Friday Book Review: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

As Ryan reminded me about a month ago Donald Ducks 75th birthday came and went. For those of you who didn't know me as a kid I was and still remain a huge fan of the duck in the sailor's costume. So much so I even learned how to talk in Donald's voice.

That love of Donald transferred to the rest of the Duck clan including, of course, the irascible Scrooge McDuck. I spent a lot of time as a kid reading the various Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comic books by the amazing Carl Barks. Barks is the man who invented the character of Scrooge McDuck. I owe him a great deal as my love of things like mythology, geography and different cultures owes a lot to what my young mind was exposed to in Barks' stories.

Recently I was saddened to hear that Gemstone had lost the license to publish Disney comics. Only to be overjoyed that Boom Studios has picked up the license. Which is great news as we should now see some new Duck stories.

Which in a very round about way brings us to our book review of The Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa. In this volume Rosa, a Barks enthusiast, carefully pieces together the life and times of Scrooge in 12 chapters. Rosa lovingly recreates the continuity of Barks' original stories into a consistent narrative that does not contradict the past. Basically, Rosa is a Scrooge McDuck fanboys dream come true.

Each chapter shows us a different stage in Scooge's life. From his early days in Glasgow, Scotland where he earns his number one dime to the development of Scrooge's giant money bin. The close of each chapter includes two or more pages from Rosa on how he teased the story to life from older Barks' stories, links back to how he created panels hearkening back to the older comics and trivia only hard core duck lovers could answer.

I really enjoyed this trip down memory lane and I'm very happy to have a book I can read to my daughter.

Top 10 Tips for Better Coffee

One of my favourite sites Lifehacker brings us their top 10 tips for better coffee.

Friday Book Review: Free - The Future Of A Radical Price

I was a fan of Chris Anderson's last book The Long Tail so I was eagerly awaiting his latest effort Free: The Future Of A Radical Price. Luckily my waiting was rewarded by Audible as they offered a free download of the audio book.

Free started as a February 2008 post on Wired. Mr. Anderson spent the better part of a year researching the book which makes the flap about his failed attribution of sections of the book to Wikipedia even more ironic.

Sadly this doesn't seem to be the only place where content has been cribbed from other sources in order to pad out the book. To my count, parts of the following books are discussed in Free:

• Unleashing the Idea Virus by Seth Godin
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• New Rules For The New Economy by Kevin Kelly
• The World Is Flat by Thomas L Friedman
• Freakonomics by Malcolm Gladwell
• The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke
• Down and out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
• Animal Farm by George Orwell

I agree with the basic premise of Free but I really didn't learn anything new by reading this book. Which is funny as I think my demographic would be the target audience for it. I guess it may be a different experience if you haven't already read the above books but if you have you can easily take a pass on Free.

The Ways to Decaffeinate Coffee

Not that you'd ever want to drink decaf but the process used to decaffeinate the coffee bean is quite interesting.

Coffee May Help Reverse Alzheimer's

Researchers in Florida have found that ingesting 500 milligrams of caffeine, equivalent to 5 cups of coffee, per day may help reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease. All tests were done on mice but researchers hope to begin human trials soon.

Viagra Laced Coffee

Police raided a warehouse in Malaysia where a company was distributing a coffee laced with viagra. I know there is a joke in this news item somewhere. Please add your own punchline in the comments section.

Barista School

A local coffee shop owner is starting a barista school in Sacramento. Best quote from the article in reference to other coffee shops:

Calling those employees baristas, he says, "is like saying they have a chef at McDonald's."