The notion is the last of the utopian projects.… Read the rest
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A Daily Reading List – With Attitude
Mar 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonArts and Letters Daily approaches its hundredth million.… Read the rest
Review of Bernard Williams on Truth
Mar 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWilliams effectively explains the virtues of truth telling to a non-specialist audience.… Read the rest
Oliver Sacks on Francis Crick
Mar 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCrick’s mind was always moving forward.… Read the rest
How Not to Explain Suicide Bombing
Mar 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEve Garrard teases apart some familiar non-explanations.… Read the rest
An Interview with Rebecca Goldstein
Mar 9th, 2005 | By Ophelia BensonRebecca Goldstein has a new book out: Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel.
Readers at Science Daily call Incompleteness
’Outstanding’ and ‘Superb’.
Butterflies and Wheels: Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont call chapter 11 of their book Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science: ‘Gödel’s Theorem and Set Theory: Some Examples of Abuse.’ They give a quotation from Régis Debray as an epigraph: ‘Ever since Gödel showed that there does not exist a proof of the consistency of Peano’s arithmetic that is formalizable within this theory (1931), political scientists had the means for understanding why it was necessary to mummify Lenin…’ The chapter’s first sentence starts, ‘Gödel’s theorem is an inexhaustible source of intellectual abuses…’
Sokal … Read the rest
Unfinished Biz
Mar 9th, 2005 12:14 am | By Ophelia BensonA little unfinished business. I meant to add something to that N&C about Terry Eagleton’s comment last month – and then I forgot. Now I’ve remembered again.
… Read the restLike hunger strikers, suicide bombers are not necessarily in love with death. They kill themselves because they can see no other way of attaining justice; and the fact that they have to do so is part of the injustice…People like Rosa Luxemburg or Steve Biko give up what they see as precious (their lives) for an even more valuable cause. They die not because they see death as desirable in itself, but in the name of a more abundant life all round. Suicide bombers also die in the name of a better life
Amnesty, Oxfam Report on Guns’ Impact on Women
Mar 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWomen are particularly at risk of certain crimes such as family violence and rape. … Read the rest
Women Challenge Traditional Status as Minors
Mar 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYoung woman in Swaziland gang-raped by bus conductors while spectators cheered. … Read the rest
Human Trafficking in South Africa
Mar 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMolo Songololo and other NGOs work to stop the flesh trade in women and children.… Read the rest
No Going Back
Mar 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFight for women’s equality that began 30 years ago will continue, and faster.… Read the rest
Protests on Global Women’s Day
Mar 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMukhtar Mai led march in Pakistan, men in Bangladesh joined women protesting acid attacks.… Read the rest
Christopher Hitchens on Tom Paine
Mar 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWanted American Revolution to be more radical, French to be less ideological, rigid, bloodthirsty.… Read the rest
In the Head or On the Head
Mar 8th, 2005 12:00 am | By Ophelia BensonHarry at Harry’s Place on the Shabina Begum case.
… Read the restThose who blame the judge for not making a political decision or who attack the Human Rights legislation for this ruling miss the point. It is clearly Britain’s lack of secularity, the absence of a written constitution and the religious character of our schools that have allowed such a verdict by creating the conditions in which it has been taken. But as long as we are allowing religions or beliefs to be displayed in schools then it is simply unjustified to discriminate. Those of us who would prefer schools to be free of such religious battles and identity conflicts, need to be aware that we are fighting a losing battle unless
Oh Yeah?
Mar 7th, 2005 11:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonHmm. A little jest. Well, two can play at that game…
1. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it…You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh is pronounced ‘burra’ e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you can’t cope with correct pronunciation.
16. Last but not the least, and for heaven’s sake…..it’s Nuclear as in clear NOT Nucular.
Yes. But then again…(see me get myself in trouble) –
It’s also tune, not chewn and not chyewwn. It’s news, not nyewws. It’s duke, not jyewk or jyewwk. If you want to pronounce them chyewwn, nyewws, and jyewwk, then you ought to spell them … Read the rest
Mona Eltahawy on Shabina Begum Case
Mar 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInstead of standing up to growing conservatism among some Muslims, many liberals simply give in.… Read the rest
Azam Kamguian on a ‘Piece of Clothing’
Mar 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDo young girls really choose to wear the hijab? … Read the rest
News From CDWRME
Mar 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNew of women’s rights in Iran, Iraq, Syria, India, Pakistan, more.… Read the rest
A ‘God’ Gene?
Mar 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDefine ‘spirituality’ so broadly that everyone has it, then call that god. Hmm.… Read the rest
Hedda Gabler Is
Mar 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIntelligent,ignorant, snobbish, mean, small-minded, conservative, cold, bored, vicious. … Read the rest