Larry Sessions, a columnist for Earth & Sky, has suggested in his blog that the gamma-ray event whose radiation reached us a few hours before Arthur C. Clarke died, and which occurred 7.5 billion years ago, be named the Clarke Event. The outburst, which produced enough visible light to render it a naked-eye object across half the universe, is officially designated GRB 080319B. What more fitting tribute to Clarke than to associate his name with the greatest bang since the big one? Sessions suggests writing to any astronomers, heads of physics departments, or planetarium operators you know and talking up the proposal.
Books
Goody Goody Gumdrops
Just arrived from Amazon, a parcel containing, amonsgt other things, Nick Davies’ new book Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media. I read an excerpt in Private Eye last week and immediately had to have it. Expect me to surface later today even more jaded and cynical.
But it does strike me as rather odd that a book purporting to be an expose of the mendacity, greed and incompetence of the journalistic establishment should have quite so many approving blurbs from that very establishment on the back.
UPDATE: You can read an excerpt on the book’s website, here.
Word.
Australia’s McQuarie dictionary has published its annual Word of The Year nominations, with five neologisms in each category, my personal favourites being :
arse antlers
plural noun Colloquial a tattoo just above the buttocks, having a central section and curving extensions on each side.and
read dating
noun a form of speed dating in which the participants display a list of their favourite books underneath their name tag in order to facilitate the identification of a common interest.
Voting closes 31 January.
UK Police Arrest Child for Owning Book
Has it come to this so soon, when even being a nerd can be a crime?
Boy in court on terror charges
A British teenager who is accused of possessing material for terrorist purposes has appeared in court.
The 17-year-old, who was arrested in the Dewsbury area of West Yorkshire on Monday, was given bail after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
It is alleged he had a copy of the “Anarchists’ Cookbook”, containing instructions on how to make home-made explosives.
His next court hearing has been set for 25 October.
The teenager faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The first charge relates to the possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year.
The second relates to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism.
He stood in the dock wearing a baggy, blue hooded top and only spoke to confirm his name and date of birth.
After the 40-minute hearing, the teenager was released on bail under several conditions.
A second 17-year-old who is facing similar charges has already been remanded in custody and will also appear at the Crown Court on 25 October.
For a long time we had a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook. It was in my son’s school trunk for years; he’d downloaded and printed it at school, aged 10, with the knowledge of his teachers and the other boys. No-one thought anything of it, knowing he was fascinated by physics – like many other trainee nerds he had a keen interest in chemistry and explosives.
We hadn’t then learned to see a geeky teenager fascinated with explosives and ‘forbidden’ knowledge as somebody to be feared and loathed, a potential terrorist who must be banged up before he kills us all. No, then he was just a potential physicist and Pratchett fan.
I found my son’s copy (hardly a book, just a bunch of creased printouts) a couple of years ago and destroyed it, seeing how the wind was blowing. The post-911 hysteria and the security theatre, the immediate curbing of civil liberties made me realise that soon, the mere possession of it, no matter for what benign or malign reasons, in itself would become criminal.
This boy may be a potential terrorist: we don’t yet know one way or the other. But a potential terrorist is not an actual terrorist. There will be those who will take the Cheney position, that any possibility, no matter how tiny, that someone may attack you is enough justification to preemptively attack them. How can you predict who might be a terrorist? By what they read.
This boy may not have committed any violent act at all (he certainly hasn’t been charged with any and got bail) and for all we know he has no intention whatsoever of doing so. But he might’ve actually read The Book and that knowledge in itself is dangerous even if not used In knowing it, the state considers that what he has committed is not just a pre-crime, but a thought crime.
In the supposedly free UK far-right zealots can stockpile explosives and plan terrorist attacks and yet not be charged with any offence under terrorism legislation: some even walk away, the investigation and prosecution is so weak. There are so many unsolved stabbings it’s not even news any more; there are gunfights on the streets and the answer is to give the cops tasers and kevlar. Little else is done. Yet the entire might of the state is brought to bear on one 17 year old boy, arrested and charged as a terrorist just for owning a proscribed book.
Something is very wrong with this picture.
Sounds About Right
I can’t be arsed writing about politics today, there’s laundry to be done. Whatever the vagaries of history, there’s always laundry to be done.
In the meantime, although I don’t usually do quizzes, here, courtesy of Martin is a horribly accurate quiz: “Which book are you?”
This is what I got:
You’re Prufrock and Other Observations
by T.S. EliotThough you are very short and often overshadowed, your voice is poetic and lyrical. Dark and brooding, you see the world as a hopeless effort of people trying to impress other people. Though you make reference to almost everything, you’ve really heard enough about Michelangelo. You measure out your life with coffee spoons.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Like I said, horribly accurate.