The ultimate science vs. pseudo-science debunking book.

recv'd from Ladyjanet for the 2nd relayers sweeps. This book looks interesting...thank you!

sending to melydia as a RABCK...enjoy!

This arrived in the post today. I hope to read it soon. Thanks so much!

Have you ever read something that filled you with such furvor that you wanted to write your own thoughts along those same lines, but whenever you tried you found you did nothing but repeat the original article?

That's been me all over the place with The Demon-Haunted World. I want to ramble about the wonder of science, the importance of skepticism, the fact that school all but completely robbed me of any desire to learn, the dangers of pseudoscience, the intrinsic value of basic research even if it doesn't lead to a specific application right away...but Sagan says it all, and he says it better than I ever could. This is one of those amazing books that made me think long and hard about a lot of things. It made me want to know more about the universe, to revisit old assumptions and condescensions, to step back a moment and drink it all in.

Sagan speaks as one with a giddy love for the scientific process, one whose healthy skepticism does not make him stodgy or closed to new ideas. Much of the first half of the book is spent more or less on aliens - not only explanations for much of what is attributed to extraterrestrial activity, but why people assume aliens at all. He does grump a little about the dumbing-down of American entertainment and its lack of accurate science, but coming from someone who prizes knowledge so highly, I can understand his disappointment at the popularity of shows like "Beavis & Butthead" and "Dumb & Dumber." Likewise his unhappiness with dwindling popular and government support of science research and education.

This book is absolutely astounding. It's one of the few that I recommend to anyone, even (and perhaps especially) if it challenges some of your closely held viewpoints. It did mine.

A non-BC friend is interested in reading this book so I'm passing it along to him.

This book has spent the last several months in Reston, Virginia, mostly on my friend's bookshelf. The other day I asked if he wanted to keep it or if I could pass it along to someone else, and he said to go ahead and take it. I don't know how much of it he read - he seemed to have much less interest in the subject material than he'd expected, I think. So now this marvelous book is back in my hands and waiting to be released again.

Sending this as a RABCK to PJW, because he had it on his wish list. Enjoy!

About the lack of accurate science in entertainment, I just picked up a book in the humor section called How to Survive a Robot Uprising. The reason I thought it was really cool is because I looked inside and the descriptions of our robotic enemies' capabilities was real cutting-edge AI stuff, some of which I recognized from actual lectures. Robot eyes will recognize and follow humans as opposed to other moving objects by taking advantage of the fact that humans have a certain number of appendages that only bend in certain ways, and you can trip them up for a little while by wearing a long, flowing coat. That sort of thing. I'm considering leaving it in the AI lab at my school when I'm done with it.

As for the actual book at hand, I have nothing to say besides "Thanks, melydia."

Decent read. Way too much time spent on alien abduction, though.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left on a bench near the entrance of the first room you come to.