Scientists have created a computer simulation that produces a realistic picture of the evolution of the universe, starting from just after the Big Bang to the present, compressing the 13.7 billion years into just over two minutes.
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As anyone could have predicted, the decision by the US Supreme Court that ceremonial prayers at the beginning of meetings of the Greece Town Board were constitutional will not settle things. Rather than forbidding such prayers altogether (my preferred option and one that I think is not only constitutional but also practical in that it removes any ambiguity), the majority’s reasoning and verdict was based on the detailed facts of that case and only further muddied the waters. It will inevitably result in other cases with slightly different facts being the subject of future litigation.
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The thought of death is frightening to many. Our sense of our own existence is so strong that the idea of non-existence can have an unsettling effect, although we know in our rational minds that we have to die sometime and that we were non-existent before we were born so it would not be a new experience (or more appropriately non-experience) for us. When we go to sleep too we are to some extent non-existent in that we become oblivious to the world around us but that does not seem to bother us.
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The Daily Show sends out Jordan Klepper to see how far Republican politicians can go to the right before they fall off the edge.
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The Hispanic population is often perceived as overwhelmingly Catholic but a new Pew survey finds that to be an increasingly false perception, with only about 55% of them identifying themselves as such, down from 67% in 2010, a remarkable drop of 12% in just four years. “About 22% are Protestant (including 16% who describe themselves as born-again or evangelical) and 18% are religiously unaffiliated.”
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The militant Islamic group Boko Haram has increased its kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria. Incredibly, they have not only proudly claimed responsibility, they seem boastful and even gleeful about what they have done and promise to keep doing it and to use the girls as slaves and to sell them as brides.
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One of the big issues that has been driving policy discussions is the impact of America’s aging population. As the Baby Boomers age into retirement, this puts some strain on the Social Security system (since there will fewer young people paying into the fund and more people drawing money out) and increased health care costs.
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Today is election day in South Africa, 20 years after the election in which Nelson Mandela became president and apartheid was effectively ended. It seems like the African National Congress will be re-elected to office despite the record of corruption of the party and its leader president Jacob Zuma, which is partly blamed for the voting apathy of the so-called ‘born frees’, young people who were born after end of apartheid and who can vote for the first time.
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In the second episode of his new show, Jon Oliver had an extended segment on the issue of the death penalty, using the recent ghastly botched execution in Oklahoma as his departure point. Treating such a serious issue in a humorous way carries a lot of risks but I think he managed it well and provided a good case for why the death penalty should be abolished.
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Trevor Timm points out how in recent remarks, Hillary Clinton trots out the same old lies and arguments about Snowden that have been thoroughly debunked. Here are the debunked statements she made that Timm rebuts point by point.
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