Israel
PM: World silent as Palestinians seek ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Jews in West Bank timesofisrael v
Speaking in English in a video message posted on his Facebook page, Netanyahu asked whether people in other parts of the world would accept such demands in their own countries.
See also Netanyahu 'ethnic cleansing' comment against Palestinians draws U.S. rebuke reuters
Apostasy
United Church committee finds atheist minister ‘not suitable’ ucobserver.org
In a report released on Sept. 8, the majority of the 24-person Conference Interview Committee found that Vosper is "unwilling and unable to reaffirm her 1993 ordination vows" and "is no longer in essential agreement with the statement of doctrine of The United Church of Canada."
This is under the 'apostasy' heading not because of the (woman) 'minister''s professed athiesim. Clearly this is a 'church' that fell off the rails (and perhaps was never on) long before getting here. One only needs to look at their current statement of faith united-church.ca for the spiritual train wreck that is UCC:
For Christians, Jesus is the way we know God. Our understanding is nonetheless limited by human imagination. God is greater still and works in our world by a mysterious Spirit that knows no distinction at the doorway of a Christian chapel; Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh temple; Aboriginal sweat lodge, Muslim mosque, or Jewish synagogue.
As a side-note, notice that statement is really nothing more than the poorly developed, humble sounding blind men and elephant illustration thegospelcoalition.org, which falls apart when pressed as we are not merely men groping to try to know a god as best as we can, but are men to whom God has spoken through revelation (Bible) and told us what He is like (and, BTW, that it's only through Him [Jesus] that one can know Him and be saved)
Society
Top West Point general: ‘Valid concerns’ raised about prayer after Army football game washingtonpost v
The issue emerged after Coach Jeff Monken was shown in a video produced by West Point usma.edu celebrating with his players and directing a member of his staff to lead a prayer. The video was taken down at the direction of Athletic Director Boo Corrigan after West Point received complaints because it was offensive to some people and leaving it online would have been “like grinding salt into the wound,” said Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the superintendent at West Point.
Also see Army Pulls Postgame Football Video after Prayer Complaints military
Drugs
Librarians concerned over surge of heroin use inside nation’s libraries nydailynews
The country's heroin and painkiller problem has produced public overdoses in many places, including restaurants, gas stations, alleys and even hospitals, but the inherent attributes of public libraries leave them especially exposed. They're free and open for whoever walks in, and lingering is welcome, no transaction or interaction required.
Privacy
EEG Identification Can Steal Your Most Closely Held Secrets spectrum.ieee.org
Serwadda and graduate student Richard Matovu recently played devil’s advocate to see if they could glean sensitive personal information from brain data captured by two popular EEG-based authentication systems. Surprise, surprise: they did. Serwadda presented the results earlier this week at the 8th IEEE International Conference on Biometrics in Buffalo, New York.
[they] wanted to see if those markers also contained sensitive personal information—in this case, a tendency for alcoholism. They put each system to work analyzing an old medical dataset of EEG scans from a group of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. In a blind trial, a machine learning classifier, trained to recognize brain patterns associated with alcoholism, used the brain wave data from the authentication systems to accurately identify 25 percent of the alcoholics in the sample. That’s 25 percent of people who just lost their privacy.
Military
US Navy gives look inside futuristic $4.4B Zumwalt destroyer sfgate
In the bridge, there are 180-degree windows and chairs for the ship's captain and executive officer to command the vessel. They overlook two gun mounts that resemble cannon barrels. The Zumwalt's powerful new gun system can unload 600 rocket-powered projectiles on targets more than 70 miles away.
See also Navy warship tested against 10,000-pound explosive cnn v
Tech
Teens Develop Revolutionary App That Will Teach Blind Children Braille goodnewsnetwork.org v
The app is designed to announce words and letters aloud for the blind user while it constructs the phrase in braille on a simulator. That way, the children can feel the way the sound is spelt on the gadget.
Australian scientists have created an amazing water-repellent spray businessinsider.au v
The protective coating could eventually be used to waterproof mobile phones, prevent ice from forming on planes or protect boat hulls from corrosion. “The surface is a layer of nanoparticles, which water slides off as if it’s on a hot barbecue,” says William Wong, a PhD student from the Nanotechnology Research Laboratory anu.edu.au at the ANU.
AI
Machine-learning Algorithm Generates Videos from Stills popsci
The system "learns" types of videos (beach, baby, golf swing...) and, starting from still images, replicates the movements that are most commonly seen in those videos. So the beach video looks like it has crashing waves, for instance.
Robots
Remember When People Laughed at the ATLAS Robot When It Fell Over? WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?! gizmodo v
It seems like just yesterday that ATLAS was stumbling over a simulated debris field, and now we see it balancing on one foot on the edge of a thin sheet of plywood. It’s like putting a crawling infant on the ground for a few seconds while you tend to something else, and then turning back to find it asking for your car keys so it can go to the mall, or join the Army.
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