The title of this post reveals the Latin quip (by the Roman satirist Juvenal, in his 10th Satire, 77-81) from which Suzanne Collins derived the name of her fictional dystopian country in The Hunger Games (Legal Eagle’s review and commentary is here). It means ‘bread and circuses’ and is part of a lengthy whinge where Juvenal [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Posted in Children, Law, Literature, Popular culture, science fiction, Welfare
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Tagged Ancient Rome, Juvenal, Marcus Aurelius, Martial, panem, panem et circenses, steven pinker, Suzanne Collins, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Hunger Games
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Scientists have produced a colossal picture of our Milky Way Galaxy, to reveal the detail of a billion stars. It is built from thousands of individual images acquired by two UK-developed telescopes operating in Hawaii and in Chile. Archived data from the project, known as the Vista Data Flow System, will be mined [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Art, Britain, Education, General, Internet, Science
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Tagged a billion stars, astronomy, dr nick cross, eye candy du jour, mike read, milky way, photography, UK national astronomy meeting, UKIDSS/GPS sky survey, university of cambridge, university of edinburgh, vista data flow system
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I have just read Suzanne Collins’ series The Hunger Games. ‘Read’ is probably not the right word: ‘devoured’ is more like it. Once I’d started, I had to finish. As I’ve said before I think good writing has a “hook” which makes you want to read on, but also makes you think about people or [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Books, Literature, Personal liberty, Philosophy
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Tagged better angels, dystopia, empathy, fiction, inner demons, Katniss Everdeen, novels, Peeta Mellark, psychology, reality TV, steven pinker, Suzanne Collins, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Hunger Games, violence
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Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas has resigned after secretly filmed footage showed him apparently offering access to the prime minister for a donation of £250,000 a year. He made the claim to Sunday Times reporters posing as potential donors. He said £250,000 gave “premier league” access, including dinner with David Cameron and possibly the chance [...]
Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney has had a heart transplant and is now recovering in hospital, his office has said. It said the surgery had been carried out on Saturday at the Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia. Mr Cheney, 71, has had heart problems for much of his adult life, suffering five heart attacks since [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Funnies, Politics, Science
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Tagged 9/11, america, Amnesty International, dick cheney, Guantanamo Bay, health, interrogation, iraq, iraq war, medicine, torture, US politics, US republican party, war on terror, washington, waterboarding
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I stole this from a friend in the Australian Skeptics (thanks, Jayson!) on Facebook, but it comes from a US zoo. Which means the original image has a decent number of comments underneath where people are guessing what they are. Everything from bats to snakes to ‘some sort of weird hybrid’ until someone turns up [...]
[SL: Last night, I went to a debate hosted by the Edinburgh University Debates Union (sic), on the proposition 'this house supports same-sex marriage'. I was going to say that the Oxford Union it ain't, but that would be giving them too much credit. Let's just say that 'outstandingly crap' goes some way towards describing it. [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Posted in Feminism, Guest Post, Human/Civil rights, Law, Marriage, Religion, Sexuality
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Tagged #equalmarriage, Edinburgh University Debates Union, John Millibank, Russell Blackford, same-sex marriage
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Rick Santorum is facing some awkward questions after footage emerged of a radical evangelical preacher opening a campaign rally with calls for all non-Christians to “get out” of America. In the footage, filmed at the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in Louisiana yesterday, Pastor Dennis Terry told a crowd that anyone who doesn’t worship God should [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Funnies, History, Politics, Religion, Society, The Right
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Tagged barack obama, christian evangelism, god damn america speech, greenwell springs baptist church, louisiana, one nation under god, pastor dennis terry, pledge of allegiance, republican primaries, reverend jeremiah wright, rick santorum, united states of america, US politics, US presidential election 2012, US republican party, US republicans, USA
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March 20, 2012 – 12:44 am
The UK’s largest Muslim body today spoke out in support of Church leaders backing traditional marriage, following the Coalition Government’s proposed changes to the role and status of the institution. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said that it agreed with sentiments expressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (in his recent address to the Council [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Britain, Fark!, Funnies, Law, Marriage, Politics, Religion, Society
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Tagged Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Peter Smith, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, cardinal keith o'brien, equal marriage, farooq murad, gay marriage, gay rights, homosexuality, islam, Mohammed, muslim council of britain, Roman Catholic Church, same-sex marriage, traditional marriage, UK coalition government
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A paramount tension in cases involving disputes over wills is between testamentary freedom (the idea that people are entitled to stipulate how they want their property distributed once they are dead) and, on the other hand, a desire to prevent unfairness. What happens if a parent leaves property to two of his four children? What [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Australia, Law, Public Policy, Religion, Society
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Tagged ACT, Fatama Omari, islam, Mariem Omari, Master Harper, Mohamed Omari, Muslim, Mustapha Omari, Sharia, sharia law, wills
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