Hopewit

  Through Life on the music train. - GGE Probably the most convincing argument against abortion is that a foetus [1] is life, and life is sacred. Let me qualify that: it’s human life that’s considered sacred; we’re much more cavalier about the worth of animal and plant life. We can argue the definition of life as including all that can grow, independently of another’s control. Or we can apply the definition we use when through disease or accident, consciousness is irretrievably lost and we withdraw our support for continued biological life. We unplug the machinery even though cells continue to replicate themselves, the body continues to digest food and maintain a viable temperature. “In practice, human life is consciousness. ” But to assert it as a dictum misses an important point when applied to abortion: a foetus generally has potential to become conscious, while we only “pull the plug” when the potential for consciousness no longer exists. If it needed to be complic...

  On a mountain top in Turkey, a rock formation being explored by archeologists has a boat-like shape. Hopes are being expressed on social media that this could be the petrified Noah’s Ark. Traces of what might have been organic material have been excavated. It would be a fascinating find for fundamentalist Christians if proven, and if its interior could be discerned in the specimen. I imagine, for instance, 3,500 tiny jars, each one holding a pair of each variety of mosquito. Of course there’d be protestations that mosquitoes would survive the flood because they hatch in water, but then, where would female mosquitoes get the blood they need to reproduce? And the number and size of storage containers for the different fodder-needs would be mind-boggling. Koalas are fussy eaters, and won’t touch bovine, equine hay supplies, just eucalyptus leaves, thank you very much.  And the manure!   There’d have to be millions of bird cages. Perching, non-swimmers couldn’t survi...