domingo, fevereiro 01, 2004

Há hábitos mesmo difíceis de perder...

Leio na edição on-line em português do ПРАВДА que "Vladimir Filippov, o Ministro de Educação da Federação russa, decidiu reavaliar todos os livros de história russos", e que "todos os livros de história serão seleccionados baseado em competitividade" [sic].

Na origem da meritória decisão estarão "várias reclamações recebidas de veteranos da Grande Guerra Patriótica (Segunda Guerra Mundial)".

O Presidente Putin afirmou que partilha "plenamente as opiniões e sentimentos dos veteranos", e autoriza "os historiadores e académicos a examinar os livros de história de hoje".
"In North America the black bear was seen by [Samuel] Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale."
Darwin, Charles; "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" (On the origin and transitions of organic beings with peculiar habits and structure)