Links

1. Should Humans Eat Meat: Vaclav Smil presents a thumbnail sketch in this Scientific American article.

... is it possible to come up with a comprehensive appraisal in order to contrast the positive effects of meat consumption with the negative consequences of meat production and to answer a simple question: are the benefits (health and otherwise) of eating meat greater than the undesirable cost, multitude of environmental burdens in particular, of producing it?

2. Is Dawkins hurting Athesim:  Martin Robin contends that the movement is maturing, and no longer needs the forceful and erratic professor.

@RichardDawkins is the increasingly erratic comedy creation of a bored Oxford Professor called Richard Dawkins. One of the best science writers of the last few decades, Dawkins has succeeding in crafting an online character that ironically parodies the more militant tendencies in capital-A Atheism, serving as a useful reminder for all of us to be more nuanced and tolerant.