On the one side, ethics and religion are still too complex for present-day science to explain in depth. On the other, they are far more a product of autonomous evolution than hiterto conceded by most theologians. Science faces in ethics and religion its most interesting and possibly humbling challenge, while religion must somehow find the way to incorporate the discoveries of science in order to retain credibility. Religion will possess strength to the extent that it codifies and puts into enduring, poetic form the highest values of humanity consistent with empirical knowledge.
Japanese farmers grow the most beautiful apples. The process is incredibly labor intensive, however, and may die out in the next generation or so.
Anti-Ballistic Missile Complex
Peg Mullen, the Cindy Sheehan of the Vietnam war, died last week.
Why aren’t more women philosophers? It’s the same reason most women steer clear of computer science: the large proportion of arrogant, sexist pricks currently in the profession.
Just one more woman on a committee or in a group can make an incredible difference. I’ve been in math classes where I’m the only woman and math classes where I’m one of just a few women. FSP really captures the difference in the dynamic in her post.
ExxonMobil is still funding climate change denial PR. Since we’re going to hit peak oil in the next 20 years and there’s no way we can change things fast enough to prepare for that, they’ve set themselves up for some incredible profits. Unfortunately, their profits won’t help us much.
Think ecosystems don’t provide absolutely essential “services” for humanity? Check out what cutting down part of a forest has done to an entire country.
Dust storms suck, but could help slow global warming, which is a very very good thing since it’s likely temps will increase more than 7 °F in the next 40 or 50 years. This is an incredible rate of warming – more than 250 times faster than one of the fastest warming periods (that we know of) in Earth’s history, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Up to 50% of marine species went extinct in that event. How many will we lose this time?
Nike resigned from the board of the Chamber of Commerce in protest of the chamber’s position on climate change. Other companies flat out resigned their memberships. It’s good to see companies recognizing climate change is going to start affecting their profits.
I feel like the appropriate punishment for these sorts of crimes would be to deny them modern medical care.
Second wave feminism has a bad reputation, but without it, women would still be writing songs like this:
A new spider species was recently discovered and named after David Bowie.
Heteropoda davidbowie
Warming can fundamentally change interactions in an ecosystem. This means that many of our predictions about what’s going to happen to ecosystems with climate change could be very, very wrong.
The Finance Committee killed the public option this week and then approved money for abstinence only sex-ed, which is the proven best way to up teen pregnancy and std rates. I’d like to point out that democrats Lincoln, Conrad, and Baucus voted down the public option. I suggest letting them know how you feel about their vote, especially if you come from Arkansas, Montana, or North Dakota.
Laurent is finally blogging again – I adore his silly botany posts. Here’s a great one about how purple toothwort protects its nectar.
