'Beware of Jews' Retraction; Growing China; Stretching Philippines; AI Audit; Finding Recalled Cars; Brain 10x Faster Than Before; Google Filtering Hate; Sunscope; Third Arm Support; Defending Against the Hurtful; and Texan Bathrooms

Antisemitism

Artist behind 'beware of Jews' sign apologises for causing offence theguardian

Franck Allais, a freelance photographer, said the contentious sign was part of an artistic project, which includes depictions of a woman pulling a shopping trolley, a man pushing his wheelchair and a cat.

Allais said he intended the project to be a comment on identity and that the sign in Stamford Hill, one of the largest Hasidic communities in Europe, was not an antisemitic statement. He said he was left shaken by the offence he had caused.

I posted the original story of this 'antisemetic' act yesterday on the previous blog, but appears that I (as well as several others) jumped to conclusions about the intent. I appologize for my part in passing the original story around.

Ireland's Coercion Cake; Hate = Flag Celebration; The First 10 Transitions; NY/CA Universities: Excellence in Antisemitism; Torah Journeys; Turkey's Stretchy Border; NK Fume; International First: Instant Trade; The Global Economy Resistance Blues; Predicting Future Trial Outcomes; China Bots; Water from Air; and Too Big to Exist

Society

[Ireland] 'Gay cake' appeal: Christian bakers Ashers lose appeal bbc v

Reacting to the ruling, Daniel McArthur from Ashers said he was "extremely disappointed" adding that it undermined "democratic freedom, religious freedom and free speech".

Peace Peace!; Genocide Recognition; Withdrawing from NK; Be Cyborg or Be Obsolete; Bovine Johne's in AU; Trojan Horse Attack on Cancer; Instant, Global Trading; and Basic Income Test

Peace

Israel-Palestinian peace initiatives are suddenly popping up everywhere washingtonpost

Until a week ago, it seemed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was a flat-liner. President Obama thought so. In March, he said he wouldn’t seek to jump-start talks — the two sides were too far apart; it was not in the cards.

The Secret Digital Cash Test; Bitcoin's Questionable Beginnings; Overdue Recession; Nuclear Saber and Cold War 2; China's Rap Recruitment; Extending Settlement Rights; Iran Scolds U.S.; NK's Congress; Travel Ban; Drone Made Badly; AI Dancer; Printing Buildings; Alien Jellyfish; and Relocating a Community

Wall Street discusses secret digital cash test, Iran tells the U.S. to get out of the Persian Gulf, and discovery of a new, glowing jellyfish was announced (there's a video of that!).

Cashless

Inside the Secret Meeting Where Wall Street Tested Digital Cash bloomberg

The event -- announced in a statement this Monday -- marked a key moment in the evolution of blockchain, notable both for what was achieved, as well as how many firms were involved. The technology’s potential has captivated Wall Street executives because it offers a way to free up billions of dollars by speeding transactions that currently can take days, tying up capital. But a huge piece of that puzzle is transforming cash into a digital form. And while some firms have conducted experiments, the Chain event showed a large number of them are now looking jointly at a potential solution.

Point, Click, Hover; Printed Car Closer; Electronic Synapses; Modern Jewish Kingdom in Ancient Babylon; UN Gasps!; Not Pharaoh; Mr. Mandela Goes to Palestine; NK Readying Next Missile; Abu Who?; Fruit Ninja Weather; 12 Black Holes, Sitting in a Row; Ken Ham Caricature; Methodists Pressure North Carolina; Church of Norway Exodus; Digital Money Tracks Well; and If End Time Theology was a Popularity Contest

Got a crazy mashup of worldviews today! From bashing Ken Ham because public school students go to his museum, to denying that the Biblical Pharaoh was Egyptian, to Methodists lobbying for whatever-you-say-you-are bathrooms in North Carolina. Also Nelson Mandela has been "raised" in the West Bank with a cry of peace and death to Israel.

Drones

The Hover Camera will follow you around and record your entire life mashable v

The Hover Camera is also unlike drones in that it truly hovers after powering it on. You simply let go of it and it'll hover in the air at the altitude (up to 164 feet high) which you let it go at

Personal, small flying drones that can pick indivduals out of a crowd, follow them, and record what they are doing. What could go wrong? For a fuller story on the company, itself, see Zero Zero's Camera Drone Could Be a Robot Command Center in the Future v

North Carolina Support; Discriminating Behavior Not People; New Morality Pope; Rich and Famous Sinners; Wrestling with the Future; Turkey's State; Girl Infantry-Man; and Testing Global Banking

Society

Six Reasons North Carolina Got It Right townhall

On Monday Lt. Governor Dan Forest, who helped call the special session to pass HB2, called the executive in charge at one large protesting company and simply asked if him if he or anyone there had a actually read the bill.

He admitted they had not. They just labeled it “discriminatory” without even reading it.

An article linked to by today's Tim Challies update. Been tricky to find anyone not bashing North Carolina over this law.

3 Reasons Why Religious Liberty Laws Don’t Discriminate thegospelcoalition.org

One of the most ubiquitous phrases is that such bills are a “license to discriminate.” According to this line of thinking, it is invidiously discriminatory if a baker, florist, or photographer declines to use his or her creative talents in service of a same-sex wedding ceremony.

Two from Tim Challies in one day!

The New Morality of Pope Francis newyorker

I was ordained in early 1969, a few months after the promulgation of “Humanae Vitae,” the Vatican’s resounding condemnation of “artificial birth control,” which would define my future. I was a chaplain at a university where, true to the era, the norms of sexual morality had been upended. I certainly saw the need, in those wild days, for a humane and ethical analysis of the state of sexual intimacy, personal commitment, erotic longing, and gender rights. But, believe me, the triumphalist salvo from Rome made the moral condition worse, not better.

An opinion piece on how relative moralism was enshrined in Catholism long before Pope Francis. This article's author sees that as a good thing, and is praising the latest pope for pulling back further from absolutes. I found it worth reading, seeing the insights of one who is lost and deep within an idolatrous system where the issue at stake is not whether or not any decisions conform to God's word, but the words of the popes. Interesting read: sad because of the utter blindness of this man and enraging because of the utter joy taken in promoting a system wickedly at odds with God and calling it good. (Rom 1:32)

Depravity

The Troubled Minds of the Rich and Famous news.nationalgeographic

Talking from her home in Alexandria, Virginia, Kalb takes us inside the brain of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, explains how Howard Hughes had a grilled cheese sandwich problem, and why Charles Darwin is her hero.

Sin has affected how we think and relate and understand (known as the Noetic Effect of sin). This means that people really do end up a mess even by man's noeticly-effected-standard, but when we look for an answer in psychology, as the author of this book is doing, we are missing that we, ourselves, are corrupted and looking for the out for our own responsibility! This look at those in history shows us that being well-known doesn't change our nature. Not even one bit.

Singularitry

The funny things happening on the way to singularity techcrunch

About 10 years ago, inventor, futurist and now Director of Engineering at Google Ray Kurzweil famously embraced the concept of “the singularity” — that moment in time when machine intelligence surpasses our own. Kurzweil predicted the singularity would occur by 2045, and man and machine would become inseparable.

Given the relationship most people have with their smartphones, you could argue it’s already happening.

Though deeply entrenched in a humanistic worldview, an engaging read.

Turkey

One day after Israel issues travel warning to Turkey, US follows suit jpost

"The US Mission in Turkey would like to inform US citizens that there are credible threats to tourist areas, in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya," the statements reads.

Military

Louisiana woman makes U.S. Army history ksla

A Robeline native is making armed forces history as the first woman to enlist in the infantry in the United States Army.

Banking

4 top banks used blockchain tech to trade credit swaps qz

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) successfully traded credit default swaps on the blockchain, according to an announcement today.

Pipe Flares; Google and BOFA Jump On-board; Military Suicide; NK in Semi-War Mode; Obama and Xi Shake Their Fist Some More; Resurrecting the Book of the Dead; Theology without Christ; Programming Cells; Smoking DNA; AI vs AI; Automated Lawyer; NASA Too Eager?; Amazon and Microsoft Joining the Street Fight; and Blockchain

Caution: Today is April 1st - I've done my best to watch out for prank articles, but if you find one that I fell for on this list, let me know!

Terrorism

Incendiary devices found hanging on Tyngsborough power lines   bostonglobe

Federal, state, and local authorities Thursday said they could find nothing to suggest the devices were installed as part of a terror plot. But they said the incident, which involved objects resembling pipe bombs, had targeted a key electrical link between Canada and the Northeastern United States.

Also Incendiary Devices Found On Power Lines In Tyngsboro

Society

Google Ventures Bans Investments in North Carolina   recode.net

Google Ventures, now known as GV, has joined a growing list of tech and corporate heavyweights speaking out against North Carolina’s HB 2, a law that the companies say discriminates against transgender people in the state.

They continue to line up. See also Bank of America Joins Backlash Against North Carolina LGBT Law

U.S. military suicides remain high for 7th year   usatoday

The Pentagon reported Friday that 265 active-duty service members killed themselves last year, continuing a trend of unusually high suicide rates that have plagued the U.S. military for at least seven years.

Heartbreaking.

North Korea

North Korea to pursue nuclear and missile programmes   uk.reuters

North Korea will pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile programme in defiance of the United States and its allies, a top Pyongyang envoy said on Friday, adding that a state of "semi-war" now existed on the divided Korean peninsula.

Obama and Xi agree to fully crack down on North Korea   businessinsider

"Both leaders committed... to strengthen coordination in addressing the shared threat presented by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile systems," the White House said.

Also see North Korea fires another missile into sea

Paganism

Spanish Archaeologists Try to Reconstruct Fragments of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead   ancient-origins

For the last 14 years, twenty archaeologists, Egyptologists, and Spanish specialists have been working on the southern foot of the hill of Dra Abu el-Naga with a team of over a hundred Egyptian workers. During this time, they have united their efforts and been studying every part of the area, and scrutinizing every centimeter of a vast necropolis which is overflowing with burials from different eras.

There seems to be a certain obsession with translating this book lately...

Apostasy

Christianity is no longer compulsory for Oxford Theology students   christiantoday

The reduction in compulsory modules for second and third year students will enable other papers to be taken, including "feminist approaches to religion and theology" and "Buddhism in space and time".

Biology

A programming language for living cells   mit.edu

MIT biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that give new functions to living cells.

Smoking During Pregnancy Seems to Alter Fetal DNA   webmd

For the study, researchers collected blood samples from newborns, mainly from the umbilical cord. Compared to babies of nonsmokers, those born to regular smokers had over 6,000 spots where DNA was chemically modified.

AI

China To Face Off Against AlphaGo With Own AI Team   androidheadlines

An A.I. development team out of China, called China Computer Go Team, has announced that they have their own Go-playing A.I. in development. While an A.I. capable of playing Go at all is an accomplishment, this team has decided that’s not quite enough. Instead, they intend to develop their A.I. with the goal of challenging AlphaGO at its own native game.

Appeal Parking Tickets Via Bot in New York City   fortune

A parking-lawyer web robot that has saved British drivers nearly $4 million in fines over the past several months is now ready to help Americans, starting with New Yorkers, by appealing their tickets for free.

Complete with creepy eye icon for the bot

Space

ASAP concerned NASA is taking risks to meet Orion schedule   nasaspaceflight

NASA’s key advisory body has warned the agency that schedule pressure, in combination with cost pressure, is causing compromises that carry additional risk. Focusing on the Orion spacecraft, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) claimed NASA is “taking risk after risk” to meet the schedule for Orion’s opening missions.

Automation

Amazon, Microsoft look for big data role in self-driving cars   reuters

Amazon, Microsoft look for big data role in self-driving cars

Banking

Blockchain--What You Need to Know   prnewswire

Spearheaded by Bitcoin, blockchains achieve consensus among distributed nodes, allowing the transfer of digital goods without the need for centralized authorisation of transactions.

Other...

Scientists may have just uncovered an ancient Viking site in North America   businessinsider

HOW DID THE APOLLO COMMAND AND SERVICE MODULES SEPARATE?   popsci

Interesting videos about something you never even once wondered about