religion and spirituality, culture, academics: Post Easter … really enjoyed this article.
To bring a little scientific order to the matter, researchers taking part in a multinational project called Explaining Religion have spent three years gathering data on various aspects of religious practice and on the sorts of moral behaviour that religions often claim to govern. The data-collection phase was wrapped up at the end of 2010, and the results are starting to be published.
At the moment, most students of the field would agree that they are still in the “stamp collecting” phase that begins many a new science—in which facts are accumulated without it being clear where any of them fit in. But some intriguing patterns are already beginning to emerge. In particular, the project’s researchers have studied the ideas of just deserts, of divine disapproval and of the nature of religious ritual.
One theory of the origin of religion is that it underpins the extraordinary capacity for collaboration that led to the rise of Homo sapiens. A feature of many religions is the idea that evil is divinely punished and virtue is rewarded. Cheats or the greedy, in other words, get their just deserts. The selflessness which that belief encourages might help explain religion’s evolution. But is the idea of universal just deserts truly instinctive, as this interpretation suggests it should be?
culture, parenting, daughters, teenagers, kith/kin: It is hard enough once they hit 15 or so … but at 7-12 … come on parents, do the right thing. I took it as a very nice compliment when a friend who saw a picture of my daughter and said, “…good skin to dress ratio, Mom!!! My friends with girls say that is the hardest part about prom, finding a dress with the right ratio:)” Thanks, Susra.
Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see all right. … I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she’s not even in middle school yet.
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In 2007, the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls issued a report linking early sexualization with three of the most common mental-health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. There’s nothing inherently wrong with parents wanting to appease their daughters by buying them the latest fashions. But is getting cool points today worth the harm dressing little girls like prostitutes could cause tomorrow?
A line needs to be drawn, but not by Abercrombie. Not by Britney Spears. And not by these little girls who don’t know better and desperately need their parents to be parents and not 40-year-old BFFs.
parenting, bullying, culture: Again, parents need to take their job seriously. There is no excuse for bullying in the early years. Parents must take responsibility.
Katie is donating many of the books and toys to other kids.
A fan created a Facebook event suggesting that people wear “Star Wars” gear on December 10 to support Katie. The Goldmans also asked participants to donate Star Wars toys to charities for the holidays. About 20,000 people have signed up.
“What strikes me is how these individuals who were once so isolated are now part of a very tight community,” Goldman wrote on her blog this month. “They have found each other; they are plugged into each other, and they have each other’s backs. Now they have Katie’s back, too.”
Katie isn’t doing any more interviews. There are scales to practice, Spanish words to memorize, baby sisters to play with. She still has to wear the dreaded eye patch, and eat lunch with the kids in her class. She is very busy being 7.
But on December 10, her school will host Proud To Be Me Day. Kids will be encouraged to wear something that shows what they’re interested in, whether it’s princesses, sports, animals and anime.
Katie will have the force of thousands behind her, and a “Star Wars” water bottle.
public spaces, places, NYC: I think I may just take the night megabus to NYC and spend the day … any body want to go?
The great outdoors calls, and even without counting Central Park, there’s a great deal of it in New York City. There are more than 1,700 parks in the five boroughs, according to the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation. (Though with the 0.04 acre Septuagesimo Uno Park, on 71st Street between West End and Amsterdam Avenues, on that list, it’s a number best taken with a grain of asphalt.) Here, a baker’s dozen’s worth of sites to enjoy the warm weather, when it arrives.
culture, Benjamin Franklin, Jane Mecom (Benjamin Franklin’s sister), history: Never knew old Ben had a sister … interesting story.
That world was changing. In 1789, Boston for the first time, allowed girls to attend public schools. The fertility rate began declining. The American Revolution made possible a new world, a world of fewer obstacles, a world with a promise of equality. That required — and still requires — sympathy.
Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia in 1790, at the age of 84. In his will, he left Jane the house in which she lived. And then he made another bequest, more lasting: he gave one hundred pounds to the public schools of Boston.
Jane Mecom died in that house in 1794. Later, during a political moment much like this one, when American politics was animated by self-serving invocations of the founders, her house was demolished to make room for a memorial to Paul Revere.
college life, UVA, fraternities: This story is troubling … but the solution proposed is too broad.
I had a miserable semester back at home, working in a department store and looking for somewhere else to go to school. But the truth was that I wanted to go to Virginia. I went back in the spring, and while few things have had as a profound an effect on my life as my UVA education, my deep mistrust of the fraternities limited the ways I engaged in life on campus and almost robbed me of the education itself.
If you want to improve women’s lives on campus, if you want to give them a fair shot at living and learning as freely as men, the first thing you could do is close down the fraternities. The Yale complaint may finally do what no amount of female outrage and violation has accomplished. It just might shut them down for good.
via Shutter Fraternities for Young Women’s Good | Home Land – WSJ.com.
Easter basket/candy, Peeps, Peep Show, Chilean Miner Rescue: Another Peep contest!
This year’s winning diorama, which depicts the dramatic rescue of 33 mine workers in Copiapo, Chile, last October, is the work of Mary Jo Ondrejka from Reston; Bryn Metzdorf from Fairfax; and Margaret Hartka from Parkton, Md. A Peep version of miner Ariel Ticona meets his newborn daughter for the first time, while Peep Johnny Barrios Rojas is greeted by both his wife and mistress.
hobbies, needlepoint, kith/kin: My grandmother did needlepoint and I love every piece of work she did. It is a beautiful art.
It wasn’t long ago that the word “needlepoint” conjured up thoughts of dusty cushions with fusty florals. But in recent years, thanks to a handful of retailers, designers and enthusiasts, the craft has become cool again.
via It’s not your grandmother’s needlepoint – The Washington Post.
science, physics, “God particle”: Wow …
The world’s largest atom smasher is rumoured to have found the Higgs boson, the subatomic particle otherwise known as the ‘God particle’.
The speculation is based on a leaked internal note, said to be from physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17 mile-long particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland.
The rumours started when an anonymous post disclosed part of the note on Columbia University mathematician Peter Woit’s blog, Not Even Wrong.
Awestruck: An amateur photographer takes a picture during an open day at the 17 mile-long LHC atom smasher in Switzerland
While some physicists are dismissing the note as a hoax, others say the find could be a huge particle physics breakthrough in understanding the workings of the universe.
Physicist Sheldon Stone of Syracuse University said: ‘If it were to be real, it would be really exciting.’
More…
The genius who shrank the globe: Why after 70 years we should celebrate jet engine inventor Frank Whittle
The Higgs boson is predicted to exist by the particle physics theory known as the Standard Model. The Higgs boson, physicists believe, bestows mass on all the other particles and was crucial to forming the cosmos after the Big Bang.
via Science world buzzing over rumours elusive ‘God particle’ has been found | Mail Online.
Middle East Awakening, oil crisis, Chicago: $4.27 in Chicago …
Chicago at top as gas prices jump
The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped about 12 cents over the past two weeks, and Chicagoans are paying the highest average price in the country. The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices puts the average price for a gallon of regular at $3.88, as of April 22. Chicago had the highest average price for gas at $4.27.
via Chicago Tribune: Chicago news, sports, weather and traffic – chicagotribune.com.
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