VHS vs. Communism: In Romania, a Voice of Freedom | Op-Docs | The New York Times – Video

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VHS vs. Communism: In Romania, a Voice of Freedom | Op-Docs | The New York Times
In Communist Romania in the 1980s, a young translator became an unlikely voice of freedom. She illicitly dubbed thousands of foreign films, distributed on VH...

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VHS vs. Communism: In Romania, a Voice of Freedom | Op-Docs | The New York Times - Video

UPDATE! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 construction progress part 3 – Video

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UPDATE! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 construction progress part 3
So here I continue walking around the site and take another look at Two World Trade Center and Three World Trade Center before walking back to One World Trad...

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UPDATE! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 construction progress part 3 - Video

UPDATE! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 construction progress part 4 – Video

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UPDATE! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 construction progress part 4
After I arrive at Brooklyn Bridge Park we can now take another evening look at One World Trade Center and Four World Trade Center. As usual both towers look ...

By: NJTAmtrakGuy

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UPDATE! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 construction progress part 4 - Video

Night Update! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 Antenna spire lights up! – Video

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Night Update! One World Trade Center / Freedom Tower 2/1/2014 Antenna spire lights up!
After seeing the antenna spire light up from Brooklyn Bridge Park I decided to return back to the site to take a much better look at the antenna spire. As I ...

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Freedom payments a red flag

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the year before it filed for bankruptcy, Freedom Industries paid more than $6 million to its former owners and to companies affiliated with its current owners, court filings show.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the year before it filed for bankruptcy, Freedom Industries paid more than $6 million to its former owners and to companies affiliated with its current owners, court filings show.

These payments to what bankruptcy law calls "insiders" will be closely examined by Freedom's creditors and could be ordered returned to the company if they're deemed improper, bankruptcy lawyers said.

"It is a red flag," said Bob Simons, a bankruptcy lawyer with the Pittsburgh firm Reed Smith. "Any transfer within a year, to even as much as four years before the bankruptcy, can be scrutinized to see if those transfers should be returned to the bankruptcy estate."

Simons added that it is good that Freedom is being forthcoming and not trying to hide the payments.

He said if the transfers were made when the company was insolvent, or they helped make the company insolvent, then they could be "clawed back."

"The distinguishing feature of this case is that the spill arguably was unforeseen, so how do you plan for it?" Simons said. "You could argue that, if you transferred a lot of the money out of the company, you left it with unreasonably small capital. It would be tough to establish that, because this was an unforeseen liability, but I must say, not impossible under the right circumstances."

Freedom, which contaminated thousands of West Virginians' water with a chemical leak into the Elk River on Jan. 9, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 17. Under the bankruptcy code, Chapter 11 permits a company to reorganize and continue operating.

Three men identified as former owners of Freedom -- Dennis Farrell, Charles Herzing and William Tis -- all received at least $180,000 from Freedom in the year before the chemical leak.

Farrell, who remains with Freedom but no longer is an owner, received more than $288,000 in 33 "withdrawals or distributions" from the company in the past year, according to bankruptcy filings.

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Freedom payments a red flag

Islam, Freedom and Salvation

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February 20, 2014

by Zairil Khir Johari

http://themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/zairil-khir-johari/article/islam-freedom-and-salvation

Islam and freedom are two inseparable concepts, though one may not arrive at this conclusion based on the behaviour of many Muslims worldwide, particularly those claiming to carry the torch for the religion.

When the Prophet Muhammad introduced Islam in the 7th century, he not only brought with him a new deen (faith), but also through it delivered fundamental moral and social reform to the Arabian society. As it were, Islam brought light to end the darkness of slavery, female infanticide and social injustice.

At its height of glory during the Islamic Golden Age from the 8th to the 13th century, the Arab-Muslim world transformed from a warring, largely illiterate society to one characterised by major intellectual advancement in culture, mathematics, life sciences and philosophy.

It was an era of inclusiveness, symbolised by the establishment of the Baitul-Hikmat, or House of Wisdom, in Baghdad, where scholars both Muslim and non-Muslim converged to exchange and produce knowledge. Inspired by the call to ijtihad (independent reasoning), the goal was always to expand and include, and not to retreat and exclude.

There was no narrow-minded attempt to discard the works of other civilisations, or to brand certain knowledge as belonging solely to Islam and therefore unusable by non-Muslims. Instead, knowledge was cultivated, documented and shared with all.

Unfortunately, Muslim civilisation has suffered a sharp decline since then. Today, Muslim countries throughout the world are associated with authoritarian regimes, gaping income inequality and the suppression of civil liberties and human rights ironic for a religion that promises the gift of freedom and enlightenment.

In our part of the world, contemporary Islamic discourse appears to be captured by the likes of the Harussanis and Ridhuan Tees. However, such belligerent parochialism actually masks the rich history of progressive thought by great local Muslim thinkers and advocates of freedom.

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Islam, Freedom and Salvation

CMFR: Online libel further threatens free expression, press freedom

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Media watchdog Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) on Thursday joined the opposition to the online libel provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, saying it threatens a person's right to free expression and press freedom.

"While crimes committed over the Internet such as child pornography need legal sanctions, the Cybercrime Act throws such a wide net it penalizes even legitimate expressions of opinion online," the CMFR said in a statement.

According to the CMFR, the "original" libel law in the Revised Penal Code has been "problematic for free expression and press freedom since 1932," and has been used to "silence" journalists.

"The libel law has also been declared excessive by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which in 2011 asked the Philippine government to review the law towards eliminating the penalty of imprisonment," it noted.

However, the group said the government still used the libel provisions of the Revised Penal Code as part of sanctions against online libel, and raised the penalties.

"The Act adopts the 82-year old Revised Penal Code (RPC) provisions on libel, but raises the penalties by one degree, from a minimum of six months imprisonment in the RPC per count of libel to a minimum of six years," the CMFR said.

"Libel as provided for in the RPC thus remains today as problematic as it has been for over 80 years to press freedom and free expression, and in addition has become an even bigger constraint on free expression when committed online," it added.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the online libel provision in the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 is constitutional, although it struck down others, including one that empowers the Department of Justice (DOJ) to restrict or block access to data violating the law.

However, the high court clarified that only original authors of libelous material are covered by the cybercrime law, and not those who merely received or reacted to it.

President Benigno Aquino III signed the law in 2012 to stamp out cybercrimes such as fraud, identity theft, spamming and child pornography.

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CMFR: Online libel further threatens free expression, press freedom

The Science of Stupid: Galileo Is Rolling Over In His Grave

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Details Published on Thursday, 20 February 2014 21:05

Getty Images.So heres a fine howdy-do for Galileo Galilei: Exactly one dayone flipping dayafter the great mans 450th birthday, on Feb. 15, 2014, a study by the National Science Foundation (NSF) revealed that one in four Americans does not know that the Earth orbits the Sun. Thats roughly 78 million people, or six times greater than the entire population of Galileos native Italy in 1632the year he was sentenced to life under house arrest for advancing that heretical belief. Yet somehow, four centuries later later, 25% of us still havent gotten the word. If theres any comfort at all to be taken from the studyand there is, but only in that Im-not-the-dumbest-one-in-the-class sort of wayits that the European Union fared even worse, with 36% flunking the heliocentrism part of the science test.

Its a reassuring truth of human history that wisdom is eternal. Our greatest accomplishments and insights in art, science, technology, philosophy, theology, medicine and government are timelessthings that once known can never truly be unknown. But its an equally hard truth that stupid is forever too. The flat-earthers have always been with us, as have the believers in phrenology and alchemy and eugenics and sorcery, and, more recently and perniciously, the climate change deniers and the vaccines-cause-autism ninnies.

Sometimes its greed and political calculation at work: If we call climate change a hoax, we keep the riches flowing to the fossil fuel industry. Sometimes its a search for answers (if a child develop autism someone must be to blame) coupled with a know-nothing carnival barker like Jenny McCarthy. And sometimes its religion.

Galileos persecutors were the fathers of the Catholic Church, holding fast to a Bible that described the Earth as fixed and unmovable and the sun as rising and setting and returning to its place each day. The people who deny evolution today arent in the field, collecting the bones and offering reasoned alternatives to what Darwin discovered. They too know what they know because the Bible saysor seems to sayits true.

But to blame the believers is, in its own way, a blinkered view of things. The hard fact is, there are plenty of peoplethe majority of people, in factwho can comfortably live in a world in which faith and science live side by side. It was Carl Sagan himself who once wondered why a God who presides over a universe in which evolution unfolds, in which physical sciences play out and in which great truths are slowly discovered by people with dawning wisdom, isnt somehow a subtler, more nuanced and more appealing God.

The very same day the dispiriting NSF study was announced, Rice University released a far more encouraging survey of 10,000 scientists, evangelical Protestants and average Americans. According to the Rice results, almost 50% of Evangelicals believe that science and religion can work together, a figure that actually exceeds the 38% of all Americans who believe the same thing. As for all those non-spiritual scientists? Eighteen percent of them attend weekly religious services, only slightly less than the 20% of average Americans who are also regular worshippers. And 15% think of themselves as very religious, compared to 19% of everyone else. Scientists who also happen to be Evangelicals actually practice their religion more than Evangelical non-scientists.

Yes, there are some findings in the survey likely to give science types heartburn: 60% of Evangelicals believe that scientists should be willing to consider miracles as possible explanations for the phenomena they study, as do 38% of all Americans. But on the whole, the warring camps we hear so much about may be smaller and friendlier than weve come to believe. And to the extent that a battle does exist, its mostly being fought out at the extremes: the finger-in-the-eye atheists like Bill Maher, who regard believers with a kind of pitying disdain and dont care who knows it; the religious fundamentalists who defy inquisitiveness, defy reason, demanding a literal interpretation of Scripture that includes a great flood and a 6,000 year old world and a planet full of fossils and billions-year-old rocks that are put there merely to test our faith.

In fairness, there is not a complete equivalency here. The likes of Maher may be tiresome, but they make a point: The world is 4.5 billion years old. Full stop. The Earth does revolve around the Sunperiod. On these matters, the modern day fundamentalists arehow best to put this?wrong. When the Catholic Church as long ago as 1758 lifted its ban on teaching the sun-centered solar system and in 1992 formally acknowledged error in its treatment of Galileo, the very guardians of Scripture themselves were acknowledging that simply because a verse is written in a book does not make it so. To insist otherwise is to fight a rearguard action, one that holds entire societies back.

Science has been with us since the beginning of time. Faith has been with us since we opened our eyes and began wondering what all that science and everything else around us means. By now, many eons on, we ought to have figured out a way to marry the two. Perhaps in another 450 years we will.

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The Science of Stupid: Galileo Is Rolling Over In His Grave

Second Campus Walk carried out by Engineering Watch at Arya Group of Colleges, Jaipur – Video

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Second Campus Walk carried out by Engineering Watch at Arya Group of Colleges, Jaipur
Engineering Watch is unraveling the majestic world of the techno-managerial campus across the country. taking the initiative further EW covered the campus of...

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Second Campus Walk carried out by Engineering Watch at Arya Group of Colleges, Jaipur - Video

Grow your forest in a pot

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Gardening is said to be a lot about regular effort, some physical exertion and, of course, beauty. But a days workshop on organic gardening with Bhoomi Colleges Rajesh Thakkar is enough to dispel commonly held myths and beliefs about the hobby. Drawing his ideas of gardening from the philosophies of natural farming and organic gardening, the workshop came as relief to the textbook gardening enthusiast and as an easy first step in the right direction for beginners.

For many it would seem as if gardening is an activity that one has to constantly keep at with watering, re-potting, trimming and pruning, composting, and not to mention weeding. Rajesh advocates the Zen approach of letting things be and nature taking its own course. Pictures from his own terrace garden, in the form of proof, amaze and impress: plants of corn, cauliflower, capsicum growing out of single pots that havent been changed in nearly eight years and infections that havent been dealt with pesticides or even organic sprays. Taking inspiration from the forest, Rajeshs garden teems with wild plants or weeds, insects, bugs and birds, among other organic forms that make the eco-system in his garden complete.

A few hours into the workshop and the idea of organic gardening begins to take shape in our minds balance and diversity. In the forest, the absence of humans constantly curing or cleaning, makes it a thriving eco-system. The same idea needs to be extended to our gardens, terraces and farms to create forests in pots as Rajesh calls it.

The fundamental problem is that we feel the need to overdo. Our fears and anxieties force us to react and come in the way of natural processes taking their own course, says Rajesh, in whose garden an attack by aphids was ignored for nearly three weeks until the ladybugs arrived and the crop was safe once more. So, do we call this Do nothing gardening? Of course not, we still need to do some things, he says.

The creation of an eco-system in your garden starts with the quality of soil. Sand, silt and clay are the three inorganic components of soil and are crucial to determining the health of your kitchen garden. The absence of any one could be detrimental and they must exist in the right proportions. Clumpy soil could mean too much clay, in which case sand needs to be added to the pot. Biomass comprising minerals, fungi, bacteria, worms and leaves needs to be included in the form of compost. Soil with a good amount of biomass is moist, has a distinct smell and is rich in colour.

Mulching, however, is the single-most important way to recover and sustain soil. Any biomass put on the soil and covers it is called mulch, says Rajesh. Mulching prevents evaporation, protects the soil from water, wind and sun. Microbes receive the right temperature to thrive and mulching prevents the growth of wild plants. A simple and beneficial practice, organic mulch can comprise of leaves, grass clippings, bark chips etc.

As the lesson progresses we unlearn a number of things and pick up on the ways of natural gardening like not touching the soil! The more you touch the soil, the less healthy it is going to be. Just make sure it is always covered with mulch, he says. Still grappling with the idea of not touching soil while gardening, we are told to not water plants but ensure there is always moisture in the soil. Rajesh explains, Over watering prevents the roots from breathing. But, always ensure the soil is moist. You can do this by sticking your finger one to one-and-half inch into the soil. If it is dry, the plant needs moisture.

An integral part of organic gardening is also, of course, composting. Pit composting is the easiest way to compost in your backyard. Dig a pit, put in your kitchen waste and seal the pit with a mud plaster so that it breathes, says Rajesh. Today, to accelerate the process of composting, special organic mixtures are available that reduce composting time from weeks to a few days. Also, organisations such as Daily Dump sell kitchen waste composters such as the kambha that can be made a part of your garden. And, if you have the will you can also grow your own manure. Sunn hemp, a plant of the legume family, can be easily grown in pots and is a popular source of green manure. Usually planted at the end of the rainy season, the plant is ready for use when its flowers blossom. The leaves and flowers of the plant can be trimmed and used as manure in your kitchen garden or farm.

Organic gardening is perhaps the best way to grow your own food. The thing to remember, however, is start small, go low cost and keep it simple. You can easily grow a variety of greens, herbs, tomatoes, chillies and fruits in your kitchen garden. The takeaway though is to keep calm and not garden.

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Grow your forest in a pot