Blogs

a retelling of a Taoist parable

In a village in ancient China there were two wide streets running parallel to each other, and a narrow but heavily-used alley between them.

The discovery last week of Kepler-452B, an earthlike planet orbiting a sunlike star in the habitable zone (sometimes known as the Goldilocks zone), has once again raised the question of whether we can find intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy.

Astronomers Find a Near-Earth-Size Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Very Sunlike Star

Oklahoma Republican Party chair Randy Brogdon has come under fire for a post he made last week to his organization's Facebook page.

Criticism of Brogdon was swift and strident.

Deep-Sea Cameras Reveal “Sharkcano”

“These large animals are living in what you have to assume is much hotter and much more acidic water, and they’re just hanging out,” Phillips says.

Scientists show future events decide what happens in the past

Climate change deniers are positively ecstatic about a new model of solar activity presented last week at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, North Wales.

A paradox

The judge was known for his creative sentences. For this particular prisoner, who had made a habit of ambushing his victims, the judge's death penalty came with an ironic twist. The prisoner would be executed by hanging one morning within the next week, but the actual day of the execution would be a complete surprise. The prisoner would not know which morning it was to be, until the hangman showed up at the cell door.

Try not to be the Bad Guy in the story: What it means to be ‘on the wrong side of history’

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is a professional worrier. He gets paid to imagine the worst-case scenario for the nation's future (from his perspective) and then fret in public over the imminence of that worst-case scenario.

So he must have been privately overjoyed at the Supreme Court's recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage. The decision opens many new avenues of worst-case futures for right-wing Christians; Fischer's toughest decision must have been determining which one to pick. Can you guess what he chose?

The Real Reason Why Conservatives Like Ross Douthat Oppose The Gay Marriage Ruling

Marriage is, bit by bit, becoming more about a partnership between equals who choose each other for the purpose of love and happiness. Which means it’s becoming less about giving men control over women’s lives.