church of file-copying!!! – Somebody is pushing the boat out on this one

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A bunch of folks in Sweden have attempted to set up a “file copying” church. The basis for this is their observation that the swedish Constitution Act, Chapter 2. § 1 states that every citizen is guaranteed freedom of religion: freedom, either alone or with others to practice their religion. Their website (or at least the english language version of it) claims …

A religion is a belief system with rituals.
The missionary kopimistsamfundet is a religious group centered in Sweden who believe that copying and the sharing of information is the best and most beautiful that is. To have your information copied is a token of appreciation, that someone think you have done something good.

* All knowledge to all
* The search for knowledge is sacred
* The circulation of knowledge is sacred
* The act of copying is sacred.

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Dreams of a Final Theory – Steven Weinberg

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The Guardian has a nice book review; Tim Radford takes a look at “Dreams of a Final Theory” by the Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg. This is a book that is all about the Search for The Fundamental Laws of Nature. Now, here comes the big surprise, the book was written almost 20 years ago, yet even in the very fast moving field of high-energy physics, it still stands, and is still very readable …

Since first publication, physicists have demonstrated quantum entanglement and experiments in teleportation; they have built the once-theoretical fifth state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate; they have used such technology to slow a beam of light first to bicycle speed, and then to a standstill; they have stopped talking about cosmic string and introduced branes instead; they have extended the idea of a multiverse; and they have identified an entirely new feature called dark energy, that accounts for three quarters of the whole detectable cosmos. So why is his book still a great read?

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Boycott Richard Dawkins? – #Elevatorgate

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A bit of a fuss has been set in motion. Many of you may already be up to speed so I don’t propose to go into too much detail, but I’ll start with a few links for the truly curious:

OK, so what is all the fuss about?

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Fox News – Fair and Balanced?

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“Fair & Balanced” is a trademarked slogan used by Fox news, so I can only speculate that somebody there has a huge sense of irony.

Another slogan they have also used during the 2008 electon was “We Report, You Decide”. OK, fair enough, I’ll give you a few details and then you can decide.

By now I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this, because many of you are already aware that Fox News is simply a right-wing propaganda machine, the very concepts of unbiased reliable and balanced are quite alien to them.

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