ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 339

Physicists shrink plans for next major collider

By Edwin Cartlidge

Limited funding and a dearth of newly discovered particles are forcing physicists to cut back plans for their next major accelerator project: a multibillion-dollar facility known as the International Linear Collider (ILC) in Japan.

On 7 November, the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA), which oversees work on the ILC, endorsed halving the machine’s planned energy from 500 to 250 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), and shortening its proposed 33.5-kilometre-long tunnel by as much as 13 kilometres. The scaled-down version would have to forego some of its planned research such as studies of the ‘top’ flavour of quark, which is produced only at higher energies.

Instead, the collider would focus on studying the particle that endows all others with mass — the Higgs boson, which was detected in 2012 by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics lab near Geneva, Switzerland.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below

GOP Senate Candidate Roy Moore Accused of Sexual Contact With Young Girl

By David G. McAfee

Roy Moore, an evangelical activist and Republican candidate for Senate from Alabama who recently made headlines for lying about receiving a massive salary from his Christian charity, is now involved in a much bigger scandal: he’s been accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl.

The Washington Post first reported this afternoon that Leigh Corfman, now 53, said she met with Moore several times as a child and that he touched her inappropriately “over her bra and underpants.” He was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney at the time.

Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.

Corfman’s childhood friends and mother also confirmed that she told them about the encounter with Moore years ago.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below

Uber Teams with NASA on ‘Flying Car’ Project

By Mike Wall

Uber’s planned “flying cars” will navigate crowded city skies with some help from NASA, if everything goes according to plan.

The space agency has signed an agreement with Uber to help develop an air-traffic-control system for the flying-car project, which goes by the name Uber Elevate or UberAir, according to USA Today.

“UberAir will be performing far more flights over cities on a daily basis than has ever been done before,” Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden said in a statement provided to USA Today. “Doing this safely and efficiently is going to require a foundational change in airspace-management technologies.”

NASA has already been working to develop such technologies and help make “urban air mobility” (UAM) a reality, agency officials have said. In 2011, the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) started a project called Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System (UAS in the NAS), which focused on relatively large, uncrewed vehicles flying above 500 feet (150 meters).

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Transgender Heavy Metal Singer Defeats Virginia’s ‘Chief Homophobe’

By Michael Stone

Love wins: Transgender heavy metal singer Danica Roem defeats Del. Bob Marshall, the architect of Virginia’s anti-trans bathroom bill.

In a victory for human decency, local journalist and transgender heavy metal singer Danica Roem, a Democrat, defeated Republican state Del. Bob Marshall, “one of the most openly transphobic and homophobic members of the Virginia Republican Party” and the architect of Virginia’s mean-spirited anti-trans bathroom bill.

Marshall, who is happy to refer to himself as Virginia’s “chief homophobe,” served 26 years in the state legislature before being defeated by Roem.

With her victory, Roem becomes the first openly transgender person to be elected and be seated to a state legislature in the U.S.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Atheist Wins Re-Election to New Jersey General Assembly

By Hemant Mehta

Andrew Zwicker is exactly the kind of person you wish were in elected office but almost never is. He’s not only a physicist, he’s the Head of Science Education at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Unlike the Republicans who treat science as a four-letter word, Zwicker, a Democrat, is a proud advocate of the STEM fields.

In 2015, when he ran for the New Jersey General Assembly, he beat a Republican incumbent by one of the narrowest margins you’ll ever see: less than 100 votes. But it was enough to put him in office.

He just ran for re-election yesterday, and the voters rewarded him with another term, this time with a much more comfortable margin of victory.

Why mention him on this site? Because Zwicker is an open atheist who was endorsed by the Freethought Equality Fund PAC.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

This lawmaker isn’t sure that God exists. Now, he’s finally decided to tell people.

By Michelle Boorstein

For years, as he rose from California state government to Congress, Jared Huffman felt justified — even a bit smug, perhaps — when he’d decline to answer questionnaires about his religious beliefs.

He’d always put one form or another of unspecified, decline to state or “none of your business,” said the 53-year-old House lawmaker, who comes from a left-leaning district that runs from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border. That made him one of nine members of Congress of 535 who opted this year to keep their spiritual profiles blank.

“I don’t believe in religious tests, and I don’t believe my religion is all that important to the people I represent, and I think there’s too much religion in politics. For those reasons I felt good about not even answering it,” he said during an interview in his office.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Clerk Who Refused to Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples Will Seek Re-Election

By Adam Beam

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — The Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples will run for re-election in 2018.

An attorney for Kim Davis confirmed she will seek a second term. It’s the first chance Rowan County voters will get to have a say in the controversy that dominated national news in 2015.

Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Five couples sued her, and a judge ordered her to issue the licenses. Davis refused and spent five days in jail. The state legislature later changed the law so county clerks did not have to sign their name on marriage licenses.

Davis switched parties to become a Republican shortly after the controversy erupted.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

As Syria joins Paris climate agreement, US stands alone

By Jennifer Hansler

The United States is now a party of one in its stance on climate change.

Syria will join the Paris climate agreement, leaving the US as the only country in the world not signed on to the landmark climate deal.

Syrian officials announced their intention to ratify the accord at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, on Tuesday.

“I confirm that the Syrian Arab Republic supports the implementation of Paris climate change accord, in order to achieve the desired global goals and to reflect the principles of justice and shared responsibility, but in accordance with the capabilities of each of the signatories,” Syria’s Deputy Minister of Local Administration and Environment M. Wadah Katmawi said.

Katmawi added that developed countries, “in their capacity as the primary contributors to climate change, should live up to their legal and humanitarian responsibility” by offering technical and financial support to developing countries to help battle climate change.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

After Texas Church Massacre Paul Ryan Claims ‘Prayer Works’

By Michael Stone

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan insists that “prayer works.”

Ryan, speaking with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle,” complained about the “secular left” while defending his empty call to prayer after the Texas church massacre that left 26 people dead.

Immediately after the massacre Ryan asked for prayers via Twitter:

Reports out of Texas are devastating. The people of Sutherland Springs need our prayers right now.

The tweet was met with widespread criticism, with many rightly seeing it as an empty and facile gesture meant to satisfy the gullible without doing anything concrete to address the tragedy. When asked about the criticism by Ingraham, Ryan said:

It’s disappointing, it’s sad, and this is what you’ll get from the far secular left. People who do not have faith don’t understand faith, I guess I’d have to say. And it is the right thing to do is to pray in moments like this, because you know what? Prayer works. And I know you believe that, and I believe that and when you hear the secular left doing this thing, it’s no wonder you have so much polarization and disunity in this country when people think like that.

In other words, Ryan, responding to criticism about his failure to act to curb gun violence, blamed the “secular left” for not understanding the magic of prayer.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Secular Humanist, Endorsed By Atheist PAC, Wins North Carolina City Council Seat

By Hemant Mehta

I know it was a big night for Democrats with a lot of important victories. But I don’t want to let this story go under the radar.

The Apex Town Council — near Raleigh, North Carolina — had an election tonight with three seats up for grabs (on the five-seat council). Five names were on the ballot so this wasn’t a runaway for anybody.

One of the candidates was Audra Killingsworth, a proud Secular Humanist and member of both the American Humanist Association and Triangle Freethought Society.

Earlier this year, she was endorsed by the Freethought Equality Fund PAC.

“After watching the impact that government can have on us,” says Audra, “I realized that I want to contribute. I want to make a difference. What better place to start than locally, in my own community.”

Last night, she was among the top three vote-getters, winning a spot on the city council.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.