Brian Herbert continues to befoul the Dune legacy by releasing prequel after prequel but this time he has gone too far. He has released a book which contains chapters and scenes cut from his dead father's (Frank Herbert) classic Dune and Dune Messiah.
Dune and Dune Messiah are among my favorite books. I've read Dune once a year for the past fifteen years and I've probably read Dune Messiah nearly as often. Frank Herbert, even on his worst days, could write circles around both his son and most scifi authors of his day. If Frank Herbert felt that chapters and scenes didn't fit into those two books, then by god they should never see the light of day.
This is another example of a disturbing trend. Dead scifi authors, giants in their field, are clawing at their coffin lids in righteous fury because two bit hacks are releasing new material set in the universes that they created. The Dune prequels were written by Brian Herbert and a goddamn Star Wars novelist. There are new books written by nobodies set in Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation world. Roger Zelazny's Amber series, a fantasy masterpiece, is also being picked apart my halfassed literary vultures.
I won't give you the title or a link to the new Dune book. It would be disrespectful to the dead.
10.04.2005
Google Does Not Recognize Taiwan
Taiwan has become the latest, er, country to go whining to Google Earth - not because the entertaining online service reveals high-res pics of air bases packed with black helicopters, but because those tiresome Americans insist on calling it "a province of China".
Oh dear, oh dear. A suitably indignant Taiwanese government has therefore asked Google to correct the outrage to read the Republic of Taiwan - despite the fact that, as Reuters notes, the island of 23 million souls is "recognised by only 26 states in the world and has no seat at the United Nations".
Also, their stock price is way too high.
Read the whole thing here.
A Matter of Civil Rights
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, said on Monday he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens.
Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests, along with state and U.S. regulators, whom he said were looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services.
...Wireless access can be seen a basic right that should be available not just to business professionals but also lower-income citizens. "This is a civil rights issue as much as anything else," Newsom said.
The mayor said he had no exact figures on how much it would cost to build a wireless umbrella to cover the entire city, but cited general estimates that have ranged from $8 million to $16 million for antennas and other gear.
"My intent is to have the taxpayers pay little or nothing," Newsom said of the municipal wireless project.
Read the whole insane thing here.
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