They don't publish what they used to (but they still write them!)

"Novels of the earlier generations caused a stir, interested the minds of teenagers, and affected their beliefs and passions. Novels had an effect on the population and influenced their generation of readers. These days, novels cause gossip columns and new Halloween costumes. There is no emotional attachment; we don’t believe in the movement. [...]

Substance is the issue with our generation. What do our novels have to say? And more importantly, what are the readers getting out of them? What impact do they leave on our generation? Nothing of substance. Nothing to put these novels on shelves".

Source: http://hypervocal.com/culture/2011/has-our-generation-become-victims-of-the-unfortunate-evolution-of-literature/

Can't find what you'd like to read? Talk to publishers, they likely have these manuscripts colecting dust on their desks (slush pile) or, better yet, get them directly from authors.

Women Spies of the Civil War

"Raised in a wealthy slave-holding family in Richmond, Virginia, Elizabeth Van Lew developed strong abolitionist sympathies as a young adult, particularly after attending a Quaker school in Philadelphia. After her father’s death in 1843, Van Lew convinced her brother to free their slaves, many of whom stayed on as paid servants. When war broke out, Van Lew and her mother began visiting Union soldiers held in Richmond’s brutal Libby Prison, bringing them clothing, food and medicine. She helped men escape, smuggled out letters for them and gathered valuable information about Confederate strategy from both prisoners and guards.

In late 1863, Union General Benjamin Butler recruited Van Lew as a spy; she soon became the head of an entire espionage network based in Richmond. With the help of her servants—including Mary Bowser, an important spy in her own right—Van Lew sent coded messages to Union officers, often using invisible ink and hiding the dispatches in hollowed-out eggs or vegetables. She convinced new members to join her covert ring, including a high-ranking official at Libby Prison.

By war’s end, Van Lew had become a pariah in her own community but earned the respect of General Ulysses S. Grant, who appointed her postmaster of Richmond. She spent her final days in poverty, having used up her family’s entire wealth on espionage activities. The family of a Union officer she had assisted during the war—who happened to be the grandson of Paul Revere—provided for her until her death in 1900."

More: http://www.history.com/news/2011/08/23/secret-agents-in-hoop-skirts-women-spies-of-the-civil-war/

Fascinating reads for the end of summer | LitBash 37

Looking for a fascinating book to read before the end of the summer? Start with writers who were...

Born this week:

Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgium
"We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us."

Robert Merle, France

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, UK
"It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world."

Theophile Gautier, France
"There is nothing truly beautiful but that which can never be of any use whatsoever; everything useful is ugly"

Walter Scott, Scotland
"A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect."

William Saroyan, USA
"The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops."

Eldridge Cleaver, USA
"The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less."

Edgar Rice Burroughs, USA
"I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other."

Paul Bourget, France
"At certain moments, words are nothing; it is the tone in which they are uttered."

Hans Aanrud, Norway

Ignacio Agusti, Spain

Francois de Chateaubriand, France
"As soon as a true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects which we have never perceived before."

Leonard Frank, Germany

Died this week:

Henri Barbusse, France
"Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide."

Ilya Ehrenburg, Russia
"You could cover the whole world with asphalt, but sooner or later green grass would break through."

Goffredo Parise, Italy

Giuseppe Giacosa, Italy

Francois Mauriac, France
"One can touch a living soul through a curtain of vice and crime no matter how dense and dark: but vulgarity is an insurmountable barrier."

Johannes Bobrowski, Germany

J.R.R. Tolkien, UK
"Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures."

Ivan Turgenev, Russia

Jean Rostand, France
"I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell."

Victor Nekrasov, Russia

Georges Simenon, France
"Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy."

Q: War, what is it good for? A: Re-inventing old technology.

A suppressed century-old technology may come back to life. Tesla's wireless electricity gets a new chance, and we can thank wars for it:

"The push for wireless power is a problem born of an increasingly technology-equipped military. GIs in the field lug a lot of handheld electronic gadgetry — about five to ten pounds of just battery weight, according to Darpa. On top of that, the Defense Department keeps coming up with ideas for yet more portable electronic gear, from Android-based smart phones to universal translators. All that gear needs juice to keep going on long missions. If troops are out on patrol, they can’t just find a convenient socket to stop and plug in. Darpa’s hoping its wireless power system can prove a solution to energy needs in the field without adding a tangled mess of charger cords.

Wireless power transmission may sound like Tesla-inspired science fiction, but the technology behind it isn’t that exotic."

Source and More

Although Tesla's invention taps into unlimited free source of power (the only cost being a transmitter and receiver), you can exect to pay for it through the nose.

What triggers Echelon?

While browsing through some old files I found this little ditty by Kieren McCarthy, from May 31, 2001:

"What are those words that trigger Echelon?  According to various UK media sources today, the buzzwords said to trigger the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand spying mechanism Echelon have been "posted on the Internet". We haven't found the file and it hasn't popped up on the authoritative site for these sorts of things, Cryptome.org, so we'd not put too much weight behind it. However, just for your interest, we give you a quick run-through on what some of the words are. There are the obvious phrases like "Kill the President" which caused two schoolboys from the UK to be quizzed by special branch, "anarchy", "echelon" :-), "nuclear", "assassinate".

Then there are ones that are dodgy (cause they fit in with X-file type paranoia) like "Roswell", "Waco", "World Trade Center", "Soros" - after George Soros, "Whitewater". Then there are a suspiciously large number of hacker names: Furby, Bugs Bunny, Bubba the Love etc. But just when we thought it was obviously some script-kiddie hoax, a few interesting words crop up: FRU - the cover name for the SAS in Northern Ireland, Lebed - an ex-Russian general, now a politician, HALO - a type of parachute jump, Spetznaz - the Russian SAS, Al Amn al-Askari - a member of the Iraqi cabinet, Glock 26 - a ceramic handgun that can't be detected by airport scanners (a reader informs us that the Glock 26 is only partly ceramic, the bullets are metal and is can be detected at airports - so we should really shift this one into the X-file list), Steak Knife - the codename for an IRA double agent, And so on and so forth. Go through them carefully to satisfy your paranoid fantasies (you'll be safe under the bed, trust us)."

I don't recall where this piece appeared so the only credit given is the above.

For more on Echelon visit SpyWriter.

Enhancing ebooks

"Enhanced books are truly amazing. It seems like everyday a new kind of enhancement is announced or shown off. Videos and images can be embedded or made to pop up, text can be hyperlinked, music can be played, table of contents and indexes can be reinvented and repurposed. But while it’s fascinating to see what can be done, we need to ask ourselves should it be done. Developers can build just about anything, because they’re such a talented bunch, but that doesn’t mean the reader wants it in their e-book."

More: http://www.booknetcanada.ca/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=2514&Itemid=319

I suggest that the only enhancement in ebooks should be spelchecking...

Nuclear explosion caused earthquake

"A frightening foreign military intelligence directorate (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin states that over the past nearly 48 hours the vast intercontinental military tunnel complex constructed by the United States Air force over the past nearly 45 years was hit with two powerful nuclear explosions at its main terminuses in Colorado and Virginia used nearly exclusively by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

According to this report, this unprecedented nuclear attack began on the evening of 22 August when one of the main air pressure relief tunnels for this CIA tunnel, located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Florida, was forced open allowing millions of cubic feet of air to rush suddenly into the atmosphere.

Unbeknownst to the vast majority of the American people is that the vast military tunnel network constructed since the early 1960’s under their country has cost an estimated $40 trillion and with the exception of this attack shows no sign of abating."

From: http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/25-Aug-2011/Russia-reports-Nuclear-explosions-hit-vast-US-military-tunnel-network

That' what happens when CIA crosses ISI, who can flood the English-language newscasts with such tales.