Sex, Bombs & Burgers in a nutshell

We're heading into the home stretch with about three weeks left to go till Sex, Bombs and Burgers hits stores in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I thought it might be prudent to provide an update on what the book is all about, given that the only time I've really summarized it was in my very first post, almost a year ago. I thought I might do so by giving a brief summary of what each chapter is about. A track listing of sorts. So, with no further ado:

Introduction: A Shameful Trinity
Sex, Bombs and Burgers is all about the three most powerful human instincts: the need to fight, eat and reproduce. Put another way, it's about vice: anger, lust and greed. We've spent millenia trying to rise above these instincts, but we've failed miserably. Instead, multi-billion-dollar industries have arisen to cater to them. That's something many of us are ashamed of, so we tend to think of the military, pornography and fast food/food processing industries negatively. The central thesis of my book, however, is that we shouldn't be so ashamed - these three industries drive technology and they have elevated us in many ways. Without them, we might still be living in caves.

Chapter 1: Weapons of Mass Consumption
Our tale begins in World War Two-era Europe, where several British cities lay in ruins after concentrated German bombing raids. To the rescue comes radar, a new invention that can detect German aircraft before they have a chance to do their damage. The tide of the war turns and the good guys win. After the war, radar begins its transformation into one of the most useful tools ever devised for the household: the microwave oven. Joined by a host of new plastics invented for the war, the microwave revolutionizes living and paves the way for a new era of consumerism.

Chapter 2: Better Eating Through Chemistry
Care-free living can't happen without the most basic need - food - taken care of. A range of new food processing technologies developed to feed soldiers oversees during the war, from dehydration to spray drying, are repurposed for home consumers. The same techniques are used by a wave of new restaurants - fast-food chains - looking to build higher sales volumes. The result, in and out of the home, is food that is plentiful, longer lasting and quick to prepare.

Chapter 3: Arming the Amateurs
The war also changes entertainment technology. Thousands of soldiers are trained in the use of smaller, cheaper and easier-to-use film cameras to document the war effort. After the war, these individuals - armed with this new technology - start making their own movies, decentralizing film production from Hollywood. Some go on to make Oscar-winning movies, others go on to start one of the most popular and lucrative film markets in history: pornography.

Chapter 4: A Game of War
Into the fifties and sixties, some scientists and engineers try to strike it rich by repackaging their war-time inventions as toys and games. This results in ever more complex toys, starting with simple ones like the Slinky and Silly Putty, culminating in video games.

Chapter 5: Food From the Heavens
As the Cold War rages, the United States and Soviet Union invest billions into space technology. The spinoffs are numerous, from better consumer tires to SuperSoaker squirt guns. Nowhere is it more important, though, than in food technology. From faster ovens to irradiated foods to an entirely new quality-control system, space technology revolutionizes how we eat.

Chapter 6: The Naked Eye Goes Electronic
From the humble JPEG to the VCR and camcorders, to digital cameras and Google Earth, the military and porn industries take turns inventing and refining visual technology.

Chapter 7: The Internet - Military Made, Porn Perfected
Following the surprise Soviet launch of Sputnik, the U.S. military forms the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a body dedicated to ensuring U.S. technological superiority. One of DARPA's big successes is the internet, a network originally designed to preserve communications in the event of a nuclear attack. When the network is made public, the porn industry wastes no time in developing it with streaming video, payment systems and affiliate advertising, all of which is eventually co-opted by mainstream companies such as eBay and Google.

Chapter 8: Seeds of Conflict
Genetically modified foods are controversial, but they may just be the most important weapon in the war against terrorism. With the world's population quickly growing and the amount of available farmland shrinking, tensions are increasing. More food technology may be the only way to keep people fed, and the powder keg from exploding.

Chapter 9: Fully Functional Robots
Robots are going to be the world's next big technology market - Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for one, believes it's going to be as big as the computer business. For now, the military is the fledgling industry's biggest customer. The next big customer - the one that transitions robots from niche to mainstream - will be the sex industry.

Chapter 10: Operation Desert Lab
The Middle East has, perversely, served as a testing range for the United States military for the past 20 years. Everything from night vision to GPS has been developed in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, and there are no signs of this trend abating. Today, universal translation and invisibility are just two of the future technologies being tested there. Their military applications are obvious, but their future consumer uses can only be guessed at.

Conclusion: The Benevolence of Vice
Do we need to be ashamed of our shameful trinity? What is the future of technology? Will sex, bombs and burgers continue to shape our world? Pick up the book and find out!

The image above is Raytheon's exoskeleton, also known as "Iron Man," and it's the opener to Chapter 10. I'll post the rest of the photos in the book this week (hopefully tomorrow).

Video games worse than porn? Yeah right

Here's something I've been meaning to mention for a while but never got around to. Ron Jeremy, one of two porn stars many people are likely to have heard of (Jenna Jameson being the other), was apparently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month talking smack about video games.

According to news reports, Jeremy (also known as the Hedgehog, or the "hardest working man") took part in a CES session called "The Great Porn Debate," where he argued against anti-porn media activist Craig Gross. Jeremy said that porn shouldn't get such a bad rap because studies have "found that violent video games are a much bigger negative influence on kids."

Jeremy also advocated using a number of software tools, such as those offered on InternetSafety.com, that let parents prevent their kids from accessing porn online.

Okay, so first off - yes, I am ashamed of myself that there was a porn-related panel discussion at CES that I was not even aware of (hey organizers, where was my personalized invitation?!?). And secondly, being an avid gamer, Jeremy's comments also get my panties in a bunch. I've blabbed on before about violence in video games and his comments are ignorant - apparently others agree with me, according to a BBC report.

Where I call serious horse-caca, though, is in regards to how Jeremy talked about all the steps the porn industry is taking to prevent minors from accessing their content online. "We don't want kids to watch porn but yes we recognize that it happens. We are not in favour of that," he said.

Yeah right. That's a line I heard over and over while doing my research, but porn companies are doing exactly the opposite. Head on over to Vivid or Playboy (I wouldn't advise doing so at work) and you'll get instant access to fully nude photos and hardcore movie trailers. Oh, but don't forget to click the button that says you're 18.

In reality, minors' access to porn couldn't be easier. It would be easy enough for the sites themselves to voluntarily put some clothes on their home pages, with the full goods shown once the visitor can really prove they're an adult. It would be equally as easy to enact some laws that prevent easy access to such content - yet neither is happening. I'm certainly no advocate of censorship but I'm honestly bamboozled as to how this is allowed to go on.

Shadier companies would find ways around such rules or fight them, but the legitimate ones such as Vivid and Playboy - realizing they don't have a leg to stand on - would likely comply. In the meantime, Jeremy should probably stick to what he does best, which is earning more nicknames.

Al Qaeda gets into exploding boobs

From the "I wish I could make this stuff up" files comes a story that nicely blends bombs and boobs... literally! According to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, agents for Britain's MI5 spy agency (the one that James Bond works for CORRECTION: an eagle-eyed reader pointed out that 007 actually works for MI6) have discovered that some Muslim doctors are fitting female al-Qaeda terrorists with explosive breast implants.

The doctors, trained in Britain's leading hospitals, have returned to their home countries and have devised methods of inserting the lethal explosive pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate into plastic implants, the report says. The woman's breast is then sewn up.

And oh yes, it can work on men too. After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian guy who nearly blew up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas day, was nabbed, authorities picked up a bunch of chatter about how guys can apparently get the explosives implanted into their butt cheeks. Britain believes the tactic can circumvent airport scanners and defenses.

It's an awesome story, but it's not one I'm immediately inclined to buy. Firstly, it's because I'm asked to buy it. Who or what is Joseph Farah? Well, he's apparently a conservative journalist and blogger who started something called WorldNetDaily back in 1997. His G2 bulletin, where this story emanates, is a paid subscription website where every week Farah "taps his vast network of international intelligence sources to bring you credible insights into geo-political and geo-strategic developments." Something about that description just sounds fishy.

The other thing I'm wondering, which the report doesn't seem to mention, is how do people who have been implanted with the explosives get them out or set them off? I'm no explosives expert, but I suspect there would have to be some sort of trigger or detonator attached to the substance - wouldn't that be easily detected by an x-ray scanner?

Otherwise, I can't exactly see a would-be terrorist carving the explosives out of their boob or butt while on a plane. Not only would that sort of self-mutilation be incredibly awkward and painful, it would also be amazingly impractical - where would you get the knife to do the carving?

Say hello to my little burger

One of the unfortunate side effects of writing a book is that the experience tends to stay with you forever. What I mean by that is that I now see Sex, Bombs and Burgers everywhere I go. Case in point: my mini-vacation to Miami this past weekend.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was seeing some of the locations used in one my all-time favourite movies: Scarface. The movie was released in 1983 so not many of the original locations are still around, but one of them was actually about a block from where I stayed. If you've seen the movie, you were no doubt scarred (no pun intended) by the gory chainsaw scene near the beginning. Well, wouldn't you know it - the apartment in which the scene takes place is now a Johnny Rockets burger joint. Here's a video:



I swear, I can't escape fast food.

Speaking of which, while I was walking around South Beach, I passed a Burger King. But it wasn't just any Burger King - it was a brand new BK Whopper Bar, which is an ambitious new experiment in burgers by the chain. The Whopper Bars, of which there are only a handful in the United States and Germany, not only serve customizable Whoppers, but also beer. As the Miami Herald reports, the restaurants also delivers your order to your condo via scooter.

Some analysts say Burger King's move is an attempt to get into the emerging trend of gourmet burger restaurants - it's a niche geared toward people who want something better than plain old fast food, but not too expensive or time consuming. I guess I'd call this "medium food." It's certainly evident here in Toronto, where a number of new "premium" burger chains, including Hero Burger and Craft Burger, have sprung up in recent years.

It's not surprising that Burger King has opened a Whopper Bar in Miami. Did you know that, unlike most other international fast food chains, Burger King actually started in Miami rather than California? It's true - and technology was at the heart of BK too. At their very first restaurant, company founders James McLamore and David Edgerton came up with a device that moved burger patties in wire baskets through a broiler. The contraption allowed them to pump out hundreds of burgers an hour, which let the founders build the huge volumes and sales that led to franchising.

Sigh. I'm hopeful that some day I can take a vacation without thinking about war, porn or fast food.

Sex, Bombs & Burgers in the UK!

Following up on a tease last week, I'm pleased to announce that the United Kingdom has been added to the list of regions where readers will be able to get their hands on Sex, Bombs and Burgers.

I've agreed to a deal with Allen & Unwin, my publisher in Australia and New Zealand, to bring SB&B to the UK this fall. It's an interesting agreement as my book will be one of the first titles to be rolled out by Allen & Unwin as part of its expansion plan into the United Kingdom.

There is, of course, an upside and downside to this. The downside is that Allen & Unwin, while a top-shelf publisher Down Under, doesn't have a track record in the UK. I'm told that trying to sell books in the UK right now is a pretty dismal state of affairs, so it's entirely possible the whole plan will go belly up.

On the plus side, my book may get a bit of a bigger push from Allen & Unwin than normal given that it is one of their first titles under this expansion. That can only be a good thing. The UK release is scheduled for November and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'm certainly planning to head over to do some publicity. The staggered release also works out well as I'm going to have my hands full with Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the next few months.

Can't wait to have some jammie dodgers!

The e-divide between fiction and non-fiction

Okay, I know that iWeek is over and that you've probably had enough of reading about Apple's iPad and e-books and e-book readers, but I have just one last post on the subject. Then I'll go back to writing about the stuff you all really come here for, which is porn.

I just wanted to expand on some of the posts I did last week regarding Amazon and its Kindle, the iPad, and self-publishing. A quick recap: I like Amazon's self-publishing program for the Kindle because it provides would-be authors with an outlet for their unpublished works that they would never otherwise realize. Apple and its iBooks scheme, where you buy publisher-supported e-books for the iPad, doesn't seem to encourage self-publishing at all. So, Amazon = good, Apple = bad.

One thing that occurred to me over the past week is that the world of self-published books is probably going to evolve in two different directions - I suspect there will be a big divide between fiction and non-fiction. Fiction books, generally speaking, don't require huge expenses from the author to write because, well, they're made up. This is why there are probably millions of half-finished novels in the world. The possibility of self-publishing via Amazon and then self-promoting through social media like Facebook and Twitter is going to motivate some writers to finish those half-finished books in their spare time, and get them out there. A lot of crap is going to be floated into the world this way, but the wisdom of crowds - which is often wrong but can sometimes do amazing things - will certainly steer us toward some gems. Some amazing writers are bound to be discovered this way. The Amazon system, I think, is going to work very well for fiction.

That's potentially bad news for publishers for two reasons. First, new writers are going to emerge and develop followings without ever having to depend on a publisher for anything. Second, established superstar fiction writers, i.e. the J.K. Rowlings and Dan Browns of the world, may start thinking that they don't want their publisher taking 80 to 90 per cent of their sales. Some will go into business for themselves, much like how Trent Reznor ditched his record label and started selling music through his own website (which unfortunately coincided with a full-on descent into suck.)

I don't think the same will hold true for non-fiction, though. Generally speaking, non-fiction requires a good deal of research - whether it's just traveling around, or the author having money to support themselves while they're digging up documents and interviewing people, which has a cost. Non-fiction writers still require some money up front to do their thing, so not many are going to risk blowing their own savings to go the self-publishing route in hopes of getting a return once their book is done and put on sale through Amazon. They'll still need the advances provided by publishers.

So in this Blade Runner-esque world of the future I'm predicting, will all fiction writers be self-publishing and reaping the full benefits of their efforts, free from the oppressive yoke of The Man, while publishers throw their support behind the heroic non-fiction writers? I don't imagine it'll be that black and white, but I can see things heading that way. (And yes, I do have a bias toward non-fiction writers for obvious reasons)

By the way, here's a thought: how long until someone launches a YouTube for book uploads - something like a BookTube or YouRead? Both of those domains look unused - anyone got a couple million bucks to loan me for a startup?

iPad looks like a bust for porn

I'm off to Miami today for a short mini-vacation that actually has nothing to do with books (other than I'll be reading them), so just a quick post today. I had a couple of people ask me yesterday how Apple's iPad will affect porn, or vice-versa. I don't think it'll have any effect whatsoever either way, an assessment the folks over at Fleshbot, a porn blog that you probably don't want to open at work, agree with (thanks to the lovely Dan Howe for the pointer).

As Fleshbot puts it, the iPad - which Apple is trying to position as a device in between a laptop and a smartphone - is actually "the worst of both worlds." Not only is Apple absolutely dictating what you can put on it by forcing you to buy content from iTunes, where porn is not allowed, it also doesn't have a DVD drive so you can't watch your smut that way. Worse still, as I mentioned yesterday, the iPad doesn't handle Flash, which is the format most web video, including lots of porn, is done in.

Fleshbot also points out another reason why the iPad is a poor choice for porn - it's too big. No one will believe you if you claim you're taking it to the bathroom for some "reading," and there's also no way you'll be able to... uh... hold it with one hand.

Some of this may sound silly but there's a very serious point to be made here: it's not a good sign if the porn industry doesn't like your technology.

Of course, that didn't stop some porn companies from hopping on the Apple bandwagon. Just as soon as Apple announced the iPad on Wednesday, my inbox starting filling up with press releases from companies of all stripes claiming their content is optimized for the device. One of the culprits was Digital Playground (the same folks with whom I dined in Las Vegas), who claimed:

As a member of the Apple Developer program for the last decade and specifically the iPhone developer program since its inception, all Digital Playground iproperties automatically sense whether or not the user is using an iPhone, iTouch, or iPad and customize the experience on the fly. Digital Playground users who purchase an iPad will note the seamless integration between the desktop, laptop, iPhone and iPad.

There's actually a couple of problems with that. I suspect Digital Playground is exaggerating (something that never happens in the porn industry, oh no) its involvement with Apple's developer program. If the above is to be believed, where is DP's iPhone app? As Leon Phelps said in The Ladies Man, "I would pick you up in my car except that it, uh, does not exist."

Secondly, I'm not sure that anyone but Apple's highly valued partners - like the New York Times, Major League Baseball and book publishers named in its press conference - can claim to know how the iPad works, and how their content will display on it, at this point. I suspect porn companies are pretty low on Apple's food chain, so there's no real way to know how their content will display on the device until it's released in March. Connoisseurs should beware claims to the contrary.