Soldiers, apple pie and God
CFI reports that the U.S. military encourages overtly religious gatherings, but pulls the rug out from under non-theist activity.
There’s no such thing as “away”
At the November 2010 TEDx:GPGP (Great Pacific Garbage Patch), Van Jones spoke on “[t]he economic injustice of plastic”.
Jones is an attorney and activist and was the “Special Advisor [to President Obama] for Green Jobs”. He is also the author of “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems” (subject of mixed reviews but endorsed by prominent environmental personalities). Activism begets controversy and Jones is not immune. Regardless of the controversies, he makes good points. While it seems to me that his ideas as presented are short on substance, ideas still have to start somewhere and merely talking about them raises awareness of an issue.
Jones approaches the problem of plastic pollution from a perspective of social justice. The worst of plastics – most toxic and carcinogenic – are also the cheapest. The poorest have no choice to buy anything else.
The manufacture of plastics certainly does not take place in the wealthier neighborhoods, rather, in places where the poorest can afford to live. Jones also claims that plastics at the point of disposal affect the poorest because “too often that [plastic] bottle is going to be put on a boat… go all the way across the ocean at some expense…wind up in a developing country, often China…[where] that bottle winds up getting burned” ... releasing harmful chemicals.
And Jones calls attention to “Cancer Alley”, that region in Louisiana which reportedly has a higher than average cancer rate among residents, which also happens to be the “petrochemical corridor”.
Now, even if that bottle or any plastics are actually recycled, the next generation is not going to be another container; more likely they will be secondary products such as textiles and plastic lumber for park furniture or wheel stops, none of which are “recyclable” and only temporarily divert from the landfills we are trying to avoid.
Jones says
Well, the root of this problem, in my view, is the idea of disposability itself….In order to trash the planet, you have to trash people…we are at a moment where the coming together of social justice as an idea, and ecology as an idea,we can finally now see that they are really, at the end of the day, one idea.”And his idea:
We don’t have disposable anything. We don’t have disposable resources. We don’t have disposable species. And we don’t have disposable people either. We don’t have a throwaway planet.Jones hammers gently that disposability is something we believe in, but we don’t realize the cost in human capital that goes with that (“25% of the people incarcerated in the world are incarcerated in the U.S”). --much more follows--
Fertilizing democracy at home
What follows is utterly precious, needing no further comment. Here's the opening sentence of some extraordinary information provided by the U.K. Guardian:
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
Secret polls in America: Cheap oil versus Middle East democracy?
What follows is not real data; it is only my hunch. What would the result be if Americans could vote, using a secret ballot, on the following option: Would they rather have widespread democracy in the Middle East or cheap oil at home? Would they rather support continued US coddling of corrupt Middle East leaders who keep order with violent crackdowns or would they prefer that the people of these countries have freedom of speech and free elections?
Let's assume the price of a gallon of gas would go up an additional 50 cents if the people of Middle Eastern countries (e.g., Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq) kicked out all the remaining brutal dictators and changed over to meaningful self-rule--some meaningful form of democracy. Would Americans vote for their pocketbook or for high ideals? I suspect that the result would be something like this:
The emergent architect of an ant city
Check out this terrific video called "Ants - Nature's Secret Power." It is a study of ants, of the elaborate miniature cities of ants, and the collective architect that designs these exquisite cities. Ant experts Bert Holldobler provides commentary regarding these highly coordinated super-organisms. In the clip below, scientist pore tons of concrete into a huge underground ant colony in order to study the structure, and it is surreal. You can view the entire video at Hulu. watch as the ants repel a bear attack at the 5 minute mark, and then watch these same ants overwhelm an entire bee hive to obtain honey. Watch them maintaining their own domesticated animals (including mealy bugs) at the 8 minute mark. I learned that ants evolved from wasps about 100 million years ago. The males' only job is to mate with the queen. In some species males can be used to fertilized the queen many years after they have died. All of the workers are female. All ant species function as superorganisms. Specialization among highly coordinated ant in Argentina is discussed at the 18 minute mark. This documentary comments often on the chemical communication signals exchanged by ants (e.g., at the 37 minute mark). And check out the fungus gardens maintained by some ants (43 minute) through the use of elaborate air conditioning vents. The above excerpt regarding an ant colony excavation can be found at the 54 minute mark of the full video.