All Entries in the "Miscellaneous" Category

Sagan book club follow up

Well, due to a problem with the email software, an old email from the Sagan Appreciation Society that contained a plug for last December’s SHSNY Book Club for Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan’s Acquiring Genomes was sent out just a few days ago; since the next book club meeting in the series, devoted to Michael Specter’s Denialism, is coming up this Thursday (after that it’s John Brockman’s This Will Change Everything on March 18 and Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction on April 27), it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post a brief follow up to my original post. As it turned out, nobody showed up specifically for the Carl Sagan connection, and as it happened, the discussion didn’t wind up being about how the book ties into Carl’s work in any detail, mostly centering on the differences between Lynn Margulis’s theories of evolution and the more orthodox neo-Darwinist approach. However, Sagan fans are welcome at book club meetings (SHSNY can be contacted for specific questions), and I’d be happy to meet up at other events as well.

Popularity: 51% [?]

Arthur C. Clarke 90th birthday blog

Earlier this week, I received an email from a Sri Lankan Sagan fan, Thilina Heenatigala, who had among other things organized a special screening of Cosmos for undergraduates at a local college last year. He is a friend of revered science fiction writer (and science popularizer/futurist, and inventor, and humanist) Arthur C. Clarke — known as the author of 2001 (book and movie), Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, “The Sentinel”, “The Nine Billion Names of God”, “The Star” and many others — and the General Secretary of the Clarke-cofounded Sri Lanka Astronomical Association. (In “Science Fiction — A Personal View” in Broca’s Brain, Sagan paid tribute to Clarke, recommending “The Nine Billion Names of God” as an introduction to certain ideas from Eastern religious philosophy, noting Clarke’s hard science background and saying that Clarke was “providing cogent and brilliant summaries in nonfictional form of many aspects of science and society.”)

Since Clarke will be turning 90 this month, Heenatigala was inspired by my Sagan blog-a-thon to create a blog to celebrate Clarke’s 90th birthday. December 16th is the special date! He is sending an open invitation to all Clarke fans to post birthday wishes as blog comments.

Popularity: 8% [?]