Interesting Posts and Articles #102

1. Doing searches on near-matches to DNA, to find relatives of criminals, and thus find the criminals. Clever.
   
   
2. I have what to say on this -- I think both sides are misguided -- but for now, just a link dump. Tomer Devorah posts about concerns with Joel Gallis and Robert Wolf's world-view and methodology (pt 1 of "things that need to be said). Shirat Devorah posts their response. (Some critical anonymous comments have led Shirat Devorah to think twice about whether she wants to continue to blog.) And Tomer Devorah posts its (fairly-short) response in turn, saying that Gallis and Wolf's response speaks for itself, in terms of highlighting troubling aspects of their approach (as it indeed does, IMHO). Pt 2 of "things that need to be said" is about the direction Chabad is taking without the Rebbe, zt"l.
   
   
3. On The Main Line cites Shadal that "Oy Vey" comes from the Greek.
   
   
4. Pollutants messing with evolution and making men into women and "girly men."
   
   
5. Life In Israel (based on this YNet article) posts about other Rabbonim who OK the census, as against Rav Yaakov Yosef's psak against it the other week.
   
   
6. Cold sore virus may be Altzheimer's smoking gun -- via Slashdot.
   
   
7. The AP reports that the Supreme Court will not review Obama's eligibility. Oh well. I guess Bush is not Gog after all. :)
   
   
8. Tamar Yonah posts something from the autistics, together with a video of a facilitated communication.
   
   
   
   She writes

   "I am not sure how I feel about 'FC' (Facilitated Communication) and the whole idea of messages from certain 'Austistics". However, I feel it cannot hurt to cover what they are reported to be saying to us. Personally, I wonder about the 'Facilitator' and if he/she unconciously moves the person's hand. But since I have actually stated a lot of what they say below on my radio programs and on this blog, which is to make aliyah and strive to be better people through tshuvah, repentance, I am hoping that you will take these words to heart."

   But there are, in truth, deeper issues. The end does not justify the means, and in this case, there are other side-effects as well -- of making Judaism into a more superstitious and less rational religion, of possible violations of tamim tihyeh im Hashem Elokecha, of raising false messianic hopes which will then be dashed, and so on.