All entries by this author

Muslim Thinker Calls For End To Brutal Punishments *

Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by

Tariq Ramadan has called for a moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty in the Muslim world.… Read the rest



Dr Azam to Speak at Ottawa Press Conference *

Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by

Azam told the Globe he wants to renew worldwide attention on Kazemi’s case.… Read the rest



Kazemi was Tortured and Raped *

Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by

Doctor’s account contradicts Iran’s official position that death was caused by a fall. … Read the rest



Rape, Torture, and Lies *

Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by

Dr. Shahram Azam found a skull fracture, wounds, bruises all over Kazemi’s body.… Read the rest



Zahra Kazemi Was Gang-Raped *

Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by

Doctor who has left Iran tells Die Zeit that Kazemi was raped and tortured.… Read the rest



Flying North

Mar 30th, 2005 8:35 pm | By

It’s one of those peculiarly gorgeous days here, when it’s difficult to stay at the desk tap-tapping. You know the kind of thing. After several days of rain, an interval, of scrubbed translucent dazzling blue sky and white clouds. So I gave up the struggle and went out for a walk along The Wall overlooking the water, islands, mountains, all that. And got a bonus. I was half-aware (my mind was elsewhere – probably musing on Richard Rorty) of hearing bird calls overhead, but I paid no heed – but then I noticed a couple of people ahead of me gazing upwards, so I looked, in plenty of time to see two large Vs of snow geese flying north. The … Read the rest



BBC Governors Reject Springer Opera Complaints *

Mar 30th, 2005 | Filed by

Dissenter disagreed that artistic significance outweighed offence caused.… Read the rest



Mugabe: Opposition Victory Will Not Be Tolerated *

Mar 30th, 2005 | Filed by

Robert Mugabe called the Zimbabwean opposition “traitors” yesterday.… Read the rest



Yet Another Twist in Schiavo Case *

Mar 30th, 2005 | Filed by

Appeals court agrees to hear petition to re-insert feeding tube.… Read the rest



What’s Up With Harvard? And Larry Summers? *

Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by

Is it all a ‘cleavage between coastal elites and certain mainstream values’?… Read the rest



Fear of ‘Playing God’ on Only One Side of Equation *

Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by

Ignoring patient wishes for no heroic measures is perfectly all right. … Read the rest



Armageddon is Fun and Entertaining *

Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by

Why does Jesus decide to wear a dress while riding a horse? And other puzzles.… Read the rest



DFW Science Museum to Show ‘Volcanoes’ *

Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by

Reverses bad decision to heed complaints of evolutionphobic whiners.… Read the rest



Panda’s Thumb Round-up

Mar 29th, 2005 12:00 am | By

[Mopping streaming eyes] This is very amusing. Over at Panda’s Thumb.

Prof. Steve Steve holds the B. Amboo Chair in Creatoinformatics at the University of Ediacara. He has been nominated five times (only twice by himself) for the Nobel Prize and has received six Barnes and Noble gift certificates.

Read the whole thing. Admire Steve’s picture, too. And there’s the one on Scientific American’s surrender to the creationists. About time – elitist bastards!

Oh just read the whole site – there’s one good item after another. What do they think, that I’ve got all day to read their posts?!

And there is the NY Times article on the Imax theatres rejecting evolooshun movies.

People who follow trends at commercial

Read the rest


Sham Inquiry

Mar 28th, 2005 8:37 pm | By

A bit from an essay of Susan Haack’s in Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate, page 8.

And to inquire is to try to discover the truth of some question. But pseudo-inquiry is a phenomenon no less common than pseudo-belief…Peirce identifies one kind of pseudo-inquiry when he writes of ‘sham reasoning’ [Collected Papers, I. 57-58]: making a case for the truth of some proposition your commitment to which is already evidence- and argument-proof.

Yes. A neat summing-up. Also a neat expression of the basic, the as it were foundational principle of B&W – which could be called identification of and opposition to sham inquiry.

Also a neat, succint description of how Margaret Mead went wrong. I’ve just been … Read the rest



Unanswered Questions in George Sand Biography *

Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by

What were the origins of Sand’s rebellion and her ambition as a writer?… Read the rest



Illness as Identity *

Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by

Losing a leg and half your brain cells can be an opportunity to learn…… Read the rest



Cult Studs Condemned Adorno as an Elitist *

Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by

Dislike of American mass culture doesn’t make Adorno a political conservative.… Read the rest



Trivers’ Rhetoric of Maximum Affront *

Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by

Trivers’s legendary papers of the early 1970s changed many disciplines.… Read the rest



IMAX Nixes Darwin for Fear of ‘Offending’ *

Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by

Decision also affects science museums.… Read the rest