by Matthew on March 23, 2010
Excerpt from President Roosevelt’s January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union:
“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
by Matthew on March 20, 2010
This has been a rough week. After CT scans, PET scans, colonoscopies, and biopsies a close family member was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. Three days later surgeons removed an entire large intestine and have already scheduled chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
by Matthew on February 22, 2010
gypsy boys in Tar desert, Rajastan, India
http://www.nautis.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/1067628_13570824.jpg
by Matthew on February 20, 2010
By devising a testable hypothesis of natural memory, Rupert Sheldrake has established himself as the world’s central figure in the evolutionary theory of existence. Heir to the lineage of Darwin, Peirce, Bergson, Elsasser and Bohm, Sheldrake bears on his shoulders the weight of their worldview. Attacks on his work amount to an offensive against any alternative to a universe under the control of eternal immutable laws.
by Matthew on February 20, 2010
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by Matthew on February 20, 2010
The banana is a freakish and fragile genetic mutant; one that has survived through the centuries due to the sustained application of selective breeding by diligent humans. Indeed, the “miraculous” banana is far from being a no-strings-attached gift from nature. Its cheerful appearance hides a fatal flaw— one that threatens its proud place in the grocery basket. The banana’s problem can be summed up in a single word: sex.
by Matthew on February 20, 2010
We like to feel superior to the people who lived centuries ago, what with their shitty mud huts and curing colds by drilling a hole in their skulls. But we have to give them credit: They left behind some artifacts that have left the smartest of modern scientists scratching their heads.
by Matthew on February 20, 2010
Science deserves to be challenged. After all, it is about questioning dogma and almost ceaseless scepticism. But there are those who want to go further, who believe that science deserves a good kicking too. James Le Fanu, a medical doctor and columnist for this newspaper, points out how many details of our lives, from thinking to breathing, are quite astonishing. They are extraordinary for not appearing to be extraordinary.
