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1672
Isaac Newton presents his first paper on the science of optics to the Royal Society in London, England. He was elected a member only the previous month, in recognition of his original design for the first reflecting telescope. The paper is a report regarding his study of the colors produced by prisms entitled “New Theory about Light and Colors.”
1692
A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenage girls are under domination of Satan. The declaration will precipitate the Salem witch trials.
1924
First coast-to-coast radio broadcast in the United States is made from Chicago by General John Joseph Carthy of Bell Telephone to an audience of fifty million listeners.
1928
The first transatlantic television image is received in Hartsdale, New York. The image, which shows the face of Mrs. Mia Howe, is transmitted by John Logie Baird from station 2KZ in Purley, England over short wave radio. The picture is crudely formed from a scan of thirty lines and transmitted at twelve frames per second. The signal’s successful reception caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, receiving a great deal of media attention.
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Book: Freedom (TM)
ISBN-13: 978-0525951575
Author: Daniel Suarez
Series: Sequel to Daemon
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Genre: Cyberpunk / Techno-Thriller
Release: January 7, 2010
Length: 416 pages (Hardcover)
Tagline: “Everything is under control. Everything…”
Rating: A- (95/100)
After the sheer brilliance of Daniel Suarez’s explosive debut, it was inevitable that his second book would fail to live up to it’s predecessor, but it’s surprisingly just how close Suarez has come to making lightning strike twice.
If possible, Freedom is actually more cerebral than Daemon, drifting away from the spy-thriller themes into the philosophies and economics of a revolutionary war story. The change provides a nice contrast to the first novel, but it does get a bit preachy at points. The result is that, while this book is an as much of an absolute must-read for computer geeks as its predecessor, the non-geek set is likely going to find this book hard to pallet.
Cons: Cliche villains. Story is too broad in scope. Focus shifts from technology to economics. A touch preachy at time.
In Brief: The botnet set loose at the death of a famous gaming tycoon in the previous book has seized control of corporate networks around the globe. Now, agents recruited by the botnet are launching a second industrial revolution, forming communities with the aim of creating a network of sustainable economies, independent of the decaying capitalist systems of the world around them. But clandestine forces within the government, in collaboration with corrupt corporate interests, are plotting to seize control of the network and turn it to their own purposes.
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There is a new science of complexity which says that the link between cause and effect is increasingly difficult to trace; that change (planned or otherwise) unfolds in non-linear ways; that paradoxes and contradictions abound; and that creative solutions arise out of diversity, uncertainty and chaos.
Why has laser tag never risen to become a professional sport? That’s a sport I could watch. Who wouldn’t?! It would beat the hell out of football.
You know those lines they chroma key onto the football field to explain the progress of the game? Line of scrimmage or whatever? How long do you think it’s going to be before some industrious television network starts projecting little video advertisements onto the field during the game?
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