VANCOUVER, British Columbia: A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article’s tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States did not say every day without fear of legal reprisal. Things are different here. The magazine is on trial. Under Canadian law, there is a serious argument that the article contained hate speech and that its publisher, Maclean’s magazine, the nation’s leading newsweekly, should be forbidden from saying similar things, forced to publish a rebuttal and made to compensate Muslims for injuring their ‘dignity, feelings and self respect.’ The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, which held five days of hearings on those questions in Vancouver last week, will soon rule on whether Maclean’s violated a provincial hate speech law by stirring up animosity toward Muslims. As spectators lined up for the afternoon session last week, an argument broke out. ‘It’s hate speech!’ yelled one man. ‘It’s free speech!’ yelled another. In the United States, that debate has been settled. Under the First Amendment, newspapers and magazines can say what they […]
WASHINGTON — Foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba have constitutional rights to challenge their detention there in United States courts, the Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Thursday in a historic decision on the balance between personal liberties and national security. ‘The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times,’ Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. The ruling came in the latest battle between the executive branch, Congress and the courts over how to cope with dangers to the country in the post-9/11 world. Although there have been enough rulings addressing that issue to confuse all but the most diligent scholars, this latest decision, in Boumediene v. Bush, No. 06-1195, may be studied for years to come. In a harsh rebuke of the Bush administration, the justices rejected the administration’s argument that the individual protections provided by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 were more than adequate. ‘The costs of delay can no longer be borne by those who are held in custody,’ Justice Kennedy wrote, assuming the pivotal role that some court-watchers had […]
JERUSALEM — If tests confirm that it dates back to between 33 AD to 70 AD, as the archaeologists claim, it would make it the earliest known place of Christian worship by around two hundred years. According to a report in the Jordan Times newspaper, a very early underground church was found beneath the ancient Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab, northern Jordan near the Syrian border. ‘We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,’ Abdul Qader al-Husan, head of Jordan’s Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, said. ‘We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians – the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ.’ A mosaic found in the church describes these Christians as ‘the 70 beloved by God and Divine’. Mr Husan said they believed to have fled persecution in Jerusalem and founded churches in northern Jordan. He cited historical sources which suggest they both lived and practised religious rituals in the underground church and only left it after Christianity was embraced by Roman rulers in the fourth century AD. The claim was […]
Thinking ahead: Bacteria anticipate coming changes in their environment A new study by Princeton University researchers shows for the first time that bacteria don’t just react to changes in their surroundings — they anticipate and prepare for them. The findings, reported in the June 6 issue of Science, challenge the prevailing notion that only organisms with complex nervous systems have this ability. ‘What we have found is the first evidence that bacteria can use sensed cues from their environment to infer future events,’ said Saeed Tavazoie, an associate professor of molecular biology, who conducted the study along with graduate student Ilias Tagkopoulos and postdoctoral researcher Yir-Chung Liu. The research team, which included biologists and engineers, used lab experiments to demonstrate this phenomenon in common bacteria. They also turned to computer simulations to explain how a microbe species’ internal network of genes and proteins could evolve over time to produce such complex behavior. ‘The two lines of investigation came together nicely to show how simple biochemical networks can perform sophisticated computational tasks,’ said Tavazoie. In addition to shedding light on deep questions in biology, the findings could have many practical implications. They could help scientists understand […]
A new combination of nano and solar technology has made it possible for solar electric generation to be cheaper than burning coal. Nanosolar, Inc. has developed a way to produce a type of ink that absorbs solar radiation and converts into electric current. Photovoltaic (PV) sheets are produced by a machine similar to a printing press, which rolls out the PV ink onto sheets approximately the width of aluminum foil. These PV sheets can be produced at a rate of hundreds of feet per minute. ‘It’s 100 times thinner than existing solar panels, and we can deposit the semiconductors 100 times faster,’ said Nanosolar’s cofounder and chief executive officer, R. Martin Roscheisen. ‘It’s a combination that drives down costs dramatically.’ Because of their light weight and flexibility, the PV sheets (dubbed PowerSheets) are much more versatile than current PV panels, which must be mounted on sturdy surfaces like roofs or the ground. In addition, because there is no silicon used in the production of the sheets, they cost only 30 cents per watt of power produced. Traditional PV cells cost approximately $3 per watt, while burning coal costs about $1 per watt. ‘This is the first […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
