[The New York Times]
Would you break up with someone because of the books she/he does/doesn't read?

[The American Scholar]
Literary academics have been reluctant to deal with science, except to fantasize that they have engulfed and disarmed it by reducing it to "just another narrative," or to dismiss it with a knowing sneer as presupposing a risibly naïve epistemological realism. They have not only denied the pleasure of art and the power of science, but like others in the humanities and social sciences, they have also denied that human nature exists, insisting against the evidence that culture and convention make us infinitely malleable.

[Well Fed Network]
Expo West 2008 sets the stage for this year’s natural food trends.

[shigabooks]
Fleep.

[PBS.org]
There is a technology war coming. Actually it is already here but most of us haven't yet notice. It is a war not about technology but because of technology, a war over how we as a culture embrace technology. It is a war that threatens venerable institutions and, to a certain extent, threatens what many people think of as their very way of life. It is a war that will ultimately and inevitably change us all, no going back. The early battles are being fought in our schools. And I already know who the winners will be.

[Virus Comix Online Empire]
The atheist apocalypse.

[BBC News]
Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died at the age of 90.

[United Nations Statistics Division]
The new UN data access system (UNdata) will improve the dissemination of statistics by UNSD to the widest possible audience. UNdata now searches over 55 million records.

[The Independent]
A Roman Catholic bishop has likened books which criticise the teachings of the Church to works that deny the Holocaust took place. The Rt Rev Patrick O'Donoghue, Bishop of Lancaster, told MPs that books critical of the Catholic faith should be banned from school libraries.

[guardian.co.uk]
Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert.

[Bloomberg.com]
New sins for Catholics! Get 'em while they're hot! The Vatican has put together a list of seven "social" sins that includes excessive wealth, drug abuse, littering, genetic tampering and creating poverty.

[madametalbot.com]
Madame Talbot's Victorian Lowbrow.

[Reason]
So even as police departments across the country are setting up sex offender registries, drug offender registries, and posting the mugs and names of suspected johns online, they also took a great deal of umbrage early this month when Gino Sesto set up a site called RateMyCop.com.

[Bad Astronomy Blog]
The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a bill that says that a student can receive a passing grade in an Earth Science class if they say that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Earth an hour ago, and then planted false memories into every single living creature on Earth to make it seem like they’ve been around longer.

[The Technium]
Kevin Kelly: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author —in other words, anyone producing works of art—needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

[Pew Research Center]
An extensive new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious affiliation of the American public and explores the shifts taking place in the U.S. religious landscape. The survey also shows that the non-religious outnumber those of every single faith but Catholicism.

[The New York Times]
After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

[Food Blog Search]
Search for a recipe from over 1900 food blogs.