Magic Statistics

Citizens of Montenegro voted earlier this week to separate from Serbia and become an independent nation.  Now there are indications that the Serb province of Kosovo will also separate in the near future.  John Couretas of The Acton Institute says there are grounds for serious concern about granting Kosovo independence.

[A]nyone who cares about religious freedom, the rights of minorities, and the rule of law should be highly skeptical of an independent Kosovo. Since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serb military forces fighting an Albanian separatist movement, the Orthodox Christian minority in Kosovo has been under intense pressure from Albanian Muslim extremists.

In a Feb. 18 letter to President George Bush, the Serbian Orthodox bishop Artemije of Kosovo and Metohija – the ranking church official in the region – said that granting the province independence would hand terrorists “a significant victory” in Europe.

“Detaching Kosovo from democratic Serbia would mean a virtual sentence of extinction for my people in the province – the larger part of my diocese – who continue to face unremitting violence from jihad terrorist and criminal elements that dominate the Albanian Muslim leadership,” the bishop said.

Numerous attacks on Christians, churches, and other sites have been perpetrated by Albanian Muslims in Kosovo despite the presence of UN peacekeeping forces.  Kosovo has also become a haven of corruption and organized criminal activity.

UN peacekeepers have not provided adequate protection for Kosovan Christians by any stretch but, if Kosovo gains its independence, there will be nothing to stand between the Christian minority and the Albanian Muslim majority.

Read the whole thing.

Previous related post: Christianity obliterated in northern Cyprus

The age-old question, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" has purportedly been solved by a team comprised of a geneticist, a philosopher, and a chicken farmer.

[T]he reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.

Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, said the living organism inside the eggshell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into.

Professor David Papineau, who teaches philosophy of science at King's College London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns, concur.

By a felicitous coincidence, this news comes out on the same day as the latest annual release of Poultry and Egg Statistics from Statistics Canada.  Here are a few highlights.

The consumption of poultry has stabilized over recent years, reaching 13.7 kilograms per person in 2005, a slight increase of 1.5% from 2004 and well above the 11.6 kilograms consumed per person 10 years ago.

Egg production, which stood at 586.8 million dozen in 2005, increased 5.9% from 2004.

Annual egg consumption has stabilized in recent years and was pegged at 12.9 dozen per person in 2005, following a slight decrease in 2004.

Download the complete 41-page report in pdf format here.  It's fascinatin'.

Honestly, I hadn't planned to follow this story with such dedication, but the controversy isn't going away.  Neither is the double talk.

Last week Alexandre April, science teacher at Ikusik High School in Salluit, a remote village on the north coast of Quebec, complained that he was reprimanded for discussing evolution in class.  Now the provincial education department has sent investigators to the scene of the alleged misconduct.

The Quebec Ministry of Education is stepping in to find out whether Inuit students in northern Quebec can be taught the same science curriculum as students everywhere else — and that includes evolution.
. . .
"Our people are in the field, talking with them and I'm sure we're going to arrive at an understanding of the position," Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier said.

Double talk comin' at ya:

[Kativik School Board] spokeswoman Debbie Astroff says the beliefs and culture of the local Inuit need to be respected in the classroom.

"The teacher's rationale was that Nunavik [northern Quebec] students should have the same right to the same education as other students. And we agree, but the Inuit of Nunavik should also have the right to have their views and way of life respected by our teachers," she said.

Those views tend to include an adherence to the biblical story of creation.

If you agree that Nunavik students should have the "same education as other students", then they have to be taught evolution.  But, as implied here (and made explicit in earlier reports), local parents believe that teaching evolution to their children is ipso facto disrespectful to their culture.  You can't have it both ways on this one.

And notice how the CBC slipped in that zinger about the biblical story of creation, implying that all those who believe the Bible reject evolution.  What a crock!

Previous related posts:

• Teaching evolution disrespectful to cultural traditions
• Parents: Don’t teach evolution to our children.  School board: OK.

"Don't be fooled by that 9/10th in price at gas pumps", screams the headline on this story from Reuters.

As millions of Americans make the filling station the first stop on their Memorial Day vacation this weekend, the traditional start of the busy summer driving season, some may wonder: "Why does the price for gasoline always have that 9/10 number at the end of it?"

For decades gas stations have advertised the price for gasoline on signs with three big numbers and a small 9/10, representing nine tenths of a penny — a marketing strategy to make drivers think they are paying slightly less than they really are.
. . .
The problem is you can't buy a gallon of gasoline for the fractional price that is advertised.

Tests at several service stations showed that buying exactly 1 gallon of fuel (which was difficult to do because you had to release the pump handle at just the right time) resulted in a price that was always rounded up one-tenth of a penny.

Sounds like a very slow news day at Reuters.  And drivers aren't even complaining about the phantom tenth of a cent.  Could it be that they're not "fooled" in the first place?

Drivers apparently don't mind, though.

"We have not got any complaints on this. I guess people kind of take it for granted," said Mantill Williams, spokesman for the AAA travel organization. "The obvious complaint we get is the (gasoline) price is too damn high," he said.

Besides, whose fault is this anyway?  When and why did gasoline retailers begin pricing in fractions of a penny?

Filling stations started pricing their gasoline in fractions back in the 1930s when the federal government raised the excise tax on fuel from 1 penny a gallon to 1.5 cents, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The tax was immediately reflected in prices at the pump.

Of course: It's the government's fault.  Hey, Reuters, quit trying to shift the blame to gasoline filling stations.  They're just the bagmen for the true oil profiteers.  Point your finger at the real guilty party.

This page at the federal Department of Finance has the straight goods on gasoline prices in Canada.  Bottom line: The oil companies and gasoline retailers get a tiny piece of the pump price.  As at October 2005, the date of the information on the page, the price of crude oil accounted for 49.5% of the retail price, and taxes levied by the various levels of government for another 33% on average.  (The latter amount varies from 22% in Yukon (!) to over 40% in Montreal.)  About 14% accrues to the refiner and 3.5% to the retailer.

If you're upset about gasoline prices, direct your ire at the government and those nefarious oil-exporting nations.  They're the ones making the biggest bucks from gasoline.

via Opinion Journal – Best of the Web

Previous related post: Vancouver's gas prices higher than  — where?