The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organised fraud.The case centres on a complaint by a woman who says she was pressured into paying large sums of money after being offered a free personality test.
Today, you can set up a Ubuntu based computer easily and have no more difficulties with installation and maintenance of your system than any arbitrary OS on any arbitrary set of hardware. But there was a time when Linux was harder and not for just anyone. For me, messing with a system that is a bit of an uphill battle is worth it if that system does certain magic. This is an example of this magic.
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When I wrote my review of Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend
Four Stone Hearth # 67, the Anthropology Blog Carnival is at Soring Out Science. Check it out.
The 11th Skeptics Circle (I just don’t believe there have been that many) “You’re Gonna Love It Edition is now at Action Skeptics. Here.
Assuage Guilt: Get Inspired. Do Something:
Here is the first nine minutes of the speech. For the rest, go to Guilty Planet. And while you there browse around, it is an interesting place.
Don’t forget to periodically visit The Energy Grid, where you will find interesting posts such as this one: Politics or technology? (And something else altogether?)
Politics or Technology?
Which will be more important in addressing the open questions of energy security and environmental sustainability?
Who will save us from the impending meltdown towards which our most respected scientific models suggest we are headed?
Scientists or senators? Diplomats or designers? Engineers or community organizers? Us or them?It may have to be us. All of us.
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Have a look at quichemoraine.com for my piece on the red river.
Jest like the title says. Thouhg I do prefer to touch type!!
But he’s not.
President Barack Obama has chosen Joshua DuBois to lead his White House-based effort to steer federal social service dollars to religious charities and get them more involved in government anti-poverty efforts.
DuBois, a political strategist who was religious affairs director in the Obama campaign, will head the President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made by Obama.
Obama said during the campaign that he wanted to expand White House faith-based efforts begun under former President George W. Bush.
But while he endorsed Bush’s initiative to give religious groups more equal footing when getting federal funding, he also promised to tweak it.
How about tweaking this abomination out of existence?
More details here.
Andrea Markowski said she and her partner Ginette were stunned when the Winnipeg doctor told them during a “meet-and-greet” appointment she was uncomfortable accepting them as patients and had never treated “people like you” before.
The doctor said she only treated “husbands and wives,” said Markowski, who is legally married to her partner of 18 years.
“It was like a kick in the stomach,” said Markowski, who just moved to the city from the Northwest Territories. “It was definitely a traumatic and unexpected experience … She is a doctor who is paid with public funds.
Kansas LGBT rights bill advances …
A key legislative committee has approved a bill to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s anti-discrimination law.
The law currently prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, religion, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry.
“It’s clear that the time has come to extend the same protections from discrimination to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people that so many other Kansans already enjoy,” said Maggie Childs, chair of the Kansas Equality Coalition….
… more …
…. in a way that leads me to ask if George Bush did the same thing a few years ago …
Americans, take note:
Prince Harry has apologised for using offensive language to describe a member of his army platoon.
The News of the World has published video in which the prince calls one of his Sandhurst colleagues a “Paki” in commentary he made over filming.
Now, help me out here, citizens of the UK and colonies and former colonies: How bad is this?
I had always assumed that “Paki” was a slur. I have seen the word used mainly in novels in which Brits or Americans were speaking distainfully of the Pakistanis, usually in spy novels and such, but I never knew if “Paki” was really bad (like the n-word bad) or not so bad at all (like calling Brits Brits) or highly variable (like the word “frog” for French of Kanook for Canadians).
The reason I ask this is the following: Some years ago, George Bush was being interviewed and in that interview made specific mention of the “Pakis” for the Pakistanis. No outrage was claimed, no apologies were asked for, no backpedaling happened. It was like “Paki” was perfectly normal and acceptable. That made me wonder.
So maybe now we should be going back over the old newsreels to find George Bush using the P-word?????