Praying on/in Public

Increasing amounts of attention to religious matters is probably a reaction to the assaults within politics and this isn't the first point to a P. J. O'Rourke piece in this context. But, he has cancer and deep thoughts and whiskey along with his wits. The article promises an expanded piece in Search magazine, that is Science, Religion, and Culture on the masthead, but you are sure to enjoy this Los Angelos Times piece:

Opinion

Give me liberty and give me death

As one's mortality swings into view, be thankful for life -- and whiskey.

By P.J. O'Rourke
September 28, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-orourke28-2008sep28,0,3317114.story

Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photo

Nothing new - the edge of the universe as it looked in the beginning as captured by the Hubble in 2004 and a recent article offering some interpretation of the image. I looked closer and deeper.

Wikipedia offers a selection of resolutions of the image:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field
Full resolution‎ (6,200 × 6,200 pixels, file size: 19.23 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Interpretative review that reopened my eyes:

http://www.sciencemusings.com/2008/09/saying-yes-to-universe.html

"At the scale of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photo we can see as many galaxies as there are grains in ten-thousand boxes of salt. And each of those galaxies contains as many stars as there are grains in ten-thousand boxes of salt. And that's just the universe we can see."