Orchid Show at Missouri Botanical Garden

I visited the Missouri Botanical Garden today, not knowing that it was the last day of their annual orchid show. After I found this out at 4:30 pm when I was at the entrance to the show. I ended up staying 15 min after closing time--I was the last one out.

IMG_2315 orchids

Looking at the wide variety of orchids reminds me of Charles Darwin, who extensively studied orchids, along with finches and everything else he could get his hands on. Just on aesthetic level, viewing these living beings is phenomenal. Just last night I watched Episode 2 of the new version of Cosmos, a broadside attack on creationists, where Neil deGrasse Tyson commented that many people are unnerved when compared to the other primates. Then he mentioned trees, asking how it felt that we are related to them too. I immediately knew how I felt, because I've written about the fact that trees are my cousins. That idea is a wonderful idea, that we are all one big (capital D) Diverse family. I had that same feeling today looking at the extraordinary variety (and beauty) of orchids. It didn't help things that some of the orchids have what appear to be faces (see the first photo). IMG_2340 orchids   IMG_2274 orchids While I was trying to photograph some of the orchids, a woman asked me, "Do you grow?" I hesitated for a second, to figure out what she was asking, then confessed, "No, I don't grow." She said, "You should. They are surprising easy to grow." For more photos, click the title and then visit the thumbnails on the gallery at the bottom of the post.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson advocates peaceful coexistence between believers and non-believers

Neil deGrasse Tyson begins this by mentioning that he noticed a "Atheism" book section at Borders. I agree with NDT on the issues he discusses. There's no need for cultural wars over religion. Perhaps some people are biologically wired to make them prone to religious beliefs. He is against scientific ignorance rather than against religion. Einstein's view on "God" is restated toward the end.

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Collapse of industrial civilization

As reported by the U.K. Guardian, the unsustainable ways of modern societies is posing a serious threat:

A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution. Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."

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