Seen Elsewhere – not exactly twenty comments

It’s not just a matter of finding twenty blogs to comment on – it’s thinking of non-facile comments to put there too. Take for instance Karen, who’s doing the Run for the Cure in Canada. A good idea, and as she notes a $5 donation can help fight cancer. If just 39 people give $5 then she meets her target. For British readers $5 Canadian is less than £2.50. It deserves a bit more of a cheer than “Nice one”. Of course I’m easily biased.

On this side of the Atlantic, fellow i-Scientist Alan Cann notes the news story Schools are letting down UK science. Apparently careers in science are unattractive due to low pay, and that’s the fault of schools. We’re trying to bring in a Science with Management stream on the i-Science course in the future. The plan is to give students an understanding of how experimentation and science works as well as management training. It’s not going to appear imminently though because it needs to be done well rather than “science ‘n’ management-lite”.

It was independence day for India yesterday. I didn’t know that. There’s that many countries that gained independence from the Empire that it’s an odd week when someone isn’t celebrating independence. The reason I noticed it was this thoughtful post on All Things Pakistan. It’s a very intelligent comment on the politics of the partition.

Via Ma’at I’ve learned that the Wing Beat has a little strong language and thoughts on a pyramid in Bosnia. Via the latest History Carnival I’ve found another blog entry on Bosnian Pyramids. Also Via Ma’at (I think) there’s also the blog of Collette M Dowell who’s been with alternative archaeologist and geologist Robert Schoch to Bosnia. Their conclusion the geology is natural – which I think brings the count of independent geological observers who have stated this to three. In the interests of balance I’ll point out that the foundation claimed an Egyptian geologist sent by top pyramid guy Zahi Hawass declared the site man-made, though it later transpired that he wasn’t sent by Zahi Hawass at all…

Bad Astronomy has the news that there will be twelve planets if a proposal is accepted at the IAU. The proposal recognises eight classical planets and Pluto as a planet in a new class Plutons. Along with Pluto will be Charon – currently designated Pluto’s moon, Ceres – the largest of the asteroids and UB 313 – nicknamed Xena. This will be followed by a swathe of new planets if accepted. There are plenty that meet the criteria in the asteroid belt, Sedna, Quaoar and probably other Plutons.

Beautiful photography from Snail’s Tales as always. This time it’s barn swallows. I am deeply envious.

Great War Fiction has a challenging post on Pardons for Deserters. Can you apply current moral standards to the past? This isn’t even the distant past, but less than a century ago. Is it possible or right to issue pardons and in what circumstances?

Finally an old post Theory Tuesday by Michael Berube. It was written last year, but it’s one I keep coming back to. It’s particularly apt at the moment following the microfascist paper. It might seem odd given what I said I thought about postmodernists. Unfortunately in my rush typing it I omitted the word doesn’t, which may have given a slightly different meaning than the one I intended, in the same way that the sky may be slightly above the ground.