Farewell: Ray Bradbury

Author Ray Bradbury dead at 91 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
To me the Science Fiction writer par excellence.
I utterly agree with his grandson
 "The world has lost one of the best writers it's ever known, and one of the dearest men to my heart. RIP Ray Bradbury (Ol' Gramps)," his grandson Danny Karapetian said on Twitter.

A tribute Ray Bradbury: A Legacy Remembered  and reminded of Ray's story "The Veldt" a frightening story of Television and how it could become too realistic


Just 3 years I started this blog post on his 88th birthday
Happy birthday Ray Bradbury! | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times

and I posted on the LA Times
Dear Ray, I sure pray that you had a blessed day. Your books have meant so much to me over what is it 55 something years. I found them when I lived in London and you are always the SF writer that comes first. Thank you.. Ron

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. BRADBURY!!! - Topic Powered by eve community

It was a pain to register using a strange Groupee system - would have good if they had OpenID
BUT I persevered as I wanted to Thank Ray for his great books

I suppose "Fahrenheit 451" is the famous one - just so true about the modern politically correct world - see Ray Bradbury
but his stories always had a human side - read Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
- life in a small town in 1920s.
Now I love wearing sneakers and back when I was started with Ray it was Dunlop Tennis shoes and One story is about Royal Crown Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Tennis Shoes.
"How do they feel?"
The boy looked down at his feet deep in the rivers, in the fields of wheat, in the wind that already was rushing him out of town. He looked up at the old man, his eyes burning, his mouth moving, but no sound came out.
"Antelopes?" said the old man, looking from the boy's face to his shoes. "Gazelles?"

Every time I look for new sneakers Ray's story comes to mind. Just so funny the hype that certain brands have.....  

Book: Not A Good Day To Die: The Untold Story Of Operation Anaconda

Currently in my reading pile.
very well written but a sad story.
I am at the day before the operation starts and things are looking bad.
Planned for 250 enemy in a village and looking like 700+ up on the high ground

Some reviews here
Not A Good Day To Die: The Untold Story Of Operation Anaconda - Books on Google Play
 More
Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda Book Reviews

Who did write Shakespear

When I was on cruise and touring Messina in Sicily, the guide told us William was actually Italian and from Messina.
First I had ever heard of that.........
Strangely I come back to Sydney and just appearing locally is Anonymous (film) -
The film is proposing that the plays were written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
The society that pushes him has some comments on the film Shakespeare-Oxford Society » Anonymous, The Movie
Quote "Of course Roland Emmerich and the screenwriter John Orloff took cinematic liberties with history in creating the film but that’s what storytellers do."
So even they say the film is not history!!!

This seems a sound discussion on Shakespeare authorship question - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Analysis says that Shakespear's works were all written by one person.
This discusses the claims for Francis Bacon, the 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, and the Earl of Oxford.
I understand that Oxford has replaced the other men as the main claimant.
Edward de Vere mentions some works that he wrote - I could not see any evidence that these have been analysed for similarities to Shakespear's works? De Vere died in 1604 and yet new Shakespear plays were being performed upto 1613. If Oxford had his actual own works published why would be shy about his Shakespear works? And he had his own group of players - why would he provide his Shakespear works to another group of players?
The claims for him seem to be based on his European tour and that he visited Italian places that Shakespear used in his plays. Nothing is known of Shakespear going outside England and so Oxford must have written these works. Hardly convincing - as he was around theatres perhaps Shakespear listened to his memories of these places or some other tourists.

I'll probably see Anonymous as it covers one of my favourite periods of English history and the graphics of London are said to be excellent but its ideas are nonsense.....
A review of the film - the writer supports Shakespeare
Shakespeare speculation and conspiracy tales - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
and he makes the point that Emmerich makes very Inventive history movies - well basically real history drops of of sight - for the sake of the story

Messina: The Forgotten Home of Shakespeare « Shakespeare Politics and Italy Blog
Willy or Won't He?: Crollalanza = Shakespeare?
Etheric Warriors Forum :: discusses Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza Aka The Bard?
One comments states "It's a pity the videos are not subtitled because they are very accurate with a lot more insights and coincidences; for example, one of those scholars states that one of Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza's teachers at Padua appears in one of the plays. "
Now that is interesting........

Now if this Michelangelo could learn English so well to write Shakespear and invent so many words then I think he must be a greater genius than his namesake the artist of the Sistine Chapel.
But do read the forum above - it has a lot to say - has anyone confirmed the facts etc

In meantime I'll stick with good old William of Stratford

David Fromkin’s new book: The King and the Cowboy

David Fromkin's new book: The King and the Cowboy

"The King and the Cowboy: Theodore Roosevelt and Edward the Seventh: The Secret Partners".

Actually I think it should be "The King, the Cowboy and Autocrat" or whatever you want to call Kaiser Willie.
The book suggests that the King and the President colluded to stop the Kaiser's plans in the Moroccan crisis of 1905 and this set the stage for WW1 and hence WW2 etc.

It is very well written history and short as well so well worth reading to understand what happened in Europe at the transition from Queen Victoria into the 20th century. Goes into how Victoria and Albert tried to educate Edward and that Victoria may well have hated him. Similarly explores the strange upbringing of Willie and his personality problems. Willie was actually visiting his grandmother when she died and he loved British uniforms etc. And yet he set out to oppose Britain - even though many protest that his expansion of the German Navy was not to oppose Britain.

From this book a case is well established that Edward had much more say in policy than the subsequent Kings of England.

A very good read

Just read: Robert Lindsay - Letting Go

RobertLindsay.net - Official: Robert Lindsay - Letting Go

Robert Lindsay (Stevenson) I first remember seeing in Jericho - a wonderful recreation of foggy London in the 1950s - and upsetting too - what was going on. Well Robert was what was going on. And then My Family which I only started watching when it had been around some time - some episodes were really funny but always a sad undercurrent. This book is about his first sixty years and is a very enjoyable read. He really goes into his acting style. It seems he likes to play the part and also play to the audience. Which can be threatening and one actor actually punched him.

Playing Henry II with Derek Jacobi as Beckett - he relates Derek as being a bit grumpy when Robert tried to be amusing - later he recounts Derek had Mrs Thatcher as a dinner guest and she invited Robert which he refused as being from the working class he did not like her politics - no wonder Derek was grumpy. Robert does reveal a lot about himself. Always having a laugh about himself. It was good to read about his career. Being "down under" for 40 years means I've lost touch with "new" actors etc in UK so this book was revealing.

I knew "Me and My girl" the 1930/40s Lupino Lane musical with the "Lambeth Walk" had had a rerun but I just did not know that Robert with Emma Thompson had been the stars - he took the show to a success on Broadway and met everyone including Miss Hepburn.

I'll be watching more of Robert if his shows get down here

Welcome To The Working Week by Paul Vlitos

Welcome To The Working Week by Paul Vlitos - 9780752885117 - Orion Books

I don't usually read novels. But I walked in the library and this title grabbed me. It is a first novel

but I see Paul now has

Every Day is Like Sunday by Paul Vlitos - 9780752890630 - Orion Books

Working Week is a book of emails to and from Martin who seems to get in disaster after disaster. Trying to find his jacket and wallet after a party and they are on his sideboard. Some very funny sections. It is about life in North London and part of the culture scene. Plays in pubs and DJs and names on the music world.

Ending sort of peters out - Martin makes a 5 year plan with a girl that they will marry if nothing else happens (which girl? but that would be a spoiler ). Just seems to be saying life goes on and on.

One girl keeps a blog and emails are exchanged on stuff she says about Martin. A novel of just emails - very novel

What I am reading

Date Due Item Number Title Options
18 Jul 2008 S875593006 Between the devil and the deep blue sky : domesticity, danger and deadlines : co / Wilkinson, Gina, 1970- Renew

18 Jul 2008 S872533005 Dead heat / Dick Francis and Felix Francis. / Francis, Dick. Renew

18 Jul 2008 S826273005 Pirates : the myths, the legends, the facts : the definitive dramatised history. /

18 Jul 2008 S795019009 The Office : the Christmas specials / Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and / Gervais, Ricky.

18 Jul 2008 S831786009 The accidental tourist / based on the book by Anne Tyler ; screenplay and direct / Tyler, Anne.

18 Jul 2008 S842466005 The message / produced and directed by Moustapha Akkad. / Akkad, Moustapha.

22 Jul 2008 S842325003 A new world of relaxation : new world collection 2. / Renew

22 Jul 2008 S855496006 Microsoft Office Access 2007 : quicksteps / John Cronan, Bobbi Sandberg. / Cronan, John Renew

22 Jul 2008 S827885005 Not forgotten. / Oliver, Neil. Renew

22 Jul 2008 S842330003 Transformation. / Thornton, Phil. Renew

26 Jul 2008 S860627009 Coffee basics : a quick and easy guide / by Kevin Knox and Julie Sheldon Huffake / Knox, Kevin.

26 Jul 2008 S800419004 The mighty Hood. / Bradford, Ernle.

Ramses II by Christiane Desroches Noblecourt

Ramses II : an illustrated biography by Christiane
Desroches Noblecourt
1996 - English language edition 2007.
The illustrations are magnificent.

I read this re my interest in Chronology - and posted this to Yahoo list on NC

I thought some dates that "the preeminent specist
on Ramses II" per jacket blurb provides might be
of interest.

Horemheb 1327-1295
(an illustration immediately alongside that text
says "reigned 1333-1306" I cannot understand that
as in text she goes on to say died 1295)

1295 Ramses son of Seti and Tuya would have been
in fifth year and would have seen crowning of Ram I

Seti takes 7 year old Ram II on expedition into
Canaan and Ram I makes Seti co-regent and then
dies just under 2 years after Horemheb with whom
he shared the rule.

Year 7-8 of Seti a peace treaty with Muwatallis
and in the ensuing time of peace Seti makes Ram II
co-regent

Year 14-15 of Seti when nearly 50 he dies and Ram
II just turned 25

Fifth year of Ram II when 30 his second Syrian
expedition and Battle of Kadesh

69th year when 92 he dies in 1213 - she discusses
up to 14th Jubilee celebrations.

Perhaps her opinion of events and years of reign
help discussions

--------
Christiane tries to discuss placing Exodus at time
of Ram II and suggests year 7 when he and
Imenherkhepeshef (eldest son) were on a dual
punitive expedition into Edom and Moab. "Clues
though are few and far between". (I'd agree with
that I just cannot see Ram II the Great as Pharaoh
of Exodus)

Much discussion in book on eldest changing name
later as Imen... disappears from the record. Of
course if he was the first born at the time of
Exodus then he was not around ......

Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War:

Pat Buchanan's upcoming book Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost an Empire and the West Lost the World

The American Cause

Well I am not reading this one.
Just saw Buchanan on Fox - Geraldo interviewed and described the book as well researched and written. Might you he had a quizical look when listening to Buchanan describing the book. Seemed to me to just recalling the "wonderful" days of 1930's USA isolationism - we ain't going to war. And that policy undoubtedly encouraged Hitler and meant war in the end.

If Britain and France had not tried to appease and USA to keep out of things - what might have happened.

Of course Britain had to go war over Poland in 1939 - the ultimatum should have been over Czechoslovakia

Of course Britain lost the Empire - it was going to happen anyway - wasn't India already in revolt

What I have just read - May 2008

8 Jun 2008 S831180005 Fighting techniques of the Medieval world equipment, combat skills, and tactics / Bennett, Matthew. Renew

8 Jun 2008 S755447000 Genesis of the Pharaohs : dramatic new discoveries that rewrite the origins of a / Wilkinson, Toby. Renew

10 Jun 2008 S867675001 The Black swan : the impact of the highly improbable / Nassim Nicholas Taleb. / Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. Renew

Motya : unearthing a lost civilization. by Gaia Servadio

Motya : unearthing a lost civilization. by Gaia Servadio


Gaia is an Italian journalist who wrote for L'Ora who bravely tackled the Mafia . Her book is about her personal trips to Motya. A Punic city destroyed by the Greeks on an islet off Sicily with a sea covered road connected to the main land. Her story covers Joseph Whitaker who inherited a wine firm trading in Marsala - a very heavy dessert wine. Joseph purchased Motya and started digging for Carthaginian remains as well as collecting and stuffing birds. The family had some trouble with the mafia and the fascists . A rambling book but very interesting on the British running businesses in Sicily.


Gaia has a theory that the Carthaginians practised sacrifice of first born children because young women had to become temple prostitutes and when they married the father was not always clear. No wonder the Bible condemns the Canaanites.

George Orwell - (Eric Blair) 1903-1950

Neil has just blogged on: George Orwell exposed!
Mainly that conservtives often quote Eric and how he changed from being a communist whereas he may have rejected dictators like Stalin but he did remain a Socialist and supporter of the Labour Party.

Do read George Orwell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am pleased to say I own at least one first edition of something and it is:
George Orwell: The English People. Publisher: 'Collins'. GB, London. 1947
A wonderful short essay on the English as he saw them.

A quote follows

during the Jubilee (George V) the rather servile slogan "Poor but Loyal." Other
slogans, however, coupled loyalty to the King with hostility to the landlord,
such as "Long Live the King. Down With the Landlord," or more often,
"No Landlords Wanted" or "Landlords Keep Away." It is too early to say
whether royalist sentiment was killed outright by the Abdication (1936) , but
unquestionably the Abdication dealt it a serious blow. Over the past four
hundred years it has waxed or waned according to circumstances. Queen
Victoria, for instance, was decidedly unpopular during part of her reign,
and in the first quarter of the nineteenth century public interest in the
Royal Family was not nearly as strong as it was a hundred years later. At
this moment the mass of the English people are probably mildly republican.
But it may well be that another long reign, similar to that of George V,
would revive royalist feeling and make it-as it was between roughly 1880
and 1936-an appreciable factor in politics

George wrote that in 1943 I suppose as surely by 1947 it was clear that George VI had revived royalist feeling with his two lovely daughters and the way the family behaved in WW2. And here we are 60 years after the book with a Queen who has reigned 54 years. I wonder what George would say now about republican position in England.

His great book was Nineteen Eighty-Four which in many ways was set in the dismal England of 1948 under rationing and with a Labour government . Recently we had a discussion on Movies and Neil and I both set Brazil (film) high on our lists. Made by Terry Gilliam in 1985 and obviously based on Eric's 1984 even though Terry says he never read the book. The office computers are modeled on 1948 Television sets and even show black and white cowboy films. An enormous romp of a film. See it. And perhaps first read the book and the Richard Burton film of

I got to the book through television the 1954 TV programme in which Peter Cushing was brilliant as Winston Smith - alas then Peter went on to a career as vampire killer.

The other well known book from George is Animal Farm- well worth reading - don't bother with the cartoon film. In this parody of Stalin and what happened to the Russian revolution Eric shows what changed his attitude to politics.

Of course Eric died at age 46 - at that age I myself was still supporting the ALP - if he had lived would Eric have changed?

On Neil's comment "The Road to Wigan Pier" is mentioned that and other books are on line from that link

Poll shows only 70% of Germans are sane

Just as Neil was discussing at One Salient Oversight: Hitler was not an Atheist
up comes this terrible poll
Nazis not all bad, 25% of Germans say - World - smh.com.au
"Those who grew up directly after World War II, now aged 45 to 59, were the least enthusiastic about the Nazi era, with only 15 per cent responding "yes"." But that's still 1 in 6.!!!

It seems it all started because some "a popular talk show host was sacked for praising Nazi Germany's attitude towards motherhood."
That is unless she was Jewish or a Gypsy or a Slav or anyone else the Nazi hated.
Hitler decided to show high regard for "traditional" values so people could say stupid things like "but he loves motherhood".

Don't young Germans understand what happened back then.
A year ago just to remind myself of what it must have been like. I read
The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 - Richard Evans - Penguin UK

'Do you know what fear is?' an elderly worker asked an interviewer some years after it was all over: 'No. The Third Reich was fear.' Yet terrorism was only one of the Third Reich's techniques of rule. For the Nazis did not just seek to batter the population into passive, sullen acquiescence. They also wanted to rouse it into positive, enthusiastic endorsement of their ideals and their policies, to change people's minds and spirits and to create a new German culture that would reflect their values alone.

It seems many people are still deluded.

What is the the truth on Charles and Diana

September 2007 have a ghastly cold and got a lot of humour from reading Sarah Goodall "The Palace Diaries". It is very racy but I wanted to find out what a Palace secretary knew about events. Not a lot I gather . Most of what Sarah passes on to us is gossip from "friends" that she keeps anonymous. Such as she says Diana had a lot more blokes but she only tells us the ones already published elsewhere. After all she started there in 1988 after the marriage had already broken down so could not have observed the "reasons" and being in the office in her early days did not see much of the Boss and Bossette anyway.

Much of the book is about Sarah eating and drinking having various affairs which may all be "fiction" well the names are anyway. And how badly paid she was but she stayed because of her love of the status etc.

A long review with quotes in the Scotsman and an interview in the Shropshire Star
Sarah is from Shropshire and article does say that her father was not pleased with the book and I can well understand that he would be not be pleased.

I like this brief review in Aristocracy Anecdotes it fits well with the tone of the book

Sarah received the MVO member of Royal Victorian Order for her work and then a year later and after 12 years gets sacked. She seems to think Camilla took exception to her familiarity with HRH. Perhaps this has more bearing
Re A case that Charles took to stop some publication of his "private papers"

on Page 143 she recounts a commitee that she kept minutes for but due to the drinks was often too tipsy to remember "who said what about what and to whom". The whole book could be like that too.

I did like the story of her falling asleep at a film show in HRH's lounge room - a large G&T at fault. Anyhow next morning Charles much amused says how everyone was amazed that she took her earrings off put them on a side table and then went to sleep.

Sarah seems to like Charles and thinks that Diana let him down and that Camilla is good for Charles. It is hard to say which version of all that is the real Sarah.

I had to look up references to Sarah - at first I thought the book could be a satire and I was slightly amazed to find that Sarah is real. Whilst I was checking her I found this story
More on what a ghastly choice Diana made in James Hewitt
whereas This seems to quench that story

So Diana remains a mystery in the sense of Why was there a marriage breakdown - whose fault was it. This seems a good summary on what was Diana really like

Whatever else her sons said it all at the recent memorial service. Bless them.

The triumph of the airheads

I just finished reading
The triumph of the airheads : and the retreat from commonsense / by Shelley Gare

A great Australian book on the nonsense in our modern world. Very broad ranging covers a lot of issues.
SMH an overview
The Australian has Shelley's blog
also an extract)

DO READ IT!

Some quotes:

George Bush re wire tapping "Half the time they say I am isolated and don't listen. Then when I do listen they say I need a warrant." Shelley recalls Hurricane Katrina and I guess that is when my "respect" for George started to erode. How could he go on a vacation! Where were the helicopters to move people away from that Superdome?

A few years ago I remember spam email offering a "Paris Hilton Video" which I guessed was something filmed secretly at a hotel in France. I just did not know there was a young woman of that name. Now I keep hearing about her and her strange clique. And as you might expect Shelley devotes a lot of her exploration of Airheads to folk like Paris - one item being a quote from Naomi Wolf via Vanity Fair.

" It's almost like white noise in an overstimulated environment. Paris Hilton is like a palate cleanser. She's like, as semiotics would say, an empty signifier, so you can project absolutely anything onto her, which is the perfect situation for branding." (more here).
Shelley remarks "Now we take Paris more seriously than she takes herself"

Shelley mentions the great Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451- "but that nowadays there is no need to burn the books if no one can read them" and just today Sky News reported a survey that something like 25% of Americans had not touched any book in a year!

Do make Airheads one of the books you try. Warning No Solutions are offered!

Alternative Gospels

Recently I have read two books on what might be termed Alternative Gospels.

Have just finished
The lost gospel : the quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot by Herbert Krosney.
Click image for some detail and visit the Wiki Article


I thought the book was comments on the content and of the Judas codex but instead it was an adventure story about how it was found and finally got to be published. The book keeps declaring the codex to be a most important document especially as it turns our ideas of Jesus and Judas upside down or something like that.

Following the book along it details some Egyptians involved in its discovery. Except what is said about is vague and it says false names are used. So are these details correct?

Then the main Egyptian dealer puts the codex in a safe deposit box somewhere in a suburb along the Long Island turnpike. He leaves it there for 16 years. Basically the events described become like a farce and the people involved treat the codex quite strangely for something they describe as so earth shattering. The codex falls apart over the time its floating around amongst all these dealers etc. Finally in the last couple of chapters the codex gets put back together - however some of it is still "lost".

The early Christian writer Irenaeus comdemned the Gospel of Judas as a fraud and heresy. He was talking about a book in Greek. This codex is in Coptic - ah they say it is a translation. But even if it is the book Irenaeus meant then it is still a fraud and a heresy. The Bible is clear that Judas died soon after he betrayed Jesus - so how were the details in the book passed on? The Bible is also clear that Jesus knew what Judas was doing but does not indicate that Judas was given the task - it was rather that his own nature took him along that sad path.

This book is not earth shattering - we could do without it.

Further November 2007
Rice University professor debunks National Geographic translation of Gospel of Judas
April DeConick contends that the Gospel of Judas is not about a "good" Judas or even a "poor old" Judas. It is a gospel parody about a "demon" Judas written by a particular group of Gnostic Christians who lived in the second century.

and more on how Judas written in the "gospel" as "daimon" was translated initially as spirit rather than demon see Judas is a 'demon' in new read of gospel

Yes that's right we don't need it


Now previously I read The missing Gospels : unearthing the truth behind alternative Christianities by Darrell Bock.

An excellent detailed overview of the texts found at Nag Hammadi in 1945 . These texts are some of the material used in the Da Vinci Code and some other books as examples of early Christian thought that is different to now and that the Church destroyed these other ideas which were really viable Christian alternatives. Darrell shows that these ideas were not in main stream Christianity at all. They were not there at the beginning and were later concepts from people who were trying to change things.
The Alternative Christianity is not Christianity and
are not worth the re-discovery - so whether it is the Gospel of Judas or Thomas or Philip etc - ignore it - stay with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Please visit Ron's Faith page

David Rohl - books and websites on his NEW Chronology

David Rohl - books and websites on his NEW Chronology
His site is http://www.nunki.net/
I have always been interested in archaeology and many years ago read Immanuel Velikovsky and his views on the chronology of Egypt. Which did lead to me being concerned about the dates given to certain Pharaohs. Not that I accepted all of Velikovsky's ideas and the big problem was that he died before he wrote the book that tied up the loose ends. Rohl is not as extreme and I do admire the way he accepts that the Holy Bible may be correct and is a good source of historical evidence. Centuries of Darkness by Peter James see http://www.centuries.co.uk/ is I think a more orthodox discussion of the problems. The big questions for me are When was Exodus and to clarify the time frame of King David and King Solomon and which Pharaohs are meant when mentioned in the Bible

Some sites with more detail

New Chronology resource page – David’s books and other useful resources all in one place!
http://www.oldtestamentstudies.net/ncresource/

Highlights List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewChronology2

Moderator Richard Abbott's Website:
http://www.oldtestamentstudies.net

David has a DVD on Exodus and Moses which I would like to know more about.
Please do not confuse that DVD with one being sold in Bookshops
The Exodus Revealed do read the reviews on Amazon as some mention some positive items in the DVD. However the focus of the film seems on the work of Ron Wyatt see http://s93614334.onlinehome.us/religion/Exodus_Revealed/index.html

I think this critique is sound and I am concerned that works like this DVD are around to confuse people about the truth as shown in the Bible itself.
Note: This DVD is nothing to do with David Rohl but fits into this discussion.

The Tutankhamen Deception by Gerald O'Farrell

The Tutankhamen Deception by Gerald O'Farrell
Absolute load of rubbish
I saw it on shelf in library and it purported to reveal how Howard Carter had really discovered King Tut's tomb years before he announced it publicly and had been stealing all the bullion from it. I thought interesting. Anyhow I got home read the preface and it acknowledged Ahmed Osman and real warning bells sounded - this guy writes books saying the Kings of Israel were really Egyptian Pharaohs. This book is just a collection of assumptions without any evidence. And finally he states that the papers found in the tomb would have revealed King Tut is really Jesus Christ - some 1500 years before His Ministry on Earth. How do these guys come up with stuff and why are they published. You can find a lot of this in www.google.com - here is one sound review http://www.secker.fsbusiness.co.uk/deception.htm

The Da Vinci Code - a book soon to be motion picture.

The Da Vinci Code - a book soon to be motion picture.
In 2005 a friend lent me Dan Brown's book as "Christians should know what he is saying in case they are asked."

Well if any adult asks I will be surprised. I could not believe how badly written this book was - the events are in the realm of fantasy - an albino (yes albino) monk who goes around killing those who know the "secret"and a death in the Louvre and the man placing his own body in a special arrangement whilst he is dying!!!! French police shown as corrupt buffoons. A whole section on mind baffling mystery writing which is clearly mirror writing - just hold it up to a mirror. Oh come on. I think the Harry Potter books which I admit I have only glanced at are better written - as are even the Op Centre books from the Tom Clancy factory - no reflection on a real Tom Clancy book. This is published as a novel but Brown keeps telling us it is fact when obviously what is happening is fiction.....

Why do these people pick on Leonardo - he was also supposed to be responsible for forging the Shroud of Turin.

Here are articles on some of the errors in the book
http://www.challengingdavinci.com/
and
http://www.ignatius.com/books/davincihoax/thefacts/

By the way The Da Vinci Code ideas are clearly from "Holy Blood Holy Grail" by authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. Dan Brown uses their names in anagram etc format in Da Vinci. Early 2006 they sued Dan Brown's publishers over copyright issues but lost the case - something about no plagarism could be shown.

I read that book when it first came out in 1980s - it was obviously ridiculous - but it is reasonably good writing - I suppose it was one of those kind of books that got me thinking if they have to attack Jesus in such strange ways - perhaps he really is who he says He is ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Blood,_Holy_Grail

And then there were TV shows picking up on Mary Magdalene and saying how Christians had downplayed her importance over the years. Sorry just cannot see it - she is clearly the first person to see the Risen Christ so how is she "downplayed".

Anyhow I have not tried to write an exhaustive critique of these matters - just wanted to give you an opinion - do try some web searches to see what others have to say... Ron