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Philip Cary Plait the 48 year old American Astronomer known as ‘The Bad Astronomer’ skeptic, writer and popular science blogger has published an article on Slate titled ‘Why is Our Government Attacking Science?’. In the article Plait states “What the hell is going on with my government? I’m used to attacks on science; they’ve been endemic for years now. Antivaxxers, global warming deniers, creationists, what have you. And I’ve even gotten used to, at some level, egregiously antiscience rhetoric and machinations from government officials. But over the past few days and weeks things seem to have gone to 11. I’m reeling from the absolute unfettered nonsense and sheer manipulation going on by our elected officials, and I’ll be honest: It’s scary. To start, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who is a global warming denier, by the way, is the head of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He has recently decided that the National Science Foundation—a globally respected agency of scientific research and investigation—should no longer use peer review to fund grants. Instead it should essentially get political permission for which research to fund. This is not a joke. Smith wants politics to trump science at the National Science Foundation. This prompted a brilliantly indignant letter from Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), who calls this idea “destructive” to science. She’s right. What Smith is doing strongly reminds me of Lysenkoism, when the Soviet government suppressed science on genetics and evolution that didn’t toe the party line. In these attacks on the NSF, a few lines of research have been highlighted that sound silly out of context. We’ve seen this before from those on the far right who attack science… Those government officials may be the ones doing all these awful things, but we’re the ones who, in the end, decide if they can even be in the position to make these attacks. And we need to do something about it.”  Inspired by Phil Plait, Slate ow.ly/l5tWE Image source Facebook ow.ly/l5u49 Why is our government attacking science? (June 7 2013)

 

Philip Cary Plait the 48 year old American Astronomer known as ‘The Bad Astronomer’ skeptic, writer and popular science blogger has published an article on Slate titled ‘Why is Our Government Attacking Science?’. In the article Plait states “What the hell is going on with my government? I’m used to attacks on science; they’ve been endemic for years now. Antivaxxers, global warming deniers, creationists, what have you. And I’ve even gotten used to, at some level, egregiously antiscience rhetoric and machinations from government officials. But over the past few days and weeks things seem to have gone to 11. I’m reeling from the absolute unfettered nonsense and sheer manipulation going on by our elected officials, and I’ll be honest: It’s scary. To start, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who is a global warming denier, by the way, is the head of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He has recently decided that the National Science Foundation—a globally respected agency of scientific research and investigation—should no longer use peer review to fund grants. Instead it should essentially get political permission for which research to fund. This is not a joke. Smith wants politics to trump science at the National Science Foundation. This prompted a brilliantly indignant letter from Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), who calls this idea “destructive” to science. She’s right. What Smith is doing strongly reminds me of Lysenkoism, when the Soviet government suppressed science on genetics and evolution that didn’t toe the party line. In these attacks on the NSF, a few lines of research have been highlighted that sound silly out of context. We’ve seen this before from those on the far right who attack science… Those government officials may be the ones doing all these awful things, but we’re the ones who, in the end, decide if they can even be in the position to make these attacks. And we need to do something about it.”

 

Inspired by Phil Plait, Slate ow.ly/l5tWE Image source Facebook ow.ly/l5u49

Bassem Raafat Muhammad Youssef the 39 year old Egyptian cardiac surgeon, satirist, and TV host of El Bernameg a satirical news program broadcasted by Egyptian television was summoned and interrogated by Egyptian authorities after being charged with insulting President Mohamed Morsi, denigrating Islam, and spreading false news. Abby Ohlheiser in an article published on Slate titled ‘"Egypt's Jon Stewart" Has It Tougher Than America's Version’ states “… out on bail now, but activists and critics are watching this one closely for the precedent it sets on the new government's stance towards freedom of expression. …He's commonly called the Egyptian version of Jon Stewart, and for good reason: Youssef modeled his widely-watched show after his comedic idol's Daily Show. …Youssef is also a heart surgeon who treated the wounded after a notoriously brutal attempt by the Mubarak regime to drive protesters from Tahrir square. … Youssef turns his satirical eye toward those in power, whether that means mocking the military, or its elected successors, the current government who took office in June. Now, it looks like Youssef could become the most prominent test case for the new Muslim Brotherhood-led government's commitment to the democratic process that put it into power. Egyptian journalists, as the BBC explains, have already argued that the new Islamist-influenced constitution doesn't do nearly enough to protect freedom of the press, expression, or religious minorities in the country. …Youssef, who is Muslim, [states] "We are not the ones who insult religion, all we do is expose the channels that have misused religion and harmed it more than anyone else. If there is anyone who has insulted religion it is those who use Islam as a weapon for political reasons." … Youssef posted a tweet in English to his one million-plus followers saying he was "touched by people's support and media attention, however, there are many more activists being prosecuted that deserve to get that support."  Inspired by Abby Ohlheiser, Slate ow.ly/k6BVR Image source TheWorld ow.ly/k6BR3 We are not the ones who insult religion (May 7 2013)

Bassem Raafat Muhammad Youssef the 39 year old Egyptian cardiac surgeon, satirist, and TV host of El Bernameg a satirical news program broadcasted by Egyptian television was summoned and interrogated by Egyptian authorities after being charged with insulting President Mohamed Morsi, denigrating Islam, and spreading false news. Abby Ohlheiser in an article published on Slate titled ‘”Egypt’s Jon Stewart” Has It Tougher Than America’s Version’ states “… out on bail now, but activists and critics are watching this one closely for the precedent it sets on the new government’s stance towards freedom of expression. …He’s commonly called the Egyptian version of Jon Stewart, and for good reason: Youssef modeled his widely-watched show after his comedic idol’s Daily Show. …Youssef is also a heart surgeon who treated the wounded after a notoriously brutal attempt by the Mubarak regime to drive protesters from Tahrir square. … Youssef turns his satirical eye toward those in power, whether that means mocking the military, or its elected successors, the current government who took office in June. Now, it looks like Youssef could become the most prominent test case for the new Muslim Brotherhood-led government’s commitment to the democratic process that put it into power. Egyptian journalists, as the BBC explains, have already argued that the new Islamist-influenced constitution doesn’t do nearly enough to protect freedom of the press, expression, or religious minorities in the country. …Youssef, who is Muslim, [states] “We are not the ones who insult religion, all we do is expose the channels that have misused religion and harmed it more than anyone else. If there is anyone who has insulted religion it is those who use Islam as a weapon for political reasons.” … Youssef posted a tweet in English to his one million-plus followers saying he was “touched by people’s support and media attention, however, there are many more activists being prosecuted that deserve to get that support.”

 

Inspired by Abby Ohlheiser, Slate ow.ly/k6BVR Image source TheWorld ow.ly/k6BR3

When Do We Become Truly Conscious? (September 20 2012) When Do We Become Truly Conscious? (September 20 2012)

Daniel Bor the British cognitive neuroscientist believes the new science of consciousness should change how we think about thorny ethical dilemmas, has published an article on Slate titled ‘When Do We Become Truly Conscious?’ Bor states “The investigation of our own awareness is a blossoming scientific field, where experiments are illuminating exciting details about this most intimate of scientific subjects. In my book The Ravenous Brain, I describe the latest consciousness science and how we are closing in on establishing a consciousness meter—a way to measure levels of awareness in any being that may be able to experience the world. Consciousness is in many ways the most important question remaining for science. But the nature of consciousness is not just a vital question for science; it’s also the source of some of society’s thorniest, most fundamental ethical dilemmas. …questions about consciousness lie at the heart of many of our most fundamental ethical debates, one of which is abortion and the right to life. …If science could come up with some means of testing for the presence of consciousness in other animals and perhaps also a way of gauging the extent of consciousness when it’s found, this would have a huge impact on all ethical spheres of the animal rights debate. …Consciousness research informs other political issues as well. For instance, how can we assess the level of consciousness remaining in someone who has suffered severe brain damage and is in a vegetative state? At what point should we let such patients die? And it is possible that in the decades to come, we might also need to start thinking about how we assess artificial forms of consciousness and what rights we consequently need to bestow on such beings.”

 

Inspired by Slate ow.ly/dEmQC image source Twitter ow.ly/dEmOr

Citizens aren't parasites or background noise (August 13 2012) Citizens aren’t parasites or background noise (August 13 2012)

Dahlia Lithwick the 37 year old Canadian-American editor and legal correspondent has published an article on Slate titled ‘Don’t Even Consider Talking About the Olympics’ in which she discusses the suppression of free speech at U.S. political conventions and at the London Olympic Games. Lithwick states “Remember back when large public events were also the locus of large public protest? As we stare down the barrel of the Olympic Games and the two national political conventions this summer, it’s fair to say that free speech has been reduced to a mere wheeze, both in the United Kingdom and here in the USA. What are truly interesting are the differences between the two: The British are buying up free speech and the Americans are zoning it out. The mania for treating convention protesters like veal is not a new thing. Protesters have been herded into hilariously named “free speech zones” and penned behind fences since the 2004 DNC convention in Boston. …the London Olympics, where—aside from the usual clamping down on protest or even potential protest—we’re see[n] unprecedented restrictions on speech having anything to do with the Olympics. There are creepy new restrictions on journalists, with even nonsportswriters being told they should sign up with authorities. …But these events must be more than just clean staging areas for corporate fabulosity. Protesters, participants, and citizens aren’t parasites or background noise. Addressing threats of terror or real violence is one thing. Treating all speech and protest and media as inherently dangerous and violent is something entirely different.”

 

Inspired by Slate ow.ly/cQCu9 image source Facebook ow.ly/cQCmr

Anne Applebaum the 47 year old American journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author has published an article on Slate titled ‘Europe’s Extremists on the March – Many of the parties winning across the continent have one thing in common: They want to withdraw from the world’. Applebaum states “…as I look across Europe I don’t know what to call the wave of discontent, as most of the parties on the outlying right or left have more in common with one another right now than they do with anyone in the center. Generally speaking they are anti-European, anti-globalization, and anti-immigration. Their leaders, in the words of a French friend, want to “withdraw from the world.” They don’t like their multiethnic capital cities or their open borders, and they don’t care for multinational companies or multilateral institutions. Above all, they are anti-austerity: They hate the budget cuts that they believe were imposed on their national governments by outsiders in the international bond market and by their own membership in the euro currency zone. Never mind that those same national governments had created the need for austerity by overspending and overborrowing, or in some cases—most notably Greece—by funding vast, unaffordable and corrupt state bureaucracies over many decades. And never mind that many of them had begged to be part of the euro zone—nobody was forced to join—or that they benefited for many years from being members.”

 

Inspired by Slate ow.ly/aWG8S image source ow.ly/aWG4L

Ryan Kavanaugh the 36 year old US film producer of more than 30 movies, founder and CEO of Relativity Media, and Hollywood rising star has been the subject of an article researched and written by Matthew Garrahan for Slate. Garrahan states that Kavanaugh who had raised via Wall Street firms billions of dollars to fix the broken entertainment industry, had invested into 100 plus movies released via Sony and Universal Pictures, and managed to make many enemies in the industry as a result. Kavanaugh had undertaken a high stake legal battle with Citibank over their attempt to change the terms of a contract with Sony Pictures that Relativity had negotiated. The fallout from the legal suit was damaging to Kavanaugh as many banks would no longer do business with him. Inspired by Matthew Garrahan ow.ly/5ZACy image source deadline ow.ly/5ZBtZ You just don’t sue your bank (August 18 2011)

Ryan Kavanaugh the 36 year old US film producer of more than 30 movies, founder and CEO of Relativity Media, and Hollywood rising star has been the subject of an article researched and written by Matthew Garrahan for Slate. Garrahan states that Kavanaugh who had raised via Wall Street firms billions of dollars to fix the broken entertainment industry, had invested into 100 plus movies released via Sony and Universal Pictures, and managed to make many enemies in the industry as a result. Kavanaugh had undertaken a high stake legal battle with Citibank over their attempt to change the terms of a contract with Sony Pictures that Relativity had negotiated. The fallout from the legal suit was damaging to Kavanaugh as many banks would no longer do business with him.

 

Inspired by Matthew Garrahan http://ow.ly/5ZACy image source deadline http://ow.ly/5ZBtZ

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