The Charlotte Observer | Eric Ferreri | Dec. 5, 2008
CHAPEL HILL For as long as anyone can remember, Christmas trees adorned with lights and ornaments have greeted holiday season visitors to UNC Chapel Hill’s two main libraries. Not this year.
The trees, which have stood in the lobby areas of Wilson and Davis libraries each December, were kept in storage this year at the behest of Sarah Michalak, the associate provost for university libraries. [Read more…]
AP-FoxNews | Bob Johnson | Dec. 5, 2008
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.
Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.
“This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do,” said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal. It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog. [Read more…]
LifeSiteNews.com | Deal W. Hudson | Dec. 1, 2008
Bishop Martino credited for fact Pennsylvania Catholics did not vote for Obama as they did nationally
An article published yesterday in the Scranton Times announced, “Bishop takes his place on the national stage with his staunch anti-abortion stance.” Bishop Joseph F. Martino wasn’t the only bishop who spoke boldly during the presidential campaign, but he was noticed, in part, because Scranton is Vice-President Elect Joe Biden’s hometown.
Martino was also noticed because he quite literally crashed a seminar on “Faithful Citizenship” being held against his wishes at St. John’s Catholic Church. Objecting to the spin being put on the bishops’ conference document, Martino told those attending the seminar, “No social issue has caused the deaths of 50 million people,” adding, “This is madness, people.” [Read more…]
LifeSiteNews.com | Dec. 1, 2008
Women who have an abortion face a 30% increase in the risk of developing common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, according to a new study from the University of Otago, Christchurch.
The study, led by Dr. David Fergusson and funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, was published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance use. In contrast, none of the other pregnancy outcomes was consistently related to significantly increased risks of mental health problems. [Read more…]
Human Events | Dr. Lee Hieb | Dec. 1, 2008
Most Americans do not understand the system that feeds them. 50 percent of Americans pay 97 percent of taxes, while the other 50 percent contribute only 3 percent. Most in the latter group pay nothing at all. Beyond their lack of tax liability, these 50 percent do not run businesses, they do not sign the front of the paycheck. [Read more…]
American Thinker | Kyle-Anne Shiver | Nov. 27, 2008
What is to become of modern civilization if we Americans throw in the towel on the ideals of liberty and individual dignity, and stop believing that these are worth the suffering required to protect them? How can it be that young Americans do not see the bountiful blessings bestowed upon the rest of the world by us? [Read more…]
Washington Times | Julia Duin | Nov. 27, 2008
He sat in my office, a Turkish scholar and theologian who helps people who are tortured for their faith. According to Ziya Meral, it’s the converts from Islam to Christianity who are some of the most forsaken on Earth. The police don’t help them; their families hate them; and their friends want to kill them. And some of the worst treatment occurs in the gulags of America’s allies.
“Egypt is one of the worst countries in terms of torture,” Mr. Meral said. “Once you are detained, that’s it. The security services can keep you without charges for six, seven months, and then renew those charges.” [Read more…]
NewScientist.com | Stephen Battersby | Nov. 20, 2008
Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed that the apparently substantial stuff is actually no more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.
The researchers simulated the frantic activity that goes on inside protons and neutrons. These particles provide almost all the mass of ordinary matter.
Each proton (or neutron) is made of three quarks – but the individual masses of these quarks only add up to about 1% of the proton’s mass. So what accounts for the rest of it? [Read more…]
OrthodoxyToday.org | Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse | Nov. 24, 2008
It used to be that when the voters settled on something — even twice, the matter was decided. No more. Proposition 8, the bitterly fought constitutional amendment restricting marriage to one man and one woman that squeaked by in California recently, needs to be “overturned” — or so the homosexual activists tell us.
Overturn a constitutional amendment? If judges can overturn the amendment, then effectively we have no constitution and we will be governed by the whims of a non-elected judiciary. Say goodbye to the constitutional republic. [Read more…]
AFP | Nov. 21, 2008
It’s taken more than a century, but Einstein’s celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.
A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France’s Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world’s mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms. [Read more…]