Kerby Anderson
You could say that William Shatner is the most famous astronaut in the world. Until recently, he was not a real astronaut. But he is best known for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek TV series and movies. Last year he did go into space. And it had such an impact that he started crying and now has written about it in his memoir, Boldly Go.
At age 90, he had a life-changing experience by going into space. He thought it would be a fulfilling experience to see planet Earth from a different vantage point. Others told him they were struck by the “apparent fragility of this suspended blue marble.” He also experienced “the strongest feeling, dominating everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I have ever experienced.”
When he looked away from Earth towards the rest of the universe, he didn’t feel attraction. Instead, he realized that we are “a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death.”
There is a name for that experience. Space Philosopher Frank White called it the “overview effect,” which is the title of his book by the same name. It comes from an emotional shift in a person’s awareness when they see Earth from space. You gain a greater understanding of the preciousness of Earth.
I think we can draw two conclusions. First is environmental stewardship. Shatner’s conclusion was that he wanted to protect Earth for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We need to do all we can to prevent the destruction of this planet.
The second conclusion is intelligent design. Earth is not an insignificant speck in the galaxy. Earth is our home. It was created by God for us, and we can now measure all the fine-tuned parameters that show God’s fingerprints.

Kerby Anderson
The business world is seeing a reverse migration from Zoom to the conference room. Employees may love working from home, but there is growing evidence that productivity drops when people work from their dining table or home office.
We all know the benefits of remote working. You spend less time commuting. You can take a short nap or a mid-morning run. You can fit in several commitments from carpool to doctor’s appointments. During the pandemic and lockdowns, a few surveys found that workers reported higher levels of satisfaction and happiness.
Those may be the positive aspects of working from home, but more and more companies are calling their employees back to the office. Even the notoriously flexible Big Tech companies want employees to show up at least 2-3 days a week.
The reason for the call-back is productivity. A study reported in the Economist illustrates the change in perception. A study done by two Harvard University doctoral students originally found an 8 percent increase in the number of calls handled per hour by employees of an online retailer that had shifted from offices to homes. But a revised version of the paper changed that estimate to a 4 percent decline. The researchers had not made a mistake. As they received more precise data, they found that the employees answered fewer calls and put customers on hold for longer.
Another study done by researchers at MIT and UCLA concluded workers at home were 18 percent less productive. And a research study from the University of Essex found a 19 percent drop in productivity.
What is also lost is face-to-face communication, human interaction, and team building. It is easy to see why more and more companies are summoning their workers back to the office.