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Religious Nuttery Wins Out over Scientific Fact George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word “theory” after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The Times. The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the “war room” of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen’s public statements.
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In Austria it against the law to make any statements denying the occurrence of the Holocaust. "But one can say anything about Islam and get away with it," observes Ehsan Ahrari of the Asia Times. As the editor of Jyllands Posten defends the publication of unflattering cartoons of the Mohammed as standing up for the values of “free speech”, laws in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland make it a criminal offence to deny the Holocaust in public. Germany's parliament passed legislation in 1985, making it a crime to deny the extermination of the Jews. In 1994, the law was tightened. Now, anyone who publicly endorses, denies or plays down the genocide against the Jews faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail and no less than the imposition of a fine. Should holocaust denial be a crime? Do laws against Holocaust denial make Western defense of freedom of speech look hollow? (Related discussion here.)
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puppies? Kenny Chesney? Shreck? What do you mean the check is bad? It has sea mammals on it!
comment posted at 7:24 PM on Feb-4-06

Depictions of Mohammed Throughout History This page is an archive of numerous depictions of Mohammed, to serve as a reminder that such imagery has been part of Western and Islamic culture since the Middle Ages -- and to serve as a resource for those interested in freedom of expression.
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Muslim world goes apeshit over Danish cartoon. Saudi Arabia and Libya have withdrawn their ambassadors to Denmark, which issued safety warnings to its citizens travelling in Muslim countries after threats by militant Islamic groups and a boycott of Danish goods
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The Longest Poop.
comment posted at 7:19 PM on Jan-29-06

A fake stone packed with sophisticated British spy devices sparks a UK / Russian controversy. More articles via Google News
comment posted at 6:51 PM on Jan-26-06

Harper wins Tory minority government. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada's next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule.
comment posted at 9:15 PM on Jan-23-06

Le Papillon is quintessential heartwarming French cinema. [Windows Media]
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Academics question the official explanation for the WTC collapse. This paper, with internal links to assorted videos and stills, argues that WTC 7, the 45-story companion building to the towers, appears to have been demolished by planted explosives, not the fire from the twin towers.
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2006 Canadian vote selector quiz! Politics Watch brings us the new Vote Selector Quiz for the Canadian election, which is less than a week away. 18 questions that should pin down your candidate for you. But sadly, this too is Green free.
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James Lovelock, inventor of the Gaia hypothesis believes that global warming has passed the point of no return. The feedback mechanisms that have regulated the planet are now working against us, accelerating the warming process. Can civilisation survive? Not according to Lovelock. The celebrated planetary scientist believes billions will die leaving the human race reduced to a few breeding pairs living in the Artic. Gloomy stuff.
comment posted at 9:41 PM on Jan-16-06

How will we be prepped for war with Iran?

Winter/Spring - The clone army of foreign policy "experts" from conservative foreign policy outfits nobody ever heard of before suddenly appear on all the cable news programs all the time, frowning furiously and expressing concerns about the "grave threat" that Iran poses. Never before heard of Iranian exile group members start appearing regularly, talking about their role in the nuclear program and talking up Iran's human rights violations....
comment posted at 2:49 PM on Jan-14-06

Study finds that 40% of Ashkenazi Jews come from four Jewish mothers. Previously discussed on Metafilter: the peculiar genetics of Ashkenazi Jews and their impressive intellect.
comment posted at 2:22 PM on Jan-14-06

Guaranteed to hear the voice of God or your money back! (via Effect Measure.)
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Jan-8-06

Ariel Sharon suffers major stroke. Executive power temporarily transferred to his deputy as doctors operate to drain blood from his brain. Say what you will about Sharon's tenure, his death now would send shockwaves through the Israeli political establishment and through the region.
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It's official. 2005 was the hottest year on record. Despite this new alarming evidence that the world is heating up, countries like Australia and the United States are still refusing to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol. But with many (mostly on the conservative side of politics) claiming that the Kyoto Protocol is a failure, what else can be done to stop the now clearly visible effects of climate change to our world?
comment posted at 4:51 PM on Jan-3-06

Woman marries dolphin
comment posted at 8:38 PM on Jan-1-06

The ultimate rubber woman. (embedded video clip)
comment posted at 11:34 AM on Dec-20-05

Step-by-step magazine cover photo retouching. (Flash)
comment posted at 10:14 PM on Dec-18-05

Have you got a copy of the bible you no longer want or need? Do you want some porn? Well, if you live in San Antonio, you're in luck, because a group of atheists at UTSA are trading bibles for porn.
comment posted at 5:23 PM on Dec-6-05

"It is absurd to talk about a Judeo-Christian tradition".
I had been born in the United States but didn't know any English because none was spoken at home or in the streets. We were a solid enclave of some 600,000 Eastern European, Yiddish-speaking Jews. But I still remember one day that a missionary came to the door with what I still have my copy of: a Yiddish translation of the New Testament. There's a kind of grim joke in that, isn't there? In the mere existence of it.
Harold Bloom on religion in America, God smoking a cigar, and who really is the King of the Jews.
comment posted at 1:15 PM on Dec-4-05

On the night of Feb. 7, 2005, Hatun Surucu, 23, was killed on her way to a bus stop in Berlin-Tempelhof by several shots to the head and upper body, fired at point-blank range. The investigation revealed that months before, she reported one of her brothers to the police for threatening her. Now three of her five brothers are on trial for murder. According to the prosecutor, the oldest of them (25) acquired the weapon, the middle brother (24) lured his sister to the scene of the crime and the youngest (18) shot her.

Evidently, in the eyes of her brothers, Hatun Surucu's capital crime was that, living in Germany, she had begun living like a German. In a statement to the Turkish newspaper Zaman, one brother noted that she had stopped wearing her head scarf, that she refused to go back to her family and that she had declared her intent to "seek out her own circle of friends."
comment posted at 10:29 AM on Dec-4-05

De Villepin: The French riots didn't happen. Riots? What riots? There were no riots. (Jean Baudrillard: "That's right, Dominique, you're getting the idea.)
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Ignatieff for Canada. The Liberals just lost a non-confidence vote and elections are set for January. In Etobicoke, Ontario, Michael Ignatieff, Harvard Professor of Human Rights and Author is set to run. Will this be the opening moves of a new intellectual Prime Minister? How will his views on humanitarian intervention and the idea of a lesser evil play out?
comment posted at 6:33 PM on Nov-28-05

Don't Bomb Us. In response to credible reports that Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera's HQ in allied Qatar (discussed here and here on MeFi), Al Jazeera staffers start their own English-language blog. Their site contains remembrances of their fallen colleagues, firsthand accounts of US attacks on their offices, links to relevant reports on the controversy, Flickr photosets of protests calling for an official investigation, and al Jazeera's code of ethics. Also, a quick note to Tony Blair: " P.S. Thanks for talking Mr. Bush out of bombing our offices!" Not surprisingly, their blog is generating some comments.
comment posted at 2:17 PM on Nov-26-05

RIP, Sam. Sam, previously discussed here, has gone to meet his maker. (Yes, the site could also win World's Ugliest Website, but have some sympathy, would you please?) And yes, he's real. The blog is a little more informative, and better looking...a little.
comment posted at 9:39 PM on Nov-22-05

Sharon to quit, form own party Sharon threatens to quit own party, Israelis, jews, human beings rejoice.
comment posted at 9:34 PM on Nov-20-05

The glass trick. (Note: includes embedded video. Soundtrack is mostly in Japanese but can be ignored.) I've been a magician for almost 40 years now and am up on the latest tech but I have very little idea of how the performer accomplishes what you see in this video.
comment posted at 12:34 PM on Nov-19-05

They're Killing Korean Families with Gasses ....... Who had McDonalds?! The Mad Sophist is at it again. His website is well worth checking out. Go to the archives of some of the stuff he has written, hilarious. For those wondering about the reference to Schapelle Corby
comment posted at 6:09 PM on Nov-15-05

What's That? Sadly, the education of the youth of amerika is declining in more than one way. The other day I was at the grocery store and the checker was unable to identify a portabello mushroom. And no, she wasn't new...and to make matters worse the checker next to her didn't know either. (more inside)
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