Caption: I don’t think that “books” will end, because media will take over the transmission of concepts and texts, but what will we lose when the last hard copy has come and gone?
The war against newsprint, claiming that forests were felled to make newspapers and books, is a false narrative. They are made from wood fiber, but most of that is “slash,” sawdust, and timber byproducts. As is said in some quarters, “newspapers, magazines and books are the hot dogs of the world of timber.”
I am not anti-hot dog nor am I a hot dog denier. I prefer a Chicago-style dog if I’m going to eat one. But that’s not quite true when it comes to books. It’s true that storing them is much easier in digital formats, but you lose something at the same time without being able to turn a page.
Bullet Points:
** ammo.com asks: How common are hunting accidents in the U.S.? We used the International Hunter Education Association’s database to analyze hunting accidents between 2010 and 2025. (1) On average, 441.7 hunting accidents and 58.1 hunting fatalities were reported annually between 2010 and 2025. (2) Hunter judgment (42.9%) and skill and aptitude factors (40.8%) were the most common causes of hunting-related incidents in that same time span. (3) Firearm discharges accounted for a larger share of incidents than tree stand falls (34.0% vs. 24.5%), but the two shared similar fatality rates (10.5% vs. 11.0%). Personal LL pet peeve is hunters during a smokeless season who wear camo and no orange hat/vest. I don’t have a problem with camo for archery or black powder seasons. The other peeve is people who have alcohol in camp. You may be smart and sober, but your buddy conceals a flask. I have no tolerance for alcohol and weapons. Accidents will always happen. The misidentification caused by camo and/or alcohol is a common reason for “accidents” no matter what anyone tells you.
** Retirement – I tell my adult children that when you ‘retire,’ you should be able to draw the same amount of money that you did when you worked, with a baked-in COLA in case you live to be Boron’s age. (Don’t factor home equity into that.) Whatever that number is. Preferably more than what you made working, but that number is your baseline. I have two of four daughters who have taken that advice to heart and two who have not. What are your thoughts on the matter? That is your question of the day.
** Virtual Mirage – to date: 7,809 published posts, 163,835 comments, no advertising beyond the strident pleas for you to send gold and buy “biodiversity offsets” (same value as religious trinkets) from the White Wolf Mine. Thanks everyone for hanging out and commenting.
** There will be a fifth book in the duelist series set in 1866-7, post War of Southern Secession, even if the present fourth book, Vengeance and Retribution flops completely. It’s like eating potato chips (somebody stop me). I have it in my head to keep going and so I shall. I have no idea what the title will be or when it will be complete, but I’m actively working on the outline as I complete the edit of Vengeance and Retribution, still on target for a late August release in AI audiobook, digital, and paperback formats. I hope that the story (historical fiction) leaves the reader hanging and wanting to know what happens next.
** I’m also contemplating writing a contemporary novel of cartel wars separate from The Old Whore and Bloody Mexico. The working title for that one is “Day of the Dead“. As with all of my other writing, there will be a healthy dose of reality blended in the fiction. There seems to be an appetite on the part of readers for more of that. I’m working on the outline for that one too.
** Advanced Notification of Ballistic Missile Launches (CDRSAL) – We call on all relevant countries to commit to participate in arrangements for providing advance notification of launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and space launch vehicles (SLVs) to affected states. One hundred and forty-five countries participate in one
such mechanism, the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCOC). Recent missile testing activity in the Pacific area did not follow the standard practices adopted by most states to notify and deconflict ICBM, SLBM, and SLV launches. Conducting nuclear-capable ballistic missile tests without sufficient advance notice and detail is dangerous and disrupts the peace and security of relevant nations in proximity to these tests. It increases the risk of miscalculation, undermines global stability and security, and is incompatible with the responsibilities that come with possessing long-range missile capabilities. – I can’t see the Norks or the Red Chinese agreeing to that. It would be good if they did, but I think it unlikely.
** “Take the blue pill, and you wake up in your bed tomorrow, and you can write this all off as a dream. Take the red pill, and you stay here, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” The red pill allows you to see things as they really are, unplugging you from the machine that is running a simulation in our collective brains. The blue pill keeps you in your comfort zone and running in the machine maze. There is always a choice, friends.
** Since The Odyssey, sailors have been warned about the Sirens—beautiful creatures whose song promised everything a man wanted to hear, right before dragging him beneath the waves. Over time, the legend blurred into the familiar image of the mermaid: half woman, half fish, and entirely bad news. There is a moral to the story.
** I don’t comment often on Tyler Robinson, the guy who murdered Charlie Kirk. But his motive/reason seems to be that he liked bum-jugging another guy who dressed up like an animal, and Kirk said that it was ‘unnatural.’ And Robinson took exception to Kirk’s assertion that sodomites like that were doing things in an unnatural way. It has to be difficult for the defense and their march toward “not guilty.” That’s all. – moving on.
** This (right) is a perfect example of the stupidity and ignorance which is common currency on the Internet today. The author has no grounding in economic theory, economic principles, or economic reality. The author has no understanding of what wealth is or how it is created or who it benefits. Even absent the immediate context, binary alternatives are generally false and misleading, and an example of how some people are incapable of complex reasoning and comprehension. Anyone who has read The London Economic comment right and agreed with it has lost numerous IQ points and any VM points that you might have accumulated to date.
Pandering to the pseudo-populist notion that wealth, or even middle-class fiscal security, is “bad”. Combine that with a younger generation that seriously lacks critical-thinking skills and foreign $ and a “social movement” can be created. The dangers of such should not be underestimated.
** In regard to the TV series “Dutton Ranch” – I found the series to be boring. Apparently, Ed Harris (age 75) was upset about the role he had in the show, but he was one of the few characters that I found interesing. Nobody asked me, just my cracker in the soup. If I watch the second season, it will be to watch Ed Harris play a veterinarian. I thought that the series played flat; the writing was not as bad as the Marshal’s series, but it wasn’t inspiring. A Mexican cartel kidnapped the whining, dysfunctional grown child. I’d let them keep him. That would teach the cartel. Better that the audience cared that Chucky was gone (left the show, I hope?) before you have him kidnapped. Having said that, I’m generally a big fan of Taylor Sheridan’s work.
Best line from Lioness S3 E2: Byron (Michael Kelly) to KGB guy: “You gave us our weed-vaping basketball player back.” (rimshot) They could have kept the weird semi-tranny hermaphrodite in the Russian prison for another decade, and it would not have been a loss to the USA. Anyway, h/t Sheridan for that one.
** The decision to expand abortion access all the way to the moment of birth marks a profound moral failure. Every child, no matter how vulnerable or unwanted by some, possesses inherent dignity that no law can erase. Allowing the deliberate ending of a fully formed, viable life in the final stages of pregnancy crosses a line that civilized societies once recognized as sacred. Watching adults clap and cheer as that line is erased reveals a chilling detachment from basic humanity. Celebration in the face of such legislation treats the destruction of the innocent as progress rather than tragedy. It prioritizes convenience and ideology over the fundamental right to life that should bind us all. True compassion demands we protect the weakest among us, not applaud laws that leave them unprotected. A culture that rejoices in the expansion of late-term abortion has lost its moral compass and risks hardening hearts against the most basic human value. A lot of people see it as murder.
** There have been many more “US-sanctioned dark shipments” of oil through the Straits of Hormuz than have been officially reported. President Trump posted on Wednesday that the United States has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, writing, “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT,” while Iranian officials shot back that the strait “remains blocked” until its conditions are met. A Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into a cargo ship’s engine room after it tried to run the blockade of Iran’s ports, the third vessel disabled since July. Iran’s capacity to “see targets” electronically in real time using Russian and Chinese satellites to aid missile targeting has not served them to the extent hoped for.
Identify the Aircraft
1
Hint: Powered by a single Bristol Jupiter VI engine
2
3
End
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Japan Imperial Navy Nakajima A2N
2 – Russian Antonov An-22PZ
3 – USAAF Seversky P-35
Outstanding.
L-L publishing: If you print it, we will come.
It’s coming soon.
“the strident pleas for you to” …. buy a book.
When I interview an author, I’m asked if I would like a hardcover and I say yes, but to prepare for the interview I prefer a pdf.
I have software that reads it to me while I’m driving.
It’s also easier to search and copy text to refer to.
Is that better than the Kindle AI audio?
No, it get’s funny sometimes.
It’s utilitarian and reads page headers and footnotes or superscripts.
One guys name was at the top of every other page and listening to his name inserted randomly was like playing Mad-Libs.
Mad-Libs. There’s a term that lost it original meaning.
As a Latter Day Luddite I prefer a book. My Kindle hasn’t been used in months. Late August? I will be hitting the “add to cart”.
Books – I cannot imagine a world without books – But I’m old. My grandkids might view library’s as museums.
*****
That is your question of the day – Spot on advice Mr. LL – You cannot start to save for retirement too early or save too much,
*****
Blue Pill/Red Pill – Truth and well said
*****
Dutton Ranch – Concur – Ed Kelly is best part of that show, it’s hard too watch, I doubt will watch any more.
*****
Lioness – Like the show but hard to watch with all the lesbian BS.
Recent review of GenZ forward indicated ‘devices’ have caused a serious decline in cognitive development in our Yutes; screentime does not require the brain to actually stretch and think for itself. The AI generated stuff is further down this slope. Books are the remedy.
I was deeply moved when my 17-year-old granddaughter said she had just finished the first three books in the Duelist Series (Confederate Cipher, etc.) and was ready for the next one. She has them in hard copy. I think she’s the first in my immediate family to have done that.
You’ve done a lot right, for this result. The Duellist is on my bucket list, the real question is Digital vs dead tree and which classic it will displace.
I’ve come round to read Thucydides “Peloponnesian War” at long last, in dead tree. Digital would not give me the same pleasure…
Pulp brings its own satisfaction.
Pulp Fiction has a better sound than digital fiction.
🤣
Considering the 23% loss due to inflation with my retirement funds since 2020, the possibility of substantial downsizing should be part of a retirement plan for contingencies. Things can become expensive and the importance of those things lessens when they become a burden.
And if you live another 30 years, inflation will have an even more profound impact.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Nakajima A2N1
2. Antonov An-22PZ
3. Seversky P-35
Excellent!
Hunting – some time ago a guy told camo shoppers “Your grandpa successfully hunted while wearing red plaid shirts. You don’t need that stuff”.
Yeah, a we boys got a sandlot ball game going all by ourselves… no league, no sponsor’s, no adult oversight…we handle all that until it got too dark to see the ball then went home for supper before mom got mad for letting dinner get cold.
The Twink that shot Charlie Kirk (who shall remain nameless) has some seriously demented loy-yers. Just yesterday…YESTERDAY…why is this baloney so protracted?…made a motion requesting the death penalty not be applied to his case when found guilty, because…KID YOU NOT…”he hit and killed the target he was aiming at and no one else was injured.”
Yes, Virginia, Shakespeare was 100% correct. This murderer in cold blood and his lawyers need to be tossed into the deepest pit, let them gnash their rotten teeth forever. The judge needs to assert control of this boondoggle before it gets anymore ‘OJ Trial’. What a farce.
***
Have not watched Dutton Ranch but Ed Harris at the DVM could be interesting. Seattle weather here in the Montana hills scheduled for the weekend, might take a look. I am seeing where Lioness is going, so far Ep 1 was interesting, but never knew there were that many tough gals that – as a former friend would say irreverently tongue in cheek (I think) – ‘who can take a punch’. Having never served in any forces team, I’ll suspend belief to watch the drama unfold.
***
That’s a lot of posts LL…and good ones at that. As MrsPaulM would say, ‘Tusand Tak!’.
I thought John Adams settled that after the Boston Massacre.
Abortion, except when it threatens the life of the mother (still not a trivial decision) is Satan’s tool to undermine God’s creation. Heard a pastor say in response to those spouting ‘My body, My choice’ is coopting Christ’s “This is my body”, only for Satan’s work…which has now transcended into this ‘body affirming’ evil on children that destroys God’s beautiful handiwork. The pastor said “Satan was getting children in the womb, now he’s getting them outside of it.”
Truth.
Stealing, I think.
Yup.
“The End of Books?”
My opinion:
if we’ve come to an end of (hard-covered) books, we’ve come to an end of “Western Civilization”.
To be highly positive about it, perhaps “civilization” itself has come/is coming to an end.
In the latter ’40s you walked into the meanest Jewish household, there was always a shelf of books (not including the bible – that held a special place of its own) explaining the meaning of various passages and how they were related to life as it should be lived. And a blue box/cannister – always, of course.
In a Russian Jewish household, you might find various texts discussing socialism.
OK! OK! Jews have always been known as “the people of the book”, but that referred to the Bible alone.
But… I could also walk into my Irish friends houses and see at least one shelf of well-worn non-religious books.
My one black/ African-American (at that time the word was negro) friend, when I walked into his house (whenever I use the word “house”, I mean apartment), there were always newspapers spread out on the table, and a few shelves of well-worn books, (his father was a handyman, his mother a cleaning lady – neither college-educated).
So it’s no wonder that I tend to view the phrase “Jews are the people of the Book” with the meaning that all Jews can read and are educated with just a bit of suspicion.
*
My wife, my children, their children are all screen-readers.
As a sidenote, I have to mention I notice that all (college-educated) move their lips when they read, if they don’t sub-vocalize as well. When did “sounding out the words” become a part of K-6 education?
Last: I read Ed’s comment re “voice-overs”, I call ’em that for one major reason. If they’re read/spoken/vocalized in a monotone, they’ll put you to sleep, OTOH, they can be read with subtle emphasis on certain/various words, giving the passage/(entire book) a certain emphasis unintended by the author.
We used to walk, in times of yore, to get from one place to another. Today, we hop a jet (no, I will not discuss waiting on-line – 4git it!) Progress!
Movable type bringing reading to the masses- Progress! Flat-screen reading. I remember reading that book, but I deleted it once I finished it. I’m sure I can always get it back. Progess!?
Help! my feet are stuck in the tar and I can’t get out of the pit!
Boronus Rex
The visual alone…
Books. When ever I am asked if I have my data backed up, I reply, “Yes, and I can read it with a candle”.
—
Preventing accidents. Some good instruction for those just starting out–
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https://trooperchannel.substack.com/p/ar-15-initial-familirization-and
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163,835 comments. Raise the bar and they will come.
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Charlie Kirk. What an absolute clown show. I’ll just say that independent forensic analysis (admittedly mostly audio/video) has raised a LOT of questions.
Books going obsolete is a concern of mine. First off, books outnumber every thing else in house, with the possible exception of all different sizes of screws and nuts – hardware – grouped together. Second off, revising history is trivially easy. Politicians swearing “I never said that” or others saying some figure they want to emulate (like Marx) never said something is practically guaranteed. A few seconds at the headquarters of the publishers guarantees nobody will ever know otherwise and instantly nobody learns anything from history. Last concern is that since the books outnumber everything else, I’m sorta hoping they retain some sort of resale value rather than just give the kids a hernia carrying them to the garbage pickup.
I think that the kids will toss mine. It will be a huge loss, but they won’t realize it.
Oh! they retain resale value. As an excercise in humor, take, for example, a Jerry Pournelle from your shelves and look at the price you paid.
Then go to addall.com and check out the lowest price for an “acceptable” copy.
When you get back up off the floor, we can all have a good laugh.
*
I will not! I will not! I will not! get into my usual rant about the devaluation (price in reference to an ounce of gold) of the dollar. I will not! (sound of lash).
Thank you Boron for mentioning the site Addall!
I have a large collection of books and have worried myself on what to do with them.
On the other hand I have tons of ammo but I know how to dispose of it!
I cut back to 30 hours a week the five years before I retired. The extra five years provided additional income and delayed SS etc. My
pension was frozen in 1999. Pension + SS is as much as I was making take home because I was saving 30% a year. I withdraw nothing. My savings is the same as twenty years pay. All my money goes to the wife and she will give it to cancer research for me when she is sure she will not need it.
When we put a thief away in prison, is that a punishment, a period of time for the perpetrator to re-consider his offence, or revenge? should we cut off one hand?
Similarly with a murderer, is it a period of time for the person to reflect upon his misdeed (on a sidenote, you’ll note little upcry from the feminists when I employ the male prounoun in this instance), a punishment, or revenge, or singly, a period of removal from society to prevent re-occurrence?
However: in reference to the person who ended the corporeal existence of Charles James Kirk, were I on the jury – and had, as well, the opportunity to have a vote, not only upon his guilt/innocence, but his treatment for his offence, I would vote “guilty” and recommend that he be deprived of first: his digits, removed sement by segment sans anesthesia and cauterized to prevent extreme blood loss one per week; second, his limbs, removed on a similar schedule; lastly, that excrescence above his shoulders.
I am not, repeat not, a vengeful man.
In Utah, I believe that it’s a bullet or the hangman’s noose. There may also be a lethal injection option now. I’m not sure about that.
X2 (both). In this ‘case’ the lawyerly tap-dancing to obfuscate to obfuscate the truth – especially when quite a few believe ‘something is amiss’ with a blatant cold-blooded murder of man with a huge platform speaking truth to lies – is beyond infuriating. ‘The court’ has become a theatrics-laden circus, complete with sideshows and hotdogs. (no funnel cake, that would normalize it)
Another Topic- USS Lincoln…Full disclosure….never been on a US Navy Ship other than museum pieces and my mos was combat engineer (don’t recall the numbers).
Although I’m from another generation, I find it interesting/puzzling that our current Carrier operations are encountering sanitary and morale issues to the extent we are reading about. I know the issues with believing what’s in the press, but there must be something to it when ships like the Lincoln are apparently being replaced prior to the scheduled replacement.
I’d appreciate help in understanding the issue(s) involved (other than being away from home).
It is coming off the station, not short of its tour. It’s been at sea and engaged in around-the-clock combat operations. It is being replaced and it will go in for a port refit. That’s my understanding.
As the WW2 Pacific theater Navy vets(those few still alive) shrug there shoulders in disbelief at the shock of 200+ days at war status.☹️
I was thinking that.
Combat Engineer
Until 1964 or so the MOS was 122. The Arny then went to 12B, 12C (bridge) etc. Same for the rest of MOS’.
Seems I was raised as an ignorant hunter. I was told deer and elk can’t distinguish the orange colors.
”’the mermaid: half woman, half fish…”
Please explain why every picture I’ve seen of a mermaid shows the top half of a woman and the bottom half of a fish – and not the reverse.
*
My hunting companions, without fail, have always been absolute abstentionist (if you’ll allow me the use of that word in this context) Southern Baptists, Methodists, and Latter-day Saints; I’ve never seen a hunting accident.
Can’t say the same for the guys I’ve fished with (BTW: just finished a book by John McWhorter “Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue” [not a recommendation], so I’m gonna start putting my prepositions post-position) having helped to fish two of ’em out of the drink (at different times) somewhere south of Block Island over the years.
I think that it’s bigoted to have the woman’s body on top with the fish tail on the bottom. Though there are statues depicting the top-half woman in the Faroe Islands – The 9 ft bronze statue of Kópakonan (The Seal Wife) was installed in the Mikladalur Harbor on Kalsoy. It’s hard to gainsay people with first hand experiences.
Doesn’t matter which end is up… or down. Smells like an fish either way.
Didn’t Fahrenheit 451 explain the end of books to us?
*****
*Digital books have the ability to disappear overnight or to be massaged as necessary. We see that ability already as others noted above. News stories are modified to fit the current narrative not what what was written at the time. Social Media has no memory and posts run off to hide or are deleted without any notice to the researcher. The Wayback Machine captures a huge amount of pages, but depending on the site it only takes a snap shot every now and then. Of course, the NSA records almost every digital transmission in high detail, but the amount is so large that the snoopers can’t search it all. And the NSA isn’t going to jump in to help Joe Cool find anything.
*****
*Libraries keep books for a while and then discard them on a regular basis. That includes the really large research libraries, museum libraries, The Smithsonian, and all the discards are based on which book the curator deems the best to keep. Sometimes that is based on which individual received the highest celebrity status.
–As a youngster visiting my paternal grandparents in Chicago, I would visit the main library downtown to pick up summer reading books. One of the books in the math section was written after WW II by a retired military man. He wrote about easy secret codes and more complex ones also. In the book, he talked about his work after WW I, the interwar period and WW II. He noted that between the wars, he was part of a listening group that decoded and translated the Japanese naval codes real time. He told how the listening group tracked the Japanese strike force and reported the movements to Washington. When the codes changed, they were able to break it within a day. When I visited the main Chicago library 20 years ago, I looked for that book. All the math books about message coding were gone and only the basic math books remained.
*My wife picked up a set of books that have the written orders from the great Civil War battles and memos to Washington. That set included one commander’s comments about Confederate batteries not remaining in place for the Union to return fire. He complained greatly about how they would race in, shoot accurately, and race to another position to fire again. You won’t find that in any of the current books writing about that conflict.
*****
Any decent hacker has the ability to break into a collection of “very well-protected” data, tax records, criminal records, or even books that is on-line (in the “cloud”) – there are even contests.
What do you call it when a government can do/does this? What do you call it should Amazon (I’m only using Amazon as an example since they publish books on-line) decides to edit out some (possibly) offensive word/passage you have written, when Yahoo decides to edit your emails, when the company that supports your blog site decides that: not your blog, but a reader has answered with an offensive comment and decides to remove your ability to blog?
I agree. Printed books are an indelible form of communication – until someone gathers a mob which decides to burn them.
Along the James River, there are a number of parks and streets that lead to them with the name battery in them.
I wonder how many people know what the term refers to.
When you go to these “parks”, you often cannot see the river for the trees.
Dumb question of the day:
who decided:
I’m elderly. At 85 I shouldn’t think there’d be any questionof that.
The OL decided that since I’m not as mobile as I once was, my caloric (and therefore total food) intake should be reduced (I don’t disagree, more particularly after a Whipple). So now she purchases these snack size containers of Jello – saves her the time and energy of boiling water I suppose.
The snack size is listed at 89 grams; I have no idea how much 89 grams is. When I grew up (in this country) we measured such amounts in ounces.
When did this change? Who decided it was imperative to change this? I didn’t say, “Sure, why not! Let’s change it and confuse everyone.”
Is the change required because of all the individuals we have streaming into this country, this having been their measurement system. “Let’s make it easier on them so they’ll become integrated more quickly; t’hell with the natives, they’ll just have to ACCEPT IT.”
Just who made the decision to change it and why? And please don’t tell me “It’s more scientific.”
That’s 100% bovine excrement and you know it!
If you want to use it for scientific (dental) measurements as I had to every day, that’s one thing, but to let it leak over into everyday life is quite another.
Boron, being of the same age I ask similar questions every day and rarely get an answer that is satisfying.
I live on books. Had to give about half of them away when we downsized last year. How about the soul less Canuks pushing euthanasia? The left is taking God out of everything sacred. They will pay for their murdering ways.
Looking forward to both new novels! Re books- Those can’t be taken away or ‘altered’ by the publisher… just sayin…
Agreed
Agreed, Dutton Ranch is weak. Also Marshalls. Rubbish.
I expected more of Dutton Ranch given Rip and Beth are strong characters. Maybe they need a ring around them. I will still watch the next one because I live in hope.
I agree with Jules on this, and with your interlocutor:
“Pandering to the pseudo-populist notion that wealth, or even middle-class fiscal security, is “bad”. Combine that with a younger generation that seriously lacks critical-thinking skills and foreign $ and a “social movement” can be created. The dangers of such should not be underestimated.”
Yes.