The Background Story

Saddam Hussein dead by hanging the morning [6:05am UTC] this December 30, 2006. The story is stated to end a long chapter in the history of the country of Iraq, one of brutal rule under Hussein. The story itself is much more complicated, the tribunal that sentenced him, and the events that led to his rise in political power, leadership, and ultimate capture and execution are vast and if not innumerable, the entire story will never be known. The ultimate reality is however, that despite the death of Hussein, the fair trial he received as was commended by the white house in Washington, and the myriad of other statements that joyously or bitterly conclude with his death, the situation in Iraq is largely unaffected by this news. The near [or reality of] civil war that threatens to tear the country apart, the insurgents and the rising death toll on alliance forces, still leave the question of the final solution to Iraq's problems, ever looming... if no longer under the shadow of Hussein.

Book Review: The Wizard's First Rule

The Sword of Truth is a fantasy book series, penned by Terry Goodkind. The first book in the series is “The Wizard's First Rule” which introduces the main characters Richard, Zedd, and Kahlan who endeavor on many desperate and fantastic journey and do many deeds, as one would expect from the genre of epic fantasy fiction.

Terry Goodkind weaves a plot that surrounds both political intrigue between several nations and peoples, and tells of the oft brutal life that those living in medieval times would have gone through without all the modern accoutrement of our technological age. Themes abound in this first novel, and those that follow, but fundamental rely on the decisions of the main characters and how they respond to the often impossible seeming tasks they must do. The steadfast nature of these characters, and their unfaltering morals and values, play the central theme, where the political tangents seem to input a reading of objectivistic philosophy. Other adult natured themes and the harshness of depictions of violence lend these books to a strictly adult audience. The political plot lines would probably not appeal greatly to younger readers which ultimately, considering the rest of the content, is probably a wise turnoff for those without the maturity to comprehend the themes of the novels. The 11^th and final book of the series has been contracted and is due for a release sometime in the year of 2008.

Christmas Villians (an editorial)

It would seem, as every hunkers down into their collective bunkers and places of relative safety ready to weather the storm that is shopping extravagance, that certain characters rise out of the melee to present themselves along archetypes that, while silly and perhaps antiquated, seem to make a lot of sense. A longitudinal study done by a pair of researchers, Cele Otnes and Tina Lowrey, has recently been edited and released as a book with the title: "Contemporary Consumption Rituals: A Research Anthology" in which there are several chapters that draw startling similarities between shopping at Christmas time and the fairy tales many western nations children grow upon.

The heroines, several women the researchers followed for 7 years marking their Christmas behaviors and attitudes, showed "vast amounts of craftiness and even courage as they battled their various villains and obstacles in their creation of Christmas," where the women's own version of their experiences were described by the researchers as involving "valiant heroines, evil villains, daring deeds and dastardly deceptions."

While the evil villains could be anything from the father who delays decisions, to a rude person in line in a store, there is no doubt that the stories, if embellished, hold an amazing degree of truth, and the work of these women certainly plays out accordingly, with a 'fairy tale' ending, a Christmas that was more spectacular than the one before it. Despite all connections between the attitudes of these women and the conclusion drawn by the researchers, this writer wonders where the consumerism has gone too far... and perhaps, we've already gone past that point of no return.

Salmon in the Pacific Northwest

There has been an ongoing debate on how best to keep, and manage, the Pacific Northwest’s salmon population. Factory farmed fish have been released into the wild for years, but the concern is not whether factory fish can be continued indefinitely but rather with the wild fish. Dams riddle the primary river for fish in the northwest, the Columbia, and despite the fish ladders and many other additions that have helped salmon out, they are undoubtedly a large hindrance. Before the 8 major dams were built on the Columbia and Snake rivers, an estimated annual 16 million salmon made the trip to their breeding grounds, a number that currently sits around 1 million. Knocking down the dams, although a possibility, is not a particularly well looked upon one for the millions of people living in the Columbia river basin, a portion of land the size of central Europe. Killing the dams would push power prices up, something that most people are unwilling to compromise with.

Dams also might not be the only problem for future salmon generations. Research done at the University of Washington has shown a rapid change in water temperature in the Puget Sound area, most likely applicable around the northwest. Salmon are sensitive to the temperature of the water they swim in, a rapid change could also affect their journey as well.

Unfortunately water has been promised and pledged to many of the groups of people invested in the water system of the northwest. Farmers need water irrigation for their crops, everyone relies on cheap electricity from the dams, the Native Americans still rely on the salmon themselves to live. It’s a political tangle as well as a literal one, and no clear solution has been found on how to save the salmon.

The Technology Beat

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices [NYSE: AMD]) acquired ATI Inc. (NASDAQ ATYT) this summer for an estimated $5.4 billion. The acquisition spawned many heated arguments on the internet discussing what would become of the products, in particular ATI’s graphics chips, during and after the move. Questions similarly followed intrigued if the combination of the two leaders in their fields would cause rivals Intel and Nvidia to similarly combine forces to compete. The markets have settled, the acquisition has gone through successfully, and the results are ultimately akin to the pre-acquisition era. Rivals Intel and Nvidia still maintain roughly their previous market share, and competition between the graphics and computer processor companies remain as fierce, and as close, as before. Rumors that circulated following the acquisition about an Intel and Nvidia merger have been proven to be nothing more than rumors, although for some time before the AMD acquisition of ATI, rumors had been circulating about such a prospect. As always, when large technologies are concerned, insiders have been prone to leak information regarding major moves, one must only be concerned about sifting the real information from those that are foundationless.