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Put A Little Science In Your Life

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:06:18 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

A COUPLE of years ago I received a letter from an American soldier in Iraq. The letter began by saying that, as we’ve all become painfully aware, serving on the front lines is physically exhausting and emotionally debilitating. But the reason for his writing was to tell me that in that hostile and lonely environment, a book I’d written had become a kind of lifeline. As the book is about science — one that traces physicists’ search for nature’s deepest laws — the soldier’s letter might strike you as, well, odd.

But it’s not

The reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.

Seeking A Broader Political Agenda

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:03:15 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "None of that means younger evangelicals have abandoned the core tenets of their faith, including a belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus and the literal truth of the Bible. They think abortion and homosexuality are sins."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Journey, a megachurch of mostly younger evangelicals, is representative of a new generation that refuses to put politics at the center of its faith and rejects identification with the religious right.

They say they are tired of the culture wars. They say they do not want the test of their faith to be the fight against gay rights. They say they want to broaden the traditional evangelical anti-abortion agenda to include care for the poor, the environment, immigrants and people with H.I.V., according to experts on younger evangelicals and the young people themselves.

About 17 percent of the nation’s 55 million adult evangelicals are between the ages of 18 and 29, and many are troubled by the methods of the religious right and its close ties to the Republican Party.

Painting With Fabrics

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:57:33 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Eleanor Gillette was already an avid artist -- an oil painter -- when her grandmother introduced her to quilting more than 30 years ago. "I looked at it as an opportunity to 'paint' with fabrics," she says of the day when she pushed her first needle through the three layers that, when stitched together, define a quilt.

Gillette has made hundreds of them. To her, they are not merely covers for a bed; they are art. "You feel the fabric, you move the fabric, you put it together," says the retired elementary school principal from Lincoln. "It's an emotional connection."

More than 20 million Americans call themselves active quilters. Now their craft is being recognized -- for its art and its history -- at a new museum just a few miles from Gillette's home.

International Quilt Study Center & Museum, (402) 472-6549, www.quiltstudy.org, is at 1523 N. 33rd St., Lincoln. It's open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays.

Coming Around Again

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:49:29 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: 62 years old and so beautiful! In this youth obsessed media age, I love stories like this one, especially about strong beautiful mothers and women like Carly.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

CARLY SIMON isn't the first name you'd expect to find on a list of classic-rock superstars who keep tabs on " American Idol."

Today, Simon still questions the status quo -- whether musical, social or political. But her main interest, the way it always was even when she was helping alter the outer world, is understanding and expressing her inner world.

SIMON remains impeccably rock-star chic at 62 in a black leather jacket covering a flimsy burgundy dress slipped over a black body- stocking.

She had her own encounters with rampant sexism -- one of Weller's anecdotes intimates that a noted rock engineer once refused to work on one of her albums unless she slept with him.

Arab Women Push Boundaries Gently

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:40:58 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Well, sexuality and women's freedoms are threatening in any society, dare I say.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

BEIRUT -- The censors didn't quite know what to do with Lina Khoury's play about sex, rape, menopause and a visit to the gynecologist, but Islamic hard-liners were pretty specific: One wanted to stone the 32-year-old writer; others accused her of being an Israeli agent planting immoral ideas in the Arab world.

The characters in "Women's Talk" share secrets only uttered when men aren't around. Riffs on pubic hairstyles and sexual desires may be a predictable story line in Hollywood, but here Western-influenced portrayals of women in the arts are condemned by clerics and conservatives as devil-inspired liberalism.

Some men are saying that I'm breaking the rules of society and religion. . . . Sexuality and women's freedoms are threatening to men. Some actresses I wanted for the parts wouldn't take them. They were scared of what their husbands or boyfriends would say."

Aliens Get A New Switchboard

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:36:59 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

HAT CREEK, CALIF. -- In this remote volcanic valley near Mt. Shasta, 42 telescope dishes have sprouted amid the soaring ponderosa pines, listening for a voice from space.

Every few seconds the 20-foot-wide dishes, scattered over dozens of acres, pirouette in perfect synchronicity, like dancers practicing their pas de deux before opening night.

Rick Forster, a slight, 59-year-old astronomer with the long beard of a man who has spent years in the solitude of the forest, said that after fine-tuning the dishes over the next few weeks to function as a single, giant ear, the real show will begin: listening for E.T.

"It's nuts to think we're alone," said Forster. He works with the SETI Institute and UC Berkeley, which are jointly installing the array.

"It's just a matter of looking in the right direction, at the right time, at the right frequency, with the right algorithm," he said.