Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Two men held over murder of Robert McCartney
An interesting development to happen after IRA arms decomissioning.
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EU okays Croatia membership talks
Jaysus that was quick. Only earlier today I was speculating that negotiations would start as soon as Croatia was found to be cooperating. Croatia for entry in…?
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DeLay indicted on money laundering charge
It just gets worse and worse for poor old Tom DeLay: Texas grand jury has brought a new charge of money laundering against Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader indicted last week on conspiracy charges stemming from a campaign finance probe, the congressman’s office said Monday. In a written statement, DeLay called the…
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The Malacca Strait
Perhaps the most interesting essay in the current issue of Foreign Affairs is about China’s energy strategy. David Zweig, Director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the author of Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages and Bi Jianhai, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the…
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China's "Peaceful Rise" to Great-Power Status
I spent the morning reading essays in the latest issues of Foreign Affairs, as ever there lots, and all make very interesting reading. One that caught my attention in my particular was by Zheng Bijian, Chair of the China Reform Forum, a nongovernmental and nonprofit academic organization. He has also drafted key reports for five…
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Croatia gets tribunal thumbs-up
It looks like Turkey won’t be the only country coming to the negotiating table. The biggest sticking point for Croatian talks was that the EU believed they were being uncooperative in relation to war crimes investigations. Croatia must be keen.
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BT Ireland sucks
Adam Beecher, who I think I know through boards.ie reading, is in BT Ireland’s bad books, due to this website. It looks like he got coverage recently in the Business Post too. I have a feeling ICANN will side with Beecher, and when he says: “I have as much right to say that ‘BT Ireland…
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Turkey
Looks like an agreement has been reached. The BBC seem to have withdrawn that. It’s back on but Austria want the option of ‘privileged membership’ left open. but the ceremony for talks to begin appears to have been delayed. I hope Turkey can gain entry within the decade.
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Space tourism
Yet another space tourist makes it to the ISS. He paid an estimated $20 million for the pleasure. I would hope that in my lifetime the price of a trip into orbit, not suborbit, will come down into the 5-figure bracket. It seems a little more likly with Space Ship Two on the way, and…
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What keeps me up at night too
Dan Drezner links to some recent articles relating to avian flu, including the recent news that some strains of avian flu could be resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. The figure of 7.4 million deaths globally as a result of a flu pandemic seem frightfully small to me. I have recently heard that Ireland has…
Got any book recommendations?