Day's Headlines: Judged Not Liberal; Transgender Delayed on Technicality; Religious Freedom and Gasps of Horror; Syria: One Way or Another; Iranian Shield; NK Snub; Poor Folk Down Below; Teaching Kids to Hate Jews; Apologize Just Enough; and Stereo in Space

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Judged Not Liberal; Transgender Delayed on Technicality; Religious Freedom and Gasps of Horror; Syria: One Way or Another; Iranian Shield; NK Snub; Poor Folk Down Below; Teaching Kids to Hate Jews; Apologize Just Enough; and Stereo in Space

Sorry there was no blog yesterday - I prepared it, but then after running some unexpected errands I forgot that I never actually posted it :) Today includes yesterday's articles...


Society

Christian judge fights to keep job world.wng.org

The Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics wyo.gov has asked the high court to remove Judge Ruth Neely, the Pinedale municipal judge and part-time circuit court magistrate, from office, ban her for life from the Wyoming judiciary, and fine her $40,000. Her offense? In response to a reporter’s question, Neely stated her Christian perspective on marriage precluded her from officiating a same-sex wedding. That statement, the commission said, was enough to show bias and an inability to adjudicate the law impartially.

Judge in Texas temporarily blocks Obama's transgender rules bigstory.ap.org

The judge said the order would apply nationwide. The ruling, he said, was not about the policy issues of transgender rights but about his conclusion that federal officials simply did not follow rules that required an opportunity for comment before such directives are issued.

The Supreme Court's awful Hobby Lobby decision just spawned a very ugly stepchild latimes w!

The minefield Ginsburg warned about has now detonated. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sean F. Cox of Detroit ruled that a local funeral home was well within its rights to fire a transgender employee because its owner had a religious belief that gender transition violated biblical teachings.

You can tell by the title that this is not a pro-religious freedom article :)

Syria

Kerry says hopes talks with Russia on Syria 'nearing the end' reuters

"We are in indeed engaged currently in ongoing conversations, and it is my hope that we are reaching the end of those discussions one way or another," Kerry told a news conference during a visit to Kenya.

Iran

Iran releases images of new missile defense system timesofisrael

Iran released images of its first domestically built long-range missile defense system on Sunday, a project started when the country was under international sanctions.

North Korea

South Korea and U.S. Begin Drills Despite North Korea’s Threat of Nuclear Strikes time

Such fiery rhetoric by Pyongyang is not unusual. But the latest warning comes at a time of more tension following the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat and a U.S. plan to place a high-tech defense missile system in South Korea.

Also see North Korea test-fires submarine-launched ballistic missile reuters

AI

New algorithm can detect poverty– from space redorbit

“If you give a computer enough data it can figure out what to look for. We trained a computer model to find things in imagery that are predictive of poverty,” Burke told BBC News. “It finds things like roads, like urban areas, like farmland... [and] it finds patterns in imagery that to you or I don't really look like anything... but it's something the computer has figured out is predictive of where poor people are.”

Antisemitism

Videos leaked from Satmar camps show kids protesting Israel jpost

In one video the children are seen striding down the street in the style of a demonstration, chanting: “Israeli government, shame on you!” and waving banners with an “X” over the Israeli flag and slogans such as “A Jew is not a Zionist.”

False Religion

Church of England warned bishops not to apologise too fully to sex abuse victims telegraph.co.uk

Legal advice marked “strictly confidential” and circulated among the most senior bishops, told them to “express regret” only using wording approved by lawyers, PR advisers and insurers.

Space

NASA regains contact with long-silent solar science spacecraft spacenews

NASA said that the Deep Space Network nasa.gov (DSN) established a lock on a carrier signal from the STEREO-B spacecraft at 6:27 p.m. Eastern Aug. 21. NASA monitored the signal for several hours, and plans additional contacts with the spacecraft to assess the state of the spacecraft.

Other...

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