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The Doomsday Clock and Human Leadership

ByDigestThis

For dozens of centuries the aristocracy mocked and doubted the common people’s capacity to lead. Then came “We hold these truths to be self-evident … all men are created equal … they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights … among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” If you believe these words, then you own responsibility for human leadership now.

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Cooperating for America

ByDigestThis

Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton and Omar N. Bradley “were immensely ambitious.” So says The New York Times, reviewing the recently published summary of their relationship, “Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley and the Partnership that Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe,” by Jonathan W. Jordan. Like many politicians in Washington today, these three…

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Saved by the Sun

ByDigestThis

A Reuters exclusive posted by journalist Jim Wolf, “Orbital Solar Power Plants Touted for Energy Needs” http://blogs.reuters.com/jim-wolf, describes a fantasy project with the potential to provide civilization with energy for centuries to come. Indian and U.S. space scientists propose that power plants be placed in orbit to collect solar energy and beam it to Earth….

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Wetbacks All

ByDigestThis

In 1875 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the federal government is responsible for regulating immigration. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower urgently empowered the Immigration and Naturalization Service to “remove illegal immigrants, mostly Mexican nationals, from the southwestern United States.” The expulsion program’s official name was Operation Wetback. Border patrol, state and local…

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Excerpts from The Federalist, No. 10 by James Madison (1787)

ByDigestThis

So Much Alarmed Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.  The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous…

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Parenting Is Our First Line of Defense

ByDigestThis

Parenting is the most important responsibility shared by all humanity. Every people’s future is likely to be managed by their children. Parents have more impact on what’s in store for civilization than any other social cohort. Parents hold the long suit for advancing humankind. A thousand generations of passionate parenting hasn’t led to perfect people….

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Assembling Humanity’s History

ByDigestThis

So now we know that early humans bred with Neanderthals and Denisovans. We know this because genome sequences from these “evolutionary cousins” make up from 4% to 6% of the genomes of some humans. And we’ve recently learned that some of the genetic material introduced by this cross-breeding included an upgrade of our immune system’s…