Orts #927

There are really two environments governing the evolution of sentient creatures: an external one, which they inhabit, and an internal one, which they construct. To solve the enigma of beauty, to fully understand evolution, we must uncover the hidden links between those two worlds.
     -- Ferris Jabr, How Beauty is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution, in NYT Magazine, January 9, 2019.      
                              https://nyti.ms/2WTKYxt
 
A great number of male animals, as all our most gorgeous birds, some fishes, reptiles and mammals, and a host of magnificently colored butterflies have been rendered beautiful for beauty’s sake.
     -- Charles Darwin, quoted in the same New York Times Magazine article
 

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     People with serious illness have priorities besides simply prolonging their lives. Surveys find that their top concerns include avoiding suffering, strengthening relationships with family and friends, being mentally aware, not being a burden on others, and achieving a sense that their life is complete. Our system of technological medical care has utterly failed to meet these needs, and the cost of this failure is measured in far more than dollars. The question therefore is not how we can afford this system’s expense. It is how we can build a health care system that will actually help people achieve what’s most important to them at the end of their lives.
     -- Atul Gawande, Being Mortal (2014), chapter 8
 

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moquette and cosmic spaghetti:
https://bit.ly/2SyBAgs

crowds at Mt Everest summit:
https://bit.ly/2wkmulY