Retired General (and North Carolina native) Hugh Shelton told a great story during his appearance at The Regulator back in October. I've been repeating his little vignette ever since, so I thought I'd write it down here.
Shelton was the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the end of the Clinton administration and the beginning of Bush's term. His position gave him a seat on the National Security Council, and these events transpired at one of the first meetings of the Security Council that he attended, during the Clinton administration.
The meetings were held around a long table, and Shelton was sitting at one end of the table, next to an (unnamed) cabinet member. During a period when a lot of side conversations were going on, the cabinet member leaned over to Shelton and asked if it were true that U-2 reconnaissance planes were flying over Iraq on a regular basis, and that these planes flew too high for the Iraqis to be able to shoot them down.
Yes, that was true, Shelton replied.
The cabinet member than asked if could be arranged for one of these flights to fly lower, so the Iraqis could shoot it down, giving the U.S. an excuse to "do something about Saddam."
Shelton thought for a moment, and then said that yes, he thought it could probably be arranged.
Really? The cabinet member asked.
Yes, said Shelton. "Just as soon as we teach your sorry a** how to fly one of those planes."
You can read the full version of this story in Shelton's memoir, Without Hesitation; The Odyssey of An American Warrior.
Tom Campbell
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
What a poem says..
"What a poem says is not what the words of the poem say."
"The very first thing a poem says is that it is a poem."
"The meaning (of a poem) is in the lilt of the words, in the meter, in the rhyme."
--From translator and poet David Slavitt at his marvelous reading last Friday night.
And there was this as well:
"The point of (reading) literature is not to improve yourself. All reading should be pleasurable, engaging, delightful."
"The very first thing a poem says is that it is a poem."
"The meaning (of a poem) is in the lilt of the words, in the meter, in the rhyme."
--From translator and poet David Slavitt at his marvelous reading last Friday night.
And there was this as well:
"The point of (reading) literature is not to improve yourself. All reading should be pleasurable, engaging, delightful."
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Regulator's"'Twas the Week Before Christmas"
'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the shop
Keith Richards is rockin’, his book sales won’t stop.
Cleopatra’s in pearls and Bill Bryson’s at home,
While Mark Twain dishes dirt in a weighty old tome.
Bestsellers are placed on the bookshelves with care,
In hopes that our customers soon will be there;
Squirrels meet Chipmunks all snug in their beds
while Crafts for Poor People dance in their heads
There’s Griftopia Grinches and Jon Stewart’s Earth
Franzen’s Freedom, – just see what they’re worth!
With Southern Pies and La Cuisine for the belly,
Keys to Good Cooking with a bowlful of jelly.
A pair of Sedarises can be bought by the half,
we’re settling in for a long winter's laugh.
Then out on 9th Street, there arose such a clatter.
We sprang from the store to see what was the matter.
When what to our wondering eyes should appear,
A Sustain-a-Bull bull and eight tiny reindeer!
And we heard the bull roar, as the team rose ascendant
Happy Christmas to all, and Shop Independent!
Keith Richards is rockin’, his book sales won’t stop.
Cleopatra’s in pearls and Bill Bryson’s at home,
While Mark Twain dishes dirt in a weighty old tome.
Bestsellers are placed on the bookshelves with care,
In hopes that our customers soon will be there;
Squirrels meet Chipmunks all snug in their beds
while Crafts for Poor People dance in their heads
There’s Griftopia Grinches and Jon Stewart’s Earth
Franzen’s Freedom, – just see what they’re worth!
With Southern Pies and La Cuisine for the belly,
Keys to Good Cooking with a bowlful of jelly.
A pair of Sedarises can be bought by the half,
we’re settling in for a long winter's laugh.
Then out on 9th Street, there arose such a clatter.
We sprang from the store to see what was the matter.
When what to our wondering eyes should appear,
A Sustain-a-Bull bull and eight tiny reindeer!
And we heard the bull roar, as the team rose ascendant
Happy Christmas to all, and Shop Independent!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
We have met the future and it's lost the ability to read and concentrate
Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT's famous Media Lab, quoted in the New York Times a few weeks back:
I love the iPad,” admits Mr. Negroponte, “but my ability to read any long-form narrative has more or less disappeared, as I am constantly tempted to check e-mail, look up words or click through.”
A few weeks before this, Negroponte was quoted as saying the physical book will be dead withing 5 years, when all reading will be digital.
Or is it deep reading itself--and the concentration that makes it possible--that's going to be dead, as it obviously is already for Mr Negroponte?
But what the heck. The ability to concentrate is SO overrated. With constant access to the net, you can learn to be a doctor, an engineer, a scientist, a computer programmer even, all without ever having to seriously concentrate.
"I never really learned how to read texts," says a character in Gary Shteyngart's prophetic new novel, Super Sad True Love Story, "just to scan them for data."
Of course we can't expect Nicholas Negroponte to have read this. It's 277 pages into a long-form narrative..
I love the iPad,” admits Mr. Negroponte, “but my ability to read any long-form narrative has more or less disappeared, as I am constantly tempted to check e-mail, look up words or click through.”
A few weeks before this, Negroponte was quoted as saying the physical book will be dead withing 5 years, when all reading will be digital.
Or is it deep reading itself--and the concentration that makes it possible--that's going to be dead, as it obviously is already for Mr Negroponte?
But what the heck. The ability to concentrate is SO overrated. With constant access to the net, you can learn to be a doctor, an engineer, a scientist, a computer programmer even, all without ever having to seriously concentrate.
"I never really learned how to read texts," says a character in Gary Shteyngart's prophetic new novel, Super Sad True Love Story, "just to scan them for data."
Of course we can't expect Nicholas Negroponte to have read this. It's 277 pages into a long-form narrative..
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Five Things Jeff Bezos Doesn't Want You to Know About the Kindle
1) You read slower on a Kindle. A recent study by digital design guru Jakob Nielsen showed that people reading a short story read more than 10% slower on the Kindle, compared to reading on paper. And that was just for a short story. How much slower might it be reading a whole book? See http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/08/print-ipad-kindle-books
2) You almost certainly read stupider on a Kindle. There is a large body of peer-reviewed research which shows that people reading from screens don’t understand as much and don’t remember as much, compared to reading from paper. The differences have been significant. The Kindle’s display is somewhat different from the screens these studies tested, but it is still a screen…(Amazingly, no one has yet to submit the Kindle to these kind of tests. Maybe we should ask Jeff Bezos to fund the research?!). See http://www.ebookskeptic.net
3) The Kindle flunked out of Princeton. Last year, Princeton gave free Kindles to students in three undergraduate courses, pre-loaded with the required reading. The response of the students was pretty much universally negative. “Many students and faculty in the three courses said they found the Kindles disappointing and difficult to use,” reported the Daily Princetonian. At the end of the semester 2/3 of the students said that if their Kindles broke they wouldn’t replace them. Slower and stupider doesn’t make the grade at Princeton. See http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/09/28/23918/ and http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/02/22/25262/
4) Amazon can play Big Brother with your books. You may think you own the books you buy for your Kindle, but Jeff Bezos has shown that he can-and will-do anything he wants with the text that you’ve loaded on your device. Amazon has already remotely deleted digital editions of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 from the Kindles of readers who had bought them. George Orwell would not be amused—and he would not be a fan of this technology.
5) Governments can play Big Brother with your books. If you’re doing your reading on a Kindle, you’re making it really easy for governments to play Big Brother as well. You can tell a whole lot about a person from what they read. Read on a Kindle, and everything you’ve read is listed in one place on one computer system. As Orwell would tell us, authoritarian governments everywhere are going to love this technology. (Of course government snooping like this would never happen here…)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
New R-Book will "leave current e-book technologies in the dust"
The e-book and publishing industries were thrown into turmoil yesterday by a little noticed announcement from an upstart technology company.
Reeve Hobbs, CEO of tiny Kumquat Technologies, unveiled his company’s surprising new “R-Book,” which seems likely to leave current e-book technologies in the dust.
“Unlike the competition,” Hobbs said, “The R-Book is designed to do just one thing--to serve as the best possible platform for reading books. And it quite simply kicks butt at what it does.”
Current e-book technologies, Hobbs pointed out, are forced to make compromises because they are trying to do many things at once--be a reader not only for books, but also for newspapers and magazines; be able to surf the web, send and receive tweets, check blogs, email, facebook, etc., etc. “These devices bring the distraction factor of the internet into what should be the focused activity of reading a book. Who wants to be interrupted by their girlfriend’s tweet about this hot guy she just met, when they are totally absorbed with their own affair with the smokin Mr. Darcy?”
But the ultimate compromise of e-books, according to Hobbs, is in their use of a screen as their reading delivery system. “When it comes to reading, there’s been research available for years that shows that screens are totally lame. You don’t remember as much and you don’t understand as much when you read on a screen. Who wants to invest hours reading a book--and then not remember what they’ve read a few days later?
“It’s pathetic, really. Smart guys like Bezos and Jobs set out to re-invent the book, and all they can come up with is another stupid screen? It looks like that’s all they know anymore. They’ve lost the ability to think outside the screen.
“From day one in designing the R-Book we knew we had to come up with something better than the screen. And we have. The R-Book uses the best display for reading that’s ever been invented. Period. If you’re reading from any other display, you’re reading the dummies version.”
Then, picking up a small, rectangular gift wrapped package, Hobbs announced: “Here it is folks. The R-Book. The best reading device on the planet. Accept no second-rate substitutes.” Unwrapping the package, he placed the R-Book on a small, spot-lit table.
The audience drew in their breath as they got their first look at the future of reading. The R-Book. Printed pages handsomely bound together, creating a small, light object. A Real Book.
Real Books. If it’s worth reading...THINK OUTSIDE THE SCREEN.
--For more on the digital distraction factor see The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Published by W.W. Norton, 2010.
--For more on research into the deficiencies of reading from screens see www.ebookskeptic.net. The pages can be printed for better understanding.
--For help in finding an R-Book that’s right for you, see your local bookseller.
Reeve Hobbs, CEO of tiny Kumquat Technologies, unveiled his company’s surprising new “R-Book,” which seems likely to leave current e-book technologies in the dust.
“Unlike the competition,” Hobbs said, “The R-Book is designed to do just one thing--to serve as the best possible platform for reading books. And it quite simply kicks butt at what it does.”
Current e-book technologies, Hobbs pointed out, are forced to make compromises because they are trying to do many things at once--be a reader not only for books, but also for newspapers and magazines; be able to surf the web, send and receive tweets, check blogs, email, facebook, etc., etc. “These devices bring the distraction factor of the internet into what should be the focused activity of reading a book. Who wants to be interrupted by their girlfriend’s tweet about this hot guy she just met, when they are totally absorbed with their own affair with the smokin Mr. Darcy?”
But the ultimate compromise of e-books, according to Hobbs, is in their use of a screen as their reading delivery system. “When it comes to reading, there’s been research available for years that shows that screens are totally lame. You don’t remember as much and you don’t understand as much when you read on a screen. Who wants to invest hours reading a book--and then not remember what they’ve read a few days later?
“It’s pathetic, really. Smart guys like Bezos and Jobs set out to re-invent the book, and all they can come up with is another stupid screen? It looks like that’s all they know anymore. They’ve lost the ability to think outside the screen.
“From day one in designing the R-Book we knew we had to come up with something better than the screen. And we have. The R-Book uses the best display for reading that’s ever been invented. Period. If you’re reading from any other display, you’re reading the dummies version.”
Then, picking up a small, rectangular gift wrapped package, Hobbs announced: “Here it is folks. The R-Book. The best reading device on the planet. Accept no second-rate substitutes.” Unwrapping the package, he placed the R-Book on a small, spot-lit table.
The audience drew in their breath as they got their first look at the future of reading. The R-Book. Printed pages handsomely bound together, creating a small, light object. A Real Book.
Real Books. If it’s worth reading...THINK OUTSIDE THE SCREEN.
--For more on the digital distraction factor see The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Published by W.W. Norton, 2010.
--For more on research into the deficiencies of reading from screens see www.ebookskeptic.net. The pages can be printed for better understanding.
--For help in finding an R-Book that’s right for you, see your local bookseller.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
6 of 20 under 40 equals The Regulator!
Quoting from The New York Times:
"The New Yorker has chosen its “20 Under 40” list of fiction writers worth watching, a group assembled by the magazine’s editors in a lengthy, secretive process that has provoked considerable anxiety among young literary types. The list was published in the double fiction issue of The New Yorker that arrived on newsstands Monday. All of the writers were told three weeks ago that they had made the cut.
They are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcón, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Téa Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.
Beyond their age, the writers on the list have nothing in common, said David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker."
Now we have great respect for David Remnick, but there are some things he clearly doesn't know about these young writers. Six of them share a little-known, common history. The six--Chris Adrian, Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nell Freudenberger, Gary Shteyngart, and Wells Tower--have all done readings at a little bookshop in Durham. At 720 Ninth Street in Durham, to be precise. A place called The Regulator Bookshop...
"The New Yorker has chosen its “20 Under 40” list of fiction writers worth watching, a group assembled by the magazine’s editors in a lengthy, secretive process that has provoked considerable anxiety among young literary types. The list was published in the double fiction issue of The New Yorker that arrived on newsstands Monday. All of the writers were told three weeks ago that they had made the cut.
They are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcón, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Téa Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.
Beyond their age, the writers on the list have nothing in common, said David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker."
Now we have great respect for David Remnick, but there are some things he clearly doesn't know about these young writers. Six of them share a little-known, common history. The six--Chris Adrian, Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nell Freudenberger, Gary Shteyngart, and Wells Tower--have all done readings at a little bookshop in Durham. At 720 Ninth Street in Durham, to be precise. A place called The Regulator Bookshop...
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