Author: Mick Hartley

Levy’s distribution, commonly found in nature. Flies use this procedure to find meals, as do albatrosses, monkeys and deer. Scientists have found similar patterns in the flow of e-mails, letters and money, and in the paintings of Jackson Pollock, Brembs said.

These strategies in flies appear to arise spontaneously and do not result from outside cues, according to findings detailed in Wednesday’s issue of the journal PLoS ONE. This makes their behavior seem to lie somewhere between completely random and purely determined, “and could form the biological foundation for what we experience as free will,” Sugihara added. “This function appears to be common to many other animals.”

This is all very interesting, and it’s true that they aren’t claiming that they’ve demonstrated free will in fruit flies, as might seem to be the case if you read the article’s headline, but somehow all this talk of complexity of behaviour misses the point, doesn’t it? I’d have thought that a lack of randomness was in fact a pretty good definition of life. Specks of dust move about randomly: organisms show a purpose. And this is how the fruit flies acted in this experiment – with a purpose. If they reacted entirely in response to outside influences, then they wouldn’t be living creatures.

Complexity of behaviour and free will do clearly relate to each other in some way, but in the end it surely comes down to a decision on our parts as to what level of behaviour we want to describe as showing the exercise of free will. It’s a philosophical argument. Because of its clear relevance to the question of moral responsibility, many would say that only humans have free will, though it’s a point that’s probably less accepted now than it used to be. Others would argue that animals – cats, dogs – surely have free will. But as you move down the level of intelligence, the question of free will becomes more and more….not wrong, just inappropriate. When you get down to the level of insects, it’s simply not a debate worth having. Do fruit flies have free will? It’s not a question that makes sense.

Whatever, I’m not clear how science helps here, or what this experiment contributes to the debate. There’s never going to be a scientific experiment that decides whether or not a particular organism has free will: it’s not that kind of problem. But then I’ve never heard of Levy’s distribution, so what do I know?

Muslim culture. What did he expect? Of course he got nearly decapitated and had a knife stuck in his chest with a note warning others – notably Ayaan Hirsi Ali – that this was the fate they could expect if they criticised Islam.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Pakistan, moves against Islamophobic activities continue:

Christians in north-west Pakistan are demanding government protection following threats of bomb attacks if they do not become Muslims.

An unsigned letter received 10 days ago said they had to convert by Thursday.

Militants have been carrying out a sustained campaign to prevent “anti-Islamic” activities in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Last week they blew up a number of music and video shops in the towns of Charsadda and Tangi.

The Christian community, a tiny minority, received an anonymous letter demanding they convert or face the consequences.

The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says that while a few families have left, the rest live in fear.

Why on earth did no one think of this before?

Lying by politicians should be made illegal, a leading Australian barrister has claimed. Julian Burnside, QC, said it would result in “many more by-elections”, but also better government.

Quite coincidently, barristers would probably do pretty well out of all those court cases.

In Samarra, the battle for hearts and minds is being fought with spray-paint:

On a dark street in the restive Iraqi town of Samarra a young man masked with a bandana and a baseball cap looks over his shoulder before pulling out an aerosol can and spray-painting a wall. A US Army officer standing behind him squints at the flowing Arabic script, then turns to a reporter traveling with his platoon. “What does that say?” the officer asks.

The young vandal is an army translator the soldiers call Matthew – publishing his real name would put him in danger, he says.

Matthew is charged with sowing seeds of strife between the town’s two main insurgent groups, Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic Army of Iraq.

While Al-Qaeda takes its inspiration from Osama bin Laden’s international Islamist struggle, the Islamic Army is a coalition of Iraqi Islamists and Baathist supporters of the late dictator Saddam Hussein.

While both groups are fighting to oust US forces from Iraq, there are also signs of growing conflict between them, one that the local security forces and their US allies are keen to exploit.

In Samarra, the Islamic Army enjoys wide popularity while Al-Qaeda intimidates residents with spectacular bombings and coordinated attacks on police.

The commander of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne, 3rd Brigade, Charlie Company, based in Samarra, says both groups pose a threat to security in the town but notes that there are important differences.

The Islamic Army “is against coalition forces and ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] that work with the coalition,” says Captain Eugene “Buddy” Ferris.

“Al-Qaeda will blow up bombs in markets. Al-Jaish al-Islami [the Islamic Army] won’t,” Ferris adds. “If reconciliation is ever going to occur then the Islamic Army is a group you could work with.”

Both groups tag the walls with slogans, threats and boasts.

Al-Qaeda’s artists write: “The Samarra police are infidels, so we will bring you young men who love martyrdom,” and “We will destroy all those who cooperate with the Americans.”

The Islamic Army scribes write much the same thing, but threaten “the occupiers” instead of the local security forces and collaborators.

Matthew’s job is to redirect the artistic impulses of each group against the other. “It’s a way to destabilize their unification efforts,” says First Lieutenant Charlie Hodges, who leads one of the graffiti patrols…

Hodges sees writing on the wall, but he has to ask to make sure it is insurgent sloganeering and not something else, such as a sign advertising someone’s vegetable stand. He asks about one long sentence. Matthew tells him it is a Koranic verse. “Leave that one alone,” Hodges says.

Finally they find a message telling the occupiers to leave. Matthew scribbles over it. Then Hodges tries again. “This time, I want you to write that Al-Qaeda has killed many in the Islamic Army,” he says. “Al-Qaeda has killed many from the Islamic Army,” Matthew writes.

Then the local Iraqi police step in – not to handcuff Matthew and charge him with vandalism but to offer suggestions on how to spice up his prose.

The police are well practiced themselves, having sprayed messages like “Long live Iraq, Long live the First Battalion,” and “The First Battalion are Heroes” on the blast walls around their bases and compounds.

An argument ensues between Matthew and the police – three men in mismatched uniforms with AK-47 assault rifles slung around their necks.

One suggestion is finally greeted with enthusiasm. Matthew amends the message. “Al-Qaeda has killed many FIGHTERS from the Islamic Army.”

The paint is running out. Hodges tells Matthew his writing is too large, and orders everyone back to the vehicles. The US troops who had fanned out along the darkened street return to the Humvees, the police climb into their trucks and under the cover of darkness and an all-night curfew they head back to base.

Syrian author Nidhal Naisa tells some home truths to the chairman of the Arab Students Union in a debate on Al-Jazeera TV:

The pan-Arab movements that have taken over the Arab nation forced a certain ideology upon the Arab citizens, upon the Arab youth, and they follow this ideology like sheep. When the youth encountered globalization, they found themselves new breathing space. The Arab youth runs away from confronting [reality]. They run away to the virtual worlds of reality TV and the Internet. […]

Don’t you feel ashamed that out of the 500 leading universities worldwide, there isn’t a single Arab university? What are you people doing about this? Among the 500 leading universities in the world, there is no Arab university, no Arab institute. […]

These are not universities. In the words of my friend Faysal, these are taming cages, corrals in which you confine people and teach them some slogans, and they clap their hands, and that’s it. […]

Have you produced anything? What have you produced? Even an aspirin pill you import from the West to this day. Even bread and medicine you import. What have you been doing at these universities? This indicates that these universities are not centers of production, but cages and corrals. […]

With regard to those wretched people who are deluded by the religious scholars and preachers – if they were not brought up in this terrorist environment, an environment that makes people ignorant and superficial, and turns them into bombs…

t said: “Any woman whose husband is pleased with her when she dies enters Paradise.” […]

If this doesn’t work, he should move to the phrase of “abandonment,” which refers to sleeping in separate beds. Abandonment could mean that he would sleep in a separate room, wouldn’t talk to her, and so on. If abandonment doesn’t work, we move to beating, but as the religious scholars have said, beating in this case is not the kind that draws blood or breaks teeth. They said it is similar to beating with the edge of his garment or a toothpick. But as you said, some people misunderstood this, and so, many poor women had their legs broken. […]

The Prophet said: “If I were to order anybody to bow before anyone, I would order the wife to bow before her husband.” The husband’s rights are very great. Therefore, according to a reliable Hadith, a woman said: “Oh Prophet of Allah, I will not marry before you tell me what my husband’s rights from me are.” The Prophet said: “Do you really want to know?” She said: “Yes.” He said: “If pus or blood comes out of your husband’s nose and you lick is up, you still will not have observed all his rights.” The rights of the husband are great, and you must observe them.

If true this is interesting (via Solomonia):

Bernard Kouchner, a world-renowned humanitarian who founded the Doctors without Borders (MSF) charity and served as the UN’s representative in Kosovo, is likely to be France’s next foreign minister, aides to president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy said overnight.

The 67-year-old, a member of the opposition Socialist Party, was approached by Mr Sarkozy over the last few days and “is ready to enter the government”, they said.

According to Le Monde newspaper, he was to see Mr Sarkozy overnight for talks based on a future minister’s range of responsibilities…

Mr Kouchner founded the international medical charity MSF in 1971 after working as a doctor in Biafra…

Mr Kouchner is famous for developing the theory of “humanitarian intervention” to justify international action against dictators who flout human rights.

In the run-up to the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was strongly critical of French policy which he said had encouraged the US and Britain to go to war without UN backing.

Here’s a strange read from the Chinese internet. An amateur photographer takes some pictures of a girl with blue hair, sitting playing a guitar on railway tracks outside of Beijing. He claims she wanted to kill herself, but he rescues her. He writes about it and publishes the pictures. The girl – or someone claiming to be the girl – responds on another website, with a story of sexual shame and self-disgust.

It says at the top of the page, “This is the Chinese Internet in a nutshell — you can’t trust anyone nowadays. One or more (and possibly all) of these stories have to be false. You decide.” That’s putting it a bit strong, but still…

Englishmen (and, indeed, Englishwomen), in an increasingly competitive world.

So, what factors enabled Serbia to win? Clearly, musical considerations counted for little. If we study the geographical distribution of votes received, it’s apparent that the competition has been irrevocably changed by the break-up of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia. We now have a multiplicity of small East and Central European states who, faced with a barrage of some of the most appalling yet strangely compelling pop music yet devised, and aware that the event is watched by untold millions and carries a mysterious yet considerable prestige, understandably resort to voting in large measure for neighbouring countries, in a belief, well justified, that such largesse will be returned.

You’re perhaps wondering about the significance of devolution to all this. Well, it’s a point which I believe I’m the first to make, but it’s really quite an obvious one. With devolution, our chances of success in the Eurovision Song Contest will be dramatically increased. With England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, as well as Ireland, and – who knows? – the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and maybe even Yorkshire, all having separate entries, and separate votes, the balance of power will shift decisively to the Western, anglophone, side of the continent.

Would Scotland or Wales ever vote for England? If Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia can vote for Serbia, then damn right they will – especially when they see that no one outside England will vote for their own frankly risible efforts. The Scots, in a misguided moment of cultural pride, will probably attempt something dire involving kilts, and the Welsh will feel compelled to sing in their own language, so if we toss them a few votes they’ll be sure to reciprocate. The only problem I foresee is if other countries take the lesson on board, and we see entries from the newly independent Baden-Wurttenberg, Lower Silesia, and Alsace-Lorraine. At which point the whole contest will end up disappearing up its own Schwelsig-Holstein. Which might, in the end, be not such a bad thing.

A N Wilson reviews Clive James’ latest book “Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time“:

[T]hroughout this book, James sits on the judge’s bench assessing each author for their views. This is no mere collection of bits; it is a book with a theme, namely how the Kingdom of Letters did or did not stand up to the murderous philistinism of the dictators, especially Hitler and Stalin. An essay that is especially puzzling is about the great German scholar Ernst Robert Curtius. “It is comprehensible and forgivable that Curtius said nothing about Nazi atrocities during the war. Incomprehensible and unforgivable is that he said nothing about them after it.” Who, in these sentences, is doing the comprehending or the forgiving? Curtius wrote a great book, as James begins by stating – European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages. But, as with the other entries, James does not really get round to telling you what is in the book. His essay is one of attitude.

James spends much time in this book wielding his sledgehammer to crack a Nazi nut. Curtius wrote his book to retrieve from the postwar rubble the great European mainstream of civilised literature from the late Middle Ages to the time of Diderot. In a way, Curtius’s book does in prose what Ezra Pound did in poetry in the Pisan Cantos, a work about which James is cheaply unfair. (Pound made appalling fascist broadcasts, but it would be as unjust to judge his poetry in their lurid light, as it would be to judge James the intellectual by the cheeky-chappy TV broadcasts he made 20 years ago.)

There is something toe-curling in James’s dedication of the book to Sophie Scholl, the 22-year-old Munich student beheaded by the Nazis and the subject of a recent painful film. Does the perpetual banging of his drum serve to drown out an uncomfortable question? What has had the more devastating effect on the great European cultural tradition – the vile tyrannies that we all, in common with James, deplore, or television and American popular culture as gleefully espoused by James for half his professional life?

Suggesting that American popular culture has been more damaging to the European cultural tradition than the Nazis – or that Clive James appearing on TV was somehow equivalent to Ezra Pound making those pro-fascist and anti-semitic broadcasts – says a great deal more about A N Wilson than it does about Clive James.

What was it that hoax Betjeman letter spelled out? – ah yes, “A N Wilson is a shit”.