On:

In another of our series of new Communion Letters, we hear from Frank, who writes: On July 28th at 2 a.m., they came. I heard my basset hound begin to whine. She was cut off in mid stream. I was lying in my bed, and everyone in the house was asleep, except me. I heard off to my left a rustling sound like a bird fluttering and I was aware of a shape moving down the side of my beda standard “gray.” Immediately I felt like something was holding me from the back with one arm around my neck as if trying to hold me down.
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On:

We expect all politicians and leaders to have ideals and surprisingly, despite the various dirty tricks some of them gotten up to, most of them do. I define ideals as moral goals?to get better education for kids, more housing for the poor, more jobs for the middle class, etc.

But when do ideals become ideology and how do we recognize this when it happens? I define ideology as a plan of action, with a set of specific goals that an individual or group wants to accomplish. There may be ideals behind this, such as world democracy, but an ideologue isn’t flexible about his or her plan. An ideologue sees only one way of doing things: his way.
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On:

Scientists are still trying to figure outhow birds getaround. They also want to understand how birds from thesame species may be isolated from each other for months, butstill somehow know exactly when to return home to meet upwith their mates again in the spring. It was once thoughtthat bird pairs stayed together when they migrated, but nowbiologists think this isn’t the case.

Patricia Reaney writes that biologists are studyingIcelandic migratory birds called black-tailed godwits thatrarely see each other, spend winters in different countriesand don’t communicate for long periods but can stillcoordinate their journeys, from different countries athousand miles apart, so they arrive back at their Icelandbreeding grounds within a few days of each other.
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On:

The Chinese want to claim the moon for its valuableHelium-3, although the U.S. has vowed to return and plantanother American flag there first. Now Denmark wants tostake a claim to the North Pole, so they can hunt for theoil that has become more accessible due to thinning icecaused by global warming.
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