See Astronomers Reveal a Cosmic ‘Axis of Evil’ to learn: Astronomers are puzzled by the announcement that the masses of the largest objects in the universe appear to depend on which method is used to weigh them. … Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe containing thousands of galaxies like … [Read more…]
Are conspiracies self-organizing, at least in part? In general: yes. There is no centrally-controlled conspiracy run by Satanic servants or omnipotent bureaucrats. There are networks of those who inherited wealth and power and those networks are sometimes refreshed by new blood of the ambitious and talented. There are also tightly organized operations with a specific … [Read more…]
I’ve just finished reading Norman F. Cantor’s Medieval History: The Life and Death of a Civilization and the ending pages on the decay of the High Middle Ages brought a few ideas into focus. He spoke of the destruction of the Thomistic “cathedral” of thought by the Franciscan radicals, perhaps outright heretics, led by Duns … [Read more…]
I shudder a bit at the results of the study discussed in Breaking Rules Makes You Seem Powerful. We learn: What happens when people interact with a rule breaker? Van Kleef and colleagues had people come to the lab, and interact with a rule follower and a rule breaker. The rule follower was polite and … [Read more…]
This is a very important line of thought and research which underlies this short article: The Ties That Bind: Grandparents and Their Grandchildren. Knowing that research in traditional societies in the undeveloped world had shown that children’s health and longevity were improved greatly when they were under the care or supplemental care of grandparents — … [Read more…]
I’ve recently reread Kenneth Minogue’s The Liberal Mind and might be publishing some articles over the next few weeks on thoughts that book raised. For now, I’ve got to address the question in the title, “What is politics?” from the viewpoint of my effort to enrich and expand our understanding of the Body of Christ … [Read more…]
In The Liberal Mind, Kenneth Minogue speaks of misguided political and social reformers in the line of modern liberal thought: How many visionaries have unwittingly prepared a hell on earth because their gaze was stubbornly fixed on heaven? And when hell comes — well, there is always some ad hoc theory of sinister interests or … [Read more…]
I speak of my own mind moving in and out of active formation. I’ve reached a point where I wish to deal with issues that I can’t wrap my mind around. And, so, I’m trying to expand and reshape my mind in the appropriate ways, acquiring more of the contents which will become the container … [Read more…]
John Hawks, prominent anthropologist and leader of the Neandertal Anti-defamation League, made some interesting comments in reviewing the article Language processing in the occipital cortex of congenitally blind adults, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(Early online) by Marina Bedny, et al. See John Hawks Weblog for his review, Language bootstrapping the … [Read more…]
On Tuesday, 2010/11/09, I posted an article Engaging the Thought of Pope Benedict: The Promise and Comedy of Modernity commenting on a talk he gave while in Spain to consecrate the basilica of the Sagrada FamÃlia in Barcelona, though I mistakenly implied it was in Santiago de Compostela which was his other stop. (I made … [Read more…]