Tuesday, May 31, 2005

In a remarkable article, Spengler argues that during the 19th century the Church deliberately created a falsified past of "knights, troubadours and priests on behalf of Catholic restoration". All this he believes, in order to create a romantic history to appeal to the public at a time when the Church's political power had been subsumed by secular forces. Surprising, but the real shock is that Spengler claims that the famed Gregorian chant was imagined into existance by Benedictine musicologists in the 1830's. It seems that the Benedictines sought an elemental version of Church music, and in doing so ended becoming a nuisance to the established church, by insisting on forms at odds with contemporary tradition. There's an interesting parallel with the tension between Wahabists and mainstream moslems with regard to Islamic tradition. Fundamentalist ideologues like Sayyid Qutb draw a picture of piety belonging to a remote past, and claim that the glory of Islam was never so great as in that generation, before layers of misplaced tradition had dimmed the Koran's light. Perhaps a good strategy for moderate moslems today would be to insist on a romanticised picture of medieval Islamic society, dwelling on instances of tolerance and worldliness as part of its erstwhile greatness.
They're persistent these British academics. It's reminiscent of the reaction of the European leadership to the recent 'No' vote in France - 'those plebs will just have to keep voting until they get the right answer'!
Another British lecturers union will consider an academic boycott of Israel.

The Association of University Teachers overturned its blacklist of two Israeli institutions this week, but the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education is set to raise the issue at its annual conference this weekend.

Scheduled during Sunday's session is a meeting where the Open University's Steven Rose, one of the initiators of the AUT boycott, will speak in favor of shunning Israeli academic institutions.
Jerusalem Post - British Academics Try Another Boycott:

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Runner's Web and Triathlete's Web, a Running, Track and Field and Triathlon Resource Portal
it is worthwhile noting that vegetarian eating has been linked with a variety of health benefits, including a lower risk of mortality from heart disease, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer (16), along with a reduced chance of developing abnormal blood-fat profiles, obesity, and high blood pressure (17). Interestingly enough, regular exercise is also associated with many of these same advantages. Is there any evidence that vegetarianism and regular training, when practiced together, produce greater health benefits than either factor taken alone? As you might expect, the evidence suggests that this is indeed the case. In two different studies, a combination of recurrent physical exertion and vegetarian eating produced lower mortality rates, compared with a vegetarian diet alone or exercise by itself (18 & 19). From a health perspective, it is hard to argue against combining regular physical training with a vegetarian eating pattern.
Via The Panda's Thumb a report in the NYT that creationists have bought $16,000 worth of scientific credibility courtesy of the management of the National Museum of Natural History.
Fossils at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History have been used to prove the theory of evolution. Next month the museum will play host to a film intended to undercut evolution.
NYT - Smithsonian to Screen a Movie That Makes a Case Against Evolution
A comment on the Panda's Thumb suggests emailing the Smithsonian events coordinator at nhevents@si.edu.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

More stupid doctors than we even expected.

As a hardworking experimental biologist, bravely fighting the good fight against the forces of ignorance and chaos, I find it particularly irritating to hear MDs being regarded as authorities on questions of science. MD's are trained in a few narrow areas of human physiology and have no reason to know anything about a broader scientific perspective. Moreover, my experience has been that when MDs try to engage in honest research, disaster frequently ensues, resulting from a combination of arrogance, lack of technical skills and insufficient knowledge. Come to think of it, these foibles all afflict PhD scientists too, but perhaps to a lesser extent.

Now, the result of a survey - 42% of physicians believe that 'Intelligent Design' is a legitimate science. Results are stratified by religious affiliation of the doctors polled. The protestant church needs to do some serious self-examination if more than half the physicians associated with it prefer creationism to evolution. Of course this isn't the first failure in recent months by Protestant churches. Self-examination might not be enough ; some old fashioned penance might be required.
When asked whether they agree more with intelligent design or evolution, an overwhelming majority of Jewish doctors (88%) and more than half of Catholic doctors (60%) said they agree more with evolution, while slightly more than half of Protestants (54%) agree more with intelligent design.
HCD Research Inc.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

I think we can be cautiously optimistic that the AUT boycott of Israeli Universities will be overturned on Friday. In an interview with the BBC, a boycott instigator, Sue Blackwell is quoted as saying:
'If the people who come to the council are the usual people, who are dedicated unionists who care about the issue, we could win.

'If we find the meeting is packed with people who are opposing the boycott, we may struggle.'
BBC - Israel boycott 'stitch-up' claim
A pretty amusing baldfaced admission that her group hijacked the AUT... she means that so long as the AUT meeting is dominated by a small group of activists who do not represent the membership base, the boycott will stand - but if there's a good turnout of ordinary members looking to overturn a shameful decision, it'll go.

After looking at her website this morning, I was wondering a little this morning what turns somebody who is neither Palestinian nor Jewish into a rabid hate-monger. I remember reading somewhere that Blackwell was a Christian fundamentalist as a kid. Yes, here's a link. So probably she was 'converted' by the usual set of circumstances that draws people to fringe groups - dissatisfaction with their own life, welcome embrace and positive feedback by a small tightknit group and a feeling of spiritual righteousness and superiority to general society.

Monday, May 23, 2005

McDonald's is finally paying up for falsely advertising its french fries as vegetarian. The money is being distributed to a variety of religious and vegetarian groups and ... Tuft's University!? Whatever. Surely a more appropriate resolution to the dispute would be an undertaking by McDonald's to close down all stores internationally and distribute all funds raised to supporting factory farmed chickens in their retirement.
As part of the settlement, McDonald's said in an official apology: 'McDonald's sincerely apologizes to Hindus, vegetarians and others for failing to provide the kind of information they needed to make informed dietary decisions at our U.S. restaurants.

'We acknowledge that, upon our switch to vegetable oil in the early 1990's for the purpose of reducing cholesterol, mistakes were made in communicating to the public and customers about the ingredients in our French fries and hash browns. Those mistakes included instances in which French fries and hash browns sold at U.S. restaurants were improperly identified as 'vegetarian.'
NCM - Supersize This - McDonald's Disburses $10 Million As French Fries Fallout

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Syria appears to be taking tentative steps toward joining the Middle East Democracy Domino club. Is it mere coincidence that the post-invasion period is seeing wisps of freedom in another authoritarian regime? Michael Totten writes on his blog:
Whatever connection exists between a rising imperfect democracy in Iraq and a renascent democratic movement in Lebanon is debatable and indirect at best. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad didn’t trigger the upheaval in Beirut. The assasination of Rafik Hariri did. Still, when the U.S. ordered Bashar Assad to withdraw Syrian troops he said “I am not Saddam Hussein. I want to cooperate.” He did. Now he’s screwed.
Michael J. Totten - Cedar Revolution Exported to Syria

Monday, May 16, 2005

Efraim Halevy, head of the Mossad from 1998 to 2002 believes that WMDs may yet be found in Iraq. In an online Q&A session, he replied to a question about the missing WMDs:
You might be surprised if I say that not withstanding the fact that weapons of mass destruction have not yet been found in Iraq, I would not rule out the possibility that they might be found in the future. Iraq is a vast country, and only several months ago, a full squadron of aircraft was discovered buried in the sand.

I do not believe that Saddam Hussein risked the fall of his regime and his own capture just out of false pride. He doggedly and continuously refused to cooperate with the United Nations missions which tried time and time again to set up a credible monitoring system in Iraq after 1998.

I know this reply goes against some of the very definitive statements that have come out of Washington in recent months, following the findings of the Senate select committee on the Iraqi campaign and I know that there have been others who have searched Iraq high and low and who have not come up with anything in their hands. Yet all I can do is commend to you the findings of the British commission set up under the leadership of Lord Butler. Butler concluded in his report that he could not state definitively that weapons of mass destruction would never be found in Iraq.
Haaretz - QA
Regarding tomorrow's Philadelphia primary, first on the ballot for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas is Frank Palumbo. Let us not forget the article that appeared in
Philadelphia Weekly last July, about the stripclub Signatures and questions regarding a consultant developing the club, who'd previously received a felony conviction.
Madway and a private investigator she hired also discovered that Frank Palumbo Jr., the municipal court judge who owns the building that houses Signatures, loaned DeMone $629,300 secured by mortgages for the newsstand and pizzeria. At the time, DeMone owed Palumbo months of back rent on Signatures. (Palumbo didn't return a call to his office requesting comment on Signatures.)
Yes, its the same Frank Palumbo.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Perhaps this sort of story explains the exodus of the Dutch from Holland...
Times Onlines - It may be Europe's most liberal city - but if you are gay, you had best beware
For the first time, the Amsterdam Tourist Board has issued a warning to gay visitors to be careful in the city. In the first country to legalise homosexual marriage, gays are increasingly fearful of holding hands in public. Some have been chased out of their houses and middle-class gays are moving to rural areas for safety.
So a story from a single anonymous source sparked anti-American riots across the Middle East leading to at least a dozen deaths. The media regards itself as an important part of the checks and balances of democracy. Wrong - democracy is served by built in nodes of power with explicit and vested interests in promoting their ascendancy. The reach and concentration of media today is an aberration - it wields power, but lacks transparency and is responsible to nobody. Rather than acting to promote media concentration, thereby enhancing the power of the this un-democratic social force, the FCC should act to reduce it. Editors and journalists should drop their pretensions of being a force for change, and adopt a role of investigating and reporting information to the public. The Newsweek story is yet another in the recent long line of media scandals in which shabby information was published primarily on the basis of being damaging to a loathed conservative administration.
Newsweek says erred in Koran desecration report - Yahoo! News
Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.
ADVERTISEMENT

'We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst,' Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Koran down the toilet.

Friday, May 13, 2005

The piece quoted below by Mark Steyn set me wondering - why the taboo against polygamy in the West? It sounds like its an issue that is looming on the event horizon.

As a liberal, I generally feel people should be at liberty to develop their own spiritual lives without interference by authority. And it's hard to construct a good theoretical argument against polygamy. So I'd like to know more about the circumstances that lead Christian and Ashkenazi jewish religious authorities to weigh against the practice.

Ousmane Sembene's film Xala explores polygamy in an African context and draws a picture of the deprivations and jealousies that polygamy can foster. Yet one wonders whether this is an inevitable consequence of polygamy, or follows from insensitivity on the part of the people involved. There must be some historical writings describing the social experiences that lead to the prohibition among religious communities in the West. More on this after a bit of research...
Mark Steyn - Ave atque vale
But last summer Le Monde leaked a government report revealing that polygamy was routinely practiced in Muslim ghettoes in France. An informal survey of the Islamic communities of Ontario found much the same. In Britain, the Inland Revenue is considering recognizing polygamy for the purposes of inheritance law, so that a Muslim husband’s estate can be divided tax-free between several wives. And if it’s a Muslim who finally makes it to an American state Supreme Court with a polygamy case, bet on the traditional deference to “multiculturalism”.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

UN Dispatch Under-Reports Oil for Food Scandal

Only 3 of 45 April entries on the UN 'Dispatch' blog mention the scandal (7%). Yet according to a google news search, of the 21,400 news articles in April mentioning the UN, 2,550 refer to the Oil-for-Food scandal. That's about 12%, suggesting that by world news standards, the UN Dispatch is under-reporting the affair. Amusingly, the UN Dispatch actually criticises RogerLSimon's blog for discussing the oil for food affair in 20% of his April entries. Seems to me that Roger Simon is no more 'unbalanced' than the UN Dispatch itself!
Greenpeace - Korea Building Whale Meat Factory
In early April, we uncovered plans by the Korean government to build a whale meat factory in Ulsan. The discovery added to growing evidence that Korea wants to reopen commercial whaling.

They say that the whale meat factory will merely be a sanitary measure -- a way to hygienically butcher the whales which are "accidentally" killed by becoming entangled in nets, and those which might be killed in a possible programme of "scientific whaling." Korea allows the commercial sale of whale meat from accidental kills. The Ministry didn't respond to our observation that Korea and Japan individually in 2003 caught more whales by accident than all the fishing fleets in the world combined reported.

Nor did they comment on the stories that local people have told us about some methods fisherman use to "accidentally" catch whales: ramming them with the ship to cause massive internal injuries.
The Media Research Center has produced a new study which they claim shows that in the last six months, the major networks have labelled 'conservatives' as such at six times as frequency that 'liberals' are similarly tagged. Essentially they counted the number of times 'liberal' or 'conservative' was used as an identifier by the major networks, in a specifically american political context. They claim the discrepancy shows that liberals remain unlabelled, while the designation of conservatives as such serves as a warning to viewers that the source is ideologically biased.

But the study is not really so definitive. Surely the most straightforward interpretation of their data is that the networks are simply citing conservative commentators six times as frequently as they use liberal sources, with each side being identified at the same rate. Not consistent with our experience perhaps, but formally possible.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

The latest development in the AUT boycott -
Haifa University threatens to sue the AUT for defamation. The pretext for the boycott is the claim that Haifa University 'victimized' an outspoken anti-Zionist faculty member and a long-discredited masters student. From the accounts I've read, there is very little to substantiate this claim. The fullest desciption is in a Haaretz interview with Pappe from a few days ago. The only time expulsion from the University was raised came from an irate colleague - the relevant committee never even considered the compaint. Pappe's main complaints are of a 'de facto boycott' - inability to get permission to organize a conference, rumors that the administration seeks to exclude him from invitations to conferences and the cold shoulder from his colleagues. The master's students claims were serious enough to land him in court. During the case - which he lost - the student admitted several major discrepencies between his transcript of notes and the tape-recording itself.

Monday, May 09, 2005

from Snopes - A great joke...
An elderly Jew is on his deathbed and, much to his relatives' surprise, calls for a priest. When the priest arrives, the man declares, "I want to convert."

Confused, the priest asks, "Sir, why on earth would you want to become a Catholic when you've lived all your life a Jew?"

"Better one of them should die than one of us!" the man snaps.

Moss Graffiti

mossgraffiti - ingredients:

1 can of beer
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Several clumps garden moss
a plastic container (with lid),
a blender
a paintbrush

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Rescind the AUT Boycott Petition

Sign the Rescind the AUT Boycott Petition here.

I've been wondering over the last few days - if I was a member of the AUT, would I resign in protest, or remain a member to reverse the decision. It would be helpful if the AUT reversed its position, as it will be a nuisance to ascertain whether UK academics are AUT members before collaborating with them.