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Actual Books
Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics,
Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™
“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”
-- Boston Globe
"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."
-- New York Observer
“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING.”
-- John Hodgman,
author, The Areas of My Expertise and correspondent for The Daily Show
"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"
-- The Wall Street Journal
"A surprisingly touching memoir"
-- Entertainment Weekly
"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."
-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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Home  Book Blog Main Shot
Bob Harris - author, TV and travel writer, Kiva lender
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Media
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I just found out a few weeks ago that I'm about to have a new book-type thingy published.
Last year, my dear friend Jane was running Caprica (the Battlestar Galactica prequel), and on the strength of my real-world travel writing and the country summaries in Who Hates Whom, she thought I'd be a good choice to devise backstories for the show's planets (the "colonies of Kobol"), amplifying the existing tangential references in the original BSG into fuller political histories, giving Caprica's writers an internal bible for consistency.
Naturally, I jumped at the chance -- this was like being a Star Trek fan in 1968 and being asked to write the show's history of the Romulans for use in future episodes.
I didn't figure this would be published, but whoa -- turns out NBC/Universal has edited my memo to fit the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide format, licensed the resulting pamphlet with DK, and published a limited run as if it's a real full-color DK travel guide to be released in a limited run at the San Diego Comic Con -- but it's also on sale at the NBC store.
I don't think this will ever be in stores, so if the show becomes a cult like BSG, it could become a collector's item.
Neat!
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Travel
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Update: welcome to everyone popping over from my Peru travelogue on BoingBoing.net today. I think you'll particularly dig the videos.
Oh -- and if you imagine your group would want me to come by and speak, here's who you want to call.
Last year I was asked by Web Directions North, a gathering of assorted bigshots from Google, Yahoo!, etc. -- people who literally convene to design the next phases of the Internet itself -- to deliver the closing keynote. The subject? The future of the Internet's influence on global culture and politics.
Naturally, my take on it was illustrated with people dancing in the streets, teenage males being given fake boobs, and coffee made from civet poop.
I'm happy to tell you it got a long standing ovation.
And now you can see the whole talk online here.
It's broken into bite-size pieces, organized loosely by the point I'm making, each about the length of a pop song.
The first chunk is below. If you dig it, click to the YouTube page with the whole shebang.
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Stuff I like
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In case you missed it, I was asked to write a Bones episode this year, it aired a couple of weeks ago... and here it is, available for streaming at the network's website.
Incidentally, even though it says "Written by" and then my name in the credits, stuff like this is always a massively shared enterprise, so credit belongs in huge part with the entire writing and producing staff.
Very cool and fun bunch of people. And I'm happy to report it was their highest-rated episode since 2008!
Great experience, this was. Thanks to everyone involved! |
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Stuff I like
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Circular Reasoning, a new puzzle I designed and wrote for the op-ed section of the New York Times, is up!
My brief companion essay is here, and the introductory essay by novelist Arthur Phillips, who introduced me to the editors, is here.
It's meant to be hard and yet amusing enough that you'll want to share it with a friend or family member and work it together as part of your long holiday weekend. Did my best, anyway. Enjoy!
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Stuff I like
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Jane accepts the Program of the Year award for Battlestar Galactica at the Television Critics Association Awards on Saturday.
I think the other three women were her backup singers.
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Kiva and Microfinance
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 Quick note of appreciation to the good folks at the Pacific Asian Affairs Council, who brought me out to Honolulu, set me up at the University of Hawaii, and arranged for me to keynote their summit on microfinance.
I had a total blast and met a ton of cool people. And seeing so many young people get excited about a sense of connection with the developing world, and the ability to touch lives halfway across the globe -- that gave me a huge boost of enthusiasm for my own work. So I definitely received at least as good as I gave.
Thanks to everyone at PAAC. Hope to see a bunch of you in Vietnam next!
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Site updates
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Webmaster Colin has updated our software, one benefit of which is that my Twitter feed can now appear in the right-hand column. If everything works (including me), there should be photos, links, and all sorts of goodness over there. Longer posts will still go in this space.
Another effect of the changes: the addresses of many articles here have changed, so inbound links from other sites may be broken. If you've wound up here on the main page by accident, that's why the search box is now near the top of the page.
You may also find some odd formatting and such while we clean up the loose ends, but things mostly seem to be working out great. And if the page is displaying at a funky width, there are little white icons at the far upper right for twiddling with that.
Thanks! |
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Kiva and Microfinance
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Goes to this group of 20 small entrepreneurs in Trou-du-Nord, Haiti.
If you're just tuning in, I'm writing a book about microfinance for Bloomsbury. Kiva is quickly becoming the microfinance equivalent of eBay. Great place to start if you're interested.
Want to do something cool today? Go visit, open an account, and loan a few bucks halfway around the world. (Hundreds of loans now, I haven't lost a dollar yet. That's unusual, but their default rate is less than two percent.) It's not charity; you get the money back, they get to build their business, and you get to keep loaning the money right back out, over and over if you like.
My plan is to make 1000 loans this year. I'm a little behind right now, but I'll catch up. After that, I'll just keep re-loaning the same money over and over. It's a great addiction, if you're looking for one. Highly recommended.
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Prisoner of Trebekistan
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I just saw the new Xerox logo for the first time (I guess I don't buy office equipment much) in the background of the Dodgers game. My first thought: why did Xerox (left) adopt the symbol on the Kyrgyzstan flag (right)?
Obviously a coincidence. Still: small, weird planet we live on.
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