SPOILER ALERT! “[The cyberinsurance industry has] met this demand at considerable long-term financial risk to themselves since very little is known about how these threats will evolve over time or how courts will interpret the coverage and exclusions in the policies in light of future incidents.” (p. 226). END OF SPOILER ALERT!

Josephine Wolff, Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, presents a history of risk and insurance in Cyberinsurance Policy that helps explain why current cyberinsurance is a dicey proposition. You would think that protecting your computer and cell phone would be like buying insurance for your car or house…but think about the range of online hacking threats and phishing attacks we face today. And, these threats continue to morph like Covid-19 variants to increase the danger.

The flaw in this industry is the inability to accurately assess risk. Until that happens, what cyberinsurance companies are selling is smoke and mirrors. Has your computer, cell phone, or credit card been hacked lately? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Series Editor’s Introduction ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Introduction: A Market-Driven Approach to Cybersecurity 1

1 History of Cyberinsurance

2 Breach on the Beach: Origins of Cyberinsurance 27

II Cybersecurity Claims Under Non-Cyber Coverage

3 “The Hackers Did This”: Data Breach Lawsuits and Commercial General Liability Insurance 65

4 “The Point of No Return”: Computer Fraud Insurance and Defining Cybercrime 87

5 “Insurrection, Rebellion, Revolution, Riot”: NotPetya, Property Insurance, and War Exclusions 111

III Cyber Coverage and Regulation

6 “The Big Kahuna”: Stand-Alone Cyber Coverage 153

7 “What Is the Point of Collecting Data?”: Global Growth of Cyberinsurance and the Role of Policymakers 181

8 Conclusion: Is Cyber Risk Different? 215

Notes 227

References 249

Index 265

The Buffalo Bills eked out a 32-29 victory over the pesky Miami Dolphins in a frigid game with late snow. You’ll see some wild highlights of the Bills making snow angels! How will your favorite NFL team preform today?

For those of you who love NFL games played in the snow, you’re in for a treat when the Miami Dolphins dodge snowballs at Highmark Stadium tonight. The temperature will be in the 20s, the windchill temperatures will be in the teens! Both quarterbacks will have to deal with 30 mph winds. And, according to the weather-guessers, the snow should be falling for just about the entire game. The Buffalo Bills are 7-point favorites, but if the Dolphins aren’t prepared for the cold and the slippery field, things could change fast!

Among the great Science Fiction artists, John Harris looms as one of my long time favorites. Just in time for the holidays, The Art of John Harris, Volume 2 just showed up. Like Harris’s first volume of gorgeous SF artwork, The Art of John Harris, Beyond the Horizon (you can read my review here), this latest collection of eye-popping artwork will dazzle anyone on your gift list who loves unique visions of Space and the Future.

I confess, I bought many SF books simply because they had great John Harris artwork on the cover. I love these great books of concept paintings that capture the Universe on a massive scale, featuring everything from epic landscapes and towering cities to out-of-this-world science fiction vistas! SF artwork doesn’t get better than this!! GRADE: A 

Last week in a comment, Byron asked: “Where are the Christmas CD reviews?” Well, here are a couple from the 100+ Christmas CDs in our collection. I’m a fan of the Slow Jams series and listen to Slow Jams Christmas, Volume 2 this time of year. I’m fond of Al Jarreau’s version of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” and the underrated Rotary Connection’s “Christmas Love.”

Ultimate Holiday Collection was a Kohl’s charity CD with funds going to a children’s cause. I like Death Cab for Cutie’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and Natalie Cole’s soulful “The Holly and The Ivy.”

Do you remember these Christmas songs? Any favorites here? Do you have a favorite Christmas song? GRADE: B+ (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell put together a Christmas anthology that includes not just one but TWO Charles Dickens Christmas stories. And then there’s Arthur Machen’s cunning twist on the Scrooge saga.

But my favorite story is “The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall” by an author completely unknown to me: John Kendrick Bangs. A little research unearthed this information about Mr. Bangs: John Kendrick Bangs (May 27, 1862 – January 21, 1922) was an American author, humorist, editor and satirist. His story introduces the reader to a ghost who has shown up to haunt a family each Christmas for 203 years! The ghost was cursed by a sea nymph so when she shows up, she floods the house! Bangs presents an innovative solution to the ghost problem…one I didn’t see coming!

This anthology delivers a mix of stories. The only one I thought was jarring was “Calling Card” by Ramsey Campbell with its gruesome ending. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — xiii

Their dear little ghost / Elia Wilkinson Peattie — 1

The curse of the catafalques / F. Anstey — 7

The story of the goblins who stole a sexton / Charles Dickens — 39

Christmas night / Elizabeth Walter — 51

A new Christmas carol / Arthur Machen — 71

A Christmas game / A.N.L. Munby — 75

The great staircase at Landover Hall / Frank R. Stockton — 85

The water ghost of Harrowby Hall / John Kendrick Bangs — 99

Christmas meeting / Rosemary Timperly — 109

The ghost / William D. O’Connor — 112

Christmas reunion / Sir Andrew Caldecott — 157

The ghosts at Grantley / Leonard Kip — 168

The Christmas banquet / Nathaniel Hawthorne — 202

The Crown Derby plate / Marjorie Bowen — 221

A strange Christmas game / Mrs. J.H. Riddell — 234

Calling card / Ramsey Campbell — 245

A Christmas tree / Charles Dickens — 251

Diane and I grew up listening to the female singers and groups from the 1960s. Beehive, featuring six talented women–with Beehive haircuts (remember them?–who enthusiastically performed these hits, celebrates the great songs from those years when we were teenagers.

Musical Faire, a local theater group, put on this production which immediate sold out all performances. Clearly, there’s an audience for this type of musical nostalgia.

I remembered most of the songs in Beehive but not all of them. Annette Funicello originally sang “I’ll Never Change Him” (from the Beach Blanket Bingo movie) but I forgot all about that song. The same with “Junkman” and “Academy Award.” But I knew all the rest.

If Beehive shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you go enjoy it! GRADE: A

In 2002 before an upcoming Bob Dylan concert, Buffalo News music columnist Jeff Miers wrote: “The voice of the promise of the ’60s counter-culture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock, who donned makeup in the ’70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse, who emerged to find Jay-sus, who was written off as a has-been by the end of the ’80s, and who suddenly shifted gears and released some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late ’90s.”

Greil Marcus, who has written several books about Bob Dylan and his music, returns with this “biography” of Dylan’s “folk music.” Marcus analyzes seven of Dylan’s songs and discusses the other artists who have covered the songs, how the songs were recorded, how the songs came to be written, and what was going on in Dylan’s life that might have affected the songs.

If you’re a Bob Dylan fan, you’ll find all the details Marcus delivers both fascinating and enlightening. Dylan is a complex artist and the backstories of these songs reveals just some of his secrets. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Biography — 1

In Other Lives — 5

Blowin’ in the Wind/1962 — 11

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll/1964 — 85

Ain’t Tal kin’/2006 — 119

The Times They Are A-Changin’ / 1964 — 157

Desolation Row / 1965 — 167

Jim Jones / 1992 — 177

Murder Most Foul / 2020 — 227

Notes — 241

Acknowledgments — 255

Credits — 259

Index — 261

A few weeks ago the injury-riddled Buffalo Bills limped into the Meadowlands and came out on the losing end of a 20-17 Zach Wilson game. Fast forward to December 11 and the Jets face a much different Bills team. Some injured players are back in action, some of the younger players have more experience now. And when the Bills faced Mike White last season…they intercepted him FOUR times! The Bills are 10 1/2 point favorites. The weather forecast predicts cold rain and snowflakes. How will your favorite NFL do today?

Brian Attebery’s slim little book on Fantasy centers around key fantasy writers. Attebery often refers to Ursula K. Le Guin when he wants to make a key point or supply a vivid example for his arguments. Of course, J. R. R. Tolkien earns a strong focus, too.

I was surprised Attebery dedicated so much of his analysis of Fantasy on George MacDonald. I’ve read some MacDonald but after Attebery’s comments, I want to read more. Another writer Attebery celebrates is Patricia McKillip, a writer I have read a lot of. And, Attebery is right to give McKillip so much attention in this book.

Some readers might quibble about Attebery’s inclusion of writers like H. P. Lovecraft (generally classified as a horror or Science Fiction writer) and Octavia Butler.

I wish Attebery wrote more about one of my favorite Fantasy writers, Lord Dunsany (Edward John Morton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany). However, if you love Fantasy fiction as much as I do, you’ll enjoy this lively and informative tour of a wonderful genre! GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Speaking of Fantasy — 1
1. How Fantasy Means: The Shape of Truth — 9
2. Realism and the Structures of Fantasy: The Family Story — 25
3. Neighbors, Myths, and Fantasy — 44
4. If not Conflict, then What? Metaphors for Narrative Interest — 63
5. A Mitochondrial Theory of Literature: Fantasy and Intertextuality — 80
6. Young Adult Dystopias and Yin Adult Utopias — 95
7. Gender and Fantasy: Employing Fairy Tales — 112
8. The Politics of Fantasy — 129
9. Timor mortis conturbat me: Fear and Fantasy — 148
Conclusion: How Fantasy Means and What It Does: Some Propositions — 164
Works Cited — 177

Index –– 191