In the Appendixes to The Lord of the Rings, we learn that the Rohanians came from the north at a critical point to assist Gondor in one of its wars. Out of gratitude, Gondor gave them a stretch of its territory […]
Nature
The Anthropocene is 50,000 Year Old
Here is a story about how there is supposedly a new bio-geological age now replacing the so called Holocene. But if ‘Anthropocene‘ means a period when human activity has drastically altered nature, it began 50,000 years ago, when the first humans […]
“Shared Intentionality” and its Implications
The ‘developmental and comparative psychologist’ Michael Tomasello, an American who now works at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, has come up with a concept called “shared intentionality” as a mark that separates humans from chimpanzees and bonobos [asserted in […]
Pansies
Why are pansies associated with unmanliness and deviation from heteronormativity? They are some of the hardiest flowers there are. When I took this picture the temperature in Washington D.C. had risen to a high of 34F (1C) and they have […]
California, Sea Otters, and the Russians
Interestingly enough, the reason that sea otters remain a threatened species even today is because the Russians, when they occupied the Fort Ross enclave from 1812 to 1841, they nearly exterminated them. In response to: “End of ‘no otter’ zone […]
Civilian Conservation Corps
This story about troubled teens being exposed to nature reminds me that while there was a lot to dislike about Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps got lots of young people out into the natural world doing […]
Exotic Maine
Recently my wife and I had the pleasure of going as far as you can from California and still be in the lower 48 states. Maine is at the northeast corner of the country. It is our easternmost state and […]
Jesus’ Theology of Earthquakes
It has been more than a week since the Easter Sunday Mexicali earthquake, but better late than never. Many of us have thought, or, frankly, even hoped, that natural calamities would mainly fall on sinners. A famous verse came out […]
A Theology of Earthquakes and Culture
After the Haiti earthquake, Pat Robertson declared that the earthquake was punishment for Haiti’s voodoo culture. How does he know? And is it any of his business? Pronouncements of this sort, I believe, fall into the category of “taking the […]