Vatican sponsors conference on evolution, excludes creationists, plus two other articles on religion

1. The Vatican is sponsoring a conference on evolution to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s "The Origin of Species." Proponents of creationism and intelligent design were not invited to speak because organizers "wanted to create a conference that was strictly scientific." Link. Via.

Here's the website for the Pontifical Council for Culture, which is organizing the conference to be held in Rome.

(Darwin's Gym t-shirt previously posted here.)


2. An adviser to the Chinese Central Committee contends that Christianity and the ethical system based upon its teachings are the reason that Western countries dominate the global economy. Link. Via.



3. Forget Sarah Palin, here's real censorship occurring right now. Via.

*Previously: The Unicorn Museum.

*Buy Dan Simmons' excellent sci-fi series about the Catholic Church.

Walmart takes another step toward saving the planet (Gore counts his money on his mega-yacht)

Hewlett-Packard won Walmart's Home Entertainment Design Challenge for a new packaging scheme for its Pavilion dv6929 notebook. Instead of selling consumers a laptop contained in a giant box full of styrofoam, Walmart will sell the new HP laptop in a messenger bag. Making the move will eliminate a huge amount of wasted cardboard and styrofoam, and the reduction in packing materials will also allow Walmart to eliminate one out of every four trucks needed to deliver the computers to the store. You can read a bit more here and here. Via.

Now if the messenger bag is the type that's been ok'd by TSA, I'll be really impressed.

*Previously: Walmart hysterically misunderstands cake order.

*Buy The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century at Amazon.