How do you live in a landscape so vastly changed?

I was living on a planet called Earth. There was oxygen, water, forests, flowers, insects, birds, life... With Sonia we loved this planet, we wanted to protect it. Sonia went to some "Fridays for future" climate strikes in Paris.   

When she died, life on Earth disappeared. I went Over the Moon. A princess named Chang'E invited me in the room for exquisite sadness. I loved this place. I could cry, I could be sad, I could grieve. The Moon is also the place for dreams. Sonia appeared from time to time. I remember when we were on Earth looking at the changing position of the Moon, waiting for the planet to appear. We felt part of a great mechanic, part of the universe, on a planet moving around the Sun, with the Moon turning around it. When her cousins were here, we use to dance. I was the sun. Sonia was turning around me. Her cousin was the Moon turning around Sonia. 

But Sonia left the Moon and went to Mars. I follow her. I found rocks, rocks, and also rocks... 

Each stone is an heritage from Sonia. I collected them. I wonder if I should make some change, remove some dust or not. I spent my day exploring each pattern, each  sign of life Sonia had left behind. It was part of her history, part of my history. 

Drawing by Sonia Piotelat. 2017

Some stones made me laugh. Some stones seems of aliens origin. I didn't understand. I had to learn. Who are the Avatar? Katara? Korra? Viren? Yes, Sonia spoke about these favorite cartoons, about her fan fictions. But for me, it was important to stay in a different world. I discovered a new landscape with dragons, with conflict and children looking for peace. 

Then I understood some reactions Sonia had few weeks ago. She was trying to unite some children whose parents did some nasty cruel things. That was clever! So I went back to the Moon in the room for exquisite sadness and found some notes, some books, some sheets with scholar works done by Sonia. Chang'E spoke about magpie, I decided to change Sonia's paper into cranes I would send to Hiroshima children's memorial on Earth. 

I won't return to Earth. I'll stay on the Moon. But if intelligent life appear one day, if an Alien spaceship arrives on Earth, he will find peace looking at Hiroshima's cranes. 

Je vous invite à consulter mon blog où il est question de temps en temps de SETI.

If you're looking for blogs about SETI, please go to
- the SETI Institute website
- the SETI League website
- Sciencefictionbiology

To see Sonia's weblog, please go to https://soniabebe.blogspot.com/ !

Sonia is 12 days old. She's a real star. I spend a lot of time just looking at her.

I read the article Why Alien Intelligence May Not Be So Alien by N. Chandra Wickramasinghe on the SETI League web site.
He defends panspermia in a very logicial way. If I had one quote to remind, it would be this one:
Throughout history we know that every attempt to place the Earth in a special place or privileged position in the Universe has turned out to be wrong.


I received an incredible news in my mailbox: he International Space Station may be port of call for a free-flying telescope capable of not only probing the depths of the Universe, but also listening for the chatter of other civilizations and spotting Earth-threatening asteroids.
It looks like science fiction... The article even deals with Dyson's spheres.

Yesteday I received an email asking "where can I send messages to ETI". In my answer I indicated the Welcome ETI web site and the experiment I launched on mine.


People have to fill a form to write a message and then to explain it Then it just creates a text file on the website. So I have to check in the directory if there's new messages.
I did it yesterday... There was 7 messages (M>) and 2 solutions (S>)...
No comment... I'll just make a copy on the next month Cabine Telescope issue.

I finished a strange book this morning L'échiquier de la création from Dominique Douay. And? Where are the watches from Dali? It's the only thing missing in this piece of surrealism and poetry.

The result is here: more than 80% for Chirac.
A victory? Not really. That still makes a lot of people voting for the other and knowing what they did. Our president spoke about security problems and promised more actions. Let's wait and see what the governement will be. A mixture of old sad guys?

I read yesterday En approchant de la fin (Getting Near the End) a novel from Andrew Weiner. It was written in Y2K but I think that it corresponds to what happens now in France (and everywhere else). For example before some elections a future president proposes the creation of a Mental Health cabinet. Both candidates wanted to have something to reduce violence in big cities. They don't call it Bureau de la Santé Mentale but it's not so far.

I took a big decision this morning. My fanzine Le Bulletin de la Cabine Télescope will go on. But it will be a monthly newsletter available only on the web.

I've read Illegal Alien from Robert J. Sawyer. I found it great, fun and full of surprises. I think the book is of real interest for SETI enthousiasts. There's a lot about evolution and contact. The story tells the trial of a Tosok who kills a human. That's an original way of critisizing the american justice and also a good look to our past and way of handling conflicts.
May be will I write a more complete review if I have time for it. Is there a french translation of this 1998 book? If not it could be a nice thing to do it. It's really related to the american culture but the elections shows us that we are all americans but in the wrong side. There's also racism and XXXX wanted to have the death penalty back. It can be a good lesson for us. Ok, as the hero of the book, I'm a darned idealist...

Eureka! I know which book I'll put in my bag for the hospital: Le silence de la Cité from Elisabeth Vonarburg. Why? I've just finished all the short stories of Janus from the same author. My first surprise was that all of them were readible. I appreciate style and find it beautifull. It's very different from what I read in Jours de l'an 3000, a more recent anthology of french short stories. Is it just a matter of time? Was there more sensibility in the writting of the eighties and before?
The other great surprise is that I recognize myself in some characters. I closed the book with a strange revelation: the only boy in my dreams is my father. Tonight for instance I was discussing with other women about neutrinos preparing myself for an exam. Yesterday I was playing football with a little girl before giving my place to my father.
I remember an other book from E. Vonarburg Chroniques du pays des mères. And that's it! I fill mother but in the way that after the birth I'll be able to do everything by myself. There will be my daughter and me. That's all. Honoré can stay in Africa and I could send all the men on an other planet. That's really a strange impression because my consciousness tells me that we both need Honoré to be here. Do all the pregnant women fill this kind of things?
I could have as well have chosen Chroniques du pays des mères if I still had it with me. I lent it to one of my colleagues when I was in Lyon. I can still ask her to send it back to me but I think I remember the story. Le silence de la Cité seems to be of the same kind and I haven't read it yet.

He is everywhere! There must have been a documentary about Sahel on the TV channel ARTE. I wanted to watch it. But... They change it! I hear people crying "XXXXXX president!"
What can I do? Throw the TV from the 15th flour?

I've updated the french SETI League website. Translating two press releases took me lot of time. I'm getting old...
See:
http://setileague.free.fr/presse/0204.php3
http://setileague.free.fr/presse/0205.php3

Yesterday evening there was a rainbow. What a beautifull sight from the 15th flour! It started at the commercial center few meters from me. When I was a child there was some legend about what we can find at the foot of a rainbow. I don't remember if it was a lagic mushroom, a fairy or a four leaf clover. I'll have to go and see by myself.
The 5 O'clock birds woke me up this morning. I don't know their name but they usually start singing between 4 and 5. That's not unpleasant. The full moon was playing with clouds. I took the binoculars for a small travel on the mare crisium and the others.

Is it baby blues? Is it the strong wind? Is it the full moon?
I don't like this world. I don't understand it. I phoned Honoré last night. Things get so worse that I'm afraid that my daughter will nether see her father. He is sick. One of his collegues has been killed.
Yes let's say that it's just baby blues... I've got a bad filter of informations. He should have given me good news.

A reaction of Africultures seems too optimistic. The edito of the Journal du Jeudi is more realistic...

I've read yesteday the two last stories of La poignée de poussière, a book of tales from Amadou Hampaté Ba. One one side it's really funny. On the other few of these stories from the Peul are suitable for children. There's a lot of mysticism in it with god, satan and all the marabouts.

When listening to Mory Kanté I was surprised by the power of african languages. The tone of jula makes you happy. You don't need anything more. I wonder if the baby will be named Sonia Léïndimi or Léïndimi Sonia. The order has only administrative purposes. I think everybody will call her Sonia in my family and Léïndimi in Africa. May be will she have other nicknames? I'm Zabeth, Babeth, Lisbeth or Lise for most of my friends. She will decide later to answer Sonia or Léïndimi or both when people will ask her name. I'm sure Honoré (or Ouétien Honoré Joseph) would prefer Léïndimi Sonia even if we didn't really discuss the topic. We had chosen Sonia when I was one or two months pregnant. Léïndimi has been chosen last month by Honoré's mother and brothers. It has a strong meaning but that isn't really easy to translate into french. In english I thing solace could be the right word.

A week after the election I think the baby really gave me some comfort. When she will be born I could have the Burkinabé nationality. So if the worst happens it could be possible for me to have a free ticket for Africa as all the foreigners:-)

I've finished Un feu sur l'abîme from Vernor Vinge this afternoon. And? That looks rather classical. It's good science-fiction but nothing extraordinary. It can have an interest regarding the evolution of intelligence on a planet. But... what more? I still think there's something missing. Some descriptions of the universe? Of the spaceships? I don't really know. The landscapes looks like the ones on Earth. The story could be something between L'orphelin de Perdide and La planète sauvage (where humans are slaves of dogs) from Stefan Wul. I don't regret reading this book till the end but that's not what I was waiting for when I bought it one or two years ago.

Oh I have also to note a strange thing that made me laught when I was reading the book. I was sitting. My hands were softly on my big belly. A movement of the baby closed the paperback. Yes, really! Then I knew it was time for me to walk outside under a sunny weather.

The videotape Les maîtres du temps is just at the end. Wow! The pictures from Moebius are wonderful. I have spent one hour in an other universe. I needed it. I love science-fiction when it helps me to forget the reality.

There's a good article in this month issue of the Marabout.

Which book will I choose for the hospital? At noon I thought that L'orphelin de Perdide from Stefan Wul could be a good choice. I know the story and I liked it some 10 years ago. But this afternoon I found the video of the cartoon Les maîtres du temps in the library. It's the same story. So I will have to find an other solution. May be Le grand Meaulnes? It's one of the few books I've read several times. May be the only one. Why not Harry Potter? Calvin and Hobbes comics may be two heavy...
I hope to have few weeks to decide. Otherwise, I'll just take the book I'm reading at the moment.