Stand up, speak out

Go Greens: Kerry Nettle, one of the Australian Green Senators, has upset John Howard, which can only be a good thing, by wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Mr Abbott get your rosaries off my ovaries". This speaks to the political interference in what should be the medical decision about RU486.

Ms Nettle said: "It's not the T-shirt that needs changing, it's the prime minister's attitude, which we are seeing increasingly is about bringing fundamentalist religious views into the parliament.
"Religion has no place in politics, and religion has no place in a decision for a women about what drug is safe for her to use."
... The T-shirt was sponsored by the Young Women's Christian Association.

Here, here. Lots of things the Pope says grossly offend me, and lots of other people, but we do still have free speech, just, in most of the West.
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Oxford University Press, America, has a blog - excellent idea. There is information about book tours, about new books - it is definitely going on my blogroll.
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You'd think tidal power would come into the "no-brainer" category really - but a British invention is being towed off to Portugal, for lack of government support.

The Department of Trade and Industry, which some years ago put in place a £50 million development fund for marine energy, has decided that the money will not be accessed until some time in 2007. It will release it slowly, over a seven-year period. It will look at three or four alternative systems. And then it will decide, in its own good time, to act. Or not as the case may be. In the meantime, it has announced a long-term consultation process to inquire into sources of alternative energy. Did you hear the sound of another iceberg breaking off the Arctic glacier and sliding into the sea?