View From the Bushes

I finished the first Horatio Hornblower book -- first in order written, not in chronology. Interestingly enough, the used copy I had was old enough to reflect that fact. It's my pleasure to report that it was just as good as I had been led to believe. The plot was excellent, with several very interesting twists, and the main character was complex, interesting and believable. I think I may have to swing by the library on my way home and pick up the next two.

Of course, all this reading is keeping me from getting much work done on my main project at the moment, which is cleaning the office. I guess cleaning the office misconstrues the task somewhat -- what I'm actually attempting to do is organize the office, which as I've mentioned before, roughly resembles the Aegean Stables without a nearby river to help out. Of course, the other thing slowing me down is entropy, and by entropy I mean my children.

Finally, I happened to be watching The West Wing last night (a show I've very nearly given up on). And apparently the morale of the episode was Oil is going bye-bye and people who champion alternative energy are whack-nuts. Given the fore-ordained insanity indictment I was a little bit surprised when nuclear power was not included in the gathering of alternative fuel wackos. I guess I shouldn't be: an astonishing number of people are so anti-nuclear that their blood pressure goes up 100 points everytime the word is mentioned (unfortunately the effect is not cumulative, otherwise that might be useful). Along those lines, MIT's Technology Review just published a very interesting discussion of nuclear waste, in particular the Yucca Mountain or bust mindset which seems to dominate the conversation.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross