The Great Horse

After a long Winter of editing the second book of “The Legend of the Great Horse,” I’m looking forward to getting back to regular posting. (I know I’m jumping the gun by declaring the season over, but others living in the frozen tundra will understand.)

The book’s blog has been reorganized a bit, to focus on the main topics of history and horses (and the trilogy!), since it’s gotten scattered. And, a new Historical Timeline has been added, which will follow the path of Meagan’s journey through history. I’m also planning to discuss some of the characters in the book, both human and horse. So I’d better get posting. Hope you have a great week!

This is a red-letter week in history! Yes, I mean the Google Copyright Infringement Settlement “Opt-Out”  deadline.

Many people may not know what this is about, but basically the issue is that Google has been scanning publications in the collections of several major US libraries–without getting prior permission from copyright holders. Millions of violations have occurred.

The Settlement is not yet decided in detail, but authors/publishers have until January 28th, 2010 to “Opt-Out” now, or forever be bound by its yet-undetermined terms. Authors who don’t specifically opt out lose their rights. (No, this is not a fiction plot–it wouldn’t work for being too far-fetched.)

I am one of the authors affected, as my first book Eclipsed by Shadow was apparently “scanned” by Google in its ongoing flaunt-the-law project. It should be remembered that Google did NOT ask authors or rights-holders, they simply muscled in and started scanning, and have since used their influence on the corporate press to “massage” public opinion and the courts.

My prediction is this will be a bigger story, and a messier one, as time goes on.

For more background, here’s an overview of the Google Settlement by the National Writers Union.

I’ve recently heard about something that has definite appeal to anyone else being swept downstream in the Web 2.0 digital river of blogs, tweets, and other social media technologies.

The word “kaizen” basically means “improvement” in Japanese, but it has come to mean a method of continuous incremental improvements in process or design. Kaizen in this sense developed in post-WWII Japan and is primarily associated with business practices, but I feel has something to offer the technically overwhelmed.

I don’t know that kaizen is truly zen–though, who can say it is not, grasshopper?–but it sounds like a great way to approach the online dragon.

There’s a quote often attributed to one of my favorite American authors, Mark Twain: “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Yeah, not so funny anymore.

I’ve always believed we need the lessons of history. Here’s Mark Twain talking about New England weather. It sounds strangely modern:

“The lightning there is peculiar; it is so convincing, that when it strikes a thing it doesn’t leave enough of that thing behind for you to tell whether — Well, you’d think it was something valuable, and a Congressman had been there.”
- “The New England Weather”, Mark Twain’s Speeches

That was over a hundred years ago.

Back to me, one of the perks of staying on Nantucket in the winter is that it gets only a fraction of the snow the mainland gets. The island is only 40 miles offshore, but it makes about a 10-degree difference due to the “warm” ocean. Right now Boston has flurries and snow on the ground: here it’s all gusty wind, gray skies and drizzle–hooray!

The UK isn’t having it so good, island or not: Weeks of solid ground, snow and ice have put paid to almost all horse sport in the UK. It’s the frozen ground that’s the problem; it is too hard on the horses’ legs. Snow itself is okay–there is even international jumping competition on snow in St. Moritz(!)