Essay

Archive for August, 2006

Archive for August, 2006

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Vladimir Tretchikoff

BBC has a

reporton Vladimir Tretchikoff, "king of kitch", who has passed away. A

websiteabout him claims that prints of his

(right) are the largest selling of all time.

The website includes a gallery of pictures many of which are quite interesting. Also see: Wikipedia page about him; Art.com poster gallery.

[ link ]

Links and News [2006.08.28]

  • BBC | Mexicans await election verdict(tags:electionsnews)
  • BBC | Google to target software market(tags:technews)
  • The Observer | Cameron: we got it wrong on apartheid(tags:terrorismconservatismright-nutterydangerous-idiotspolitics)
  • Israeli cluster bomb wounds four children | The Australian(tags:newsisraelterrorism)

Links and News [2006.08.26]

  • [Spiegel] Archeological Sensation: Ancient Mummy Found in Mongolia(tags:newsarchaeology)
  • India strongly protests Netherlands detentions - Yahoo! News(tags:newsracism)
  • [NYT] Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs - New York TimesThe State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons…(tags:newsisraelterrorismmiddle-east)
  • FT.com / Asia-Pacific - Beijing backs Venezuela for UN council(tags:news)
  • PageOneQ | Election of Alabama lesbian overturned by committee(tags:electionshypocrisygay-issues)

Defining “non”-analytical philosophy

Leiter reports has a guest blog entry by Jason Stanley, that provides a fair[er] definition of that type of philosophy that is not considered "analytical":

Soames attempts to make this distinction when he writes that analytic philosophy is characterized by “an elevation of the goals of truth and knowledge over inspiration, moral uplift, and spiritual comfort”. I reject Soames’s categorization, because it makes it sound like the options are to seek truth and knowledge or to find religion. I would rather mark it as the quite different distinction between, on the one hand, philosophy that treats phenomena apart from their cultural and historical context, versus philosophy that looks at phenomena mainly through an anthropological lens.

[ link ]

Links and News [2006.08.25]

  • [BBC] Protests over Survivor ‘tribes’Hispanics Across America founder Fernando Mateo called the move an "offensive and cheap trick" to boost ratings."The participants will be held to the daunting and unfair challenge of representing an entire race of people," he said."What will it mean for a team - a race - to fail in a battle of wits and strength against another race?"(tags:newsracismentertainment)

Links and News [2006.08.24]

  • Black students ordered to give up seats to white children[Shreveport Times] Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.
  • Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List[NYT] Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.(tags:right-nutterynewsbiology)
  • Jet alert suspects ‘to be freed’[BBC] Too bad: we have to let the brown dudes go. Got to hassle them though!
  • US backs morning-after pill sales[BBC] The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive pill after three years of controversy.
  • U.S. sues state, Verizon to block NSA revelationsThe federal government filed a lawsuit against state officials and Verizon Communications Monday to prevent the release of information about the company’s alleged role in the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program.(tags:NSA-spyingnews)
  • New Stem Cell Method Avoids Destroying Embryos[NYT] Biologists have developed a technique for establishing colonies of human embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, a method that, if confirmed in other laboratories, would seem to remove the principal objection to stem cell research.(tags:news)
  • Deported Man Was Actually U.S. Citizen[MyWayNews via RawStory] "In effect, the government is arguing that an innocent man who was wrongly convicted should not be released from the custody of the United States," U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn wrote. He ruled that Perez never should have been deported.(tags:newsimmigrationlaw-enforcement)
  • 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back - Aug 23, 2006[CNN] Arrested for unbuckling seat belt and using cell phones! Not much until you consider clincher: they were brown!
  • THE GRAND ILLUSION: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11THE GRAND ILLUSION: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11

Ducking the ethical issues

The city of Chicago, in a moment of surprising enlightenment, passed a law banning the sale of foie gras. The response? Civil disobedience from restaurateurs and a indignation from the already overfed population. Curtailment of civil rights? No problem. Illegal and immoral war? Who cares. Lesser cruelty towards animals? NO WAY, dude!

What is pathetic about this is the lack of a meaningful response in terms of the ethical issues raised. Instead naive individual choice arguments are offered to justify personal opinion. Some counts offer the staggering number of six billion animals killed each year for human consumption (the number perhaps is approximate and is intentionally coincidental with the current human population). At least the Germans just stood by while horror was committed around them.

Links and News [2006.08.23]

  • Syria warns on peacekeepers[Guardian] The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, today warned he would consider the deployment of international troops along the Lebanon-Syria border a hostile move towards his country.(tags: )
  • BT says women make the best bosses[via Register] Women over 50 will be the best bosses in the future because they understand the importance of flexible working, according to research from BT.
  • Walesa leaves Solidarity movement[via BBC](tags:news)
  • MyDD :: Senate Forecast 2006Frequently updated projection of US Senate 2006 results, from MyDD.(tags:elections)
  • Maverick genius turns down maths ‘Nobel’Guardian: Perelman turns down Fields Medal and Clay Institute prize, for solving the Poincare Conjecture.

Israeli buffoonery continues

How do you get from the image of the most advanced and successful fighting force in the world to a pathetic joke, in the period of one month?

Israel holds NasrallahPublication time: Today at 12:26 Djokhar timeUnfortunately for the embarrassed Israelis, he was the local green grocer - not the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.Leah Tzemel, the Israeli lawyer who obtained their release on Monday, said Israel had snatched the four Nasrallahs and their neighbour on August 1 in a commando raid in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon.

It would all be hilarious if the IDF silliness did not involve the death of others (15 people in this case).