$10.50/hr; Missile Fired at China - Accidentally; Israel Charging for Terror; Qualitative Edge for a Price; NC Hangs onto (Most of) Original Law; Brainless Consciousness; July 4th - Jupiter; and Underwater Drones

Minimum Wage

Minimum wage goes up in City of LA, unincorporated areas of LA County asianjournal

The minimum wage in the City of Los Angeles and unincorporated areas of LA County is now $10.50 an hour. The city and county join the District of Columbia and 12 other cities, states and counties that boosted the hourly pay rates on Friday, July 1.

If they keep this up, soon I'll be making minimum wage :)

Taiwan

Taiwan's Navy Accidentally Fires Missile Toward China, Hits A Fishing Boat npr.org

The incident occurred Friday morning, when a 500-ton corvette that was sitting in the Zuoying Military Harbor launched a supersonic missile that streaked nearly 40 nautical miles before hitting a Taiwanese boat that had been trawling for shrimp.

Israel

Israel to deduct Palestinian terror funding from tax fees it hands to the PA jpost

To stop the Palestinian Authority from making payments to terrorists and their families, Israel plans to deduct that sum from it’s monthly transfer of tax fees to the Fatah led government in the West Bank.

US ready to raise military aid to Israel if more funds spent on American materiel timesofisrael

The United States has offered to increase its military aid to Israel, under a decade-long deal set to take effect in two years’ time, on the condition that Jerusalem spend more of the funds on American goods and services, rather than on domestic ones as it is authorized to do now.

Society

North Carolina lawmakers leave LGBT law mostly intact cbsnews

A North Carolina law limiting protections for LGBT people, which stoked a national debate over transgender rights when it was approved in March, was left largely intact Friday by North Carolina lawmakers who chose only to make a minor revision to the wide-ranging measure.

Also see North Carolina's HB2 Compromise That Wasn't

Brain

A civil servant missing most of his brain challenges our most basic theories of consciousness quartz

Several years ago, a 44-year-old Frenchman went to the hospital complaining of mild weakness in his left leg. It was discovered then that his skull was filled largely by fluid, leaving just a thin parameter of actual brain tissue. And yet the man was a married father of two and a civil servant with an IQ of 75, below-average in his intelligence but not mentally disabled.

They forgot to mention or glorify God in this article, but I found this story a good reminder that we are far more than just our physical presense. It also reminds us that our sin caused our bodies to wear down and that it was never intended as merely a shell that holds our spirit until we finally 'escape' it in death. It was created for us by God, and is to be renewed when Jesus returns so that we will have our body on throughout eternity. (Romans 8:10-11) John Piper has a good article that summarizes the reality of our body being resurrected and transformed (made better - but still a physical body and, his point, still OUR body): Do we receive the same body we had on earth at the resurrection?

Space

Juno’s Jupiter Mission Faces Its Most Critical Moment wired

After a nearly five-year journey, the unmanned, solar-powered Juno spacecraft should be going into orbit around Jupiter at around 11:15pm ET on Monday, July 4th, carrying an array of instruments that will do everything from analyzing fluctuations in Jupiter’s gravity to visualizing its magnetic field. It’ll snap some pretty pictures too, of course.

That is, provided that the tricky (but entirely automated) business of orbit insertion goes according to plan. Juno has one shot at syncing up with Jupiter’s gravitational pull. If the orbital maneuver is unsuccessful, there are no second chances—Juno will just sail on by. “Everything is riding on what happens July 4th,” says Scott Bolton, the Juno mission’s principal investigator. “I haven’t felt this way since launch. If something goes wrong, we’re not getting any science.”

Drones

GM works with the U.S. Navy on hydrogen powered underwater drones impactlab.net

The goal is for these unmanned subs to operate for more than 60 days. General Motors is now working with the U.S. Navy to develop hydrogen fuel cell-powered underwater drones that can operate without recharging for this extended period.

Other...

Man has a tiny warehouse under his house and a robot forklift to fetch things holykaw.alltop v