HoodedHawk

I went to see Jasper Fforde give a talk tonight at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.. [Dylan went with me, but spent the time playing chess on my pda.] I’ve read the first book in Fforde’s Thursday Next series (“The Eyre Affair“), and I loved it. This talk was about the fifth book in that series, Thursday Next, First Among Sequels. Mr. Fforde is a great speaker – extremely funny and engaging. I can’t wait to find the time to read all the books in this series (as well as his other series, “Nursery Crimes”).

At the end of his talk, he signed books for people. I sure am glad we sat on the floor at the front (against a bookcase); the place was packed with hundreds of people. I was about the 5th person in line, and by the time I got through the line was out the door.

Anyway, when I got to the front, Mr. Fforde asked me if he should make it out to anyone. I replied, “a signature is fine – unless you already know who I am”. He (and his partner) then started reciting names, hoping to land on mine. After about 15, he stopped and she asked “So what is your name”? “John”, I replied. “Darn. That was an easy one, how’d I miss that?” Then he smiled so I could take his picture.

Last night I went to a lecture/signing by Dr. Francis Collins for his book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, at Olsson’s Books in Arlington, VA. Dr. Collins is the counterpoint to Dr. Richard Dawkins, (See my previous blog post) who recently wrote The God Delusion. While Dawkins is still an atheist, and Collins was once, Collins is now a Christian. Dr. Collins’ discussion about how he came to his belief in God, and how he reconciled this with his belief in science was very interesting. Dr. Collins was prompted by his work with patients (and their religious beliefs) to explore various faiths. He read up on Islam, Judaism, Budism, etc. and was most enticed by Christianity. While it may seem that Dr. Collins believes in “mere” Theistic Evolution, his pronouncement that he is a Christian (and believes that Jesus was also God) shows that he has more of a belief in a personal God (also evidenced by his statement that he prays).

Unlike Creationists (and those thinly-disguised Creationists, “Intelligent Design” fans), Dr. Collins has no problem reconciling his belief in God (and Jesus, and the Bible) with Science (specifically, Evolution). To paraphrase Dr. Collins: “It’s perfectly reasonable to believe that God created man by creating the Universe, and letting Man come into being via evolution. Yeah, it took billions of years to happen, but to God that’s an eyeblink.”

Dr. Collins did touch on the “anthropic principle”, which basically states that the fundamental physical constants of the universe are fined-tuned to exactly support life. Some theorists have proposed that this can be explained away by the concept of a “multiverse”, with an infinite number of parallel universes. If you have an infinite number of universes, then obviously at least *one* of them will result in physical constraints that support life as we know it. I did appreciate Dr. Collins comment that a belief in a “multiverse” (something that can never be proven or tested) is no different than a belief in a God that created our (anthropic) universe.

A question was asked of Dr. Collins: Does he believe in God because it is “useful” or because it is “true”; or rather which of these qualities is more important? Dr. Collins unequivocally stated that it must be “truth”. A belief in God merely because it is “comforting” to believe (and thus be part of a network of like-minded people) would not work for him; he must also believe that it is true.

Amen.

The boys and I went to see Kim MacQuarrie give a talk Thursday night about his new book, “The Last Days of the Incas” at Olsson’s Bookstore in Arlington, VA. MacQuarrie is a documentary filmmaker, and he spent some 4+ years in Peru. While there he spent some time living among a “newly discovered” Amazonian Indian tribe. His interest in the Inca was piqued, and he subsequently spent 3 years researching and writing this book. He goes over the story of how ~160 Spanish were able to “conquer” some 30,000 Incas (and eventually the entire Inca civilization of some 10 million). The Spanish killed the Inca ruler Atahualpa in a despicable double-cross (the Inca had filled a room with gold as a ransom; the Spanish took the gold and killed Atahualpa anyway). That story is well known. Turns out the Inca didn’t just lay down their arms quietly after that. The book goes on to tell about the ~40 year “guerrilla” war the Inca waged against the Spanish after the execution of the Inca ruler. He touched on the “discovery” in 1911 of Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham, and also for the modern search for the lost Inca city of Vilcabamba ( the search is still underway).

Enjoyable talk, and the author inscribed a copy of the book to me afterwards. I believe he currently lives in the DC area. Interestingly, I saw him on the subway on the way home later in the evening (he was in another car); I wonder if he saw me reading his book. :)

The audio recording of the talk is available (from my Canon Powershot S3 IS).

On Saturday I attended a discussion by Walter Isaacson for his new biography, “Einstein: His Life and Universe”. Very interesting discussion; I’m quite eager to read the biography. I recorded the lecture for those interested in hearing it. I did read the author’s previous biography on Benjamin Franklin, and enjoyed it.

In addition, last night I went to a signing by Arthur Phillips, for his new book: “Angelica“.

This is the second time I’ve attended a reading by this author (a couple of years ago I went to his “The Egyptologist” reading).

I really enjoyed Arthur Phillip’s reading/talk (which I also recorded). I didn’t expect the boys to be interested (I took them to Comet Ping Pong prior as a sort of “pre-reward”), but both asked pointed questions about ghost stories and why the author liked/disliked them.
Angelica is written in 4 parts, with 4 different points of view. One of the parts involves ghosts and/or the supernatural. The book has received good reviews, but I need to find time to read The Egyptologist first. My stack of “to be read” books seems to increase by 2-3 each time I read one. Oh well – one can never have too many books; and I’ll never run out of new material to transport me out of a mundane world. :)

The boys and I went to see China Miéville give a reading of his new young adult book, Un Lun Dun last night at Politics and Prose bookstore in D.C.. This was the first time I had seen the author live, and he was quite an engaging speaker (and reader). China read a chapter or so from the book (about 15 minutes), and then spent something like 45 minutes answering questions.

Both boys enjoyed the reading; both even asked the author questions afterward. China inscribed a copy of the book for Brandon – “to the one who got the name! Cheers”. Brandon’s question had been about the setting (London), and why the author had chosen it (answer: because he lives there :) ). Dylan had a question about how the author used the term “rubbish”; he wanted to know if he got the term from a Harry Potter book. China smiled, and told him how the term was used in England – and also that he had written a note to himself to explain that but forgot. He also mentioned that J. K. Rowling didn’t invent the term. :)

I recorded the reading/talk on my iPod, but I probably won’t use it – Politics and Prose makes recordings of the author events available on their website.

I did also get a chance to use the Movie mode of my new Canon Powershot S3 IS camera. Whoa. Almost as nice as a dedicated miniDV video camera – but in a still camera. I was able to record about 21 minutes of video on two 2GB SD cards. I also took some still shots (above) without flash. Nice to have such flexibility. And the sound recording was *MUCH* better than the iPod sound. I had the option of just recording sound (about 2 hrs worth) – that will come in handy too.

Prior to the event the boys and I wandered in to Comet Ping Pong, next door. Turns out it’s a funky pizzeria, with ping pong tables in the back. That was a stroke of luck – we had fun playing table tennis in the back and had pizza for dinner. The pizza is thin-crust, made in a real firewood oven (the wood is stacked in a hallway). A bit pricey for the food, but ping pong was only 50 cents. Finding the bathroom was a challenge: find the unmarked wooden doors blending into a wooden wall. No, the trough in the corridor is not to be used, boys.