There was quite an interesting protest in Brisbane today by animal rights activists campaigning at the world poultry congress.  I don't think I need to articulate the exact concerns of the various animal liberation activists as the response from the Australian Chicken Federation (ACF) is much more interesting.

Dr. Dubs of the ACF claims that up to eighteen chickens reside in each square meter of factory farm.  The total quantity of animals allowed in a given square meter, in this case chicken's, is set by "industry standards".  Dr. Dubs states that eighteen chickens per square meter of factory farm is below this "industry standard" and, I would guess, this makes it OK to farm chickens in the way we do - in factory farms.

Week four of PHIL2400 saw us study the letters of Abelard and Helouise (although I think that Abelard would have prefered the title to have placed Helouise's name first) to shed some light upon the ethics of intention.  I didn't enjoy this material at all.  Perhaps if it was a course in literature or even Christian Metaphysics I would have found it more engaging, but as a reflection upon the ethics of intention specifically relating to the Passions, I found it lacking.

The following is from the Leiter Reports and I strongly suggest you go through and read the following essays no matter what your position on the 'war' is.

As a student of Philosophy I've been quite interested in philosophical concepts relating to discrimination.  Concepts such as 'the other' and the status of animals fascinate me.  Over the past few months I've been reading quite a bit of Heidegger and focusing my attention upon how he uses the concept of Dasein to discriminate between persons and non-persons.  While looking around for other interpretations and applications of Heidegger's Dasein I stumbled upon Being and Nothingness by Sartre.