143 – Good Friday, Animal Suffering and Georgia’s Freedom of Religion Restoration Act – Video

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143 - Good Friday, Animal Suffering and Georgia #39;s Freedom of Religion Restoration Act
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143 - Good Friday, Animal Suffering and Georgia's Freedom of Religion Restoration Act - Video

Discrimination under the banner of freedom is on the rise again.

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How, you may well ask, did a dispute over pizza and cake lead to a question about the nature of freedom? Food and for that matter, drink havent exactly played a leading role in the construction of the so called free world, but theyve always been lurking in the background. There was the Boston Tea Party. Let them eat cake, tower-haired posho Marie Antoinette probably didnt say. Ich bin ein Berliner [a doughnut], JFK definitely did say. This time around, freedom is being called into question at a pizzeria in Indiana and a bakery in Belfast.

Last year, a Christian-owned bakery refused, kind of predictably, to make a cake that celebrated same-sex marriage. Finally, last month, the discrimination case brought against Ashers Baking Company went to court. Meanwhile Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party have been happily beavering away at some legislation that would protect businesses exactly like Belfasts most reactionary confectioner from having to relinquish their religious principles to the evil Gay Agenda. Thats to say, the DUP want to officially legalise discrimination against LGBT people by businesses.

Also last month, owners of a pizzeria in the American Midwest whined about being persecuted into niceness. The owner of Memories Pizza in Indiana isnt just rubbish at coming up with restaurant names, shes also quite rubbish at not being bigot. And the fact that she thinks a gay couple would allow somewhere called Memories Pizza to cater their big day certainly hints at her never even met an actual homosexual. Whats more, fictional Indiana stateswoman and friend ogays Leslie Knope would most likely be ashamed of the (now amended) corresponding religious freedom bill which threatened to legally entrench anti-gay discrimination in that state.

Aside from being small businesses run by even smaller minded people, what the UK bakery and US pizzeria have in common is their dependence on discrimination in the guise of freedom. In several US states, religious freedom bills are threatening to override anti-discrimination ones. The idea that business owners should be free not to accommodate LGBT people, on moral grounds, is right at libertarianisms core. The spate of religious freedom bills are an important reminder that this is a political philosophy that favours the rights of bullies over their victims. Its about the right to shoot over the right not to be shot and the right to be an utter bastard over the right to not have to suffer utter bastards.

Right-leaning LGBT people drawn to libertarianism for its supposed social liberalness, especially those voting in next years US presidential election, need to take a much closer looks at whose interests Republican senators like Rand Paul represent. Paul, a reasonably hardcore libertarian and presidential hopeful, is no proponent of gay rights. In a 2013 TV interview, when asked about his position on gay rights, Paul said, I dont really believe in rights based on your behaviour. Except, of course, when it comes to the behaviour of gun owners. Or the behaviour of racists and homophobes. Republican in not giving a fuck about gay rights shocker isnt going to appear on any front pages soon, but its essential that libertarianism isnt seen as the cuddly (as cuddly as anything inspired by Ayn Rand can be) sort of conservatism.

Bryan Fischer, head of the fundamentalist Christian American Family Association, recently tweeted that something called Big Gay is trying to restrict religious freedoms. Big Gay. Like Big Oil, or Big Pharma. I hope Im not alone in finding this new term for the gay agenda more precious than a hedgehog in a tutu. And Id personally like to thank Fischer for giving me the opportunity to tell people, I work for Big Gay. It sounds so much better than, I lie in bed writing down words, eating Mini Cheddars and trying to masturbate as little as humanly possible.

The fact is though that Big Gay exists. And thank fuck for that. Freedom to discriminate is a funny sort of freedom. Id like to say its the kind that could only exist in a country where you can buy ammunition from supermarkets, but we have a fair bit of it in the UK too, as proven by the Belfast gay cake debacle. Meanwhile, LGBT activist group All Out have nearly reached their goal of 300,000 signatures for a petition aimed at blocking the DUPs proposed anti-gay amendment. Nice work, Big Gay.

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Discrimination under the banner of freedom is on the rise again.

Empire Earth 2 – 27 – American Campaign – Cyborg Insurrection of 2058 – Video

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Empire Earth 2 - 27 - American Campaign - Cyborg Insurrection of 2058
Empire Earth 2 - 27 - American Campaign - Cyborg Insurrection of 2058 Walkthrough Gameplay PC Difficulty: Hard Empire Earth II is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Mad Doc ...

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Empire Earth 2 - 27 - American Campaign - Cyborg Insurrection of 2058 - Video

A federally funded study examines Island beaches

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The surveys are part of a 22-beach investigation.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Geological Survey and NOAA recently examined beaches in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown as part of an ongoing study geared toward preventing beach erosion. The study is funded by Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and is being conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management.

This is the first, necessary step toward coming up with a plan for dealing with some hard issues related to coastal erosion, sedimentologist and lead investigator of the study Dr. Jon Woodruff said in a press release. The public beaches included in this study were identified by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management as beaches in critical need of assessment. Many have sensitive and important infrastructure behind them, such as roads, bridges, wastewater treatment plants, and harbors.

In an email to The Times, geology professor Dr. Nicolas Venti, a member of the research team on-Island last week, outlined the threats to the Vineyard beaches they investigated.

In the case of Oak Bluffs Town Beach (Pay and Inkwell), the beach abuts a seawall that protects Seaview Avenue and the downtown area to the west, he said. Hard structures such as seawalls can be undermined by scour when ocean waves and currents are forced to flow against them. Sylvia State Reservation is a thin, low-lying barrier beach that protects Beach Road, Sengekontacket Pond and its surrounding marsh, connects Oak Bluffs to Edgartown, and is a treasure in itself. Dissection of the dunes due to breech by storm surge might lead to disintegration of the barrier beach.

By analyzing the beaches natural shapes and what theyre composed of, Dr. Venti thinks a beach blueprint can be made to aid restoration needs that may arise in the future.

These measurements will allow coastal communities and the state to pursue appropriate management strategies in response to beach erosion, he said. Specifically, information about this type of seasonal beach variability will be particularly useful for potential beach nourishment. It provides a guide to determine what type of material is suitable for a particular location, and how much material might be required to restore a full beach profile.

According to Dr. Venti, Horseneck and East Beaches in Westport, Barges Beach on Cuttyhunk Island, Surf Beach in Falmouth, and Low and Miacomet Beach on Nantucket were also surveyed this year. In total, we plan to survey 22 beaches along Massachusetts coast, he said.

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A federally funded study examines Island beaches

Media Invitation for the XXIX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union

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For the first two weeks of August, Hawaii will be the centre of the Universe when more than 3500 astronomers from at least 75 countries gather in Honolulu for the XXIX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Expected to be the largest professional astronomy conference since the Big Bang, the 3-14 August 2015 meeting will feature thousands of scientific presentations, numerous policy discussions, and several exciting media events. The IAU offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and public information officers (PIOs); see details below.

At the General Assembly, held every three years, the world's astronomers come together to advance the astronomical sciences through international collaboration. Participants at the General Assembly in Honolulu will address key topics in contemporary astronomy and assess the latest scientific progress in a number of specialised areas. With six symposia extending over several days, 22 multi-session focus meetings, nine IAU Division meetings, dozens of IAU Commission meetings, and the first-ever daily general poster sessions, the XXIX General Assembly's scientific programme will be the broadest in the union's history.

This will be the first General Assembly to be held in Hawaii and the first in the United States since 1998. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is the national host organisation, with vital local support from the University of Hawaii at Manoa Institute of Astronomy as well as observatories and other astronomy-related institutions throughout the Hawaiian islands.

Maunakea, on the Big Island, is well known today as the site of most of the northern hemisphere's 8- to 10-metre telescopes. But the history of astronomy in Hawaii goes back to ancient times, when Polynesian sailors navigated among the widely separated islands of the Pacific Ocean primarily using their deep knowledge of the starry sky. The landmark Diamond Head volcano on Oahu, visible from Honolulu's famed Waikiki Beach, was the site of an important 1910 expedition to photograph Halley's Comet. Grote Reber did some of his early work in radio astronomy on Maui, which now hosts a major solar observatory atop Haleakala. And Maunakea itself, first recognised as a superior astronomical site by Gerard Kuiper half a century ago, will soon be home to the Thirty Meter Telescope, one of the next-generation optical-infrared extremely large telescopes slated to usher in the next great age of ground-based astronomy. Representatives of the media in Hawaii for the General Assembly will have an opportunity to visit Maunakea before science sessions begin; see details below.

Overview

Contacts

Lars Lindberg Christensen IAU Press Officer Garching bei Mnchen, Germany Tel: +49 89 320 06 761 Cell: +49 173 38 72 621 Email: lars@eso.org

Raquel Yumi Shida IAU Deputy Press Officer Garching bei Mnchen, Germany Tel: +49 89 320 06 177 Cell: +49 151 5066 2673 Email: rshida@eso.org

Local press contacts

Roy Gal University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy Cell: +1 301-728-8637 Email: rgal@ifa.hawaii.edu

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Media Invitation for the XXIX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union

Ex Machina Movie CLIP – Meet Ava (2015) Alicia Vikander Movie – Video

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Ex Machina Movie CLIP - Meet Ava (2015) Alicia Vikander Movie
"Ex Machina" Movie CLIP - Meet Ava (2015) Alicia Vikander Movie A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human...

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Ex Machina Movie CLIP - Meet Ava (2015) Alicia Vikander Movie - Video