"Gay marriage defeated in New York court."

http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-626.htm

An interesting article presenting legal reasoning for and against a court ruling.

What should concern us in particular, given Term 3's topic (Science & Human Values), is the part that social sciences play in the reasoning.

The conclusions of social sciences are based on statistics; social policies, with widespread ramifications, are chiefly based on statistics -- it is therefore important that we scrutinize
how
policy-makers, legislators, the judiciary,
use
"science," "statistics," "facts,"
to justify, legitimize, satisfy the "ethical" standards involved in,
any formal decision.

Are Scholars the best people to run changed Singapore, in business or in politics?

From Littlespeck.

A hit, a palpable hit!

Look at this! Man, I was pwned.

Back when I was only mooting the idea of a blog for GP notes, someone said, Teachers already get a lot of flak without exposing themselves online. I was all idealistic, But that’s the way to keep ourselves on our toes. Hoisted by my own petard!

…

Anyway, I’ve corrected everything I accepted was an error; thanks for pointing them out. Others, I want to defend.

1. …ise / …ize — I used ise up till recently, when I noticed that Milton and Shakespeare (in the First Folio) used ize. I’ve always secretly liked ize, and I like archaic forms, so I switched to ize on the authority of those (English) luminaries.

2. free from grammatical error — Sweetie darling, both error and errors are acceptable. The former use alludes to a general state of having errors; the latter implies that each instance of error impinges upon the senses separately and momentously.

3. …scrawl — it’s known as a hyperbole in some circles. But you’re right, I’m no poet.

4. irritating use of caps to emphasize things — that’s problem English?

5. it is NEVER about your personal opinion or experience — I admit to throwing the baby out with the bath water there. Students are very fond of using personal anecdotes as incontrovertible proof of generalizations. Don’t worry: the contradiction in my instructions was obvious to me too. Perhaps I should have said, “Do not confuse personal anecdotes for typical experience; do not express an opinion that is so idiosyncratic that it misrepresents the consensus; an AQ is not a blog entry”?

6. superfluous comma — Not superfluous at all, to my mind. I prefer the comma and conjunction when I’m coordinating clauses that are longish. Gives me a breath stop. I do concede, to clarify the sense: “… asks you for your opinion, or TO give arguments…”

…

Yes, coming from an English major (I am an English major) it is all very crap. Sorry.

Akikonomu: I will appreciate it very much if you would take time to tear apart the nonsense I wrote about conjectures, facts and constative statements. It was what I understood from Wikipedia.

Keep up the good work with that blog of yours. I've put it in the sidebar too.

A few interesting links.

"Let’s compare Bismarck’s Legacy against Lee Kuan Yew Legacy."

"Mr Wang Bakes Good Karma" -- a few posts on the recent mr brown affair. A very informative and thought-provoking blog in general. I have also put him in the sidebar.