NewsWatch

Trustees Pass Pro-Free Speech Resolution 

TheCollegeFix.com, 8/10/22, “UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees pass pro-free speech resolution” [Excerpts]: The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a resolution in favor of academic freedom and campus freedom of speech following a review of new student survey, The Carolina Journal reported August 3. The resolution is in the agenda document.

“University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Tenure Policy affirms this commitment [to freedom of inquiry by faculty] by acknowledging that ‘it is the policy of the University to maintain and encourage full freedom, within the law, of inquiry, discourse, teaching, research, and publication and to protect any member of the faculty against influences, from within or without the University, which would restrict the faculty member in the exercise of these freedoms in his or her area of scholarly interest,’” the resolution stated.

The resolution also committed the university to the Chicago Principles on free speech and the University of Chicago Kalven Committee Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action, which “recognizes that the neutrality of the University on social and political issues ‘arises out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoints.’”

The principles also affirm “‘a heavy presumption against the university taking collective action or expressing opinions on the political and social issues of the day...’” Liberal students felt the most comfortable sharing their view, but a greater share of conservatives felt “uncomfortable giving honest opinions in class....”

https://bit.ly/3TJR1TI

Israel: Friends, Frenemies and Worse

StrategyPage.com, 7/19/22, “Israel: Friends, Frenemies and Worse” [Excerpts]: [On July 15] the American president left Saudi Arabia after a four-day visit to the Middle East that involved meeting with Israeli, Palestinian and Saudi leaders.

Hours after the American president left Israel, Hamas in Gaza launched two rocket attacks, each with two rockets on targets in southern Israel. One of the rockets was intercepted because it was headed for a residential area while the other three were ignored by Iron Dome because they were headed for open ground. Early on the 16th, Israel responded by using ground-penetrating bombs to destroy an underground Hamas rocket component storage bunker. This was obvious because of the large secondary explosion caused by sixteen tons of explosives and rocket propellants stored there detonating. The loss of this material will reduce Hamas production of new rockets for a while.

Iran assists in smuggling in rocket components.

https://bit.ly/3RCxtzn

Flood Buried Dinosaurs with a Bang

ICR.org, 12/7/20, “Flood Buried Dinosaurs with a Bang” [Excerpts]: Scientists from the University of Bath have found that dinosaurs were thriving up to the end of the Cretaceous. This discovery conflicts with earlier claims that dinosaurs were declining in number towards the top of the Cretaceous System. However, these findings fit the predictions from a global Flood scenario.

Publishing in Royal Society Open Science, the paleontological team from Great Britain used statistical methods to analyze available dinosaur fossil data. They determined that dinosaurs were flourishing on every continent right up to the K-Pg boundary. The team found no sign of a decline in numbers or diversity. Dinosaurs just suddenly disappeared at the K-Pg.

Dinosaur fossils are found in rocks from the Late Triassic System through the end of the Cretaceous System. The reason why dinosaurs seemingly went “extinct” has been a mystery to secular scientists. Many have tried to link it to an asteroid impact, to volcanic activity, or to disease. But no solution seems to satisfy the data or the secular community.

“[We] don’t really have enough data to know either way what would have happened to the dinosaurs,” [Author] Bonsor said. “Instead we’ve shown that there is no strong evidence for them dying out, and that the only way to know for sure is to fill in the gaps in the fossil record,” added Bonsor.

The global Flood also answers why dinosaurs were still alive and flourishing until the end of the Cretaceous. At that moment in the Flood, they were likely trying to stay on the highest ground available as waters encroached closer, week by week.

https://bit.ly/3qdGItF