public

I'm real proud of my little North Ontario hometown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke%2C_Ontario). Yes, it's like something out of Twin Peaks, but at least they're doing the right thing when it comes to it's Public Library and the complaints of a single individual...

I became interested in the JREF and skeptical issues about two years ago. Since then, and increasingly so, I've found that I constantly encounter people who can't or wont think logically, who make ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims, and who have bizarre views about reality. What's worse...

How much does military conduct and policy in peacetime affect support for wars? I've noticed that the US and British militaries antagonized some pretty strong special interest groups in their respective countries, and after the Afghan/Iraq war started, either there was little support to begin...

Rather than to allow certain parties to continue derailing another thread, I have started a new one dealing with the social issue of public kissing and hand holding etiquette worldwide. A cursory review of the subject indicates that worldwide these practices vary widely, from not allowing it at...

Who are the public arab skeptics? Their equivalents of Randi, Dawkins, etc.? If they have blogs or websites, please post them. And please don't clutter up this thread with negative or irrelevant stuff. Thanks.

Only to the first 100,000 people downloading it though. I would recommend this only to those with strong hearts, stout computers, and an extra hard-drive partition. But for those who are brave and want a preview of Vista: http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/prerc1/en/download.html

OK, this sort of thing occurs quite often in parts of the world (I need not specify which parts) where someone straps a good deal of explosives around themselves and then blows themself and others up in crowded public areas (churches, malls, supermarkets, etc.). But for some reason we are not...

From today's Washington Post (may have to register) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101888.html "On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by...

Houston public schools give students attending Mardi Gras "Unexcused absences" http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3692446.html Some parents of displaced New Orleans students living in Houston are upset with the Houston School District's policy of giving failing grades to students...

This is the first I've ever seen this at my high school, but at my middle school a bunch of Jehovah's Witnesses were handing out bibles to the people leaving school. Anyway..where was I. Oh yes. I was walking to school round 7:20 this morning, and a friend of mine and I were handed packets by...

How about neither, that might make more people happy, at least stop a lot of contraversy and complaining. Why not admit theory as theory and not teach theory to young kids? In public schools up to the secondary level that is. In previous years I've had elementry school and highschool science...

Is anything wrong with: * Private companies making money off research/inventions made in public universities? * A professor who uses the resources in the public university to make a discovery or an invention, who then quits, manufactures the invention and becomes a billionaire? Should the...

What surprised me is not the content but the fact that FOX was carrying the story. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165360,00.html O :)

OK, USAians. Go on then. I'm British. Right now I should say that you'd have to prise my National Health Service out of my cold dead hands. And yet... As with the thing about guns, I am perfectly willing to listen receptively to your explanations as to why not doing what the rest of the...

Story at Yahoo! here. Is it just me or are the results of the first two questions kind of scary? Although, that last bit about being "ignorant about cancer" makes me feel a bit better.

Public Broadcasting Targeted By House Panel Seeks to End CPB's Funding Within 2 Years

We have PBS. We have local access TV shows. We have C-SPAN. Most cable TV networks broadcast city council meetings live. Most university have cable TV classes. Is this enough? Or should government be more involved in broadcasting? CBL

Read about the evil ACLU here RICHMOND, VA -- Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Falmouth Waterside Park Manager Brian Robinson has agreed not to prohibit baptisms in Stafford County, the ACLU announced today. Robinson also told the ACLU that the...

ODESSA, Texas (AP) -- The school board in the West Texas town of Odessa voted unanimously to add a Bible class to its high school curriculum. Hundreds of people, most of them supporters of the proposal, packed the board meeting Tuesday night. More than 6,000 Odessa residents had signed a...

Prayer in Public Schools (USA) David Rice (Desertphile) During my once-a-month sojourns into town for groceries, I also visit the local library to check my e-mail. Last Thursday I was sitting on a stool in the library's computer desk going through my e-mail when a teenager sat down at the...

A huge body of data, I must say. Very interesting.

"Public elementary schools will continue to allow Bible classes during class time while the local school board conducts a one-year review to determine if criticism of the practice by some parents is valid... ...The Supreme Court ruled decades ago that the classes do not violate the separation of...

Jay Ambrose wrote the typical thoughtless editorial about why we should allow religious symbols in public places. http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=48708

They have catholic and other private schools where they teach what they want to. We don't make them teach evolution. Why can't they stay out of the public schools? Whatever happened to the separation of Church and State? They don't even understand how evolution works, but they still attack...

Source "permanent majority"??? "put God back into the public square"? What direction are they planning on leading the country in? to be fair, I can't find any other source confirming the quote. I don't know if it is accurate or even true.

Why does every start with the premis that our public school system is failing?? We've had public school for years and years. Our population is more eduacted than ever. Illiteracy declines with every generation. We are world leader in all sorts of fields. How is that a failure?? Sure you can...

The LA county board of supervisors voted to remove a small cross, symbolic of part of the history of LA, from the county seal. They also voted to remove (get this!) the Roman goddess Pomona, replacing her with a female injun. All this after a threat from the ACLU. Government may not...

I heard this on a phone-in show on the radio today... Here in Ottawa, the city has banned all cameras from public swimming pools. Many people feel that its a very heavy-handed tactic, since it will prevent parents (or other relatives) from taking pictures of their own kids. The argument for the...

Be a part of my focus group! Shape the future of science education! Win great priz---oh, well, actually not that. :D Anyway, in this thread http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33309 from a while back, i had a long discussion about how to design a process to get...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/06/02/baptism.ban.ap/index.html I don't have the whole story - but I tend to agree with the xians on this one. If they are at a nice secluded area doing baptisms - who gives a crap? I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks.