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Sunday, May 14, 2006
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Go bananas while you still can. The world's most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.
(Via Newsvine - science.)
5:38:07 PM 
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 "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
-- Patrick Henry, 1775
Americans must now tap into their inner Patrick Henry. A radical among revolutionaries who opposed the U.S. Constitution for giving government too much power, the fiery Virginian would probably set himself on fire today. The government spies on people, lies about it, and, when caught in the act, refuses to give security clearances to the investigators.
If we believe the dubious claim that terrorist threats justify sweeping surveillance without any checks and balances then, in a different context, we have truly come to the ultimate choice that Henry posed: Are we prepared to die for liberty? Not in battle against foreign occupiers, but as a possible consequence of preventing our own government from spying on us? My answer is Yes: If losing freedom be the price of safety, then safety be damned.
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(Via crawfordslist.)
3:21:21 PM
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Oh no!
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- The upcoming third season of HBO's Deadwood might mark the end of the dark Western.
The pay cable network has opted not to pick up the options of the actors on the show, releasing them to pursue other projects.
Deadwood creator David Milch is shifting his attention to "John From Cincinnati," a one-hour project he is writing for HBO. The surfing-themed drama has been ordered as a pilot, subject to finalizing deals on the financial and talent side.
Damn!
(Via Say Anything.)
2:57:40 PM
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It seems a few professors at Patrick Henry College actually believed they should provide their students with a liberal education, and encourage open-ended questioning and dialogue. Er ... wrong. Here's the issue over which the fight ensued: "There is much wisdom to be gained from Parmenides and Plato, as well Machiavelli and Marx," the professors wrote. "When we examine the writings of any author, professed Christian or otherwise, the proper question is not, 'Was this man a Christian?' but 'Is this true?'"
The authors of those heretical sentences have either been fired or have quit. They seem not to understand that the core feature of Christianism is the submission of reason to ecclesiastical, Biblical or political authority. 
(Via Daily Dish.)
2:28:03 PM
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Stephen Harrigan explores the worlds of space travel, adultery and motherhood in his new novel, Challenger Park. The Texas-based author was inspired to write the book while visiting the Houston suburb of Clear Lake City, home to NASA's Johnson Space Center.
(Via NPR Programs: Weekend Edition - Saturday.)
1:32:21 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 6/1/2006; 8:54:13 AM.
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