Trump's Confusing Silence; Bible Class; Defunding Gets the Fed Vote; CA's Continuing Socialist Strain; Mamephant or Elemoth?; Hornless; Bulletproof Origami; Paper Airplane Aid; and Juno Stays Put

Anti-Semitism

Jewish groups ask: Why won’t Trump denounce anti-Semitic attacks? mcclatchydc v

Not only did Trump not condemn the attacks, he also largely ignored the issue and at least once responded as if the accusations were directed at him, which they weren’t. The reaction has left Jewish groups confused and frustrated, especially following the visit this week of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

Also see Jewish reporter who clashed with Trump is 'hopeful' for White House outreach in fighting anti-Semitism washingtonexaminer v

Designing DNA; Scale Wear; Going Dutch on Abortion; Bible Monitor; Orwell's Facts; 20,000 High; and Chinese Border Missiles

Research

New organisms have been formed using the first ever 6-letter genetic code sciencealert

While every living thing on Earth is formed according to a DNA code made up of four bases (represented by the letters G, T, C and A), these modified E. coli carry an entirely new type of DNA, with two additional DNA bases, X and Y, nestled in their genetic code.

UN's Fraud Blindness; Hague Rejects China Who Returns Favor; 10 Year Long Hezbollah Shadow; Israel's First Year of Jubilee; A Sunni Bloc Israel?; BDS Lies. No, Really.; The Year America Ceased Pretending to be Christian; Doctors Without Bouncers; There's a Blind Mice Joke in There; FBI's 430k Kinda Legal Iris Scans; International Data Pact; Sheep View; Alive Ghost Fish; and Tiny-Apartment, Form of...Livingroom!

UN

Fraud? What fraud? Watchdogs find UN in 'a state of near denial' about internal corruption foxnews

That is the main thrust of a 133-page examination foxnews of “fraud detection, prevention and response” across 28 organizations in the U.N.’s network, carried out by members of the world organization’s Joint Inspection Unit (JIU), a special group of experts mandated to carry out examinations across the entire array of U.N. funds, organizations and programs.

The Tale of Jesus' Wife; Canada's Death Sentence; Calling Religious Liberty Hate; Sin, a Minor Doctrine; Wedding Pagans; Fingerprinting Babies; Meet Olli; Common Sense, AI; Amelia; Human Edit Request; Final Warning to Hamas; Palestinians' Water Border; Calls to Strike Assad Now; and Shark Traffic

Fraud

The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus’s Wife theatlantic v

The American Association of Museums’ Guide to Provenance Research warns that an investigation of an object’s origins “is not unlike detective work”: “One may spend hours, days, or weeks following a trail that leads nowhere.” When I started to dig, however, I uncovered more than I’d ever expected—a warren of secrets and lies that spanned from the industrial districts of Berlin to the swingers scene of southwest Florida, and from the halls of Harvard and the Vatican to the headquarters of the East German Stasi.

This is a fascinating long-form article by a reporter who set out to find the origins of a (supposed) 1,300 yr-old papyrus about Jesus' wife, and the ensuing series of lies, historical invention, and deceit of the man behind it. It's a long read, but worth it - particularly for those who've heard the Biblically unsupported "Jesus had a wife" argument. Warning: some aspects of the primary figure's personal life uncovered during the investigation are sexually graphic in nature (the article doesn't dwell TOO MUCH on them).

Jumping the Stealth Gun; Gushing at the Future Now; Driverless City; Robot Bowl; Robots that Kill; Robot Babies; Robot Morality; Ark Drone; and Recycling by Hand

Today we're loaded up on robot stories! Robots preparing for the NFL, robots making baby robots (yes, that's a thing), robots being programmed to kill, and robots learning morality...from us (yikes!). All these robots remind me: If you haven't had a chance to read Why AI?, points raised there have been showing up in the news lately :)

Robot.

Military

China says first stealth fighter not yet in service, but coming soon in.reuters

In a statement, China's air force described as "unreliable" reports that the J-20 had appeared in training exercises, following a weekend state television broadcast that showed grainy pictures of what some viewers took to be the aircraft.

"At present, the J-20 has yet to be equipped for air force service," the air force said on its official microblog late on Tuesday afternoon.

G7's Global Crisis; Emoji Bible; The 20-Week Unknown Ban; Children-Approved Gene Therapy; DNA Tracer; Designing in the Air; Stealth Moto; Buses over Cars; Jumping Roach

Global

G7 vows growth efforts as Japan's Abe warns of global crisis in.reuters v

"Global growth remains moderate and below potential, while risks of weak growth persist," they said in a declaration. "Global growth is our urgent priority."

Tesla Tractor; Hitler Who?; Fly-by Without Bye-Die; NK Prepares Anniversary Launch; US Joins Philippines in South Sea; Religious Police on a Leash; Israel is Real; US Calls Israel a Bully; Obama's Last Israeli Move; The World's Pope; Visual Shock-wave; Stud-d-d-dering Mice; Brainprint; Pestilence Overload Penciled in for 2050; NASA, the Climate Change Defender; and Bible Banned

Amazing Tech

Reconfigured Tesla coil aligns, electrifies materials from a distance phys.org v

The system works by remotely oscillating positive and negative charges in each nanotube, causing them to chain together into long wires. Cherukuri's specially designed Tesla coil even generates a tractor beam-like effect as nanotube wires are pulled toward the coil over long distances.

Human-authorized Machine-killing; Drone Ball; Polygamy Pushed Back; Hebrew Texts Written When Advertised; Saudi-Egypt Land Swap Around Israel; Israel's Last Hope is Obama; Dr. Watson, I Presume; Far Out Space Ideas; Basic Income for No Work; Hands-To-Speech Translator; BIG-i is a Big Eye; Ice from Nowhere; Crab Swarm Under the Sea; and North Carolina Starting to Bend

Military

Arms Control Groups Urge Human Control of Robot Weaponry nytimes

The report, which came from Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic at the opening of a weeklong United Nations meeting on autonomous weapons in Geneva, potentially challenges an emerging United States military strategy that will count on technology advantages and increasingly depend on weapons systems that blend humans and machines.

The report from Human Rights Watch. Yes, that Human Rights Group. While I'm not keen on the idea of autonomous weapons roming the streets/skies, the argument in this report is a humanistic one with a loose appeal to the 'h'oly See for some moral guidance.

LGBT Spirituality; NASA Humanoid; NK Nuclearizes Missile...Maybe; NK Steam; CERN, Wahaha; Lady Rabbi; Israel Powers Down More; Stem Cell Heart; Pig Hearted Baboon; Utopia 2050; Habakkuk; 2k Year Old Synagogue; Another Woman for UN; Driverless Taxis; NJ Too Religious; MISSISSIPPI Love; and Expect Blackouts, LA

Don't Forget the Anti-Christ; Navy Tattoo; Hiding Earth from Imagination; Everything's Going Nuclear - and Israel's Ready; Machine Learning for Fun and Profit; Super Storm!; and Quran's god Just Isn't the Bible's

End Times

12 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE ANTI-CHRIST   alliancenet.org

We, in the Calvinistic and Reformed church, have not done justice to the Scripture’s teaching on this matter. We often rightly respond to the “Left Behind” industry with dismay and sarcasm. In so doing, however, we have, perhaps inadvertently failed to sufficiently and soberly grasp Scripture’s teaching on this period of history which will be instrumental in bringing about a catastrophic and irreversible apostasy. Here then, are twelve biblical observations about the Man of Lawlessness (MoL) to help prepare us for that day.

This excellent look at the coming aspostasy within the church was shared by Tim Challies today, and I wanted to pass it along...

Military

Navy easing tattoo rules   navytimes

The Navy is easing its tattoo policy in a bid to recruit and retain more sailors from the millennial generation, of whom more than 1 in 3 sport body art.

This is not a commentary on tattoos, nor to say that they are sinful in of themselves (some may disgree, but consider the argument Matt Slick makes on CARM.org for an appolgetic on this using Scripture). However, what I feel it shows is how a changing culture influences even those organizations which we feel to be the most 'reserved' in attire or behavior.

What's also interesting is the admitted difficulty and arbituary rules on deciding what is morally OK/not OK to have:

“There are just so many variables when you look at tattoo language and tattoo art that it’s just not reasonable to try and identify a set list of what is and what isn’t acceptable,” Stevens said. “This is one of those areas where we trust this senior leadership, our triads, to be able to look at something in its context, using the chain of command and having discussions amongst themselves as to whether something is appropriate or not.”

Aliens

Two scientists propose using lasers to cloak Earth … from aliens   digitaltrends

In a nearly six-minute video posted to Cool Labs’ YouTube channel, Teachey details exactly how a planetary cloaking device might work and explains that “we humans could build a cloaking device for the Earth, right now.”

Sadly, this was NOT an April Fool's joke...

Nuclear

Nuclear terrorist threat bigger than you think   edition.cnn

Cassandra's curse, however, was not that she was wrong, but that no one believed her. I don't know a single nuclear expert who thinks that the threat of nuclear terrorism is shrinking. I don't know a single one who thinks that the actions taken by world leaders at this week's Nuclear Security Summit are enough. We are fearful. And you should be, too.

This is an opinion piece that reveals how life without Christ, the certainty and totality of God's Soverienty, and knowledge that He is working all things for good (Rom 8:28) provides two options: living in wilful ignorance of the sin around, or live in fear of everything. If you are in Christ (Rom 3:23-25), then I encourage you to neither be foolishly ignorant of what's going on in the world, nor fearful of what is! And to keep looking up, for our redemption is nigh (Luke 21:28) :)

Israel a global leader in readiness for nuclear terror   timesofisrael

Israel is one of the countries most prepared for scenarios of nuclear terrorism,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said Saturday at a nuclear security summit held in Washington.

Machine Learning

Advancing Machine Learning to Uncover New Insights   infoworld

Machine learning holds the promise of not only structuring vast amounts of data but also to create true business intelligence

Climate

Superstorm’ climate shift can happen within decades not centuries, climate scientists warn   independent.co.uk

Climate scientists are warning the threat of global warming could be even more dangerous than previously believed, suggesting “killer storms”, the rise of sea levels and the “disintegration” of large parts of the polar ice sheets can happen sooner than thought.

Sounds terrible, but the description doesn't even come close to the "climate change" our Creator promised in Rev 16:1-21, et al, leading up to the final judgement (Rev 20:11-15) before the earth and heavens are destroyed and made new (Rev 21:1)...

Islam

Startling Similarities (and Contrasts) Between the Bible and the Quran   pjmedia

I have been a pastor for the past 28 years. I am a conservative evangelical who believes all the basic tenets of Christianity: the Trinity, virgin birth and sinless humanity of Jesus Christ, the vicarious death and physical resurrection of Christ, the future judgments of the saved and the lost, salvation by grace, and so forth. I have personally talked to and shared my faith with hundreds of Muslims, both here in America and overseas. In almost all my conversations with my Muslim friends, the conversations and debates have been polite and respectful. I have also read the entire Quran all the way through twice, in two different English translations (I cannot read Arabic, unfortunately).

Short, but interesting. I agree with his points, though I would say the part of his title that reads "similarities" is a bit misleading as it's mostly a contrast piece...

Other...

Mathematician Solves the Centuries-Old Sphere Problem in Higher Dimensions   wired

Biblia Cubano; Baby Died With Dignity...and Neglect; Shift Towards the B; Seed Vault; Poor Sisters; A World without Traffic Lights; Deep Learning; Traveling Plutonium; Self-Healing Metal; and Cloaking Material

Bible

The Bible returns to Cuba foxnews

For the first time since diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba were restored, one of the world’s largest private Bible collections was made available to all Cuban people – free and open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. – on display from February 6 – March 13.

Abortion

Doctors Left Baby Die After An Hour Of Crying Following Botched Abortion Of Baby With Down Syndrome theglobaldispatch

The baby was born on March 7, 2016 at 24 weeks, after an abortion failed. The child cried and screaming for an hour before dying, according to witnesses, as reported on Republika Television.

Banking

ASX will be a global blockchain pioneer theage.com.au

Blythe Masters is confident that Australia will build one of the world's first bitcoin-like databases for settling equities trades, allowing brokers to save millions of dollars in back office costs.

Blockchain, what?? Check out this easy to understand, 2 minute video for Explaining Bitcoin's blockchain technology.

End of the World

Inside a mountain is a ‘doomsday’ vault holding the key to human survival in a post-apocalyptic world news.com.au

Located 1300km from the North Pole, hidden behind thick concrete walls and buried 130 metres inside a mountain is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Created by scientists in 2008, the vault aims to preserve potential crops in the event of a global disaster such as climate change or nuclear war.

This vault sure seems to be in the news a lot lately :)

Society

FAQs: Religious Liberty and the Little Sisters of the Poor thegospelcoalition

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in a case from religious nonprofit groups challenging the federal government’s contraceptive/abortifacient mandate. Here is what you should know about that case.

Automation

MIT researchers envision a future without traffic lights slashgear

We have just barely reached the tip of the iceberg when it comes to self-driving cars but researcher's from MIT's "Senseable City Lab" are already preparing the theoretical ground work for one of that technology's biggest implications.

AI

A Short History Of Deep Learning slaforbesshgear

Deep learning is a topic that is making big waves at the moment. It is basically a branch of machine learning (another hot topic) that uses algorithms to e.g. recognize objects and understand human speech. Scientists have used deep learning algorithms with multiple processing layers (hence “deep”) to make better models from large quantities of unlabeled data (such as photos with no description, voice recordings or videos on YouTube).

Nuclear

Ship carrying 331kg of weapons-grade plutonium leaves Japan for US ibtimes.co.uk

A ship carrying up to 331kg of weapons-grade plutonium has left the port in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan for the US, where the material will be downgraded. The amount of plutonium carried by the vessel is enough to produce up to 50 nuclear bombs.

Robots

Morphing, self-healing metals could let us build soft robots techradar

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a hybrid material that combines stiff metal with soft rubber foam, and can shift between the properties of both.

Also see New hybrid material can morph shape and self-heal. This includes a link to a video...but it’s not the most exciting video :)

Future Tech

Iowa State engineers develop flexible skin that traps radar waves, cloaks objects news.iastate.edu

Iowa State University engineers have developed a new flexible, stretchable and tunable “meta-skin” that uses rows of small, liquid-metal devices to cloak an object from the sharp eyes of radar.