Bristol’s admissions policies not so very skewed toward state school applicants after all, expert says.… Read the rest
Ignatieff on Empire 
Mar 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michael Ignatieff on the complications of intervention and nation-building.… Read the rest
Survey Shows Abuse of Teachers
Mar 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
School management often makes teachers feel it’s their own fault.… Read the rest
TV Trumps Books
Mar 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Iran was confining, especially for a female teacher, but the students cared about the books.… Read the rest
Consequential versus Deontological Objections
Mar 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Evaluating risks is not the same as making moral choices.’… Read the rest
Competing Studies
Mar 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
One study finds affirmative action helps education, another doesn’t.… Read the rest
Free Will or Free Won’t?
Mar 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
David Barash reviews Freedom Evolves.… Read the rest
The is/ought gap
Mar 24th, 2003 | By Julian Baggini"Humans have not evolved to be monogamous; the survival of the species
depends on diversity."
Fiona Horne, 8 March 2003, The Guardian Weekend
In case you haven’t heard of Fiona Horne, this multi-talented antipodean is a rock
star, journalist, author, model and witch. Seriously. She’s written five books
on witchcraft, including Witchin’: A Handbook for Teen Witches. Like it or not,
what this person says gets published and listened to.
Judge for yourself whether this is a good thing. When asked "How often
do you have sex?" Horne replied, "Every orgasm is a sacred offering
to the universe." When asked if she believed in life after death, she replied,
"The energy that we are has to go somewhere." A … Read the rest
Maybe a Lottery Would be Better?
Mar 23rd, 2003 10:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonRichard Dawkins likes to outrage people. He’s not the only person in the world who likes to do that, in fact it’s just barely possible that there are one or two people connected with Butterflies and Wheels who don’t mind irritating. However that may be, Dawkins has done it again.
… Read the restEvil is not an entity, not a spirit, not a force to be opposed and subdued. Evil is a miscellaneous collection of nasty things that nasty people do. There are nasty people in every country, stupid people, insane people, people who should never be allowed to get anywhere near power. Just killing nasty people doesn’t help: they will be replaced. We must try to tailor our institutions, our constitutions, our
Geneticists and the Deity
Mar 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
So if this God knew about cystic fibrosis, why keep it a secret? And who defines ‘respectable theologians’?… Read the rest
Roxxof?? And That’s Not a Joke?
Mar 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Who says capitalism is daft! Targeting aphrodisiac alcoholic drinks at yoof – a brilliant idea! Add steroids and you’ve got perfection.… Read the rest
It Was a Joke
Mar 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New Orleans’ French Quarter won’t be re-named the Freedom Quarter after all.… Read the rest
Orwell on Iraq
Mar 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bernard Crick ponders what Orwell might have thought of it all.… Read the rest
One Bit of Good News
Mar 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Anthony Julius’ new book will ‘make it impossible for art critics and curators ever again to utter the word ”transgressive” in a tone of unqualified admiration.’… Read the rest
Historian Ditches Hollywood
Mar 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ian Kershaw severs ties with tv producers out of an eccentric concern for accuracy. … Read the rest
Solidarity and Group Think
Mar 21st, 2003 10:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis review by Alan Wolfe is an odd mix of insight and blindness, shrewdness and obtuseness.
Wolfe makes some good points about the inherent difficulties of trying to make a progressive politics out of consumer movements, and about the value of thinking big when writing about history.
… Read the restFor the past two or three decades, historians have been studiously thinking small…As important as social history has been, however, it has also been mind-numbingly narrow in its evocation of detail and in its reluctance to consider the larger meanings of its findings. But Cohen thinks big…One hopes that her book will stimulate her colleagues to take similar risks, even the risk of emulating historians of previous generations whose efforts at intellectual synthesis
Evolution and Information
Mar 21st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I just can’t sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it’s nonsense!’ Our kind of guy.… Read the rest
The Kurds are Pleased, At Least
Mar 21st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Not surprising after three decades of persecution, Luke Harding says.… Read the rest
Prison for Female Genital Mutilation
Mar 21st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Clwyd and Blunkett are clear: mutilating girls’ genitals is not a practice that can be justified by custom or on cultural or any other grounds.… Read the rest
The Rudest Man in Britain?
Mar 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Surely not! I thought we had that title sewn up right here on B & W.… Read the rest
