I'm always on the lookout for images of non-human animals using tools. A recent example, including a photo of a gorilla using a stick to test the depth of river water during a crossing. But also consider this crow: And speaking of amazing animals, consider this finding regarding rats:
The often maligned rodents go out of their way to liberate a trapped friend, a gregarious display that’s driven by empathy, researchers conclude in the Dec. 9 Science.
Today's presidential elections are contests to see who can act the most pious. The Founding Fathers wouldn't have a chance, as spelled out by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Unlike many of today's candidates, the founders didn't find it necessary to constantly wear religion on their sleeves. They considered faith a private affair. Contrast them to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (who says he wouldn't vote for an atheist for president because nonbelievers lack the proper moral grounding to guide the American ship of state), Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who hosted a prayer rally and issued an infamous ad accusing President Barack Obama of waging a "war on religion") and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (whose uber-Catholicism leads him to oppose not just abortion but birth control).The thing that really annoys me is that I don't have the power to expose these pseudo-religous clowns. I'd like to take them on stage, one by one, to see how much they know about bible history and theology. I'd like to see what they actually know about their own religions. I'd like to quiz them, and I would expect that they would know embarrassing little about their espoused beliefs. I would suspect that we would have results comparable to this.
I had long assumed that there was no rhyme for the word "orange." One of my daughters told me that there was no rhyme for "silver" either. That inspired us to turn to Wikipedia for a detailed list of words for which there are no rhymes. I had assumed that there were only a smattering of short English words that had no rhyme, but I was seriously wrong.
After listening to the first hour of this video featuring writer Chris Hedges, I'm started by two things. First, it surprises me that I agree with so much of what Hedges has to say. Not everything he says, but much of it, including Hedge's critique of much of Obama's health care program, which he considers to be a bailout to the insurance industry and big pharma. I think he is spot-on with his characterization of the United States as a case of "inverted totalitarianism," ruled by anonymous corporate forces. Second, looking back at what I used to believe only 10 years ago, I'm amazed at how much my views have changed regarding the United States. Occasionally, it still feels like my country, for instance, during the pushback to SOPA and PIPA. But mostly, it doesn't feel like a country that belongs to the People. There is much to love about many of the people and places of the United States, and I suspect that we're going to officially be around as a country for a long time, but I'm afraid that I agree with Hedges assessment that we have "hollowed out" the innards of who we were, and we are now seeing a vast unsustainable empire in the throes of collapse. The people bearing the brunt of this collapse are ordinary citizens who have conned by the corporate elite in ways too numerous to count involving "free elections," warmongering, spying on citizens, banks' purchase and abuse of Congress and much more. If one ware to write an honest civics book for grade school children, it would need to say dozens of inconvenient truths that would cause uproars at the PTA meetings. But maybe that is what we need.
Nice twist to this video: