Author Archives: sbrandt

Book Review: Curse of Chalion

Curse of Chalion is beautifully written, funny (though it’s not a comedy), and deeply interesting book. The religions in the book were interesting and believable enough that I found myself identifying with one of them over the other, feeling that … Continue reading

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The Political Issue No One Is Addressing

People are worried about jobs. The problem is, many of them are going away and they aren’t coming back. It’s time to start planning for the obsolescance of the American worker. The question is, can we make the transition without … Continue reading

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Inevitable yet Unexpected

Ideally, these two words describe the ending of your book. The question is, how do you achieve it? Not every story can be as clever as “Gift of the Magi,” O’Henry’s most famous story. The key, I think, is the … Continue reading

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You Got Some of Your Book on Me!

Published authors are driven people. After all, we had the stamina to put a book together and edit it ten or more times. After our great effort, we want the world to stand up and applaud our genius. We aren’t … Continue reading

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Soon They Can Steal Our Children And We Won’t Know

When the robot baby is just a wire frame, it’s not so convincing. Once he puts his little sweatshirt on though, he starts to be cute. Except that his face doesn’t move. They fix that in the video below. Robot … Continue reading

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You Are Being Watched

I recently chanced upon a minor flame war about whether atheists or believers in God are more moral. Clearly, belief in God is not required for morality, and many who profess belief in God are less moral than many who … Continue reading

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Be Careful Not To Cause a Shooting Spree by Smiling too Much

Some day we’ll replace all those balloons in the Thanksgiving Day parades with giant mech’s.

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I win the conversation

http://dilbert.com The Dilbert comic has a recurring character named “Topper” that has to top any statement anyone else makes. Recently I had a chance to play at being “Topper.” I was in a yogurt stand with a bunch of friends … Continue reading

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Supercomputing Headlights

It’s the unexpected applications of technology that are the most amazing. Who would have thought, for example, that the simple car headlight could make use of a supercomputer? At Carnegie Melon they figured out a way to make a headlight … Continue reading

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Men in Black, III: Story Analysis

Spoiler alert! Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the movie. I just saw MIB3. Very cool movie, I found myself laughing almost continuously. Josh Brolin did an amazing job as the young agent K. The theme of the movie … Continue reading

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