rule the world!

from Science & Theology News:

Brain can signal world even if body can't Being able to control the world with your thoughts is no longer just the stuff of science fiction.

family album

from Utne Web Watch:

By Frank Klein, Baltimore City Paper
Time and time again, photographer Frank Klein saw the Oxendine family getting drunk, fighting, and screaming outside their rowhouse in Southwest Baltimore, a neighborhood plagued by drugs and alcohol. He began documenting their tumultuous lives with his camera, and over the course of a year, got to know the family. Klein enlisted the frank voice of one family member to give captions to his bleak and touching photos. -- Archie Ingersoll [the story]

but the voices in my head told me so

from SciTech daily:

Here's why the voices in your head are usually male, and it's not because it's God speaking [the story]

UU family spiritual topics

http://www.uua.org/families/fam_faith/

blogging

I was interviewed by my local newspaper recently. They were working on a story about blogging in general. Although no direct details from our conversation made it into the article, I am still tickled that I was able to contribute to the thought process.

One thing we discussed was, "why do you suppose people write such candid things in their blogs?" For instance, people will write about their work and get fired for saying inflammatory or trade secret types of things.

My thoughts ranged in a couple of directions:
1. online journaling has gotten SO popular. Perhaps people don't really realize who is reading their information. I bet that, when secured blogs become more prevalent, more people will move in that direction (have secret blogs)
2. vanity. There's something satisfying about seeing your words in print.
3. devil-may-care beligerance. The attitude that one doesn't give a --it who sees their stuff.

My reason for blogging has generally been to save up those articles that I want to get around to reading. Instead of having gobs of printouts of articles that will get lost in the mountains of paper floating around my house, I have them archived here, where I'll be able to find them more readily later.

That, and the fact that I used to send so many articles to my "peeps" that I'm sure they were getting quite annoyed with me. Now they don't get so many; only if they sign up here.

Peace.

Condi Rice

Democracy Marches On
How would universal democracy usher in a better future for all the world's people?
-------------------
intriguing.

7/12 update: I really did read it at the time I posted it. I'm not sure I can buy-in to what she's saying. I'm wondering if she's getting some inspiration from the same place our forefathers did. I suspect yes. I don't think she's an indepth philospher, though. More like a pop-philosopher.

thinking about thinking

from Arts & Letters Daily:

Who could lay claim to being the greatest thinker of the modern world? Marx? Surely not. Sartre? Well, if attitude counted. How about the redoubtable David Hume... more»

the moral value of sports

from Speaking of Faith:

Theologian Don Richter notes that the practice involved in sports can be just as fruitful in teaching moral values as attending church services. [the story]

Now I can feel less guilty about missing church!

didgeredoo

from SciTech Daily:

The didgeridoo may have only one note, but its timbre is phenomenal [the story]

intelligence = hell?

from Arts & Letters Daily:

“If men were rational in their conduct,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “intelligence would be enough to make the world almost a paradise.” It might, of course, make the world a hell... more»


7/7 update: extremely wordy, and high in the use of vocabulary words. I will have to read and re-read to get a better picture of what he's talking about. One thought that was interesting, though: we can't expect that technology will enable us to be nicer people; that would suggest that we were nice in the first place.