs.
An Unremarkable Declaration of War, Part II
Hassan Abbassi is the head of the Center for External Security Doctrinal Analysis, a strategic component of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Abbassi appears to have arrived at a war plan for the West that would obliterate Anglo-Saxon civilization, starting with Britain.According to Abbassi, "Britain is the mother of all evils" seeing as how the remnants of the British Empire -- the U.S., Australia, Israel, New Zealand, the Gulf States, Canada, etc. -- turned out.
In a May lecture at Tehran University, Abbassi remarked:
| ...[The US has] 6,000 nuclear warheads on [its] soil. Those 6,000 warheads are the target of our plans. The guerilla groups will go and destroy those warheads there. Not Iranian guerilla groups, but groups from all Islamic countries. You can expel all of them. We are also working on the Mexicans and the Argentinians. We will organize everyone who has problems with America. When our Internet site goes up, the American friends should get hold of the address. We've prepared plans concerning the American Achilles' heal and their weaknesses. We have identified all of their weaknesses on land, in the air, by sea, their technological weaknesses, etc., and we will pass on addresses to the guerilla organizations of the entire world concerning these, America's weaknesses. We have established a department that will take care of England. England's demise is on our agenda. If America attacks us, Don't worry at all... Through the Straits of Hormuz, 67% of the world's total energy passes. You must know this. Imagine I'm gone and, God willing, you want to face America. Take a tanker to the Straits Of Hormuz and sink it there. The tanker won't sink because the water is shallow there - about 50 meters. The tanker itself is 55 meters high, and when it will lie on the surface, half of it will protrude. It will take five months until it will be salvaged. A rise in oil prices, as you have seen, causes the West fever. These are the weaknesses... |
Iran isn't Somalia. It is indeed a regional power, with a stated mission of destroying -- in its leaderships' own words -- all of "Anglo-Saxon civilization." How should we interpret this declaration of war? Our choices appear to be simple. Should the West excise Iran's ability to wage nuclear war? Or should it, in the words of Mark Steyn, "wait 'til we we've got absolute definitive 100% proof that [Iran's] got WMD - the absolute definitive 100% proof being a smoking crater where Tel Aviv used to be, or maybe London."
Pity the mainstream media can't expend the necessary energy to report this story, even if it's only to let Iran's intended victims make up their own minds.
Click here for Part I of An Unremarkable Declaration of War
Sunday, January 01, 2006
An Unremarkable Declaration of War
There's a credible news report out of Germany describing the possibility of a U.S. first-strike against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. It seems plausible, given the Mullahs' de facto declaration of war against the U.S., Israel, and the U.K.Wait a second, you say you didn't hear anything about a declaration of war by Iran against the West? Lest it get missed in the end-of-year news roundup (featuring Natalie Holloway, Kanye West, and Michael Brown), we call attention to Iran's top strategist, one Hassan Abbasi, who is on the record stating:
| We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization... we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them. |
Not inflammatory enough for you? Well, hit the play button on the tape of Iran's "President" Ahmadinejad in October:
| We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years... ...In this very grave war, many people are trying to scatter grains of desperation and hopelessness regarding the struggle between the Islamic world and the front of the infidels... Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable... |
Yes, my friends, you just heard a de facto declaration of war on our country by a totalitarian, fascist nutcase. And, as a free added bonus, he's a nutcase with messianic delusions.
In his speeches, Ahmadinejad frequently mentions the 12th Imam (or Mahdi), a messianic figure who vanished in 941 and whose return will herald "the end of days." Oh, goody. And Ahmadinejad even mentioned the Mahdi in his September speech at the UN. And he frequently discusses realignment of Iran's government to prepare for judgment day. Dee-lightful.
In August 2004, MEMRI's Steven Stalinsky, writing in The New York Sun, reported that some Iranians in the U.S. may have been performing recon missions:
| It was reported that America expelled two Iranian security guards employed by Tehran’s U.N. offices on June 29, after the mission was repeatedly warned against allowing its guards to videotape bridges, the Statue of Liberty, and New York’s subway system.This was the third time the Iranians have been caught in such activities, which could be connected to the sites mentioned in potential plans to attack America. |
So let's do the arithmetic: take a fascist dictator with delusions of messianic grandeur, add in a burgeoning nuclear weapons capability, fling in some reconnaissance missions, and then toss in a heaping dollop of hatred for the West. The result? A recipe only Adolf Hitler could love.
I guess this story isn't big enough for the likes of the New York Times. Or the Washington Post. Or the San Francisco Chronicle. Or, for that matter, any member of the mainstream media.
We're on the brink of catastrophe. And the mainstream media couldn't care less.
Click here for Part II of An Unremarkable Declaration of War
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Calling their Bluff
Over at Townhall, Tony Snow has excellent advice for the President: "Call their Bluff." He reckons that forcing a vote ought to flesh out the propriety of the NSA international wiretaps once and for all.| Note who has not spoken against the NSA program since the Times story broke. The list includes Harry Reid and Dick Durbin in the Senate; Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer in the House; and members of both intelligence committees. In other words, Democrats in the know either have supported the surveillance program or just kept their mouths shut. A straightforward vote would shut up the rest, highlighting vividly the gulf that separates a president responsible for national security from critics responsible to nobody. |
Commenter "Hyman Roth" begs to differ and asks:
| The president does and should have increased powers in times of war, but do you really think the "war" on terrorism qualifies as a real war? |
Let's see if we can figure this one out.
1) Has the enemy launched a massive surprise attack on the scale of Pearl Harbor? Check.
2) Has the enemy has promised to kill four million Americans, including "two million children"? Checkety-check.
3) Has the enemy repeatedly tried to acquire nuclear, chemical and/or biological weapons? Check and mate, bezatch.
Do the math, "Hyman". That is, if adding one and one together won't tax your noggin.
Ms. Coulter, in a highly entertaining column, also savages the Times for its NSA reporting, using everything but a taser and a cattle prod. The money quotes:
| After 9-11, any president who was not spying on people calling phone numbers associated with terrorists should be impeached for being an inept commander in chief... ...Either we take the politically correct, scattershot approach and violate everyone's civil liberties, or we focus on the group threatening us and ...worst-case... - run the risk of briefly violating the civil liberties of 1,000 [out of] 300 million. ...In the Democrats' world, there are two more options. Violate no one's civil liberties and get used to a lot more 9-11s, or the modified third option, preferred by Sen. John D. Rockefeller: Let the president do all the work and take all the heat for preventing another terrorist attack while you place a letter expressing your objections in a file cabinet as a small parchment tribute to your exquisite conscience. |
Jay Rockefeller's public display of CYA behavior is as weak-minded as it is disenguous. Why lock up a circumspect memo, when he could simply register a formal complaint with the Attorney General -- who was fully aware of this particular program? Oh, that's right, because there would be no political hay to be made with a practice the AG had already ruled legal.
And, despite the breathless reporting of the Times regarding the legality of the NSA intercepts, one need only check their archives to find this news report dated November 7, 1982:
| A federal appeals court has ruled that the National Security Agency may lawfully intercept messages between United States citizens and people overseas, even if there is no cause to believe the Americans are foreign agents. |
Would that the Times could even bother to check their own microfiche.
Top 8 Media Mulligans of 2005
The invaluable NewsBusters crew has awarded its Top 8 Media Mulligans of 2005. A "media mulligan" is similar to its cousin from the game of golf: pretend what happened really didn't, though everyone knows it did.The winners include:
1. The utter failure of the UN
2. Hillary Clinton - handle with kid-gloves only
3. Politicians on boths sides of the aisle aren't taken to task over the Border Problem
4. Iraq - the untold stories...
[Iraq reporting] can be summed up with one little paragraph from a story buried in the back of a single San Francisco Chronicle.
I'll assume those are the same biological and chemical weapons that never existed. |
5. They ought to print the The New York Times on plexiglass, because their anti-administration agenda is just that transparent
6. Fair Tax - a NYT best-seller, but you wouldn't know it by the (lack of) media coverage
7. Free Speech - no longer tolerated in certain circles
8. The Economy - shhhhhh... the economy is kickin' butt and takin' names.
Need I even say it? Read the whole thing™.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Paging James Wolcott
Reality -- in the form of Clifford D. May -- just left a message.| [Bin Laden and other militant religious extremists] -– the 21st century's most dynamic and dangerous form of totalitarianism -- is attempting to appeal to 1.2 billion Muslims living in more than a hundred countries... ...there are grievances to cite as [their] justification: For the poverty, unemployment and oppression that plague many Muslim societies, Militant Islamists blame Christians, Jews, Hindus and the “apostate” Muslims who collaborate with these “infidels.” ...Bin Laden and his ideological brethren promise that the conflict that has begun will not end until Muslims have the lands, power and status they demand and deserve. Lesser peoples are to be annihilated or subjugated. The Caliphate, the ancient empire established by Mohammed in the 7th century, is to rise again – and mosques will be built where churches and synagogues now stand. Tolerance and mutual respect among the great religions are, in their view, ludicrous concepts. More than that: They are blasphemous because they put the true religion on an equal footing with false faiths. Postmodern Americans and Europeans may believe wars of conquest are obsolete, a discarded relic of the distant past. They may even see war itself as an aberration, an unnatural disruption of what they have convinced themselves is the “normal” state of peaceful coexistence. But our enemies view the world differently. Their perspective is of an older vintage... |
"Postmodern Americans" includes, of course, the covey of useless pedants like Wolcott who have articulated the sum total of, at last count, zero solutions to the big-picture problem of Islamofascism. I mean, aside from retreat and appeasement, which didn't work for Communism or Nazism either.
But the track record of the Left ain't exactly stellar over the last thirty or so years. Maybe someday, Democratic leadership the likes of JFK, FDR and Truman will return, but that would take excising the cancerous Michael Moore/George Soros "monied moonbat" wing of the party, so don't count on it anytime soon.
Cat-fight: Parker vs. Dowd in a bitterness-fest
In case you missed it, Kathleen Parker appears to have entered her Maureen Dowd-style, middle-aged bitterness phase. Jaded and close-minded is no way to go through life, hon.
Combined with the recent Washington Post "drive by" of blogger Bill Roggio, the paranoia of old-style journalists is touching, if not humorous. Jack Kelly strikes an exposed nerve in describing the WaPo's hit-piece:
| Journalists don't like bloggers because they fact-check journalists. Bloggers like Bill Roggio and Michael Yon, a former Special Forces soldier who embedded with a Stryker battalion in Mosul, expand the threat posed by the new media. They're reporting news, and doing it better than "professional" journalists are. Messrs. Finer and Struck weren't reporting news when they slimed Bill Roggio. They were launching a preemptive strike against a new, but increasingly muscular, competitor. |
Here's a news flash, Kathleen, Finer & Struck: bloggers who are consistently wrong and/or uninteresting have no audience. The market decides. The blogosphere represents the most democratic publishing system on the planet. Better get used to the idea.
Hugh Hewitt wraps up the 2005 political season
In a nice wrapup of the 2005 political season, Hugh Hewitt is joined by Mark Steyn, Fred Barnes, and other notables for a memorable fire-side chat. Or, perhaps, just a chat. In any case, Radioblogger has the transcript, which is more enlightening than shining a halogen maglite into a coal mine.| HH: Mark Steyn, what about the attempt by Democrats to turn the president's ordering of surveillance of al Qaeda communicating with their American agents into the Nixon plumbers, part 2? MS: ...I think Rasmussen had a poll a day or two ago showing that 2/3rd of Americans believed that [the] National Security Agency should be allowed to intercept phone conversations between terrorist cells in other countries and people living in the United States. And the idea that the Democrats can go to the country and say oh, it's outrageous that this Achmed in Hamburg was calling a number in Virginia and New Jersey, and the government was listening in on the conversations. That is simply not going to play... the president has essentially become like one of these sort of creatures in a horror movie where the Democrats pump evermore ineffectual bullets into him, over Katrina, over Abu Ghraib, and now over this thing. And none of them resonate with the broader public... |
One Red Paper Clip
Here's a neat stunt that has "publicity bonanza" written all over it. Blogger Kyle MacDonald is on a quest: starting with a single red paper clip, he wants to trade up. All the way to a house. Using only trades -- and no currency -- MacDonald has already swapped his way from the lone paper-clip he started with to a snowmobile.One Red Paper Clip
Thursday, December 29, 2005
In the land of Brother Leader
The glories of socialism are described in exquisite detail by Michael Totten. His visit to Libya, home of "Brother Leader" Muammar Kaddaffi, is at once eye-opening and nausea-inducing. Of course, it's certain to be ignored by the barking moonbat brigade and "journalists" the likes of James Wolcott. Their real-world exposure to suffering is limited to a brief tooth-ache one afternoon following a Mounds Bar binge.Consider this yet another chapter in the list of catastrophic crimes inflicted against humanity by Communists and Socialists.
| When you visit another country, it’s hard to get a feel for what it’s actually like until you leave your hotel room, go for a walk, take a look around, and hang out while soaking it in. Not so in Libya. All you have to do there is show up. It will impose itself on you at once. My Air Afriquiya flight touched down on the runway next to a junkyard of filthy, gutted and broken-down Soviet aircraft in an airport otherwise empty of planes. When I stepped out of the hatch into the jetway, I came face to face with three uniformed military goons who scrutinized me and everyone else from behind reflective oversize sunglasses... |
LA Weekly: Michael Totten's In the Land of the Brother Leader
Book Review: Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald
Terrifying, Memorable, and Unique

Level 7 represents the journal of Officer X-127, a member of an elite Armed Forces unit. X-127 reports to the bottom-most layer (level 7) of a highly secure facility, where he is then ordered to set off a massive nuclear attack. The facility is a city unto itself, four thousand feet underground and fully prepared to withstand a direct attack and the resulting radiation for many decades.Chosen for their ability to follow orders and to withstand the confines of the facility, X-127 and his fellow officers must now come to grips with the fact that they may, in fact, never leave. The surface of the Earth has been transformed into a radiological wasteland, but those in the facility -- some of whom represent a "continuity of government" operation -- will be safe.
Or so it seems. Reports of radiation poisoning begin to filter in from the higher levels of the facility. With a gripping, impending sense of doom, Roshwald takes us on a journey into the true meaning of mutually assured destruction.
I first read this book upwards of 30 years ago. It has never left me. Was it because I was young? Impressionable? I don't know, but the book certainly left an indelible footprint in my mind that few, if any, other work can match. Whatever Roshwald constructed in Level 7 was utterly unique and memorable beyond description.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Holiday in Wartime
Received this email from a friend a few days ago. When I asked, he told me I could share it. And, as you'll see, it's certainly worth sharing.This is from one of my 'brothers' from the Gulf War - he was a platoon leader and I an XO/FSO at the time - who is in Iraq right now. Brings back memories. How things have changed there, but also how similar we all are, no matter where we come from or what we have done.... Most of all, Peace on earth and goodwill towards all. May you have the best Christmas ever. B
|
Harry Reid: Unfrozen Caveman Leader
From James Taranto's never-to-be-missed Best of the Web:| "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! . . . When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he's so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain. But whatever world you're from, I do know one thing--in the 20 years from March 22, 1972, when he first ordered that extra nicotine be put into his product, until February 25, 1992, when he issued an interoffice memorandum stopping the addition of that nicotine, my client was legally insane."-- Phil Hartman as "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer," "Saturday Night Live," March 23, 1996 "Mr. President, maybe I didn't have the education of a lot of my friends. I was educated in a little school in Searchlight, Nev. We didn't have English class. Maybe my choice of words wasn't perfect. Maybe I should have said we killed the conference report. But the fact is, that is what we had done. People can try to change the words and the meaning of it all they want, but that is what happened. I may not have the ability to express myself like the folks who were educated in all these private schools and fancy schools, but I understand the Senate rules. Everyone knows that cloture was defeated, killed, whatever you want to call it. That means that cloture was defeated and that bill is still before the Senate."-- Harry Reid as "Unfrozen Caveman Leader," "U.S. Senate," Dec. 19, 2005 |
The echo chamber
The invaluable D.J. Drummond, writing at PoliPundit opines:| I didn’t note it yesterday, but on Sunday I was watching the “Meet The Idiots” and what to my flu-sick eyes did appear, but Tim Russert, Ted Koppel, and Tom Brokaw, discussing the proper role of humility and candor in a President. It was baffling, I have to admit, trying to see how these chattering hairpieces say the same thing to each other, echoing various Democrat talking points from the year past, then effusively praise each other for the insight in repeating what they have been schlocking all year. I guess they ran out of sound-byte politicos and DNC mouthpieces, and were reduced to interviewing each other. |
Indeed™.
Dad, what's the blow-hole for?
Top-rated quotes from Family Guy:| (Brian and Stewie are on a German tour bus.) German Tour Guide: You vill find more on Germany's contributions to ze arts in ze pamphlets ve have provided. Brian : Yeah, about your pamphlet... uh, I'm not seeing anything about German history between 1939 and 1945. There's just a big gap. Tour guide: Everyone vas on vacation. On your left is Munich's first city hall, erected in 15... Brian : Wait, what are you talking about? Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and... Tour Guide: We were invited. Punch vas served. Check vit Poland. Brian : You can't just ignore those years. Thomas Mann fled to America because of Nazism's stranglehold on Germany. Tour guide: Nope, nope. He left to manage a Dairy Queen. Brian : A Dairy Queen? That's preposterous. Tour guide: I vill hear no more insinuations about the German people. Nothing bad happened. Sie werden sich hinsetzen. Sie werden ruhig sein. Sie werden nicht beleidigen Deutschland. You will sit down. You will shut up. You will not insult Germany. (Throws his hand up in a Hitler salute.) Brian : Uh, is that a beer hall? Tour guide: (Snapping out of it) Oh yes, Munich is renowned for its historic beer halls. Peter (after Lois tells him he's childish): "If I'm a child that means you're a pedophile, and I'll be damned if i'm going stand here and take this from a pervert." Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.' Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios. Peter: Well, I'm gettin' something really special too. And by special I don't mean special like that Kleinaman boy down the street. More special like... like Special K, the cereal. Hey, what do they do with the regular K? And for that matter, what ever happend to K. Ballard? You know, if you said mallard and you had a cold, it would sound like ballard. Brian: Do you listen to yourself when you talk? Peter: I drift in and out. Chris: Dad, what's the blow-hole for? Peter: I'll tell you what it's not for, son. And when I do, you'll understand why I can never go back to Sea World. |
Top-rated Family Guy Quotes
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Your modern Mediacratic party in action
The Telegraph reports that Europe's recent rollup of terrorist cells helps outline the scope of Zarqawi's network. It is thought to encompass 40 countries -- but the Mediacrats would have us believe that the United States isn't one of them, since they'd render the NSA's international wiretaps off limits if they have their way.| A growing number of terrorism investigations in Britain, Germany, Bosnia, Denmark and most recently Spain and France are linked to [Zarqawi]... counter-terrorism officials are worried [he] could be planning to use his base in Iraq to start attacking Europe... officials are particularly worried by indications that he wants to recruit white extremists who will be more difficult to detect than Arabs or Asians. [A British source noted,] "Even before the invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi had a network in Europe that provided funds and recruits..." Germany's leading intelligence official, August Henning, said... "We are seeing increasing noises in Europe and that causes us great concern," |
But, no, we shouldn't intercept communications from Al Qaeda cells in the US to international destinations. That would violate the terrorists' privacy. At least that's what the Mediacrats are telling us.
Michael Barone, writing at Real Clear Politics:
| [I]t would be a very weird interpretation of the Constitution to say that the commander in chief could order U.S. forces to kill America’s enemies but not to wiretap - or, more likely these days, electronically intercept - their communications. |
Yes, it would be weird, but no weirder than the New York Times choosing to ignore all available legal research behind the NSA wiretap story, including this snippet from a New York Times story dated 11/7/1982:
| A federal appeals court has ruled that the National Security Agency may lawfully intercept messages between United States citizens and people overseas, even if there is no cause to believe the Americans are foreign agents. |
And it's certainly no weirder than naming Howard Dean the chairman of your party. Or inviting Michael Moore to sit in a presidential box-seat during your convention. Or inventing birdcage liner like the Al Qaqaa story, which was nothing more than a gussied-up cow chip dressed as newsprint and positioned to swing a presidential election. Or dispensing thousands of stories advocating the pursuit of those who disclosed Valerie Plame's identity, but none advocating an investigation of the far more damaging NSA leak.
But, hey, that's your modern Mediacratic party in action.
And, of course, regarding Barone's article: Read The Whole Thing™.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Book Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring
You won't be confused by the plot

I'm a sucker for historical fiction. Gary Jennings' Aztec and Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth are probably the most enjoyable examples of period fiction based upon historical fact (with plenty of author's license utilized, to be sure). For an educator, historical fiction is a great way to introduce the study of a period without the usual commensurate pain.Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring was laying around our house (required reading by my 16 year-old for her AP history class, I believe). The reviews on the back cover were stunning: the Times, Journal, Chronicle and others waxed eloquently; depicting the novel as a compelling blend of 17th century Holland, the paintings of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, and the origins of one of his most famous paintings.
The painting is, of course, "Girl with a Pearl Earring," also known as "the Mona Lisa of the north." An enigmatic young woman is featured in the painting (and on the book's cover). She is imagined by Chevalier to be one of Vermeer's maids named Griet. Griet is shy, intelligent, and too-pretty-for-her-own-good. Forced into servitude by her father's unexpected blindness, Griet becomes an essential part of Vermeer's busy household.
Cleverly navigating the domestic politics of a household spilling with children, a grandparent, and other maids, Griet soon finds herself receiving attention not only from Vermeer's wealthiest patron but also the great master himself. How she deals with these difficulties forms the very essence of the book.
Unfortunately, the book's plot is so simplistic as to be almost 233 pages of nothingness. Imagine a Seinfeld episode taking place in the 17th century without any humorous characters, and you've pretty much got the idea. As for 17th century Holland, consider it unvisited. There were few details that would satisfy the mildly curious, not to mention someone truly interested in the period. Despite an elegant writing style, this book could have been the length of a magazine article without missing a beat.
Book Review: Old Man's War
A worthy successor to Starship Troopers

In my biennial foray into the Science Fiction genre, Scalzi's first novel came highly recommended by Amazon's algorithms. As a huge fan of Heinlein and, especially, Starship Troopers, Old Man's War promised a similar terrain of interstellar warfare spearheaded by Earth and mankind.Scalzi doesn't disappoint. His clever, to-the-point plot introduces John Perry, a widower just turned 75. By dint of his age, Perry is now eligible to join the Colonial Defense Forces, a shadowy crew pledged at expansion of mankind's footprint throughout the galaxy. Perry doesn't have much to lose, after all. Though details of his transformation into a CDF soldier remain classified on Earth, he's lost his beloved wife and is fully aware of his diminishing physical and mental abilities.
After signing up for what appears to be a two-year stint, he soon finds out that his term is going to be closer to a decade. But he'll have the body to match. His physical transformation into a super soldier -- no spoilers here -- is truly remarkable. But he'll need every bit of his new capabilities because the enemies arrayed against humankind are powerful, enigmatic, and quite violent.
Scalzi has woven together compelling technical details (the physics behind the interstellar "skip" drive), including genetic engineering, the tactics of interstellar warfare, human-computer interfaces, and robotics into a first-class story. Fans of Starship Troopers won't be disappointed. And those who relish Heinlein stories will be clamoring for more Scalzi.
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