Daily Archives: September 14, 2012

City’s free speech ordinance challenged in federal court

Posted: September 14, 2012 at 3:10 pm

Posted on: 7:32 am, September 14, 2012, by Meredith Forrest Kulwicki, updated on: 08:20am, September 14, 2012

A federal court will hear arguments regarding a case addressing free speech on public sidewalks on Friday.

The ACLU of Utah is challenging Brigham Citys free speech ordinance on behalf of the Main Street Church of Brigham City.

The Main Street Church of Brigham City intended to distribute flyers on the sidewalk near Brigham Citys LDS temple during its open house. They say when they obtained a permit under the citys free speech zone ordinance on Aug. 20, they found out they could not be on the sidewalk areas where most people walk to and from the temple.

On Thursday, Brigham City agreed to not enforce its Free Speech Zone Ordinance, however, the agreement did not suspend the lawsuit filed against the city, according to a press release from the ACLU.

The statement said: Main Street Church and the ACLU of Utah have not conceded that any past enforcement of the ordinance was constitutional. They also continue to contend that the ordinance is unconstitutional on its face and that it should be completely struck down by the court.

Brigham City had previously released the following statement:

The City`s free speech zone ordinance was developed by city officials and city attorneys based on Utah laws and other municipalities` ordinances throughout Utah. To Brigham City`s knowledge, this ordinance has been upheld as constitutional by the courts.

A spokesman for the LDS Church declined a request for comment.

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City’s free speech ordinance challenged in federal court

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Making music in outer space

Posted: at 3:16 am

Most astronauts are engineers, fighter pilots or scientists, but the next Canadian in space will bring an artists sensibility to his command of the International Space Station.

Chris Hadfield is scheduled to rocket off Dec. 5 for six months in the claustrophobic confines of the space station from a launch pad on a barren plateau in Kazakhstan, along with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. Where some might see a long stint of isolation, the veteran Canadian astronaut sees precious time to create music and visual art.

Video: Mars rover beams back audio recording

A man on the moon

Mr. Hadfield has collaborated with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies to write a song he will record in the space station, using the guitar, keyboard and ukulele on board, along with the clings and clangs of the machinery that scrubs carbon dioxide from the air and runs systems. The space-themed song is already being rearranged for distribution across Canada for use by childrens choirs, school bands and anyone who wants to pay homage to space travel.

Mr. Hadfield, 53, a retired Canadian air force colonel, tried out the untitled track with his band, Bandella, in a Houston club on Wednesday night. We had a big crowd and everybody loved it. Ed is a great songwriter, and hes rightfully proud of his little ditty, Mr. Hadfield said in an interview.

Mr. Hadfield is also working with a Japanese artist named Takahiro Ando to take images of the Earth using a watery lens to refract and reflect them. The process plays on a Japanese tradition of admiring the moon through liquid reflections, whether from a pond, a pan or cup of sake.

The experiment module, as it is called, is a plastic drum with a clear end that will allow Mr. Hadfield to place it against the space stations windows. He will inject water droplets into the drum while a super high-definition camera rolls and captures fine-resolution still photographs. I will try to be Andosans hands and eyes, Mr. Hadfield said from Houston.

Mr. Hadfield, who learned Russian so he can co-pilot the Soyuz spacecraft that will deliver the crew to the space station, has been training for more than two years to run the various systems and experiments under his command.

In a 20-year career in the space program, Mr. Hadfield has spent 20 days in space. Hes also ventured out on spacewalks twice, where he was struck by how it more than goes into your eyes. It fills your entire mind. Its just an overwhelming beauty.

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Making music in outer space

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DNA ‘junk' contains a treasure of information about disease

Posted: at 3:16 am

Among the many mysteries of human biology is why complex diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and psychiatric disorders are so difficult to predict and, often, to treat. An equally perplexing puzzle is why one individual gets a disease such as cancer or depression, while an identical twin remains perfectly healthy.

Now scientists have discovered a vital clue to unraveling these riddles.

The human genome is packed with at least 4 million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as junk but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave.

The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.

The findings are the fruit of an immense federal project, involving 440 scientists from 32 labs around the world.

As they delved into the junk parts of the DNA that are not actual genes containing instructions for proteins they discovered it's not junk at all. At least 80 percent of it is active and needed.

The result is an annotated road map of much of this DNA, noting what it's doing and how.

It includes the system of switches that, acting like dimmer switches for lights, control which genes are used in a cell and when they are used, and determine, for instance, whether a cell becomes a liver cell or a neuron.

The findings have immediate applications for understanding how alterations in the nongene parts of DNA contribute to human diseases, which may in turn lead to new drugs.

They also can help explain how the environment can affect disease risk.

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DNA ‘junk' contains a treasure of information about disease

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Ron Paul: "Country Should Panic Over Fed's Decision"

Posted: at 3:16 am

What took Ben Bernanke sixty minutes of mumbling about tools, word-twisting, and data-manipulating to kinda-sorta admit - that in fact he is lost; Ron Paul eloquently expresses in 25 seconds in this Bloomberg TV clip. Noting that "we are creating money out of thin air," Paul sums up Bernanke's position perfectly "We've Lost Control!"

25-second quick clip

Full 5 minute clip - must watch! from Mal-investment to Bernanke's frustration...

Pauls reaction to more Federal Reserve stimulus:

It should not surprise anybody, but it is still astounding. To me, it is so astounding that it does not collapse the markets. [Bernanke] said, We are in very big trouble. We are going to do something unprecedented and we believe it will not hurt the dollar. And yet the stocks, they say we love this stuff. But the dollar didnt do so well today and the real value of the dollar is measured against gold, and gold skyrocketed from its very low to its highest. It means we are weakening the dollar. We are trying to liquidate our debt through inflation. The consequence of what the Fed is doing is a lot more than just CPI. It has to do with malinvestment and people doing the wrong things at the wrong time. Believe me, there is plenty of that. The one thing that Bernanke has not achieved and it frustrates him, I can tellis he gets no economic growth. He doesnt do anything with the unemployment numbers. I think the country should have panicked over what the Fed is saying that we have lost control and the only thing we have left is massively creating new money out of thin air, which has not worked before, and is not going to work this time.

On potential unintended consequences:

The biggest unintended consequence is what we need is a restoration of confidence. If the Fed is expressing a lack of confidence and they do not know what to do, it does not do anything to restore confidence. People might restrain from doing anything. Interest rates are low. I do not have to buy my house this year. I will wait until next year. It might be a little easier. Prices might come down. So people are restrained and it is the opposite of when you expect that housing prices are going up, and you are afraid interest rates are going up. That is why the market rate of interest is so crucial. The rate of interest should give the businessman, the entrepreneurs, the investors and the savers information. But there is no market to interest rates. That is why there is such gross distortion and why we do not have a market economy. We have a rigged economy through central economic planning by central banking. The system is failing, it was doomed to fail and we have to wake up to that fact.

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