Earth

[close] #NOVAreads: a virtual book club! Our next book: "Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee Stayed tuned for the schedule! Readers can participate here on our Goodreads group (start a discussion thread below, and we'll start some, too!) and on Twitter using the hashtag #NOVAreads. Order the book today: Amazon: http://amzn.to/1HYLQmt Or at your local bookstore!

[close] Join author Sharman Apt Russell, recent winner of the 2016 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, for a conversation about our relationship to the Earth. Recently I had to give a short speech and found myself talking about this exchange with a friend: “Once,” my friend said, “I believed the Earth was my mother.” Yes, I thought, I remember that. We are shaped in our mother’s womb. We drink from her. We eat from her. Every day she nurtures us with so many gifts. She loves us. She loves me. Then, later in his life, my friend replaced the image of the mother with that of the lover—what he called “matedness.” Yes, I nodded. We have covered the Earth. It would be too easy now to joke about infidelity, estrangement, divorce. Instead I give the metaphor its due: we are the bride of the world, and we are the groom. Our human consciousness, interpenetrated, mated with the Earth. Next my friend said, “And now I think of the future as our child.” And this caught at my heart. This made me feel something new. The future is our child. * * * This event invites your thoughts on the image of “the future as our child.” Pop in and post. I’m interested in your ideas.

[close] Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space ~ Carl Sagan “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.  The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny #world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”  Join us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JJBOOKS100?s=09

[close] "Winter's gone and spring is springing..." Welcome to Arendelle. It's a small monarchy tucked away in the fjords, but an extraordinary nation all the same. Arendelle has an essence of magic hanging around it, but it was only in the reign of Queen Elsa IV, the first magical queen, that something was done about it. Elsa established a school for magic people. And eventually, the school, Arendelle Academy of Magic, was divided into five departments. What power do you have? Perhaps you can manipulate flames. Perhaps you belong in the Brann Department of Flames. Or perhaps you'll find your home in the Vann Department of Water, for all of you guys who can master the calm oceans. Maybe your place is in the Jorden Department of Earth, where you learn to manipulate plants and rocks. Or you might be part of the Luft Department of Air, to master your skills of storms and winds. And the final department is the Isen Department of Ice - the department pioneered and preferred by Queen Elsa herself. Can you last at Arendelle Academy? ▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂ an advanced roleplay, loosely based off Frozen