CVN June 2009, page 10
THE MAN GALILEO PLAGIARIZED
On June 9th at 1pm in the Parish House of the First Unitarian Church in New Bedford (corner of Union, County and Eighth Streets), Dr. Alan Powers will preview his new book on Giordano Bruno, to be published in England this fall. His talk, like his book, includes over 40 PowerPoint photos of sites in Italy, England, France and Germany where Bruno lived, wrote and was put on trial.
Giordano Bruno was condemned to the stake in 1600 because he could not retract one particular modern heresy: the universe—his own word—contains “an infinite number of habitable worlds.” The current Vatican astronomer, Jose Funes, largely agrees with his Dominican antecedent of four centuries.
Centuries later, the monument to Bruno erected in Rome in 1889 was a kind of Statue of Liberty, a national symbol supported by over a hundred Deputies and Senators in the brand new country, with its new national Parliament. These supporters of his monument, erected three years after the French one in New York harbor, even emphasized Bruno’s unique freedom, his liberty of thought. The sculptor Bardolphi’s giant Statue of Liberty led to Ferrari’s statue of Bruno three years later in Rome, on the spot where he was burned, though it does not look like the contemporary engraving of the small, feisty, quick man himself.
Bruno’s innumerable habitable worlds are now front-page news, with increasing conjecture about several hundred planets now discovered circling distant suns. Such worlds animate space exploration like NASA’s Mars explorers.
Coastline to provide grant funds to community agencies
NEW BEDFORD: Coastline Elderly Services, Inc. will be requesting proposals from community agencies to provide services to elders.
Federal Grant funds will be provided to those organizations who are selected to provide supportive services, medication management, disease prevention projects, and programs targeted to family caregivers.
Applications will be made available at the bidder’s conference on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. at Coastline’ offices located at 1646 Purchase Street in New Bedford. Completed applications must be submitted by Monday, June 15, 2009 by
3 p.m. to be considered for funding.
For more information, please contact Ann McCrillis at 508-999-6400, ext. 160.
The First Baptist Church of New Bedford, 149 William Street, invites the whole community to a benefit concert by critically-acclaimed violinist Barry Bowers on Saturday, June 13, 7:00 P.M. The concert features sacred, classical, traditional and contemporary music arranged for a new instrument, the 6-string electric violin, which allows Mr. Bowers to play in the ranges of a violin, viola, or cello. He has played in symphony orchestras in Reno and Las Vegas, and in orchestras accompanying many prominent entertainers, including Elton John, Billy Joel, Wynonna, and Kenny Rogers. Visit at: www.whatsoeverthingsmusic.com
There is no charge for the concert but a free-will offering will be received. The offering will be a part of the fund-raising efforts for emergency repairs to the 1829 First Baptist meetinghouse which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. First Baptist Church is especially remembered for its ministry during the Civil War. Lt. Henry Martyn Robert, Army Corps of Engineers officer who commanded the building of Ft. Taber/Rodman, was a member. Here Robert made the decision to write Robert’s Rules of Order after a night-long public debate on the defense of New Bedford Harbor. www.rixsan.com/nbvisit/attract/baptist.htm
