| Feds: Don't tip off miners on surprise inspections By SAM HANANEL 2010-08-26T20:47:53ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- Some mine companies are tipping off their underground workers before federal officials make surprise inspections, an illegal practice that has become more prevalent since a West Virginia explosion killed 29 miners, the nation's top mine official said Thursday.... hosted.ap.org |
Cyrus cylinder, world's oldest human rights charter, returns to Iran on loan Deal agreed after Tehran threatens to cut cultural ties with British MuseumA Babylonian artefact sometimes described as the world's first human rights charter is to go on display in Iran after Tehran threatened to cut ties with the British Museum if it did not lend the object.The Cyrus cylinder is a 6th century BC clay object inscribed with an account in cuneiform of the conquest of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus the Great. It arrived in Iran today and will go on display soon at Iran's national museum for four months, state TV reported.Iran said it was in a dispute with the British Museum for months over its request for a loan of the object and had repeatedly threatened to cut ties with the institution. At one point, a senior Iranian cultural official accused the museum of turning a cultural issue into a political issue.The loan discussions, which began last October, took place during a time of tension between the two countries. Tehran is under pressure from the west over its nuclear programme, and it has accused Britain and other foreign governments of interfering in its domestic policies by stoking the street protests that followed the disputed presidential election in June 2009.The British Museum said it acted in good faith throughout the negotiations and has a policy of cultural exchanges with other nations independent of political considerations.The object's inscription describes how Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539BC and captured the last Babylonian king. It also tells of how he then freed many people held captive by the Babylonians and arranged for them to return to their homelands. It does not mention the Jews brought to Babylon as slaves by Nebuchadnezzar, but their freedom was also part of that policy.State TV said a delegation from the British Museum accompanied the artefact and another British expert would soon arrive to arrange its display.The Cyrus cylinder is often called the world's oldest human rights document, but it was common in Mesopotamia for kings to begin their rule with such reform declarations, according to the British Museum.IranMiddle EastArchaeologyHistory and history of artguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Why philosophy is a waste of time (go birding!) This was written by a birding pal, Barry Kent MacKay, in response to the ridiculously flawed opinion piece by philosopher Jeff McMahan that appeared in the New York TimesRed-eyed Vireo, Vireo olivaceus.Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 April 2008. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400This short piece written by a birding pal, Barry Kent MacKay, is the best, most thoughtful, response I've read so far to the New York Times Op-Ed, "The Meat Eaters," by philosopher Jeff McMahan. In that piece, McMahan quoted fellow philosopher, Ronald Dworkin, as saying; "Few people believe the world would be worse if there had always been fewer species of birds, and few would think it important to engineer new bird species if that were possible. What we believe important is not that there be any particular number of species but that a species that now exists not be extinguished by us."To say the least, it is impossible for any thinking person to take McMahan's (and Dworkin's) arrogance seriously. Here is Barry Kent MacKay's response: I have not followed this thread all that closely, but I spontaneously thought of it this morning as I stepped out my front door. There, below my front bay window, was a very freshly dead Red-eyed Vireo. (I take precautions to protect birds from hitting the windows in the back of my house, as they face a heavily vegetated, bird-friendly garden, but in the 12 years I have lived here I have never had a bird hit the front window nor seen many migrants in the front yard).I picked the bird up and, although I have handled hundreds of its kind, I was again struck by the inherent perfection of its being. Of course I felt badly for the individual bird, an immature denied its future, but I was in awe at the sheer aesthetic perfection of its form, the intricacies of the various feather tracts and the subtlety of its colours and patterns.If all Red-eyed Vireos were to disappear tonight, Dworkin and his ilk would neither know nor care, but that does not invalidate the inherent value of what would be lost, not in the biological or ecological sense, but in a very personal way to those of us who do know, who do care.If all paintings by Rembrandt, or Vermeer, or Audubon, Fuertes and Brooks were to vanish tonight it would not affect or cause the slightest qualm to the many people who have not seen them, don't know they exist, and thus have no interest in them, but that does not invalidate them either.Recently there were some "re"discoveries of amphibians that had previously been thought to be extinct. Not knowing the species, it means less to me than, say, the rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker or Bachman's Warbler, should such a thing happen.To the degree that we are in the midst of what all the people who actually know what they are talking about call a major extinction spasm and the only one ever triggered by a single species, us, we have pragmatic, utilitarian concerns. We can't know exactly when our bumbling influences tip things past the point where the ability of the planet to sustain us, and our various interests, including commerce, will occur, only that it will be to our detriment.We still have choices. The animals want to be left alone, to be animals, to live out natural lives in nature, and it is an option that, if we care, we also can advocate even as our picture windows, our habits, our thirsts and hungers and indifference contribute so much to their demise. The choice is ours. A world with Red-eyed Vireos and other wildlife is richer, more complex, more wonderful and more magical than what is left when we let them slip away, or actively destroy them, and we walk alone.Dworkin does not realise the loss, any more than a child in a tent on the Mongolian plateau can realise the loss of a great piece of art she has never seen or heard of were it to be destroyed, but it is still a loss, nonetheless. Dworkin is numb not only to practical considerations that derive from biodiversity, but sadly numb to wondrous living things that were created via three billion years of evolution, the living essence of the universal laws of nature working their enchantment.A renowned Canadian bird artist, writer, naturalist, and conservationist of international repute, Barry Kent MacKay has "always been an admirer of birds, anxious to see them, paint them, and care for them." He wrote the Nature Trail column for Canada's largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, for 25 years, and has written and/or illustrated many books on birds. He lives in Markham, Ontario.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
China faces hurdles amid quest for a Nobel Prize By CHI-CHI ZHANG 2010-10-06T15:19:09ZBEIJING (AP) -- It's Nobel season, and China is engaged in an annual bout of hand-wringing: Why can't the country that invented the compass and gunpowder - and that recently rocketed from poverty to global power - win one of the venerated prizes?... hosted.ap.org |
Swiss celebrate digging world's longest tunnel By FRANK JORDANS 2010-10-16T01:18:59ZSEDRUN, Switzerland (AP) -- Workers hugged, cheered and set off fireworks as the huge drill broke through the last stretch of rock deep in the Swiss Alps. There was delight at the end of the tunnel - the world's longest - when it was completed Friday.... hosted.ap.org |