Sarging Rasmussen excerpt online

For those interested in my story “Sarging Rasmussen: A Report by Organic,” which is appearing in the Shine anthology, there’s an excerpt online. Yup, the story is what you might think it is from the excerpt: Pick-Up Artists meet the Green Movement meet the UN, basically. If you like it, there’s a huge pile of preorder links right there in the sidebar of the same page.

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The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

Having decided to defer my review of Ian McDonald’s Cyberabad Days until I’ve read his other book in the same world/setting, River of Gods, I have decided to skip ahead and review the next book I read, a nonfiction piece by Steven Johnson. This book was a loaner from my friend Charles, who recommended it highly to me. If I remember right, he picked it up at The Strand, which is one of the most wonderful bookstores I’ve ever visited… so much so that I even got a T-shirt when I was there. Maybe that doesn’t interest readers, but I …

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Briefly…

“German bishop surprised at number of abuse cases.” He must be the only one. Even among practicing Catholics — in the Western world, at least — nobody who is in possession of his or her senses is ever surprised when charges and evidence come up of priests sexually molesting children, and nobody is surprised when it comes out that the Church was protecting such monsters, shuffling them around and keeping everything hushed up. In fact, the German bishop’s being surprised is either an act or a sign of utter naiveté. (Link via Mike Armstrong’s post on Facebook, which I won’t …

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