Happy March Equinox, Checkers! This week, Darren delves into the age-old question, does more money really make us happier? Pat and Cristina give a recap of An Evening With Neil deGrasse Tyson in Toronto. Finally, Adam hops right into a segment about how Easter is determined.
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Money & Happiness
An Evening With Neil deGrasse Tyson
This Hillis plot will humble you with its representation of humanity’s true place in nature
How Is Easter Sunday Determined?
How the Easter Date is Determined – Time and Date
How is Easter Sunday determined? Palm Sunday? Ash Wednesday? – Catholic.com
Catching up on the Neil DeGrasse Tyson segment: as I recall, you reported that NDT had some possibly controversial comments about the former glory of Islamic intellectual predominance. I thought you and other listeners might like to refer to an excellent book by Princeton’s eminent Middle East scholar, Bernard Lewis.
In his 2002 book What Went Wrong?,Lewis takes on that very theme, detailing how Islam was at the forefront of military, economic and intellectual achievement during the Christian “dark ages” and somehow fell away over the course of a thousand years, certainly by the 19th century with the decline and eventual collapse of the Ottoman empire.
Although it’s been a few years since I’ve read the book, I did pluck it off the bookshelf to find a particularly interesting quote:
“The difference between Middle Eastern and Western economic approaches can be seen even in their distinctive forms of corruption, from which neither society is exempt. In the West, one makes money in the market, and uses it to buy or influence power. In the East, one seizes power, and uses it to make money.”