The first brief book from the A Book Apart publishing house is HTML5 For Web Designers. Jeffrey Zeldman and his HTML5 Super Friends know a thing or two about the web, best practices and how the markup language should move forward. The task of condensing and analysing the HTML5 specification was given to Jeremy Keith. Although from what I've read of the meeting at Happy Cog's New York studio last year Jeremy had already been doing some swotting beforehand.

Personally I'm not a web designer, I'm just a software developer, I obviously have an interest in HTML, I've read Zeldman's and Keith's books previously and in both cases there was just something that clicked. With Jeffrey it was web standards and the use of CSS, with Jeremy it was unobtrusive Javascript.

Learning about HTML5 in this book the new additions to the language do make more sense to me. Article, header, footer, nav and aside all get their own element so you don't need to think about divs, paragraphs, ids and classes you just use the new tags.

It really is a quick and concise book to read, laced with Jeremy's wit and brimming with his understanding of HTML5 and how it will be used by designers and developers alike.

Every time you create a web-site, you are contributing to the shared cultural heritage of the human race. In choosing HTML5, you are contributing to the future.Jeremy Keith

These things all have a tendency to link together.

I became a fan of Patricia Cornwell in the latter half of the nineties and I read a book of her's called The Body Farm, this was in fact the first Cornwell book that I read. I can't remember how I came about buying the book, possibly it was a review I'd read somewhere, I don't know. Reading that book made me think that such a place as The Body Farm couldn't possibly exist. It is gruesome to say the least that bodies are left out in the open, or buried in shallow graves, but even more disturbing that the bodies have been donated willingly and this is all being done to aid our understanding of how cadavers decompose in various situations. From that book I read Death's Acre, a factual account by Bill Bass, detailing how The Body Farm research facility came into being and how it is still the only one of it's kind in the world.

Bodies We've Buried describes the course run at the National Forensic Academy which also includes several days at the Body Farm. Just reading that it's a 10 week course I immediately start to think if I could have 2 and a half months off as unpaid leave... it probably wouldn't go down too well at work. You have to be a member of the law enforcement community and - if I remember correctly - have to be recommended by someone of a higher rank.

So what do I know now that I didn't know before:

That you can take plaster casts of foot or hand prints that have been left in a fine powder.

That having to leave finger prints on a cadaver to be found later by the students isn't the greatest job in the world.

That maggots will travel 5 to 6 feet due north from a buried food source before turning into pupa.

That there are 10 different bloodstain patterns: drip, flow, splashed, projected, satellite, cast-off, wipe, swipe, transfer and impact.

That you should never trust bomb experts. Sergeant Van Bubel, who - from his description - sounds like a cross between Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore and Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, walked into the class, seemed angry, started to pick a fight and declared that he wanted to end it all. He opened his jacket to reveal an array of pipe bombs strapped to his chest and promptly detonated a smoke bomb. Surprisingly all the students took cover.

If you're interested in criminology and forensics, if you watch cop shows or read detective stories, then it just doesn't get any more real than this.

Related Links
National Forensic Academy
University of Tennessee: Forensic Anthropology Center
Body farm - Wikipedia

The Hannibal Files is a summary and review of the three books by Thomas Harris that feature Dr Hannibal Lecter: Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. All three books have been made into films with the first book being the source material for both Manhunter and Red Dragon, which isn't covered in depth but gets a brief mention at the end. I've been an avid reader of the books and a huge fan of the films, especially Hannibal that was directed by Ridley Scott.

Because I've read the books, read interviews with directors and actors, watched the extras on the DVDs I didn't really learn anything new. I didn't know that the producer Dino de Laurentiis had actually passed on the film rights to The Silence of the Lambs because of the relative failure of Manhunter at the box office. Also that Jodie Foster didn't seem to have that much faith in the abilities of Jonathan Demme as a director at first.

I still can't quite decide which Hannibal story arc I like the most. I've watched the film a number of times but only read the book twice. Do we want Clarice and Hannibal to live happily ever after?

I'm still quite intrigued by the mask that Hannibal in wearing on the cover. I own a replica that is similar and always thought that it was based on masks used in european asylums. The book describes how all the masks that they tried were full face masks, like goal hockey masks, and that they cut the mask in half so that we could see Lecter's eyes.

The other thing that has always interested me is the promotional art work for The Silence of the Lambs and the Death's-head Hawkmoth. The skull has been replaced by naked female figures posed in the shape of a skull. I did bid on a copy of the original artwork for this on eBay many years ago but let it go when the bidding went too high.

Before reading The Hannibal Files you would have to have read the books and seen the films. Do that first. If you are interested in learning more then read The Hannibal Files.

I've been a fan of Alice Cooper's for quite some time to say the least. I'd been buying KISS albums and decided to buy the Greatest Hits. To this day I can remember the spot in BJ's record store where the Alice Cooper section was. Things change, the record store is now a barbers but Alice Cooper is still around, making records and touring.

From what I can tell this book is the second time that Alice has put pen to paper. The first book, Me, Alice, is out of print and commands a healthy sum on Amazon. This book is up to date and is part autobiography, part golf lesson. If you're a fan of Alice and his music you'll love it, but he isn't the type of person who will dish the dirt, except about his own life. So don't expect any backstabbing or any sordid details about the number of women he's bedded in his time.

Being a fan, I've heard most of these stories before. I didn't know that Raquel Welch fell in love with him in the mid seventies. He was playing golf with some CEO's and 'Rocky' drives up in a golf cart offering to be his caddy for the day. "Rocky, go away, will ya? Can't you see I'm playing golf?". The guys looked at him in complete disbelief, "You just sent Raquel Welch away." Alice shook his head, "I know, but she drives me crazy."

He was also great friends with another of my heros, Groucho Marx. Groucho would suffer from insomnia so he'd phone Alice at 2 in the morning just saying that he couldn't sleep and that Alice should come 'round. They'd talk and watch films on TV. When Groucho finally nodded off Alice would tuck him in, put out his cigar and go home.

I knew that Alice had a drink problem and that, in the days before Betty Ford, he was put in a sanitarium for his addiction. The album From The Inside was written based on his experiences and the people he met. But I didn't know that this had happened twice and that he fell off the wagon just by sneaking a sip of wine from his wife Sheryl's glass in a restaurant. That's all it took. The albums, Flush The Fashion, Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin and Dada were all written and recorded in an alcoholic haze.

The one thing that made him go back to rehab was Sheryl filing for divorce. After vowing never to return to a place like Camelback Hospital he had another little problem to face. He wrote and recorded the Constrictor album but could he still be Alice on stage completely sober? Well obviously he could and a new more confident Alice Cooper was born. A more dominant figure than the victim of old.

If you're a fan then you'll have this book already. The mix of autobiographical tales and golf tips works quite well, even for someone whose only golfing experience has been crazy golf or using the Nice Putt machine that I received one Christmas.

After the success of, the self-published, Getting Real Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson had to do another book. But this time, instead of treading old ground and doing another book on software development, they've written a book for anyone who owns or works in any business. Rework certainly has a leaning towards those of us who work at a computer, or at least at a desk. I can't honestly see it having all that much relevance for a shepherd... then again you'll read the book from a different perspective, depending upon your occupation.

Rework is a book of essays. Being only about a page, and no more than two, you couldn't really call them chapters. They're simply written, jargon free and each is separated from it's neighbour by artwork penned by Mike Rohde.

If you've worked in an office you'll read the book and either laugh, chuckle or shake your head in complete dismay.

How could having less options make you happier?

The book deals with the kind of problems that people face every day. The coffee shop has 30 different cups of coffee in 3 sizes. The clothes shop has 6 different styles of jeans in 3 different fits. Things then become more complicated the more expensive the item is, you don't want to make the wrong decision when buying a computer or a car.

This makes me think of the whole Mac vs. PC debate. If you want Snow Leopard you either have server or desktop. If you want Windows 7 there's Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. They might even have a server version as well I'm not sure. Then they have retail and update and 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Then there's hardware. Apple have about 3 laptops, 3 complete desktops and one small and one pro desktop. How many possible combinations do you have with PC hardware? Different configurations of monitors, motherboards, processors, memory, display cards, cases, keyboards and mice from thousands of different manufacturers. Does all that choice really make people happier? Anyway back to the book.

Two terms that keep cropping up in the book are satisficer and maximizer. The satisficer will find an item and, if it fits the required criteria, the right colour, style, size, a purchase will be made and that's it. The maximizer will try and visit every store that sells the item and try and compare each item seen. Of course the maximizer cannot be 100% sure that the item is perfect because visiting every clothes shop in town, in your county or even in the country isn't possible. There's always the chance that a purchase will be made and only then will they see the perfect item.

I don't quite know what I would class myself as. I do have a habit of buying DVDs in a sale, knowing that they're cheaper than the full retail price, and then checking the price online to see exactly how much I saved if anything.

The other term I liked was inaction inertia. You see an item for 30% less than the list price but you don't buy it because you could find a better deal elsewhere. You look and look and find nothing better. You then return to the store and see that the item is now only 10% less. Do you buy it? No, because now it is less attractive. Even with a 10% discount you don't buy it at all because you regret buying it at 30%. The book contains quite a few little psychological conundrums like this.

One interesting point, about half way into the book, the author asks why people purchase something and then force themselves thorough the pain of not enjoying simply because they've spent the money. It was about here that I asked myself the same question. I've bought the book but the act of reading through it is just getting more and more tortuous. The money has already been spent, that part is done, so why am I going through this and not enjoying it. At what point do you call it and say that's it? Maybe I was hoping that the book would improve. But why not just skim through that last half?

Actually the book isn't all that bad, but it should have been half as thick considering the material. I was reading most of it thinking that I'd read it before, and I had. The first couple of chapters cover the entire book in summary and the end of each chapter describes the next. For a non-fiction book like this you don't need a cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter. A good editor would have dealt with all this duplication. Less is more.

Sir Les Patterson is known globally for his tireless championing of Australian culture in all it's forms. This book is a photographic journey through the great man's native land, accompanied with rhyming couplets from the quill of Sir Les himself.

A member of the Australia Council for the Yartz since it's inception the sumptuous black and white photography depicts Les getting to grips with macrame, porcelain production and draughtsmanship.

In the film section there is a rare photo of Lois Patterson, O.B.E.. Who knew that Sir Les even had a sister. With his life being an open book we find that there is still so much that we don't know.

The Friend of the Famous section has a beautiful photo of Sir Les relaxing on set with the cast of The Sullivans (ask your parents).

This publication is just chock-a-block with photos of Sir Les in high profile governmental meetings, at cultural functions, enjoying ethnic cuisine and perusing the native art scene, or Abo Art, as it is known locally. Sir Les is also a committed conservationist and can be seen getting up close and personal with the creatures of his home land.

After leafing through this tome you marvel at the drive and the commitment of this great Australian. Whether it's relaxing over a long lunch with one of his government sponsored research assistants or sat in the bosom of his family, Gwenneth, Craig and Karen, Sir Les is a people person. And I'm not just saying that because he's my Uncle.

Question: What do these people have in common - Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Philippe Petit and Gary Vaynerchuk? They have passion. They are intensely passionate about what they do.

When I think about wine appreciation I think about the Fraiser episodes with Fraiser and Niles squabbling over who deserves to be 'Cork Master'. They're dressed in business suits and they're in a cellar with racks of dusty old bottles. Wine Library TV, the online video show that Gary set up, is the exact opposite of that. From the few that I've watched, it's filmed in an office under florescent lights with a New York Jets labelled spit bucket. But it's Gary's enthusiasm for wine that smashes through the screen and hits you between the eyes.

The book describes how Gary became an internet phenomenon. He says himself that he can't write, which is why the book was dictated and transcribed. This makes the book really easy to read because the writer isn't showing off with flowery language, using words that no one uses in everyday speech, he's just getting the message across.

A customer had complained that her white wine hadn't been delivered. It was December 22nd so the store was crazy busy with orders. Because it was only a case of wine and because she wasn't a big, or regular customer the complaint had been ignored. Gary set the tone for the store by putting a case in his trunk and delivering it personally. Driving for 3 hours, out of state, in snow to deliver the wine. Yes, he could have spent his time better being in the store instead of off the radar for 6 hours but it put out a message to his staff that every customer and every order counts.

There must be a term for that kind of service. It certainly works, even if the woman who ordered the wine didn't tell all her friends how it was delivered personally, it's a positive message that spreads like wildfire.

There is just one problem and it's not with the book. I can't think of anything that I'm all that passionate about. Gary says that you have to have 50 ideas for blog posts on your chosen subject. I just can't think of anything. To be honest I don't even know of anyone else who has an all consuming hobby or pastime.

After reading the book I'm certainly on the look out for new ideas.

Update
The Thank You Economy