What - The Way Things Are

Scientist Praises Alternative Therapies

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:00:00 -0400

A dubious scientist has conducted an in-depth study of alternative therapies and deduced - to her surprise - that they are not merely mumbo jumbo. Kathy Sykes said that she had previously been cautious about using alternative therapies. She explains, "I would rather put my faith in conventional medicine, which has been put through...

Pruning the Tree of Science

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:26:00 -0400

by Chet Raymo

Scientific knowledge grows organically, like a tree. Every piece of published research is like a new bud on a twig. The bud is connected to every other bud on the tree. Two buds may be very close together, on the same twig, or very far apart, so that to trace the connection one would...

Religion 2.0

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:21:00 -0400

When I first heard about "Web 2.0" I thought that maybe the countries of the world were going to shut down the Internet and reboot into a newer more fantastic version of the Internet. I didn't realize until much later that it was an evolution of the web in general. It actually wasn't until I heard the term "Web 3.0"...

Fairy Work

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:35:00 -0400

Yesterday I pulled the yellow flowers off the few dandelions in our grassy garden before they went to seed. Today, a few more yellow flowers. I'm always astonished that a dandelion can make a flower overnight.

How Corporations, Robots and God Deal with Emotional Problems

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:03:00 -0400

Remember in 2001 A Space Odyssey when Hal goes nuts? If you don't, just think back to the expression What are you doing, Dave? to conjure images a psychopathic machine going after someone. Or on the cinematic flip-side, what about darling little Pinocchio who yearned to be a real boy in spite of his wooden pre-disposition? These tales offer...

Global Warming? Pffft! Try sunspots!

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:49:00 -0400

Sunspots are not just interesting science experiments and footnotes to the anatomy of our star, but they could actually have a direct impact on the Earth's climate. According to some scientists, we are long overdo for a storm of sunspots. Usually these things happen in cycles and as it happens the sun has been far too quiet for the comfort...

A Pantheist's Manifesto

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:22:00 -0400

Pantheism is the belief that everything is divine, that God is not seperate but totaly indentified with the Cosmos. It is a doctrine that holds God exists not as a person or personality; but is manifested in the material cosmos, including man and every other natural object. It further refutes the potential of transcendence and super-natural...

Do You Mind?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:18:00 -0400

It�s hard to talk about the mind as if it were something that could be analyzed or described. We try and do that a lot in philosophy, religion, science, politics, psychology and psychiatry. Some people are paid a whole lot more than I am to be an expert on the inner workings of the...

I own this. And that. And YOU!

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:37:00 -0400

I have a piece of paper that asserts I own a small condominium in a pleasant part of Denver Colorado. I own this because I paid through the nose. Well . . . truthfully, I borrowed money from a bank who paid through the nose and I am in the multi-decade process of paying that bank back. In any event, I, for all intents and purposes own the...

Good, Good, Good, Good Vibrations

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:33:00 -0400

How many times have you said, �She gave me a bad vibe.� Or, �I dunno, the place just had a good vibe.�