Another Waste of Time

"Satisfaction with our national progress should not make us forget its authors: the very Protestant..."

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:18:45 -0600

“Satisfaction with our national progress should not make us forget its authors: the very Protestant elite that founded and long dominated our nation’s institutions of higher education and government, including the Supreme Court. Unlike almost every other dominant ethnic, racial or religious group in world history, white Protestants have ceded their socioeconomic power by hewing voluntarily to the values of merit and inclusion, values now shared broadly by Americans of different backgrounds. The decline of the Protestant elite is actually its greatest triumph.”

- Noah Feldman, Professor at Harvard Law, New York Times Op-Ed, The Triumphant Decline of the WASP (via jeffbridges)

Bohemian Slapfight: im still sitting here, in my pajamas drinking coffee

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:05:51 -0600

Bohemian Slapfight: im still sitting here, in my pajamas drinking coffee:

I’m in the exact same boat. Why is it so hard to motivate?

I go on vacation TOMORROW.

Vacation.

From this hard life of tumblring and drinking coffee.

Point being, I need to do, like, everything. Packing would be good. Also, dishes. Perhaps making the bed. Eating would be an idea. A shower. Or even putting on clothes.

But no.

Here I am. Wasting my…

Some heartbreaking images of seabirds caught in BP’s oil slick...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:03:38 -0600

Some heartbreaking images of seabirds caught in BP’s oil slick on Louisiana’s East Grand Terre Island by AP Photographer Charlie Riedel: Caught in the Oil

(via jeffbridges)

Is Prayer Like Social Networking?

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:01:50 -0600

According to a recent article in Fast Company magazine, Social Networking Affects Brains Like Falling in Love, the same brain chemical responsible for the bond between mothers and their babies is also released when interacting online. In an experiment overseen by Claremont Graduate University “neuroeconomist” Paul Zak, a Fast Company reporter had blood drawn and tested both before and after spending 10 minutes tweeting with friends and strangers:

In those 10 minutes between blood batches one and two, my oxytocin levels spiked 13.2%. That’s equivalent to the hormonal spike experienced by the groom at the wedding Zak attended…. “Your brain interpreted tweeting as if you were directly interacting with people you cared about or had empathy for,” Zak says. “E-connection is processed in the brain like an in-person connection.”

Besides at least partially explaining all of those hours I spent online during my wasted youth—and still do today, come to think of it—the article made me think about Tworship, religious services tweeted on Twitter, and led me to wonder whether prayer itself also raises oxytocin levels. I did a quick internet search and found that while studies on prayer indicate that something is happening to lower stress, I could not find a study specifically investigating the release of oxytocin during prayer.

If prayer does cause the release of this hormone Zak calls the “‘social glue’ that adheres families, communities, and societies,” it could go a long way toward explaining the strong sense of community that develops among those who attend services together. Furthermore, just as oxytocin helps to cement the bond between mother and child, it may also in part explain the sense of connectedness we feel with the divine through prayer.

I believe it is important to note, however, that understanding why we experience something does not invalidate the reality of that experience. Just as understanding how our brains perceive falling in love does not mean we do not in fact love someone, likewise understanding how our brains perceive our relationship with the divine does not mean that God is not present in our lives.

Knowing how our brains react to prayer could lead to fascinating connections between how we live our religious lives and how we interact with our family, friends, and strangers. Indeed, following the call to love our neighbors as ourselves—to interact with those we meet both in person and online in a caring, empathic manner—would lead to increased production of oxytocin, and thus fuller, happier, longer, as well as more virtuous lives.

Video Suggests BP Literally Covering Up Oil Damage on...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:23:01 -0600

Video Suggests BP Literally Covering Up Oil Damage on Louisiana Beaches

There may be a completely benign explanation for this, but it looks like BP is literally trying to cover up damage from the spill. According to the Associated Press (http://bit.ly/ccfoOi), BP hasn’t yet released a statement about this.

(via Fast Company)

An endless stream of Caruso one-liners from CSI: Miami. This is...

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:50:50 -0600

An endless stream of Caruso one-liners from CSI: Miami. This is unbelievable. Note the sunglasses maneuver—classic.

Amen. dealbreaker: GUESTBREAKER: You’re “Spiritual, But Not...

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:18:02 -0600

Amen.

dealbreaker:

GUESTBREAKER: You’re “Spiritual, But Not Religious.”

Because there’s a difference?

You laugh disdainfully at Christians and Mormons and anyone into “the whole Jesus thing”, but give me a stone-faced look when I dare to suggest that anyone who believes in pagan-hippie-witch doctor-God is just as bad. Then you go off about how you “revere life” with an almost religious zeal, you blame a hostile situation as “too much bad energy in here, man” and you entertain notions that when we die, there’s anything but the calm, non-conscious indifference of being at rest in the universe. You probably have a tattoo of a Chinese or Sanskrit character for “love” or “wisdom” or “faith” or some b.s., but only in Chinese or Sanskrit because, hey, “those Easterners are so much more in touch with spirituality than us.” You roll your eyes when I bring up Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens because they’re just cold-hearted assholes who don’t respect others’ beliefs. You tell me I need a little more “magic” in my life. Oh yeah, and you cry when I suggest the only thing that comes from the heart is a whole lot of blood-pumpin’, and that love, like it or not, still emanates from the brain. “My GOD,” you finally cry out, ”what is WRONG with you?”

Face it, either you’re a believer or you’re not, and one belief is no better, or kookier, than the rest.

A Guest Dealbreaker written by Casimir.

If they had Facebook in Star Wars. There’s more here.

Sat, 01 May 2010 23:40:16 -0600

If they had Facebook in Star Wars. There’s more here.

Stunning. Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano (via...

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:22:00 -0600

Stunning. Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano

(via Astronomy Photo of the Day)

FINALLY: The Difference between Nerd, Dork, and Geek Explained...

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:02:00 -0600

FINALLY: The Difference between Nerd, Dork, and Geek Explained by a Venn Diagram

(via Great White Snark)

Brilliant. dodgethewater: tothebarricades: Jeff Bridges,...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:10:15 -0700

Brilliant.

dodgethewater:

tothebarricades:

Jeff Bridges, everybody.

Even I am mildly uncomfortable with this picture.

Me Crush Middle-Class Tax Hike

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:53:32 -0700

Me Crush Middle-Class Tax Hike:

I worked for ten years in political communications, and this satirical op-ed in The Onion by “Senator Gronk” parodies what I did every day absolutely perfectly: ”Raaaah! Gronk hate H.R. 3712, the Income And Property Tax Reassessment Act! Senator Gronk crush middle-class tax hike!”

Comparing airline routes to internet traffic: Comparing maps of...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:22:25 -0700

Comparing airline routes to internet traffic:

Comparing maps of communication past and present reveals parallel patterns. The upper image shows the movement of passengers on airplanes across the United States; the lower one, the flow of bits across the Internet. “It is the largest thing we have ever built,” says Whitesides, “and we have assembled it from transistors—the smallest things we know how to make. It is a chrysalis we are forming around the planet…a table where we sit to gossip, a suq where we buy and sell; a shadowy corner for planning mischief; a library holding the entire world’s information; a friend, a game, a matchmaker, a psychiatrist, an erotic dream, a babysitter, a teacher, a spy….The best and worst and most ordinary of us reflected—and perhaps distorted—in a silvery fog of bits.”

Photo

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:59:31 -0700

Sunglasses over sunglasses. Brilliant. Gotta love CSI Miami.

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:11:35 -0700

Sunglasses over sunglasses. Brilliant. Gotta love CSI Miami.

My mom ROCKS.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:34:00 -0700

My mom ROCKS.

British Courts: Faith is Faith

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:22:01 -0700

British courts have just equated deeply held beliefs about the environment to deeply held religious beliefs. Is this progress towards enlarging region’s role in the public sphere? From The Economist:

“A BELIEF in man-made climate change and the alleged resulting moral imperatives is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations.” Those were the words of an English High Court judge, Mr Justice Burton, on November 3rd as he ruled that green beliefs deserve the same protection in the workplace as religious convictions.
…
At an earlier hearing on October 7th, Mr Justice Burton had asserted that “if a person can establish that he holds a philosophical belief which is based on science as opposed, for example, to religion, then there is no reason to disqualify it from protection”. He provided a five-pronged test to shore up the ruling: the belief must be genuinely held; it must be held for a long period of time; it must relate to something of grave importance to humanity; it must reach a certain level of cogency and seriousness; and it must not trample on existing ideas of human rights. By way of example, he said belief in the supremacy of the Jedi knights of “Star Wars” fame would be excluded, but he conceded that allegiance to the doctrines of Marxism or communism might not.

What’s with the British hatin’ on the Jedi?

"The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:21:13 -0700

“The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets.”

- Philip Berrigan (via Sojourners)

This really, really bothers me. From The Economist: A quarter...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:21:34 -0600

This really, really bothers me. From The Economist:

A quarter of America’s total income is earned by the top 1%

AMERICA is the wealthiest country in the world and its rich keep earning more. In 2007, the latest year for which data are available, the top 1% increased their share of the country’s income to 23.5%, according to analysis of tax returns by a pair of economists, Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty. The concentration of income earned by this top percentile now stands at its highest since 1928 [right before the great depression -JKB]. Two-thirds of the country’s total gains in the five years to 2007 accrued to the top 1%, whereas the bottom 90th percentile saw only 12% of the extra income.

C’est tres bien! Oui oui! Sometimes, it’s just...

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:03:05 -0600

C’est tres bien! Oui oui! Sometimes, it’s just better when it’s French.

(via @loic)