On:

Billy Graham, the minister who evangelized George W. Bush, was not a supporter of Martin Luther King. Now that the voters have struck a strong note against religious fundamentalism in government, this is something worth thinking about.

Using previously unpublished documents, religious studies professor Michael Long says that the popular evangelist largely opposed King’s tactics of civil disobedience. He never dreamed of or worked for a world of racial reconciliation, economic justice and peace.
read more

On:

This is the season of giving, and a lot of people are going to ask for a new television for Christmas. But flat screen TVs could pump hundreds of thousands of tons of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

In the Independent, Ben Russell warns that these new televisions could increase emissions by 700,000 tons a year by 2010. This is not because the new sets actually emit CO2 gas, it’s because they use so much more power, and producing all that electricity is what increases CO2 emissions.

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
read more

On:

We’ve learned that we can’t always count on politicians to do the right thing. The recent election shake-up makes us ask the question: “What makes a person go into the rough-and-tumble world of politics, anyway?” The answer could be: DNA.

A research group made up of both political scientists and geneticists is trying to prove that political genes exist, by studying twins and brain scans. with extensive studies of twins, genes and brain scans. In LiveScience.com, Anna Jo Bratton quotes political scientist John Alford as saying, “The idea goes back more than 2,000 years. In 350 BC, Aristotle wrote, ‘Man is by nature a political animal.'”
read more

On:

Some of the Indian tribes in Canada’s far north are becoming isolated from each other?and from the rest of the world?due to ice melting caused by global warming, which is cutting off their traditional winter routes. They are having trouble getting supplies, including food for the winter.

The 34 First Nations reservations, which consist of around 20,000 people who are scattered across the forests of northern Ontario, can now only be reached by plane most of the time. If they have to move south, into Canadian cities, they will become disenfranchised and lose their identity. CNN quotes Stan Beardy, chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, as saying, “One or two degrees really makes a big difference.”

Art credit: gimp-savvy.com
read more