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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

This is true by definition. Religion is based on faith, not reason. If it were provable, it would be science.

In most cases, I don’t have anything against this.  People who believe they’re going to see their grandparents in heaven are not causing any real problems.

Exceptions:

Religion taught in schools as science, e.g., creationism.

Violence inflicted in the name of religion, examples of which are too numerous to mention.

Fanaticism that results in stupidity, e.g., evangelical Christians for Trump.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The meme here reminds me of a thought I had during my first (and only) course on the subject:

There’s no guarantee that the human mind evolved so as to make sense of the universe, and it appears that, in fact, it did not.  We’re used to dealing with things around us that we can see and touch, like spears, rocks, and bodies of water.  To say that two particles on opposite sides of the universe affect one another instantaneously is so completely counter-intuitive that trying to figure this stuff out might just be folly.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability
Is it possible to make paper products from recycled stone?  Of course.  We have the technology at this point to do all kinds of things never dreamed of before.
We can gather up distributor caps from old Fords and reprocess them into paper, and, while this will “save a tree,” it’s a fabulously stupid idea.
Karst Paper Goods advertises : (Our paper, shown at left ) is made from recycled stone, completely removing the conventional need for wood in paper manufacturing. No trees, no acids, no water and no waste.  (It’s) more durable, more sustainable, and infinitely smoother to write, scribble, doodle or draw on.
Are we concerned that our current paper is too rough or uneven to “write, scribble, doodle or draw on?”
Are we aware that, in the digital age, paper is becoming increasingly less relevant?
There are paths toward sustainability, but this, to be sure, isn’t one.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m surprised to see this pabulum from George Clooney.  It’s not incorrect, but it’s an extremely bland statement as to what’s going on here.

All U.S. elections are about progressives, who, by definition, want to move our country forward, and conservatives who want to move the country back to an earlier time. Look at Barry Goldwater vs. Lyndon  Johnson, or G.W. Bush vs. Al Gore, or any of the others.

What makes this election unique is that one of its two candidates is clearly a criminal sociopath.  We’ve heard what he said about exacting revenge against his political enemies.  We’ve all read the indictments against him, and seen that multiple grand juries have found solid evidence that he tried to overthrow the U.S. federal government.  There’s not much doubt as to what’s going to happen to American democracy if he’s re-elected.

America finds itself at a truly momentous point in time, and it has little to do with the usual issues of liberal and conservative.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

We’ve been having this discussion for at least 100 years.  How is it possible that two siblings with essentially the same DNA and the same home environment can be such different people?

In the 18th Century, British philosopher John Locke proposed his theory of tabula rasa, “blank slate,” suggesting that, when we’re born into this world, we bring with us exactly zero in terms of what will later become our unique selves. Few if any of us believe that today.

But what precisely do we believe?

Spiritualists assert that each individual has its own “basic personality,” perhaps deriving from our past lives.

Biologists who specialize in this arena are investigating epigenetics, the concept that we have genetic information that causes elements of our genome to either be expressed or not.

Many questions remain.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The point being made here is a good one.  Moreover, the 40% (or whatever the exact number is) largely consider themselves the most astute observers within our population.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The chart below provides letter grades for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with respect to the physical safety of the LGBTQ community.

Sorry to see my home state (Pennsylvania) with a D.  But, as they say, “Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Not sure how impressed Goethe would be with present-day U.S. politics.

We grow ignorance as if it’s corn; we cultivate it like we would a clone of a fabulous pinot noir; we nurture it as if it were a newborn baby.

And the reason is simple.  Big Money doesn’t gain a nickel from the presence of a more sophisticated, more informed, better educated populace.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Aldous Huxley is not the only author/philosopher to warn our society not to avoid dealing with whatever harsh truths we may encounter.

To what does this concept best apply in today’s world?  Well, for one, our educational standards continue to decline, because we’re unwilling to invest in more and better teachers.  In turn, this causes an electorate that is easily fooled by liars, and generations of people who are ill-equipped in the global marketplace.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Newsweek’s article on the low level of ethics within the U.S. Supreme Court begins:

In his upcoming memoir, retired Judge David S. Tatel wrote that he stepped down from his position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit due to the U.S. Supreme Court‘s “low regard” for judicial principles, according to a Friday report by The Washington Post.

Though it seems that our country’s abandoning its integrity happened entirely in the last 10 years, that can’t possibly be the case.  Clarence Thomas is the oldest and longest standing justice. Do you think he went bad just a few months ago?

Scandals in corporate America, e.g., Wells Fargo’s choice to defraud millions of its clients, Enron, Bernie Madoff, and the dozens of banksters associated with the sub-prime loan collapse, go back many decades.  In fact, the Wikipedia page on the subject lists the collapse of the Medici Bank in the 15th Century as an early example of malfeasance.

All that said, there is no doubt that the Trump phenomenon has brought about an avalanche of dishonesty, just in the last few years, given that the president himself is a convicted felon, and feels precisely zero remorse for his criminal actions.

 

 

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