Dave Touretzky might seem like an unlikely champion of free expression. The 41-year-old researcher at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh spends his evenings investigating how the brains of rats record and process location information. "My primary research interest is understanding how space is represented in the rodent brain," says Touretzky, who regularly works until 2 a.m. What that translates into is computer simulations, occasional surgery on hapless members of the species rattus norvegicus, and programming a squat ...

The geek-culture destination Slashdot.org said on Friday that it deleted a post in response to legal threats from the Church of Scientology. Scientology's notoriously litigious team of attack attorneys successfully pressured the site's editors into erasing a discussion board message, which allegedly contained copyrighted material. "While Slashdot is an open forum and we encourage free discussion and sharing of ideas, our lawyers have advised us that, considering all the details of this case, the comment should come down," co-founder Rob "CmdrTaco" ...

Last Saturday a comment was posted here by an anonymous reader that contained text that was copyrighted by the Church of Scientology. They have since followed the DMCA and demanded that we remove the comment. While Slashdot is an open forum and we encourage free discussion and sharing of ideas, our lawyers have advised us that, considering all the details of this case, the comment should come down. Read on to understand what this means. This is the first time since ...

Geek paradise Slashdot has taken the unprecedented step of removing a post which contained text allegedly copyrighted by the 'Church' of Scientology, after receiving threats from Hubbard Space Command shysters citing the dreaded Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). "Our lawyers have advised us that, considering all the details of this case, the comment should come down," Slashdot founder Rob Malda aka CmdrTaco regrets to announce. "Last Saturday a comment was posted here by an anonymous reader that contained text that was ...

Off-duty Clearwater police provide security for the Church of Scientology, subject of many investigations. To some in law enforcement, the officers are crossing an ethical line. [Picture / Caption: "Off-duty Clearwater police officer Scott Wilson watches for oncoming cars on Watterson Avenue as Scientologists leav a bus."] CLEARWATER – Every day, off-duty Clearwater police officers provide security for the Church of Scientology, which was investigated by police for 18 years but now is putting thousands of dollars in officers' pockets. The ...

Astra Woodcraft, apostate and defector, is the latest enemy of the Church of Scientology. Woodcraft, 22, never really joined this controversial psycho-spiritual movement, at least not as a free-thinking adult. Astra was born into it. Founded in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific science fiction writer and freelance philosopher, Scientology describes itself as "the only major new religion established in the 20th century," as a bridge to increased awareness and spiritual freedom. Woodcraft, a third-generation Scientologist, paints a different ...

When it came to marriage and family life, the late L. Ron Hubbard did not practice what he preached. According to its official teachings, the Church of Scientology "regards the family as the building block of any society and marriage as an essential component of a stable family life." According to his unofficial biographers, Hubbard, who lived from 1911 to 1986, had at least seven children by three different wives, including one bigamous marriage. His first son, L. Ron Hubbard Jr., ...

A top Menino administration official said yesterday that a literacy project with ties to the Church of Scientology will be closely monitored in its use of city funds to help school-age children read. The group, H.E.L.P. Boston, received a $1,000 grant from the city's Safe Neighborhood Fund. The grant was approved by officials who knew of the program's connection to the controversial Scientology movement. But they apparently failed to tell Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who in a statement released by his ...

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has endorsed a literacy project affiliated with the Church of Scientology, which critics say is a step towards offering cult-like teachings to school children. When Menino posed for a photo at a December awards ceremony with the director of H.E.L.P. Boston - and gave a $1,000 city grant to the group - aides said they were aware that the group teaches a "study technology" developed by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the movement. But Menino, through a ...

A church building would be converted into a Scientology mission with classes and a bookstore. LARGO – A prominent Scientologist is leading an effort to buy an 86-year-old church in downtown Largo, where she plans to open a Scientology mission, a development that has raised concerns among some city officials. The investment is a substantial one. The newly incorporated Church of Scientology Mission of Largo Inc. is paying $389,000 for the church at 160 Sixth St. SW and the house behind ...

When Allan McConnell decided to go online, the 68-year-old Ngaruawahia pensioner had no idea he was, quite literally, taking a gamble. Retiring after a lifetime on the land, and encouraged by his net-savvy sons Nicholas, 23, and David, 21, he and his wife Julia took a computer course at Ngaruawahia High School. Suddenly, he was at the "bleeding-edge." And just a few weeks later, the blood began to flow ... NeoPets is an enchanting website - a community of virtual pet ...

The annual event is restricted by a court order prescribing where the pickets can be. Police expect little or no friction. CLEARWATER – Critics of the Church of Scientology will take to downtown streets this weekend and march in a protest that has become an annual ritual. They will picket against a backdrop of special community events celebrating the holidays and the 10th anniversary of the Pinellas Trail. As it was last year, the protest will be tempered by a court ...