Stoats and coats

Standing Stoat   (Public Domain)

For PETA-allergic folks, stoats and coats are practically synonymous.  What is commercially called “ermine” has been coveted by socialites for centuries.

Even Catholic popes and cardinals have gotten in on the ermine act. Wikipedia tells us that they have traditionally used this luxurious fur for “the mozetta cape, and devotional images such as the Infant Jesus of Prague.”

Mary Magdalene was also a fan.  She allegedly wore “a white stoat pelt as a sign of her reformed character.”

Other religions also incorporated stoat coats into their heritages. The Zoroastrians considered these animals to be sacred because of their pure white winter fur.  European legend had it that a stoat would rather be instantly killed by hunters than risk soiling its coat

during the chase.  The Komi people of the Ural Mountains considered stoats to be “symbolic of beautiful and coveted young women.”

However, not everyone was enamored by these short-tailed weasels.  The ancient Irish viewed them as “noxious animals prone to thieving.”  Stoats were also believed “to hold the souls of infants who died before baptism.”

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoat

Copyright July 7, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Solitary thinking: Simply unbearable

Playground  Distraction   (Photo by Chris Darling)

During the hustle and bustle of daily life, many adults might long for an escape from it all.  However, most people could not last longer than a few minutes without longing for distractions from solitary thinking.

Gregory Barber of NPR’s “all tech considered” blogs about the irony of this situation.  He cites a University of Virginia study in which participants were simply asked to “step into an empty room, sit down, and think.”

Allegedly due to their “mammalian” brains which require a steady stream of “physical engagement,” these participants were soon reaching out for a nearby shock device, which they were warned about in advance.

This “rudimentary shock device” contained a 9-volt battery that administered a “severe static shock” when touched.  Even while knowing this, many participants reached for this “sole form of electronic entertainment in the room.”

In other words, they would rather be negatively distracted by a harmful device than relegated to focusing solely upon their own thought processes.

University of Virginia’s Timothy Wilson explains that this tendency stems from “animal instincts.”  He explains that people therefore think best when mildly distracted by a physical activity such as walking or driving.

Resources

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/07/03/328137640/surrounded-by-digital-distractions-we-cant-even-stop-to-think

Copyright July 6, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Unalienable Rights: Period or dash?

Let’s face it:  Grammar, especially the nuances of punctuation marks, is not everybody’s favorite subject.

Nevertheless, the placement of one tiny squiggle can make or break the essential meaning of an historic document.  That is why historians are still quibbling over whether or not Jefferson’s pen popped a period after the famous phrase “pursuit of Happiness.”

If his “unalienable Rights” sentence ends with “Happiness,” then Jefferson likely prioritized individual rights over governmental roles.  If the word “Happiness” was directly followed by a dash, then Jefferson likely wished to equalize individual and societal rights.  So the debate goes…

Why doesn’t someone just whip out a copy of the original and settle things once and for all?  According to Abby Ohlheiser of Wire, the 1776 original “is in really, really bad shape.”  Although stored in a “complex

preservation system along with the Bill of Rights and the Constitution,” the Declaration of Independence has seen better days.

Apparently, in more ways than one…

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/reading-declaration-independence-wrong-144302368.html

Copyright July 5, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Will Durant: Declaration of Interdependence

Durant and Students  (Public Domain)

According to his wife and coauthor Ariel, Will Durant’s “spiritual chemistry” consisted of a “sentimental, idealizing blend of love, philosophy, Christianity, and socialism…”

This was a mix that Durant not only wrote about, but also put into practice. Case in point: Durant’s “Declaration of Interdependence.”

This groundbreaking 1944 document contended:  “…just as no state can now survive by its own unaided power, so no democracy can long endure without recognizing and encouraging the interdependence of the religious and racial groups composing it.”

The Declaration was formulated after Durant was approached by then-leaders of the Jewish and Christian communities.  They were seeking to “raise social moral standards,” and Durant suggested that they specifically work toward eliminating “racial intolerance.”

When this Declaration of Interdependence made its 1945 Hollywood debut, “Durant escorted his black housekeeper, Bleeker McGlendon, to the gala.”

Durant’s document was later incorporated into the United States Congressional Record, “influencing the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1950s.”

Resources

http://rexweyler.com/greenpeace/greenpeace-history/declaration-of-interdependence/#6

Copyright July 4, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Garbage in, garbage out: But to where?

(Michelangelo's Jonah)

Along with all the other mysteries of the deep lies a new one:  Where has all the garbage gone?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the “Great Pacific garbage patch” seems to be shrinking.  Since plastic debris continues to be dumped into the ocean at an alarming rate, scientists had assumed that this “Pacific trash vortex” would instead “grow twice as big every decade.”

This incredible shrinking effect amounts to “99% less plastic waste in the world’s oceans than previously thought.”  Since an estimated “45,000 tons of plastic” enter the oceans each year, this shrinkage is simply baffling.

Before indulging plastic-bag habits once again, consider this possibility:  Are the fish gobbling them up?  If so, what happens when we gobble them up?  

Could it instead be the leviathan effect?  After all, today’s “Jonahs” might need something to wrap their

sticky pride in while trying to conquer life’s greatest mysteries.

Resources

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/themargin/2014/07/01/its-a-mystery-where-has-99-of-the-oceans-trash-gone/

Copyright July 3, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Elton John: From God's lips

Hear ye, hear ye...   (Public Domain)

Sometimes it seems as though celebrities (and/or preachers, teachers, parents, friends, fill in the blank…) have a direct pipeline to God.

Perhaps they do, but when people talk as if they absolutely know what Jesus (Buddha, Muhammad…) would do (say, advise…) in any given situation, it’s time to be a bit wary.

Are these folks speaking from divine revelation, or are they projecting their own hopes (dreams, agendas…) onto God?

Greg Gilman of The Wrap reports that Elton John recently speculated upon what Jesus would do about gay marriage between priests. 

John was quoted as saying:  If Jesus Christ was alive today [Note to John: He’s not?], I cannot see him, as the Christian person that he was [Note 2: Can Jesus best be described as either a Christian or a person?], and the great person that he was, saying this could not happen.

John then goes on to make the blanket statement that Jesus was “all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together.”  Certainly, Jesus commanded us to “Love one another…”  But “love” has been humanly defined in so many ways that its meaning here on Earth has become quite amorphic.

Mind you, this writer’s reaction to John’s proclamation is not particularly focused on the issue of gay marriage.  It is instead an “allergic response” to what appears to be the pretense of being God’s mouthpiece.
  

Resources    

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=875400

Copyright July 2, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved

Flying reptiles: Friends or foes?

(Photo by Caseman)

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  About 145 to 100 million years ago, it was most likely a pterosaur (“flying reptile”).

Star Tribune recently reported that approximately 40 male and female pterosaur fossils were discovered at a site within China.  This indicates that these flying reptiles were probably “gregarious, meaning that several lived together, perhaps nested together.”

Pterosaurs also lived alongside dinosaurs.  But would they have successfully coexisted with humans?

If Chinese dragons, their legendary “cousins,” are any indication, this answer could be a resounding “Yes!”

Wikipedia tells us that these serpentine beasts “traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods.”

However, you'd better be worthy of such intense friendship.  The Chinese emperor evidently thought that he was - “having used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength.”  Parents traditionally wished that their “son would become a dragon.”

This might be a classic case of “Watch what you ask for.”  Chinese astrology explains that children born during Dragon years can be vigorous and self-assured - but they can also be arrogant and tyrannical.

Resources

http://www.startribune.com/science/264065381.html#d3W3lSKidcMzYG48.97

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon

Copyright July 1, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved