|
Defending Science by Defining It
By David Brown and Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A20
The opinion written by Judge John E. Jones III in the Dover evolution trial is a two-in-one document that offers both philosophical and practical arguments against "intelligent design" likely to be useful to far more than a school board in a small Pennsylvania town.
Jones gives a clear definition of science, and recounts how this vaunted mode of inquiry has evolved over the centuries. He describes how scientists go about the task of supporting or challenging ideas about the world of the senses -- all that can be observed and measured. And he reaches the unwavering conclusion that intelligent design is a religious idea, not a scientific one.
His opinion is a passionate paean to science. But it is also a strategic defense of Darwinian theory.
When evolution's defenders find themselves tongue-tied and seemingly bested by neo-creationists -- when they believe they have the facts on their side but do not know where to find them -- this 139-page document may be the thing they turn to.
"That will be extremely useful not only in future cases but to the scientific community, to science teachers and others who are struggling against this tremendous pressure to bring religion into the classroom," said Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest general science organization in the country.
Halfway through his opinion, Jones asks "whether ID [intelligent design] is science." It is a question at the core of the case -- and he does not shy from it.
"While answering this . . . compels us to revisit evidence that is entirely complex, if not obtuse," he writes, "after a six-week trial that spanned 21 days . . . no other tribunal in the United States is in a better position than are we to traipse into this controversial area."
He makes plain his hope that many months of intellectual heavy lifting "may prevent the obvious waste of judicial and other resources which would be occasioned by a subsequent trial involving the precise question which is before us."
The ruling gives two arguments for why intelligent design is not science but is, in the judge's words, "an old religious argument for the existence of God."
The first is that intelligent design invokes "a supernatural designer," while science, by definition, deals only with natural phenomena. Second, the court found that intelligent design suffers from blatant flaws in logic, one of the chief tools of science.
Since the scientific . revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, "science has been limited to the search for natural causes to explain natural phenomena," Jones writes, noting that the scientific revolution was explicitly about the rejection of "revelation" in favor of empirical evidence.
Since then, he writes, "science has been a discipline in which testability, rather than any ecclesiastical authority or philosophical coherence, has been the measure of a scientific idea's worth
Ruling Puts BlackBerry Maker at Crossroads
Patent Settlement Invalidated; Service Could Be Stopped
By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 1, 2005; Page D01
The maker of the popular BlackBerry e-mail device is facing a critical decision: Pony up a lot of money to settle a long-term patent dispute or inform most of its 3.65 million U.S. subscribers that it may have to shut off service.
The company, Research in Motion Ltd., was dealt legal blows yesterday when a judge invalidated an earlier settlement with Arlington-based NTP Inc., which holds the patents to the wireless technology. The judge also declined to stay a permanent injunction, which means BlackBerry service could face a shutdown of its operations in coming months.
The Department of Justice has asked for a 90-day grace period for federal workers if Research in Motion's BlackBerry e-mail service is shut down. (By Spencer Platt -- Getty Images)
Who's Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.
Latest News | The Huffington Post
blog.phillip.hurst.com :: Main Page
Google-Yahoo! News
Full List of Blogs (3 links) »
Most Blogged About Articles
On washingtonpost.com | On the web
"This is the end of the line," said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with research firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. "RIM kept betting that it would get lucky, but they kept losing every time a decision came up. This is about the worst possible outcome for them."
RIM says it is working on a technology work-around that would maintain service, but it has not provided details.
As the company finds itself on the losing side of a four-year court battle that seems to be coming to an end, fear of going dark spread among BlackBerry loyalists who rely heavily on their devices. In a statement, the company pledged to wage arguments against an injunction but said "there can never be an assurance of a favorable outcome in any litigation."
In coming weeks, RIM's fate lies in the hands of Judge James R. Spencer of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who will hear the parties' arguments and decide whether to grant NTP an injunction, which could give RIM as little as 30 days to settle the case before service would shut down for U.S. customers. About 70 percent of the company's subscribers are in the United States. Service to subscribers in other countries would not be affected by the ruling.
NTP, which first filed its patent-infringement suit in 2001, has said it will not cut off service for government and emergency workers, who make up about 10 percent of RIM's user base. The Department of Justice has asked for a 90-day grace period to ensure continued service to government users.
Because Spencer's language in yesterday's decision suggests that he will issue the injunction, RIM may have to pay about $2 billion in cash and stock to NTP to settle the case and keep the service turned on, said Pablo Perez-Fernandez, senior analyst with ThinkEquity Partners LLC, a research and investment firm. "They don't have much of an option at this point."
In June, RIM and NTP's talks proposing a $450 million settlement broke down. RIM declined to discuss its willingness to enter new talks, but NTP attorney James Wallace said, "We would hope [yesterday's] development would bring them back to the table."
As of August, NTP is also due $210 million in damages from RIM for patent infringement, a penalty that increases by about $9 million every month, Wallace said.
Since it was introduced in 1998, the BlackBerry has become a mainstay for executives, Capitol Hill staffers and other businesspeople whose jobs require them to stay connected to their e-mail while away from their office computers. The handheld devices, which are equipped with tiny keyboards that allow users to send and reply to e-mails by typing with their thumbs, are priced at about $250 and also require service plans that cost about $50 per month.
News of the potential injunction forced Peter O'Keefe, a Washington-based financial and political consultant, to discuss BlackBerry alternatives with his co-workers yesterday.
software downloads - partitions de musique - logiciels a telecharger - trucs et astuces - messenger fr - tatouages - ecrans de veille 2005 - cartoline virtuali -
filles lesbiennes - jeunes - antivirus fr 2005 - sonneries et logos - cartes virtuelles 2005 - trucos para juegos - jeux france
asiatiques nues - belles blondes - grosse bite - telecharger messenger
dede links
Microsoft plots Macromedia coup against Java
Flash for Masters of the Universe
By ComputerWire
Published Monday 30th December 2002 12:48 GMT
Get breaking Software news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how
Microsoft Corp is believed to have trained its acquisition crosshairs on Macromedia Inc, lining up a deal that would throw enterprise Java into a spin, Gavin Clarke writes.
Industry and analyst sources believe Microsoft covets San Francisco, California-based Macromedia's Flash vector graphics design tool and player, which was radically updated this year.
Microsoft's own scripting efforts are regarded as relatively inferior to the cross-platform Flash, which now supports XML, Unicode, MP3 and HTML and which was taken closer towards Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) in 2002. The Flash Player, meanwhile, is compatible with most browsers and used on nearly 90% of desktops.
Flash would give Microsoft access to tools for building rich interfaces on both desktops and mobile devices, furthering .NET.
An acquisition, though, would be seen as a hostile move deliberately designed to thwart J2EE uptake. Flash is a powerful and rich development environment, which - through Macromedia's changes this year - took a step closer to J2EE.
Macromedia adopted the MX brand for Flash to emphasize integration with ColdFusion MX, also launched this year. ColdFusion MX is a web and server development environment and application server updated to sit on top of J2EE application servers. Macromedia partners include IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc.
The ColdFusion web application server is regarded as superior to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASPs) and even Santa Clara, California-based Sun's Java Server Pages (JSPs) because of its simplicity, power and completeness. ColdFusion MX, meanwhile, uses ColdFusion Mark-up Language (CFML) tags that compile to Java.
Flash MX and Cold Fusion MX were presented by Macromedia as a means by which programmers could build in Java, but avoid the complexity of Java.
The J2EE community sorely lacks a programming environment that can make Java more accessible to mainstream developers. San Jose, California-based BEA Systems Inc has come close with WebLogic Workshop but this is more for Java-based web services.
Macromedia, meanwhile, said it was bringing its estimated 300,000-strong community of developers to J2EE, potentially expanding the pool of J2EE programmers.
A Microsoft acquisition of Macromedia would inevitably see Flash, and Macromedia's other cross-platform tools, tailored purely for Windows and .NET.
Analysts believe Macromedia is ripe for acquistion. Revenue for the most recent four quarters has been flat while net income is in the red. Macromedia reported an $11.6m net loss, down from $70.7m, for the fiscal quarter to September 30 on revenue that fell 2.2% to $85.4m. For the six months period, Macromedia has narrowed its loss from $182.4m to $13.6m while revenue fell 3.4% to $169m.
Neither Macromedia or Microsoft were available for comment.
---------
fotos zoofilia - getting things done gtd with mac and palm
Goowy is one of the first full
postales virtuales - - tedecharger messenger - sexo amateur - descargar antivirus - videos comiques - adultosxxx - negrosgay - sexogay - sesso anale - juegosjava - asiaticas - logos color - chicas sexy - videosdesexe - gros seins - videos maduras - humour - jeunes salopes - sexo anal - jovencitas calientes - theamateurcity - asiaticas xxx
YackPack is one of a growing group of companies (see our recent Odeo post for the list) that is allowing consumers to easily create a quick recording to share with friends.
It’s still in private beta, although you can get a good understanding of the service by watching the how-to video they’ve created.
Barb Dybwad likes the effort YackPack has put into creating a very simple user interface. I agree that a child could use it, but I don’t think the walled-garded functionality will ultimately be popular.
Other minor annoyances with the service: I was forced to give up too much personal information to register (such as my zip code and birth date), you can’t edit a sound file before you send it, and you cannot access the actual sound files you record - they must be listened to at the site.
YackPack plans to provide a free, ad supported service along with a premium option for “well under $10/month“. They are also giving away a limited supply of free microphones.
Tags: yackpack, techcrunch, web2.0, web+2.0
Categories: Profiles, Podcasting | Bookmark this post with del.icio.us
If you are interested in meeting the founders of four of the search engines I’ve profiled here at Techcrunch - Truveo, Trulia, SimplyHired and Healthline, make sure you show up for this event on Thursday, November 10.
Cost? $15. Location? Microsoft Mountain View offices. Register now because the event only holds 270 people.
Then carpool with me up to the Pandora party in San Francisco (rsvp for that on the blog post linked).
Tags: search, healthline, truveo, trulia, simplyhired, techcrunch, web2.0, web+2.0, event, pandora
Categories: Events | Bookmark this post with del.icio.us
--------
giochi - blagues - sexe transexuelle - freshauditions - orgy - descargas messenger - blagues ppt - lolitas - mature sex - sexo duro - lindas transexuales - videochat x - suonerie - portaildusexe - jeunesx - sexe fr - sexoerotico - lesbiansex - sexeendirect - ecrandeveille - lesbiennes xxx - gayfrance - voyeur - mature xxx
|
Search This Site
Syndicate this blog site
Powered by BlogEasy
Free Blog Hosting
|