Day's Headlines: Closed Liberty; Church Bathrooms; Russia's Regress Begins; Aussies Block (ish) SSM; Drugged Out; Bio-Hacking at the Top; Censoring the Censors; Nod to Pay; Nano Transistor; Spacey Brain; Houthi in the Machine; and Drone Death

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Closed Liberty; Church Bathrooms; Russia's Regress Begins; Aussies Block (ish) SSM; Drugged Out; Bio-Hacking at the Top; Censoring the Censors; Nod to Pay; Nano Transistor; Spacey Brain; Houthi in the Machine; and Drone Death

Society

Christian-owned bakery in Oregon closes after religious freedom fight results in steep fines christiandaily

On Sept. 29, the Christian-owned bakery Sweet Cakes thanked the people who prayed for and supported the business, but at the same time announced that the bakery has already closed. No explanation was provided on the Facebook statement, Catholic News Agency details.

According to Q13 Fox News, Sweet Cakes' storefront in Oregon has been closed since 2013. However, owners Aaron and Melissa Klein continued to operate their business from their home. Their legal representative Hiram Sasser explained that the bakery was closed "months ago" but the couple still received inquiries for possible orders, thus the Facebook announcement.

Churches sue over Massachusetts transgender bathroom law townhall

Alliance Defending Freedom adflegal sued Tuesday on behalf of four Massachusetts churches to protect their right to operate their facilities "in a manner that doesn't violate their core religious beliefs."

'Sad' Russian anti-evangelism law ends a ministry bpnews.net

Two weeks after police interrupted Ossewaarde's Sunday morning Bible study in his home with 15 students, arrested him and fined him 40,000 rubles, about $600, the Independent Baptist gotquestions.org missionary said he will leave the country amid veiled threats against his life, even though he has appealed the charges against him.

Society

Australia’s Labor Party Blocks Referendum on Same-Sex Marriage nytimes

Last month, Mr. Turnbull asked lawmakers to support a bill that would ask Australians if the country’s marriage law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry. But Mr. Turnbull, whose government holds a one-seat majority after national elections in July, needed the support of Labor for the bill to pass in Parliament.

Note that this would have been non-binding, so it's not so much a victory against SSM but a delay until a more legal bill can be presented:

The prime minister had said that the government would provide financing for both the “yes” and “no” campaigns, and that he would abide by the decision of the voters. But the plebiscite would not have been binding, and there was no guarantee that Mr. Turnbull’s colleagues would have supported the outcome.

Drugs

Major rights groups: Decriminalize use of all illicit drugs washingtontimes

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union jointly issued the call Wednesday in a detailed report contending that enforcement of drug laws has unjustifiably ruined lives, torn families apart and fueled racial discrimination while failing to curtail rampant drug abuse in the U.S.

Transhumanism

Silicon Valley CEOs are buying biohacking implants off eBay to get ahead quartz

The experiment (of sorts), which began in mid-September, is part of the burgeoning biohacking movement that aims to live a longer, more “enhanced” life, says Geoffrey Woo, co-founder of Nootrobox, the company leading the 90-day challenge. Nootrobox primarily sells substances known as nootropics, also known as “smart drugs,” that claim to enhance cognitive function in a variety of ways. “It is using an engineering mindset and systems approach to manipulate the human body and its performance,” he wrote in a post on the company’s website announcing the 90-day challenge.

Censorship

Social media companies suspend Geofeedia's access after reported police tracking mashable

The decision follows an investigation that law enforcement used the tool to track activists and protests, the American Civil Liberties Union of North California (ACLU) published in a blog post Tuesday. It provides another case that surveillance information is potentially being used to target minority groups.

Business

Alibaba's new payment system lets virtual reality shoppers pay by nodding reuters

VR Pay, the new payment system, is part of Alibaba's efforts to capitalize on the latest technology in online shopping. In 2015, for example, it introduced a facial recognition technology for Alipay mobile payments service advertised as "pay with a selfie".

Research

Berkeley Lab announces first transistor with a working 1-nanometer gate kurzweilai.net t

The first transistor with a working 1-nanometer (nm) gate has been created by a team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) lbl.gov scientists. Until now, a transistor gate size less than 5 nanometers has been considered impossible because of quantum tunneling effects. (One nanometer is the diameter of a glucose molecule.)

I thought you might enjoy seeing what the original transistor looked like: First Transistor wikimedia.org.

Space

On a Long Trip to Mars, Cosmic Radiation May Damage Astronauts' Brains space

Researchers exposed the laboratory-bound rodents to a level of radiation similar to that expected on a six-month one-way trip to Mars. They found that the radiation caused significant long-term brain damage, including cognitive impairments and dementia, a result of brain inflammation and damage to the rodents' neurons.

Yemen

U.S. sees mounting evidence of Houthi role in strike on U.S. warship reuters

The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Houthi control in Yemen might have also "painted" the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Iran-aligned fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, said the officials.

Also see Pentagon Threatens Retaliation for Failed Missile Attack on US Ships in Red Sea voanews and "Anybody who puts U.S. Navy ships at risk does so at their own peril:" Pentagon mulls Yemen retaliation cbsnews

War

ISIS targeting foreign troops with explosives-laden drones cbsnews

In the first reported instance of Western forces being targeted with a drone, the French government confirmed Wednesday that two of the country’s special operations troops were injured by an ISIS drone rigged with explosives in northern Iraq, where they were operating alongside Kurdish Peshmerga. Two of the Peshmerga fighters were killed in the attack.

No comments :

Post a Comment