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Plato's Beard » 2008 » January

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Jan 31st, 2008 by bookie

Links and News [2008.01.31]

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Jan 31st, 2008 by ravi

Torture vs “our nation’s children”

CNN says:

Yes, that’s the headline. The primary concern about this sort of abuse of animals is the food safety question. In case that’s not clear, here is Dick Durbin rephrasing it in politician speak:

I think the greatest danger that my child faces is morally-challenged human beings who inflict this sort of pain on animals and those who respond with this order of prioritisation.

[ Link ]

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Jan 29th, 2008 by bookie

Links and News [2008.01.29]

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Jan 25th, 2008 by ravi

Shopping spree!

That (the subject of this post) is the New York Times’ characterisation of desperate Palestinians, under a new burst of Israeli terrorism, attempting to obtain basics from Egypt:

At this point, I think we can safely take all the Holocaust literature and replace Jews with Palestinians, to obtain the narrative, of future historians and generations, wondering what went wrong… how did we permit such horror?

[ Link ]

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Jan 24th, 2008 by ravi

A flap over the flap of a gene…

If you are in need of animated and grandiose debate, with a good measure of personal attacks thrown in, you are sure to find it in biology writing for a general audience. The latest is an outcome of Olivia Judson’s (biologist and author) resurrection of the “hopeful monster” idea with suitable provocative content to trigger a heated response from Jerry Coyne (major domo in the field). Judson suggests that we can revisit the idea of the “hopeful monster” (that a variation in a single gene can have a sudden and large morphological effect on the evolutionary development of an organism/species). Coyne will have none of it and offers some criticism, along with a fair amount of name dropping and attacks on personalities, an approach that we all now recognise as the “scientific method” ;-). Both articles/posts are interesting and informative reads!

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Jan 24th, 2008 by ravi

Voter frauds

With the backdrop of Obama’s shallow rhetoric about unity and hope, Stanley Fish takes aim at “Independent Voters” with an excellent piece in the NYT:

And offers them timely advice:

Worth multiple reads, even though he ends on a poor note, misidentifying Nader supporters with independents (Nader supporters were and are hard-core partisans and should be proud of that for the very reasons he outlines).

[ Link ]

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Jan 23rd, 2008 by bookie

Links and News [2008.01.23]

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Jan 22nd, 2008 by bookie

Links and News [2008.01.22]

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Jan 18th, 2008 by bookie

Links and News [2008.01.18]

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Jan 16th, 2008 by ravi

Round n+1 of civilisation vs Japan

The Guardian covers (with an evenness impossible to find in US media) the latest edition of high sea drama involving Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and the “disgrace to civilised society” (in the words of Paul Watson of Sea Shephard) that the Japanese whalers and the government that supports them represent. Read about it: A tale of two ships. Go ahead, click on the link, if only to take a look at the gorgeous picture at the top!

[ Link ]