by Richard Dawkins Donald Trump was surely right when he said, in 2012, “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy . . . A total sham and a travesty”. And he confirmed his sensible view on November 13th, 2016 (after winning the election by the Electoral College system, but losing the popular vote) …

Richard Dawkins 24 Oct 2017   I had tweeted an invitation to attend lectures in various parts of Britain by Saba Douglas-Hamilton, who grew up among wild African elephants while her father, Iain Douglas-Hamilton was conducting his pioneering studies of their ecology and behaviour, and he and his wife Oria were fighting the poachers. Saba’s …

By Victor Tangerman A new study sheds reveals the spectacular final stages of stars nearing the end of their lives. Using fresh observations of two distant nebulas collected in multi-wavelength form by NASA’s Hubble space telescope, a team of astronomers made several new discoveries about what stars go through as they die. “These new multi-wavelength …

By Beth Stoneburner Conservative Christians have been in deep despair this week, ever since the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision saying anti-discrimination laws that protect employees on the basis of “sex” apply to gay and transgender people, too. (The question of whether an employer’s religious beliefs can override those rules has been kicked down the road.) Kevin DeYoung, …

By Jessica A. Bothelho The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence is reacting to larceny charges that have been filed against a former Warwick priest. “The Diocese of Providence and SS. Rose and Clement Parish are saddened by the charges against Matthew Glover which are very serious and deeply disturbing,” the diocese noted in a statement Wednesday …

By Carol Kuruvilla The Supreme Court delivered a significant victory for LGBTQ rights this week by recognizing that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans from workplace discrimination. But it remains to be seen just how effectively this ruling will shield queer workers who may actually need …

By Katie Hunt We now know that many of us are part Neanderthal, with our genes carrying traces of past encounters between our early ancestors and the Stone Age hominins that populated Europe until around 40,000 years ago. The evidence that early humans interbred with Neanderthals emerged in 2010 after scientists led by geneticist Svante Pääbo pioneered methods to extract, …

By the Associated Press Arkansas’ attorney general on Tuesday sued Missouri-based TV pastor Jim Bakker over his promotion of a product falsely touted as a cure for the illness caused by the coronavirus. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed the lawsuit in Arkansas against Bakker and Morningside Church Productions, less than three months after the state of Missouri …