World

The Entire History Of The World In One Chart

This “Histomap,” created by John B. Sparks, was first printed by Rand McNally in 1931. The David Rumsey Map Collection hosts a fully zoomable version here. This giant, ambitious chart fit neatly with a trend in nonfiction book publishing of the 1920s and 1930s: the “outline,” in which large subjects (the history of the world! every […]

What Our World Would Look Like Without Honeybees

Business Insider: by Dina Specter. A world without honeybees would also mean a world without fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Nearly one-third of the world’s crops are dependent on honeybees for pollination, but over the last decade the black-and-yellow insects have been dying at unprecedented rates both in the United States and abroad. Pesticides, […]

Religious Freedom On The Decline Worldwide

Radio Free Europe WASHINGTON — Religious freedom is on the decline in many parts of the world, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department, which calls the trend “worrying.” The 2012 International Religious Freedom Report alsodocuments what it calls “a continued global increase in anti-Semitism.” Secretary of State […]

Why Do Evil and Suffering Exist?

Source: Huff Post, by Jeffrey Small. Our individual lives are short, inconsequential in a universe that is 13.7 billion years old. We are finite. We suffer. Yet the faiths of the world also teach us that we can transcend suffering and death because we are part of something bigger than […]

New American Media News Headline

Havana Real Estate “Boom” Lures Investors & Exiles   New America Media, News Analysis, Louis Nevaer   Just over a year after the Cuban government permitted the first sale of real estate between private parties, a housing boom is emerging in Havana.   Sequestration Nearing, Calif. Schools Get Breathing Room […]

Words, Science, and Religion

Source: KPB Stevens To my mind, religion only increases its beauty by allowing scientific words and phrases (by which I mean concepts) to change it.  When I think about science, I think about it religiously.  That doesn’t mean that I try to ignore its truths and make it conform to […]