h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is excellent! Bravo!

I've got a friend who works in biotech, and he expresses similar views. When I was an undergraduate, I studied some applied philosophy and the whole question of animal rights is an interesting one, but much more complicated than people think. The notion of equal rights for animals and humans is nonsense - what does it mean to say that a dog has the right of free speech, or my goldfish should be able to vote? Equal consideration of interests, though, is a different matter. But let's have some arguments (premises and conclusion), not this crude emotivism.

And the actions of some of these "animal rights" people is a disgrace. Some of these people are terrorists and should be treated as such.

Otto

PS I know of a really interesting part-time Bioethics PgDip / MA course if anyone's interested...

I sometimes htink I ought to take up writing polemics professionally: imagine being paid to rant away to one's heart's content. Then I might even get a job for the Daily Mail...

Seriously - this is excellent! Should you ever be in need of a job outside the research establishment, a media career awaits!

Our green party in Ireland have gone one step further. Not only are they content to join the latest band-wagon: whether it be anti-Europeanism, animal rights, etc, they have this excellent philosophy of telling all the multinationals in our country to b*gg*r off, while asking for a tripling of our public sector pay bill. Excellently well thought out economics, I'm sure you will agree.

Well done,

Woodpigeon

'multinational'='bogeyman'. Never mind the fact that Monsanto only has annual turnover of Tesco.

Nuff said.

It's amazing how much opposition to projects is based on questionable science, and how readily the public will accept these arguments - mobile phone masts, wind farming, electricity pylons, incinerators, MMR vaccines, etc. etc. etc.

I went on holiday to mid-Wales a couple of years ago. We walked right up to a wind farm on top of a mountain. I had to put my ear to the pylon in order to hear anything approaching a hum. It's just bollocks, all bollocks.

Construction of a windfarm caused a major landslide in Co. Galway a few weeks ago - so we can rule out that out now too. There were also objections to a gas pipeline in Co. Mayo, there are massive anti-pylon protests here in Cork, anti-incinerator protests everywhere and we've cut our bogs down to nothing - so I reckon the only power we're going to be able to use is to harness the amount of hot air coming from people's mouths...

Whereabouts in Cork do you live? I must admit, the first time I went there (about 1990) it seemed a bit dowdy, rather like the city at the other end of the ferry route (guess where). I imagine that, like most Irish towns, it's had a major makeover now. I went to Tralee a couple of years ago and was gobsmacked by how it had changed.

I live a few miles from the city itself. Like most places in Ireland, there has been somewhat of an improvement, but to be honest, it's ongoing. I'm not terribly impressed by the way it looks right now because of all the road-works everywhere. The council have spent YEARS updating the water system here, so all the aesthetic stuff has had to wait until it was finished. It's European City of Culture (whatever that means) in 2005, so they would want to start pulling the finger out...

They'd better get a bloody move on. I spend a fair amount of time in Ireland myself, as I have Irish inlaws who come predominantly from Limerick. It's amazing to see how much money is sloshing about. Nowadays, I get scared driving out there: all the bloody 4x4's dwarf my Fabia on the road.

Indeed - I was telling somebody recently how this place is getting more like the UK every day. Personally I'm happy enough about this, as I have no desire to go back to the church-dominated, dirt-poor, small-minded, backward-looking state of my early youth.

That's the great thing about having lived through it. I remember when nudity on TV could nearly cause a riot, and when contraceptives and anything else to do with sex were banned. There was even a moving-statues craze here in the '80s. Ah, the joys...

It's more of a material f*ck you culture now of course, with penalty points and smoking bans and public order offenses and CCTV cameras. You never needed a passport to get here, and now I guess we can see why!

Have you still got the Angelis on TV at 6.00pm, or has that been axed?

Ah now, we haven't gone that far! It's still on the radio too...

I am very glad to see that some vestige of Ireland's theocracy still remains. I seem to remember that everyhthing started to fall apart some years ago when the Government connived to prevent a paedophile priest from being prosecuted. When it comes to a solid track record of utter cant and hypocrisy, the Catholic Church really takes some beating. And I really wish someone would give it a beating.

Two old biddies were standing on a street corner chatting to each other. Opposite the road was the local house of disrepute. Along came the Rabbi in a big overcoat, looked suspiciously left and right, and walked in the door of the brothel. "Ah, sure what would you expect with that lot", said one of the women to her friend. "Sure hasn't it always been that way". A couple of minutes later, the local Protestant rector ventured across the street and went in. "Disgusting", said one to the other. "No wonder they're all going to hell". Finally, the local Catholic priest came along, giddily looking over his shoulder in case anyone might see him, and walked though the hallowed portals.

The two old biddies looked at each other for a second.

"Ah, the poor woman must be on her death-bed".

W