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Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake.

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:03:19 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: The Atheist Bus Campaign moves to America

The Atheist Bus campaign In the UK has raised over £118,718.06 (approximately $182,976.18).

Now, the American Humanist Association is going for a bus campaign of their own with this ad:

That ad will appear on the sides and insides of over 200 Washington D.C. Metro buses beginning next Tuesday. It was already appearing in yesterday’s issues of The New York Times and Washington Post.

Humanists have always understood that you don’t need a god to be good,” said Roy Speckhardt

“So that’s the point we’re making with this advertising campaign. Morality doesn’t come from religion. It’s a set of values embraced by individuals and society based on empathy, fairness, and experience.”

“We expect these bus signs to generate a lot of public interest,” said Fred Edwords, director of communications for the American Humanist Association. “Some folks may be offended but that isn’t our purpose. We just want to reach those open to this message, but unaware how widespread their views are.

How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:52:55 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: Sure, they look cute and harmless, but we all know there's a giant conspiracy going on among the little fuzzfaces.

Clip Source: www.catswhothrowupgrass.com

Tags: cats, funny

Time to test time

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:09:53 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “If it's true, it's Nobel-prize-winning stuff”

Karsten Danzmann
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Poets have long believed the passage of time to be unavoidable, inexorable and generally melancholic. Quantum mechanics says it is fuzzy, ticking along at minimum intervals within which the notion of time is meaningless. And Craig Hogan claims he can 'see' it — in the thus far unexplained noise of a gravitational-wave detector. "It's potentially the most transformative thing I've ever worked on," says Hogan, director of the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. "It's actually a possibility that we can access experimentally the minimum interval of time, which we thought was out of reach."

In a classical view of the world, space and time are smooth. The minimum scales at which, according to quantum mechanics, the smoothness breaks down — the Planck length and time — can be derived from other quantities, but they have not been tested experimentally, nor would they be, given their impossibly small size.

Tags: time, test time, particle physics, quantum mechanics

Seeking Dignity And Respect

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:02:20 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Tracy Keil met her husband, Matt, in August 2005 between his first and second tours of duty in Iraq. They married in January 2007. Six weeks later, Staff Sergeant Keil was shot in the neck while on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq, and rendered a quadriplegic.

Because her husband, now 27, could no longer take care of himself, not even to get a drink of water, Mrs. Keil, 31, quit her job as an accountant to take care of him.

She tried to hire others to help her, a service that is paid for by the government, but after going through four workers in nine months she gave up.

While she has never regretted leaving her job, the financial repercussions have been serious

Mrs. Keil has joined a growing group of veterans’ families who are asking to be compensated in place of a caregiver. She sees it not only as a battle about income but also about dignity and respect.

Ex-Arch Bishop Reveals Knowlegeable Cover-Up of Sexual Abuse

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:22:56 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: It just never ends. Archdiocese spokesman pooh-poohs testimony.

Clip Source: www.jsonline.com

Retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland admitted in a video deposition released Wednesday that he transferred priests with a history of sexual misconduct back into churches without alerting parishioners.

The former archbishop acknowledged that he did so because "no parish would have accepted a priest unless you could say that he has gone through the kind of psychological examination and that he's not a risk to the parish."

While similar allegations have been made for years as the scandal rocked the Catholic Church across the country, Weakland's statements give a rare glimpse of how a top church leader dealt with allegations of sexual misconduct by priests.

"I have never heard a bishop discuss openly the inner workings of this essentially secret handling of sex abuse cases," said Peter Isely, a spokesman for SNAP, a national support group for victims of clergy sex abuse. "I haven't seen anything like this anywhere in the country."

Should we fight war to end wars?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:39:57 GMT

clipped by: jimbo1000
clipper's remarks: We should invest in studying peacemaking.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Should we fight war to end wars?

Those who believe that liberal interventionism has manifestly failed should not retreat into narrow national interest, and walk by on the other side of the road. Violent interventionism – wars to end war – is never justified. But there are many non-violent alternatives, and they are imperative.

Ron Sider, has speculated about what could be achieved if a serious commitment were ever made to "waging peace" instead.

Whole university courses and even departments are geared up to the study or war and military strategy

But what if the same energies and resources were put into active peacemaking?

political scientist Gene Sharp listed several hundred strategies of direct action and resistance without the use of guns

Christian peacemakers have just recently facilitated the work of Muslim peacemakers in Baghdad, who have begun to bring together Shia and Sunni

the time is right to give peace a chance.

Tags: peace, peacemaking

Pagans and Homosexuality

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:27:46 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: paganwiccan.about.com

Pagans rarely have an official stance on much of anything (other than "be sure to bring food") simply because there are so many different branches of Paganism. However, one reason you find so many openly gay, bisexual and transgendered people within the Pagan and Wiccan community is because, frankly, we don't really care what people do in the bedroom. In fact, there are a few deities out there who were pretty sexually adventurous in their escapades, so who are we mortals to say, "You can't sleep with this person, and you're only allowed to love THAT person over there"? Generally, as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, we figure it's your business, and no one else's.

You'll also find that Pagans and Wiccans tend to be, as a group, extremely supportive of equality and fairness under the law as set down by the Constitution.

What happens when you cry?

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:38:20 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: " one study collected both reflex tears and emotional tears (after peeling an onion and watching a sad movie, respectively). When scientists analyzed the content of the tears, they found each type was very different. Reflex tears are generally found to be about 98 percent water, whereas several chemicals are commonly present in emotional tears First is a protein called prolactin, which is also known to control breast milk production. Adrenocorticotropic hormones are also common and indicate high stress levels. The other chemical found in emotional tears is leucine-enkephalin, an endorphin that reduces pain and works to improve mood. Of course".

Clip Source: health.howstuffworks.com

crying is a critical part of the human emotional makeup, just as laughing is

Clip Source: health.howstuffworks.com

What happens when you cry, exactly?

A salty fluid chock full of protein, water, mucus and oil is released from the lacrimal gland in the upper, outer region of your eye. This fluid, better known as tears, then flows down the surface of your eye, across your face and smears your mascara

not all tears are of the emotional variety

three types of tears exist, all with different purposes. Basal tears are omnipresent in our eyes

The second type is reflex tears, which serve to protect the human eye from harsh irritants

The third type of tears is emotional tears. It all starts in the cerebrum where sadness is registered

Some scientists agree with this theory, asserting that chemicals build up in the body during times of elevated stress. These researchers believe that emotional crying is the body's way of ridding itself of these toxins and waste products

Dogma vs Reality

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:26:21 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: I miss the positive effect religion bestows in this tragic story. Reason alone would seem to dictate that the family should end this nightmare and try to get on with their lives. What possible reason could there be to continue to artificially prolong what appears to be, at this point, a ghoulish action without any conceivable productive outcome.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

A tragic tale, made worse by dogma

Twelve year old Motl Brody has died. A tumor destroyed his brain, and the consequences are unambiguous.

Unlike Terri Schiavo or Karen Ann Quinlan, who became the subjects of right-to-die battles when they suffered brain damage and became unconscious, Motl's condition has deteriorated beyond a persistent vegetative state, his physicians say. His brain has died entirely, according to an affidavit filed by one of his doctors.

His brain stem shows no electrical function, and his brain tissue has begun to decompose.

The parents are not in denial. They know there is no hope at this point. They are sticking to their insistence that the hospital must tie up their facilities in this useless endeavor entirely because they must dogmatically follow their religion's laws.

In other words, they know their religious beliefs are invalid

It's zombie religion.

Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:31:46 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend
clipper's remarks: Google launched Video and Voice chat

Clip Source: gmailblog.blogspot.com

Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the "Video & more" menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose "Start video chat." You'll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it's ringing, and then you'll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the "pop-out" iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience. See this all in action in the video below:

[Video]

Tags: google, chat, gmail