The Latest from Boing Boing

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• Alcatraz Island, a tourist attraction that exceeds all expectations
• Canadian copyright consultation -- video explains why you should get involved
• Travis Louie: art show in Seattle and new book
• Neo-nazi hate blogger paid by FBI to incite, says attorney
• REAL ID reincarnated with a new name: "PASS ID"
• CIA hired mercenary assassins (or assassin trainers) in plan to bump off Qaeda leaders
• Report: Mercury found in every single fish tested in study of US rivers, streams
• Nanoparticles linked to illness and death in factory workers exposed to them
• Bang Bang Club
• Science of BBQing
• Food and wine as collateral for bank loans
• Interview with Zack Lynch about The Neuro Revolution
• Ethics of neuro drugs as weapons
• Recently on Offworld: Valve talks Left 4 Dead, Metroid goes metal, Elvis goes techno on DS
• Sita Sings the Blues sourcefiles online
• Haunted Mansion 40th birthday video
• Contrafactual history of Jimmy Carter's green space-race
• Poor design-choices in the Star Wars universe
• Home movie of Disneyland in 1956
• Brust's JHEGAALA, smart, hard-boiled swords and sorcery with great poleconomy subtext

Alcatraz Island, a tourist attraction that exceeds all expectations Posted: 21 Aug 2009 04:00 AM PDT Alcatraz Island is one of those tourist traps that isn't a trap at all. It is that rare thing: a justifiably famous tourist attraction that lives up to its reputation and exceeds it. When I lived in San Francisco, I relished the chance to take out-of-towners there and re-visit it myself. The site itself is exceptionally beautiful, a rugged wilderness island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay with unparalleled views of the city. The cellhouse audio tour -- a self-guided tour featuring the narration of former inmates and guards -- is brilliantly produced (I actually bought a copy on cassette years ago and listened to it at home). And the additional museum materials, including a moving film on the history of the Indian occupation, are also superb. The Alcatraz website does a good job of conveying much of this, but you really have to go to experience it. Alcatraz Island - Golden Gate National Recreation Area (Thanks, Ranger Craig!)

Canadian copyright consultation -- video explains why you should get involved Posted: 21 Aug 2009 03:52 AM PDT Michael Geist sez, "Science fiction author Karl Schroeder, Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, Wide Mouth Mason drummer Safwan Javed, Lulu.com's Bob Young, and Nettwerk music exec Terry McBride are among the people in this short video talking about copyright reform as Canadians have the chance for three more weeks to speak out on copyright." Speak Out On Copyright: The Video Previously: Canadian copyright collecting agency subverting open debate on ... Canada's DMCA: unnecessary, ill-starred and doomed - Boing Boing Canadian government expresses cautious enthusiasm for Internet ...

Travis Louie: art show in Seattle and new book Posted: 20 Aug 2009 09:06 PM PDT Painter Travis Louie has a new show of his lovely phantasmagorical portraits opening tomorrow (Friday, August 21), at Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery. Louie will be there signing copies of his new monograph, Curiosities. The entire show is also viewable online. You can also purchase the book (unsigned) on Amazon now for $20. Above left, "The Strangler" (24" x 18"); above right, "Chauncey" (20" x 14"). I would love to have an original Louie someday -- it would certainly turn any wall into a wunderkammer. Travis Louie (Roq La Rue) Curiosities (Amazon) Previously: Travis Louie's "Monster?" group art show - Boing Boing Travis Louie and Femke Hiemstra, new art show in Seattle - Boing Boing Travis Louie edition from Pressure Printing - Boing Boing Travis Louie and Robert Craig at Roq La Rue - Boing Boing

Neo-nazi hate blogger paid by FBI to incite, says attorney Posted: 20 Aug 2009 04:16 PM PDT David Kravets at Wired Threat Level blog reports that Hal Turner, a notorious shitbag "hate blogger" in New Jersey who was charged two months ago with threatening to kill judges and lawmakers, was secretly an FBI "agent provocateur" paid tens of thousands of dollars by our government to broadcast white supremacist rhetoric. Snip: Hal Turner, the blogger and radio personality, remains jailed pending charges over his recent online rants, which prosecutors claim amounted to an invitation for someone to kill Connecticut lawmakers and Chicago federal appeals court judges. But behind the scenes the reformed white supremacist was holding clandestine meetings with FBI agents who taught him how to spew hate "without crossing the line," according to his lawyer, Michael Orozco. "Almost everything was at the behest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Orozco said in a 45-minute telephone interview from New Jersey. "Their job was to pick up information on the responses of what he was saying and see where that led them. It was an interesting dynamic on what he was being asked to do." Lawyer: FBI Paid Right-Wing Blogger Charged With Threats (wired.com, via Oxblood Ruffin) Los del Dramatica have a lot to say about this. May he serve 420 years in jail. The Southern Poverty Law Center saw this one coming. Did COINTELPRO ever really end?

REAL ID reincarnated with a new name: "PASS ID" Posted: 20 Aug 2009 03:43 PM PDT Snip from a news item posted to the EFF's Deep Links blog by Richard Esguerra: In February, opponents of REAL ID were given a bit of hope when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she wanted to repeal the REAL ID Act, the federal government's failed plan to impose a national identification card through state driver's licenses. But what has taken place since is no return to sanity, as political machi nations have produced a cosmetic makeover called "PASS ID" that has revived the push for a national identification card. The PASS ID Act (S. 1261) seeks to make many of the same ineffectual, dangerous changes the REAL ID Act attempted to impose. Fundamentally, PASS ID operates on the same flawed premise of REAL ID -- that requiring various "identity documents" (and storing that information in databases for later access) will magically make state drivers' licenses more legitimate, which will in turn improve national security. PASS ID: REAL ID Reanimated (EFF Deep Links) Some helpful background on REAL ID in the Wikipedia subject entry. Previously: Montana Governor explains why Real ID sucks California asks for Real ID extension, but won't promise to comply ... Real ID foes manage to block mandatory carding -- for now. - Boing Boing: Real ID passes in US Senate FAQ: How Real ID Act will affect you ONE MORE DAY to stop REAL ID and keep Big Brother out of the US ... Kill the national ID card: 48h remain

CIA hired mercenary assassins (or assassin trainers) in plan to bump off Qaeda leaders Posted: 20 Aug 2009 03:18 PM PDT In 2004, the CIA hired Blackwater USA contractors as part of a covert program to find and kill top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to statements from current and former US officials. Snip from New York Times story: The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.'s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said. It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations. C.I.A. Sought Blackwater's Help to Kill Jihadists (NYT via Mitch Kapor) A related news article, just out today: The Rise and Fall of the Mercenary Formerly Known as Blackwater (Newsweek) Oh, and by the way, Blackwater has changed its name to "Xe," which I'm none too happy about for personal reasons (cough).

Report: Mercury found in every single fish tested in study of US rivers, streams Posted: 20 Aug 2009 02:54 PM PDT "No fish can escape mercury pollution" is the bottom line in a federal study of mercury contamination that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the United States. Link to AP article. Over at Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger says, "I like how the AP writer tries valiantly to put a positive spin on this. It may well be that 100% of all fish in America has some level of mercury contamination, but only one fish in four has dangerously high levels. Dude, we are so screwed..." Image: "Don't eat an entire fish at once," from mrjoro's CC-licensed Flickr stream.

Nanoparticles linked to illness and death in factory workers exposed to them Posted: 20 Aug 2009 03:36 PM PDT A report published in the August edition of the European Respiratory Society Journal points to a link between exposure to nanoparticles and severe illnesses suffered by seven factory workers in China who worked with them. One of the workers died. "These cases arouse concern that long-term exposure to some nanoparticles without protective measures may be related to serious damage to human lungs." Exposure to nanoparticles is related to pleural effusion, pulmonary fibrosis and granuloma (ERS Journal, via Maggie Koerth-Baker) Related: Deaths, lung damage linked to nanoparticles in China (Reuters)

Bang Bang Club Posted: 20 Aug 2009 03:35 PM PDT The Bang Bang Club is the title of a documentary film currently in production that examines South Africa during the last days of apartheid, and the impact that violence had on four photojournalists covering the conflict. The movie is based on The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War (2000), a book documenting the lives of those four photogs: Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. The book was written by Marinovich and Silva, the two of that group who survived. The New York Times photojournalism blog is running a series of photo/audio slideshows with the work and voices of those photographers. Today, Joao Silva retells the story of what was happening outside and within when he shot the photograph above -- a man being hacked to death by an angry mob. Snip from series introduction: Their bond was formed in the field, where injustice and death lurked. It was a camaraderie that came from the constant experience of mortal danger -- Mr. Oosterbroek was killed during a gun battle in April 1994. They also shared a mutual understanding of how important it was to document the tumultuous events unfolding in front of them as apartheid gave way and South Africans struggled to form a new government. It was a battle most brutally waged in townships populated mainly by poor blacks. (...) Mr. Marinovich was fairly new to photojournalism in 1991 when he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of photographs of supporters of South Africa's African National Congress burning alive a man they believed to be a Zulu spy. "I had been too scared to say anything to try to stop it," Mr. Marinovich said, "and so that really disturbed me about myself and who I thought I was at the moment." Showcase: The Bang Bang Club (Part 1 of 2) (New York Times, Thanks, Reverse Cowgirl)

Science of BBQing Posted: 20 Aug 2009 11:46 AM PDT As part of the American Chemical Society's big meeting last week, they hosted a chemistry-themed barbecue reception. Science News reports on the geek cook-out, including some news-you-can-use from two food chemists. From Science News (photo from Wikimedia Commons): "Unfortunately, if you ask the [food] safety people they'll tell you to cremate everything," said Shirley Corriher, a food chemist and cookbook author from Atlanta. Meats should be cooked long enough to kill bacteria, she noted, but they don't need to be cooked beyond medium to be truly safe. For one thing, carcinogenic chemicals called heterocyclic amines form when creatine -- a substance found in muscle tissue -- reacts at high temperatures with amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The amount of HCAs formed in grilled meats typically triples if meats are cooked well done rather than medium well, she noted. Other research-proven tricks for reducing HCAs, as noted in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, include using marinades, garlic and onion, said Risch. A marinade of red wine, for instance, can reduce the formation of HCAs by 88 percent, she noted. Although scientists aren't sure exactly how these techniques work, moisture from marinades may ensure that the meat directly in contact with the grill remains at a relatively low temperature, she said. "Better BBQ Through Chemistry" Previously: Web Zen: BBQ zen - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Mattel: kids will mistake BBQ joint for a Barbie doll HOWTO use a BBQ grill to heat a pool - Boing Boing BBQ sauce: "authentic food court flavor" - Boing Boing Handgun-shaped bbq pit in Texas - Boing Boing

Food and wine as collateral for bank loans Posted: 20 Aug 2009 11:30 AM PDT Italian banks may soon accept high-end prosciutto and wine as collateral for loans. The Italian agriculture minister is into the idea. Apparently, it's not as far-fetched as it sounds. From The Guardian: The Italian bank Credito Emiliano has long stored hundreds of thousands of parmesan wheels, worth about 300 (euros) each, in warehouses as collateral while they age. Since the bank can sell the cheese if creditors default, it can afford to offer low interest rates to an industry which is suffering from recession and supermarket discounting. Legs of cured ham, or prosciutto crudo, weighing about 10kg, can sell for hundreds of euros after months of curing in controlled conditions, while bottles of Brunello di Montalcino are regularly snapped up for the same amount. "We may start off with accepting wine as collateral, but I would prefer the Italian banking association to launch an industry-wide scheme which involves a range of products," said Zonin. "This will help producers in times of crisis as well as when the economy picks up." "Italian banks may take ham and wine as collateral" (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

Interview with Zack Lynch about The Neuro Revolution Posted: 20 Aug 2009 11:04 AM PDT The Neuro Revolution is a new book by Zack Lynch that looks at how our increasing knowledge about how the brain works will impact everything from economics and politics to religion and, of course, marketing. h+ recently interviewed Lynch about how neuroscience may someday be applied to our daily lives. From h+: h+: Supercomputers are now faster at leveraging trading positions than humans (this is creating a quite a controversy on Wall Street). What role do you see for human neurofinance and neuroeconomics in the financial markets as artificial intelligence continues to gain more sophistication? ZL: The technology of each previous revolution is required for the succeeding revolution. We couldn't have had the industrial revolution without the agricultural revolution, because we wouldn't have had the specialization of labor that was required for humans to have the wealth and time to be able to develop industrial technologies. We couldn't have had information technologies prior to industrial technology. In the same way, we couldn't have had neurotechnology without the development of information technology – and without its continued development. These are enabling technologies that will continue to develop, and that will support the evolution of more sophisticated neurotechnologies. If we're talking about specific technologies that will be available to financial traders, one will be neurosoftware applications that will help retrain the brain of financial traders to reduce the human tendency to overestimate. That will require a quite sophisticated understanding of the human neurobiology of decision making. That -- in and of itself --will require computational models that are just beginning to be worked out. This is Your Brain on Neurotechnology (h+) The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World (Amazon)

Ethics of neuro drugs as weapons Posted: 20 Aug 2009 10:45 AM PDT The science journal Nature published a fascinating essay about the weaponization of chemical agents that affect the brain. Of course, that was the US and UK military's goal when they ran their own "acid tests" in the 1950s and 1960s. (See the video above.) Research on more advanced chemicals continues though. In his nature piece, Malcolm Dando, professor of International Security in the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University, UK, surveys some of the newest developments and possibilities, and argues that the Chemical Weapons Convention, an arms control agreement, needs to be modified sooner rather than later. From Nature: For example, in 2006, the US National Academies produced a report called Globalization, Biosecurity, and the Future of the Life Sciences. The authors argued that recent advances in our understanding of how bioregulatory compounds work, of signalling processes and of the regulation of human gene expression — combined with developments in chemistry, synthetic biology and in technologies such as nanotechnology — have "opened up new and exceedingly challenging frontiers of concern". More recently, a 2008 US National Academies report entitled Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related Technologies, similarly argued that in cases in which 'agonists' of a particular system have been found to enhance some cognitive trait, an 'antagonist' might be developed that could reduce it and vice versa. If dopamine agonists enhance attention, say, so dopamine antagonists might disrupt it. They also warned, among other things, that nanotechnologies could overcome the blood–brain barrier and "exploit existing transport mechanisms to transmit substances into the brain in analogy with the Trojan horse". Some researchers are actively facilitating the development of new chemical weapons. For example, a research group from Pennsylvania State University in University Park has identified several drug classes as potential non-lethal agents or 'calmatives'3, including benzodiazepines and 2-adrenoreceptor agonists, as well as individual drugs such as diazepam and dexmedetomidine. Some researchers are actively facilitating the development of new chemical weapons. Similarly, at the 4th European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons in 2007, researchers from the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Charles University in Prague described the effects on macaque monkeys of combinations of drugs that produce a rapid loss of aggressive behaviour4. They argued that the drugs could be "used to pacify aggressive people during ... terrorist attacks". The same researchers have also investigated methods of aerosol delivery to human volunteers. "Biologists napping while work militarized" Previously: MKULTRA-related lawsuit dismissed - Boing Boing Documentary: Crazy Rulers of the World - Boing Boing The Maddest Mad Scientist: Dr. Sidney Gotlieb

Recently on Offworld: Valve talks Left 4 Dead, Metroid goes metal, Elvis goes techno on DS Posted: 20 Aug 2009 09:05 AM PDT Could the Left 4 Dead and Half-Life universes ever converge into one uber-Valve-geography? In Jim Rossignol's latest Ragdoll Metaphysics column, Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek has said the idea's at least been internally bandied about, as part of a wide, wide ranging interview that also covers the mixed messages and missed opportunities that spawned the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott, and why AI constructs make him depressed. Elsewhere on Offworld we saw even more newly announced games coming out of the ongoing GamesCom conference: Lionhead returning with Fable III, top-down zombie shooter Dead Nation, which will apparently have individual countries competing to fully eliminate the undead virus, more of Sony's PSP cult cute platformer Loco Roco, and Hudson's The Tower of Shadow, in which you play as the shadow. We also saw a fantastically unlikely official new contest to create the best Elvis techno cover/remix on your DS, listened to Metroid metal cover album Varia Suite, played the latest NES demoscene ROM, and saw both Alice's Adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom, and Spider creators Tiger Style showing us tomorrow's game development studio, today.

Sita Sings the Blues sourcefiles online Posted: 20 Aug 2009 07:22 AM PDT Nina Paley, creator of the wonderful and copyright-fraught animation Sita Sings the Blues writes, "All the Flash authoring (.fla) files I used to make Sita Sings the Blues have just been posted on archive.org, under a Creative Commons Share Alike license. Want to know how I got a certain animated effect in Sita Sings the Blues? Open up the .fla files and find out. Want to put flying eyeballs and demons in your next music video? Now you can. Want to make a 'Sita Sings the Blues' video game using all the assets? Go for it. (But I strongly suggest you negotiate my endorsement if you want to actually market the end product.)" "Sita" Source Files now on Archive.org (Thanks, Nina!) Previously: Sita Sings the Blues to air in full on PBS - Boing Boing Sita Sings the Blues in full online - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Nina Paley's wonderful "Sita Sings the Blues" cartoon Boing Boing: Excellent animated interpretation of Ramayana

Haunted Mansion 40th birthday video Posted: 20 Aug 2009 06:53 AM PDT Dan sez, "Its been 40 years since the Grim Grinning Ghosts first opened their doors and invited guests into the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Take a look back to the beginning with Walt and the Imagineers who created the beloved attraction. From stretching rooms to hitch hiking ghosts the 999 Happy Haunts never disappoint and always invite guests to hurry back!" Haunted Mansion Celebrates 40 Years of Happy Haunts! (Thanks, Dan!) Previously: Haunted Mansion spiel to be scripted - Boing Boing Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is getting a storyline - Boing Boing Disneyland Haunted Mansion costume for sale on eBay - Boing Boing World's greatest Haunted Mansion fan-book - Boing Boing Replica Haunted Mansion segment on TechTV this Weds - Boing Boing Haunted Mansion fly-through in Duke Nukem engine - Boing Boing Ambitious Haunted Mansion tattoo - Boing Boing Haunted Mansion home office - Boing Boing

Contrafactual history of Jimmy Carter's green space-race Posted: 20 Aug 2009 06:00 AM PDT Matt sez, "Sasha Pohflepp created a wonderful counter-factual history of a USA where Carter beat Reagan and created a 'space-race' for renewable energy and planetary engineering. Regine from We-Make-Money-Not-Art has the story..." The project asks how visions like these are being created in the public imagination but also how they are being reflected by the economy and by individuals. In the case of weather modification, people are modifying their cars into lightning harvesters to participate in the experiments, both scientifically and commercially. The car presented in the model below is a modified Chevrolet El Camino that has been fitted with a lightning rod and various electrical equipment like variable resistors and capacitor banks to store the electricity from a lightning strike. Drivers are then able to sell the stored electricity at any one of the drive-through energy exchanges, which have opened around the zone. The Golden Institute found a way to modify freeways and harness the energy which would otherwise be lost through braking when a vehicle exits the freeway at a velocity of about 55 miles per hour. Now, vehicles are equipped with magnets. As they exit the freeway at high-speed, the cars are gradually slowed down employing the Lorentz force as they pass through a series of induction-coils. The coils are typically operated by a franchise like Chuck's Café and if used effectively can get the driver a discount on a cup of coffee. The Golden Institute (Thanks, Matt!)

Poor design-choices in the Star Wars universe Posted: 20 Aug 2009 05:55 AM PDT John Scalzi's list of bad design decisions in the Star Wars universe had me LOLing when I should have been working: C-3PO Can't fully extend his arms; has a bunch of exposed wiring in his abs; walks and runs as if he has the droid equivalent of arthritis. And you say, well, he was put together by an eight-year-old. Yes, but a trip to the nearest Radio Shack would fix that. Also, I'm still waiting to hear the rationale for making a protocol droid a shrieking coward, aside from George Lucas rummaging through a box of offensive stereotypes (which he'd later return to while building Jar-Jar Binks) and picking out the "mincing gay man" module. Lightsabers Yes, I know, I want one too. But I tell you what: I want one with a hand guard. Otherwise every lightsaber battle would consist of sabers clashing and then their owners sliding as quickly as possible down the shaft to lop off their opponent's fingers. You say: Lightsabers can slice through anything but another lightsaber, so what are you going to make a hand guard out of? I say: Dude, if you have the technology to make a lightsaber, you have the technology to make a light hand guard. John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design

Home movie of Disneyland in 1956 Posted: 20 Aug 2009 05:48 AM PDT Home Movies At DisneyLand - 1956 from Jeff Altman on Vimeo. Here's some recently unearthed home movie footage of Disneyland in 1956, the year after it opened. The footage was shot by Jeff Altman's grandfather using a Bell & Howell Filmo and 16mm Kodachrome film stock and includes a scene of his grandmother meeting Walt Disney. John Frost of The Disney Blog calls it "One the best videos of early Disneyland I've seen." Home Movies At DisneyLand - 1956 (via The Disney Blog) Previously: Disneyland home movie from 1956 makes Library of Congress's ... Home movie of contest-winning family vacation to Disneyland in ... Jungle Boat movie from Disney - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Disneyland home-movie from 1967

Brust's JHEGAALA, smart, hard-boiled swords and sorcery with great poleconomy subtext Posted: 18 Aug 2009 02:42 PM PDT I've been reading Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books since I was a boy, and nothing pleases me more than discovering a new one on the shelf, as I did this week, picking up the paperback of Jhegaala, the eleventh volume in the series. For the uninitiated, Vlad Taltos is a human assassin in a strange world where humans occupy the eastern kingdoms and the rest is run by the Dragaereans, a long-lived elfin race whose sorcery is far more formalized than humanity's witchcraft (the human culture on Dragaera is based loosely on ancient Hungarian culture, and the magic is derived somewhat from Hungarian animist mysticism). Vlad lives among the Dragaera, pledged to the house of Jhereg, a mongrel house that you can buy your way into (the others are hereditary), whence come all the crime lords and assassins. In Vlad's storied, ten-volume adventures, he goes from street-punk to crime-boss to lordling to political operative, embroiled in a magnificently realized fantasy world that leaps off the page with a fascinating poleconomy, literary tradition, spirituality and history ancient and modern. Vlad is a hard-boiled, wise-ass hero, whose narration is part of what makes the series so irresistible, laden as it is with deadpan humor, great observation, wicked emotional truths, and a keen gourmet sensibility (seriously: the food and drink in this book are so well described that I spent the entire time while reading it yearning for one of the marvellous cups of coffee or the hearty bowls of stew that Vlad subsists on through much of the tale). The other thing about Vlad is that he grows, from an immature punk in the first couple volumes -- books that captivated the teen me perfectly -- into the rapidly wisening exile that we meet in Jhegala. In this volume, Vlad is on the run, driven from home by a political struggle that demands that he choose a side even though he strenuously resists it. Now Vlad has come to the eastern lands, the human kingdoms that his family hailed from, which he has never seen before. He comes to Burz, an industrial town barely held in the balance between the mercantalists and the manufacturers and the peasantry who still work the land. Vlad's arrival shatters the uneasy peace and sets off a chain of terrible massacres that leave him trying to solve the town's mysteries before he becomes one of them. This is Steve Brust doing Hammett's Red Harvest, the classic hardboiled novel that is the epitome of the "someone comes to town" kind of story. Brust's take on it is a tour-de-force of subtle characterization, mystery, mayhem, and a rare grasp of the invisible economic forces that shape our lives. Brust is one of the few fantasy writers in the history of the genre whose worlds have all the moving parts necessary to actually exist as economic realities, and here his virtuosity is right at the fore. There are some spoilers in this volume if you haven't read the previous ones (and if you haven't, you ought to), but I don't think they're deal-breakers if you wanted to start here. If you've never read Brust, you're in for a treat. If you already follow the series, then you know why this is such great news. Jhegaala All the Vlad Taltos books Previously: Steven Brust's unauthorized Firefly fanfic novel - Boing Boing Steven Brust's Dzur: witty and exciting heroic fantasy - Boing Boing Fourth Street Fantasy Con, intimate, literate convention in ... Library starts to include CC licensed editions of books in ...

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