Weekly Links: On Going to Mars, Sex, Lent, and more!

Some good reading (and watching) for your weekend:

"On the Dangers of Attempting Mars":

So fretting that people who choose to go on an expedition they know is dangerous are going to die...is silly, and also presumptuous.  Humans have been dying for tens of thousands of years.  The ones who stayed home died.  The ones who migrated died.  The ones who went out and did dangerous things, new things, died in droves. The ones who fought in wars and the civilians in whose lands war raged died . . .

Top 10 Things I’d Say About Sex If I Had No Filter: This has a lot of interesting food for thought, but I love this part: 

I think we’re so scared of people having premarital sex that we oversell the honeymoon. Let’s talk about sex as a decades long fun research project, not a “one night entry into bliss”. Seriously. 

Ha! "Decades long fun research project" - I love it!


"'Have a (nearly) Cheerless Lent!' He said thoughtfully":

Now I could be Mr. Philosophy and point out that “happy” can mean “human flourishing” as the Declaration uses it in “pursuit of happiness” but it would not help matters. Fasting from the world, the flesh, and the devil is necessary for human flourishing but it is not human flourishing. 

And finally, why Jackie Chan is truly the best at what he does (I particularly like the insight about showing the beginning of a hit twice; it reminds me of "tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell it to 'em, and tell 'em that you told 'em):