Building a real Star Wars Death Star

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The White House in the US has an on-line presence entitled “We the People…” that permits individuals to raise any petition they wish. The deal is that if a specific number sign, then it mandates an official White House response. Well, the limit was 25,000 and so when they received a petition signed by over … Read more

Atheist Blogger Stabbed Repeatedly by Suspected Islamist Fundamentalists

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Asif Mohiuddin, 29, (pictured here) was viscously attacked late at night as he was leaving work by a group of unidentified men who waited for him then jumped and stabbed him repeatedly. Why would anybody do this? Well, Asif is a well-known atheist blogger in Bangladesh where he runs a Bengali blog titled “Almighty only … Read more

Yet another good reason that the UK public smoking ban was a really good move

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The BBC reports today that there has been a sharp fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma since the introduction of smoke-free legislation in England. The actual study that reports this add to the rising evidence that the legislation was a really good health move. If I recall correctly, one of the … Read more

Mathematicians aim to take publishers out of publishing

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The archaic Victorian concept of publishing papers in peer-review journals that are locked behind paywalls is rapidly changing, and rightly so. Many balk at the concept of having to pay for access to the results of publicly funded research. Nature News reports on the latest community that is attempting to embark down the path of open-access … Mathematicians plan to launch a … Read more