Man jailed in Indonesia saying there is no god Facebook

Indonesian atheist Alex Aan has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for saying ‘There is no god’ on Facebook. The Council of Ex-Muslims condemns the sentence and demands that Alex be immediately and unconditionally released. He has done nothing wrong. Help us oppose his prison sentence and call for his release by writing letters of protest to the Indonesian authorities.

Alex is one of many.

via CEMB is an organisation that must be defended | Maryam Namazie.

30 year old atheist Alexander Aan has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined for having written “God does not exist” on Facebook. He was found guilty of “deliberately spreading information inciting religious hatred and animosity” and “caused anxiety to the community and tarnished Islam”.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain unequivocally condemns Alex’s jail sentence and Indonesia’s blasphemy laws and calls on all to condemn the jail sentence and demand Alex’s freedom. Contact information on the Indonesian authorities can be found here.

via ex-muslim.org

… An Indonesian man was sentenced Thursday to two and a half years in prison for denying the existence of God on his Facebook page, a ruling human rights groups say demonstrates a rising tide of religious intolerance in the majority-Muslim country.

A judge found Alexander Aan, 30, of West Sumatra guilty of inciting religious hatred and tarnishing Islam. The 30-year-old was also fined the equivalent of $10,600.

Ana was accused of writing ‘God doesn’t exist,’ and posting links to explicit cartons showing the Prophet Mohammed having sex with a maid, and being sexually attracted to his daughter-in-law.

Aan also reportedly started the Facebook group “Ateis Minang,” Minang Atheist.

Aan was arrested in January after an angry mob reacting to the Facebook posts stormed his office, where he works as a civil servant, and beat him. Police intervened and took Aan to the police station for his safety, the Jakarta Globe reported.

In a written statement in February, Aan said he regretted his behavior and prayed for God’s mercy, according to the Jakarta Post. “I accept the judgment and will abide by it,” Aan said after the ruling. “For me, faith is a personal matter and I have expressed my regret and apology to every party, including my family.” …

via NYDailyNews

 

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR INDONESIAN AUTHORITIES

Please contact the Indonesian authorities to condemn the jail sentence for Alexander Aan.

President of Indonesia
Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono…
Jl. Alternatif Cibubur Puri Cikeas Indah No. 2
Desa Nagrag Kec. Gunung PutriKab. Bogor ­ 16967
Indonesia
email: presiden@presidenri.go.id

Minister of Justice and Human Rights
H. Patrialis Akbar, SH.
Gd. Nusantara I Lt. 20 R. 2031
Jl. Gatot Subroto Gd. DPR/MPR RI
Jakarta

Indonesian Parliament
The chairman of Indonesian Parliament (DPR): set_tu_ketua@dpr.go.id

Constitutional Court (regarding abolition of the blasphemy laws)
Mahkamah Konstitusi RI
Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat No. 6
Jakarta 10110
Indonesia

Ministry of Tourism
Contact via website:

http://budpar.go.id/budpar/asp/ringkasan.asp?c=1005&nk=1

Indonesian Ambassadors and Indonesian Embassies
Indonesian Ambassador and Plenipotentiary Extraordinary to the Court of St James
H.E. Yuri Octavian Thamrin
38 Grosvenor Square
London W1K 2HW
Tel. (020) 7499 7661Fax. (020)7491 4993
email: kbri@btconnect.com

Indonesian Ambassador to Australia
H.E. Primo Alui Joelianto
8 Darwin Avenue
Yarralumla
Canberra ACT 2600
email: indonemb@bigpond.com; indonemb@kbri-canberra.org.au

Indonesian Ambassador to the United States
H.E Dr. Dino Patti Djalal
2020 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington,D.C. 20036
Tel. (202) 775 ­ 5200Fax. (202) 775 ­ 5365

Other embassies:
http://www.embassypages.com/indonesia.php

Secret Space Plane Shatters Orbital Record as Chinese Rival Looms

Capping a 15-month clandestine military mission circling the planet, the Pentagon’s miniature spaceplane, one quarter the size of NASA’s now-retired space shuttle, returned to Earth just after dawn Saturday, June 16, for a pinpoint touchdown at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Video: 30th Space Wing Public Affairs, VAFB.

Military mini-shuttle returns from top secret mission – YouTube.

The second copy of the Air Force’s X-37B robotic space plane landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early Saturday morning, ending a record-breaking 469-day orbital mission that began atop an Atlas rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 5, 2011. The safe landing of Orbital Test Vehicle 2 after more than 15 months in space is an indisputable triumph for the US military and space industry. Much less certain is the X-37′s future. Budget cuts, labor woes and the looming specter of a Chinese rival could blunt the diminutive robo-shuttle’s orbital edge.

The Boeing-built X-37B, in development since the 1990s, was designed to operate nine months at a time between refueling and refurbishment. But with just two copies of the roughly billion-dollar space plane in the inventory, the Air Force wanted to get as much mileage as possible out of each. After OTV-1′s proof-of-concept flight from April to December 2010, OTV-2′s mission became an endurance test. “One of the goals of this mission was to see how much farther we could push the on-orbit duration,” said Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre, the Air Force’s X-37B program manager.

The key to the X-37′s marathon flight: fuel and energy management. “It sips fuel like a Prius,” one space insider said of the mini-shuttle. Even so, Air Force controllers on the ground had to pay close attention to the X-37′s orbital profile and its use of engines, batteries and extendable solar panels.

Officially, the 29-foot-long X-37 is a research vehicle, meant to carry small experiments in its payload bay, which is roughly the size of a pickup truck bed. But the winged vehicle’s maneuverability and flexibility mean it’s capable of much more: spy missions, cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, even sneaking up on and tampering with enemy satellites. Some observers speculated that OTV-2 was monitoring China’s Tiangong space station, a notion that Secure World Foundation analyst Brian Weeden dismissed. “If the US really wanted to observe Tiangong, it has enough assets to do that without using X-37B.”

 

In any case, the X-37 partially fills a gap left by the retirement last summer of the much larger NASA Space Shuttle. “The X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development,” McIntyre said. Boeing has proposed to build a bigger X-37C version that could carry more experiments, more cargo — and even astronauts. …

via Wired.com

Pollutant turns fly-traps veggie

Predator plants may cut back on flies if they can access key nutrients elsewhere, according to research.

Scientists studying carnivorous sundew plants in Swedish bogs found that nitrogen deposition from rain reduced how many insects the plants trapped.

Pollution from transport and industry causes nitrogen-rich rain, meaning more reaches the ground in some areas.

“If there’s plenty of nitrogen available to their roots, they don’t eat as much” says Dr Jonathan Millett.

Dr Millett from Loughborough University led the study, which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is being published in the New Phytologist journal.

The findings are based on tests on the round-leaved sundew plant, drosera rotundifolia. By measuring the amount of nitrogen of insect origin and comparing it to the amount taken up by the plant’s roots, scientists could examine the proportions of each taken by plants in different locations.

They found that plants living in lightly polluted areas got 57% of their nitrogen from their prey. In more heavily polluted areas that figure dropped to between 20% and 30%.

But the species as a whole is not thought to be benefitting from this alternative source of nutrition. In fact, the discovery could prove to be bad news for the sundew in the longer term.

“Basically, it’s like adding more fertiliser,” said Dr Millett.

“For an individual sundew it looks like its better. They’re bigger and they’ll probably be fitter and do better, but the problem is that they have to divert resources into being carnivorous.”

Carnivorous plants actually benefit from nutrient-poor environments, because they have less competition from other plants.

Their animal-digesting abilities seem to have evolved as a way to survive in these habitats, and the plants need a great deal of energy to “run” the complicated traps they use to capture and digest their prey. …

via BBC Nature – Pollutant turns fly-traps veggie.

Hypno no-no: Schoolgirls trapped in hypnosis by attractive rookie artist

A hypnotism show at a private girls’ high school went strangely awry after a young hypnotist put several teenage students in a “mass hypnosis” trance and had to call in his mentor for help to bring them out.

­It all happened at an end-of-school year event at a private girls’ College du Sacre-Coeur in the Canadian province of Quebec. High school administrators decided to celebrate the end of the year’s studies with the hypnotism show and invited a 20-year-old hypnotist to entertain a group of 12- and 13-year-old girls.

Maxime Nadeau worked on a small group while others watched the show. When it came time to end the event, several girls in the audience remained under hypnosis and could not snap out of it, no matter what Nadeau did.

The hypnotist had to call in his mentor and trainer, Richard Whitbread to help him out.

Whitbread arrived in an hour.

“There were a couple of students who had their heads lying on the table and there were [others] who, you could tell, were in a trance,” Whitbread later described what he saw to CBC Montreal. “The eyes were open and there was nobody home.”

Whitbread explained how he brought the girls out: he went through the process of making the girls think they were being re-hypnotized and then brought them out using a stern voice.

The senior trance-master said because his protégé is a young, attractive man, the girls could have been particularly influenced because they were keen to follow his directions.

The girls later described what they felt.

“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like you’re no longer there,” one of the girls, Émilie Bertrand explained. “You’re spaced out.”

Thirteen students reported having headaches or nausea. At least five other appeared to experience more serious trouble after the show.

The school said one girl remained in a trance for four hours – which Principal Daniel Leveille, in a statement on Friday, described as a “deep sleep.”

Administrators at the school said they only learned after the fact that hypnosis is not recommended for people under age 14, since young people are particularly sensitive to the experience. The school said through a spokesman on Friday that it had no idea such a show could have such intense side effects.

The administration says they are keeping tabs on the girls affected by the show and will provide updates.

via Hypno no-no: Schoolgirls trapped in hypnosis by attractive rookie artist — RT.

This is BS. You can’t get trapped in hypnosis, it simply impossible. You will always wake up on your own.

Nicholas Read, Star Wars ‘Ewok,’ Faces Jail For Flashing

The dwarf who played this Ewok was clearly not Bashful.

Actor Nicholas Read is facing jail time after he admitted to flashing a college student on a train headed to Manchester, England, the Sun reports. Read played an Ewok in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”

After he showed the student his manhood, he took a picture of her horrified friend’s reaction, according to the paper.

This is the second time Read has gotten in trouble for flashing a woman on a train, and this latest sex crime is a violation of his suspended sentence for his 2010 offense. Read could have to go to jail to complete the 20-week suspended jail sentence, plus any additional time from this most recent brush with the law.

“The bottom line is you are in breach of a suspended sentence,” Judge Roger Thomas told Read. “The normal consequence of that is to prison you go and that may well have to be the outcome.” Read will be sentenced in July.

The Manchester Evening News reports that the judge denied a request by Read’s defense attorney for a psychiatric report on her client. Thomas said there was “very little” evidence of mental illness in his case.

Read’s film credits include playing a goblin in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and part of the Goblin Corps in “Labyrinth,” according to his IMDB page.

via Nicholas Read, Star Wars ‘Ewok,’ Faces Jail For Flashing.

Durrell Brooks Sentenced To Three Days In Ohio Jail for Sagging Pants

Suspects who sag their pants in this judge’s court are in for a stiff punishment.

Lorain, Ohio Municipal Court Judge Mark Mihok sentenced Durrell Brooks to three days in jail for contempt of court Thursday because the defendant’s pants were so low they showed his underwear, NewsNet5 reports.

Brooks was in court for a friend’s traffic violation when the supposed-sagger approached Mihok’s bench. As Brooks walked back from the bench, Mihok caught a glimpse of the defendant’s underwear and decided to arrest him, NewsNet5 reported.

Mihok told the station that Brooks is the third person in the past month he’s detained for courtroom dress code violations.

“They’re all adults who come into this court, so they should know how to dress themselves at this point,” Mihok told the Chronicle Telegram. “I hope it’s a fad that ends soon.”

Mihok said he does not think his requirements are unreasonable.

“At least you have to have your pants up,” Mihok said. “I don’t think I’ve set the bar too high.”

via Durrell Brooks Sentenced To Three Days In Ohio Jail for Sagging Pants.

He should have used the alligator argument:

State lawmakers have been on a tirade against baggy pants for well over a year, but one St. Petersburg teen says if his pants weren’t so baggy, he may have lost his leg to an alligator. When 17-year-old Kendrick Williams was walking home from work, a hiss caught his attention, and when he looked down, he saw a six- to seven-foot gator. Before he could run away, the agitated reptile took a bite of his leg but ended up only ripping holes in his baggy pants, according to ABC Action News.

“That was the advantage of wearing baggy pants that day,” the teen’s mom, Tanita Murray, told ABC. “It’s dangerous. If a toddler had been standing there, it [the alligator] would have bit his neck or head.”

via Browardpalmbeach.com

Wolves maul a woman to death at a zoo in Sweden

A WOMAN zookeeper was mauled to death by a pack of wolves yesterday as she fed them in their enclosure.

Eight of the wolves are thought to have surrounded and attacked the woman, who was in her 30s.

Her body was found by a colleague — but the snarling pack would not let anyone near her. Eventually brave zoo workers formed a human chain and rushed the wolves, forcing them back.

Jan Tengeborg, who organised the attempt to recover the body, said: “We couldn’t get into the enclosure because the wolves clearly did not want us in there. You can’t just walk right into a wolf pack.”

No one witnessed the attack so it is not yet clear exactly what triggered it. The dead woman has not been named.

The same pack attacked TV naturalist Arne Weise when Kolmarden Wildlife Park opened in Braviken Bay, Sweden, in 2007.

He said yesterday: “We have to stop interacting so closely with wolves. It is wrong, the risk is too great. We must recognise they are dangerous animals.”

via Wolves maul a woman to death at a zoo in Sweden | The Sun |News.

Sheriff: Hitchhiker writing book on kindness shot himself

A West Virginia man who claimed to be the victim of a drive-by shooting along a rural Montana highway while working on a memoir called “Kindness in America” has confessed to shooting himself, authorities said Friday.

Valley County sheriff’s officials said they believe 39-year-old Ray Dolin shot himself as a desperate act of self-promotion, but they offered no further details.

Dolin, of Julian, W.Va., acknowledged he concocted the tale about the random shooting after he was confronted by investigators at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Miles City where he is recovering, said Sheriff Glen Meier. Charges were pending, and the case remains under investigation. Dolin has not been arrested, but the weapon he allegedly used to carry out the scheme has been recovered, the sheriff said.

Dolin had claimed he was hitchhiking along U.S. Highway 2 west of Glasgow on Saturday when the driver of a maroon pickup pulled to a stop and shot him in the upper arm with no provocation. Authorities later arrested Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, 52, and charged him with felony assault. That charge was dropped Thursday, although Danielson remained in custody, accused of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he was arrested.

Meier indicated that Danielson denied any role in shooting after he was put into custody.

“I had the worst feeling he was telling me the absolute truth,” Meier said. “I kept telling him that we are seekers of the truth and we are going to work very hard to find out the truth of this incident. … It was a great moment when I sent someone up to the jail to tell him he had nothing to do with it.”

Dolin runs a photography business called OneShot Impressions, which has as its logo the cross-hairs of a rifle scope.

He could not be reached for comment Friday. But Dolin said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press – before his alleged confession – that he recently had taken a bus from West Virginia to Sidney, and then began traveling across the state working on his memoir about people’s kindness. Asked about Danielson being cleared, Dolin said in the interview that he was reluctant to comment because of the ongoing investigation and quickly changed the subject.

He talked at length about his planned photographic memoir, offering several supposed instances in which strangers had gone out of their way to help him along his journey. And just hours before his alleged confession, he repeated the claim that he was shot as he was stopped on the side of the road preparing a meal.

“He came up, pulls up at a normal speed, stops, points, shoots and drives off. It’s as simple as that,” Dolin said. “I did not get a good description.”

via Sheriff: Hitchhiker writing book on kindness shot himself : Missoulian: News and Resources for Western Montana.

 

 

Man shoots himself in the penis in Birmingham

A Southfield man is recovering after accidentally shooting himself in the penis as he adjusted his gun, according to police.

The 45-year-old heating and air-conditioning company employee was on a job in Birmingham on Tuesday when the incident took place, Birmingham Police Deputy Chief Mark Clemence said today. He was getting ready to work and was moving the .40-caliber Glock pistol in his pants when it discharged at 11:15 a.m.

“Through and through, if you can believe it,” Clemence said. “The situation could have been a lot worse. You think about it — your femoral artery runs down there. He could have shot it off. It could have been a lot worse. It’s a big bullet; you’re not talking a small bullet.”

A coworker on the job on the 300 block of Wimbleton saw the accident and drove the man to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Clemence said today he did not know if the man has been released.

Although he had a permit to carry the gun, he may face charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, Clemence said. The city’s prosecutor is expected to review the case, he added.

via Man shoots himself in the penis in Birmingham | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

I’d say he’s suffered enough.

Women Reps in Michigan barred from speaking, one for “vagina” mention

Here is the latest from Rick Pluta:

Two women serving in the state House have been barred from participating in floor debates for one day. The sanction is a punishment for things they said during a debate on anti-abortion legislation.

State Representatives Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum are both Democrats. Brown made a reference to her vagina in a floor statement.

“I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina,” she said, “but ‘no’ means ‘no.’”

Byrum shouted at the presiding officer after she was not recognized to speak.

Ari Adler is the spokesman for the House Republican leadership.

“It is the responsibility of every member who serves in the House of Representatives to maintain decorum on the House floor and when they do not do that, there can be actions because of that. And the action today is to not recognize either representative to speak on the House floor,” he said.

Brown was speaking during a debate on anti-abortion bills, and has no apologies for what she said.

“I used an anatomically correct word. I said ‘vagina,’” she said. “Can I not say ‘elbow?’ I don’t see what the difference is.”

This is the first time in memory that lawmakers have been formally barred from participating in floor debates. …

via Women Reps in Michigan barred from speaking, one for “vagina” mention | Michigan Radio.