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.
Fans are slans!
How Do Daleks Defecate?
Dementedly!
A couple of years old, but still funny:
Match it for Pratchett
On the sidebar to the right, just above the Steve Gilliard memorial picture, you’ll find a new cause that you, the Prog Gold reader, can contribute to. As you may now if, like us, you’re a fantasy reader, Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s last year and this year he has decided to fight back, which he started by donating a million dollars to the Alzheimers Research Trust. He outlined his reasons for doing so in a speech he gave to the society (PDF file).
It’s a shock and a shame, then, to find out that funding for research is three per cent of that which goes to find cancer cures. Perhaps that is why, for example, that I know three people who have successfully survived brain tumours but no-one who has beaten Alzheimer’s…although among the Greek Chorus are some who are giving it a hard time.
I’d like a chance to die like my father did—of Cancer, at 86. (Remember, I’m speaking as a man with Alzheimer’s, which strips away your living self a bit at a time). Before he went to spend his last two weeks in a hospice he was bustling around the house, fixing things. He talked to us right up to the last few days, knowing who we were and who he was. Right now, I envy him. And there are thousands like me, except that they don’t get heard.
So let’s shout something loud enough to hear. We need you and you need money. I’m giving you a million dollars. Spend it wisely.
Science fiction author Pat Cadigan thought fandom should take up the challenge to provide matching funds, and some kind person at Blogenspiel put together a button to promote the cause, which you now see at right.
So what do you say? You can donate to the Alzheimers Research Trust, or The Alzheimer’s Association in the USA, or even the Dutch Alzheimer foundation.
Bit skint? Want to do something useful but can’t spent the money at the moment? There’s something else you can do, not to combat Alzheimer but to help with another widespread medical problem: the worldwide shortage of organ donors. If you haven’t gotten your donor card filled out yet, please do so now, in honour of World Kidney Day, which was held yesterday.
Throw back the little ones and pan-fry the big ones
Is it hip to be a Steely Dan fan again yet? Whether it is or no I’ve always liked them and I’ve been relistening to Aja lately, which is why this odd little snippet of gossip in the Grauniad caught my eye:
Please, if anyone knows what Steely Dan duo Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are on or up to then let us know. As previously reported they recently wrote an open letter to actor Luke Wilson complaining that his actor brother Owen used their song Cousin Dupree as the basis for his character in You, Me and Dupree. Now they have posted an 1,800 word open letter to Wes Anderson, who directed the Wilsons in The Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket. “Surely,” they write, “we are not the first to tell you that your career is suffering from a malaise.” They then write suggested lyrics for Anderson’s next film and end up asking that a cheque for $400,000 (?210,000) be FedExed to them.
I sensed some backstory here, so I did a little google. Here’s the full text of the letter to Luke Wilson. nd here’s the letter to Wes Anderson. I love the language, very 1975.
It’s like a little window back in time. Pass the bowl man. The whole thing’d be kinda sweet, if it weren’t just so goddamned breadheaded.
The whole letter reads like a comedic screenplay. In my mind’s eye I see Donald Sutherland as Fagan and Kevin Spacey as Becker ( ymmv, obviously) but I’m really not quite sure about the director … the Coen brothers maybe, or the Farrelly’s or some other indy-type sibling duo. Perhaps that’s just a tad obvious. I know who – Kevin Smith! Dude! Whatever, it just has to have a crazed John Goodman in it somewhere. He’d be perfect as as the psychotic Russian hired muscle… 
I’m feeling the excitement here, this could be a real pitch. Major studios please note, I thought of it first.
See how it works? Little fleas have bigger fleas upon their backs to bite ’em and bigger fleas have bigger fleas and so ad infinitum. I await my royalty demand from Becker & Fagan with bated breath.
Read more: Music, Gossip, Steely Dan , Seventies Nostalgia