Metcash’s pursuit of a critic raises question about corporations using courts in an attempt to stifle dissent — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A public high school teacher in California may not be sued for making hostile remarks about religion in his classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by a student charging that the teacher’s hostile remarks about creationism and religious faith violated a First Amendment mandate that the government remain neutral in matters of religion.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against an advanced placement history teacher at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo must be thrown out of court because the teacher was entitled to immunity — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Faith, however, puts you outside the realm of intellectual honesty. Don’t think, it demands; the ancients have already done that for you. This freedom to believe without thinking allows for the continuation of otherwise unjustifiable prejudices into adulthood and makes it possible for svelte Christian honeys like Rebecca Hagelin to jetset around giving off spleen about the lives of others.
The Australian Family Association, a Christian lobby group, booked The Great Hall in Parliament House on Monday and had Rebecca, an author of Christian self-help books, fly in from whatever part of the States they are still free to revile queers.
She spoke of same-sex marriage, and to hear her on the radio name-checking Sodom and Gomorrah made me stop in my tracks. She said there was no greater evil
than the forces who proposed to legalise gay marriage and that we were in a war for the future of the human race
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has told the Gillard government to fix serious flaws
in its proposed Cybercrime Bill, which will force ISPs to collect real-time internet traffic data and make it available for police locally and internationally for up to 30 days.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland introduced the bill in June, saying the new laws would allow Australia to join a global treaty on fighting cybercrime.
More than 40 nations are signatories to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, which aims to fight fraud and other offences committed using the internet, such as computer hacking, child pornography and copyright infringement.
But Senator Ludlam said the proposed legislation goes well beyond the already controversial European convention on which it is based
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
The RSPCA and Animals Australia have released new footage they say shows the horrendous slaughter
of cattle in Turkey.
The latest video, screened at a press conference in Canberra this morning, came as two separate bids to end the live animal export trade failed to win the support of a single government or opposition MP — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A lawsuit filed against the Republic School District alleges school officials failed to protect a middle school girl from a male classmate who harassed her, sexually assaulted her and raped her.
In its written response, the school district denies all allegations in the suit and calls the claims frivolous.
The suit, filed 5 July, alleges when the girl — a special education student — told officials about the harassment, assault and rape that occurred during the 2008-09 school year, they told her they did not believe her. She recanted.
The suit also alleges that, without seeking her mother’s permission, school officials forced the girl to write a letter of apology to the boy and personally deliver it to him. She was then expelled for the rest of the 2008-2009 school year and referred to juvenile authorities for filing a false report — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Giving animals legal ownership of their habitat and affording them standing before the courts may hold the key to protecting biodiversity, an Australian researcher says.
Australia is one of only 17 countries recognised as being mega-diverse, but it also has one of the highest extinction rates, with around 126 species of plants and animals sent to extinction in the past 200 years — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The amateur videographer with the colourful vocabulary who memorialised the alleged 2009 police beating of Melvin Jones III during a traffic stop may be charged with illegal wiretapping.
One of four police officers disciplined for the incident on 27 November 2009, Michael Sedergren, has filed an application for a criminal complaint against videographer Tyrisha Greene. Sedergren, who was suspended for 45 days, claims it was illegal for Greene to videotape him without his consent– via redwolf.newsvine.com
Independent schools are using private companies to monitor what their students say and do online on sites such as Facebook — via redwolf.newsvine.com
If you’re a member of LinkedIn — the social network with a business bent — you might want to review some changes made in the service’s privacy policy — if you can find it.
You see, about two months ago, LinkedIn made some under-the-radar amendments to the policy that allows it to use its members’ names and photos in third-party advertising that appears on the social network — via redwolf.newsvine.com
All 90 people wanted information deleted from the Web.
Among them was a victim of domestic violence who discovered that her address could easily be found through Google. Another, well into middle age now, thought it was unfair that a few computer key strokes could unearth an account of her arrest in her college days.
They might not have received much of a hearing in the United States, where Google is based. But here, as elsewhere in Europe, an idea has taken hold — individuals should have a right to be forgotten
on the Web.
Spain’s government is now championing this cause. It has ordered Google to stop indexing information about 90 citizens who filed formal complaints with its Data Protection Agency. The case is now in court and being watched closely across Europe for how it might affect the control citizens will have over information they posted, or which was posted about them, on the Web — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The avalanche of mass-lawsuits in the United States that target BitTorrent users has reached a new milestone. Since last year, more than 200,000 people have been sued for allegedly sharing copyrighted material online, and this number continues to expand at a rapid pace. Added up, the potential profit from the so-called pay-up-or-else scheme runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars — via redwolf.newsvine.com
In what appears to be a ramp-up of celebrity support, famous graphic novel author Alan Moore Monday issued a statement in praise of PFC Bradley Manning. Manning is the GI accused of leaking classified US government documents to WikiLeaks — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court agreed on Monday to allow ship breaking yards more time to meet tougher safety and environmental rules, allowing them to operate until at least mid-October.
Judges backed a lower court’s ruling two weeks ago that extended the deadline for the $1.5 billion ship scrap industry to implement strict government rules aimed at protecting workers and reducing the level of pollution — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Like the river that bears his name, Fred Nile is ancient, salty, shallow, full of sediment, has dubious sources, causes conflicts between every country he passes through, and takes a very long time to reach a conclusion.
He also terminates in a large estuarine delta, was used as a means of transport by ancient kings, and is implicated in the drowning deaths of many thousands of Egyptians. But what he does in his downtime is none of our concern.
What he does in Australian schools definitely is.
And what he’s doing in New South Welsh schools — attempting to banish alternatives to Christian theological classes — is just one part of a deeply worrying trend of hardline Christian activists getting access to young children, and doing so on the government dollar — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Over and over again, people keep pointing to Facebook as an example where real names
policies work. This makes me laugh hysterically. One of the things that became patently clear to me in my fieldwork is that countless teens who signed up to Facebook late into the game chose to use pseudonyms or nicknames. What’s even more noticeable in my data is that an extremely high percentage of people of colour used pseudonyms as compared to the white teens that I interviewed. Of course, this would make sense…
The people who most heavily rely on pseudonyms in online spaces are those who are most marginalised by systems of power. Real names
policies aren’t empowering; they’re an authoritarian assertion of power over vulnerable people
The New South Wales Upper House has begun debating the future of school ethics classes, with Christian Democrats MP Fred Nile comparing them to Nazi philosophy.
Reverend Nile introduced a private member’s bill in May to repeal the legislation that allows ethics classes to be offered as an alternative to scripture lessons.
The State Government used its numbers to bring the bill forward for a second reading this morning, but Premier Barry O’Farrell insists it will not be supported by Coalition MPs — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Vince Cable, business secretary, will on Wednesday move to legitimise the ripping
of digital copies of music and movies from discs for personal use and other copyright exceptions, following recommendations in the Hargreaves review of intellectual property.
Another proposed copyright exception backed by the government will make it easier for scientists to mine existing electronic journals to make discoveries — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Previously confidential documents detailing Universal Music’s meetings with the former UK government over the Digital Economy Act are revealing a whole lot more than the pair intended. Blacked-out sections now uncovered show that Universal believed that ISPs could spy on their users and hand over information to rightsholders in order for them to sue — via redwolf.newsvine.com
By all means, Mr Nile, you go out and be as Christian as you want; I respect that entirely. But that does not give you and your supporters the right to attempt to shape a future generation of adults in your mould – that is a religious conservative.
Your views are out of step with modern society, so I would ask you to reconsider your actions and continue to allow parents and children a choice in their classrooms.
So Mr Nile, I would be delighted if you would come and actually observe our ethics classes, so that you can see first-hand how they work.
And Premier Barry O’Farrell you promised to keep ethics classes. Mr Nile is trying to make you break your promises and undermine what you stand for.
I trust you not to be manipulated by a man who on Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras gets down on his knees and prays for rain.
Charlie Fine is 11 years old and attends a public school in the eastern suburbs of Sydney — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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