Bio-Hacking Regulators; Communicating Thoughts; Computing Cataracts; I Spy with My Little AI; Free Russian Land; and Detailed Rings

Genetics

The FDA Is Cracking Down On Rogue Genetic Engineers gizmodo

Since the DIY bio community first developed in the early aughts, it has largely avoided government regulation. But in 2017, cheaper equipment and simpler genetic engineering technologies mean that garage scientists can dream much bigger than simply turning yellow yeast red. We now live in a world where anyone can order custom DNA sequences on the internet to tinker with in their home. And the rules that govern genetic engineering today were not written with the foresight that it would one day be possible for 30-year-old hobbyists in Mississippi to try their hand at genetically engineering dogs.

Trump's False Gospel; Sporting Pronoun Pins; The White People Problem; Life Programmer Wanted; Under the Sea; Lasering Plankton from Space; China's EmDrive; Robot Shopper; Amazon's Force; Kim Jung Un's 300+ Political Fears; and Fragments in a Cave

False Religion

Televangelist Paula White Joins Trump Inauguration Day Plans hollywoodreporter

Prosperity gospel preachers Paula White, a friend of Trump's, and Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, whose Detroit church hosted the Republican in September, will be among six faith leaders selected to participate in the Jan. 20 inauguration. It will be the first time preachers who spread the prosperity gospel will be included in the ceremony.

While the faith movement is widely popular, many Christians consider it heretical. Ministers in the tradition often hold up their own wealth as evidence their teachings work. Trump had campaigned in part on his record as a wealthy real estate developer and businessman.

For more on the heretical teachings of people like Paula White, see: The Devilish Puppet Master of the Word-Faith Movement (Justin Peters) gty.org

UK's Wall; The Global Economy Pope; Stomping on Old, Hittite Ground; The $1.7B Pile of Cash; UN Demands NK Pretty Please Stop; Zika Tears; US Zika Funding Aborted; PP's Cushy Government Contract; Amateur Biological Weapons; What Cocaine?; and The Genesis Project

Refugees

Calais migrants: Work to start on UK-funded wall bbc

Ms Rudd told the Home Affairs Committee the wall was "not a new initiative", but what mattered was making sure the French had the right amount of security to prevent "illegals" trying to get to the UK.

Also see Austria Threatens Hungary With Court Action Over Migrants abcnews.go

End of Oil Rich; Targeting Target; Inspired Robots; The Civil Rights of the Trans...humanist; Splice Your DNA in Your Spare Time; Russia's Barrel Response; Baghdad Scuffle; and NATO's New 4k Troops on Russia's Border

This weekend we have some longer-form articles on the decline of oil, a push for trans-humanism civil rights, and the accessibility of editing your own DNA in your spare time.

Fuel

There will be pandemonium: The end of the old oil order has already begun (Opinion) salon

It is hard to overstate the significance of the Doha debacle. At the very least, it will perpetuate the low oil prices that have plagued the industry for the past two years, forcing smaller firms into bankruptcy and erasing hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in new production capacity. It may also have obliterated any future prospects for cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC producers in regulating the market. Most of all, however, it demonstrated that the petroleum-fueled world we’ve known these last decades — with oil demand always thrusting ahead of supply, ensuring steady profits for all major producers — is no more. Replacing it is an anemic, possibly even declining, demand for oil that is likely to force suppliers to fight one another for ever-diminishing market shares.

Martian Sniffer; MO Digs in Against Forced Same-Sex Approval; Human Tissue Chip; BioHackers Review; Apollo on the Brain; and 2,000 Year Old Coin

Space

Spacecraft to seek life on Mars in European-led mission reuters

A spacecraft is due to set off for Mars next week on a mission that scientists hope will help answer one of the most burning questions of spacefaring times: Is there life on other planets?

Also: Europe's ExoMars spacecraft launches to Red Planet to seek out signs of life

Same-Sex

Missouri State Senate Overcomes 39-Hour Filibuster to Pass Religious Freedom Bill thenewamerican

By a margin of over three-to-one, members of the Missouri state Senate passed a bill that allows religious leaders and business owners to refuse service to homosexual partners requesting wedding services.

Genetics Tech

Researchers grow human tissue on a chip wwlp

It’s shaped like a microchip, but if you look closely, blood is flowing into those tiny vessels.  This is a patch of heart tissue made entirely in a lab.

Has video

10 Biohackers Who Turned Into Superhumans youtube

A video highlighting the creepy, unnatural things people are doing to change who God created them.

Brain

The U.S. Government Launches a $100-Million "Apollo Project of the Brain" scientificamerican

...[IARPA] has dedicated $100 million to [this] project.  The Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks program, or MICrONS, aims to reverse-engineer one cubic millimeter of the brain, study the way it makes computations, and use those findings to better inform algorithms in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Has video

Archeology

Hiker finds rare 2,000-year-old gold coin in northern Israel timesofisrael

The coin carries an image of the Emperor Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire, who ruled from 27 BCE until his death in 14 CE, and was minted by Emperor Trajan in 107 CE.

Has video

Other...

Mysterious 'sea monster' washes up on beach in Mexico travel.aol