Saturday, April 21, 2007

Blue Murder

According to Dr Riad al-Aqra of the Gaza Hospital for mental health, Palestinian terrorists are depressed. And what criteria does the good Dr al-Aqra use to diagnose 'emotional depression'? Apparently it includes such psychotic symptoms as a reluctance to murder people:
One member of the Hamas security force came to me suffering from high tension, which was causing physical problems. He said he felt fear from the fact that he would burn in hell forever if he fired even one bullet at someone,' the doctor said.
Not quite DSM-IV.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

An Anti-Candide

A former chief rabbi of Israel claims that the Holocaust was God's wrath, apparently directed against the Reform movement. It's kind of like the opposite argument to Voltaire's Candide. Pangloss cheerfully argued that behind every disaster lies part of a benevolent plan for humanity. R. Eliyahu agrees that genocide is no mere depressing reminder of man's inhumanity, but rather represents the plan of a savage deity. Apparently the Reform movement went wrong in trying to "act like goyim". If this is true, the Haredi movement better change out of the black garb pioneered by the Polish gentry and the Chassidim drop the Sufi inspired mysticism. I'm sure they'll get right on that...

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Israel Sells All Armed Dogs

The Israeli Defense Force sold all dogs for Pesach, promising to reacquire them after the festival. My own sources - even more secret and better informed than Debka - have revealed that the IDF reneged on part of the deal, refusing to take back all military chihuahuas. Chihuahuas are looked down upon by the IDF as they are cowardly little mongrels. Druze community leaders are furious, as - very reasonably - they also dislike these rat-like canines. Closed door negotiations are underway with a solution likely involving release of the loathsome beasts on the foothills of the Golan Heights.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

British Journalists Stand Against Israel

Impressive - at least now we can take it for granted that any story written by a British journalist has more than an even chance of being written by a bigot.
The National Union of Journalists has voted at its annual meeting for a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a protest against last year's war in Lebanon.

Today's vote was carried 66 to 54...

The vote on the motion was taken after it was split from a larger motion that condemned the "savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel" last year.

This motion, known as Composite B in Order Paper 4, was carried by a large majority and also condemned the "slaughter of civilians by Israeli troops in Gaza and the IDF's [Israeli Defense Forces] continued attacks inside Lebanon following the defeat of its army by Hezbollah".

*** Note from Blog Management.

While this blog is a supporter of free speech, it also feels that popular discourse has become contaminated by unncessary nastiness and vitriole. Gratituitous slurs, such as the first comment to the previous post, even if disguised as satire, do not help this blog to set an example for the Mainstream Media about how to discuss issues without resorting to abuse.

On the other hand, this blog is not in favor of censorship and doesn't think that comments ought to be removed unless they incite violence. Nor does this blog think that radio commentators, irrespective of their offensiveness, should be fired until the public stops listening in protest. In a market of free ideas, the market should choose which ideas gain exposure and which are buried.

Thus the comment in question was only removed to give its author the chance to think about whether s/he shares this philosophy. If not s/he is welcome to repost the the comment and it will not be deleted.

Thank you,

Blog Management.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Israeli Melon Bombs

Hilarious - next Israel will send over some reason-infested raisins.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Cocoa for Health and Vigor

A new meta-analysis argues that daily consumption of cocoa reduces blood pressure. The useful dose seems to be about 100g of dark chocolate per day.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Both Boats Missing

One consequence of the incident, BBC radio reported, was that the British navy would no longer be able to board merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf because Iran had confiscated the only two boats used to carry out the work.
From here and in case you think its a spoof, also reported here and here.

Can anybody lend the British Navy a boat?

Acausality

From Jung's Synchronicity
In the first case it is hard to see how chemical processes can ever produce psychic processes, and in the second case one wonders how an immaterial psyche could ever set matter in motion.
Jung's argument is that causality is only one organizing principle in the universe, and that another is simultaneous manifestation of an idea in matter and consciousness. However, this notion of 'synchronicity' is broader, encompassing not just the mind-matter question, but also underlying the manifold strange coincidences of everyday life. The nicest example, which he gives in the book, and which is cited in the Wikipedia entry on Synchronicity that of Emile Dechamps and the plum pudding:
A well-known example of synchronicity is the true story of the French writer Émile Deschamps who in 1805 was treated to some plum pudding by the stranger Monsieur de Fortgibu. Ten years later, he encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant, and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Fortgibu. Many years later in 1832 Émile Deschamps was at a diner, and was once again offered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Fortgibu was missing to make the setting complete — and in the same instant the now senile de Fortgibu entered the room.
Unfortunately, Jung gets caught up presenting an absurd and poorly analyzed 'experiment' involving marriage relationships and astrological signs. However, I am sympathetic to the the crux of his argument, that our standard idea of 'causation' is insufficient to explain all observed phenomena. We conceive of causation as no more than touch - thing A must somehow contact thing B to exert an effect on it. Yet discovery of quantum entanglement, in which two particles widely separated in space affect each other's state instantaneously, compels us to reconsider our intuitive understanding of causality. Jung's appeal to 'synchronicity' has the feeling of an idea just out of reach, inaccessible without the right set of mental tools and metaphors to grasp.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Rule Brittania

One of the hostages, Dean Harris, 30, an acting sergeant in the Royal Marines, told a Sunday Times reporter yesterday: “I want £70,000. That is based on what the others have told me they have been offered. I know Faye has been offered a heck more than that. I am worth it because I was one of only two who didn’t crack.”
The Times

Starvation and History

Einstein's childhood is recounted in this Time article. It seems that his early development as a scientist resulted from the adaptation of an ancient custom born out of hunger.
Einstein's greatest intellectual stimulation came from a poor student who dined with his family once a week. It was an old Jewish custom to take in a needy religious scholar to share the Sabbath meal; the Einsteins modified the tradition by hosting instead a medical student on Thursdays. His name was Max Talmud, and he began his weekly visits when he was 21 and Einstein was 10. Talmud brought Einstein science books, including a popular illustrated series called People's Books on Natural Science, "a work which I read with breathless attention," said Einstein.
This is a great idea. Unfortunately, judging by the girth of students I see at the University, hunger isn't a big issue. I doubt that I could entice anyone to our table offering tofu scramble instead of their Campus Meal Card.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Just Another Bad Apple

So... every hipster's favorite electronics company, Apple, trails miserably in mitigating the environmental impact of its products. Not so surprising really. Much cheaper to look clean with nice white headphones than to phase out or clean up toxic waste products. Here's a prediction - if this Greenpeace campaign works, it won't be a result of Apple being deluged with complaints. Apple customers are too happy with their snappy little gadgets - Ipods are today's opiate of the masses. And I doubt that IBook Hunting will replace SUV Hunting as the favored sport of angry eco-activists.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

BBC Defines Democracy

According to the BBC, Ahmadinejad is the democratically elected President of Iran. Perhaps the BBC doesn't have access to the Wikipedia entry describing the Iranian Presidential electoral system? To summarize - the 'Council of Guardians' must authorize potential candidates (male muslims aged 25-75) to stand for election. In 1997, this resulted in 234 out of 238 candidates being disqualified. Needless to say, all 12 members of the 'Council of Guardians' are directly or indirectly simply appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Surely no definition of 'democracy' can escape the notion of rule by the people.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Inherit the Windiness


I watched 'Inherit the Wind' last night and after about 5 minutes started to sense that it was basically a propaganda piece. I paused the movie and read a little of the history of the Scopes Trial on Wikipedia before continuing.

What a disgrace. Michael Moore and Steven Spielberg are the direct inheritors of this line of movie making that exploits reality for the purpose of polemicism. It's depressing to think that in the minds of most Americans, this film serves as the historical reference for a seminal clash between science and religion in the public arena. Yet this film is no more than a nasty piece of Christian-bashing.

It's a sad inversion of history to see that the science teacher, portrayed in the film as a hero of rationalism and democracy, was in fact in cahoots with local businessmen to draw national attention to their town for economic purposes and only avoided perjury by not testifying. Conversely, the representation of William Bryan as a bumbling and pompous fanatic belies his strong history of support for progressive causes in a long history in politics. In fact apparently Bryan's antipathy to Darwinism arose from his disgust at its use as the foundation for the Eugenics movement in America and abroad. In fact, the textbook which sparked the trial, Civic Biology is a eugenics primer replete with racism and I hope is indeed banned from school libraries today. The ACLU wanted to defend the teaching of this repulsive pseudo-science?

The real story of the Scopes Trial is fascinating and I've ordered Larson's 'Summer of the Gods' to learn more about it. 'Inherit the Wind' is a hatchet job on Christianity, which makes it clear that the bigotry and superiority complex of the 'enlightened elite' has a long and illustrious history.