This is a talk by Richard Dawkins on how bizarre the natural world appears but how it only appears weird due to our brain’s evolution. We’ve evolved to tackle the challenges of living in an Africa safari, not delving into the inner workings of the universe. Still we march on and expand our knowledge of the universe, but it all seems a bit “queer”; for lack of a more appropriate word.

My favourite quote;

We are now so used to the idea that the Earth spins rather than the Sun moves across the sky. It’s hard for us to realize what a shattering mental revolution that must have been. After all it seems obvious that the Earth is large and motionless, the Sun small and mobile. But it is worth recalling Wittgenstein’s remark on the subject. “Tell me”, he asked a friend, “Why do people always say it was natural for man to assume that the Sun went around the Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?” His friend replied, “Well obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going around the Earth!” Wittgenstein replied, “Well what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating?”

From: TEDblog

There’s a sickeningly ignorant article at the New York Times about the vast amounts of money and untapped resources we should look forward to enjoying once the ice caps melt.

70 metres. That’s how much higher sea level will be if all the ice melts. Your pathetic economies and useless precious resources will count for squat when a large percentage of the world’s land is inducted into the club known as continental shelf. Entire countries will disappear, others will become mere scraps of their former glory (think of all the history that’ll be consumed). But hey, if you can leverage this new oceanic dynamic using bleeding edge economic realignments to maximise profit throughput, who cares?

Basically, there’ll be more oil fields to plunder, more fish stokes to depleat and more locations for fat retired Americans to visit on cruise liners. Yipee. Here’s an idea for the companies and countries exploring oil field options in the Arctic, and unfortunately Antarctic; why not use the billions of dollars you’d use to build new oil rigs and the like, towards research in cutting your reliance on fossil fuel? There maybe resources up north yet to be pumped, but they’ll run out one day too, and then you’ll be in the same situation you are now, but the bill for the switch to alternative power sources will be much, much greater.

I noticed a link to Forests Forever, a beautiful photo gallery of the world’s forests by Fuji Film, over at Treehugger.

I hate flash sites, but this one is a prime example of what flash should be used for. I’m feeling all relaxed and peaceful after strolling through the world’s forests. Give it a look.