Archive for the ‘Big Questions’ Category
Speak up (or shut up) to defend a friend?
I’ve had occasion to reflect on this, one of my habits/traits/addictions: Speaking up for my friends. And, having thought about it: Yup — I’d do it every time. It’s almost involuntary. (Asperger’s?) I’d hope (but not expect) my friends to do the same for me. There’s another aspect, too: A friend of mine was approached by […]
Doctrinaire aggression vs physical aggression
Wole Soyinka: On origins of religious strife… In Mr. Soyinka’s view, the origins of the current phase of the world’s religious strife—including all of the bloodshed in Nigeria—lie with Ayatollah Khomeini and his fatwa against Salman Rushdie, in 1989. “It all began when he assumed the power of life and death over the life of […]
Social media as high school reunion
What they didn’t know, and never could’ve predicted, was that the Web would also transform itself into an enormous, never-ending high school reunion (See also: hell). … Let’s see, so the digital revolution led us all to this: a gigantic, commercial, high school reunion/mall filthy with insipid tabloid trivia, populated by perpetually distracted, texting, tweeting […]
Google grows some
“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn” A new approach to China 1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from […]
Cosmos
I post this as a response to some of the wonderful imagery of the cosmos contained in Chowbok’s post on death: Beyond the planets — the blackness is not an empty void — but a sea of trillions and trillions of cosmic particles bouncing and playing their special dance across the expanse of time. Lit […]
How bloody awful
Bob Drogin in the LA Times wrote a ghastly true crime story about the [alleged] murder of a scientist who suffered from panic attacks and paranoia. Whatever the opposite of edifying is, this story is that. Nasty. It’s bad to know such cold people walk the streets. Read it here, if you want. (You have […]
A Hospital Story
There was a woman who was dying in a hospital; a double organ transplant gone wrong. Six months now her body had wasted away. Eighty pounds in weight now and her entire lifetime allotment of anti-rejection shock-drug therapy used up. After four exploratory surgeries to untangle this and untie that, everybody was at a loss. […]
Rising ape or fallen angel? – Terry Pratchett on religion
A nice answer to a straight question about his belief in god(s)… ‘I’d rather be a rising ape than a fallen angel’ Watch the 8 minute video at guardian.co.uk
Cor!
Anyone who ever felt intimidated by a border crossing can be thankful they didn’t get this treatment. Lily Sussman’s story interests me for two reasons beyond the Midnight Express/travel horror story aspects. 1) Wow! The hard drive still works! 2) Look at the discussion on Lily Sussman’s blog about the Israel/Occupied Palestine issue. It gets […]
I hope this site was helpful
A search string someone used recently to find their way to ThePaepae.com: “How many times should I turn a blind eye to dodgy practices before I blow the whistle?” Great question! I hope you found something on this site that was helpful.
The overblown role of religion in conflict
I heard a good radio interview today: Radio NZ’s Kathryn Ryan interviewing Rabbi David Rosen — a conversation which opened with the question whether the long running Israel/Palestine conflict is in any way a religious issue. In essence certainly not. It’s a territorial conflict … a conflict between two national liberation movements: The Jewish national […]
The place of questions
I’ve been up to my ears in the physical universe (in a good way, mostly) and just spent the last few days pulling together the course notes for an annual Market Update event. Really good notes. What stands out for me is the wisdom that experience teaches. I don’t mean to say that in a […]
Mobile phone bad, GPS good
NZ lawmakers, after much delay and prevarication, and following leads from Australia, the US and others, have instituted a law banning the use of a hand-held cellphone (by the driver) while driving. From 1 November, it’s illegal to use a mobile phone for calls, text or email/web … even while stopped at traffic lights.* See […]
“it’s no surprise that no one wants to be known as a cult”
A bit of local content… Destiny Church ‘sons’ swear oath of loyalty — NZ Herald Meanwhile in the US: Follow up article on Paul Haggis’ defection from Scientology (politicsdaily.com) When the Haggis letter emerged, Davis responded quickly and strenuously, telling the Associated Press that the church does not mandate “disconnection” for anyone and that such […]
