Solar Minimums and Gold rushes

Reading slashdot, my favorite geek news site, I saw this story about the current low solar activity that may be affecting our world, and then saw the link to the Dalton Minimum, a period in late 1700's to early 1800's of low solar activity that may have helped cause the Year Without a Summer. Besides having a dramatic name, it may have contributed to the deaths of 10's of thousands of people, the westward migration in the US, and for those of you who care about Mormon history, the Smith family's move from Vermont to Palmyra.

I don't know about you, but my history teachers never mentioned any such thing, and in fact, never mentioned anything about science unless it was about something being invented. Steam engines, cotton gins, factories, paper, and printing presses got plenty of screen time. But using science to help explain history is a rare talent, but it sounds fascinating to me...

p.s. I'm pretty sure the existence of solar minimums can neither prove nor disprove climate change(at least on their own), but they're an interesting component to our weather systems.

Beatrice and Virgil

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An atmospheric fable about the holocaust. While it can be criticized as thinly veiled autobiographical authorial navel-gazing, I felt the writing of the fable, the feeling of the story well outweighed the meta meta-ness of it all.



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Twelve

Twelve by Jasper Kent

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The prose is common, the perspective is first-person, the story is simple. The main character is a little blank and the twist at the end is no great revelation. The setting was very interesting, though it could have been better fleshed out, and the fantasy component had a nice small place in the world.



This is a small fantasy story with out any pretension to some grand effect on the world. Set in Russia, as Napoleon marches on Moscow, It is the story of Russian spies, and their efforts to destroy some poorly chosen allies. There is never a sense that the story could change the history, only that it might have happened parallel to history. Beware, this is a vampire story, but there are no teenagers, romance, or sparkles.



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Melinda the Muse

Melinda wrote about feeding the ducks. I took some moves, and here is my first attempt at a movie worth keeping. I've been playing with taking video on my camera ever since I got it, but this is the first time I consciously wanted to see if I could use it to make something we would want to keep. I apologize for some of the out-of-focus sections(but not all of them), and the microphone on the camera is useless in a light breeze, so I purposely turned off the sound.



click here to view a version in HD

The soundtrack is "Tables and Chairs" by Andrew Bird, and our favorite line is "There will be snacks, there will", since we spend a lot of time with the kids in our Nursery.

Prince of Nothing, vol 1 and 2

4/5

Dark prose, written with a more sophisticated voice than a lot of fantasy(that I read). The author has a knack for giving the history of the world a weight, and the characters are at times simply caught up in the great events of the time, or at other times, making decisions that change the path of the hundreds of thousands of people that make up the Holy War.

There is some sexual content, one of the main characters is a prostitute. The sexual content is disturbing, enough that I wish it were not in the book, but not so much that I didn't finish it, and I will finish the trilogy.

The Time Traveler's Wife

3.5/5

A good book about the strains and joys of marriage, with the accelerant of a time traveling husband. A bit too heavy on discussion of sex, though the author avoids actual sex scenes. But the discussion of frustrations of trying to have children, the joys of just being together, and having someone to come home to were quite satisfying.

Empress / Riven Kingdom

Empress
4/5
The first book in this trilogy was interesting, the story of a slave risen to become "Empress". The book is written without judgment of the society it portrays. The religion is dark, violent, and obsessed with blood, but the people worship sincerely. A fascinating idea, a "righteous", chosen people, chosen by a dark god.

Riven Kingdom
2/5
The most disappointing second book I have ever read. A simple Princess seizes her inheritance from grasping uncles story.

p.s. started this post back in April