Pollution

The worst polluted areas in the world. Something seriously needs to be done about world pollution. I really think a great place to start is the commute that everyone takes everyday. There should be a serious reconsideration amongst organizations on whether to allow employees to work from home. There are certain jobs that do not require people to go into the office everyday. The argument against tele-working is that people who are "out of sight are out of mind". I think this can be resolved by having people report to supervisors more frequently when they are not in the office through conference calls, tele-conferences and IM/email. There certainly are jobs that people travel to only to sit at a desk behind a computer and not interact with anyone else. I am not advocating people work from home 100% of the time. I think that once or twice out of the month to start would be a great start to help reduce some of the traffic on the nation's roads. I also often wonder if things would be better if instead of everything being located in one big city that several but smaller towns be created that are in close proximity of one another. This would prevent everyone from going into and leaving the city at the same time. Another possible solution I see is to not have everyone work a 9-5 day. I know some people already work earlier or later hours to avoid traffic and I think if more people worked a non-traditional schedule this would help immensely too.

Religion, Baseball

I just finished reading this article in the NY Times and I couldn't help but thinking how this is not a bigger issue than the article presented it as. If you replaced the Rockies organization with any other corporate organization in America I wonder how people would react. This is a problematic statement:

“When you have as many people who believe in God as we do, it creates a humbleness about what we do,” Affeldt said. “I don’t see arrogance here, I see confidence. We’re all very humbled about where this franchise has been and where it is now, and we know that what’s happening now is a very special thing.”

Does religion have a place in the workplace? I say no.

Project Implicit

One of the books that I am currently reading is Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis. I've only read through about the first thirty pages or so, but one of the links he mentions is a study done by Harvard that may end up showing you that you have unconscious prejudice for one thing over the other. Take one of the demonstration tests. You might be surprised.

Clinton: Science and Politics

Hilary's promises sound good, but again they are just promises...

Her remarks yesterday, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, amounted to a spirited attack on President Bush for waging what she called a “war on science” that has allowed political appointees to shape and in some cases distort science-based federal reports.

In the telephone interview after the speech, Mrs. Clinton also tacitly criticized opponents of evolution. Some of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates have said flatly that they do not believe in evolution, while other Republican contenders have said they support teaching evolution, intelligent design and creationist ideas.

“I believe in evolution, and I am shocked at some of the things that people in public life have been saying,” Mrs. Clinton said in the interview. “I believe that our founders had faith in reason and they also had faith in God, and one of our gifts from God is the ability to reason.”

“I am grateful that I have the ability to look at dinosaur bones and draw my own conclusions,” she added, saying, too, that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is evidence that “evolution is going on as we speak.”

I really hope that whoever is elected president can work on separating politics and science. Over the weekend I attended Green Festivals in D.C. It was an extremely interesting visit. I really hope events like these get people to no only think, but start acting in helping to preserve the environment.

Working Together

An interesting article about two different groups of people learning about each other's cultures in order to better work together. The article brought up the subject of the language barrier which I agree is a definite hurdle to overcome, but as the article pointed out even learning simple phrases can make a huge difference.

Religion Articles

The NY Times is my favorite source to get news/read articles. There is always something interesting in it. I'd say my second favorite paper to read is The Wall Street Journal. Both top-notch publications. I'm going to share two articles this post.

This first article talks about bringing violent video games into the church to teach children life lessons. According to the article churches are using the video games to attract young people into the church. Quotes that I found particularly interesting are below:

Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

“It’s very pervasive,” Mr. Palmer said, more widespread on the coasts, less so in the South, where the Southern Baptist denomination takes a more cautious approach. The organization recently sent e-mail messages to 50,000 young people about how to share their faith using Halo 3. Among the tips: use the game’s themes as the basis for a discussion about good and evil.

David Drexler, youth director at the 200-member nondenominational Country Bible Church in Ashby, Minn., said using Halo to recruit was “the most effective thing we’ve done.”

Mr. Barbour recently met for several hours with the church’s pastor and successfully made his case that the game was a crucial recruiting tool.

In one letter to parents, Mr. Barbour wrote that God calls ministers to be “fishers of men.”

“Teens are our ‘fish,” he wrote. “So we’ve become creative in baiting our hooks.”

The second article talks about how radio is being used to spread religion in remote areas of the world. I wonder why in the third paragraph the author thought it necessary to point out that the farmer has 24 grandchildren. A lot, yes, but worth noting in the article? Questionable. Again I've selected some passages in the article to share here:

"These programs connect people to a world that they otherwise have no access to," Fortner said. "They indicate to these folks that someone 'out there' cares enough about them to prepare programs in their own language and speak to them about their own struggles."

"This brings more people to the church," said Xavier Muaga, the Anglican pastor. "Some people started going to church and gave up, and these programs convince them to come back. Others who have never been to church hear this and are convinced to become Christians."

Christianity, the world's largest religion with about 2 billion adherents, has the most massive presence on global religious airwaves. Christian programs range from Bible readings to radio seminary courses for undereducated pastors.

In contrast to the evangelical nature of Christian radio, Islamic radio tends to focus on people who are already Muslims.

The i-Rack