Linkfest

OK, I'm back in Belgium, and had very limited Internet access during my trip to the States. However, I did manage to collect a few interesting links that I thought I'd share (aren't you lucky!).

-- Five reasons Tolkien rocks. Only five?

-- James explains why the common belief that science and religion are in conflict is false. The commenters evidently think their knee-jerk reactions are more reliable than his Ph.D. studies on the subject.

-- Oo de lallies from around the world, including Russia, China, and Israel.

-- Raskolnikov argues about language, meaning, and naturalism.

-- I may have prematurely lamented NASA's desires to return to the Moon. They launched a rocket to scope out potential sites for a station. However, I'm still open to the possibility that we should just skip the Moon and head for Mars.

-- Oldest musical instrument found. It's a flute that's apparently 35,000 years old. Cool.

-- Tyson writes about a heretical movement in Christianity and reviews a book on the Peloponnesian War entitled ... wait for it ... The Peloponnesian War.

-- Some scientists speculate that Saturn's moon Enceladus may have an ocean of water deep below its surface. A large part of the interest here is that the presence of liquid water is one (of several dozen) necessary prerequisites for life to exist.

-- "I once had a girlfriend who quit journalism and went into PR “because it’s more ethical.”" Heh.

-- Buzz Aldrin explains how to get to Mars and why we should get off our butts and do it.

-- John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War, consoles me about the fact that I'm a middle-aged man writing his first novel.