It never fails to move me, and as Grace Wynne-Jones mentioned it in passing today, here it is again, the beautiful video and great words of the truly great Carl Sagan.
May his spirit flourish as a sage in some distant, advanced pocket of the galaxy.

Banville did it, Roddy Doyle did it, John McGahern, Sebastian Barry and Colm Tóibín came close, but Anne Enright joins the tiny elite of Irish writers, and is the first Irish woman, to win the Man Booker Prize.
Wonderful.
The Gathering Wins the Man Booker
[photo credit: Joe O'Shaughnessy]

Complete List of Booker Winners
Anne Enright at [...]

To be able to write poetry with such grace - that would be something.

The Journey of Man is a celebration of the human spirit that combines the unique artistry and music of Cirque de Soleil with the power of large format film.
Sony Classics.com
[via 13 Amazing Cirque du Soleil Performances - One Mans Blog]

Doris Lessing has won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. Her citation reads:
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2007
“that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”
Doris Lessing
The citation for the IPCC and Al Gore reads
The Nobel Peace Prize 2007
“for their efforts to build up [...]

click on image to enlarge
I think this is a wonderful site. I’m not really given to looking for music on the web, but coming across this led to an hour or so of delight. It’s flash based, and a very good use of flash.
Some real gems of world music in there, just [...]

New Scientist (preview only, sub for full article) and The New York Times report that British Cabinet documents, published under regulations governing the release of secret papers after 30 years, reveal that then then British Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan, suppressed knowledge that the plume from the fire at the atomic processing plant at [...]