The British Medical Journal concerns itself over the singular case of
Smeagol, resident of Middle Earth and sadly afflicted creature. “Is
this a physical or mental affliction?” the respected publication asks.
And some learned fellows provide an answer.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Associated Press (via ABC News)
reports: “Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government
should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a
nationwide poll.” In the—oft overquoted but still relevant—words
of the great Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential
Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty
nor Safety.”
Popularity: 8% [?]
Play with every light saber ever featured in Star Wars. Guaranteed to not make you go blind.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Or perhaps not. More than just non-sensical Java, Flash and dHTML games
played online, this collection builds… umm, educa… umm… well,
they are a complete waste of time, but well worth it for pure enjoyment.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Public broadcaster Bill Moyers’ speech, upon accepting his Global Environment Citizen Award at Harvard Medical School:
Remember James Watt, President Reagan’s first secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, “after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.”
Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn’t know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the bible is literally true – one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That’s right – the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the left-behind series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.
Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for adding to my own understanding): once Israel has occupied the rest of its “biblical lands,” legions of the anti-Christ will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the Messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The business of business is everywhere and inescapable; the song
of the buyers and the sellers never stops; the term “workaholic” has
been folded up and put away. We have no time for our friends or our
families, no time to think or to make a meal. We’re moving product,
while the soul drowns like a cat in a well. So writes Mark Slouka in the November 2004 issue of Harper’s Magazine. Certainly a manifesto for our time. Read it, weep, and cease being marginal.
Popularity: 7% [?]
From the Globe and Mail:
“A former U.S. marine testified yesterday that the U.S. military
‘murdered’ civilians in Iraq and that he pumped 500 rounds of bullets
into vehicles that failed to stop at military checkpoints.
“Jimmy Massey, a former marine staff sergeant, told an immigration
and refugee board hearing in Toronto that he and his fellow marines
shot and killed more than 30 unarmed men, women and children and even
shot a young Iraqi who got out of his car with his arms in the air.”
Popularity: 7% [?]
“Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited to
those who can show they take security seriously.”—George Tenet, Former CIA Director.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Can you correctly pick the inventors of programming languages from the
serial killers? Have you ever been confronted by the creepy
similarities between these two groups? Prepare to be astounded.
Popularity: 7% [?]
