ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 74

Civil Rights Law Protects Gay and Transgender Workers, Supreme Court Rules

By Adam Liptak The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination, handing the movement for L.G.B.T. equality a stunning victory. The vote was 6 to 3, with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and …

Rare quadruplet ‘top quarks’ created at world’s largest atom smasher

By Diane Lincoln The world’s largest atom smasher has “given birth” to a set of four ultraheavy particles — called top quarks. The formation of these chubby-but-tiny quadruplets, at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, has long been predicted by the Standard Model, the prevailing physics theory that governs subatomic interactions. But new physics theories suggest …

An Arrest Warrant From Liberty University, for Me

By Julia Rendleman It was the end of March, and I had just put my two boys to bed. My phone was ringing in my pocket, but I didn’t care who it was — we were two and a half weeks into quarantine and the new reality was sinking in. The person on the phone …

DOJ invokes protests in urging Maryland county to amend order for religious gatherings

By Justine Coleman The Department of Justice (DOJ) is calling on Maryland’s Montgomery County to amend a COVID-19 order to allow for religious gatherings after officials permitted protests over George Floyd’s death. Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to the county’s executive and council on Wednesday expressing “civil rights concerns” about the enforcement of an executive …

Just 27% of registered voters think President Donald Trump is a religious man, poll finds

By William Cummings Many people of faith in the U.S, particularly Evangelical Christians, regard President Donald Trump as an ally in the White House. But only 27% of voters think Trump is himself religious, according to a Politico/Morning Consult tracking poll released Wednesday. Seventeen percent in the survey said they “somewhat agree” that Trump is religious and …

Exotic fifth state of matter made on the International Space Station

By Jonathan O’Callaghan A exotic fifth type of matter has been created in one of the coldest places in the universe – a device on board the International Space Station (ISS). The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) was launched to the ISS in 2018 to investigate a strange kind of matter, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate …

Javed Akhtar on Richard Dawkins Award: It tells the world there are people in India who express views that aren’t popular

By Priyanka Sharma Javed Akhtar’s transformation from being a writer of diverse cinematic stories and songs to an unflinching voice advocating secularism and freedom of speech has been noteworthy, but he never thought his ideas would travel as far as Center for Inquiry, which has honoured him with the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award. Akhtar is …

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham praises Trump attack on protestors & chastises Christians instead

By Bil Browning Anti-LGBTQ evangelical leader Franklin Graham has come out swinging after President Donald Trump unleashed federal troops on peaceful protesters so he could take photos outside of a church holding a Bible. Ministers were forced off church property so the president could pose the holy book. Christian leaders from around the globe have …

A Former Liberty U. Staffer Wants to Help Others Escape Jerry Falwell’s Racism

By Hemant Mehta After Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr. tweeted a racist picture featuring one man in blackface and another in a KKK costume, all as part of some pathetic attempt at a political joke, Black staffers have resigned and spoke out about how ashamed they are by his actions. The most vocal critics of Falwell, however, are usually people who have …

Bizarre nearby star offers clues to origins of mysterious fast radio bursts

By Alexandra Witze For a fraction of a second in late April, a hyper-magnetized star in the Milky Way suddenly blasted out radio energy. Now scientists say that this sudden, strange blip could help to explain one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles: what powers the hundreds of other mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs) that have been …