History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
From R-G
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90892712
All Things Considered May 28, 2008
by Tom Gjelten
The newspaper recently ran a three-part series on Cuba’s agricultural
sector – and why, despite all its farmland, the country has to import
so much food. Read the rest of this entry »
Marching to tibet
Montrealer films monks’ trek
In a few days, Michael Willcock’s travel companions could either be shot, arrested or sent to a concentration camp near the India-Tibet border.
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How We Got Into This Mess
By SAUL LANDAU
Bush made a sacrifice. He stopped playing golf, to symbolize his sympathy with the troops in Iraq. He did not, however, stop playing give video golf. For Bush to forgo other pleasures might require he start another war.
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via marxmail
(http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/bustani290508.html)
Hisham Bustani, “The Delusion of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ and the ‘War
on Islam’” –
Imperialism has no problem with Islam. Even Huntington says: “The age of
Muslim wars has its roots in more general causes. These do not include the
inherent nature of Islamic doctrine and beliefs, which, like those of
Christianity, adherents can use to justify peace or war as they wish.” Fukuyama goes even
further: “There is some hope that a more liberal strand of Islam will
emerge. . . . Muslims interested in a more liberal form of Islam must stop blaming
the West for painting Islam with too broad a brush, and move themselves to
isolate and delegitimate the extremists among them.” It is clear that the
problem is not Islam, but a resistant Islam, and, to be more specific, the problem
is solely the “resistant” part, since any other formula of Islam is
acceptable.
Apocalypse in the Oceans
With 150 dead zones in our oceans, some the size of Ireland, author Taras Grescoe argues that there’s been a massive die out of sea life.
United States of Insecurity: Perils and Alternatives in the Post 9-11 World
Based on an interview with Noam Chomsky conducted by Gabriel Matthew Schivone via telephone and e-mail at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 27, 2007 through February 11, 2008. Parts of the text have been expanded by the author. Published in Monthly Review.
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Curriculum Designed to Unite Art and Science.
Uniting the sciences and humanities is a noble goal, but the real intent here seems to be the stealth Darwinization of humanities, another social conditioning initiative. The original purpose it would seem for the division in the first place is to prevent such imperialism scientism, so let us watch the effort turn into jargon and fail.
Wilson’s uncomprehending take on religion, one should note, is one of the silliest and most limited treatments of the subject, one that Darwinian assumptions simply cannot cope with.
A unified approach to the sciences and humanities might actually deign to study the history of religion in its vastness and diversity, from the Neolithic onward, with especial attention to the combined scientific/humanities significance to be seen in the Axial Age phenomenon. That’s just one possibility, it actually demands a unified consciousness in practice.
Rare uncontacted tribe photographed in Amazon
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Amazon Indians from one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.
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U.S. Experts Bemoan Nation’s Loss of Stature in the World of Science
The science community just doesn’t get it. Granted, the right has confused the issue over and over on science, and the Bush administation has shown its colors with an anti-science bent.
But in the final analysis the loss of prestige as to science springs from the realization that something is awry in the current scientific worldview. There is no excuse for the rigid, almost stupidly dogmatic, stance taken on evolution. No use blaming creationists. They know there is a problem with Darwinism and have gone their own way. The political polarization of the issue is another liability, and one that has, if anything, given science a loan of time, until that moment comes when the liberal/left world realizes the ideological game being played here, and the complete inability of science graduates in the current system to correct their mistake. Small wonder there is a loss of prestige.
The fault lies with the educational system. Scientists are being trained in a perspective too narrow to grasp science, what to say of the general context of culture.
Smart idiots, preening their feathers, and too convinced of their smarts to realize they are stuck in a vein of stupity.
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Science decoded
Paul Rodgers cuts through the technical jargon to explain what’s really going on in science
Where do we come from? Paul Rodgers charts some of the latest work exploring the movement and development of humans based on DNA and the full mitochondrial genome
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Protesters: No torch relay through Tibet
Worry about violence
Gene Davis, DDN Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
CHANGE THAT COURSE! — Protesters march in Colorado Springs yesterday in support of Tibet.
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Time for a Windfall Profits Tax
What to Do About the Price of Oil
By ROBERT WEISSMAN
Is Big Oil ripping off consumers? Are Wall Street speculators manipulating oil markets? What should be done?
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Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control
a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and
grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels
when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/science/29brain.html
Scientists believe that a new nasal spray could help banish excessive
shyness.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/earth/2008/05/23/scishy123.xml
Researchers can predict which noun a person is visualizing.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080529/full/news.2008.864.html
SciftP
Energy firms routinely abusing carbon offset fund, US studies claim
* John Vidal, environment editor
* The Guardian,
* Monday May 26 2008
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SciftP
From the Los Angeles Times
Global warming to wreak havoc on U.S. crops and forests, report says
A report predicts global warming’s march in the U.S. over the next 25 to 50 years.
From the Associated Press
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From R-G
Olmert: Only delusional people think we’ll keep post-’67 borders
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday said that only people suffering
from delusions believe it is possible to realize the dream of holding
onto the greater Land of Israel, territories Israel captured in the
1967 Six Day War. Read the rest of this entry »
From R-G
http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1519/135/
Empire Burlesque May 26, 2008
Hay Ride:
Jimmy Carter Crosses the Line
Read the rest of this entry »
From R-G
Bush misled U.S. on Iraq, former aide says in new book
Scott McClellan’s ‘What Happened’ delivers tough criticism of
president, advisers Read the rest of this entry »
From R-G
Campaigner George Monbiot said he would continue his attempt to serve
arrest paper on politicians involved in the decision to go to war in
Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
From R-G
East Jerusalem Arabs detail violence they face by city’s Jews
Read the rest of this entry »
From Dawkins site
Louisiana’s latest creationism bill moves to House floor
by National Center for Science Education
Call to Action
If you thought the Dover Trial would rid us of the Creationists and the Discovery Institute, think again. The National Center for Science Education (www.ncseweb.org/) as well as educators across the US are having to spend time, effort and money fighting to save public education. Currently the most critical situation is int he State of Louisiana. Please help fight Senate Bill 733.
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The never-ending fight over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has entered a new phase. Rebuffed in the courts over efforts to bring creationism and intelligent design into the classroom, critics of Darwinism — whether whole or in part — are now pushing so-called “academic freedom†bills in state legislatures. These bills, claim their sponsors, are designed to protect teachers who teach the strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory. As critics of the legislation allege, however, it is simply a stealth way to introduce legally and scientifically discredited doctrine into the curriculum.
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US candidates appeal over Darfur
More than 2 million people have been displaced by the Darfur conflict
The three main US presidential candidates have made a rare joint statement, appealing for an end to the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.
In Search of a Sane Government
What’s Really Driving the High Price of Oil?
By RALPH NADER
What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it?
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via commond dreams
Published on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 by TruthDig.com
by Robert Scheer
Are we Americans truly savages or merely tone-deaf in matters of morality, and therefore more guilty of terminal indifference than venality? It’s a question demanding an answer in response to the publication of the detailed 370-page report on U.S. complicity in torture, issued last week by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
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Published on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
US Economy: The Worst Is Yet to Come
by Mark Weisbrot
Since the U.S. economy showed positive growth for the last quarter, some commentators in the business press are saying that we are not necessarily going to have a recession, or that if there is one it will be mild. This is a bit like the proverbial story of the man who jumped out of a window 60 floors up, and then said “so far, so good,†as he passed the 30th floor.
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