The Huffington Post reports the latest from the premier scientist/thinker of our age:

Stephen Hawking: God NOT Needed For Creation

LONDON — Physicist Stephen Hawking says God wasn’t necessary for the creation of the universe.
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I think I mentioned that I had finished reading the quite lengthy novel by Justin Cronin called “The Passage” last week and it scared the bejesus out of me. I had a hard time walking the dog early in the morning, because I kept seeing things in the trees.

It reminded me of Stephen King’s “The Stand” — but with a different flare and evil.

Cronin says this is the first of a trilogy. Let’s hope he lives long enough to complete it.

I Just finished reading Pat Conroy’s latest book South of Broad on my iPad’s Kindle app and as ever since I read my first one in 1983 (The Lords of Discipline), am enthralled at the magic of his words and of his story-telling abilities.

Mark Twain speaks through his character, “Satan”:

“In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever–for you will remain a thought, the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguishable, indestructible. But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!
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ABC News published this story today. I can’t imagine that Amazon did this deliberately and seems less than-than-forthcoming because of the possibility that someone may have relatively easily hacked into their system.

That’s not a good message from a security/trust/confidence standpoint.

‘Glitch’ or Hacker?: Gay Titles Deep-Sixed at Amazon
Authors Cry Foul Over Removal of Gay Book Rankings from Amazon.com Site

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
April 14, 2009—

Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, blamed a computer “glitch” for stripping scores of gay-themed books of their sales ranking, preventing them from appearing on the site’s best seller lists. But a notorious Internet hacker is also claiming to be behind the mysterious happenings at the Web site, which is the top online book seller.

Amazon would not elaborate on the cause of the glitch or why it seemed to mainly target books about gay and lesbians — from academic treatises to romance novels. Some authors of the targeted books believe the company actively engaged in a discriminatory policy that hurt their sales.
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