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Book review: Out Of The Dark
Warning: There is a spoiler later in this review.
I have been reading science fiction for over thirty years. Aliens invading Earth is a popular theme. Because the stories are for us normally the humans somehow beat the aliens back. H. G. Well’s famous The War of the Worlds has germs being the key to winning the war. George O. Smith’s Pattern for Conquest has the clever humans ending up being the power behind the throne. Through the 1960s it seemed like Christopher Anvil wrote a story every year about some alien race trying to conquer Earth and being thrown back. His story Pandora’s Legions is his most famous.
Warning: Just a reminder that there is a spoiler later in this review, so if you don’t want the spoiler, don’t read the second to last paragraph.
Out Of The Dark starts by setting the stage. Aliens had come to Earth hundreds of years ago. They were shocked by just how violent and ruthless humanity could be to each other. After decades of heated discussion the Galactic Hegemony decides to allow the only space going predatory race to conquer the humans. The Shongairi arrive in our solar system cocky and confident. They have more advance technology and hold the high ground. They launch a surprise attack by throwing high velocity rocks at Earth and kill off hundreds of millions of people. Then their ground troops arrive on the surface and for weeks push humans around. The Shongairi find humans are better fighters and in several locations the humans are able to destroy Shongairi troops, but because the Shongairi have spaceships in orbit and can launch devastating kinetic strikes the humans are slow in retaking their planet.
Up to this point I greatly enjoyed the book. I would have given it four or five stars out of five. David Webber wrote with a great level of detail. The plot made sense. The characters were sympathetic and believable. Then totally out of left field Dracula saves the day. He leads a group of vampires to destroy Shongairi command centers on Earth and then they take the Shongairi space ships. I was in shock and disappointed. I really did enjoy the first two thirds of the book, but felt David Webber was unfair in pulling a rabbit out of the hat to win the war.
If you really like David Webber or stories about aliens trying to conquer Earth then you might enjoy this book. Otherwise skip it and try something like Pandora’s Planet.
Thoughts about Noticing the Good
Most of us have a problem of focusing on the bad things our children do. I don't know if this is ingrained in our nature or the way our society is. I once heard that the average child hears more than ten negatives for every positive.
Recently on Facebook Laurie Bluedorn linked to a nice post on Notice The Good. In this post Rachel Stafford makes the point of the importance of noticing the good things her daughter does. This is true for all of us.
Glenn Latham writes extensively on this point in his book The Power of Positive Parenting. He says that children will continue behavior that gets rewarded, and attention counts as a reward. So paradoxically when parents ignore good traits and fuss at bad traits the children may continue to do bad things because they are so hungry for attention from their parents.
So make the effort to notice the good things your children are doing today. They will appreciate the attention.
Recently on Facebook Laurie Bluedorn linked to a nice post on Notice The Good. In this post Rachel Stafford makes the point of the importance of noticing the good things her daughter does. This is true for all of us.
Glenn Latham writes extensively on this point in his book The Power of Positive Parenting. He says that children will continue behavior that gets rewarded, and attention counts as a reward. So paradoxically when parents ignore good traits and fuss at bad traits the children may continue to do bad things because they are so hungry for attention from their parents.
So make the effort to notice the good things your children are doing today. They will appreciate the attention.
Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling
Please send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at: Sprittibee.
This will be the 358th edition.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.
This will be the 358th edition.
Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.
As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.
I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.
National Novel Writing Month
Each November there is a invitation to write a novel in a month. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. I think it is a great program.
My young two daughters are going to participate.
I'll share a story I shared last year:
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The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups.
All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A," forty pounds a "B," and so on. Those being graded on "quality," however, needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A."
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
From Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles, Ted Orland
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If you have any children with an interest in writing fiction you could encourage them to participate i National Novel Writing Month.
My young two daughters are going to participate.
I'll share a story I shared last year:
--------------------
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups.
All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A," forty pounds a "B," and so on. Those being graded on "quality," however, needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A."
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
From Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles, Ted Orland
--------------------
If you have any children with an interest in writing fiction you could encourage them to participate i National Novel Writing Month.
Good chart showing the exploding costs of government schools
American schools go on utterly insane hiring spree since 1950. Kids shrug, continue to do poorly on testshas a good chart showing the how we have doubled the amount of money per pupil we spend on children while getting no increase in subject mastery.
The caption explains:
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A new study from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice finds that America’s public schools saw a 96 percent increase in students but increased administrators and other non-teaching staff a staggering 702 percent since 1950. Teaching staff, in comparison, increased 252 percent, Reason reports.
If non-teaching personnel had grown at the same rate as student population, American public schools would have an additional $24.3 billion annually. Scafidi’s report concluded that $24.3 billion is equivalent to an annual $7,500 raise per teacher nationwide or a $1,700 school voucher for each child in poverty .
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I also enjoyed reading the comments.
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