Secularists Fight Back *

Jan 18th, 2005 | Filed by

Against the encroachment of religion on public policy and on the rights of non-believers.… Read the rest



Your Own

Jan 17th, 2005 10:29 pm | By

I had a thought earlier today [medium close-up of Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey after Hacker has told him he’s just had an idea – expression of delighted surprise: ‘Prime Minister!’]. Yes very funny; anyway, I had this thought.

A bit from Daughters of France, Daughters of Allah:

Amiri was the first Muslim woman I contacted in Paris, and she cried as we spoke on the telephone. That day she had received an e-mail saying, “Do you realize what you are doing to your own people?” It was, she told me, one of many threatening messages she had received, and they were not to be taken lightly.

The thought was just about the meaning of that phrase – ‘your … Read the rest



An Observation

Jan 17th, 2005 9:12 pm | By

Here’s a good passage. Not apropos of anything in particular, I just happened to read it and I liked it so thought I would pass it on. It’s from Three Seductive Ideas, by Jerome Kagan, page 44.

Some scientists are uncomfortable with this level of uncertainty because they seek facts that are unlikely to be proven wrong. They resemble hunters who, having trapped a secret of nature, want it to stay fixed on the trophy wall forever. Other scientists are chess players who derive joy from following the many complex rules for doing science – the correct assignment of subjects, the proper balancing of conditions, the most appropriate statistical analyses. Those who are butterfly chasers – a third group

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Metaphors Comfort in Face of Big Scientific Ideas *

Jan 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Making figures of speech out of our problems is not the way to solve them. … Read the rest



Therapy for Addiction to Therapy *

Jan 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Making addiction an identity is not all that therapeutic.… Read the rest



Center for Inquiry for Secularism and Science *

Jan 17th, 2005 | Filed by

US universities need counterweight to Campus Crusade for Christ.… Read the rest



Interview with Astronomer Royal Martin Rees *

Jan 17th, 2005 | Filed by

‘One idea many of us are pursuing is a grander concept of the physical world.’… Read the rest



The Pretty Woman Theory of Prostitution *

Jan 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Takes Paglia’s claim that prostitutes are not victims but outlaws at face value.… Read the rest



Fallacy of equivocation

Jan 17th, 2005 | By

“[John Woods] was scheduled to be on the Pan-Am flight that exploded above Lockerbie in 1988 killing all 259 people on board. He cancelled at the last moment and went to an office party instead. […] On September 11, 2001, John left his office in one of the twin towers seconds before the building was struck by a hijacked aircraft. […] Why do some of us seem to be blessed with an extraordinary amount of good luck, while others suffer misfortune after misfortune? According to Anne Watson, co-author of The Book of Luck, published this week, luck doesn’t even exist. “I believe that what we commonly consider to be luck is something that lies within our control,” she says.”
Julia

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Diffusion

Jan 16th, 2005 8:09 pm | By

Well this is good. Meera Nanda’s article in the New Humanist is apparently being widely read and discussed. Someone who edited it says so here:

It’s moments like these I like best about my job: getting some recognition, even from total strangers, for a piece I spent hours and hours editing: Meera Nanda’s piece on the intellectual treason of postmodernist scholars from the January 2005 issue of New Humanist is being picked up on various arts&ideas websites and personal blogs, people are reading it, some are even commenting on it. It’s good to see these ideas going beyond the narrow readership of NH – thanks to the internet.

There is another comment on the diffusion of Meera’s New Humanist … Read the rest



Eric Hobsbawm in Defence of History *

Jan 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Not true that ‘my truth is as valid as yours, whatever the evidence.’… Read the rest



Spacecraft Lands on Titan, a Moon of Saturn *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

First landing on another planet’s moon; only moon in solar system with a substantial atmosphere. … Read the rest



The Compassion of Fahrenheit Jesus? *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Mike and Mel pair to make buddy-road-docudrama about flagellation of audience.… Read the rest



WHO and African Health Ministers Discuss Polio *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Internal conflicts hamper immunization and monitoring.… Read the rest



Nigeria, Sudan Vow to Stop Polio Spread *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Nigeria had 763 cases, India 129, Sudan 112.… Read the rest



WHO Reports Polio Cases Spreading in 2004 *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Boycott of vaccine in northern Nigeria caused spread to neighboring countries.… Read the rest



‘The Transgressive Pleasure of Critique’ *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Oliver Kamm on misreading Shakespeare.… Read the rest



Livingstone to be Reported to Watchdog *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

After calling assembly member dishonest and Islamophobic.… Read the rest



Letter to Guardian Condemns Murder of Hadi Saleh *

Jan 15th, 2005 | Filed by

He fought for a democratic, peaceful and federal Iraq. … Read the rest



An Open Letter and a Petition

Jan 14th, 2005 7:46 pm | By

A couple of signing opportunities.

Labour Friends of Iraq. This is an open letter to the Stop the War Coalition asking why they have not spoken out clearly and forcefully on the murder of Hadi Saleh, International Officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions.

StWC leaders view the “resistance” as a legitimate national liberation movement. StWC leaders view as ‘collaborators’ the IFTU, all election workers, and all democratic parties participating in the January elections, whether Iraqi Communists, Kurdish Parties or Shia.

This view is quite wrong. The leaders of the ‘resistance’ are an amalgam of Baathists, Islamic fundamentalists, pro-al-Qaeda militants and criminals. There is nothing progressive about their political programmes. If they were ever to take state power

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