Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Daniel

I’m a fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s books, but Riptide is a book you should skip. The setting, plot, and characters were all decent, but I didn’t buy the villain’s character arc, and as a result I can’t recommend the book. Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say about the book:

The novel suffers from a diffusion of villains as the authors variously demonize the Pit, the Pit’s designer, the crazed expedition leader and the Sword as and from workaday prose and assembly-line characters (a computer nerd, a sexy French archeologist, a righteous minister). Machine-gun pacing, startling plot twists and smart use of legend, scientific lore (including cyptanalysis) and the evocative setting carry the day, however, resulting in an exciting boys’ adventure tale for adults that’s bound to be one of most popular of the summer reads.

I didn’t have a problem with the workaday prose or the assembly-line character, just the character arc which killed the book for me.

I like Aimee Mann

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Daniel

The most-listened-to song on my Ipod is Aimee Mann’s Dear John. Below is Mann’s 31 Today. It’s not a great song, but it’s decent. It does a pretty good job describing how I felt when I turned 31. But things looked up soon afterward because a month later I started dating my wife.

Picture of the Day–Wyoming Clouds

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Daniel

I shot this as we were driving to the Wind Rivers in Wyoming to go backpacking.

The Big Red One

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Daniel

Wired has a very interesting story about the Red One, a new HD video camera that is much cheaper and yet produces higher quality images than conventional HD cameras.

A friend of mine told me about this camera a couple weeks ago and he raved about how this camera is. It sounded a bit hyperbolic to me, but after reading the article, his description sounds right on.

One of the most interesting thing about the camera is its creator–Jim Jannard. You have probably never heard of Jannard, but you have heard of the first company he started–Oakley. How exactly the maker of goggles and sunglasses went on to make a great video camera is beyond me, but it makes for an interesting story.

One more thing, the story’s author really needed better fact checking.

Lastly, here’s a skate-video shot on the Red:

skate – shot on red – 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

Wonderful Beijing Olympics Pictures

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Daniel

As usual, the Big Picture at Boston.com has awe-inspiring pictures from the Olympics such as the one below:

A fireworks display erupts near the Bird's Nest National Stadium during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 24, 2008. (Axel Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

Picture of the Day–Lake Powell

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Daniel

I shot this at Lake Powell a couple weeks ago.

9-year-old pitcher banned because he is too good

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Daniel

This is a silly story. The Liga Juvenil De Baseball De New Haven (Spanish for Youth Baseball League of New Haven) is banning a 9-year-old because he is too good. All of the elements of the story from the different press accounts aren’t straight forward, but a few things are clear:

9-year-old Jericho Scott throws about 40 mph.
The league told Jericho’s coach that Jericho would not longer be allowed to pitch.
Even though Jericho throws hard for his age, he has good control–he hasn’t hit any batters yet this year.
When Jericho’s coach tried to have Jericho pitch, the opposing team went home instead of facing him.
The kids haven’t complained about Jericho’s pitching, only the parents.

What isn’t clear is if there are nefarious motives at play. The New Haven Register reports that Jericho Scott’s parents think the league is trying to get back at them because Jericho rebuffed efforts to play on another team and another league. This seems like a specious claim to me, but then again, who would ban a 9-year-old because it was too good?

Like I wrote, this is just silly. A 9-year-old who can throw 40 mph is pretty fast, but not fast enough that he should be banned. If these parents don’t want their children to face good pitching, maybe they ought to have them play soccer, or ballet, instead…