REPUBLICANS VOTE THERE'S NO GLOBAL WARMING

from Scientific American: 

Congress has finally acted on global warming—by denying it exists. It’s in the grand lawmaking tradition of the Indiana state legislature’s 1897 attempt to redefine the value of pi. 

The Republican-led House of Representatives is currently working on the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, which would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide emissions to mitigate climate change.

In the House Energy and Commerce Committee, California Democrat Henry Waxman had proposed an amendment calling on Congress to at least acknowledge that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” just as abundant scientific evidence confirms.

But on Tuesday, March 15, all the committee’s Republicans voted down that amendment, as well as two others acknowledging the threat of climate change to public well-being. Rep. Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts, had this to say:

“I rise in opposition to a bill that repeals the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet. However, I won’t rise physically, because I’m worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating.”

—John Rennie

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=house-repubs-vote-that-earth-is-not-11-03-16

THE DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE....

• From the World Science Festival, 2011: For all we understand about the universe, 96% of what’s out there still has scientists in the dark. Astronomical observations have established that familiar matter—atoms—accounts for only 4% of the weight of the cosmos. The rest—dark matter and dark energy—is invisible to our telescopes. But what really is this dark stuff? How do we know it’s there? And what does it do? From the formation of galaxies to the farthest reaches of space, it appears that darkness rules. Without dark matter and dark energy, the universe today and in the far future would be a completely different place. Join us in a discussion with leading researchers who smash together particles, dive into underground mines, and explore the edges of the known universe in search of clues to nature’s dark side....."

http://worldsciencefestival.com/events/the_dark_side_of_the_universe 


And some Jungians might muse -- dark and matter = the Feminine, as in: 
Lilith-The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine 
Siegmund Hurwitz   

The Chestnut Tree at Schumacher College, in Devon

schumachercollege.org.uk

Tax breaks to Exxon, Chevron, et al

@judithaspharjude asphar

The time has come! Tell Congress to end the $4 billion a year in handouts to oil companies: http://bit.ly/dURT2s@CREDOMobile

A Wood Anemone --Anemone quinquefolia

A counterfoil. To too many negative reflections of humanity's doings.

An uncommon, iridescent purple anemone -- all of half an inch wide. Not a cinquefoil but septfoil?

Just picked. Only one.

Holy.

Kiltering Our Off Kilter Brains!

For me, the gleanings here reflect how our society -- dominated by the left, generally 'Masculine' (though not exclusive to men) hemisphere of the brain at the cost of the right, generally 'Feminine', (though not exclusive to women) -- is what perpetuates our world out of balance.  And if we keep going this way, we'll end up where we're headed.


Our life-support system -- this planet -- is in peril. Our skewed priorities compound economic, political, social, religious, and environmental instability. So much boils down to a left hemisphere dominance that discounts most anything that cannot be measured. We can't easily measure the elements of the natural world that creates and sustains our existence. Nor have we been able to measure the most worthwhile qualities of human nature that truth be told, we long for the most: kindness; caring; acceptance; affection; generosity; understanding; forgiveness; compassion, companionship. Except now, thanks to neuroscience the impact of Love -- or it's lack -- is pretty much measurable in the neural pathways of the brain.


For more understanding of many of the enormously complex (yet simple) roots of our nature,  see Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. www.iainmcgilchrist.com. And Dan Siegel's Mindsight -- http://drdansiegel.com/ And Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself http://www.normandoidge.com

A time of deceit?

"In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

The rich get richer and the......

Comparisons -- corporate CEO vs lowest paid worker (http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060621/) 
CEO to minimum wage earner ratio (http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060627/) 


CEO's made 51 times the minimum wage earner in 1965, and 821 times the minimum wage earner in 2006.