Tag: culture

A breathtaking view of the Apollo 15 landing site

2:03 pm

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team has released a wide angle side view image of the Apollo 15 landing site, showing the lunar module and the areas around Hadley Rille and the Apennine Mountain range that the astronauts explored using their lunar jeep. Below is a cropped close-up, showing the landing site near the top of the image with Hadley Rille near the bottom. Below the fold is a second image showing a wider view that includes the Apennine mountain slope that the astronauts drove their rover up.

Close up of Hadley Rille and Apollo 15 landing site

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The Alarming Significance of Culture

11:04 pm

The alarming significance of culture.

During a recent conversation with a close Jewish friend I asked him what he thought separated Jews from most other ethnic groups. I was expecting him to talk about how a shared history of oppression had strengthened Jews and brought them closer together. But his answer was both surprising and controversial. “Unlike gentiles, especially Christians,” he said, “Jews do not believe in an after life as such. There is no God up there dictating your lot in life. We don’t believe the meek shall inherit the earth. We truly believe in the power of an individual’s free will, guided of course by right principles.” [emphasis mine]

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It’s the coverup, not the crime

10:39 am

A new Rasmussen poll finds that 69% of the public now believe that climate scientists falsified data to support their own theories about global warming. Moreover, these numbers are up ten points since December 2009, which happens to be just after the climategate emails were released.

These terrible numbers are further evidence that the willingness of the scientific community to whitewash their investigations of the climategate scientists, what I consider to be the equivalent of a community-wide cover-up, has done serious harm to science and its reputation.
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A new study finds that just looking at the American flag makes one more prone to support the Republican Party

8:26 pm

A new study finds that just looking at the American flag makes one more prone to support the Republican party.

I have doubts about these results. Nonetheless, the research does sort of confirm the earlier study from Harvard that suggested that patriotism and celebrating the Fourth of July tended to make people favor the Republican party over the Democratic party. In both cases, these results really tell us a great deal about the perception people have of both parties. It is not hard for people to imagine modern Democrats as almost being hostile to America and its founding principles.

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Rosie O’Donnell thinks John Edwards has suffered more than his wife

8:13 pm

From Ace of Spades: Rosie O’Donnell thinks John Edwards was the victim, not his wife, even though he cheated on her while she was dying from cancer, and she has now died from that long illness. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? How could anyone with any reasonable sense of right and wrong believe that? Read her words (audio available at the link):

He’s in his time of grief, and believe me, I think the person who probably has suffered the most through all of this is him, and there are people who would disagree with me and say, ‘No, it was her, she was the one who was publicly humiliated,’ and blah blah blah blah blah. I just think he has to live with himself every day. Not only survivor’s guilt, but you know? He, I’m sure, has guilt, right? Look, you know, she was in remission, this happened, she got sick again. I don’t know, I’m sure that it’s very hard for him to live with himself and to have to deal with the public condemnation…

In other words, O’Donnell doesn’t have a reasonable sense of right and wrong, which makes her opinions on any issue completely irrelevant, if not damaging to our society.

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Earliest Kodak color tests

8:03 pm

An evening pause: Though this sequence of shots from a 1922 Kodak test of Kodachrome film (possibly the earliest in existence) is hardly the stuff of drama, it is fascinating nonetheless, as it gives as an honest glimpse into the culture of its time. As you watch the different women pose for the camera, ask yourself: Has anything changed?

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Ray Bradbury tells it like it is

10:48 pm

In this Los Angeles Times profile just before his 90th birthday on August 22, Ray Bradbury tells it like it is. Some key quotes:

We should never have left [the Moon]. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever.

I think our country is in need of a revolution. There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.

We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.

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