Down with Facebook

I recently read an article with this title in the Weekly Standard - starting at page 21 of the 3/16/09 issue I think it was. The author is Matt Labash.

In it, Mr. Labash really rips the Facebook "phenomenon". There are many memorable lines in the article; I laughed out loud many times, even though I was in the public library while reading it, as it was impossible not to given what was being said. My personal favorite had something to do with the bad habit of collecting (superficial/too many) Facebook friends - "collecting Facebook friends is the equivalent of being a cat lady". I think you get the picture of how this article went.

Maybe I am just old and out of touch, but I had to agree with at least most of the article. The point being that we as a society are getting a little too crazy about Facebook and MySpace and texting for that matter and should actually start talking to people as individuals and in mostly complete sentences. You can do that in person, by voice via a phone or even by email specifically for that person - the order here in descending preferability. Save Facebook and all that for a (tasteful) selection of photos of some very special event - like a wedding. Texting should only be used in dire circumstances like if the recipient is in church, and it is a real emergency.

As to Twitter, don't get me started. Who thinks up stuff like Tweets?

Blogs can be just as bad as Facebook. I guess I will have to watch myself on that one.

Think about it.

Real Education

This book is by Charles Murray, and it will probably have many in the "educational establishment" howling, but then that is probably a sign that it is getting something right.

Murray makes 4 main points in this book: (1) ability varies; (2) half of children are below average; (3) too many people are going to college and (4) the future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. With the possible exception of (3), these points seem to state common sense principles, but as reader's will see, things go terribly wrong "in practice". Read the corresponding chapters and see if you don't believe me.

Point (3) will probably get a lot of people in a big uproar and is quite timely, especially considering how our new president wants to throw a lot of money around so as to get almost everyone to go. But does this make any sense? Does that manager at Starbuck's really need 4 years of college?

Murray makes the point that more should be done in the area of vocational education to prepare those who don't and shouldn't be going to college for careers where they can make a living. He did not discuss the German system in this regard which might be worth taking a look at for ideas.

Relating to point (4), an area that Murray seems to mostly pass over is how science and math education fit in. It is almost as if he does not realize that people with liberal arts only backgrounds may not have what it takes in all instances to lead us in these times of rapid technological advance and change.

Give it a try and see what you think.

Child 44

This a recent book by Tom Rob Smith about a serial killer with the story set in Stalinist Russia - where such things as serial murder are officially denied. It has been described as a real "page turner". Usually, when I see that, I am disappointed when I actually read the book. This book, however, was the real deal as far as page turning went. I lost a lot of sleep, because I could not put it down.

I would warn readers that this book has some very disturbing things in it. It presents a pretty graphic portrayal of Stalinist Russia, including the famine and the methods of the secret police. Add to this a serial killer who targets children, and you have some rough going in many spots. But, it is a great story with lots of well done suspense. It is hard to put down once you get started.

The author makes reference to the Chikatilo serial murders in Russia in his Further Reading page at the end of the book. I looked this up on Wikipedia and could see how much he based his killer on this actual one. Surprisingly, I knew someone who lived in the Rostov area where a lot of the actual murders took place and around the right time and don't remember ever hearing about this from him - maybe this was too unpleasant to discuss in a letter.

Readers may find it strange, but the dialogue is all in italics without quotation marks. Must have been easier to write this way, but I have never seen this device before. It took me a little while to get used to it.

I did like the first 2/3's of the book better than the last part. It did get a little contrived towards the end, but by then I was hooked too well to care all that much. Still, I would highly recommend the book.

How to Travel Incognito

A few months ago, I was reading an article in the New York Times on Ludwig Bemelmans, who is best known for the Madeline children's books. But, he also wrote many books that were for adults probably not as widely remembered that this article highly recommended. The book reviewed here was one of the latter.

By all accounts, Bemelmans had a very "eventful" life. He claimed that (at least his books for adults) were based on actual events he encountered. Well, maybe he exaggerated a little considering the current book.

In this book, Bemelmans narrates a story about some adventures in travel with a certain Count de St. Cucuface. They are amusing, if not quite laughing out loud so. Very entertaining at least. Sort of almost believable tall tales I guess you could call them. Great reading for relaxing. Give the book a try.

150th Post

This is my 150th post. Had this blog a long time now. Guess I will a while longer.

Dead Man's Ransom

I really enjoyed the Cadfael TV series and was sorry when I got to the last installment. Then, I found out that not all the novels had been used. There are 7 (really 8 as one was not followed all that well) left over - not counting the related book of three short stories. The novel here, Dead Man's Ransom, is the first of the novels not used for TV which is the ninth in the overall series of the Cadfael chronicles/novels by Ellis Peters.

I enjoyed the book, but it seemed to start off a little slow and some of the "expressions" used were a little hard for me to understand - maybe you have to be British. In any case, things do pick up and there are numerous plot twists/surprises along the way to keep things interesting. The author managed to do a lot in only a short number of pages - 190 in the edition I read.

I did manage to figure out who the killer was before it was "announced", but maybe it was pretty easy by that point as there were a lot of clues by then. There is at least one other crime as well which was resolved in a somewhat "unexpected" way. Some may think the ending a bit of a cop out, but at least it is a happy one.

I look forward to the other 6 or 7 novels remaining for me.