Clocking an accelerating universe: First results from BOSS

Clocking an accelerating universe: First results from BOSS: First spectroscopic results from BOSS give the most detailed look yet at the time when dark energy turned on some six billion light years ago, as the expansion of the universe was slipping from the grasp of matter's mutual gravitational attraction, and expansion began to accelerate.

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BOSS measures the three-dimensional clustering of galaxies at various redshifts, revealing their precise distance, the age of the universe at that redshift, and how fast the universe has expanded. The measurement uses a "standard ruler" based on the regular variations of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background, which reveal variations in the density of matter in the early universe that gave rise to the later clustering of galaxies and large-scale structure of the universe today. (Credit: Credit: Eric Huff, the SDSS-III team, and the South Pole Telescope team. Graphic by Zosia Rostomian)

ScienceDaily (Mar. 30, 2012) — Some six billion light years ago, almost halfway from now back to the big bang, the universe was undergoing an elemental change. Held back until then by the mutual gravitational attraction of all the matter it contained, the universe had been expanding ever more slowly. Then, as matter spread out and its density decreased, dark energy took over and expansion began to accelerate.

Today BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, the largest component of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), announced the most accurate measurement yet of the distance scale of the universe during the era when dark energy turned on.
"We've made precision measurements of the large-scale structure of the universe five to seven billion years ago -- the best measure yet of the size of anything outside the Milky Way," says David Schlegel of the Physics Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), BOSS's principal investigator. "We're pushing out to the distances when dark energy turned on, where we can start to do experiments to find out what's causing accelerating expansion."

World's largest Christian TV channel 'funds owners' exorbitant lifestyle'

World's largest Christian TV channel 'funds owners' exorbitant lifestyle'

The world's largest Christian TV channel, the California-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, has become embroiled in a multimillion-dollar financial scandal after members of the family that founded it alleged widespread embezzlement.
The claims – by Brittany Koper, whose grandfather Paul Crouch founded TBN, and by Joseph McVeigh, another family member – describe exorbitant spending on mansions in California, Tennessee and Florida, private jets and even a $100,000 mobile home to house the dogs of Crouch's flamboyant wife, Janice. The network, which claims to broadcast in every continent except the Antarctic and has 18,000 affiliates, was set up by Crouch in the 1970s and preaches a "prosperity gospel" which promises material rewards to those who give generously.
Two years ago it declared a net worth of more than $800m, although in recent years it has faced increasing financial problems. Details of the claims are contained in cases filed with the California courts by McVeigh, who says he was targeted by the network, and 26-year-old Koper, who was fired in September.
According to the lawsuit, reported in US newspapers, Paul Crouch Sr obtained a $50m luxury jet for his personal use through a "sham loan", while church funds – many of which come from donations during events like its "Praise-a-thons" – paid for the dogs' mobile home.

Money Talks, Science Walks: Millions Spent to Weaken FDA

Money Talks, Science Walks: Millions Spent to Weaken FDA | Common Dreams
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology industries spent over $700 million in lobbying between 2009 and 2011, surpassing other special interest spending such as big oil and insurance industries. The extreme spending comes as this year's 'industry-friendly proposals' face the House and Senate, such as legislation limiting the FDA’s drug and medical device scrutiny. "Congress is also considering legislation that would relax conflict-of-interest standards for federal advisory members at the FDA, allowing scientists with a financial stake in the outcome to vote on panels that approve or reject drugs and medical devices,

Kansas uses religion against Civil Rights

A Religious Right to be Anti-Gay? Kansas Advances It
and another wrinkle appears - a way to opt out of human rights laws;

The bill was approved 89-27.
The measure is supported by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, the Kansas Catholic Conference and Concerned Women for America of Kansas. It was opposed by Lawrence officials, the Kansas Equality Coalition and the state chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Right before advancing the Kansas Preservation of Freedom Act, the House gave preliminary approval to putting a chapel for prayer and meditation in the Statehouse.Both proposals will require a final vote before going to the Senate. Those votes will probably be taken Thursday.

The “Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act,” as it is known, apparently comes as a reaction to the college town of Lawrence passing an anti-discrimination ordinance that includes sexual orientation.

Lawmakers said they were keen to ensure that citizens’ “religious right” to freedom of expression was not impacted by local governments exceeding state law and enacting sexual orientation-inclusive nondiscrimination rules.

However, when lawmakers were discussing this bill earlier in the year they even seemed to admit that they were using their religion as an excuse to discriminate.

" What is perhaps worse in this case however, is that the state Legislature is explicitly attempting to write into law an overreaching provision for religious privilege.... the chilling effect on civil rights is essentially the same — lesbian and gay citizens would remain vulnerable to workplace, housing and credit discrimination, and local government powers will be curtailed.

Lucy’s Species Was Not Alone, Foot Fossil Indicates

Lucy’s Species Was Not Alone, Foot Fossil Indicates | The Agonist
NYT - Now it seems that Lucy shared eastern Africa with another prehuman species, one that may have spent more time in trees than on the ground.
A 3.4-million-year-old fossil foot found in Ethiopia appears to settle the long-disputed question of whether there was only a single line of hominins — species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees — between four million and three million years ago. The fossil record for that period had been virtually limited to the species Australopithecus afarensis, made famous by the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy skeleton.
Of perhaps more importance, scientists report in the journal Nature, published online Wednesday, the newfound foot not only belonged to a different species but had evolved a distinctive mode of locomotion, which scientists described as “equivocal.” It clung to the trees and never adapted to terrestrial mobility outright.
The Lucy species had long before evolved almost humanlike upright walking, bipedality, as attested by the Laetoli footprints in Tanzania from as early as 3.7 million years ago. This other species was still built for climbing trees and grasping limbs. It was capable of walking, though less efficiently and probably at an awkward gait.

Avaaz - Save the Rhinos!

Avaaz - Save the Rhinos!
Sharp on the heels of the Der Spiegel article, here is an actual planned action on Rhino poaching....
More valuable than platinum - for congealed keratin..... 

Conservative Christianity and Its Discontents

Conservative Christianity and Its Discontents
Anti-intellectualism is deeply rooted in American evangelicalism, reaching even into the classrooms of popular schools, like Cedarville University and Liberty University (the largest evangelical university in the world), where students are taught that the earth is 10,000 years old. Millions of evangelical youth grow up hearing that there is a real debate when it comes to human origins. They also come to learn that homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle choice that can be repaired with prayer. They are taught that secular historians are suppressing the vision of the Founding Fathers and that America was supposed to be a Christian nation.
Controversies that should have died decades and even centuries ago are kept alive by organizations invested in the answers of yesteryear, often because those old answers, say stalwarts, came from the Bible and are believed to have been laid down by God. These answers informed the thinking of a long-gone society that, through the rose-tinted glasses of those nostalgic for a better time, looks moral, family-oriented, and respectful of God’s laws in ways that the present age is not.

US: Court Rules Religiously-Based Restrictions in HHS Contracts with Bishops Violate Establishment Clause

Court Rules Religiously-Based Restrictions in HHS Contracts with Bishops Violate Establishment Clause | Religion Dispatches

Late yesterday a federal court in Massachusetts ruled [PDF] in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union in a challenge it brought against the Department of Health and Human Services over contracts with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. When the ACLU first brought the case in 2009, HHS permitted the USCCB to prohibit the referral of victims of sexual assault to be referred for contraception and abortion services. Although HHS did not renew the USCCB contract last year, the ACLU proceeded with the case "to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not misused to impose religious restrictions on vulnerable trafficking victims that receive U.S. aid," according to a statement.

Judge Richard Stearns agreed the case was not moot, and in holding that the policy permitting the Bishops to restrict trafficking victims' access to reproductive health services violated the Establishment Clause, noted, "[t]o insist that the government respect the separation of church and state is not to discriminate against religion; indeed, it promotes a respect for religion by refusing to single out any creed for official favor at the expense of all others."
Last year, Republicans and conservative activists contended that HHS's decision not to renew the Bishops' contract under the TVPA amounted to anti-Catholic bias by the Obama administration. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who also did the Bishops' bidding by holding hearings on HHS's contraception benefit requirement under the Affordable Care Act, staged a show trial in an attempt to fan the flames of the supposed "war on religion."

Humans began walking upright to carry scarce resources, chimp study suggests

Humans began walking upright to carry scarce resources, chimp study suggests
ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2012) — Most of us walk and carry items in our hands every day. These are seemingly simple activities that the majority of us don't question. But an international team of researchers, including Brian Richmond at the George Washington University, have discovered that human bipedalism, or walking upright, may have originated millions of years ago as an adaptation to carrying scarce, high-quality resources. This latest research was published in this month's Current Biology....

Murder of Indigenous Opponent to Canadian Mine Sparks Protest at Canadian Embassy in Mexico City

[21-Mar-12] Murder of Indigenous Opponent to Canadian Mine Sparks Protest at Canadian Embassy in Mexico City
While Mexican organizations protest in front of the Canadian Embassy Wednesday against the murder of an indigenous leader, Canadian NGOs call for a full investigation, respect for indigenous rights, and an end to corporate impunity.
On March 15th, Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, an Indigenous Zapotec community leader and member of the Coordinating Committee of the United Peoples of the Valley of Ocotlán (CPUVO) in San José del Progreso, Oaxaca, was murdered in an ambush by a group of some three gunmen. His brother Alvaro Andrés Vásquez Sánchez and local activist Rosalinda Vásquez were also wounded and remain in hospital. Bernardo was an outspoken leader against the mining operations of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines in San José del Progreso, Oaxaca, known locally by the name of its Mexican subsidiary, Minera Cuzcatlán.
“A man deeply involved in the protest against Canadian mining company Fortuna Silver and its impact on local water sources has been murdered,” said Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Legislation in Canada is desperately needed so that when human, environmental and labour rights are violated outside our country those directly affected have some recourse through the Canadian court system.”
Shortly before his death, Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez spoke to Canadian independent journalist Dawn Paley. He explained how local opposition in the area arose. He described how the company entered their community, negotiating one by one with landowners, instead of in a full assembly. He indicated that local landowners lacked full information about the company’s plans before operations began.
He talked about the conflict over ideas of what is good for the community: “The government calls us poor but we live well. For us, the idea of development is a battle of concepts. […] We have fields and lands, we have work, what we don’t have is cash, and the company isn’t giving us money, they’ll give you chickens or little things like that, which the people don’t need.”
According to Paley, however, local governance structures that have not been elected through assembly for years have favoured the company’s entry. Peace Brigades International has reported that those opposed to the mine have been subjected to constant attacks, including threats, arbitrary arrests, and campaigns. Just two months ago, Bernardo Mendez was killed in another spate of violence in alleged connection with the dispute over the mine.
In January, speaking outside of the Canadian Embassy in reference to Mendez’ killing, Bernardo Vásquez stated: “Since 2010, we warned the government with pictures and videos that a group of civilians was armed… [We nonetheless maintained] an attitude of dialogue, working groups, and proposals. In return the municipal government killed our [friend] Bernardo…”
“The violence in San José de Progreso warrants a full investigation,” says Jen Moore, Latin America Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada. “This should include examination of how the company entered the area and how it may be benefiting from, aggravating, or corroding local governance structures to the detriment of Indigenous peoples there.”

Lux in arcana - Vatican Secret Archives reveals itself

Documents | Official website Lux in arcana - Vatican Secret Archives reveals itself
Samples of the documents in the Vatican Museum show - on till September, if you get yourself over to Rome...

In U.S., a growing unease at mixing politics with prayer

In U.S., a growing unease at mixing politics with prayer | Reuters

(Reuters) - Americans are increasingly uneasy with the mingling of religion and politics, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, in the midst of a campaign season punctuated by tussles over the role of faith in the public square.
Back in 2001, when Pew first asked the question, just 12 percent of Americans complained that their politicians talked too much about religion.
That number has risen steadily ever since and hit a record high in the new poll: 38 percent of Americans, including 24 percent of Republicans, now say their political leaders are overdoing it with their expressions of faith and prayer.
And more Americans than ever, 54 percent, believe churches should keep out of politics. That's up from 43 percent in 1996, according to the Pew Research Center.
The national poll of 1,503 adults, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, was conducted in early March, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was ramping up its vigorous campaign against a new federal mandate requiring all insurance companies to provide free birth control.

Utah coalition presses governor for veto of sex ed ban

Utah coalition presses governor for veto of sex ed ban | The Raw Story
A coalition of parents, educators and public officials is pressing Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert to veto a controversial measure that seeks to ban any form of comprehensive sex education in schools.
According to an article in the Salt Lake City Tribute, the group is comprised of the Utah Educators Association, the Utah PTA and the state’s Democratic Party.
The organization came together in response to Republican House member Bill Wright’s House Bill 363, which was passed in late February by the Utah House of Representatives. The bill states that abstinence education is the only acceptable form of sex education for the state’s public school students, outlawing discussion or advocacy of contraception, homosexuality or any sexual activity outside of marriage.

Louisiana Lawmaker Wants Evolution Taught In Science Classes

Louisiana Lawmaker Wants Evolution Taught In Science Classes
Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (D) introduced a bill that would repeal a four-year-old state law that encourages teachers to critique “contested” science like evolution and global warming. It’s the second effort in the last year to repeal the Science Education Act, a bill that when passed in 2008 was considered the bellwether for bringing religious study into the science classroom.
The Louisiana Science Education Act writes in this idea of a “continuing controversy” around the theory of evolution which opens the door for debating alternative theories of the origins of life, including creationism. Scientists have taken the state to task for science teaching standards that are nothing more than “religion presented as science.”
Over 75 scientists, including many Nobel laureates, sent a letter to the Louisiana State Legislature explaining the difference. “Science offers testable, and therefore falsifiable, explanations for natural phenomena. Because it requires supernatural explanations of natural phenomena, creationism does not meet these standards.”
It’s encouraging to see a state like Louisiana decide that its students deserve to be taught actual science in their biology courses and not religion, especially considering at least four other states have tried to pass legislation similar to Louisiana’s Science Education Act in the name of “academic freedom”. These bills are not about promoting academic freedom but instead about pushing the pro-corporate, pro-religious agenda driving climate change denial and creationism. American students deserve better.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/louisiana-lawmaker-wants-evolution-taught-in-science-classes.html#ixzz1p0dnkgsC

What If...There Was No Religious/Secular Divide? Debate Wed Mar 14, Hart House

Medhi is debating on Wednesday at Hart House, 5pm. He is taking the secular position, of course.
Come support him if you can! (24) What If...There Was No Religious/Secular Divide?

Wednesday  March 14  (PI DAY !!)
5:00pm until 6:00pm
Map Room, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, University

Peaceful Anti-Fracking Activists Pursued by FBI as 'Eco-Terrorists'

Peaceful Anti-Fracking Activists Pursued by FBI as 'Eco-Terrorists' | Common Dreams
In recent years, the broad definition of 'eco-terrorism' has come to include environmentalist activities ranging from arson to setting mink free at fur farms to protests in front of the homes of corporate executives. Environmental activists have seen increased imprisonment (including maximum security sentences) for non-violent crimes.
Now, as the FBI suggests that 'eco-terrorism' is in decline, the Washington Post reports that the FBI has increased heavy surveillance of environmentalists including anti-fracking protesters.

Juliet Eilperin at The Washington Post reports:

Ben Kessler, a student at the University of North Texas and an environmental activist, was more than a little surprised that an FBI agent questioned his philosophy professor and acquaintances about his whereabouts and his sign-waving activities aimed at influencing local gas drilling rules.
“It was scary,” said Kessler, who is a national organizer for the nonviolent environmental group Rising Tide North America. He said the agent approached him this past fall and said that the FBI had received an anonymous complaint and were looking into his opposition to hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” The bureau respected free speech, the agent told him, but was “worried about things being taken to an extreme level.”
Even as environmental and animal rights extremism in the United States is on the wane, officials at the federal, state and local level are continuing to target groups they have labeled a threat to national security, according to interviews with numerous activists, internal FBI documents and a survey of legislative initiatives across the country

Evolution's New Wrinkle: Proteins With 'Cruise Control' Act Like Adaptive Machines

Evolution's New Wrinkle: Proteins With 'Cruise Control' Act Like Adaptive Machines

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2008) — A team of Princeton University scientists has discovered that chains of proteins found in most living organisms act like adaptive machines, possessing the ability to control their own evolution.

The research, which appears to offer evidence of a hidden mechanism guiding the way biological organisms respond to the forces of natural selection, provides a new perspective on evolution, the scientists said.
The researchers -- Raj Chakrabarti, Herschel Rabitz, Stacey Springs and George McLendon -- made the discovery while carrying out experiments on proteins constituting the electron transport chain (ETC), a biochemical network essential for metabolism. A mathematical analysis of the experiments showed that the proteins themselves acted to correct any imbalance imposed on them through artificial mutations and restored the chain to working order.
"The discovery answers an age-old question that has puzzled biologists since the time of Darwin: How can organisms be so exquisitely complex, if evolution is completely random, operating like a 'blind watchmaker'?" said Chakrabarti, an associate research scholar in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton. "Our new theory extends Darwin's model, demonstrating how organisms can subtly direct aspects of their own evolution to create order out of randomness."...
The work also confirms an idea first floated in an 1858 essay by Alfred Wallace, who along with Charles Darwin co-discovered the theory of evolution. Wallace had suspected that certain systems undergoing natural selection can adjust their evolutionary course in a manner "exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident." In Wallace's time, the steam engine operating with a centrifugal governor was one of the only examples of what is now referred to as feedback control. Examples abound, however, in modern technology, including cruise control in autos and thermostats in homes and offices.

Escape from Hasidism

Escape from Hasidism | The Agonist
Deborah Feldman talks to Salon about her journey from hyper-repressed Jewish enclave to feminist single motherhood
Today Deborah Feldman is a model of modern, independent young womanhood: the 25-year-old single mother of a 6-year-old boy, Yitzy, a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and a new author, with one memoir, “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots,” just published and a second memoir and a novel on the way.
But as a child and teenager, she lived the kind of life that would not have been out of place for a girl born a century before. Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the turn of the millennium was, for some, the epicenter of the post-punk revival, artists lofts, angular haircuts and hipster culture. But Williamsburg is also the long-time home of the Satmar community, a sect of Hasidic Jews that formed two large settlements in Brooklyn and upstate New York shortly after the end of World War II.
Feldman grew up in her grandparents’ brownstone — her father was mentally ill; her mother was estranged for reasons that don’t become clear until the end of her memoir — watched over by her grandmother, Bubby, a Holocaust survivor, and her frequently interfering aunt. In her home, there were no secular newspapers, no radios, no television. She saw her first forbidden movie at 17.
If I had been living 200 years ago,” she says, “my story wouldn’t have been strange at all.” Books, too, were forbidden, but Feldman smuggled in 19th-century novels — “Pride and Prejudice,” “Jane Eyre,” “Little Women” — in which she saw a version of her own life. Like those heroines, Feldman grew up believing her life would be determined by her marriage plot. And at 17, her grandparents selected her husband, a young man she had never met, who was considered old at 23. They met for 30 minutes; eight months later they were married. It took them a year of humiliating tinkering — and very public interference — to figure out the mechanics of sex, but by 19, she had a son, the first of many children she was expected to bear over the course of her marriage.

One Jesus for liberals, another for conservatives | Johnjoe McFadden | Comment is free | The Guardian

One Jesus for liberals, another for conservatives
Perhaps not surprisingly, Christian Republicans imagined a Jesus who tended to be against wealth redistribution, illegal immigrants, abortion and same-sex marriage; whereas the Jesus of Democrat-voting Christians would have had far more liberal opinions. The Bible may claim that God created man in his own image, but the study suggests man creates God in his own image.

All about Eve: The Christian roots of the GOP war on women

All about Eve: The Christian roots of the GOP war on women - Guest Voices - The Washington Post
This defeat is not an end to the GOP’s war on women, however. It is merely a skirmish in what looks to be a protracted struggle for women’s freedom and dignity in this country. This attack on women is, and I am grieved to say it, driven by a particular Christian theological perspective that denigrates women and holds them responsible for sin, particularly sexual sin.GOP politics today is, in fact, all about Eve.

The GOP war on women will continue precisely because of the conservative Christian theology that drives wedge politics in a campaign season has a fundamental contempt for women and their equal dignity and worth. As the Southern Baptist Convention voted in 1984, “[M]an was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall.” In conservative Christian eyes, women are the evil temptresses, the sinner “Eves” who lead the gullible Adams astray, especially sexually. Therefore they are “first” in sin, i.e. it’s women’s fault that men get kicked out of the Garden of Eden.
(note - this is true for all Abrahamic religions, never forget -)