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=================================== FEATURED ARTICLES Suit against Arlington Board, Clarendon church project dismissed Washington Examiner Appeals Court Judge Paul Niemeyer ruled that the development deal was not a violation of the separation of church and state but mutually beneficial to ... http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/virginia/2010/12/suit-against-arlington-board-clarendon-church-project-dismissed# ATHEISM Call to ban school assemblies by secularists who claim 'Christian character ... Daily Mail Although parents can withdraw their children from such assemblies simply by writing a letter to the headmaster or headmistress, the atheist campaigners ... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341985/Call-ban-school-assemblies-secularists-claim-Christian-character-infringes-childrens-human-rights.html?ito=feeds-newsxml BOOKS, FILM, THEATRE, TV, YOU TUBE Ricky Gervais: They call me the entertainer New Statesman Another early connection between Gervais and Ince was their shared, vociferous atheism. Ince says Gervais will often call him in a fury at some example of ... http://www.newstatesman.com/comedy/2010/12/ricky-gervais-ince-office 'Freud's Last Session' playwright puts Freud, CS Lewis together at fictional ... Palm Beach Daily News Lewis was as staunch an atheist as Freud until he went through a conversion experience. You have to ask yourself why Freud would invite such a man to his ... http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/freuds-last-session-playwright-brings-freud-c-s-1147466.html EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D. None SCIENCE Preplay: How Past Experiences Subconsciously Influence Behavior ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2010) — Researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory report for the first time how animals' knowledge obtained through past experiences can subconsciously influence their behavior in new situations... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222131123.htm NASA's Next Mars Rover to Zap Rocks With Laser ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2010) — A rock-zapping laser instrument on NASA's next Mars rover has roots in a demonstration that Roger Wiens saw 13 years ago in a colleague's room at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101223110056.htm Pterygotid Sea Scorpions: No Terror of the Ancient Seas? ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2010) — Experiments by a team of researchers in New York and New Jersey have generated evidence that questions the common belief that the pterygotid eurypterids ("sea scorpions") were high-level predators in the Paleozoic oceans. This group, which ranged the seas from about 470 to 370 million years ago (long before the dinosaurs appeared), included the largest and, arguably, scariest-looking arthropods known to have evolved on planet Earth... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222173039.htm How Cells Running on Empty Trigger Fuel Recycling ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered how AMPK, a metabolic master switch that springs into gear when cells run low on energy, revs up a cellular recycling program to free up essential molecular building blocks in times of need... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101223144028.htm Contract Marks New Generation for Deep Space Network ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — NASA has taken the next step toward a new generation of Deep Space Network antennas. A $40.7 million contract with General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies, San Jose, Calif., covers implementation of two additional 34-meter (112-foot) antennas at Canberra, Australia. This is part of Phase I of a plan to eventually retire the network's aging 70-meter-wide (230-foot-wide) antennas... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101223110151.htm Better Control of Building Blocks for Quantum Computer ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Scientists from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology have succeeded in controlling the building blocks of a future super-fast quantum computer. They are now able to manipulate these building blocks (qubits) with electrical rather than magnetic fields, as has been the common practice up till now. They have also been able to embed these qubits into semiconductor nanowires... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101223083759.htm Placebos Work -- Even Without Deception ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — For most of us, the "placebo effect" is synonymous with the power of positive thinking; it works because you believe you're taking a real drug. But a new study rattles this assumption... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222173033.htm Measuring Fatigue Through the Voice: Speech 'Flattens' After 24 Hours Awake ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — What can scientists learn from watching a group of people sitting around, chatting, playing movies, reading, and happily making new friends? Quite a lot, says University of Melbourne, Australia acoustician Adam Vogel, who carefully observed this sort of group in a fatigue management study he and his colleagues describe this month in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222141727.htm When Will Runners and Swimmers Reach Their Physical Limit? ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Running and swimming records are broken again and again at almost every international athletics event. But, can human performance continue to improve indefinitely? Will runners continue to accelerate off the starting blocks and reach the finish line in faster and faster times? Will swimmers always be able to dive into the record books with a quicker kick... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222093200.htm SEPARATION CHURCH / STATE Nontheist group asks Tulsa mayor to end official prayers Tulsa World Working with Tulsa humanists, the organization helped pay for a billboard on the Broken Arrow Expressway proclaiming that "Atheism is OK in Oklahoma," part ... http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20101225_18_A11_InAnni21488 Courthouse Displays Bring Mixed Reaction Leesburg Today "This is about the separation of church and state," he said. "I still think, and we maintain, that the point of the whole display is it is inappropriate to ... http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2010/12/24/news/9355displays122410.txt Views at Clarendon Lawsuit Dismissed, Again ARL now 2009, accusing Arlington County and the Virginia Housing Development Authority of violating the First Amendment separation of church and state by ... http://www.arlnow.com/2010/12/27/views-at-clarendon-lawsuit-dismissed-again/ Appeals Court Rejects 'Views at Clarendon' Suit Sun Gazette ... saying their joint venture to build apartments behind the church's historic steeple does not violate the constitutional separation of church and state. ... http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2010/12/28/arlington/news/nw86r3b.txt Prayer controversy distracts City Council San Antonio Express ... in the ETJ filed a complaint with the Washington DC-based groups Americans for Separation of Church and State and The Freedom from Religion Foundation. ... http://www.mysanantonio.com/community/bulverde/article/Prayer-controversy-distracts-City-Council-926496.php Saline County Board delays Ten Commandments decision Carmi Times The atheist said he hopes to help the board and local residents find a way to stay within constitutional bounds while still reflecting their values. ... http://www.carmitimes.com/area_news/x1882981595/Saline-County-Board-delays-Ten-Commandments-decision Atheist Group Asks City Council To Diversify KJCT8.com Members of Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers asked the city to consider more diversity. The city decided to open up the invocation and allow any ... http://www.kjct8.com/news/26294289/detail.html# Freedom From Religion Foundation objects to Tower Square displays The Daily Republican (blog) Chicago-area atheist Rob Sherman visited Marion City Hall earlier this year to protest a proposed Ten Commandments monument that would be placed on Tower ... http://www.dailyrepublicannews.com/news/x934185629/Freedom-From-Religion-Foundation-objects-to-Tower-Square-displays Atheist group protesting the donation of equipment purchased with tax dollars ... ABC Action News Basketball hoops that were removed from Polk jails and given to churches have rubbed some local atheists the wrong way, the Orlando Sentinel reports. ... http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_polk/atheist-group-protesting-the-donation-of-equipment-purchased-with-tax-dollars-to-churches Judd on atheist group controversy: 'We don't discriminate against churches' Orlando Sentinel Earlier this week, Atheists of Florida wrote a letter to Judd asking him to donate equipment from county jails to other county organizations instead of the ... http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-12-30/news/os-grady-judd-responds-atheist-compla20101230_1_secular-groups-church-and-state-atheists MISCELLANEOUS None |