12-06-2003 07:09									#91
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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui quote: Dude, I'm reading the book now... it's very clear. Ryan was the National Security Advisor, but accepted the role as VP, and within a few hours, the plane hit. Yeah, it is clear... he was a CABINET MINISTER. Accepting the role doesn't mean a damned thing unless you are confirmed by the Senate (for a vacancy). IIRC, the State of the Union was about this... though I may be off a bit.

It says in the book-jacket "the man who only minutes before had been confirmed as the new Vice-President"

	12-06-2003 07:11									#92
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quote: Originally posted by Tuberski Yes it was the same character. Not in the movies but in the book he is the same. ACK!

I never read any of the Clancy "movie" books.

	12-06-2003 07:18									#93
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quote: It says in the book-jacket "the man who only minutes before had been confirmed as the new Vice-President"

If that's true, then Clancy ****ed up.

	12-06-2003 07:19									#94
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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui quote: It says in the book-jacket "the man who only minutes before had been confirmed as the new Vice-President" If that's true, then Clancy ****ed up.

because the great Imran is never wrong

	12-06-2003 07:21									#95
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quote: because the great Imran is never wrong

Because you can't have a damn State of the Union address without the Vice-President! And if it wasn't the State of the Union, then the Supreme Court should have been no where near there.

Clancy ****ed up because that's not the way the government works... not because I'm always right (even though that's true as well ).

	12-06-2003 08:49									#96
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I'm halfway through Bill Bryson's new book A Short History of Nearly Everything.

This is a great book for layman about science. Bryson looks at things like how do we know how much the earth weighs, or how old it is, evolution and genetics.

What's equally interesting are the stories Bryson tells about the famous and not-so-famous scientists.

The book is extremely well-written and covers so many scientific disciplines that I think even a scientist would find it interesting.

	12-06-2003 08:58									#97
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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui quote: because the great Imran is never wrong Because you can't have a damn State of the Union address without the Vice-President! And if it wasn't the State of the Union, then the Supreme Court should have been no where near there. Clancy ****ed up because that's not the way the government works... not because I'm always right (even though that's true as well ).

It says "joint session of Congress" not State of the Union address.

	12-06-2003 09:11									#98
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quote: Originally posted by GePap Needing to earn my avatar, I am reading Thus spoke Zarathustra, which I had never read before.

I was reading this book with lots of short biographies, and every man there has a small caption picture.

When I got to Nietzche :
"Hey, this guy must be a relative of GePap"

	12-06-2003 09:16									#99
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I'm reading somethingoranother by Ray Bradbury. I usually can't remember what I've just read after reading one of his books/stories, except that I liked it (whatever it was). Only books/stories I remember of his (and I've read quite a few) are Farenheit 451 and The Very Gentle Murders.

I'm also reading a book on planning algorithms. Huzzah!

	12-06-2003 10:59									#100
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i've gone through quite a few on my trip to korea.

i reread sedaris's naked and me talk pretty some day; also, the play copenhagen by frayn; and ive's collection all in the timing.

i also read for the first time a collection of essays edited by martha nussbaum entitled for love of country?,

i'm reading what i didn't for class from mearsheimer's the tragedy of great power politics, and umberto eco's foucault's pendulum is next on the queue.

	12-06-2003 11:05									#101
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quote: Originally posted by Sava It says "joint session of Congress" not State of the Union address.

So then why was the Supreme Court there?

	12-06-2003 11:42									#102
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark ..... Took a glance at Luttwak's "Strategy"(non-fiction) looks like something that would be excellent for all us civers.

While not for the feint of heart or weak of english, it's an interesting read. It covers a lot of ground, not all of which is necessary to support the thesis IMO, but much of which is still interesting.

A better book all in all is Archer Jones' "The Western Art of War", which shows every innovation in western warfare from the Greeks to the Modern era via the descriptions of battles and campaigns. This is chock full of military history that you should know but don't. An invaluable tool for someone who wonders what the armies of X period were like. Read this book and you will know that, as well as why, and what came before and after.

	12-06-2003 11:43									#103
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quote: Originally posted by St Leo Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. JK Rowling gets better with every new book she writes.

And more attractive with every billion deposited in her bank account.

	12-06-2003 11:45									#104
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she is a divorcee, isn't she?

	12-06-2003 17:58									#105
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Yep, with a kid.

	12-06-2003 18:07									#106
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Perdido Street Station. God, what an overhyped bit of scatology!

	12-06-2003 18:16									#107
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quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia Dan Simmons's Fall of Hyperion. I finished Hyperion a few weeks ago and the blasted book ended right when things started to get interesting. In other words, they are pretty much one novel split in two parts.

Wonderful book, one that is helped immeasurably by the shift in perspective from the first book. Meina Gladstone is one of my favorite science fiction characters - I wish he'd do more with her, but it looks like Simmons has put down the Hyperion universe as well.

The next two novels are just as good, but more languid and less compelling than the other two. Things have changed in the Hyperion universe... but then, not all things have done so.

	12-06-2003 18:18									#108
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quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia So I've heard, but a friend told me that Endymion and Rise of Endymion are more on the ripoff scale of novels; that is, Fall of Hyperion wraps things up nicely and the rest are somewhat inferior to the first two books. But I'll probably check out Endymion and see if it's going anywhere. The Hyperion universe is very fascinating.

While I'm sure he's a helluva guy in all other regards, when it comes to the two post-Hyperion novels your friend is a dolt. Read them, but don't expect the same story told the same way with the same pacing and same style as the other two books. Simmons is too good of an author for that.

	12-06-2003 18:20									#109
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quote: Originally posted by Sava "Executive Orders" -- Tom Clancy... pretty decent so far, Jack Ryan (of course) is made president after a plane crashes into the Capitol and kills Congress, the Joint Chiefs, the President, his cabinet, the Supreme Court, and a lot of the secret service. The book deals with how Jack is rebuilding the government.

Possibly the greatest rah-rah, "USA! USA!" popcorn novel of the 1990's. Good choice, young squire.

	12-06-2003 18:35									#110
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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui quote: no, the vice-president resigned because of a sex scandal and Ryan agreed to become Vice President until the end of the term That COULDN'T be it! Veep is President of the Senate, so it obligated to be there at the State of the Union. He was just made a Cabinet Minister, IIRC, and was GOING to be the Veep.

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK "DEBT OF HONOR" AHEAD!!!! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!

To make it work, Clancy used quite a number of liberties with protocols and functions, so comparing what happened in the novel to what should happen in real life is quite meaningless, as well it should be: this is fiction, after all.

Anyway, what happened was this: Kealty, the original VP, resigned due to a sex scandal. The Pres. nominated Ryan and a special session of Congress was called to swear Ryan in*. This session includes the Congress, Senate, and Supreme Court, and Clancy gave the "not-there-for-Constitutional-reasons" cabinet member such a low-sounding posting (one that I don't think really exists, though I can't remember it) that they weren't going to scrabble for the job of President.

The President made a speech for Ryan, explaining his role in the recent Japanese war. The Senate made their vote (everything had been agreed to in the first place, so the fix was in) and the vote came in overwhelmingly for Ryan. During all this Ryan was waiting in an antechamber with his family, waiting to be called up to the Senate floor to be sworn in by the Chief Justice. However, after the Senate logged their vote and made it official, but before he was called to the ante-chamber to be sworn in, the plane hit, leaving Ryan the highest ranking member of government still alive - but his status uncertain.

Except for Ed Kealty, who makes a big stink about whether or not he really resigned... apparently hoping (along with Clancy) that America forgets that they just saw the new VP get sworn in right before the government done got blowed all to hell.

*In real life, no such session is called for. Gerald Ford got sworn in as President in the East Room of the White House at 12:05pm, 30 minutes after Nixon's official resignation. Otoh, there were probably ranking members from Congress and the Senate on hand as witnesses, as well as TV camera's and the administrator: Chief Warren Burger.

**IRL, the family would already be seated in the chamber watching the President give his speech and the Senate their vote, all the while waiting for Dad to show up.

	12-06-2003 19:12									#111
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quote: Originally posted by Tingkai I'm halfway through Bill Bryson's new book A Short History of Nearly Everything. This is a great book for layman about science. Bryson looks at things like how do we know how much the earth weighs, or how old it is, evolution and genetics. What's equally interesting are the stories Bryson tells about the famous and not-so-famous scientists. The book is extremely well-written and covers so many scientific disciplines that I think even a scientist would find it interesting.

.
Here's another vote for Bill Bryson's books. I enjoy his writing style: mixing off-beat history with a good dose of humor. I've read "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" and "In a Sunburned Country." The latter book is about Australia and has so many interesting historical tidbits, that I bet even Aussies are unaware of many of them.

I'll have to try the book you mentioned, Tingkai.

	12-06-2003 19:16									#112
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quote: Originally posted by Harry Seldon Yep, with a kid.

iiuc she remarried and had another kid. thats one of the things that delayed book 5.

	12-06-2003 19:18									#113
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quote: Originally posted by St Leo Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. JK Rowling gets better with every new book she writes.

no - i think book 3 was better structured and more compelling than book 4.

	12-06-2003 19:46									#114
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark well i was reading Peter Ackroyd's "london: a biography" (non-fiction) im interested in the topic but found Ackroyds approach annoying - good thing its a library book.

I bought that recently. Big mofo of a book.

Now I'm reading "Cold War Hot: Alternative Decisions of the Third World War" by Peter Tsouras. The first chapter doesn't look promising.

Also just finished "Financier: a biography of Andre Meyer". Meyer was the man who turned Lazard Freres into a M&A powerhouse as well as started or jump-started many well known business ventures, which are thriving corporations today - Avis, Holiday Inn, Warner-Lambert.

	12-06-2003 19:53									#115
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I found Terry Prachett's "Thief of Time" on a close-up shelf, so I'm re-reading it.

	12-06-2003 20:29									#116
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http://lookinside-images.amazon.com.../uVXWXaCEhHRgk=

	12-06-2003 20:30									#117
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I love thief of time!