Slumber

This is just one of the great pictures published on slate.com of people in various stages of sleep.

CAMPANIA, Italy—1960.
© Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

"Adam and Eve in the Land of Dinosaurs"

The creation museum opens on the 28th, and this article in the New York Times gives a look into what exactly a creation museum is and does. With exhibits designed by the guy who did the Jaws exhibit at Universal Studios, there is no doubt that the creation museum offers multiple sights and spectacles for visitors to behold. But what kind of sights and for what rhetorical purposes? Aren't they preaching to the choir, here? Will skeptical visitors come to the museum and be persuaded of the museum's message of creationism over evolution? What is the purpose of such a museum? To persuade non-believers? To strengthen and legitimize existing beliefs? Museums are tools of persuasion, but science, technology, and history usually lie at the foundation of the stories they tell through their exhibits. But we are fooling ourselves if we don't acknowledge the way museums 'fill the gaps' in scientific and historical knowledge, developing narratives in order to make exhibits more visually appealing, persuasive, and memorable to visitors. Maybe we should admire the creation museum for its unabashed attempt to mix biblical legends and "truths" with science and ethics.

As the author says: The Creation Museum offers an alternate world that has its fascinations, even for a skeptic wary of the effect of so many unanswered assertions. He leaves feeling a bit like Adam emerging from Eden, all the world before him, freshly amazed at its strangeness and extravagant peculiarities.

And, of course, it's in Kentucky.

Go Carter, it's your birthday...

'White House Says Carter Criticism of Bush is Sad'

Could modern medicine have saved Lincoln?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/20/AR2007052000873.html

This article from the Post describes what the doctors did for Lincoln in the 19th century and how treatment would be similar/different today. As the author points out, the doctors attending to Lincoln followed many of the same protocols as modern EMTs and doctors. And the author poses the question, how would our world have been different if Lincoln had lived? Even if Lincoln had lived with decreased motor function and a drastically decreased ability to communicate, inevitably his survival would have changed a great deal about the course that history has taken since the Civil War.

Michelle Obama's struggle with "opting-out"

"Michelle Obama's Sacrifice" http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/05/21/michelle_obama/index.html

This is an interesting article from Salon about Michelle Obama's decision to, for all intents and purposes, quit her high-powered job to be on the campaign trail. Although I disagree with the way the author reads into various comments by Michelle Obama (the author seems comfortable with putting words/thoughts/actions in Michelle Obama's mouth), the author poses interesting questions about the developing role of the wife on the campaign trail and the role of the first lady. I hope that Michelle Obama defines her own role and finds ways to put all of her talents to good use.

The issue (and Maureen Dowd's column about Michelle Obama) is discussed more on these blogs:

http://thelastplantation.com/search.aspx?q=maureen%20dowd

http://thehnic.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/the-white-lady-just-doesn’t-get-it-a-response-to-maureen-dowds-critique-of-michelle-obama/#more-72

Opt-in

To follow up on the articles I posted about women "opting out" of the workplace, here's an article about how companies are beginning to change their policies about mothers returning to the workplace. A step in the right direction, but just a small step as the author notes.

"After Baby, Boss Comes Calling" by Lisa Belkin

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/fashion/17work.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=b2cd8ac16c107463&ex=1179633600

narcissism anyone?

"My greatest competition is, well, me... I'm the Ali of today. I'm the Marvin Gaye of today. I'm the Bob Marley of today. I'm the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realize that now." -- R. Kelly