In Japan, some people have funerals for robot pets that have broken down.

I will be the first to admit that in principle a robot could have the same qualities that merit whatever-it-might-be as a dog, or a human. In principle, a robot could love as a human does, or at least as a dog loves a human. I am sure that these Aibos are not capable of that. Those people are fooling themselves.

But then, I've never seen much sense in funerals. When I miss someone who has died, it is a private sadness; a ceremony won't help me, but I can cope.

The person's body was important only because it housed a living person; with that person's death, the corpse is just a relic, and I don't see a point in fetishizing the relic. The only real importance of the corpse is that it can hurt or help living people.

Corpses of humans and other animals need safe disposal; burial and cremation are ways to dispose of a corpse safely and recycle its elements. That doesn't apply to robots, for which burial is not effective recycling.

Corpses of humans can also help people. Have you signed up as an organ donor? Have you willed your body for student surgeons to practice on? Those are important needs of society.

An Indian court ordered removal of anti-coal-mine activist Priya Pillai from a list of people not allowed to travel abroad.

A mother found shocking racism as her child began to read The Travels of Babar.

Books from the era before people learned to condemn racism often reflect the racism that was common at the time. If the book is of no great importance, we may as well forget it. But what if it is greatly loved for other reasons?

The racism of The Merchant of Venice has bothered people for a long time, and so has the sexism of The Taming of the Shrew. Rather than rejecting them, we discuss the issue of the bigotry. Perhaps it is better to do the same with Babar than to burn it.

Someone shot and wounded two Ferguson thugs while others were protesting.

It seems plausible that this is a response provoked by the systematic violence and dishonesty of US thugs. Nonetheless, trying to kill them (I presume that was the intent) just because they are thugs is going too far. It is also a self-defeating response, because thugs will use this to try to put blame on nonviolent protesters.

The UK government underfunded the NHS, causing a backlog. Now it is using that as an excuse to take another step towards its medium-term goal of privatizing the NHS.

Its long-term goal is to get rid of universal healthcare, so that the poor can't afford it.