Celestial Hawking
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
"Our Species Must Move to a New Planet," says Stephen Hawking
"The human race must move to a star outside our solar system to protect the future of the species," physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.
Thus, the most brilliant scientist of our time fixes our next destination into another planet. Hawking is too celestial to be compared with either Einstein or Noam chomsky! We may not know what he thinks about the Global government run from Washington DC. Rather he is quite silent on infinite enslavement going on and the post modern Manusmriti. It would have been a very interesting topic to have hawking speaking on Untouchability along with Big Bang and Quantom!
His call is very relevant for the elite Worldwide ruling classes!
At the same time, with a flip, we have to realise that a scientist like Hawking sees no future of Man on the Earth!
The crude realities of our troubled time do focus on the same point.
Hawking may not speak on Nandigram like another US Icon Chomsky, but the point is clear. We have to migrate to another world.
Globalisation is, thus justified by Science as well as Economics!
Humanities survive no more as Humanity itself Dead.
Celestial Hawking and Marxist Capitalist West Bengal Chief Minister, both deny the rights of working classes on this pplanet.
They have this planet. They rule this planet and they have every right to destroy it!
The British physicist takes a flight that gives the renowned scientist, who is confined to a wheelchair, a taste of the weightlessness of space, reports Vijay Dutt. Associated Press
With the $124 billion war spending bill, and its timetable for withdrawing American troops, headed for a presidential veto early next week, both President Bush and Democratic leaders yesterday toned down the talk of the last several weeks and hinted at a willingness to compromise.
Flight gives Hawking a taste of space
Miami Herald - 26 Apr 2007
BY MARTIN MERZER AND PHIL LONG. Each jolt of adventure lasted just 25 seconds, but renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking loosened the bonds of gravity -- and a paralyzing illness -- Thursday and joined a pioneering corps of private citizen/astronauts ...
Not the type of guy to be kept down Los Angeles Times
Hawking takes off for taste of zero-gravity Reuters.uk
Ice shrinks, birds migrate early in warmer Arctic
Reuters AlertNet - 26 Apr 2007
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent. INSIDE LONGYEARBYEN GLACIER, Norway, April 26 (Reuters) - A Norwegian glacier has shrunk on an island 1000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, a usually frozen fjord is ice-free and snow bunting birds have ...
Norwegian Glacier Shrinks and Marine Life Poisoned as the Globe Warms MedIndia
'Arctic hippo' fossils prove North Pole was once like Florida South Asian Women's Forum
HOUSTON - The Expedition 15 crew aboard the International Space Station completed its first week of station orientation as the crew worked with experiments and hardware maintenance.
Firing and bomb throwing continues at Nandigram
PTI
Saturday, April 28, 2007 17:36 IST
NANDIGRAM (W
: Clashes between activists of CPI (M) and an anti-land acquisition group continued for the second consecutive day on Saturday at Nandigram in East Midnapore district.Bombs were thrown and guns were fired at Tulaghata area of Nandigram.
Clashes between the ruling party and Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) had occurred at Bhangaberia area on Friday.
Nandigram has been in spotlight in view of resistance against West Bengal government's move to acquire agriculture land for setting up industries.
Meanwhile, local CPI MLA Ilias Mohammed, who was allegedly assaulted by Trinamool Congress supporters on Friday, led a rally and held a public meeting on Saturday to protest against it.
The MLA alleged Trinamool supporters brandished a gun and snatched away his mobile phone, Rs 500 in cash and a packet of cigarettes.
He has lodged an FIR on the incident.
Trinamool member's remark over Nandigram angers CPI-M MPs
From our ANI Correspondent
New Delhi, Apr 27: A remark by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha Member Dinesh Trivedi over the West Bengal Government's handling of Nandigram and Singur issues led to protest from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MPs in the Upper House today. While getting a reply to a supplementary question on the adverse impact of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) during the question hour, Trivedi said "a day is going to come when farmers will revolt".
When asked about the incident, Trivedi told ANI: "During a reply (given by a Minister) to a question on the reduction of cultivatable land, I said the farmers would take definitely take revenge."
"Today they are committing suicide, tomorrow they would come ahead to kill you," he added.
He said that the Centre have data of decrease in agrarian land up to the year 2005. He added that the government says that it is a subject of the State list while on the other hand the Centre itself passes the SEZs.
Revolutionary Socialist Party Rajya Sabha Member Aboni Roy said: "The CPI-M members protested against the statement made by Trivedi but all left parties did not join them in their protest."
Earlier in the day, while intervening in the verbal fight between them, Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat asked CPI-M MPs not to react to Trivedi's remarks.
"Don't get irritated, otherwise Nandigram will be a problem for you", Shekhawat told them in vain.
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/136990.php/Trinamool-members-remark-over-Nandigram-angers-CPI-M-MPs
Calcutta High Court defers Nandigram hearing
Kolkata, April 26: The Calcutta High Court today said it would not be able to take up cases relating to Nandigram police action at present as the Supreme Court had asked for copies of all documents relating to the several petitions in this regard.
A division bench comprising Justice P C Ghose and Justice B Somadder said that the high court had received a letter from the apex court seeking copies of the documents of all the 11 petitions and as such it would not be able to take up the matter at present.
However, until any order from the Supreme Court was received with regard to the Nandigram cases, the matter would not be formally adjourned, the bench said on a query by senior counsel Kalyan Banerjee who is representing one of the petitioners.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=367875&sid=REG
India decides to set up space science institute!
Italian CEOs are happy with Kerala's investment prospects!
A group of young managers and entrepreneurs from Italy, who are looking towards India as a window of opportunities, sees Kerala as an ideal destination for investing in sectors like food processing, real estate, IT and tourism.
'We have been here since yesterday and held discussions with government officials and would meet Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan before we return to Italy on Tuesday,' Roney Simon, director of FICCI (Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry)'s Italy office, told reporters here Saturday.
The team of 30 includes experts in electronics, e-banking, real estate, infrastructure companies, food processing and information technology.
Xinitis to roll out four-wheelers, trucks, buses by 2008
Kolkata, April 28 (IANS) The Kolkata-based Xinitis Group, an established name in computer hardware, two wheelers and bicycles, now gets ready to roll out cars, trucks and buses by 2008 in collaboration with a Chinese company.
The Global Motors Pvt Ltd, the group's automobile manufacturing wing, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Guangzhou Motors Company (GMC) of China Saturday to set up an automobile manufacturing unit in Hooghly district.
Microsoft unveiled the first publicly available test version of the next edition of Windows Server, codename Longhorn. The release will allow users to evaluate the increased control, protection and flexibility offered by the forthcoming product.
"As they take it for a test drive, our customers and partners will find that we ve made some vast improvements in Windows Longhorn, which will help them reduce costs and adapt to changing business needs," said Pallavi Kathuria, director server business group, Microsoft.
IT professionals face increasing pressure from rapidly changing technology, security concerns, increasing costs and expanding business needs.
Windows Server Longhorn builds on the reliability and security of Windows Server 2003 R2 to help alleviate these pressures by addressing the automation of daily management tasks, tightening security-improving availability.
India, an acknowledged power in space science, will launch from the next academic year an Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology (IIST) with an initial investment of Rs.2.70 billion ($66.5 million) to address the manpower shortage faced by the national space agency.
The union cabinet Thursday gave its approval for the setting up of IIST that will have an annual recurring cost of Rs.400 million, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has been experiencing severe shortage of highly talented graduate and postgraduate scientists and engineers during the last few years to take up the challenges of research and development in the areas of space science and technology, an official note said.
The setting up of the IIST, on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), will provide high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate education in space technology and science and postgraduate and research programmes and integrated Masters in Space Science degree with customised curriculum meeting the high technology requirements of ISRO mitigating the problem of acute shortage of quality human resources the agency faces, it said.
Pending development of the regular campus of the institute, the courses will commence from the academic year 2007-08 itself on an alternate campus in the premises of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
The institute, to come up within 24 months, will be located close to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Thiruvananthapuram to enable close interaction with ISRO, the minister said.
It will have an intake of 150-200 students a year. The entire expenses of the course will be supported by ISRO in the form of scholarships and assistantships and all its high-performing students would be absorbed into ISRO.
The Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage » While warning Congress not to test his will by sending him another bill that includes a withdrawal date, President Bush said: “I invite the leaders of the House and the Senate, both parties, to come down, you know, soon after my veto so we can discuss a way forward.” He later issued an official invitation for Congressional leaders to meet at the White House on Wednesday.
The boldness of Senate Democrats has only seemed to swell as the war debate has worn on. Yesterday, they said they remained committed to carrying out what they believed to be the will of the American people to change direction in Iraq. But, like Mr. Bush, they also indicated a readiness to negotiate.
Hawking Flight Follow-Up
According to CNN.com, Stephen Hawking's zero gravity flight was a success. In interviews with reporters, he described the experience as "amazing" and "wonderful." You can also view a video of the experience at the CNN website.
Peter Diamandis, chairman & CEO of Zero Gravity (the space tourism company that provided the trip), said that they would have considered a single weightless trial as a success ... instead they completed a total of 8 such trips.
The "zero gravity" is obtained by using a retrofitted jet that flies in large, fast parabolas. At the top of the parabola, the passengers experience effectively weightless behavior since the ground is falling down fast enough that their free-fall makes them essentially hover in the air.
How can the human race survive the next hundred years?
In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?
The world is now two minutes closer to a destructive nuclear war. "As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on earth," said board sponsor Stephen Hawking at the Doomsday Clock announcement in London.
At least that is the view of a group of prominent scientists from Europe and North America who, in January 2007, turned forward the hands of time on the Doomsday Clock.
These scientists believe that such factors as impending climate change, globalization and a revival of nuclear ambitions by smaller nations such as North Korea and Iran will create the conditions for a second unleashing of nuclear weaponry.
Changing the clock is not a step the scientists take lightly. The clock was developed in 1947 by former Manhattan Project scientists who sided against nuclear weapons after creating the world's first atomic bomb.
The prophetic clock premiered during the Cold War to measure how close humankind was to self-destruction via nuclear weapons. When it was established, scientists set the clock at seven minutes to midnight, with 12 a.m. representing the nuclear obliteration of the human race. It has now been set at two minutes closer to the end.
Posted by Rich on February 3, 2006 01:07 PM
Ancient wisdom, NAP and Science.
Many of us seem to know what is wrong with our world today but to have a plan to change things is a little more difficult. Maybe we can all agree that education must be part of the solution. It doesn’t seem very logical to learn and know so much about ancient wisdoms and NAP (New Age Paradigm) and not give equal time to today’s accumulated scientific knowledge.
Some top scientists have realized they know so much and the general public so little and that is an unhealthy thing. It is a breeding ground for fanatics and fundamentalists or as Deepak says, “it makes you believe in fantasies instead of reality”. Too many of us think we won’t understand when the scientists speak, we much rather listen to a pastor, priest or some other religious guru who after all give us the “real truth”.
But many of the great brains of today have written and explained their discoveries in a language that most of us will understand. When Stephen Hawking gives us “A briefer History about time” we understand, when Richard Dawkins is “Unweaving the Rainbow” we get it and when Richard Feynman explains that “a photon always goes where time is least and gravity is most” a light will go on in many heads. But the king of making science wonderful and thrilling is the late Carl Sagan. His enthusiasm is contagious and his books full of wonderful wondering and mind expanding observation!
Einstein once said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." If we would teach our children more science and less religious nonsense, we would take a giant leap toward a better world!
These remarks should not be the source of an argument about who is right and who is wrong but hopefully a source for an honest desire to find the truth, to educate and find common ground.
“I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.”
[Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism]
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:a79-EDavFPEJ:www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/02/terrorisms_litt.html+stephen+hawking+on+Imperialism&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=21&gl=in
Stephen Hawking described the big bang ripples observations as "the scientific ... In it he takes a dim view of what we might call scientific imperialism. ...
www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/NCLs04_hawk.pdf
http://www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/NCLs04_hawk.pdf
"Where do we come from? How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? How will it end?
"All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist. The questions are clear, and deceptively simple. But the answers have always seemed well beyond our reach. Until now.
"The ideas which had grown over two thousand years of observation have had to be radically revised. In less than a hundred years, we have found a new way to think of ourselves. From sitting at the center of the universe, we now find ourselves orbiting an average-sized sun, which is just one of millions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. And our galaxy itself is just one of billions of galaxies, in a universe that is infinite and expanding. But this is far from the end of a long history of inquiry. Huge questions remain to be answered, before we can hope to have a complete picture of the universe we live in.
"I want you to share my excitement at the discoveries, past and present, which have revolutionized the way we think. From the Big Bang to black holes, from dark matter to a possible Big Crunch, our image of the universe today is full of strange sounding ideas, and remarkable truths. The story of how we arrived at this picture is the story of learning to understand what we see."
--STEPHEN HAWKING
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/html/home.html
http://imagine-art.com/category/index.cfm?cid=53&lvl=3
Stephen Hawking
1942 -
Stephen Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death. He has come to be thought of as the greatest mind in physics since Albert Einstein. With similar interests -- discovering the deepest workings of the universe -- he has been able to communicate arcane matters not just to other physicists but to the general public.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bphawk.html
Marxist Inquisition: Beyond Apologists the Truth
S. Aravindan Neelakandan
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S. Aravindan Neelakandan
June 1, 2006
Based on the principle of falsification Karl Popper has evaluated Marxism as a pseudoscience like astrology1. But Marxist pseudoscience goes far beyond astrology, for Marxism forms the basis of a power structure that has expansionist tendencies and it is a closed ideological system.
When the discoveries of sciences disturb the theses that form an integral part of their power structures, such closed ideological systems that form the bedrock of power structures, react with ruthless violence which commences passively in suppression which goes on to attain orgasmic peak in inquisitions. The behavior of Marxist state towards the scientists, (whose disciplines Marxist theoreticians came to regard as heresies against Marxism), has been tone of he most vividly documented yet not very well discussed inquisition that happened in the modern era.
Usually the apologists belonging to different Marxist Parties all over the world tend to explain the Marxist inquisition as the result of Stalinism, which according to them is a deviation from the Marxist Leninist course of scientific socialism. Particularly Marxist apologists of Trotsky school market this line of explanation. However at the extreme end of the spectrum there still exist many Marxist groups that firmly believe Marxist inquisition itself to be a capitalist/imperialist propaganda myth. This is particularly true in many parts of the developing countries where questioning the 'scientific nature' of Stalinism can be as dangerous as apostasy in Islamic countries. The purpose of this article is to show how Marxism in its very theoretical structure contains an exclusive and closed approach to studying the universe, an approach, which it shares with the dogmatic mindset attributed to medieval church. This approach when integrated itself with the state power naturally evolves into an inquisition.
Ideological prelude:
Karl Marx himself proclaimed that "Natural sciences will in time incorporate into itself the science of man, just as the science of man will incorporate into itself natural science, there will be one science."2 The 'science of man' Marx talks about is of course Marxism. A rule has thus been set here that would dictate how the natural sciences should travel so that they can 'incorporate into themselves' Marxism, 'the science of man’. This in itself is not much different from the medieval church stand on natural sciences wherein the goal of natural sciences is to show by studying the physical universe the glory of its Creator. In Marxism the Creator is replaced by equally unscientific and mystical historical dialectics.
The paradigm shift in physics that happened with the evolution of Quantum Mechanics is of more fundamental nature than that of Copernican revolution that happened centuries ago. Science historian Helge Kragh says,
"The new physics that arose in the early years of the twentieth century was not a revolt against a petrified Newtonian worldview, something analogous to the revolt of Galileo against Aristotelianism. By 1905, the mechanical worldview had been under attack for more than a decade, and for this reason alone, there never was much of a clash between Einstein and Newton." 3
But that was in the fast secularizing western world where the reigning powers had no vested interest in the Newtonian worldview, as say, the medieval church had in the geocentric worldview. Not so for the theoreticians of Marxism then and for the Marxist state that would subsequently become a reality in 1917. Marxist State had a strong vested interest in the Newtonian worldview and the way they reacted to some of the paradigm shifts in modern science matches exactly the way medieval church reacted to the Galilean revolution.
This would also explain why V.I.Lenin the chief exponent of Marxist revelation took such an active interest in the developments of natural sciences, carefully monitoring their impacts on his Marxist dogma. Lenin viewed with contempt the paradigm shift that was happening then in physics. In fact, he gives his 'valued' opinion on those scientists and philosophers of science like Bogdanov, Wilhelm Ostwald, Poincaré, Le Rey and Berman. While philosopher of science, Berman is "absurd", physicist Poincaré is "full of fancy", and Duhem's Theory of Physics contains "falsity". Perhaps physicists world over consider the period of the exposition of theory of relativity and the analysis of paradoxes that lead to the development of Quantum physics as a period of great renaissance but for Lenin this period is one of, "a temporary deflection, a transitory period of sickness in the history of science, an ailment of growth."
More importantly, Lenin gave specific instructions as to in which direction science should progress. He says, "...One school of natural scientists in one branch of natural science has slid into a reactionary philosophy, being unable to rise directly and at once from metaphysical materialism to dialectical materialism. This step is being made, and will be made, by modern physics; but it is making for the only true method and the only true philosophy of natural science not directly, but by zigzags, not consciously but instinctively, not clearly perceiving its 'final goal', but drawing closer to it gropingly, hesitatingly, and sometimes even with its back turned to it." 4 (Italics added)
Fortunately for Lenin, he did not live to see the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics but unfortunately for Soviet physicists and biologists the Party and its theoreticians did see the flowering of Quantum Mechanics and Neo Darwinism. And thus started an ordeal, which packed in decades, the horrors of centuries long medieval inquisition.
The Purges: Lenin already made it clear that intellectuals who stood in the way of the implementation of the Marxist theory would be killed mercilessly whoever they might be. When Maxim Gorky complained of persecution of the intellectuals, Lenin wrote back to him wryly,
"Really and truly you will die if you don't break away from this situation with the bourgeois intelligentsia." 5
The so-called Stalinist purges had actually started thus during Lenin's times and had their roots strongly embedded in the fertile soil of Marxist dogma. Even during the Second World War eminent Soviet scientists like V.I.Vernadsky had asked for closer cooperation with the Western scientists and many hoped that intellectual life would become liberal and more decent after the war.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=10532
Anxious Intellects: From Contradiction to Complacency
review by Ralph Dumain
"Unity is always effected by means of brutality." — Ernst Renan
Promising Start, But . . .
Reading the first two chapters of John Michael's Anxious Intellects, [1] I thought that my initial assumption that this book was to be just another narcissistic artifact of postmodern Cultural Studies might be wrong. Michael is fairly perceptive and falters only occasionally in these chapters. As I delved further into the book, its fundamental strategy became more obvious and thus its limitations more perceptible. The book's central achievement is to reveal the contradictions in the claims of the Cultural Studies crowd. As Michael is criticizing his peers, he focuses on the main logical contradictions and leaves their other nonsense more or less intact. He criticizes their contradictions but not their moral corruption. The contradiction is in the pretension of populism, the desire to become organic, to abandon universalistic claims, which, Michael demonstrates, is an impossibility. But he tellingly fails to go far enough in analyzing the problem, thus remaining as gullible as the rest of the cultural left. Ultimately, his characterization of the "populism" he critiques is benign. In actuality, the cultural left, in every atom of its being, is all about slumming. This is the key to everything. Slumming. There's a logic to slumming, and in this time of terminal cultural decay, one must not fail to discern its logical contours and reveal its deep structure. [2]
In the introductory chapter, Michael addresses the contemporary misuse of Gramsci by the Cultural Studies crowd. Gramsci is shown to be aware of the complexities of even his own situation, prior to the ensuing distortions on the part of the Cultural Studies people in their delusional quest for the contemporary organic intellectual. The introductory chapter also intelligently addresses the intellectual's quest for transcendence of mere particularism.
The chapter on black public intellectuals (chapter 1) is surprisingly free of the gullibility usually associated with the topic. Michael slips up rarely, most notably in his uncritical attitude toward Robin Kelley (p. 41). Otherwise, Michael is quite astute about the organicist mythology and deceptiveness of the racial brokering academic industry. He characterizes the Skip Gates/Cornel West preoccupation with the Talented Tenth as self-serving (26). Du Bois is shown to be very aware of the issues surrounding black class distinctions in his time. Frederick Douglass recognized the composite nature of American national identity in arguing against the exclusion of Germans and Asians (29). Cornel West comes in for a fair amount of criticism (34). An anecdote on West's encounter with a homeless black man supplied by bell hooks comes in for a skeptical analysis (36ff). In a footnote (181, #17) hooks' pretensions of creating the beloved community are also subject to skepticism. Adolph Reed, Jr. and Gerald Early are wisely brought in for their diagnosis of the fraudulent posturing of black public intellectuals pretending to represent something more than themselves. Michael concludes:
Intellectuals cannot effectively hide the unpopular nature of the work they do; nor can they cover themselves in the robe of the philosopher king. There is no way out of this dilemma. Some contradictions must be held to and lived with. Transcendence without universals, universals without transcendence: these are the paradoxes of contemporary intellectual work and modern politics in the West and, I suspect, elsewhere as well. (42-43)
http://www.autodidactproject.org/my/anxious.html
Ghani Khan
The Renaissance Man
An interview with Ghani Khan
The man in the poet
Dr. Fazal-ur-Rahim Marwat
In his famous book, A brief History of Time, Dr. Stephen Hawking examines the nature of the universe, and explains that modern laws of time and space no longer distinguish between the past and the future. He goes on to discuss "the psychological arrow of time" which enables us to see the past, but not the future and rejects the possibility of memory being reversed if the universe started to shrink instead of expanding as it is now.
But in the aura of space and time, and cycle of change only few people would survive- those who are close to nature and beauty. The reflection of nature in their works in whatever form it may be would give them an unending life and immortality.
http://www.afghanan.net/poets/ghani.htm
The Human Story: Our History, From the Stone Age to Today (Hardcover)
by James C. Davis (Author) "OUR TALE BEGINS when humans much like us evolved and filled the earth..." (more)
Key Phrases: World War, United States, South America (more...)
From Publishers Weekly
Davis, who taught history at the University of Pennsylvania, has taken on an unusual project—to relate all of human history in the simplest terms possible for the broadest audience possible. The chapter titles illustrate his method of abstracting large themes from a multitude of events—"The richer countries grab the poorer," for example, isn't a bad summary of 19th-century imperialism, but it does risk seeming remedial. At his best, Davis does for human history what Stephen Hawking did for the atom and the universe—take a step back from the details and translate them into common terms. But human history lacks the elegance of subatomic particles, so the book constantly flirts with a kind of riotous overgeneralization, treating immensely complex entities like "England" or "workers" as much as possible like single individuals in psychological terms. The method works better for events that are known widely but not in detail—an example is Stalin's purges—for which Davis can bring the reader a smattering of pungent details and move on. For more familiar subjects, the reader may feel the author is being glib. Davis elevates thinkers above leaders, devoting far more space to Newton and Darwin than to Napoleon and Caesar. It is refreshing to have a treatment of human life at once learned and optimistic, and one that so forcefully focuses on the primacy of ideas in our triumphant story. 9 maps, 4 line illus.
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Story-History-Stone-Today/dp/0060516194
Edison's Conquest of Mars
Jamais Cascio
November 19, 2005 11:32 AM
Given the relative success of the recent War of the Worlds movie, based on H. G. Wells' 1897 novel, I wonder if anyone will make a movie version of the book's sequel from the next year, Edison's Conquest of Mars.
You probably haven't heard of Edison's Conquest of Mars,probably because it wasn't actually written by H. G. Wells, but by Garrett P. Serviss, an astronomer and journalist. Hired by newspaper publisher Arthur Brisbane to come up with a serialized sequel to Wells' popular story, Serviss came up with a story that set the tone of science fiction for decades to come. Edison's Conquest of Mars contains the first known literary depiction of a ray gun and of a space battle, and managed to mix depictions of known science (such as the effects of zero gravity) with a reasonable adventure story. More importantly, Edison's Conquest of Mars is one of the earliest examples of a political debate carried out in the pages of speculative fiction....
Bruce Franklin, in War Stars, cites Edison's Conquest as a pro-Imperialism story meant to generate support for the Spanish-American War, and to counter the anti-Imperialism of Wells' War of the Worlds, and it's easy to see why. As