Assault on Reason

Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, came out this week. There is an excerpt in Time Magazine if anyone else is interested. The three pages in Time are quite good.
But I wanted to mention a wonderful, wonderful sight from Tuesday. At the large university I attend there was a group of students holding signs, apparently boycotting Al Gore, or his book, or something. I didn't talk to them. But one of the signs being held up read:
"JUST LIKE THE LUDDITES OF THE 19TH CENTURY AL GORE REPRESENTS THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMANITY."
I'm serious. The sign which was boycotting a book called the Assault on Reason made the above argument. It might be one of my all time favorite protest signs. It shows a committment to creativity while extending absolutely no interest in what the Luddites, or Al Gore, represent. Priceless.
waste some time with animated Al Gore:
To see Al Gore argue with Bender about Global Warming, click here.
To see what the world would be like if Al Gore won the 2000 election, click here.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

I recently read Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin for One Book, One Chicago. I haven't actually meet anyone else in the city who read or is reading the book, not even so much as a passer-by on the train, which is a shame. Because it's a brilliant novel. The heart of the story takes place on the main character, John Grime's, 14th birthday. Each section flashes back to an earlier time in the life of John's elders, the very people who are shaping his own life. The stories are heartbreaking, particularly when you know that Baldwin admitted to the book being a sort of biography of his own life. Langston Hughes summed the novel and Baldwin's writing perfectly when he said, Baldwin "is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves, to flow and beat, advance and retreat, rise and take a bow in disappearing...the thought becomes poetry and the poetry illuminates the thought." Damn. I would love to read another one of his books, but he has quite a few, does anyone have any recommendations for me?

One last piece of good news, Go Tell It On The Mountain was Baldwin's first novel, published at the age of 30. This means all you slacker's out there who didn't live up to Keats still have a chance of writing the great American novel.

Encyclopedia of Life

An initiative to create a multi-media Encyclopedia of every living species was announced today. Right now that means 1.8 million animals, plants, and other forms of life. But the number of living species grows daily, for example we currently know of 4-5 thousand different species of Beetles but it is suspected that there could be up to a million more out there that we don't know about. Needless to say, nothing like this has ever been done before and it will take a massive global effort to even come close to achieving the reality. Dr. James Edwards who today was officially named Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life backs me up on my last statement, “[Amber is right,] through collaboration, we all can increase our appreciation of the immense variety of life, the challenges to it, and ways to conserve biodiversity. The Encyclopedia of Life will ultimately make high-quality, well-organized information available on an unprecedented level. Even five years ago, we could not create such a resource, but advances in technology for searching, annotating, and visualizing information now permit us, indeed mandate us to build the Encyclopedia of Life.” You can watch a video about the project at their official webpage.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

I did not know until today that Micahel Chabon had a new book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and it's even out in paperback! How sad. Some of you, I know, met Chabon a few years back, I know this because I was there with you. But if you weren't so lucky, Borders has a online book club thingy, of which their latest pick was The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Mr. Chabon, and you can watch the whole event unravel right at your desk while at the same time getting all the Chabon you ever wanted. (Side note: His facial expressions are much more notable when you can actually see his face.) Still, the new book sounds dramatic and steamy and very Chabonish. It takes place in Alaska during and following WWII. The questions he is asking, "How different would the world be today if we had allowed all those persecuted Jews populate Alaska until the war was over?" So, read it and report back already would ya? Or maybe you have already read it, it has been out for a while after all.

Oh and thanks to the internet I found Chabon's personal calender, it turns out he is going to be doing a reading in Chicago soon. That is Mon May 21 6pm @ the Chicago Public Library, 400 S State St, Chicago, IL . Be there, or else.

Okay fine, if you live in Minnesota and you do not want to drive down and attend the event with the ZF's you can still see Chabon. He will be at the Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange Street, St. Paul on Tue May 22 @ 7pm.

**Chabon on the mind** Terry Gross interviews Michael Chabon today on Fresh Air. You can stream the episode at the shows website.

What are you eating?

AZF and I made a recent book purchase that I have been reading in free moments throughout the past four days. It's called What To Eat. It cuts through all the fat and tells you what's what (cuts the fat, come on). I've been thinking more and more about what we eat and what the consequences of those decisions are. It's not as much a hippification of dietary habits so much as, seriously, is it really hard to just be healthier and more aware? It's like the environment. Even if the world will not be destroyed by global warming, what's the big deal with treating the earth better? Same with food. There is no negative impact in learning a little more and doing things a little better. The opposite, however, we know has such negative impacts. And the 35 billions pounds of chicken breasts this country eats annually can't be helping our hearts.
(this is probably the most political I will ever be able to get on Luminous, so I'm taking it.)