Author Archives: site admin

Senator John Kerry | The Right to Dissent

Senator John Kerry | The Right to Dissent was linked from David Brin

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Portrait: ‘John Stuart Mill’ by Richard Reeves | Prospect Magazine May 2006 issue 122

Got this via Arts&Letters Daily. Might be of interest to David Brin.

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THE ESSENTIAL MAN

Article by David Brin commenting on what Rumsfeld’s perception of his own “irreplaceability” says about the conservative talent pool and drawing parallels with historical “restraint of trade” in the management business.

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Executive Compensation

Outside Advice on Boss’s Pay May Not Be So Independent says the New York Times.

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H5N1: The Guardian reacts

In this posting on his H5N1 blog, Crawford Killian goes off-topic with a discussion of on-screen readability issues. But I believe our different reactions to his examples show that what constitutes readability is far more subjective than the experts admit.

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AlterNet: Why I Am a Christian (Sort Of)

Why I Am a Christian (Sort Of) (by Robert Jensen on AlterNet) is a reasonably clear statement of a fairly common hypocricy. How to respond? I also took Jensen’s path at one time – and later, in recognition of the … Continue reading

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AlterNet: The Slippery Slope of Self-Censorship

The Slippery Slope of Self-Censorship (found via AlterNet) is an article by David Morris of Minnesota which provides the best commentary yet on the Danish Cartoon Furor.

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Downes on Belam on BBCwebsite

This is a reference by Stephen Downes to a series of articles by Martin Belam on the organization of the BBC website (in which he was a participant)

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MWU!: A Mountain Out of a Molehill Over Danish Cartoons

Mona Eltahawi’s article A Mountain Out of a Molehill Over Danish Cartoons provides a welcome breath of sanity.

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Writing for the Web: The Limits of Satire

Crawford Killlian blogs his Tyee article ‘The Limits of Satire’ on the Danish cartoon frenzy. I agree with most of what he says in general terms, but I am not sure that it fits the actual circumstances. The cartoons were … Continue reading

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Eden and Evolution

Eden and Evolution is an article by Shankar Vedantam in the Washington Post. It starts out with an irritatingly positive-sounding description of a young “Creation Science” biologist presenting a specious distortion of what she was supposed to be teaching (eg … Continue reading

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The Offending Cartoons

Well, so far as I can tell from this image, the twelve cartoons (on the subject of fear of censorship and/or reprisals regarding representations of Mohammed) are as follows: One appears to be mocking the editor who commissioned the illustrations. … Continue reading

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French editor fired over cartoons

This BBC News article reports the firing of France Soir editor Jacques Lefranc by owner Raymond Lakah over the re-publication of cartoons originating in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten which “gave offense” to Muslims. But if Mohammed is not to be despised, then … Continue reading

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Innovate – Places to Go: Moodle

Stephen Downes had an article on the ‘Moodle’ CMS in the Dec/Jan issue of the ‘Innovate’ journal of online education.

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Downes on Sakai

Stephen Downes has an article on the ‘Sakai’ CMS in the ‘Innovate’ journal of online education.

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spiked-essays | Essay | The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria

In spiked-essays | Essay | The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria, Frank Furedi makes the “final point” that “Morality marketed by people who do not necessarily ‘believe in such things’ is unlikely to set the world on fire.” It would … Continue reading

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spiked-science | Article | The root of all anti-science?

Now here is a much more sensible response to Dawkins. I haven’t seen the shows (The Root of all Evil?), but I suspect from reading reviews that Dawkins went over the top by implying that the answer applied to religion … Continue reading

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spiked-culture | Article | Is religion the root of all evil?

A fuzzy-thinking response to Dawkins’ absolute antitheism (in ‘Spiked’). Author Neil Davenport says: “religion expresses kernels of humanism that sometimes appear progressive compared to contemporary thinking. For example, the major religions recognise that as humans are capable of making moral … Continue reading

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Dennett in The Chronicle

Daniel Dennett provides an article summarising ideas from his new book.

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Stephen’s Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~

Stephen’s Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~

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