From: Cardinal Vertigo <vertigo@alexandria.cc>
Date: Fri, Jul 2, 2004
I'm almost finished with The Dragons of Eden. I really
enjoyed it; for
some reason I'd never picked up any Sagan before.
Based on that, what else can you recommend?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "ghost" <ghost@ghost.net>
I would highly recommend "The Demon-Haunted World" by Sagan.
The essential guide to scientific skepticism (a lot of skeptics don't think)
And of course, "Cosmos"... the video as much
as the book. Dated but
wonderful.
In a similar vein, "Coming of Age in the Milky
Way" by Timothy Farris.
Farris is a superb science writer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Artemia Salina <y2k@sheayright.com>
ghost wrote:
> And of course, "Cosmos"... the video
as much as the book. Dated but
> wonderful.
It was an interesting book, but I felt it a had a bit
of an agenda
(anti-nuke) which was irritating.
I liked Contact quite a lot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>
I actually thought Contact was pretty serviceable mainstream
scifi.
Easy to read, not too much thinking. The movie, of
course, was just
another contributing factor to making the word Zemeckis
a cussword in
the Nenslo household. Some shots just had me howling
for their blunt
staginess. I was reading Bob Balaban's Close Encounters
Diary, and he
said that while they were shooting CE3K, Bob Zemeckis
and another guy
also named Bob came around telling Spielberg this great
idea they had
for a movie about a japanese attack on California.
(Which I presume
takes place in 1941.) And I says to myself, I says,
well that explains
that colossal gaffe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Artemia Salina <y2k@sheayright.com>
I didn't read Contact.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cardinal Vertigo <vertigo@alexandria.cc>
Doc Martian wrote:
> try douglas hofstadter and his works... godel escher
bach: an eternal golden
> braid and metamagical themas
Oh yeah, I devoured GEB as soon as it came out. Hofstadter is a stud.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joe Cosby <http://joecosby.com/code/mail.pl>
Cardinal Vertigo <vertigo@alexandria.cc> wrote:
>I'm almost finished with The Dragons of Eden. I
really enjoyed it; for
>some reason I'd never picked up any Sagan before.
>
>Based on that, what else can you recommend?
His best is "The Hot-blooded Young Lab Assistant
and the Manly but
Sensitive Genius". Hard to find.
--
Joe Cosby
http://joecosby.com/
"The secret to life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made."
-Saint Groucho Marx
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cardinal Vertigo <vertigo@alexandria.cc>
I think I remember that one from the glory days of rec.arts.erotica,
but
I had no idea Sagan was the author.
--
"Look, there is one statement that bothers me more
than anything else,
and that's the idea that when the troops are in combat
everybody has
to shut up. Imagine if we put troops in combat with
a faulty rifle,
and that rifle was malfunctioning and troops were dying
as a result.
I can't think anyone would allow that to happen, that
would not speak
up. Well, what's the difference between a faulty plan
and strategy
that's getting just as many troops killed?"
- Gen. Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), former CENTCOM C-in-C,
21 May 2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rabbi Jacklyn Hyde" <rabbs@subgenius.com>
It isn't exactly Sagan, but I always recommend Callahan's
Crosstime Saloon
by Spider Robinson. It's a borderline sci-fi (more
like reality with a
tweak) and extremely funny collection of stories. Give
it a shot!
--With love, the Rabbs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "alliekatt" <pogmothon@myarse.com>
"Cardinal Vertigo" <vertigo@alexandria.cc>
wrote:
> I'm almost finished with The Dragons of Eden. I
really enjoyed it; for
> some reason I'd never picked up any Sagan before.
good one.
> Based on that, what else can you recommend?
"The Hero With A thousand Faces" Joseph Campbell.
Anything else by Joseph Campbell. If anything because
Sagan's scientific
cosmology and Campbell's mythical cosmology work so
well together in
creating a frame of reference for how the human mind
conceptualizes the
superhuman and infinite.
Also "A Brief History of Time" if you want
some serious quantum theory that
translates into layman's terms without insulting your
intelligence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cardinal Vertigo <vertigo@alexandria.cc>
Hawking's great like that. Have you read Brian Greene's
"The Fabric of
the Cosmos?" Greene does string theory like Hawking
does relativity and
quantum theory.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "ghost" <ghost@ghost.net>
Different field... "Music, the Brain and Ecstacy"
by Robert Jourdain... the
neurophysiology and neuropsychology of the perception
of music (not the
drug). Heavily slanted towards the DWEM supremacists
and dismissive of other
musical traditions, it's still a really good read and
analysis of current
discoveries in neurobiology.
And "Dogs" by Ray Coppinger.. premise: that
dogs domesticated and evolved
themselves.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>
ghost wrote:
> And "Dogs" by Ray Coppinger.. premise:
that dogs domesticated and evolved
> themselves.
No wonder they are so fucking ugly smelly and stupid.
Just the sort of
creature that dogs would evolve. "Yeah, let's
make them want to roll in
dead animals and smell each other's butts!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wbarwell <wbarwell@munnnged.mylinuxisp.com>
alliekatt wrote:
> "Cardinal Vertigo" <vertigo@alexandria.cc>
wrote:
>> I'm almost finished with The Dragons of Eden.
I really enjoyed it; for
>> some reason I'd never picked up any Sagan before.
>
> good one.
>
>> Based on that, what else can you recommend?
>
> "The Hero With A thousand Faces" Joseph
Campbell.
>
> Anything else by Joseph Campbell. If anything
because Sagan's scientific
> cosmology and Campbell's mythical cosmology work
so well together in
> creating a frame of reference for how the human
mind conceptualizes the
> superhuman and infinite.
>
> Also "A Brief History of Time" if you
want some serious quantum theory
> that translates into layman's terms without insulting
your intelligence.
An old one if you have not read it,
Godel, Escher and Bach, the Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas Hoffsteader.
A History of God by Karen Armstrong.
Whether you believe or not, the ideas about god
are not as simple as most of us think.
Out of the Desert? - Archaeology and the Exodus Conquest/Narratives.
William H.Steibing Jr.
An overview of what archaeology has to say about the
Bible.
Essentially, biblical archaeology was founded a century
ago
to prove the bible was history. It ended up doing
much the
opposite.
A very good overview of the evidence.
A Distant Mirror Barabara Tuchman.
The 13th century was possibly the most turbulent
century in Europe since Caeser defeated Gaul and Britian.
100 years of war, the widespread adoption of gunpowder,
English longbows, the invention of new kinds of agriculture,
dueling Popes, the black death, the reintroduction
of
Greek philosphy, the collapse of feudalism, the rise
of nationalism, the reintroduction of standing armies
rather than small battles among noble knights.
Better than any mere novel.....
--
Senator Waxman's searchable database of iraq war lies.
www.house.gov/reform/min/features/iraq_on_the_record/
A good portal to more lies and Bush stupidity is to
be found at
www.failureisimpossible.com - Go to the index and go
to
"L" for lies. All you need to know about
Bush when you
step into the voting booth. Bush is a liar and surrounds
himself with fellow liars.
Cheerful Charlie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>
Cardinal Vertigo wrote:
> I'm almost finished with The Dragons of Eden. I
really enjoyed it; for
> some reason I'd never picked up any Sagan before.
>
> Based on that, what else can you recommend?
I frequently recommend The Saragossa Manuscript by Jan
Potocki, The
Greatest Adventure by John Taine, The Bleeding Scissors
by Bruno
Fischer, or Beast In View by Margaret Millar. Or anything
by Barbara
Pym. None of which bears any resemblence to anything
Sagan ever wrote.
Maybe try Saucer Wisdom by Rudy Rucker.
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