Society
Excitement in China as Google, Instagram jump Great Firewall – for just two hours washingtonpost
It was a brief moment of excitement and freedom, swiftly crushed.
A good reminder of the freedom we haven't yet lost.
Looming Tie Leads to Rare Move from SCOTUS (Little Sisters) nbcnews
In a highly unusual move that could be designed to head off a 4-4 tie, the U.S. Supreme Court today asked new questions in one of the term's most contentious cases — the contraceptive requirements of Obamacare.
N.C. attorney general refuses to defend ‘bathroom bill’ in court washingtontimes
North Carolina’s attorney general said Tuesday he will not defend the state’s “bathroom bill” in court after several pro-LGBT groups filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation’s constitutionality.
Sigh. See "the list" of those leaning with disgust on NC: More than 80 Major CEOs, Business Leaders Demand North Carolina Repeal Discriminatory Law
ISLAMOPHOBIA testkitchen.huffingtonpost
It might be impossible to create a comprehensive list of discriminatory acts against American Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, but The Huffington Post will document this deplorable wave of hate for all of 2016 using news reports and firsthand accounts. The breadth and severity of Islamophobia in America can no longer go unnoticed. Enough is enough.
Huffington Post (a site I rarely link) has taken on the task of being the defenders of Islam. Like a watchdog for anything anti-Islam ranging from true hate to conservative Christians talking about hope in Christ. The Poverty Law Center must be proud.
Genetics
If We Don’t Own Our Genes, What Protects Study Subjects In Genetic Research? iflscience
President Obama remarked “I would like to think that if somebody does a test on me or my genes, that that’s mine.”
Lots of people would make that same assumption – it seems sensible that we would each “own” our genetic information. But the legal reality is quite different. And that could turn out to be a problem, because research projects like the Precision Medicine Initiative rely on research participants trusting that their information is protected once they agree to share it.
Also see The Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program
Israel
Report: ISIS planning 'imminent' attacks on Jewish children in Turkey jpost
Islamic State terrorists had reportedly "advanced plans" to murder Jewish children in attacks aimed at educational and youth institutions in Turkey, according to Britain's Sky News on Monday.
Temple Institute Inaugurates Registry of Biblically Eligible Kohanim jewishpress
The Temple Institute has announced a bold new initiative to identify, select and register kohanim-priests who would be eligible to participate in the process of preparing the Red Heifer, which is used in the ritual of purifying Jews from the tuma-impurity of the dead.
Banking
Bank of England to Raise Bank Capital Buffer as Safeguard nytimes
Lenders in Britain would be required to set aside the equivalent of 0.5 percent of their assets as weighted by risk by March 29, 2017, the central bank’s Financial Policy Committee said on Tuesday.
Also Bank of England warns on Brexit, tightens buy-to-let mortgages with video
This is the apocalyptic scenario Britain's biggest banks have to face in the Bank of England's latest stress test businessinsider
The test will be the third run by the Bank of England, and is used as a measure of how well Britain's banks would be able to cope should the world suffer a major economic shock in the coming year.
AI
McCann Japan hires first artificially intelligent creative director thedrum
The AI has been built to respond to a product or message with the optimal commercial direction, based off historical data. The AI has also been built to then learn from the results of the campaigns its directed, in theory creating an increasingly more effective AI creative director.
Tech
Nano Dimension files patent for 3D printed shielded conductors in PCBs 3ders
Since its inception in 2012, Israeli 3D printing company Nano Dimension has risen to the top of its field; namely, the development of 3D inkjet, 3D software, and nanomaterials. Just last week, the company announced a partnership with FATHOM to bring the Nano Dimension Dragonfly 2020 3D printer to Silicon Valley and surrounding areas, and the company has now signalled its intention to develop further innovative solutions for its 3D printed PCBs, both locally and internationally.
Brain Tech
IBM delivers a piece of its brain-inspired supercomputer to Livermore national lab 3ders
The TrueNorth chip itself has more than 5.4 billion transistors, about as many as a state-of-the-art conventional silicon chip today. But this chip’s transistors are configured as a million neurons, or the equivalent of brain cells, and 256 million synapses, or connections. It consumes only about 70 milliwatts of power, or the equivalent of a hearing-aid battery. That’s an order of magnitude better than other solutions, said Dharmendra S. Modha, an IBM fellow and chief scientist of brain-inspired computing at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., in an interview with VentureBeat. The Livermore project is an important test of a new computer architecture that could be used in everything from single-chip computers to systems with thousands of chips.
Japan
Japan approves record-high budget, focusing on defense, economic recovery usatoday
The Japanese government approved a record defense budget Tuesday as new laws went into effect, easing restraints on Japan’s military and permitting Japanese troops to defend the United States for the first time since World War II.
Also Security legislation takes effect
Space
Mystery object crashes into Jupiter nypost
Something slammed into Jupiter last week, leaving amateurs and experts alike coming up with their own big bang theories.
Includes blurry, shaky videos :)
NASA’s new inflatable space home cnbc
It looks like a giant pillow, but is meant to be a home away from home for astronauts in space.
With animation of how it'll work...maybe
End of the World
5 Dates the World Was Supposed to End smosh
For as long as mankind's been around, humans have been predicting exactly when we’re all going to die. The “Millennium Apocalypse” panic had many convinced the Earth would end on January 1, 1000, perhaps due to Y1K stone tablet glitches. London astrologers (note, NOT astronomers) predicted a worldwide flood for February 1, 1524, causing many English to head off to higher pubs. And we all remember how the planet ceased to be on December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan Apocalypse at the end of the 13th b’ak’tun, either due to an asteroid, alien invasion, supernova, or failure to renew our planet license.
A reminder that only the Father knows the day and hour when the world will end:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. (Matt 24:36-39 NASB, c.f. Mark 13:24-32)
Other...
Motorized Papasan Chair is the Most Comfortable Form of Transportation Around industrytap
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