There's a straightforward reason we "expelled ourselves from Eden." At heart, we are searchers and explorers, and we seek meaning, among many other things. "CallumCGLP" is the self-identified person who added these beautiful excerpts from Carl Sagan's audio-book, Pale Blue Dot to some new visuals. The result is inspiring:
This push to fair elections should be the only issue, until it is passed. We can't even have political conversations anymore, certainly not in Congress, and the dysfunction is largely driven by huge sums of private money from large organizations that are corrupting our law-makers. Thus, it was good news to hear of a new push to campaign finance reform:
In a push to implement a publicly-financed election system and curb moneyed interests in politics, a pair of good-government groups is launching a television ad campaign with a noteworthy price tag. Common Cause and Public Campaign, two organizations known for exposing the murkier influences on legislative and electoral processes, are staking $8 million to try and burnish Congress with the willpower to pass the Fair Elections Now Act. And they're willing to spend as much as $15 million on their campaign-season gambit.What is the essence of meaningful campaign finance reform? Bill Moyers explains: Dick Durbin gives the insider's point of view.
Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. . . [T]he results of this research program suggest that bold but vulnerable people gravitate to idealistic and religious extremes for relief from anxiety.
See this related cross-link to Gregory Paul's work showing that religion thrives when a population feels insecure.Several new species of deep sea creatures have been discovered. It's incredible that any form of life can survive at such depths. I couldn't help but think of the phrase "mobile intestinal tracts" when viewing some of these. I'm sure that's oversimplifying, but based on these images, some of these creatures don't seem to have much more going on than a stomach that moves. Which is how I think of some human beings . . .
Another inquiry has determined that the "Climategate" scientists' "rigor and honesty as scientists are not in doubt." Not that this will slow down attacks on inconvenient science. Perhaps the biggest lesson illustrated is that when you show know-nothings that they are wrong, it has no effect on their opinions. For an equally good example, read about the "Lenski Affair," where the scientists had conducted 20 years of rigorous experiments that clearly demonstrated evolution of E. coli in the lab. Evidence just isn't good enough for zealots.