National Geographic explored the ways that an extremely crowded country copes with rising sea levels in the May, 2011 issue. Stunning story about Bangladesh loaded with daunting statistics, including incredible photography.
"Don't put the blame on me; I'm just doing what God said." Excellent.
Another edition of "Quotes," consisting of quotes I've gathered and enjoyed: The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. - H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) Every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies . . . a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16 1953. http://i.imgur.com/ZC6zn.jpg Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down. - Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869) If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. - J. K. Rowling Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive. - G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) Is there life before death? - Graffito, in Belfast In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite. - Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984) Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. - Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855) The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. - John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)
It’s the Fourth of July. I’ve been pondering whether or not to write something politically pithy or culturally au courant and here it is, almost noon, and I’ve made no decision. I think I pretty much said what I had to say about my feelings about this country a few posts back for Memorial Day, so I don’t think I’ll revisit that. Last night we sat on our front porch while the pre-Fourth fireworks went off in the surrounding neighborhood. Folks nearby spend an unconscionable amount of money on things that blow up and look pretty and we benefit from the show. Neither of us like large crowds, so going down to the St. Louis riverfront for the big explosion is just not an option. The older I get the less inclined I am to squeeze myself into the midst of so much anonymous humanity. We’ll likely go to bed early tonight after watching the rest of our neighborhood go up in brilliance, starbursts, and smoke. I suppose the only thing I’d like to say politically is a not very original observation about how so many people seem to misidentify the pertinent document in our history. The Declaration of Independence is often seen as more important than the Constitution and this is an error, one which leads us into these absurd cul-de-sacs of debate over the religious nature of our Founding. [More . . . ]
Here is a comprehensive list of the techniques Fox News uses to manipulate its viewers, compliments of Dr. Cynthia Boaz. It seems to me that responsible thinkers would anticipate these techniques, recognize them and turn this drivel off. Here is the list of techniques, but I would highly recommend visiting the main article for clear explanations of each. 1. Panic Mongering. 2. Character Assassination/Ad Hominem. 3. Projection/Flipping. 4. Rewriting History. 5. Scapegoating/Othering. 6. Conflating Violence With Power and Opposition to Violence With Weakness. 7. Bullying. 8. Confusion. 9. Populism. 10. Invoking the Christian God. 11. Saturation. 12. Disparaging Education. 13. Guilt by Association. 14. Diversion. I freely admit that FOX News is not the only "news" channel that employs these techniques--I've seen most of these used on other networks, though FOX is famous for proudly using these techniques.