Comments by willi5

Is it the quality of the meat from a bluefin killed straight after being caught that is less tasty, or is it the meat from a bluefin killed straight after being caught that is less tasty?

The single trip tickets in Stockholm seem to be a way to rip off tourists. Buying a pack of 8 tickets almost halves the price per ticket and a one month commuter card ran about $85 in March.

@badgat:
Any textbook definition will do. Give me your favorite, or let's make do with webster.com:

Main Entry: sen•tient
Pronunciation: \ˈsen(t)-sh(ē-)ənt, ˈsen-tē-ənt\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin sentient-, sentiens, present participle of sentire to perceive, feel
Date: 1632
1 : responsive to or conscious of sense impressions
2 : aware
3 : finely sensitive in perception or feeling

That cows actually qualify make evolutionary sense. They have the same basic nervous system as we do and clearly react in a similar way when in similar situations that might imply sentience, e.g. those that would cause us pain. That they, despite having the same evolutionary advantages of sensing pain and the same system in place to do it, would actually have some completely different reason for behaving as if in pain is just not plausible. By the same argument, there is no reason to believe that carrots would be sentient.

Yes, 'animal' is a construction. Duh. What isn't a construction? I don't see what bearing that has on what I said.

I'm not trying to make cows human, so I'm not sure why you write that I can't. You are right that I think that all animals have equal moral standing in the sense that their interest should be given equal weight. Pointing out that this is 'ludicrous' is not a very strong argument. Pointing out that lions, if they were not lions but some being capable of taking moral responsibility, would have to do so is not very strong either. Lions cannot, after all, take moral responsibility and we'd do poorly to take them on as moral role models.

@higgsboson
Uh, cows are sentient. That's not a controversial statement. And nothing I said was socialist. You might want to look up both words.

@badhat,

The relevant difference between a cow and a carrot is that the cow is sentient. The carrot has no interests that are violated if you eat it. A cow, however, has an interest in not getting its throat slit.

schlagmich:
The post is about the efficiency of the public sector not the quality of social services. While the latter should increase in public spending, there is no reason to believe that the former should - quite the opposite. Granted, there's no argument for the presumed efficiency of Sweden's public sector in the post, but your reply still misses the point.

Swedish high school programs run over three years with a minimum of 2180 hours led by a teacher. Disregarding work without a teacher (as the article seems to do) and assuming a school year of 180 days (which seems roughly right) this gives a work week of about 20 hours. Could it be that Lexington forgot to divide the total number of hours in the three year programs by, well, three?

Source (in Swedish, I'm afraid): http://www.boras.se/download/18.633e5e10039748abd7fff143909/gymnasieskol...

What is totally missing in the file sharing debate is a discussion of the welfare effects. It's all well if the lawyers worry about the legal aspects. The more interesting question, however, is whether the consumption increase that TPB undoubtedly has led to outweighs the presumed decrease in media supply. I would love it if the Economist would say something about that.

Umm, Obama is ahead as much in the US as anywhere else in this poll. There might be sample issues. Or just really good news.