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POPSPolar Bear Melodrama The greatest danger is that this ruling will be distorted by the courts, where it is inevitably headed. On the other hand, not listing the polar bear would have proceeded to litigation too, with potentially worse consequences. Climate-change lawsuits have already deformed the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and others. The most pernicious element in the polar bear melodrama is the way the law is being run off the rails, and even a duly elected White House can't seem to throw on the brakes. If Congress wants to enact global-warming legislation, then so be it – but the costs and benefits should be argued in the open. This fly-by-night policy making is not only unscientific. It's undemocratic.
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POPSTruth vs Sincerity Quote from the 1961 Iris Murdoch essay, "Against Dryness," which is about varieties of fiction but includes this provocative philosophical assertion.
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POPSNature's University In this day and age, man can never learn life, the majority of man lives in a concrete jungle, with most living a life without ever leaving the jungle they grew up in. Cougar
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POPSIn Honor of Gary Larson I have a theory that most people who like animals fall into one of two categories, based on the nature of their interest. The first are the Jane Goodall types, who enjoy animals for their peaceful habits, for their gentleness, for their intelligence, and whatnot. I can respect that. Then there are those of us who grew up reading Gary Larson's Far Side. We have a very...specialized interest in animals. This quote, relating to the Duck Billed Platypus and courtesy of www.cracked.com perfectly illustrates my philosophical interest in animals of the platypus's timber. It is small. It is seemingly made up of nature's spare parts. It is still, nonetheless, capable of crippling you. Have a nice day, bipeds.
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POPSThe Enlightenment and dogmatism of the mediaeval and the awakening of modernity. Medieval philosophy combined Christian beliefs with the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. In the medieval world philosophers respected their predecessors and accepted their methods. If a new discovery about nature contradicted one of Aristotle's principles, for example, it would probably have been assumed that it was the discovery that was in error. Enlightenment thinkers were not content to accept appeals to Aristotle's authority. It could be seen that using experimental methods science was progressing and increasing our understanding of nature, which could not have been done without rejecting some of Aristotle's assumptions. It was not only Aristotle that was being questioned, using reason and logic philosophers criticised political and religious ideas. What rational answer is there for the justification of monarchy or that you should choose one type of religion over another?
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POPSNew twist to matter-antimatter mystery Here is an "almost breakthrough" A major mystery of modern physics is why normal matter particles are the building blocks of the observable universe. Why are we not made of antimatter? Or pure energy? Scientists speculate that a tiny imbalance in the early universe allowed a small fraction of normal matter – one particle for every one billion – to avoid annihilation and survive to form stars, planets, and humans. When we come to know that we don't know, there is a new place for hope...
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