A powerful, poignant essay Chet. Your musings illustrate the injustice and incredibly frustrating aspects of the issue very well.
naturalist | 10.15.06 - 12:42 pm | #

How courageous and intelligent! And your conclusion is "right on" - in so many aspects of life, in addition to scientific communication, "sexual orientation simply doesn't matter."

Chet, you continue to prove to me why you are one of my heroes!
Don Fielding | 10.15.06 - 2:30 pm | #

Oh, and I meant to say, but forgot, you may not have "unconcerned coolness," but you certainly have "seasoned maturity."
Don Fielding | 10.15.06 - 2:32 pm | #

It seems that sexual orientation may be a continuous function and not a duality of one or the other in the animal kingdom.

http://www.commondreams.org/head...s06/1012- 01.htm
brome grass | 10.15.06 - 5:05 pm | #

I very much enjoyed the Sunday morning laugh - I must make a list and be sure that I check off every point!

I was delighted to discover Chet Raymo's blog, as I have been a fan of "365 Starry Nights" for the last five or so years. It prompted me to purchase and use my 12.5" dob, and though I was well-versed in the positions and characteristics of many stars I had more fun than I should try to describe following each of those nights.

Since I discovered this blog I've just been reading quietly and enjoying it, occasionally thinking that maybe *this* time is the time to leave a comment and cement my fandom.

So I'll do it today, because the link to Tom Dooley, and the accompanying essay on Turing, was very satisfactory and poignant for me to read. Thanks for that.
Wayne | Homepage | 10.15.06 - 5:08 pm | #

Wayne, your comments are welcomed here to be sure. Thanks for sharing. I too discovered Dr. Raymo through "365 Starry Nights," and the reading list has grown tremendously since that initial read. Hoping not to sound quaint, my growth as a human being has been helped to mature through the discussions on Science Musings, and daily I am thankful for it.
Jeff P | 10.15.06 - 9:39 pm | #

Valient Briskness?

http://www.breathingearth.net/
brome grass | 10.15.06 - 11:41 pm | #

Upcoming holiday season question:

Chet, if I were to ask you or this community which say, three of your books (what I could probably currently afford for a gift to one person) that would reflect "what ideas you would leave to the world"--which three would you suggest?
Jeff P | 10.16.06 - 2:28 am | #

Drove by a tavern parking lot yesterday afternoon filled with motorcycles. I thought then how unlikely that we all could believe that all of those individuals would leave that tavern get on the motorcycle and drive away within the legal limit for blood alcohol content. How strange that we set up the rules and then blithely watch or pay little mind to how they are followed. Don't ask, Don't tell.
brome grass | 10.16.06 - 3:06 am | #

Jeff P, I could be wrong, I often am, but I think most of our little group here are very familiar with Chet's non fiction books. As for me, I have only read Chet's novels -- In the Falcon's Claw and The Dork of Cork. Both are very, very good. Falcon's Claw (I've read it three times) is especially relevent to so many of our discussions here. This year new only from amazon/uk next year amazon/usa.
Adam2 | Homepage | 10.16.06 - 3:20 am | #

Soul of the Night is probably my favorite. It was the first I read, most of the others I have read much more recently.

Written in Stone I thought is an excellent description of the evolution of the earth touching on geology and biology with a focus on the Northeast US.

Honey from Stone was enjoyable giving some background on the Ireland connection.

I still have not read any of the fiction yet, but the Dork of Cork is in the hopper.

I have also read Walking Zero, Natural Prayers and Skeptics and True Believers. So far I have found all of them well worth the time. I probably need more time to get a feel for which really is my favorite. There are a couple of essays in Soul of the Night that I think will still be cited 100 years from now and become more a part of the lexicon.
brome grass | 10.16.06 - 5:35 am | #

Jeff, I second brome grass on Soul of the Night, essential for any library. It was the first Raymo I read back in the 80s when it was published, and I continue to buy up first editions when I find them as gifts to special friends.

And so I should make my confession here. With the approach of the new millennium, without seeking permission as I didn't know where to find Chet, I had made little booklets with hand made marbled paper covers and excerpts (properly attributed of course) from one of the essays, Stardust.

Think of it! Atoms flowing through creation like the wind. The One and the Many, the Greeks called it. Behind the shifting flux of things lies the thing that stays always the same. Everything moves, everything flows, said Heraclitus. The body of the mourning cloak is like a river. You can’t step in the same river twice. The world we live in is a flame; we burn in it, we are burning all the time. The mourning cloak burns like the tongues of the Paraclete, anointing the seasons. The rocks burn with a slow steady flame. If we could see that flame dancing on the bush, as Moses saw, if we could see every bush, every tree, burning all the time, every twig tipped in flame, the wind, the river, the constant flow of atoms, we would wonder that anything endures. [page 80]

Thanks to one and all! I have my shopping list!
Jeff P | 10.16.06 - 2:11 pm | #

I do not remember reading about the end of Turing's life.

I first read about Turing and Turing Machines in Goedel, Escher and Bach by Douglas Hoefstadler. I will not pretend to understand all that was in that book, it is not like many books that I have read and it has been 20+ years since I first read it. I see that Hoefstadler wrote a preface to the Turing biography that was cited. Something to add to the reading list.
brome grass | 10.17.06 - 2:04 am | #