E. J. Brill, according to Wikipedia, is "a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 275 journals and around 1200 new books and reference works each year." I've known its hefty, … [Read more...]
Joel Achenbach, Carl Sagan, and the UFOlogists
Joel Achenbach. Captured by Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe. Simon & Schuster, 1999. "The temptation, for those of us who have not scared the door of a church in a long time, is to give the topic of religion a wide berth. The truth is that many of us are not … [Read more...]
The Daimon, the Witch, and the Moon-Journey – “The Dream” of Johannes Kepler (Part 3)
William Anders: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty. Frank Borman: Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled. (joking) Anders: (laughs) You got a color film, Jim? Hand me that roll of color quick, would you... James Lovell: … [Read more...]
Extraterrestrial Life – A View From 1797 (Part 2)
Last week I posted part 1 of my translation of the chapter on extraterrestrial life in Rabbi Pinchas Elijah Hurwitz's 1797 book Sefer ha-Breet ("Book of the Covenant"). What follows is part 2. I've talked about Hurwitz and his book in last week's post. I'm intrigued by his quotation--I can't … [Read more...]
Extraterrestrial Life – A View From 1797 (Part 1)
I was 13 years old. I'd just become a UFOlogist; I was excited by the idea that ancient documents like the Bible might speak of flying saucers. I asked my grandfather, who was something of a Hebrew scholar, what the Talmud--the great book of post-Biblical Judaism, dating from the early centuries … [Read more...]
