I had never actually wondered this question until I spotted this video. Let's simply say that not all of the qualities of little balls scale up well. I'm going to categorize this post, very loosely, as a "science."
Want some proof that we're a social species? Check out this carefully planned moment of synchronicity to the tune of "Do Re Mi." I don't know anything about the group that is responsible for this delightful moment, but it reminds me of another group that poses like statues en masse in public spaces (I know we posted on this earlier, but I'm having trouble locating the link). As always, it's especially fun to watch the smiles the bystanders. Here's a related post, on synchronicity.
In today's NYT, Frank Rich is reminding us of the sordid background of one of the architects of Barack Obama's economic recovery program. These are sad times, indeed.
Lawrence Summers, the president’s chief economic adviser, made $5.2 million in 2008 from a hedge fund, D. E. Shaw, for a one-day-a-week job. He also earned $2.7 million in speaking fees from the likes of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
[P]erhaps I’ve become numb to the perennial and bipartisan revolving-door incestuousness of Washington and Wall Street.
That the highly paid leader of arguably America’s most esteemed educational institution [Harvard]would simultaneously freelance as a hedge-fund guy might stand as a symbol for the values of our time.
We human beings are the most important aspect of the entire universe. Or at least some people say. They say that a Supreme Being created the entire disposable universe to serve us, and that HE visited us here on earth, the moral and spiritual center of the entire universe. Others would differ. Unbelievable as it might seem to many Believers, perhaps we are big fish in a very very small pond. Listen to the words of Carl Sagan, as he discusses our "pale blue dot":
I was walking the dog last night when Holly (the collie) spotted a couple bunnies in the nearby grass. The bunnies stood perfectly still as we walked past, even though Holly was pulling at the leash trying to run over to take a closer look. This Good Friday anecdote illustrates a common phenomenon. When they sense that potential predators are nearby, many types of animals get as still as statues, thereby blending into the background to avoid confrontation. It’s not hard to see how such a behavior has been naturally selected. For some reason, it occurred to me that many of the conservative religious folks who visit this site do something analogous when they feel threatened by freethinkers. They intellectually freeze. Instead of engaging on the topic, they pull out a pre-packaged arsenal that includes a handful of platitudes that they repeat ad nauseam in order to avoid intellectual confrontation. These platitudes are not invitations for meaningful discussion, but rather inert utterances such as the following: