“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
—Carl Sagan (via crookedindifference)
November 2010
- Journalist: Do you feel, however, that we're making progress in this country?
- Malcolm X: No, no. I will never say that progress is being made. If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, that's not progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. They won't even admit that the knife is there!
it’s probably a bad idea to talk about assassinating people when in a country that has a travel advisory for terrorism
Going to have to keep this in mind.
I wonder how many government-watch lists I’m on already..
“What has your God done for you that you couldn’t have done for yourself?”
—Jordan T. McQueen (via wicked-1)
Evolution: What we can learn from biology's most important theory
In evaluating the human condition, it isn’t possible to overemphasize the significance of evolutionary theory. This well-supported scientific theory influences our behavior in ways most of us can’t begin to imagine. This article explores how evolution provides answers to questions we might not otherwise think to ask.
In the past 150 years evolutionary theory has moved from being a philosophical curiosity to becoming a precondition for understanding human behavior. There are certain aspects of our behavior that are easily explained and perfectly logical, while other aspects make no sense at all without the theoretical framework provided by evolution. This article reveals our connection with evolution, and through that connection, with all life on earth.
This article has some very interesting information regarding evolution, this is an absolute must-read for everybody out there. Easily one of the best articles I’ve ever read on the matter.
No sex please: An asexual life →
independent.co.uk
“At 21, Andy Holland is happy, easy-going and interested in the same things as most university students. With one notable exception: Holland is not attracted to women, or to men. In fact, he has no desire to have sex. And in this, he is not as unusual as we might assume”
“With sex being arguably the world’s favourite pastime, asexuals face an uphill struggle for recognition. It’s a testament to how sexualised our society is, that we accept almost any sort of sexual predilection, but when it comes to someone getting no sexual kicks at all, we’re at a loss as to how to understand it. We find it perfectly believable – if a little odd – that someone might want to have sex while wearing an asphyxiating latex mask, or while being whipped or spanked. But the idea that someone should deviate so far from the norm as to not want sex at all is almost incomprehensible. Most of us instinctively feel that there must be some sort of mental or physical problem, something that could be cured. We want to know why they’re like this”
Genesis Redux: A new form of life has been created in a laboratory, and the era of synthetic biology is dawning →
economist.com
It demonstrates more forcefully than anything else to date that life’s essence is information. Heretofore that information has been passed from one living thing to another. Now it does not have to be. Non-living matter can be brought to life with no need for lightning, a vital essence or a god. And this new power will allow the large-scale manipulation of living organisms. Hitherto, genetic modification has been the work of apprentices and journeymen. This new step is, in the true and original sense of the word, a masterpiece. It is the demonstration that the practitioner has mastered his art.
Not only was/is the existence/inexistence of a “god” completely irrelevant since day one, we now know that it is possible to create a living organism without the presence of a divine, supernatural creator.
It will be years from now that much of mankind will finally realize the grave mistake they have made, and will look back and finally recognize the massive amounts of human life and resources spent in the name of this false “deity” as nothing more than an unfortunate waste.
“The Tea Partiers are ideologically similar to every mass conservative upsurge from the early 1950s to the present: They favor an essentially unregulated economy, no large government presence with the exception of the military and the national security apparatus, and the moral values taught in evangelical Protestant and traditional Catholic churches. But they have motivated more people against a perceived “socialist takeover” of the government than other conservative populist movements ever did. And they managed to capture the imagination of the media in a way conservative activists have not done since the birth of the new Christian Right over three decades ago.”
—Michael Kazin (via azspot)
“
Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, has proposed amending the Espionage Act specifically to target WikiLeaks and other media organizations that “publish the name” of anyone “helping in our efforts against terrorism…”
However, given that WikiLeaks is an international news organization, Ensign’s proposal also raises the specter of some kind of global secrecy act that would criminalize any media outlet that discloses the name of anyone who has collaborated with U.S. intelligence agencies or the U.S. military anywhere in the world, regardless of the context.
Ensign’s idea is particularly breathtaking because during the long Cold War and today’s “war on terror,” many collaborators with the CIA and other U.S. agencies have been linked to drug trafficking, human rights abuses, military coups and even terrorism. Presumably, under Ensign’s plan, journalists around the world would face prosecution for making those connections.
” —WikiLeaks Ban or Global Secrecy Act? (via ryking)Oh, fuck me
I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that shawarma. I knew it.
Play
“Asked by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to highlight the plight of people displaced into camps by the floods, she met with women who lost children to the surging water and gave impromptu press conferences in sweaty rooms, loud with angry-seeming men. Back in Los Angeles, she tells me the country with the highest number of refugees in the world is Pakistan. Jolie was appointed UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2001: She does an impressive job for them. She talks about the issues like this is her day job. I tell her Pakistan is a hard country to raise money for: Zardari’s government seems pretty unlovable. She becomes slightly heated: “The president is not the people!” And says, “If you are concerned about security in the world, the last thing you want to do is not give your support to Pakistan and Afghanistan, because that’s the most dangerous thing. That’s the least intelligent thing, as far as I’m concerned, to do.”
—“The Other Angelina”, Angelina Jolie interviewed for Vogue Magazine (via caraobrien)
“If the ratio of teachers to soldiers was reversed this world would be a much better place to live.”
—Anonymous (via mityelpoc)
