Suddenly, much important news from the Middle East.

Most cryptic first: Major General Eisenberg, head of the Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command, said today that the ‘likelihood of an all-out regional war in the Middle East is increasing’ and ‘could potentially include the use of weapons of mass destruction’.

Hard to know exactly which side’s WMD’s he is referring to, since Israel is the only Middle Eastern country assumed to have nuclear weapons. So that could be a little tiny veiled threat thrown into the conversation. I’ve been wondering when Israel would trot out their nuclear deterrent, since they seem unwilling or incapable of dealing with the looming disasters on their borders by conventional means.

But more likely he is hinting at use of chemical or biologic warfare by Israel’s opponents. He said a ‘new weapon’ was used in the latest Gaza barrage of missiles against Israel, although he gives no specifics.

However, the IDF Home Front Command has advised the Israeli public to ’seek shelter under two roofs, rather than one’. Again no specifics as to why or when or how to do that.

As I said, cryptic.

Next up is the title theme, nuclear Iran.

(more…)

So strange…

Steve Jobs ends his time at Apple, and this new ebook The End of the Computer is published, almost the same day.

Nothing having anything to do with each other. Sheer serendipity.

It turns out, however, that this is the most exciting book I’ve ever read. The cover says it’s the ‘GREEN thriller of 2011′. Exactly right. Much about GMO and the Green Revolution (should be Black Revolution, the book says, and again, exactly right). And the woman on the cover… her eyes say something mysterious… and indeed she is that and more, in the book.

Like the description on Amazon says (I think it is also on Ibooks), after the cadre of friends are introduced, the book takes off at warp speed. It is so exciting in places that you have to rest at the end of the chapter… but you can’t… you have to go on to see what happens next.

It is unique. It is complex. There are deep thoughts that bear much contemplation. There is soaring prose that takes you to a high emotional level. There is a scene with quite frankly the most realistic violence. And others of such love and tenderness you wish you were one of those people. Just amazing.

Most amazing of all, it seems real. Very real. As though whoever wrote it was there. It’s supposed to be a fictionalized story about real events. But it can’t be. I don’t think so, anyway.

But I kind of hope so.