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It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
The fish that crawled out of the water
A crucial fossil that shows how animals crawled out from the water, evolving from fish into land-loving animals, has been found in Canada. The creature, described today in Nature1,2, lived some 375 million years ago. Palaeontologists are calling the specimen from the Devonian a true 'missing link', as it helps to fill in a gap in our understanding of how fish developed legs for land mobility, before eventually evolving into modern animals including mankind.Tetrapods did not so much conquer the land, as escape from the water.
John Maisey American Museum of Natural History, New York
Tiktaalik - the fish that found it's feet
The fossil record is full of 'missing links', transitional forms between organisms on either side of a phylogenetic tree, but with Tiktaalik, a fish that shows striking features of a limbed vertebrate (tetrapod), one of these rare missing links has been found. Nature presents a FREE ACCESS story from news@nature.com alongside the discovery and analysis of this incredible animal, and a discussion of its significance in a special News & Views article.
The government's budget was therefore constructed to show that the federal cabinet understood the Reform Party agenda--that it too was determined to cut government fat and slash away at those parts of the bureaucracy most seen to providing useless services and not helping the ``just plain folks back home.'' Indeed, to conceptualize this view it is useful to look at the National Citizen's Coalition document of a few years ago--we might think of the Coalition as being part of the organic intellectuals of the Reform party. The document was entitled ``Tales from the Tax Trough'' and it listed a whole series of useless government services including a hit list of what the NCC saw as particularly stupid research projects. Who was mentioned? SSHRC projects were the first on the list--followed by those of the Canada Council, the Canadian Institute on International Peace and Security, and IDRC. On the hit list were projects on the analysis of yard art, the fool in Western civilization, the wife's role in food shopping for the family, and the participation of women in trade unions in Argentina. Some of us, myself included, may react by thinking what interesting projects these are--and in fact how socially pertinent--but this is clearly not the intent of the pamphlet. The tone of the pamphlet and indeed the way it is likely to be read is of a totally profligate government flinging out dollars to finance absurd projects without any regard for, and even as an insult to, the hard-pressed taxpayers. In rereading this pamphlet one can easily conjure up the image of Don Mazankowski consulting it in preparing his budget. The ``little people'' speak and Big Don listens.
Strahl promises better relief for struggling farmers
CTV.ca -9 hours ago
As thousands of farmers converge on Parliament Hill for a massive rally, Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl is promising better relief for cash-strapped producers.
Provinces have to help, Strahl tells farmersGlobe and Mail
Harper promises money for farmersToronto Star Brandon Sun -Reuters Canada -CBC Manitoba -580 CFRA Radio -
The controversy over Iran's peaceful nuclear program has obscured one point in particular: There need not be a crisis. A solution to the situation is possible and eminently within reach.Lost amid the rhetoric is this: Iran has a strong interest in enhancing the integrity and authority of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It has been in the forefront of efforts to ensure the treaty's universality. Iran's reliance on the nonproliferation regime is based on legal commitments, sober strategic calculations and spiritual and ideological doctrine.
We in Iran don't need this quarrel