Via Stephen Bainbridge, I stumbled upon Hugh Hewitt’s post about twice (or more) read novels. So without further ado, I present a list of some of the books I have read more than once.

• I, Robot, Caves of Steel, Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

• Neutron Star, Tales of Known Space and Flatlander by Larry Niven

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

• The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller

• Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

• The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I am particularly fond of I, Robot, which I was introduced to by my dad when I was 12 and home sick from school. It was the first of many science fiction novels and anthologies that I have read. I also particularly like Larry Niven’s short stories. I tend to like short stories, in general, which I find to be less common as a literary form.

Most of these books I read as a child, either purely for enjoyment or as a school requirement, but found myself fond enough with them to invest the time to reread them. One of the exceptions is Pride and Prejudice, which I bought for my wife a few years ago, after we watched the movie version (which is an excellent adaption of the book). I wanted to read the book as a comparison with the movie, and to clarify some events which aren’t clear in the film version. I discovered, much to my surprise, to have enjoyed it quite a bit. That book along with Last of the Mohicans and A Tale of Two Cities are great for getting a picture of life in a historical period–one of the reasons I have reread them all.

Looks like Microsoft is getting into the blog hosting business.

It seems Netscape is taking a page from Microsoft’s book: extend and embrace.

More about the new Netscape browser from CNET.

Over the weekend, I read in the dead tree edition of the Miami Herald, the story about the Herald’s recount of three counties in the Florida panhandle. This story most likely was motivated by internet rumors from the tinfoil hat brigade that Bush stole the election from Kerry in Florida, by rigging the electronic voting machines in counties in Northern Florida where the voters are predominately registered Democratic, but which voted overwhelmingly for Bush on election day. In reality, these counties in the panhandle routinely break for the Republican candidate for President despite the high number of registered Democrats. In all three counties, the Herald’s recount affirmed the official election results with minor discrepancies.

Last week, The Herald went to see for itself whether Bush’s steamroll through North Florida was legitimate. Picking three counties that fit the conspiracy theory profile – staunchly Democratic by registration, whoppingly GOP by voting – two reporters counted more than 17,000 ballots over three days.

The conclusion: No conspiracy.

The newspaper’s count of optical scan ballots in Suwannee, Lafayette and Union counties showed Bush whipping Sen. John Kerry in a swath of Florida where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-1.

The newspaper found minor differences with the official results in each county, most involving a smattering of ballots that had been discarded as unreadable by optical scan machines but in which reporters felt the voter intent was clear.

In Union County:

The Herald total: 3,393 votes for Bush and 1,272 for Kerry. There were 15 votes that couldn’t clearly be counted.

The official Union County total: 3,396 votes for Bush, 1,251 for Kerry and a few dozen that couldn’t be counted.

“The difference is in the under-over votes,” [Election Supervisor Babs] Montpetit explained. The Herald concluded voter intent in a couple of dozen cases that scan readers could not discern.

In Suwannee County:

The Herald counted almost 60 percent of the votes in Suwannee County, where nearly 64 percent of the voters are registered Democrats.

The newspaper’s total from those precincts: 6,140 votes for Bush and 2,984 for Kerry, which nearly matched the county’s official tally.

In Lafayette County:

The reporters’ total: 2,452 votes for Bush and 848 for Kerry, with 20 that couldn’t be clearly counted.

The official Lafayette County total: 2,460 votes for Bush, 845 for Kerry and others that couldn’t be counted.

Captain Ed links to a CNN report about the Herald story.

I am back in Knoxville, so I should resume blogging on a more regular basis.

Tonight or tomorrow, I should be able to post some photos I took in the Everglades and at Big Cypress National Preserve.

Even though I had internet access I was too distracted to blog as I was playing Halo 2, which I did manage to complete. Although the campaign ends a little abruptly–setting up a cliff hanger ending (Now I have to wait for Halo 3?!?)the improvements–dual wielding, more weapons, better AI, playing as an alien character at times–make for great gameplay. It was a lot of fun, even though at times it became a bit repetitive. Playing as the Covenant Arbiter gave the game a great twist, and the twin story arcs made for a more interesting story line overall.

Happy Thanksgiving.

We’ve made it! My wife and I made it to my parent’s home in Miami earlier today. We’ve already enjoyed our turkey and other goodies. Even got to enjoy a premature bit of Christmas. Our tradition is that we swap holidays each year for both sets of parents; spending Thanksgiving with one set and Christmas with the other set. So when we visit my folks for Thanksgiving, we also celebrate an early Christmas.

I also was pleasantly surprised to discover that my dad has setup a wireless network, so I can take advantage of my laptop’s built-in wireless.

I will be travelling to visit family in Florida for the next few days. I don’t expect to be able post anything until Thursday at the earliest. But I should be able to get online once I get to my parents, or at least find some wireless access somewhere down there.

I plan on visiting the Everglades while I am down there. So with any luck, I could be gator-blogging on Friday or Saturday.

And, in case I don’t get to say it Thursday, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Looks like they are at it again. U.S. Marines, British soldiers, and Iraqi troops have begun operations aimed at insurgents south of Baghdad.

The new offensive was the third large-scale military assault this month aimed at suppressing Iraq’s persistent insurgency ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30.

The region of dusty, small towns south of the capital has become known as the “triangle of death” for the frequent attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms on U.S. and Iraqi forces there and for frequent ambushes on travellers.

The military said violence has surged in the area in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to divert attention away from the U.S. assault on Fallujah.

The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella, 50 miles south of Baghdad, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement. U.S. and Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches and vehicle checkpoints.

Yesterday, I mentioned the fight that broke out at an NBA game over the weekend. Jim Geraghty has some related thoughts.

And, then there was the ruckus Saturday at the Clemson/South Carolina game. Clemson’s coach, Tommy Bowden, while not using it as an outright excuse, does seem to suggest the brawl the night before contributed to the incident Saturday.

The incident would have been embarrassing enough for both schools and for college football, but it happened to come fewer than 24 hours after the astonishing Pacers-Pistons incident in Detroit, turning the Gamecocks and Tigers into a national poster for sportsmanship gone awry. Network newscasts aired the two incidents back-to-back Saturday night, and Clemson coach Tommy Bowden, while not exactly using it as an excuse, mentioned the NBA fight directly. “For 24 hours, they’ve watched that basketball fiasco on TV. That’s all they’ve watched,” he said. “On every major news [broadcast] that thing was covered, and they sat there and watched it and watched it and watched it.”

At least the schools have seen fit to levy more than token suspensions. Both schools have announced that they will decline bowl invitations as a result. This may not seem like much, but I think it sends a very clear signal to the players that this kind of behavior–whatever the circumstances–is completely unacceptable. Both teams have lost the right to play in what amounts to a reward game for a winning season. Both schools (and/or conferences) will miss out on extra revenue that would have been generated by a bowl game. And the players will not be able to practice in December, a month long extra stretch of extra practice time, which is an increasingly important component in successful college football programs.

Lots of good news from Iraq.

In the fortnight that saw the massive assault by American and Iraqi troops on Fallujah, the flare up of violence elsewhere throughout the Sunni Triangle, the execution of Margaret Hassan by her kidnappers, not to mention the controversy over a Marine shooting dead a wounded insurgent, it’s hard to believe that anything positive might have also been happening in Iraq.

Yet, fortunately, neither Fallujah nor even the Sunni Triangle are the whole of Iraq, just as violence and bloodshed are not the whole story of Iraq. Lt Col Victor Zillmer of Lindale, Texas, recently volunteered to return to Iraq as the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers in Baghdad. His impressions of the country today seems to be shared by many in Iraq outside of the media:

“As I expected, it was not a total war zone with massive explosions and burning vehicles everywhere as commonly portrayed in the press. It was typical Baghdad, only the traffic was even worse. The economy must be doing much better over here, for the streets are jammed with cars of every description, with many of them newer and better condition than when I left in May. As compared to 18 months ago when I first arrived, the traffic has increased a hundredfold.”

As the old joke goes, sometimes a cigar is just cigar. In Iraq, contrary to the impression one can often get from watching the news, for most part a car is just car, not a carbomb, and as Lt Col Zillmer says, there are a lot of them driving around. Here are some stories of Iraqis trying to, often under difficult circumstance and against great odds, journey towards a better and more normal life.

That’s just the beginning. And it reminds me of something I read on Iraq the Model earlier:

We were planning to stay in Jordan for only 4 days but with the airport being closed, we had to stay there for a longer time.

Being out of the events’ field for a week and having the media as the only source of information made me understand more why many people have a blurred vision about the situation in Iraq, I mean watching Al-Jazeera and the CNN for a relatively long time made Iraq- at certain moments-look like “hell on earth”. Fortunately I lived my whole life in Iraq and when it comes to events taking place over there I can distinguish between the truth and the lies to a certain degree but my concern is about people who have never been there because the media twist facts and exaggerate things in an unbelievable manner.

As a matter of fact, from the news I got from the media I expected to find Baghdad in a terrible condition when I return; no gasoline, no electricity, fighting at every corner and dead bodies everywhere but of course I didn’t find it this way when I returned. Actually I haven’t seen any significant difference except for losing some hours of electricity!

Sometimes a car is just a car. Something to remember; something to help keep things in perspective.