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If you happen to do anything other than sleep in a cave today, chances are you have Ada Lovelace to thank for it. She is responsible for the first ever computer program. And she came up with it long before the computer even existed. Today is the fifth annual Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the achievement of a Victorian mother-of-three who would change the world. Let’s travel back through time for a moment. Before the ZX Spectrum and before the Atari 2600, there was a thing that historians like to call the 19th century. The computer may have existed as a...

In “Hitler’s Furies,” recently placed on the long list for the National Book Award, Wendy Lower presents the harrowing evidence of crimes committed by German women during the Holocaust. Dwight Garner wrote that previous books “have offered up poster girls of brutality and atrocity” and “Ms. Lower’s revisionist insight is to track more mundane lives, and to argue for a vastly wider complicity.” In a recent e-mail interview, Ms. Lower discussed the changing view of women’s role in the Nazi regime, the challenges of writing for a non-academic audience, what she found most shocking in her research and more. Below...

Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game Paperback by Paul Midler (Author) An insider reveals what can—and does—go wrong when companies shift production to China In this entertaining behind-the-scenes account, Paul Midler tells us all that is wrong with our effort to shift manufacturing to China. Now updated and expanded, Poorly Made in China reveals industry secrets, including the dangerous practice of quality fade—the deliberate and secret habit of Chinese manufacturers to widen profit margins through the reduction of quality inputs. U.S. importers don’t stand a chance, Midler explains, against savvy Chinese suppliers who feel...

Late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was concerned by the United States’ lean to the left after President Barack Obama took office in 2009, authors of a recently released book about “The Iron Lady” claim. Thatcher never commented publicly on President Obama’s leadership, though the Obama administration’s big government agenda runs counter to everything she believed in, former Thatcher aide Niles Gardiner and writer Stephen Thompson, authors of “Margaret Thatcher on Leadership: Lessons for American Conservatives Today”, told The Daily Caller. But even though Great Britain’s first female prime minister didn’t speak out publicly about Obama, she was privately concerned...

The findings of Graham Robb, a biographer and historian, bring into question two millennia of thinking about Iron Age Britain and Europe and the stereotyped image of Celts as barbarous, superstitious tribes... "They had their own road system on which the Romans later based theirs," Mr Robb said, adding that the roads were built in Britain from around the 1st Century BC. "It has often been wondered how the Romans managed to build the Fosse Way, which goes from Exeter to Lincoln. They must have known what the finishing point would be, but they didn't conquer that part of Britain...

Best-selling conservative author Ann Coulter, who has used her nine books to launch vicious attacks on Democrats, is turning her guns on Republicans in a new book out Monday, calling Florida Sen. Marco Rubio a hypocrite, urging donors freeze contributions to the GOP, and demanding that only governors or senators run for the party’s presidential nomination. Her point in “Never Trust a Liberal Over 3 -- Especially a Republican” is to shake the party out of its doldrums in time for the 2014 and 2016 elections. “Elections matter. We’re trying to make the country a better place. But if our...

e Reverend Al Sharpton promoted his new book at the FreeLibrary of Philadelphia this afternoon, saying it’s about life lessons, with anecdotes. The book is called The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership“ Whether you are middle class, whether you are poor white, whether you are Latino, whether you are gay, all of us have been rejects. And what we are seeing now is that a lot of society can not adjust to the fact that the rejects now have become the cornerstone of this country.”

[Summary: The Education Establishment likes to pretend that new digital options mean kids don’t need traditional skills. That is a non-sequitur and probably dishonest. ] A new development in education is deciding what “literacy” should be in the 21st century.  With a swirl of technological breakthroughs all around us, elite educators are gaga at the plethora of excuses for pooh-poohing subjects routinely taught in the dark age known as the 20th century.  The National Council of Teachers of English recently announced: “Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change,...

Munro, 82, was called "The master of the contemporary short story" by Swedish Academy Permanent Secretary Peter Englund when he emerged to make the announcement at 1pm. Before he announced Munro's name, Englund let the room full of journalists know that the winner this year "would be a woman", prompting the room to erupt with cheers. Munro's writing career began when she was a teenager growing up in Ontario. She began studying journalism and English at the University of Western Ontario, but left university when she got married in 1951, eventually moving with her husband to British Columbia where they...

Pro Familia, Germany’s leading family planning group, published articles years ago that appeared to advocate for pedophilia, university researchers say. The findings by researchers at Gottingen University were published Wednesday by the newspaper Tagesspiegel, The Local.de reported. An institute at the university has been involved since May in finding past statements by politicians and others that seem to make light of sexual relations between children and adults. …

On March 31, 2010, 21-year-old ­Veronica Roth wrote a blog post titled “You + $$$ = ?” Roth was a creative-­writing major at Northwestern who planned to support herself as a proof­reader after graduation. The exercise on her frequently updated blog was about imagining success: What would she do if she suddenly had the resources of ­Stephenie Meyer or J. K. Row­ling? Roth’s answers were unapologetically practical—buy a house in Wisconsin, invest, donate to charity—and her wildest dream involved jumping into a pool of mini-marshmallows. Mostly, the aspiring young-adult author just wanted to work. “Day jobs? Pshh. Who needs them? If...

IoT to Generate Global Revenue of $8.9 Trillion by 2020 The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a new construct in the information and communications technology (ICT) world that is occupying the minds of IT vendors, service providers, and systems integrators as it represents huge potential for new streams of revenue and new customers. The ongoing development of smart cities, cars, and houses; enhanced connectivity infrastructure and increasingly connected culture are just some key enablers to the rise of IoT. In fact, Internet of Things is not something that is coming, but something that has already been partly implemented, but will...

I related an anecdote many posts ago about flying into Jolo in late 1980s to attend a meeting on recent attacks by the MNLF on civilians. In the seat beside me on the plane was a European man, who introduced himself to me as a member of a well known humanitarian NGO. He announced his intention to travel to Patikul, or some such town. I told him, “that’s Indian country. If you try that you’ll be kidnapped before sundown.” His answer was “nonsense. I have humanitarian status. They won’t hinder me.” He mentioned an affiliation with some other International agency...

(Summary: In many ways, public schools seem deliberately organized to diminish intellect, not to enlarge it.) An acquaintance sent this note: “My sister tells of teaching math to college freshmen. The question was: If X plus 5 = 10, what is the value of X? It took her an entire week to get the kids to finally say ‘5.’ So the following Monday, just on a hunch, she gave them another problem: If Y plus 5 = 10, what is the value of Y? And no one could answer!” Remember, these students have been admitted to a community college. Presumably,...

Spies & Secrets: 4 True Stories From Tom Clancy's Novels Sometimes truth may be stranger than fiction, but for best-selling author Tom Clancy, the two are often more closely paralleled. Clancy died Tuesday (Oct. 1) at the age of 66, but his thrilling, espionage and military-inspired novels helped him become one of the most well-known American authors. From a dramatic Soviet-era defection to a high-profile assassination plot, here are four true stories from Clancy's novels. • The Hunt for Red October Clancy's first novel, "The Hunt for Red October," was published in 1984. The book introduced Clancy's most famous fictional...

Best selling author, Tom Clancy has died at the age of 66 in his birth town of Baltimore, Maryland.

Report: Bestselling author Tom Clancy died in a hospital in Baltimore on Tuesday, his publisher confirms to @nytimes - @juliebosman— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) October 2, 2013

In 1972, the United States was embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam, and the USS Kitty Hawk was headed to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Its five thousand men, cooped up for the longest at-sea tour of the war, rioted--or, as Troubled Water suggests, mutinied.Disturbingly, the lines were drawn racially, black against white. By the time order was restored, careers were in tatters. Although the incident became a turning point for race relations in the Navy, this story remained buried within U.S. Navy archives for decades. With action pulled straight from a high seas thriller, Gregory A....

'Seventy-five years after the Munich Agreement signed with Hitler, the name of Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister at the time, is still synonymous with weakness and appeasement. Is this fair, asks historian Robert Self.'

The company that owns Penthouse magazine and a host of online dating and adult websites filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday. FriendFinder Networks Inc.'s move comes as many in the adult entertainment industry struggle because of an increase in free online options. The Boca Raton, Fla., company said bankruptcy was "the most efficient and cost effective way for the company … to continue to operate our business."

When Ronald Reagan was president, the leader of the opposition was Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, a liberal Boston Democrat. The two Irish-American glad-handers had both been FDR-loving New Dealers, born less than two years apart. They dined together, partied together and swapped Irish jokes. But they didn’t like each other. Once Reagan was asked if he had heard about Pac-Man. He said, “Someone told me it was a round thing that gobbles up money. I thought it was Tip O’Neill.”

This is only the third time in nine years I have posted about a book. I have no relationship with either the author or the publisher. "The Dog Stars," by Peter Heller, is spectacular. It tells the tale of Hig, one of the few survivors of a pandemic that occurred in the 2020s, killing over 99% of the worlds's population. He survives at a rural airport with his trusty Cessna 182, his dog Jasper, and a character named Bangley, who will not talk about his background but shows-up one day with a trailer full of weapons and ammunition. Hig takes...

The ax is about to drop at newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, according to a report by the firm’s own Los Angeles Times. The Times says the company, which also owns The Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, and South Florida Sun Sentinel, “is reviewing operations in an effort that will likely result in staff reductions.” …

If I ever meet Stephen King, I am going to ask him to give me back all the sleepless nights as a child that I spent worrying about pets returning from beyond the grave and creepy twins stalking me down long hallways muttering “redrum.” Which means you couldn’t pay me eleventy bajillion dollars to be anywhere nearby when the Colorado hotel that inspired his book The Shining digs up the pet cemetery it has on the grounds.“Oh, let’s dig up a pet cemetery linked to The Shining, great idea!” is just like saying, “Let’s have some scary stuff go down here,...

I would like to get all my friends and family dvd's of the old "Animal Farm" movie for Christmas. I saw it for sale at Dollar Tree once, so I know they are available cheap somewhere in the public domain. Does anyone know where I can buy some?

Hi everyone, Recently I've found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands, so I've been doing a lot of reading, and I'm looking for recommendations. I'm not looking for anything heavy, but basically escapist fiction, with my favorite genre being historical fiction. I've read everything by most of my favorite authors; Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe's Rifles, Saxon Tales, etc.), Conn Igulden (Emperor, Genghis series), Stephen Pressfield (Gates of Fire, Afghan Campaign, etc.), and also Michael Crichton. So I'm looking for recommendations and who better to ask than Freepers?

It was the Holy Spirit who directed Bill O’Reilly to write his latest book, “Killing Jesus,” he tells Norah O’Donnell in his first interview about the upcoming work. Though the book is not religious and its contradictions of biblical descriptions may upset some, the Fox News anchor and best-selling author believes that in writing it, he is using God’s gifts in a positive way. The interview with O’Reilly will be broadcast on the 46th season premiere of 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. “All of the ideas come to me in the middle of the night...

Americans Manufacturing, Keeping and Bearing Arms & the Sons of Liberty from the 18th Century British records: [Montresor`s Journals]= "The Montresor Journals", Volume 14 By John Montrésor, James Gabriel Montrésor "Allicock, Head of the Sons of Liberty, is the son of a mulattoe woman..." p 368 1766 "'29th Seventeen hundred of The Levelers [Sons of Liberty] with firearms are collected at Poughkeepie." p376 1766 "11th A considerable mob asssembled on the Common, consisting of 2 or 3000 Sons of Liberty..the Tree of Liberty...when the mob drew instantly out of their pockets a case of pistols each." Even Tories had the...

The women, fast cars and a glamorous London hotel set the scene for the launch of a new James Bond novel on Wednesday that sees 007 set out on a renegade mission in the pursuit of justice.

This flows in perfectly with the Warmist notion that debate is great, and theyÂ’re willing to debate anyone anytime anywhere, but when challenged disappear and refuse. Why WeÂ’re Shutting Off Our Comments Comments can be bad for science. ThatÂ’s why, here at PopularScience.com, weÂ’re shutting them off. It wasnÂ’t a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to...

As Germany runs out of time to bring ex-Nazis to justice, we examine a country trying to come to terms with its historyIt is a week in which Germany’s history has seemed inescapable. Yesterday, the German president Joachim Gauck became his country’s first head of state to visit Oradour-sur-Glane, the perfectly preserved French village where, in June 1944, 642 men, women and children were massacred by a Waffen-SS company. On Tuesday, German federal authorities announced that 30 men and women alleged to have acted as guards at the Auschwitz death camp should face prosecution. And at the start of the...

Just caught the beginning of the new ABC television program Agents of SHIELD. The first segment gives mention to our own Travis McGee with reference to his successful novels. Congratulations Travis!

Phyllis Chesler is a psychologist and academic whose writings we have quoted from time to time over the years. Ms. Chesler has always had a rather skeptical attitude toward Islam, in particular with regard to its treatment of women. Now we know why: Chesler has published a new book titled An American Bride In Kabul. You can read an excerpt from An American Bride in the New York Post. Chesler’s horrifying story begins in 1959 when, as an 18-year-old college student, she meets and falls in love with an older, wealthy and cosmopolitan Afghan man. Two years later, they agree...

D. J. R. Bruckner, a retired book and theater critic for The New York Times who was previously a nationally syndicated political columnist for The Los Angeles Times, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 79.

Ian Fleming 'was sexist, racist and sadistic': New Bond author says his book is well-written... unlike the originals The author of the new James Bond book, says he deliberately wrote about women and African people 'not in a way Fleming would write them'. William Boyd, the third writer in recent years to pen a new installment to the classic spy series, said he found it difficult to read the descriptions of 'negros' and chapters entitled 'Nigger Heaven'. Boyd, who was born in Ghana in 1952 and spent his childhood travelling between Africa and his Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun, said: 'It's...

I have always been a reader and one of my snobbish instincts has been to shun people who do not read. Houses without books or magazines leave me cold. Yet now I realize that I have not bought a dead tree book in months and I have hit that Amazon link "Tell the publisher" many many times! On my iPad I have more than 240 books plus several Bible versions and multiple periodicals. Now I find myself refreshing my mind about a particular passage in a book in minutes instead of almost never. Additionally, I am privileged to be able...

For 125 years, National Geographic has enjoyed a reputation as a scientific and educational organization. It is so trusted that if a topic is covered within the pages of National Geographic, it has been accepted without question. Most of us grew up reading it in the classroom, and later, in the doctor’s office. So what were they thinking when they chose to feature a nearly submerged Statue of Liberty on the cover of the September issue? Obviously, by using scare tactics and fear mongering, the editors have bought into the propaganda of man-made climate change. They are frantically trying to...

One of former President Bill Clinton’s ex-mistresses, Gennifer Flowers, claims that Bill told her Hillary Clinton was bisexual. Flowers, who hasn’t been relevant since 1992, came out during Clinton’s first presidential campaign and said that the two had had a 12-year affair while he was the governor of Arkansas. Clinton has long maintained that he only had one sexual encounter with Flowers. But in an interview with The Daily Mail published Thursday, Flowers, now 63 and definitely not desperate for fame, claims that she would still be with Clinton — “the love of [her] life” — had it not been...

Dear Dave, I’m getting married soon, and we plan to open a joint checking account. Keeping a register accurately will be difficult because I travel two weeks out of every month. Do you have any suggestions for keeping track of things, or should we just rely on online access to the account? Ed Dear Ed, I would set up a second checking account, one to which you both have access, that’s only for travel. Giving you both access allows you to track what you do and her to see what’s going on and act as your backup when it comes...

Today is the 226th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution — and that means it is also Constitution Day. What’s Constitution Day, you ask? It’s a congressionally mandated moment in which schools — from kindergarten through college — must focus in some fashion on the country’s founding document. The law, which passed in 2004, requires all schools that get federal funding to offer an “educational program” on the Constitution, but doesn’t define what that is.

Britain's most prestigious literary award will be opened to Americans next year. The Man Booker Prize is currently open to writers from the 54 countries in the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. According to a report in The Sunday Times, "The organisers increasingly believe that excluding writers from America is anachronistic. The Booker committee believes US writers must be allowed to compete to ensure the award's global reputation." The weekend announcement was met with decidedly mixed reactions: Howard Jacobson, whose novel The Finkler Question won the award in 2010, toldThe Telegraph that it was "the wrong decision," and Jim...

Breitbart is highlighting a book of an award-winning investigative journalist that turns the narrative surrounding the tragic death of a gay Wyoming man, whose murder gave the impetus for hate-crime legislation, on its head. The Book of Matt by Stephen Jimenez will be published this week and is already causing consternation among gay activists because it turns a homophobic hate crime into a spat between two meth-addled gay lovers. The story that we are most familiar with is that Shepard met a couple of men in a bar who offered him a ride home. They instead took him to a...

Wayne Green passed away this morning in a peaceful, painless transition from this life on Earth. An eternal optimist, and one who loved to share his neverending zest for life, he was a friend to many and will be missed greatly. Wayne was not afraid of dying and was very much ready to embark on his next great adventure to the afterlife. 73, W2NSD (Sept 3, 1922 - Sept 13, 2013)

For those who are into this sort of thing...what sfnal or fantasy literature are currently reading or have just finished? I'm working my way through the series, "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher, having read the first 10 novels of the 15 published so far. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files The Dresden Files is a series of contemporary fantasy/mystery novels written by Jim Butcher. He provides a first person narrative of each story from the point of view of the main character, private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, as he recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. Butcher's original proposed title for the...

•Axelrod wanted campaign manager Jim Messina fired, but he wound up the odd man out himself• Palace intrigue led 'Axe' to refer to Messina and White House messaging chief David Plouffe as 'two strongmen running the Kremlin'• The two men resented Axelrod for getting rich by taking a percentage of the hundreds of millions spent on campaign ads •An aloof Obama stayed out of the way as his inner circle fought a political gladiator game that pushed out Axelrod and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs The man most responsible for getting Barack Obama to the White House – the man who...

We are joined by Pastor Mark Musser, author of the book Nazi Oaks : The Green Sacrifice of the Judeo-Christian Worldview in the Holocaust, who explains how the worldview of the Nazis, which led to the abominations of the Holocaust, was deeply-rooted in the ecological undercurrents of the anti-Semitism, anti-theism, and anti-humanism of the early German green movement. Gathering together the strands of a bewildering number of influences, from Romanticism to existentialism and Social Darwinism, this ecology served to rationalise (in their eyes) and invigorate their racist and eugenicist 'purification' of land and people ...

We are joined by Pastor Mark Musser, author of the book Nazi Oaks : The Green Sacrifice of the Judeo-Christian Worldview in the Holocaust, who explains how the worldview of the Nazis, which led to the abominations of the Holocaust, was deeply-rooted in the ecological undercurrents of the anti-Semitism, anti-theism, and anti-humanism of the early German green movement. Gathering together the strands of a bewildering number of influences, from Romanticism to existentialism and Social Darwinism, this ecology served to rationalise (in their eyes) and invigorate their racist and eugenicist 'purification' of land and people.

J.K. Rowling's world of wizardry is coming back to the big screen — but without Harry Potter. Film studio Warner Bros. announced Thursday that Rowling will write the screenplay for a movie based on "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," her textbook to the magical universe she created in the boy wizard's stories.

For hundreds of years, people have questioned whether William Shakespeare wrote the plays that bear his name. The mystery is fueled by the fact that his biography simply doesn't match the areas of knowledge and skill demonstrated in the plays. Nearly a hundred candidates have been suggested, but none of them fit much better. Now a new candidate named Amelia Bassano Lanier—the so-called 'Dark Lady' of the Sonnets and a member of an Italian/Jewish family—has been shown to be a perfect fit. Here are eight reasons that are sure to convince you: 1. The Most Musical Plays in the World...

MULBERRY, Fla. (AP)— Polk County sheriff’s deputies arrested Pastor Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr., 34,..He had said he was heading to a nearby park to burn 2,998 Qurans — one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks... Mulberry’s mayor, along with area elected officials, a sheriff’s deputy and several Polk County residents have talked about the need to express love and tolerance for all faiths on Sept. 11. [snip]