Keep Your Kids Safe on the Internet, by Simon Johnson. McGraw Hill/Osborne.
It's either a good world with bad people, or a bad world with good people, but either way, apparently, our children are in danger. While the 'net is a great resource in every home, filled with knowledge, experience, games and other joys, it also harbours a dark side. If you accept the thesis that there is a conspiracy of pornographers, abusers, and others of evil intent searching out your children then this is the book for you. It's a hands-on, well-illustrated guide through programs both malevolent and helpful. If you feel incompetent in front of a computer screen, this book will take you by the hand and guide you step-by-step through a variety of security processes. But, don't be fooled. If your child — young or old — is eager to find some naughty pictures or talk on chat lines, nothing in this book will keep her from reaching her goal. You might just be forced into relying upon some old fashioned — and generally lacking in support manuals — parenting.
Who Said That? Memorable notes, quotes and anecdotes, selected from The Empire Club of Canada Speeches, 1903-2003, by Russ Merifield, edited by Mary Byers. The Empire Club Foundation.
Everything that needs to be said, has already been said, and chances are it was said at the Empire Club. Faithful Presbyterian Russ Merifield has pored over a century of talk to unearth an anecdotal history of our times. Here's Sir Sandford Fleming speaking in 1904 about the then cutting-edge cable technology: "The score of Australia's cricket champions, at the close of their first innings, handed in at the Sydney office at 2:40, was delivered in London at precisely 2:43.5… Imagine transmitting a message around the circumference of the globe — 15,000 miles in 3.5 minutes!" Ninety-two years later Bill Gates stood at the same dais and imagined: "Not just a computer on every desk and in every home — but rather that people have computers in their pockets, computers in their cars…" These two quotations sit 289 pages apart; a wonder so much information can be squeezed into so little space. Who ever said talk is cheap had no idea what they were chattering about.
Churches of Nova Scotia, by Robert Tuck, with photographs by Graham Tuck. The Dundurn Group.
The text is subtle and sly. "A capable performer in the pulpit has always been highly prized at Fort Massey." This is the sort of specific and local history only a native son can produce. Robert Tuck hides neither his life long knowledge of nor his love for his native land. And, he leads with wit. Of another church he writes, "Lucy Maud Montgomery eloquently expressed the feelings…about church union when she said, 'From all points of view, I think it is a tragic blunder. The stately Presbyterian Church, with its noble history and inspiring traditions, has been forced to commit Suicide.'" Ah history, the sting is still alive. The photographs are nice but the printing is disappointing, done more for economics than for aesthetics. The paper is thin, the colours are flat, but the writing is lively.
