Archive for the ‘ Current Events ’ Category

Let a Goose be Fatted!

Selling Foie gras is no longer illegal in Chicago. Funny how I had to go to BBC to get that news.

2008
05/16
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CATEGORY
Current Events
1 comment

Lesbian Fight

I’m going to get a lot of disap­pointed visitors for this one. Three citizens of the Greek island of Lesbos (also spelt Lesvos) are suing a Greek orga­ni­zation named “Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece” over the use of the word “Lesbian” in the organization’s name. The islanders claim that their geographical demonym (“Lesbian”) has been unjustly co-​​​​opted by the orga­ni­zation to their detriment. They want the Greek government to prohibit the orga­ni­zation from using the term “Lesbian” in its name. There is inter­na­tional precedent for the islanders’ claim. Terms like champagne, chianti, and Roquefort are restricted by laws in various countries to products [ . . . ]

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2008
04/30
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CATEGORY
Current Events
4 comments

Assemblywoman Calls Atheism a Dangerous Philosophy

Illinois State Representative Monique Davis said some nasty things to atheist activist and Green Party candidate for State Representative for the 53rd District of Illinois Rob Sherman during an Illinois State Government Administration Committee hearing, to which the latter had been called to testify on the propriety of the Governor’s proposed plan to give $1M of the taxpayers’ money to the Pilgrim Baptist Church for restoration and preser­vation. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Partial tran­script, borrowed from Eugene Volokh: . . . Davis: . . . What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous– Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am? [ . . . ]

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2008
04/07
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Current Events
1 comment

FCC Does Something Right. . .

. . . Fifth Circle to expect light flurries.

2008
04/02
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Current Events
1 comment

You Might Be A Law Student If. . .

. . . instead of Harry Potter or Star Wars, you find yourself camping out front the Supreme Court for oral arguments in D.C. v. Heller, to be argued Tuesday morning at 10:00am. The Court doesn’t allow live broadcast of oral arguments, but is making the rare accom­mo­dation of publishing its own recordings of the arguments imme­di­ately after they end, at about 11:30am. CSPAN will air them at that time, as live as they can get. In case you’ve been living somewhere dank and unhealthy for the past six months, Heller is the first time the Court has been faced with the necessity to [ . . . ]

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2008
03/18
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Current Events
Law
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Daylight Saving Time

I did some math­e­matical jiggery-​​​​pokery and came up with this pretty little graph. You will need to click on that to get it big enough to read. The graph shows sunrise, sunset, waking hours, and business hours through the course of the year. Solar noon is at the center, sunrise is above, and sunset below. It makes some pretty wild assump­tions, too. It is based on an average observer at 40°N latitude. It assumes that the average observer wakes at 6am and goes to bed at 10pm. It assumes business hours of 9am to 5pm. It assumes that the observer is [ . . . ]

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2008
03/12
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Current Events
Science
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Moon Eating Contest

Tonight’s total lunar eclipse, visible from Western Europe and Africa to the Rocky Mountains, will be the last one until 2010. The moon will enter the Earth’s umbra at 8:43pm EST and will enter total eclipse at 10:01pm EST, where it will remain for 51 minutes, until 10:52pm EST. The moon with then leave the Earth’s umbra at 12:09am EST on Thursday morning. Total lunar eclipses last longer in totality than total solar eclipses because the Earth is larger than the moon, so its umbra is much larger than the moon’s, and the moon, being small, takes longer to pass through [ . . . ]

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2008
02/20
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Current Events
Excitement!
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