All entries by this author

Rude but amusing interview with Hitchens *

May 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

He once wrote that women aren’t funny, yet he’s convulsed by infantile word jokes.… Read the rest



There are no new ethical problems here *

May 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

Humanity has been ‘playing God’ with animals and plants since the invention of agriculture.… Read the rest



Globalization

May 21st, 2010 5:11 pm | By

I quite understand, except for one thing – why did they hire a psychic in Bangalore? Are there no psychics in Lincolnshire? That seems most unikely. It’s a mystical sort of place, Lincs – it must be crawling with psychics.

Now I know what you’re going to say – they’re psychics – they don’t have to be on the spot – der. It’s spiritual. It’s not all grubbily of the earth earthy; it’s immaterial, it’s floaty, it’s non-geographical. The psychic could be on Pluto; it wouldn’t matter. Thought travels through space and time, it does not need bodies or proximity. I know. I get all that. But what about the convenience of the people who are stuck in Lincolnshire? Surely … Read the rest



Anonymity for defendants in rape cases proposed *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Ban on identifying defendants was lifted in 1988; police claimed it was preventing women from reporting rapes.… Read the rest



Union blames privatization for mine deaths *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Mine accidents have risen drastically since change to Mining Law in 2004, with “flexible working conditions” and an inability to unionize.… Read the rest



Turkish mining town in mourning ponders its ‘fate’ *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Erdoğan says fatal mine explosions are ‘fate’; unions and sane people say they are caused.… Read the rest



Lincolnshire: psychic joins search for missing cat *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Owner has paid £1,000 to Animal Search UK which has hired a psychic in Bangalore to give helpful advice.… Read the rest



Carl Zimmer: some background on synthetic genome *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

You could say this is still a nature hybrid, because its DNA is based on the sequence of an existing species of bacteria.… Read the rest



Andrew Brown spies another plot by militant atheism *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

“Another triumph of the only major scientific programme driven from the beginning by explicit atheism.”… Read the rest



It’s alive *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

“The only DNA in the cells is the designed synthetic DNA sequence…”… Read the rest



Jerry Coyne asks: did scientists play god? *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Life is just complex chemicals—nothing more, nothing less. Venter and his team have gone a long way toward showing this.… Read the rest



Mohammed cartoonist regrets any offense caused *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

“She has attended a local Muslim group meeting in an effort to learn more.”… Read the rest



EU criticizes Pakistan’s blasphemy laws *

May 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Notes the laws are often used to justify censorship, criminalisation, persecution and the murder of members of political, racial and religious minorities.… Read the rest



Rand Paul reverses himself on civil rights law *

May 20th, 2010 | Filed by

It was all a misunderstanding. Or something.… Read the rest



Love is a crime in Malawi *

May 20th, 2010 | Filed by

A 14-year jail sentence, with hard labour, on two gay men for being that.… Read the rest



The creator of the universe is really clever

May 20th, 2010 12:22 pm | By

Karl Giberson is a honcho at BioLogos. BioLogos is about “Science and Faith in Dialogue,” about Science & the Sacred. Francis Collins is a scientist, Karl Giberson is a scientist. Karl Giberson explains why he has reservations about Intelligent Design.

BioLogos enthusiastically endorses the idea that the universe is intelligently designed and we certainly believe that the creator of the universe is intelligent. We consider the evidence regarding the fine-tuning of the universe to be provocative and compelling. Our reservations about ID certainly do not derive from any rejection of the rationality of the universe.

The rationality of the universe? What’s rational about the universe? It’s too big, for one thing. It’s too cold for another, too … Read the rest



But what are you going to do about it?

May 20th, 2010 11:32 am | By

Rand Paul, Kentucky’s “Tea Party” nominee for the Senate, is opposed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo says why that’s not just a principled libertarian view:

To a degree the argument Paul is making is something like saying that I don’t like rape or murder, I just don’t believe in a police force to prevent it or a judiciary to punish the offenders. The reason we, albeit imperfectly, have equality before the law and in the society at large (in terms of public accommodations and so forth) on racial grounds in the whole of the United States is because of federal legislation that forced that to be the case. The reason we don’t

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Why Rand Paul isn’t “just a libertarian” *

May 20th, 2010 | Filed by

Because we live in an actual world where political philosophy can’t be separated from history and experience.… Read the rest



Pakistan: thousands of demonstrators hit the streets *

May 20th, 2010 | Filed by

To protest “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” by far the biggest problem facing Pakistan.… Read the rest



Bid the sun stand still *

May 20th, 2010 | Filed by

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority directed ISPs to block YouTube after material considered “sacrilegious” was found on it.… Read the rest