Blogcritics.org: Review: Secrets of the Widow’s Son by David Shugarts: “I admit here that I haven’t read The Da Vinci Code. I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail long ago. But I enjoyed every page of Secrets of the Widow’s Son. Armed with what I’ve learned, I’m ready for Brown’s sequel.”

Good grief. He hasn’t even read The Da Vinci Code and he’s looking forward to The Solomon Key. He makes the rest of us look good.

My buddy John Kerry has written to tell me:

Dear Friend,

In a few hours, I will deliver a major address at Brown University about what the rage and destruction of Katrina have revealed. I want you to be one of the first to read and reflect upon the text of this speech for a very simple reason…

He is running for President! Gee, that was simple.

Publishers Marketplace reports that:

“26-year-old British private and Victoria Cross winner Johnson Beharry’s memoir of the war in Iraq and his heroic exploits, to Little, Brown UK, at auction, presumed to be for 1 million pounds”

Hard to imagine they’ll make their money back … but a good place to waste it.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam’s nephew jailed for life: “A nephew of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to life in prison for funding insurgents and making bombs, Iraqi officials said”

Unless, of course, the Baathists take power again. A life sentence in this situation has got to feel a lot more provisional than in a country with a stable government. Life sentence? Bring it on, baby!

FT.com / World / Middle East & Africa - Saudi campaign to dissuade radicals from joining jihad: “Saudi campaign to dissuade radicals from joining jihad”

Good thinking! Four years, eight days too late, and counting.

Kozlowski sentenced to up to 25 years in prison; Swartz gets - Sep. 19, 2005: “NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was sentenced to 8-1/3 to 25 years in prison Monday for his part in stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the manufacturing conglomerate.”

Ouch.

“Since they received a sentence of more than six years, they likely will be sent to one of New York’s maximum security prisons, which include Attica and Sing Sing.”

Triple ouch.

Dear Dad, Following is the review I would like you to place on your website for the book, READY OR NOT by Meg Cabot. As following: Recently, I read the novel, sequel to ‘All-American Girl,’ ‘Ready or Not,’ by Meg Cabot; also sometimes known as Jenny Carroll. In ‘Ready or Not,’ Meg Cabot once again expertisely portrays a teenage girl, a job which she does so well. Sam’s relationships grow stronger as Ms. Cabot’s writing does. I give it 3.75 stars out of 4.00. A must-read for Cabot fans and all! Love, Kelsey

Martin, A Storm of Swords (preorder): Subterranean Press: “A Storm of Swords
By George R.R. Martin
(preorder–not yet published)

Illustrated by Charles Vess

Limited: $260
Lettered: $395 (Inquire)
Matching numbered copies of A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords: $510
Matching lettered copies of A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords: $1000″

Is there really anything sensible to say about spending $1000 for a beautiful book with the letter “A” inscribed in its front papers?

Pentagon May Have Doubts on Preemptive Nuclear Moves: “One former senior combatant commander said that planning for preemptive use of nuclear and conventional weapons was included in past doctrinal statements, but never in unclassified versions. ‘This is just a draft, but represents the lack of expertise on the part of some Pentagon staff members’ for including it in an unclassified document, he said.”

So the new news here isn’t the doctrine, it’s that the doctrine was mistakenly unclassified.

When the wishful thinking ends.

The Dinosaur mailing list (Dinosaur@USC.EDU) reports that at the next meeting of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology,

“Greg Erickson and others will assess bite force parameters and output in crocodylians, and show that despite jaw variation, tooth variation, fossil and extant Crocodylia have shown little change in bite force capacity, and this is apparently consistent between *Alligator* and *Crocodilus* even during ontogeny. The bone crushing bites are apparently quite ancient.”

–this is exactly what one would expect from the fact that crocs have been so well-adapted over the eons, isn’t it? One would also expect little change in performance parameters associated with, say, cockroaches …

– what would be interesting to look at is whether there has been any improvement in crocs’ sensing capabilities and neurological hardware … The jaws are near-perfect weapons “hardware” but it might be just as impressive that the same basic “detection & attack” software has worked so reliably for hundreds of millions of years … That’s quite a bit better than we are able to do with our software, human or computer-based!