For those of you who hadn't seen it, here is the first half of "Submission", the film that got Theo van Gogh killed and Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the run for her life. It is pretty gripping.

This week's reading on the commercial influences in scientific research.

I'd actually heard of serious cryonics before - and of Alcor, which seems to be the biggest name in the business. I've even come across discussions online with people who've elected to have their heads removed and frozen for future 'revival'.

       Needless to say: this is not a topic that comes up a lot in every day conversation.

       The linked Guardian piece on a 'not quite up to par' British cryonics team is good for a laugh and sheds a little bit on insight on to how some cryonics enthusiasts think.

       My favourite bit: 'How would they like the world to have changed when they return? "It would be nice to come back and have a proper democracy," Mark says'

       I really don't know what to think about this.

I just realized the National Post has a religion blog called Holy Post (AMAZING)that I'm going to be web-stalking here on in. This article is by Barbara Kay on religious symbols in public schools. While I'm not for displays of religious authority in public schools (cross above chalkboard, etc.), I think it's damaging to limit the religious expression of students. We can't forget that often religious expression is synonymous with cultural expression, and Kay's statement, "group bonding at school is best accelerated and reinforced by as much external sameness as possible," screams a kind of forced assimilation based on identity loss. External sameness?? Group bonding? This isn't a defense of secular society, this is a propagation of total visual uniformity and socialized group think. I definitely don't want to be in Kay's described scenario- the beauty of a (potential) secular society is that everyone could march to their own beat. Thoughts?