Delicious LiveJournal Links for 1-13-2010

[andrewducker]

• Clegg lays down law to Cameron on gay rights
  Faith schools should be legally obliged to teach that homosexuality is "normal and harmless", and gay civil partnerships should be replaced by true marriage, Nick Clegg said last night.
  (tags: gay rights uk politics)
• Sending parcels to people with foreign names causes idiots to get suspicious
  A story that's three parts amusing to two parts headdesk.
  (tags: EpicFail postoffices)
• Google's new approach to China
  Now with 30% less evil.
  (tags: google china censorship politics privacy internet security government)
• Solar cells made through oil-and-water 'self-assembly'
  The team made a working device comprising 64,000 elements in just three minutes.
  (tags: science solarpower nanotech)
• Letter to a fan from John Kricfalusi - creator of Ren & Stimpy
  (tags: drawing animation)
• Christopher Lee to release symphonic metal album
  (tags: music metal culture album christopherlee)
• Does alcohol burn off in cooking?
  No. Not really. Not for aaaaages.
  (tags: cooking alcohol food science health)

Comments

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

'and the repeal of Section 28, which forbode local authorities'

I'm not entirely sure, but is that grammar fail?

[andrewducker]

Ok, if "Mr Pedant" can't tell if it's a grammar fail then it's officially three steps beyond the point I have a quantum of caring :->

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Hey! Forbid is one of those awkward verbs nobody uses any more ;)

[andrewducker]

It's been forbidded.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

http://slb-ltsu.hull.ac.uk/awe/index.php?title=Forbid

So yeah, forbode is wrong. They forbad it. Funny, is the Indie trying to ape the Grauniad or something?

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Oh and:

> Instituting something that must be taught, come what may, is frighteningly fascist.

Like the infamous maths fascists!!!!

[andrewducker]

And those history fascists, with their dates and names of kings!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

It does seem like a risk-- what if that authority is used to impose the teaching of something you don't agree with like abstinence-only sex education?

[andrewducker]

Does happen all the time. Especially in faith schools.

But teaching people to respect each other, and their lifestyles, when those lifestyles don't hurt anyone, seems basic enough to me to be taught.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Authorities make moral judgment calls all the time. If they wanted to pass a law banning faith schools from saying that Jews eat babies we wouldn't be discussing this. The 'dangerous precedent' argument is one that I have a lot of time for, but it's trotted out in this context only when the thing we're talking about banning is something that not everyone's granny is on board with yet. There's a very fine balance to hit when it comes to anti-hate legislation.

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

Gay Rights? Yeah, would be nice.
Idiots in the postal service? No surprise there.

CHRISTOPHER LEE IS RELEASING HIS OWN SYMPHONIC METAL ALBUM???
*asplodes from the awesome*

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

Clegg doesn't feel that teaching homosexuality as being normal/fine should be taught in non-faith schools, then?

[andrewducker]

It does seem like odd phrasing doesn't it?

[matgb]

There are still non-faith schools? I thought Blair abolished them all.

But yeah, bad wording. We do at least know what he means--probably assuming that non-faith schools ought to be doing that already, probably an optimistic assumption but...