Turkishness Under Assault by Post-Modernist Author

I have Pamuk's book, 'My Name is Red', in a large stack waiting to be read. It has the discouraging appearance of a post-modern sort of text: a zillion short chapters with headings like 'I am a tree' and 'I am called "Stork"'. Nevertheless, the plot, a murder mystery set in Ottoman Turkey, sounds very appealing. Hard to really say whether he discredits Turkey until I've read it - but I'll be sure to let y'all know...

Turkish prosecutors decided not to file charges against novelist Orhan Pamuk for allegedly insulting Turkey's armed forces, but the writer still faces charges that he insulted 'Turkishness,' said lawyers who asked for his trial.
CNN.com - Turkey drops case against author

Eat Tofu Dont Drive

Environmentally speaking, apparently its better to adopt a vegan diet than buy a hybrid car.

How to Design an Environmental Disaster

So, not only are chicken fed on fish, but it seems that fish get fed chicken as well... A very cunning way to maximize the possibility of infectious agents propogating on farms.

Bird flu may be spread by using chicken dung as food in fish farms, a practice now routine in Asia, according to the world's leading bird conservation organisation.

Fertilising fish ponds with poultry faeces, which can dramatically improve fish growth, may set up major new reservoirs of avian influenza infection if the chickens providing the manure are infected themselves...
Independent

Vitamin D is the new Vitamin C

An article in the Independent publicizes the flurry of excitement in scientific circles about vitamin D. According to this review, vitamin D obtained from sunlight is particularly active - in its absence, dietary requirements are higher than the current RDA.

Lakhdar "The Great Poison" Brahimi is retiring

Oh misery, woeful day.

Stalin and GE Pioneering...

Scotsman.com - Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors

THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.

Moreover....

Mr Ivanov's ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in impregnating chimpanzees.

Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia - Stalin's birthplace - for the apes to be raised.

Mr Ivanov's experiments, unsurprisingly from what we now know, were a total failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.

Intriguing. The AIDS virus is thought to have crossed from monkeys to humans in the early 1930's, somewhere in West Africa. Conspiracy theories often postulate that AIDS is a CIA experiment gone wrong (or right, according to taste) ; could AIDS really be an inadvertant result of Stalin's genetic experiment?

Charity and Income

Great article at the NYT about a report detailing the relationship between age, income and charitable giving. According to the full report , the most generous group is the $25,000-$50,000 bracket, who gave 1.61% of their "estimated investment assets". By comparison, the $1 million to $10 million bracket gave only around 0.55%. The second most generous group were the 'super-rich' (more than $10 million), giving 1.2% of assets.

Farewell Hollywood

Hollywood really can't do the right thing. Either they make films that erode society by glorifying violence, or they produce dull pieces that fail the 'lazy young male with large screen TV and on-demand video' test. Tammy Bruce argues:

Americans will no longer go see movies which are nothing more than the manifestation of the backwash of malignant narcissists. We're also sick and tired of listening to actors lecture us about how awful the US is, and more recently, why a cold-blooded mass murdering gang founder should have been given clemency.

Though I disagree with her last comment about the death penalty, Tammy Bruce nails it. I can't argue that I've ever been a huge movie-goer, but I am horrified by the quality of films that are eventually released to DVD.

A Cute Nativity

A colleague trying to sound mischievous, yesterday 'threatened' to set the background on a lab computer to the 'flying spaghetti monster', the deity of a fictitious church, whose existence is an ironic comment on creationist politics. He immediately retracted, saying that it would be too provocative and might be offensive. I pointed out that in the bubble of opinion among academics, it would require far more audacity, and invite far sharper criticism, to paste a picture of the nativity on the computer screen. On reflection, I disagreed with myself - most who saw it would interpret it as a sarcastic comment on the dated aesthetic of christmas. Then I wondered whether perhaps an already stylized cartoon of the nativity, with cute sincerity or gentle humor might disallow such an interpretation. And that it would be an interesting experiment...

The Ahmadinejad Files

More brilliant diplomacy from Iran's President.

"Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying."

"Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?" he said.

"If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe -- like in Germany, Austria or other countries -- to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it."

How about the south of France?

Reuters later boldly emphasizes the jewish connection to Israel: "Jews trace their roots in Israel back to Biblical times." As if its some crazy delusion of the jewish people. How Christ strayed from his home turf in the vatican as far as Jerusalem is anybody's guess. And the relics of biblical archaeology - all planted by maniacal Zionists no doubt.

UK Plans Collective Punishment

The BBC reports:

Government plans that could see the closure of mosques suspected of inciting extremism have been attacked by Muslim leaders.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie said the move would 'criminalise an entire community for the criminality carried out by a few'.

Not a bad point really - surely this is precisely the sort of collective punishment that the BBC and its european liberal clientel deplore. Baffling. No doubt there will be mass protests and young american liberals travelling to England in solidarity with the beseiged muslim communities there...