Legacy of Charlie Hebdo deaths

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After one week, a tough question already is being asked: Just how "JeSuisCharlie" (I am Charlie) should we be?

At the outset, First Amendment advocates need to recognize the many layers of such a question -- which originates not in reconsideration of recognition of those killed Jan. 7, but in the subsequent worldwide examination of the content of Charlie Hebdo magazine and other publications like it.

Does being critical of the magazine's biting satire, or suggesting it went beyond free speech into bigotry and deliberate provocation, offer any moral ground or comfort to the criminals who killed 12 people on at the Paris-based weekly magazine?

In many ways, the answer in the U.S. is easier -- at least at the start. The 45 words of the First Amendment says the government "shall make no law" restraining our freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. No mention of political correctness, politeness or subjects or styles that legally are out of bounds.

Of course, in the U.S., we daily debate the application of our First Amendment freedoms, in a myriad of detailed ways -- from Christmas carols in public schools, to words we can use on the Web, to how much and what we can donate to political candidates, and more. But we're so sanguine about our core rights that almost none of us can even name them. Since 1997, no more than 6 percent could name all five in the annual State of the First Amendment survey done by the Newseum Institute's First Amendment Center.

Only in the extremes, such as North Korea's objections to the silly movie "The Interview," do we seem to recognize how basic, how important and even how fragile those freedoms are. And with the gut-punch of the terror killings in France, we're suddenly viewing free expression through a worldwide looking glass -- examining its values, deep impact and perhaps its limits.

Should publications show those controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad? Nothing in U.S. law prevents news outlets from doing so. So here, the issue is not "can" but "should." Most news outlets have chosen not to do so, by reports. In the last week, the controversy reached even to the pages (and offices) of The New York Times, which chose not to publish the images.

Times editor Dean Baquet was so angered by what he considered a particularly "nasty and arrogant" comment by a California university professor (Baquet's words) that he included an earthy obscenity in a Facebook post that also said mockingly: "Appreciate the self-righteous second guessing without even considering there might be another point of view. Hope your students are more open minded."

Let's ask the "JeSuisCharlie" question in terms closer to home: Would we have the stomach for a "I am Uncle Sam" style campaign if the catalyst were deaths at a U.S. magazine with a cover story of the week showing a racial caricature of African Americans with the N-word in large type overhead? Or at a Neo-Nazi publication mocking the Holocaust with a cartoon based on the death camps?

Some would say the response has to be "yes." In for a free speech penny, in for a dollar. Others may counter that there is nothing in the First Amendment that mandates -- and at times, even shields -- language that is deliberately intended simply to provoke and insult in a manner more akin to unprotected "fighting words" than the First Amendment ideal of dueling ideas.

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Legacy of Charlie Hebdo deaths

Sen. Dan Sullivan amends proposed bill to disarm EPA agents

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ANCHORAGE Alaskas freshman senator has filed his first amendment, and it is aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of Environmental Protection Agency agents.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said Friday he filed the amendment to follow through with a promise he made while campaigning in Fairbanks last fall. The idea to disarm the EPA came after agents swept into the mining town of Chicken wearing body armor and carrying rifles in August 2013 while investigating possible violations of the Clean Water Act, Sullivan said.

The amendment is attached to a larger bill that would authorize the Keystone XL pipeline.

In fall 2013, miners in the Chicken area told the Daily News-Miner they felt intimidated by the agents, who, in some cases, did not identify themselves when arriving at mines in all-terrain vehicles. An EPA spokesperson described the discussions as consensual and cordial.

The investigation was based on reports of mines with a history of not complying with state and federal clean water laws and ongoing significant discharges, the EPA said in a written statement in September 2013.

There have been no federal charges or arrests, at least so far, as a result of the investigation.

Asked about the raid and Sullivans amendment Friday, an EPA spokeswoman referred questions to agency officials in Washington, D.C., who did not respond to a request for comment by late Friday.

Sullivan said in a phone interview the issue, while important to Alaska and its miners, goes beyond the incident in Chicken.

I think theres this conventional wisdom that the federal government is always growing, always into new areas, always gaining new responsibilities, Sullivan said. Part of what I ran on is that is not some kind of law of nature. We can roll back some of the responsibilities and authorities of the federal government.

Looking at the history of the EPA, which was formed in the early 1970s, it was not until the late 1980s that the agents were authorized to carry firearms, said Sullivan, who had researched the congressional hearings from that time. Originally, the authorization was to protect agents investigating hazardous waste dumps connected to the mafia, he said.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan amends proposed bill to disarm EPA agents

Amazon.com: Tor Browser: Appstore for Android

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All Ages

Based on information provided by the developer, the content of this application has material that is appropriate for all users and contains no objectionable content or advertisements.

Based on information provided by the developer, the content of this application has material that is appropriate for most users. The app may include account creation, location detection, user generated content, advertisements, infrequent or mild references to violence, profanity, or crude themes, or other content not suitable for all ages.

Based on information provided by the developer, the content of this application has material that is only appropriate for mature users. The app may include account creation, location detection, user generated content, advertisements, explicit references to or images of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, graphic violence, profanity, or crude humor, mild sexual and suggestive themes, nudity within medical, informational, or artistic contexts, simulated gambling, or other content only suitable for mature audiences.

Based on information provided by the developer, the content of this application has material that is only appropriate for adults. The app may include account creation, location detection, user generated content, advertisements, explicit references to or images of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, graphic violence, profanity, or crude humor, sexual and suggestive themes, nudity, simulated gambling, or other content only suitable for adult audiences.

This application contains content that is downloading real-time, based on inputs from the user or developer. The maturity rating associated with this application pertains only to the static elements of the application and does not cover any dynamic information (e.g. websites, friend postings, tweets). Dynamic content is defined as any content that may change within the application. Content can include animations, video or audio.

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Amazon.com: Tor Browser: Appstore for Android

Boomers Bank CryptoCurrency | Passive Income Systems using …

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Paycoin-Cryptocurrency Coaching & Business Development Successful blog site sites have 3 certain everythings alike. They are created by a victorying team, they are focused on a particular product or service that is already in very hot demand in their area or niche, and also they located an effective tool to obtain words out regarding their brand or business. Many individuals have not a problem with the very first 2, but commonly have problem with the last one in locating reliable methods to maximize the exposure of their brand name.

The only method to keep an effective blog site concentrated on your activity is to guarantee that you have the right devices to produce quality leads. There are effective steps you can take to create a better audience and also catch their interest over the long haul.

It Is Never ever about You Focus On Cryptocurrency

It is very important to understand that the blogging site is never about you. Any kind of upgraded content you make to the site should be useful to the visitor. The content needs to be given in a variety of forms including composed details, along with aesthetic media such as video clip, infographics and images. It can likewise be posted as sound or podcasts.

Assembling Your Group Concentrate on Cryptocurrency

With the understanding of the significance of making certain that the material is based upon user-focused details, you will should assemble an efficient material team. These will certainly be the people that will develop, edit, promote as well as disperse your on-line material. They will likewise have the impact of tools for monitoring and also taking care of the outcomes.

Produce Effective Resources Focus On Cryptocurrency

An effective tool often used to get the audience thrilled concerning your brand is to supply them particular totally free sources under your blogging site. Usually, these complimentary sources will offer an important solution to a great many of the common issues as well as troubles your viewers deal with everyday. This might be supplied in a selection of efficient formats consisting of electronic books, video clip tutorials, or a downloadable PDF data.

The Perks of Guest Blogging Concentrate on Cryptocurrency

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Boomers Bank CryptoCurrency | Passive Income Systems using ...

Willem Middelkoop – Big Reset – Bail-ins – Cyprus – Bitcoin – Real Estate – Gold and Silver – Video

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Willem Middelkoop - Big Reset - Bail-ins - Cyprus - Bitcoin - Real Estate - Gold and Silver
Willem Middelkoop Author of The Big Reset Dutch Interview with English Subtitles by: http://globalcurrencyreset.net/willem-middelkoop/ 2nd Interview 45 minutes (English) https://www.youtube.com/wat.

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FOLLOW THE COIN AT CES 2015: Interview with Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken – Video

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FOLLOW THE COIN AT CES 2015: Interview with Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken
Follow The Coin at CES 2015: Interview with Jesse Powell, CEO Co-Founder of Kraken LEARN: - What a bitcoin exchange is - The most exciting things about 2014 according to Jesse Powell - The...

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FOLLOW THE COIN AT CES 2015: Interview with Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken - Video

#7 Thinking of Crowd Funding your bitcoin/crypto project? Think Again. – Video

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#7 Thinking of Crowd Funding your bitcoin/crypto project? Think Again.
http://www.bitshares.TV Thinking of Crowd funding your bitcoin/crypto project? Think Again. Learn from someone who has raised several million dollars in several crowd funding projects before...

By: BitShares TV

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#7 Thinking of Crowd Funding your bitcoin/crypto project? Think Again. - Video

Bitcoin, the Blockchain, and Their Potential to Change Our World – Introduction – Video

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Bitcoin, the Blockchain, and Their Potential to Change Our World - Introduction
For more information, visit: http://oreil.ly/1Ey8Zvl Bitcoin is more than just a volatile currency. It also has the potential to replace credit cards, lower remittance rates, and empower the...

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Bitcoin, the Blockchain, and Their Potential to Change Our World - Introduction - Video

Google hacks OS X, Gemini Bitcoin Exchange, FAA fines drone pilot – Video

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Google hacks OS X, Gemini Bitcoin Exchange, FAA fines drone pilot
Google #39;s Project Zero has now publicly disclosed bugs in Apple #39;s OS X; The Winklevoss twins are starting the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in the US; the FAA gives its first fine to a drone...

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Review: Age of Cryptocurrency, bitcoin and economy, by Paul Vigna and Michael Casey

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By Daniel Gross January 23 at 4:06 PM

Daniel Gross is executive editor at Strategy+Business. His most recent book is Better, Stronger, Faster: The Myth of American Decline and the Rise of a New Economy.

The Age of Cryptocurrency

How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order

By Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey

St. Martins. 357 pp. $27.99

Bitcoin is remarkably polarizing. Technology evangelists and central-bank critics ardently believe no, they know that the digital currency can liberate mankind from the tyranny of banks and government-backed paper money. Skeptics note that, like other new technological disruptions, bitcoin attracts innovators and hucksters in equal measure. How can a currency created by an anonymous coder and backed by no state, and whose value flaps around like a flag in a swirling wind, hope to challenge the global economic order and replace the dollar?

To their ample credit, Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey, veteran Wall Street Journal reporters, resist the common temptation to hype their trendy subject. Theyve written a reported explainer that patiently documents bitcoins rise, acknowledges its flaws and highlights its promise. Smart and conscientious, The Age of Cryptocurrency is the most thorough and readable account of the short life of this controversial currency.

Bitcoin isnt actually money. Rather, its a highly disruptive technology a software and transaction verification system that lets people communicate with others that has the modest goal of freeing people from the tyranny of centralized trust. It came on the scene in 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym) introduced a peer-to-peer system that instructs computers how to keep track of transactions, using encryption and digital signatures, in a highly transparent way. The blockchain a universal ledger that grows with each completed transaction allows people to exchange all sorts of digitized items of value and any manner of useful data with confidence that the information is accurate. And it ingeniously provides financial incentives for people (or their computers) to keep the ledger up to date. How?

Transactions in bitcoin arent completed with a handshake or the issuance of a receipt. And unlike PayPal or electronic banking, they dont involve the documented transfer of funds in specific currencies between large, licensed institutions. Rather, computers connected to the network must reach a consensus on the validity of each transaction. Transactions between two individuals are validated only when a third party a miner equipped with a powerful computer performs a complicated mathematical puzzle. The first to solve the puzzle receives a bitcoin as a sort of commission and officially updates the universal ledger.

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Comets Remain Undefeated and Clinch a Playoff Berth

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January 23, 2015 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) Missouri Comets SALTILLO, Mexico "" Saltillo Rancho Seco (1-11) played one of their best games this season. However, their efforts were not enough to upset the undefeated Missouri Comets (14-0) who left the Deportivo RSS with a 14-8 victory.

Team and league leader Leo Gibson was named Borden Man of the Match notching five goals, four of them scored in the first quarter.

With this victory, head coach Vlatko Andonovski's team have clinched a playoff berth in the inaugural season of the Major Arena Soccer League and could wrap the Central Division championship with one more win or a Chicago Mustangs loss.

Only seven minutes into the match, the Comets were already up 6-0. Gibson scored the first tally of the evening at the 1:09 mark assisted by John Sosa before Robert Palmer assisted by Bryan Perez gave the away team a 2-0 lead.

In a two-minute span, Gibson added three more goals to his name before Max Touloute found the back of the net defeating goalkeeper Alejandro Garza.

Moments later, Saltillo scored their first goal of the night courtesy of Iran Rodriguez but six seconds before the end of the first stanza, team captain Vahid Assadpour gave the Comets a 7-1 lead.

Saltillo came out stronger to the field on the second quarter and scored three consecutive goals to shorten the lead to a three-goal match when Jesus Nava, Victor Baez and Aaron Chavez each found the back of Danny Waltman's goal but Alain Matingou and Andre Braithwaite scored to take a 9-4 lead to the locker rooms.

Once again, Rancho Seco notched three straight tallies early in the third quarter scored by Rafael Raygoza Medrano, Miguel Cedillo and Jonathan Gutierrez making it 9-7 before the Comets answered back with goals from Perez, Assadpour and Sosa.

With a 12-7 lead, the Comets once again allowed a goal to start the fourth quarter when Manuel Valentin dribbled through the defense and scored unassisted before Josh Gardner scored on a powerplay followed by Gibson's fifth goal to end the match with a final score of 14-8.

Next up, the Comets will visit the state-of-the-art Arena Monterrey to face the Southern Division powerhouse Monterrey Flash at 5:05 p.m. CT before returning to the Independence Events Center on January 30 when they host Chicago.

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Comets Remain Undefeated and Clinch a Playoff Berth

Ask the Experts: How Do Amateur Astronomers Discover Comets?

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Prolific comet hunter Terry Lovejoy shares his secrets

Australian IT specialist Terry Lovejoy moonlights as an amateur astronomer with five comet discoveries under his belt. His latest find, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), is currently approaching the sun, making it visible for the next few days to naked-eye observers in the Northern Hemisphere with clear skies in the early evening. The comet has gained social media fame, with eager stargazers around the world seeking it out. The attention has surprised Lovejoy, whose earlier discoveries didnt get near as much attention. This time its been quite insane, he says. In the last week and a half Ive had at least a thousand Facebook friend requests. Lovejoy found his first comet in 2007. His third discovery, made in 2011, was distinctive because it was what is known as a Kreutz sungrazera comet that literally grazes the atmosphere of the sun. That object, called Comet C/2011 W3, flew through the suns corona, passing within 140,000 kilometers of the solar surface, and emerged damaged but still intact. Scientific American spoke to Lovejoy about his comet-hunting exploits and his advice for those who would like to follow in his path. [An edited transcript of the interview follows.] How long does it take you to find a new comet? I probably get one every two years. It doesnt sound like a lot but it is quite tough. Im trying to improve those odds with equipment upgrades and software changes. Most comets are discovered by the professional surveys. We amateurs tend to find stuff in areas near the sun where the surveys dont look. How do you do it? The computer and the telescope do most of the work. I have a shed just on the side of the house here; it has a roll-off roof that I can just push off. Then I connect the telescope to the computer and I run an automated sequence to image parts of the sky. It takes three images of the same part of the sky, but theyre separated by about 10 minutes. If theres a comet or any moving object youll see it move between those exposures. I have software that basically trolls through those images and looks for objects that are moving. What I do by eye is I look at what its found to verify if its real or not. Thats how Ive done the last two. Before that I looked at the whole image manually; it took a long time. A couple years ago I had to start automating it. Now it takes five minutes to do what used to take two to three hours. A few people had pictured me being out there all night looking through a telescope. Thats very old schoolit doesnt happen. I have a family, Ive got two kids, my wife. I have to think about them. How often does the software flag photos that you need to check by eye? During any one nights session, maybe 100 or so [get flagged]. But because theyre just little preview windows I can flip through them very quickly. You also have real objects, like asteroids and other comets, so I have to eliminate those. There are some good Web sites as well where you can put in a position and you can see any known objects in that area. So your software finds 100 possible objects every night but you had to go a year or two before one turned out to be real? Thats right. Its certainly very obsessive when you put it like that. For the last two comets I went though about 70,000 images to find each comet. Theres a lot of time, even now, between comets. For me its the challenge of working on the telescope, working on the software to get it more efficientthats the satisfaction I get out of it. I think the actual discovery is probably not as exciting now as it was for the first one. Tell me about this latest discovery. How long was it before you knew it was a new comet for sure? It was probably about a day before I knew. I had made contact with a couple people and said, I think I found something; Im not 100 percent sure. I found it in the morning, and I had confirmation from a Facebook friend in the evening when I was on the way home on the train. At that point I knew we had a comet. But you need to get enough observations of the comet and its positions in the sky to calculate an orbital trajectory. Generally you need about two to three days of those observations. Once you have found the orbit you can compare it to any historic objects that may have been here in the past and are returning. Then you can confirm its a new comet. So your new comet has not been to the inner solar system before? Apparently 13,000 years ago it did [according to orbital calculations]but not in recent human history. It will return in 8,000 years. Its kind of cool to think about that. How did you get into amateur astronomy? I grew up in a place called Cumnock, in central New South Wales. Because it was so far away from any major cities we had very dark skies, and I think it was there where I became interested. My father got woken up one morning for work and it was pitch black, like it normally is when theres no moon, and he was walking outside and saw this giant feather in the skythats how he described it. Then it took a few moments and he thought, Thats a comet. That turned out to be a Kreutz sungrazing comet, so its fitting that I found a comet in 2011 that was [also a Kreutz sungrazer]. Thats how it all really began. And when did you become a more serious comet hunter? Around 2004 I kind of fell into that. I was following a lot of the known comets as well as looking at other objects. But one thing I noticed is that being in the Southern Hemisphere, a lot of comets were not being found. All of the people looking for comets appeared to be in the Northern Hemisphere. I thought, Ive probably got an opportunity here to go and find some comets. I dont think Ive really ever had that drive to get up at all hours of the night and stare through an eyepieceto me that wasnt fun. But when digital cameras and decent quality CCD cameras started to appear I thought I could automate a system and then I could live a normal life. Between your full-time job and your astronomical activities, do you get enough sleep? No, not really. Well, believe it or not, I usually get eight hours of sleep but sometimes its interrupted. What advice do you have for people who would like to get into comet hunting? Dont be too serious about it. Often people go out and buy all the best equipment and then realize its not for them, or they burn out and get overwhelmed by it. My advice is that people start fairly simple and not spend lots of money. Just go and buy some binoculars or a small Dobsonian telescope and then develop your own interest that way. Some people go and buy too large a telescope. Theres not much point if you cant move it or get it into your car. There are also people who say youre not an amateur astronomer unless youre doing serious observations and I think thats wrong as well. Youre doing this for enjoyment. The serious stuff can come later.

2015 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc.

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Ask the Experts: How Do Amateur Astronomers Discover Comets?