Dolphin, black racer snake and lots of birds under storm clouds ...
http://www.flickr.com/...
I spent a few minutes checking out Media Matters, Think Progress and Huffington Post. Any time spent thinking about politics is sufficient to send any mind into despair so I found something quite a bit more interesting.
Aside from being beautiful, water has some amazing and unexpected properties ...
In all, water exhibits 66 known anomalies, including a strangely varying density, large heat capacity and high surface tension. Contrary to other "normal" liquids, which become denser as they get colder, water reaches its maximum density at about 4 degrees Celsius. Above and below this temperature, water is less dense; this is why, for example, lakes freeze from the surface down. Water also has an unusually large capacity to store heat, which stabilizes the temperature of the oceans, and a high surface tension, which allows insects to walk on water, droplets to form and trees to transport water to great heights.
"Understanding these anomalies is very important because water is the ultimate basis for our existence: no water, no life," said SLAC scientist Anders Nilsson ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/...
Which might explain why I have so much time throughout my life appreciating water in all of its forms and contexts. There's more to this Universe than meets the eye. The vast majority of humans are oblivious to the Universe in which they live and which makes their life possible.
On the subject of water, I watched a documentary about humankind's abuse of the Great Lakes yesterday and I encourage you to see the documentary, too:
http://www.ourwaterlife.com/
If anyone were to compare all of the humankind's positives to all of the negatives it is quite evident that the negatives vastly outweigh the positives. Humans have thoroughly trashed the Earth and there is no capacity whatsoever for humankind to stop. Every living and beautiful thing is subject to humankind's violence, destructiveness and foolishness. The Great Lakes are thoroughly destroyed by invasive species, pollution and are already suffering the impacts of climate change.
There is nothing whatsoever that humankind could ever do which would compensate the Universe for the damage that humankind has done to the Earth.
Yet people waste their time arguing about 100,000 irrelevant trivialities while the world is slipping out of humankind's hands. It is sort of like those people texting while driving. There's no text message so important that it is worth either dying or killing for while driving distracted.
Does anyone worry about the economy? Does anyone celebrate the faint promise of economic recovery and renewed growth?
These are the hopes of small minds living in a very small, empty, human-centered Universe.
Intelligence hasn't served humankind well. Intelligence has only served to destroy the planet and each other. Humankind really needs to stop worrying about the economy and "progress" and instead begin worrying about survival on an inhospitable planet.
David Mathews
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