Archive for March, 2008
Spam blights e-mail 15 years on
Spam continues to blight e-mail exactly 15 years after the term was first coined and almost 30 years since the first spam message was sent.
The term is thought to have been coined by Joel Furr, an administrator on the net discussion system Usenet, to refer to unsolicited bulk messages.
More than 90% of all […]
Controversial Billboard Causes Consternation in Florida
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It looked harmless enough, but the words on a billboard un-nerved so many people that a popular restaurant nearby actually lost business.
The billboard was on Colonial Drive near the Old Cheney Highway. Although the popular Straub’s Seafood restaurant often advertises on it, this wasn’t their billboard. The sign was taken […]
World Cities Shut Lights for Earth Hour 2008
SYDNEY, Australia — The iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge went dark Saturday night as Sydney became the world’s first major city to turn off its lights for this year’s Earth Hour, a global campaign to raise awareness about climate change. Thousands of homes were dark for an hour in Christchurch, New […]
30Mar2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Stretchable Silicon Chips
Normally fragile and brittle silicon chips have been made to bend and fold, paving the way for a new generation of flexible electronic devices.
The stretchy circuits could be used to build advanced brain implants, health monitors or smart clothing.
The complex devices consist of concertina-like folds of ultra-thin silicon bonded to sheets of […]
Reports: New protests in Tibet as diplomats end visit
BEIJING, China (AP) — Radio broadcaster and Tibetan activists have reported that fresh protests broke out in the Tibetan capital Lhasa as foreign diplomats wrapped up a tightly controlled visit organized by Beijing.
Kate Saunders of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said a demonstration began Saturday afternoon at the Ramoche monastery and grew to […]
Creationists at it again in Florida
By NICOLA M. WHITE
The Tampa Tribune Published: March 27, 2008
TALLAHASSEE - It’s not about letting religion creep into science classrooms, Sen. Ronda Storms insisted.
It’s about protecting the rights of students and teachers who don’t agree with the science behind Darwinian evolution, the Republican from Valrico argued before the Senate’s pre-k through 12 education committee […]
A stargazer’s guide to the spring sky
Most famous stars of the season constitute the constellation of Leo
We’re now more than a week into the spring season (even if, meteorologically, in some parts of the country it’s still very much wintry), and high in our current evening sky the most famous stars of spring are to be found making up the constellation […]
Muslims condemn Dutch lawmaker’s film
LONDON, England (CNN) — The Organization of the Islamic Conference on Friday added its voice to the growing criticism of a film released by a Dutch lawmaker, which features disturbing images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based OIC, released a statement condemning “in the […]
Indian ‘witch’ tied to tree, beaten by mob
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — An Indian woman accused of being a witch was tied to a tree and beaten by a mob, with television footage of the incident aired in India on Friday.
Villagers tied the woman to a tree after a man accused her of practicing black magic.
Nishant Tiwari, a police official in northeastern […]
Bad Religion Singer Gets Award for Atheism
There’s more than a cool band name at work here: Bad Religion front man Greg Graffin will receive an award from a Harvard-based atheist intellectual’s community.
Graffin is slated to receive the highest honor from Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University, its Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism for his one-two punch of promoting scientific […]
eSkeptic: Faith Healing
Human cognition has a problem — anecdotal thinking comes naturally whereas scientific thinking does not. The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism illustrates this barrier. On the one side are scientists who have been unable to find any causal link between the symptoms of autism and the vaccine’s ingredients. On the other […]
28Mar2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Saudi interfaith call seen as less than seems
RIYADH (Reuters) - A surprise call by King Abdullah this week for an interfaith dialogue fits with Saudi Arabia’s policy of promoting moderation to combat militancy but will probably not lead to dramatic meetings soon, observers say.
The octogenarian king said in a speech this week that he would hold meetings with Muslims around the world […]
Doomsday Fears Spark Lawsuits
The builders of the world’s biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet. Representatives at Fermilab in Illinois and at Europe’s CERN laboratory, two of the defendants in the case, say there’s no […]
27Mar2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
American Chronicle | The Dangerous Theism of Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges recently published an article called “The Dangerous Atheism of Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris,” ( http://www.alternet.org/rights/80449 ) but he failed to include in it any indication of what he thinks is dangerous about their atheism. He thinks they have horrible political opinions, but does not explain how those relate to atheism. He thinks […]
27Mar2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Girl Died as Parents Prayed
WESTON, Wis. — An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.
Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.
“She got sicker and sicker until she was dead,” he said.
Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died […]
Gorbachev Dispels ‘Closet Christian’ Rumors; Says He is Atheist
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy.
Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had […]
Saudi Arabia Calls for Interfaith Dialogue in Order to Persecute Atheists
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called for a dialogue among monotheistic religions Monday, marking a first for the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.
“I ask representatives of all the monotheistic religions to meet with their brothers in faith,” Abdullah told delegates to a seminar on “Dialogue Among Civilizations between Japan and the Islamic World,” according to the official […]
Google to Help in the Detection of Earth-Like Planets
MIT scientists started a project with the help of Google to find other planets with similar characteristics as Earth. For that, they are designing a satellite-based observatory that will be able to scan the entire sky. The current technology discovered around 200 extrasolar planets so far, but all of them have a much bigger size […]
27Mar2008 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Oldest known human fossil found in Europe
Piece of jawbone unearthed in Spain could be up to 1.3 million years old
MADRID, Spain - A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe and suggests that people lived on the continent much earlier than previously believed, scientists say.
The researchers said […]
Taking Christ Out of Christianity
That triumphal barnburner of an Easter hymn, Jesus Christ Has Risen Today – Hallelujah, this morning will rock the walls of Toronto’s West Hill United Church as it will in most Christian churches across the country.
But at West Hill on the faith’s holiest day, it will be done with a huge difference. The […]
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