October 6, 2005

Character Is Destiny by John McCain with Mark Salter: “John McCain and Mark Salter have written three acclaimed bestsellers, but Character Is Destiny may be their most influential and enduring book yet–a work for parents to share with their children, and, for Americans of all ages to read for inspiration and guidance.

McCain has been called “one of the most inspiring public figures of his generation” by The Washington Post. In Character Is Destiny, he shows us why, by telling the stories of celebrated historical figures and lesser-known heroes whose values exemplify the best of the human spirit. He illustrates these qualities with moving stories of triumph against the odds, righteousness in the face of iniquity, hope in adversity, and sacrifices for a cause greater than self-interest.

In Character Is Destiny we meet:

• Pat Tillman, whose patriotism obliged him to leave the riches and celebrity of the NFL for a soldier’s life in defense of his country

• Empress Theodora of Byzantium, whose courage shamed her husband and his court into defending their faith and civilization

• Winston Churchill, who, in a renowned eighteen-word remark, counseled schoolboys to “never give up”

• the Catholic priest in Auschwitz who offered to take a condemned man’s place

• a nun, formerly a comfortable Beverly Hills housewife, who works with prisoners in Mexico’s worst jails

• George Washington, whose wisdom and hard-earned self-control helped him survive the chaos of war.

These are just a few of the heroes of exemplary character whose portraits McCain offers here.”

Not a bad list. When John F. Kennedy did a similar exercise in PROFILES IN COURAGE, my great-grand-uncle Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar made the Elite Eight. For those who do not recall the details LQC Lamar was the Senator from Mississippi who gave the first famous Southern call for national reconciliation after the Civil War.

Character Is Destiny by John McCain with Mark Salter: “John McCain and Mark Salter have written three acclaimed bestsellers, but Character Is Destiny may be their most influential and enduring book yet–a work for parents to share with their children, and, for Americans of all ages to read for inspiration and guidance.

McCain has been called “one of the most inspiring public figures of his generation” by The Washington Post. In Character Is Destiny, he shows us why, by telling the stories of celebrated historical figures and lesser-known heroes whose values exemplify the best of the human spirit. He illustrates these qualities with moving stories of triumph against the odds, righteousness in the face of iniquity, hope in adversity, and sacrifices for a cause greater than self-interest.

In Character Is Destiny we meet:

• Pat Tillman, whose patriotism obliged him to leave the riches and celebrity of the NFL for a soldier’s life in defense of his country

• Empress Theodora of Byzantium, whose courage shamed her husband and his court into defending their faith and civilization

• Winston Churchill, who, in a renowned eighteen-word remark, counseled schoolboys to “never give up”

• the Catholic priest in Auschwitz who offered to take a condemned man’s place

• a nun, formerly a comfortable Beverly Hills housewife, who works with prisoners in Mexico’s worst jails

• George Washington, whose wisdom and hard-earned self-control helped him survive the chaos of war.

These are just a few of the heroes of exemplary character whose portraits McCain offers here.”

Not a bad list. When John F. Kennedy did a similar exercise in PROFILES IN COURAGE, my great-grand-uncle Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar made the Elite Eight. For those who do not recall the details LQC Lamar was the Senator from Mississippi who gave the first famous Southern call for national reconciliation after the Civil War.

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Posted by wfzimmerman to What’s New for Book-Lovers at 10/06/2005 06:23:41 PM

This reminds me of Charles Fair’s classic FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY. That was one of my best-loved books when I first became interested in military history.

William Weir’s FATAL VICTORIES, about the most tragic military triumphs in history, from Attila the Hun’s invasion of Gaul, to Bunker Hill, to the Fourth Crusade, to Pearl Harbor, to Claiborne Hancock at Pegasus, in a nice deal, by Edward Knappman at New England Publishing Associates (world).

Military triumphs are indeed both tragic and mesmerizing when viewed against a dark background.

1.5 Million Copies of Overlook’s Sudoku Books in Print–and Counting!

In July, The Overlook Press introduced the U.S. to a book of puzzles that Americans had never played, compiled by a U.K. puzzle master whose name no American recognized. The book was THE BOOK OF SUDOKU, and the puzzle master was Michael Mepham. Two months later, Michael Mepham’s Sudoku books dominate the market, and Overlook continues to bring puzzle enthusiasts and casual Sudoku fans new products. SUDOKU TO GO, the first rack-sized book on the market, is flying off of shelves across the country.

This is absolutely an inspirational story not just for puzzle fans but for independent book publishers. It’s all about recognizing and creating new niches!

New Scientist Shock tactics to destroy torpedoes - Technology: “THE US navy wants to protect its warships with a system that will destroy incoming torpedoes by firing massive underwater shock waves at them.

The ships would be equipped with arrays of 360 transducers each 1 metre square - effectively big flat-panel loudspeakers - running along either side of the hull below the waterline. When the ship’s sonar detects an incoming torpedo, the transducers simultaneously fire an acoustic shock wave of such intensity that the torpedo either detonates early or is disabled by the pulse’s crushing force, according to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is funding the project.”

I considered putting this under Science Phile, but I thought that might be somewhat misleading as to my perspective. I regard it as far more important that there may be an effective anti-torpedo technology — thus directly saving the lives of thousands of American sailors and indirectly protecting tens of thousands of Coalition combatants– than that on the relatively infrequent occasions when this device is tested or used, it may cause some harm to marine wildlife. Sorry, Flipper!

For better or worse, humans are the most important species on this precious green earth that shines so brightly against a dark background.

Update: Zoe Brain offers some plausible skepticism.

Leonardo Da Vinci: “Recently I found myself reading ‘The Da Vinci Code’ by Dan Brown. I had earlier in the week read Angels and Demons and enjoyed it. So thought I would see what all the fuss about ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was. Seeing as it had been on the bestseller list for what seemed like an absolute eternity. Anyway, the first four people I mentionned the fact that I was reading it too all said the same thing to me.

‘Good book. But it’s got a lousy ending’.

And unfortunately they were right. I won’t spoil it for you. But suffice to say that reading it is rather like eating a stale bar of chocolate that you find hidden in an old coat pocket after a month. It definitely retains some ‘must eat’ qualities; but all wrapped up with a rather unfortunate after taste that rather makes you wish you hadn’t bothered.”

Harsh!

I don’t quite agree. The thing I likied most about the book was the series of well-constructed puzzles. The problem with the ending is that the ending is also largely intellectual in nature … yes, Langdon has a feeling of reverence, etc., but it’s not quite the same as a book where everything is constructed to lead to a crushing emotional revelation at the end.

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=NUKELABS-10-05-05&cat=WW: “Consolidate nuclear-bomb-making plants, panel says

By JAMES W. BROSNAN
Scripps Howard News Service
October 05, 2005

WASHINGTON - An advisory panel is telling the Department of Energy to consolidate its nuclear-bomb-making facilities into one isolated, secure site to make a new generation of warheads.

The recommendation from the Energy Advisory Board, if adopted by the administration and Congress, would mean a loss of jobs from some of the nation’s historic weapons laboratories, including Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore.

The report also questions why the department needs three expensive supercomputers, Red Storm at Sandia, Q at Los Alamos and Blue Gene at Livermore.

The nuclear-weapons complex is now spread among five different facilities, including the three design labs, Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico, Livermore in California, and two production facilities, the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas.

‘All of the production elements are quite old and antiquated and we propose that all should be replaced,’ said David Overskei, chairman of the board’s Nuclear Weapons Complex Infrastructure Task Force and president of Decision Factors Inc. of San Diego.

Overskei said the threat of espionage dictated that the complex be spread out in the 1940s and ’50s, but now the threat is terrorism.

Destroy any of the ‘five single points of failure’ and ‘you have lost the ability to produce a nuclear weapon,’ said Overskei.

Even a ‘partially successful’ terrorist attack on Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, the Y-12 plant or the Pantex site ‘may cause collateral damage’ to the surrounding civilian populations, the report said.”

Fascinating. But in a proliferated world, all assets must be distributed assets. The politically unpalatable right answer is to make the nuclear weapons production complex muiltiply redundant. Tough sell!