Carrion and dung odours of various flowers have traditionally been considered an adaptation for attracting the flies and beetles that pollinate them. While we accept the role of such odours in pollinator attraction, we propose that they may also have another, overlooked, anti‐herbivore defensive function. We suggest that such odours may deter mammalian herbivores, especially during the critical period of flowering. Carrion odour is a good predictor for two potential dangers to mammalian herbivores: (1) pathogenic microbes, (2) proximity of carnivores. (...) Similarly, dung odour predicts faeces‐contaminated habitats that present high risks of parasitism. These are two new types of repulsive olfactory aposematic mimicry by plants: (1) olfactory feigning of carcass (thanatosis), a well‐known behavioural defensive strategy in animals, (2) olfactory mimicry of faeces, which also has a defensive visual parallel in animals. (shrink)

The main point of our hypothesis “coloration undermines camouflage” is that many color patterns in plants undermine the camouflage of invertebrate herbivores, especially insects, thus exposing them to predation and causing them to avoid plant organs with unsuitable coloration, to the benefit of the plants. This is a common case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and a visual parallel of the chemical signals that plants emit to call wasps when attacked by caterpillars. Moreover, this is also (...) a common natural version of the well‐known case of industrial melanism, which illustrates the great importance of plant‐based camouflage for herbivorous insects and can serve as an independent test for our hypothesis. We claim that the enormous variations in coloration of leaves, petioles and stems as well as of flowers and fruits undermine the camouflage of invertebrate herbivores, especially insects. We assume that the same principle might operate in certain animal–parasite interactions. Our hypothesis, however, does not contrast or exclude other previous or future explanations of specific types of plant coloration. Traits such as coloration that have more than one type of benefit may be selected for by several agents and evolve more rapidly than ones with a single type of advantage. BioEssays 26:1126–1130, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Rabbi Simcha Wasserman was a rosh yeshivah; kiruv pioneer; advisor; foster father; storyteller; transmitter of tradition; founder of yeshivos; hatzalah activist. This book captures him speaking with patience, simplicity, and intellect, about burning topics such as Holocaust, Kabbalah, Providence, and child-rearing. Includes a biographical sketch.

It is argued that the many-worlds interpretation is by far the best interpretation of quantum mechanics. The key points of this view are viewing the wave functions of worlds in three dimensions and understanding probability through self-locating uncertainty.

The Provincial Capitals of Ērānšahr, a medieval Zoroastrian Middle Persian text, recounts how the daughter of the Jewish exilarch married the Sasanian king Yaz- dgird I and gave birth to Wahrām Gōr, his successor. While the historicity of the text has been largely undermined, scant attention has been given to its authorship and purpose. This article proposes that the story’s creators were members of the exilarch’s household in the tenth through eleventh century who internalized the broader concern with Sasanian pedigree (...) during the period known as the Iranian intermezzo in an effort to appeal to Iranian Jews and other elites alike. Studying this text and its origins provides evidence of contact between Jews and Zoroastrians during this period and offers a new suggestion about the cultural context of the Zoroastrians who produced The Provincial Capitals. (shrink)

Developing character. Text: from The rule of the Rosh.--Going beyond the law. Text: If not higher, by Y. L. Peretz.--Using reason. Text: from The guide for the perplexed, by M. Maimonides.--Visiting the sick. Text: from Talmud (Tractate Nedarim).--Educating children. Text: from Kitzur Shulhan Arukh.--Preserving life. Text: from Talmud (Tractate Yoma).--Loving the land. Text: from The Kuzari, by Yehudah Halevi.--Being true to the Jewish people. Text: from Slavery amidst freedom, by Ahad Ha-Am.--Prayer. Text: from The duties of hearts, by Bahya ibn (...) Pakuda.--Study. Text: The Talmud student, H. N. Bialik.--Observing the Sabbath. Text: from Hok Leyisrael, by H. Vital.--Loving God. Text: from The path of the upright, by M. H. Luzzatto.--Further reading (p. [107]-111). (shrink)

For more than two thousand years, philosophers and theologians have wrestled with the irreconcilable opposition between Greek rationality (Athens) and biblical revelation (Jerusalem). In Athens and Jersusalem, Lev Shestov -- an inspiration for the French existentialists and the foremost interlocutor of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber during the interwar years -- makes the gripping confrontation between these symbolic poles of ancient wisdom his philosophical testament, an argumentative and stylistic tour de force. Although the Russian-born Shestov is little known (...) in the Anglophone world today, his writings influenced many twentieth-century European thinkers, such as Albert Camus, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Czesław Miłosz, and Joseph Brodsky. Athens and Jerusalem is Shestov's final, groundbreaking work on the philosophy of religion from an existential perspective. This new, annotated edition of Bernard Martin's classic translation adds references to the cited works as well as glosses of passages from the original Greek, Latin, German, and French. Athens and Jerusalem is Shestov at his most profound and most eloquent and is the clearest expression of his thought that shaped the evolution of continental philosophy and European literature in the twentieth century. (shrink)

“All Things Are Possible” is a 1920 English translation of the 1905 work by the Ukrainian/Russian existentialist philosopher Shestov. It draws on the aphoristic style of Nietzsche and deals with as diverse issues as science, rationalism and religion. This edition also includes an interesting foreword by D. H. Lawrence. Highly recommended for those with an interest in philosophy, and particularly existentialism. Contents include: “Lev Shestov”, “Note”, “Foreword”, “Zu Fragmentarish Ist Welt Und Leben”, and “Nur Für Schwindelfreie”. Many vintage books such (...) as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author. (shrink)

This paper presents a succinct review of the movement for moral genesis in business that arose in the 1970s. The moral genesis movement is characterized by: the rejection of the premise that business and ethics are antagonistic; the rise of the Issues Management approach, which stresses the social responsibility of the corporation: disdain of government regulation as a means of business moralization, and a search for control measures aimed at improving organization moral behavior. This movement now begins to give rise (...) to a new organizational model, the Self-Moralizing Corporation, which transcends existing paradigms of corporate rectitude. The tenets of the Self-Moralizing Corporation are that: the moral behavior of members is a requisite to the attainment of organization goals; individual moral behavior is an asset which must be managed and developed by the corporation; individual moral development is a collectively and individually shared responsibility; and, the maintenance of moral values is more important than the preservation of organization structure. (shrink)

The main focus of the book is the presentation of the 'inertial' view of population growth. This view provides a rather simple model for complex population dynamics, and is achieved at the level of the single species without invoking species interactions. An important part of this account is the maternal effect. Investment of mothers in the quality of their daughters makes the rate of reproduction of the current generation depend not only on the current environment, but also on the environment (...) experienced by the previous generation. (shrink)

The book, "" Anton Tchekhov, and Other Essays "", has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

Kierkegaard a donne a sa philosophie le nom d'existentielle; il sait certes aussi bien que tout le monde que du point de vue de la philosophie speculative, la philosophie existentielle est la pire des absurdites. Mais cela ne l'arrete pas, cela le ravit au contraire. C'est dans l'"objectivisme" de la philosophie speculative qu'il voit son vice essentiel. "les hommes, ecrit-il, sont devenus trop objectifs pour obtenir la beatitude eternelle, car la beatitude eternelle consiste justement en un interet personnel infiniment passionne". (...) Et cet interet infini est le commencement de la foi. (shrink)

While there is a consensus that leading interpretations of quantum mechanics cannot be distinguished with today’s technology, it is unclear if a gedanken experiment which relies on unlimited technological power cannot do so. Another gedanken approach is considering sentient beings which have brains different from ours. Such gedanken situations will be analyzed with emphasis on a possible difference between Bohmian mechanics and the many-worlds interpretation.

Prominent thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas and Michael Sandel are warning that biomedical enhancements will undermine fundamental political values. Yet whether biomedical enhancements will undermine such values depends on how biomedical enhancements will function, how they will be administered and to whom. Since only few enhancements are obtainable, it is difficult to tell whether these predictions are sound. Nevertheless, such warnings are extremely valuable. As a society we must, at the very least, be aware of developments that could have harmful (...) consequences. Indeed, if important values were to be jeopardized, we should take appropriate measures to protect them. This paper focuses on four central values: solidarity, personal responsibility, equality and autonomy. It delineates the conditions under which biomedical enhancements would undermine these values. It also details the circumstances under which these values would be unaffected by enhancements as well as those under which they would be promoted. Specifying these conditions is valuable; it would enable society to prepare appropriate ethical guidelines and policy responses in advance. (shrink)

This article compares the sections on the qualities desirable in a wife in Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn and Bar Hebraeus’s Ethicon, which the West Syrian writer modeled on al-Ghazālī’s work. The article first establishes that al-Ghazālī based his profile of the ideal wife on a jurisprudential discussion of the topic by his teacher, Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī, expanding it, however, by adding anecdotes from Sufi literature and reasoned arguments on how “the good wife” will best facilitate her husband’s devotion (...) to God. The article then moves to consider how Bar Hebraeus appropriates, reconfigures, and reframes as Christian teaching al-Ghazālī’s discussion. Finally, the article argues that the similarity between the two texts demonstrates that both carve out a particular notion of male piety intelligible and resonant in their different religious traditions and in the broader monotheistic culture of the premodern Middle East. (shrink)