Well, I’m brushing off my prophet’s hat. We called it yesterday pm and in today’s Times, in the business section, there was a story about not one, but two, count ‘em two, new Kindle readers. And, the price has been cut to $139, which is a nice drop. The gadget is being marketed as the Kindle Wi-Fi, because that’s the way in connects to the Mother Ship…WiFi only. A new version of the Kindle2 is also coming out, and this one will work with cellular phone networks. Amazon is very cheery about the outlook for dedicated readers, and their spokesguy said there’s no reason not to plan for a tenth or a twentieth generation of e-readers. Well, maybe. I think the real news is the lower price, which will go even lower at Christmas. Observers say that the push will be to get the thing priced at a point which says “mass market”, and right now that seems at about $100. After all, it’s a razor and blades business. The real money is in the downloads, and the extra goodies that Amazon and others will start offering soon, not in the reader, whcih easily could be given away. That’s probably next.

New

Thirty years ago the Post-it note was born. That seems like a long time, to me anyway. We’ve become used to them and think that they were always around, but they weren’t and in some ways they did make life and work a lot easier. I don’t think it’s one of the Great Triumphs of Civilization or anything like that, but they do come in handy. After the inital offering of the ubiquitous yellow, the thing transformed into all sorts of sizes and shapes, in all kinds of colors. It seems there must be some upper limit on how big a Post-it can be. The biggest size I’ve seen is about 3 by 5 or even a little smaller. So, now you know.

Stick

Mosquitoes. Right now they are quite pesky hereabouts, and if the rainy, warm weather continues, they will be with us for a while. You see people giving the “Galveston salute”…that mix of wavings and batterings and slappings that, honestly, look kind of funny at a distance, but don’t seem funny at all when you’re walking through a cloud of the little assassins yourself. Nothing happens until it happens to you, as the fella said. All this is in aid of a new book called FEVER, by Sonia Shah, a Boston-based journalist. It’s about malaria, and the New York Times reviewer, Dr. Abgail Zuger, gave it a high-five in today’s Science section. I learned some things: if you can get through childhood, malaria may not bother you much in adulthood. Then, there’s malaria and malaria. Some types are rapid killers, while others remain dormant for long periods and rather than taking you off right away, make you feel a little bit poopy off and on. Some parts of the world accept chronic malaria infecton with a ho-hum attitude and are puzzled about Westerners’ zeal in trying to stamp out something that’s not a problem. Counter measures usually run out of steam pretty quickly. Quinine, or “Jesuit bark” as it was called long ago, works pretty well, but can be very toxic, so you have to know what you’re doing. Modern drugs seem to work fine,and then lose punch. It’s all very frustrating and very interesting, both scientifically and historically. This is another good read I’ve promised myself, but not right now, when the blighters are all over the place. I’ll wait till its colder. And darker.

Bite

Darkness and Light are the twin pivots of our lives. But, modern humans have contrived to extend light well into periods when, physically and biologically speaking, there should be darkness. The drive to bring light to dark places is one of the major cultural engines of civilization. For most of history, there was really no contest. Darkness won, hands down. People went inside when it got dark, and it was dark there too, except for a hearth or a few candles for those who could afford them. Pretty boring, actually. But, most people worked so hard during the daylight that they were well enough pleased to sleep if they could, till dawn summoned them back to work. We don’t think about this at all any more, or at least we don’t until some accident or disaster tosses us back into the dark world of our ancestors. And, we don’t like the experience very much. Jane Brox has written a very intriguing exploration of the history of humanity’s effort to bring light. We’ve succeeded, only too well. From a surfeit of darkness, we’ve moved at enormous cost, to a surfeit of light. The author talks about this too, and about the need to bring back a little darkness for own sake and for the sake of animals that need it. I’ve put this on on my “must read” list, but I have to do it soon.The days will be getting shorter, and darkness will come early.

Dark

On the BBC website, we find a good story on the movie SPLICE, and on the top of its scientific accuracy. Dr. Jennifer Rohn, editor of LabLit and herself a working biologist, went to the pic and was interviewed by the Beeb. On the whole, she thinks the science part is not handled all that badly. Considerting what the movies usually do with things like this, I think her rating is a pretty good one. The lab gear seems modern, what one would expect in a BioTech company. And the actors were coached in the correct ways to handle the instruments and lab equipment, so all that seems quite realistic. Dr. Rohn is less satisfied with an underlying message, about science trespassing where it ought not to go. The film’s plot rotates on the consequences of the two lab people messing around with human hybrids, and having to pay the price. Dr. Rohn finds all that pretty tired, but it’s a staple of the genre, and so it goes.

SPLICE

Google has Google Editons, and B&N has a series they sell, so why should Amazon stay on the sidelines? And they aren’t. Publishing-dom was stirred a little by the annnouncement that the Wylie Agency, a literary agent shop, had made a deal with Amazon to supply e-book versions of some of the firm’s hot literary properties. The Agency is selling only the e-book rights, and thereby hangs the tale. Wylie is saying that e-book rights were not covered by the agreements made with Random House, the publisher of the printed versions, and so, it can make deals for the e-version if it wants to and so there. RH is not happy and has said so. It’s a good point, but it will have to go to law, I’m afraid, and you know what that means….”the Law’s delay” was one of the things that were getting under Hamlet’s skin in the “to be, or not to be” thing. There probably will be a settlement, with cash transfers. We’ll see.

Publish