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[The Patriots] -- still trying to distance itself from the 2007 Spygate scandal -- had to deal with a new report that said a video crew working for the team filmed the Cincinnati Bengals sideline during Sunday's game. The latest allegations came to light when Bengals coach Zac Taylor, whose team plays New England on Sunday, confirmed that the league was investigating the crew's activities.

For some Georgia fans Monday’s loss to Alabama in the College Football Championship, though tragically heartbreaking, filled them with hope and pride. For other Bulldogs watchers it was deja vu watching a team rise in joy only to crumble in defeat. And yet for others, the overtime loss was the result of a sinister force -- the Big Ten referees officiating the game. Media outlets and fans alike point to a litany of missed calls that allowed Alabama to claim its fifth title in nine seasons. Here are some of the cited incidents of flagrant favoritism to the Tide: •...

Was “ Easter” actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration? The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan names for the celebration in English and German (“Easter”, “Ostern”). Note, however, that in most other European languages, the celebration’s name is derived from Pascha (Greek), from Pesach, (Hebrew), Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover. [large snips here and throughout] The usual argument for the pagan origins of Easter is based on Venerable Bede (673-735), an English monk who wrote: “ … Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month" and which was once called after a goddess...

I've been here since 2000 and have always wondered why there is an asterisk in the Search box. I always delete it before I type in my search. Why is it there? Should I be leaving it there when I do my search?

While engaging in the mundane task of gathering financial statements for a “secure retirement” meeting with my husband’s and my adviser, this Baby Boomer stumbled upon documented proof that our nation does not have the guts to confront one of its most serious economic problems. The realization came when I pulled from my files a document statement innocently titled, “Your Social Security Statement.”

SAN FRANCISCO -- The jury in the Barry Bonds convicted the seven-time MVP guilty of obstruction of justice, but the defense and prosecution agreed to a mistrial on the other three remaining counts. The judge, after speaking to the jury foreman, said she believes the mistrial is the proper decision given that the jury believes it has reached a crossroads. The jury is being brought back into the courtroom to read the verdict on the one count on which it agreed. The eight women and four men are returning the verdict after four days of deliberations. The jury has worked...

The human ear is an amazing device. In a recent press release, an MIT engineer said that the ear is “like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels.”[1] In fact, its design inspired the development of a new space and energy-saving radio receiver chip...

UK researchers believe they may have “broken new ground” in the ongoing quest to find out how living cells first evolved. The New York Times proclaimed, “An English chemist has found the hidden gateway” to the origin of life.[1] But despite the claim that the scientists “have developed an experiment that sheds new and fascinating light on how life on Earth might have begun,”[2] what they really demonstrated was that the molecules of life can only come from living cells...

DNA Fence Posts Hold Back Cancer. . . and Evolution by Brian Thomas, M.S.* New research has uncovered a tiny protein that, when it breaks down, leads to cancer. This useful protein attaches to DNA in certain places and serves as a marker or “fence post.” These fence posts keep certain zones of DNA accessible to the cell regulatory mechanisms that activate gene expression to produce other proteins. If the protein posts are knocked down, these regions of DNA become inaccessible and the cells become cancerous. But how could cells have evolved if the necessary restructuring of their DNA, and...

Planetary Quandaries Solved: Saturn Is Young by Brian Thomas, M.S.* NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been on a mission to gather information on the structure and composition of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. Conventional cosmology holds that the planets of the solar system are billions of years old. But the more that scientists learn about Saturn’s systems, the more they uncover evidence of a young planet...

Is the H1N1 Flu Evolving? by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Flu is in the news, with some people fearing a possible pandemic from the latest strain. The most recent threat, initially labeled “swine flu,” comes from an H1N1 influenza virus, the same “subtype” responsible for the horrendous 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak. What makes this virus new is that it traded parts with other flu viruses and mutated. However, neither of these processes demonstrates Darwinian evolution...

No Evolution Found in Human Facial Differences by Brian Thomas, M.S.* One common question asked of creation scientists is “If all mankind descended from two humans, then where did all the ‘races’ come from?” New research, published in the journal Evolution no less, supports the creation-based answer to this question...

Chimp Study Reveals Human Are Uniquely Wired by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Chimps are physically stronger than humans, as demonstrated in recent national news when a chimpanzee severely mauled a Connecticut woman. Police were forced to shoot and kill it after its owner failed to subdue it with a knife from her kitchen.[1] Scientists are trying to find the source of this noteworthy strength in apes, and new research investigating the subject has turned up a uniquely human attribute...

Gene Construction Confirms Creation by Brian Thomas, M.S.* The fruit fly has been a leading model organism for genetics research the past hundred years. A new biotechnology-based study of this key organism has yielded more evidence for special creation...

Viral Batteries: A Case for Evolution? by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Researchers at MIT have invented a “greener” battery with the help of viruses. Three years ago, they engineered a virus that coats itself with material that serves as an anode, a structure within a battery that attracts positive ions. They have now engineered a virus (bacteriophage) that serves as a cathode, which indirectly links to the anode to help make the battery functional. The result is a battery with little impact on the environment. National Public Radio (NPR) ran a report on its Morning Edition that compared the development of...

Maybe they need to rewrite that last chapter...

It’s one small step for Dell, and another great leap for Asterisk — the open source VoIP phone system. Dell plans to promote Fonality (a major Asterisk proponent) to small business customers seeking IP telephony systems. It’s a landmark development, folks, that benefits Dell in multiple markets (open source, VoIP, unified communications, and managed services). Here’s why. While most people are zigging, Michael Dell continues to zag. In mid-2007, Dell announced the surprising decision to pre-install Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux on selected desktops and laptops. Red Hat and Novell were the obvious choices for that deal (and Dell maintains partnerships with...

For weeks, Patriots fans have been charting the team's "path to perfection," conveniently leaving out the role that cheating played in their success. * * * . . . The Post has attached an asterisk to the Patriots so-called perfect record, a shameless distinction that doesn't seem to bother anyone in Boston.

Feature: Telecomm Asterisk awakens open source love in telecom entrepreneur By Tina Gasperson on January 02, 2008 (9:02:00 PM) Print Comments Marc Fribush, a former "Microsoft guy," is a telecommunications industry entrepreneur who discovered the benefits of open source when he launched a turnkey SAAS telephony business based on Asterisk. "It's really powerful stuff," Fribush says. Fribush's previous company produced Web telephony software for the online dating industry. When that business was sold in 2006, he started looking for his next project and noticed an interesting trend. "We were looking at the Asterisk movement, and we started looking at some...

Baseball superstar Barry Bonds was charged Thursday with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying when he said he did not use performance-enhancing drugs. The indictment, unsealed Thursday by federal prosecutors in San Francisco, is the culmination of a four-year federal probe into whether he lied under oath to a grand jury investigating steroid use by elite athletes. The indictment comes three months after the 43-year-old Bonds, one of the biggest names in professional sports, passed Hank Aaron to become baseball's career home run leader, his sport's most hallowed record.