Holocaust Denial Result; Tunnel Tales; Declaring War on New Zealand; NK Sees Nuclear Opportunity; Secret Deals No Longer; China's Moon-Mars Hop; Position by the Centimeter; Mech Wars; Murder on Echo's Watch; Gene Drive Made EZ; Diamond Wires; Push, Pull, Power; AI Job Loss...or Not; The 3-Day Wait Free Speech; and Andy Stanely Opens His Mouth Again

Google

Holocaust Denial Article No Longer in Google’s Top Search Results forward

Now, when users search “Did the Holocaust happen?” they must first scroll through articles about the search controversy, two articles by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ushmm.org, and a wikipedia page on Holocaust denial before they arrive at the Stormfront article.

What's interesting about this is the potential ramifications if, say, people started complaining that the top results were "anti-homosexual" or promoted only one Way (John 14:16) or the like. I'm all for Holocaust denial (AKA anti-semetic) sites being treated as the "fake news" they are, but to intervene to control how specific results get sorted up (or down) seems to be a slipperly slope.

Oldest Alphabet; Metal Attack; The Law of Heatbeats; Unborn Test Extension; Robotic Galago; Light Energy; Predicting Materials; Robot Glove; Shortening Giraffe; Saturn Dive Images; Robo Cop; Hype Over Mind; Unstaffed Bank; Sappy AI Music; and Forcing the Peace Issue

Archeaology

Expert claims inscriptions from Egyptian exodus proves Hebrew is world’s oldest alphabet jpost

While critics argue that the original alphabet likely derived from a grouping of Afro-Asiatic languages – including Akkadian, Aramaic, Phoenician, Ethiopic and Hebrew – [professor] Petrovich claims that an inscription discovered on an ancient Egyptian stone slab in 2012 proves his case.

Petrovich said he subsequently translated 16 more Hebrew inscriptions from four other ancient slabs discovered in Egypt and Sinai, including one from 1446 BCE, which describes Moses as a figure heralded by the ancient Jews shortly before he led the exodus from Egypt.

Baptist Unity; Shanty Embassy; Philippines Split; Anti-EU Italy; Austria's Right; Russian Crash; Uber Buys into AI; and Emotional Car

Apostasy

British Baptists Issue Call For Unity Over Same-Sex Marriage christiantoday

An introduction on The Courage to be Baptist website says: "This Baptist way of being church allows us to maintain unity even when we disagree about certain issues. We believe this is a gift of God, allowing us to witness to our true unity in Christ even when we disagree about serious matters."

Trump TV; Peace Grail; Conservative Hate; Twitter Over Censors; China's Facebook; Catching Poachers with Their Thermals on; and Google's AI Language

Politics

Welcome to Washington’s new normal: One Trump drama after another washingtonpost

Trump summoned two dozen television executives and news anchors to his offices Monday to berate them as dishonest and disobedient. He sought to strong-arm the British government to appoint his Brexit ally, Nigel Farage ukip.org, as ambassador to the United States. He dropped his threat to prosecute Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, disregarding his “lock her up” campaign chant and incurring the wrath of some reliable supporters.

Then there was Tuesday’s meeting with the New York Times, the newspaper Trump loves to mock as “failing.” It was scheduled, then canceled, then rescheduled. And once the president-elect settled in at the Grey Lady’s wikipedia.org boardroom, he softened his position on climate change, floated the idea that his son-in-law could broker peace in the Middle East, voiced new doubts about the effectiveness of torturing terrorism suspects, savaged Republicans who wavered on his candidacy and left unresolved concerns about how — or even whether — he would disassociate himself from his global business holdings to avoid conflicts of interest.

Born Criminal; Frozen and Lost; Leader Angela; The Philippine Bow; NATO-Russian Missile Dance; Light AI; Electa-Aid; and Weather Chasing Satellite

Society

Troubling Study Says Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Who Will Be Criminals Based on Facial Features theintercept

The bankrupt attempt to infer moral qualities from physiology was a popular pursuit for millennia, particularly among those who wanted to justify the supremacy of one racial group over another. But phrenology britannica, which involved studying the cranium to determine someone’s character and intelligence, was debunked around the time of the Industrial Revolution, and few outside of the pseudo-scientific fringe would still claim that the shape of your mouth or size of your eyelids might predict whether you’ll become a rapist or thief.

Not so in the modern age of Artificial Intelligence, apparently: In a paper titled “Automated Inference on Criminality using Face Images,” two Shanghai Jiao Tong University sjtu.edu.cn researchers say they fed “facial images of 1,856 real persons” into computers and found “some discriminating structural features for predicting criminality, such as lip curvature, eye inner corner distance, and the so-called nose-mouth angle.” They conclude that “all four classifiers perform consistently well and produce evidence for the validity of automated face-induced inference on criminality, despite the historical controversy surrounding the topic.”

Lies Begetting Lies; The Racist Noose; Invoking God and Immigration Control; Russia's Texas-Sized Talk; Shrinking When Hot; and 3D Manufacturing Gallary

Depravity

Slippery slope: Study finds little lies lead to bigger ones sfgate

Neuroscientists at the University College London's Affective Brain Lab affectivebrain put 80 people in scenarios where they could repeatedly lie and get paid more based on the magnitude of their lies. They said they were the first to demonstrate empirically that people's lies grow bolder the more they fib.

The researchers then used brain scans to show that our mind's emotional hot spot — the amygdala — becomes desensitized or used to the growing dishonesty, according to a study published online Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience .

While we take the (early, unverified) conclusions of physical changes in the brain with a grain of salt, the fact that ones conscience becomes desensitized (or hardened/seared) the more we intentionally sin is well attested to in the Bible. We sin naturally but the longer we do it, the "better" we get at suppressing the conscience's warning of our guilt. Just a couple examples include Ephesians 4:17-19 and 1 Timothy 4:1-3. Also consider the source of, and desire to, sin comes from the very core of who we are: Jeremiah 17:9. Finally, take to heart the dire warning of Christ of those who are known for lying (indeed, all who remain unrepentant until the end, with one possible fruit of an unrepentant heart being lying): Revelation 21:7-8

Criminal Fear; Police Use Twitter, Too; Tearing Down Gandhi; Russin' War Crimes; Duterte Doesn't Need You; Nuclear. Activity. Again.; Great Balls of Fire; Growing Food in Space; North Star Moon Shot; and the AI's in the Details

Society

In Fear of Public Scrutiny, Chicago Officer Didn’t Use Gun While She Was Beaten ktla v

While wrestling on the ground, the the man allegedly grabbed the officer's head and slammed her face into the pavement repeatedly until she lost consciousness, [the superintendent] said.

Sloth Attack; Dead End; Mapping an Ancient Battle; Amazon's Minute of Human Interaction; The Spy Base Theory; Threats to Shoot; Afghan's Going AWOL; and Jailed Disturbing Inner Peace

Society

[OPINION] America’s ‘quiet catastrophe’: Millions of idle men washingtonpost

After 88 consecutive months of the economic expansion that began in June 2009, a smaller percentage of American males in the prime working years (ages 25 to 54) are working than were working near the end of the Great Depression illinois.edu in 1940, when the unemployment rate was above 14 percent. If the labor-force participation rate were as high today as it was as recently as 2000, nearly 10 million more Americans would have jobs.

Broken Gods; Total Abortion Ban Possible (Hint: Not Here); 3 Parent Baby Born; Origin Myth; Swiss Unveiling Muslims; Predictive Policing Blues; Approved Satan Club; Bye Bye Internet; Veto Vetoed; Hurry Up and Deploy; UN's Dream Chaser; Translation Almost Human Good; Sitting in Line; and Sam Schmidt the Driver

Archaeology

Gate shrine from First Temple period unearthed at Tel Lachish National Park jpost

A rare gate shrine dating to the First Temple period (8th century BCE), unearthed in Tel Lachish National Park, near Mount Hebron, may prove King Hezekiah’s Biblically-recorded efforts to abolish worship in the region, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday.

Also see II Kings 18:1-8

LAPD Etector; NLP, huh?; Doing the Robot; Need Brains; Bouncing Mars Rover; Old Bones; Whales Go Pro; Quartet Sings Same Tune; Syria Across the Border; and Biggest Eye Going Live

Crime

Experts to create predictive tool to tackle hate crime in Los Angeles phys.org

Over the next three years, the team will be closely scrutinising data taken from Twitter and cross-referencing this with reported hate crimes in Los Angeles to develop markers, or signatures, which could indicate if, and where, a hate crime is likely to take place at a certain point in time, and then enable police officers to intervene.

Obama and Netanyahu's Final Meeting; Syria Ceases Cease Fire; Merkel Admits It's Someones Fault; French Quarter for Sharia Law; Deported into Citizens; Tree Fuel; Lyft's Beyond; Self-Driven Canal; and The Blind Who 'See' Algebra

Israel

Obama And Netanyahu To Meet In New York On Wednesday jewishbusinessnews

The meeting was agreed upon following talks between the Prime Minister’s Office and the White House and was confirmed after the signing of the new US-Israel military aid package. It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since November 2015 and likely be the last as Obama approaches the conclusion of his presidency.

“The meeting also will be an opportunity to discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Planned Parenthood's 3%; Louisiana's PP Battle; Biblical Zoo is so Anti-Darwin; 20 More Climate Ouis; Another Typhoon; Soaked, Secretive NK; Syria, I Knew Her Well; Waiting On Line; Robot Deputy; AI Car Designer; Stem Cell Lungs; Printing Lenses; Common Rare Diseases; Satellite Tom; and Resurrected Fraud

Abortion

The Numbers That Show Planned Parenthood About Abortion, Not Women’s Health dailysignal v

Planned Parenthood’s own numbers prove that it’s an abortion corporation, focused on abortion, not on women’s health care. The fact is, Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform a single mammogram and performs less than 2 percent of all women’s cancer screenings in the United States. Yet, as America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood commits over 30 percent of America’s abortions—887 abortions a day, one abortion every 97 seconds, and over 320,000 abortions last year alone.

Enemy of the State; Plan D(ie); Welcoming Evangelicals; Bad Hair Scene; Light Sound; Abbas the KGB Spy?; Father Russia Welcomes Peace Talks; Humanless Driverless Cars; Chosen for Alien Hunting Abilities; and 3D Printing Milk

Society

How A Cakemaker Became An Enemy Of The State thefederalist

...those 30 seconds [when Phillips declined to participate in celebrating the wedding of David Mullins and Charlie Craig] were clarifying in many other ways. It showed us that most of the media are incapable (or unwilling) to lay out the debate over religious freedom in an honest or enlightening way. It’s shown us that many of those who praise the diversity of American life have, in reality, lost their compassion and the ability to tolerate anyone who disagrees with their worldview.

1st Amendment and Cakes; Rain Bomb; Fiery Manure; Australia Drifts Away; Dragon Ants; NK'n Hate in Bullet Point Form; The Anti-US War Game Party; Breaking Communication Chains; Get Turkey Out (of NATO); Israel's Red Pill, Blue Pill Choice; Shrinking Okinawan Stake; Another Gay Christening; 58 Years of NASA; Yahoo's Solution to Hate; and a Dead Man's Fingerprint

Society

Constitution Check: Does the First Amendment protect a wedding cake as an art form? blog.constitutioncenter.org

Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Center’s constitutional literacy adviser, looks at a potential Supreme Court test case about religious beliefs, same-sex marriage and a Colorado bakeshop.

Also see Masterpiece Cakeshop petition to the Supreme Court adflegal pdf

Iran Doesn't Like Being Told 'No'; Stated Emergency; The UN Vote That Doesn't Count; Not Inclusive - Not Accredited; Hottest Year Ever (maybe); Heritage to the Beginning; Peanut Butter on the Prairie; Invisible, Mystical Dark Matter; Tweet Science; The Breeze Bird; Brat-Bot; and Internet Flight Test

Iran

Iran left with no choice but to confront the US, official warns jpost

Iran's Press TV quoted Larijani nytimes as issuing the warning in light of legislation proposed by US opponents to the Iran nuclear deal to further sanction the Islamic Republic and the UN's first bi-annual report on the deal's implementation released earlier this week which suggested that Iran was not following "the spirit of the deal."

Fighting Death; Taking Advantage of the Dead; N.C. Stares Down U.S.; Anti-Culture; Presidential Prayer and Folly; Killing Baby Softly; Iran Calls for Anti-Isreal Unity; Texan IED; Legion vs Banks; Human Anti-Cancer Antibody; "No, I'm Earth!"; and Viv

Today starts creepy (testing on clinically dead) and ends sad (Utah requires painkillers for some babies before aborting them). There's also the fight between North Carolina and the Federal Government, and the President's disjointed reality when it comes to religious freedom and prayer.

Death

Dead could be brought 'back to life' in groundbreaking project telegraph.co.uk

A biotech company in the US has been granted ethical permission to recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury, to test whether parts of their central nervous system can be brought back to life.

Ice Bacteria; United Health Exits the Exchange; TTIP - the Dream No One Loves; Pay With Your Face(book); China Playing Mars Catch-up; Antbo; NK's Submarine Missile Launch; Russia and NATO's Sabers; Iron Dome Test-Driven in US; and 500 Lbs of Missing Firework Show

Bacteria

HOW BACTERIA CREATE THEIR OWN ICE popsci

Analyses...revealed that [it] uses proteins in its cell membrane to slightly change the position of nearby water molecules so that they would fit more neatly into a lattice, as they are in ice. The bacterium can then use vibrational energy to remove heat from the area around it, coalescing the water molecules into solid ice.

Keeping AI in Balance; New Rembrandt; Executives Against Morality; Indiana Sued for Abortion Law; Nature of Men and Boys; DNA Data Storage; Artificial Seizures; Automated Submarine; Robotic Artist; Pope Holds Unity-Hand out to Methodists; and Is it a Bird or a Plane of FBI Spies?

AI

When Is the Singularity? Probably Not in Your Lifetime nytimes

In March when Alphago, the Go-playing software program designed by Google’s DeepMind subsidiary defeated Lee Se-dol, the human Go champion, some in Silicon Valley proclaimed the event as a precursor of the imminent arrival of genuine thinking machines.

What has not been shown, however, is scientific evidence for such an event. Indeed, the idea has been treated more skeptically by neuroscientists and a vast majority of artificial intelligence researchers.

The Next Rembrandt nextrembrandt

Short film of a computer painting a new "Rembrandt" based on his original works

Society

U.S. Executives Urge Repeal of Mississippi Law fortune

Executives of several major U.S. corporations urged Mississippi on Wednesday to repeal a new state law that allows businesses to deny wedding services to same-sex couples on religious grounds.

Still, nearly two-thirds of Mississippi voters supported the law, according to a poll highlighted on Tuesday by the Christian-based Family Research Council.

Lawsuit against state of Indiana calls abortion law 'unconstitutional' theguardian

The state of Indiana is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, over an abortion law recently signed by Governor Mike Pence.

One thing that bothers them about this law is that they would need to treat unborn babies as dead humans, and not discarded medical waste:

The law also requires fetuses to be buried or cremated, which the lawsuit called a costly requirement that does not exist for the disposal of medical waste for other types of operations.

Nature of Man

Can children be natural born killers? bbc

It seems to rip the notion of childhood - a supposed age of innocence - to shreds. We are accustomed to regarding children as in transformation - young people who will eventually shape into a good, bad or indifferent citizen. We do not generally consider them capable of adult crimes such as premeditated murder.

When proved wrong, shockwaves ripple through the fabric of society.

Paul reminds us that God has said all of us are sinners (Romans 3:23) and that by nature we are in rebellion of God and children of wrath (Eph 2:3). It is true that our sins tend to blossom and get more severe as we get older, but there is no such thing as the morally innocent child. From birth we are capable of murder (evil by nature), and it's only God's restraining grace that keeps most from fully realizing their potential even as adults. This article reminds us that what seems unexpected (children who murder) is only because we misunderstand just how wicked we are.

DNA Tech

UW team stores digital images in DNA — and retrieves them perfectly washington.edu

The team of computer scientists and electrical engineers has detailed one of the first complete systems to encode, store and retrieve digital data using DNA molecules, which can store information millions of times more compactly than current archival technologies.

Brain Tech

IBM Wants to Implant Fake Brains in Real Brains to Prevent Seizures wired

In Melbourne, Australia, Stefan Harrer is running an artificial software brain atop an artificial hardware brain in an effort to analyze a brain that isn’t artificial at all. Ultimately, he and his colleagues envision merging these three brains together so that the artificial can augment the real.

Military Tech

Submarine-hunting drone ship Sea Hunter unveiled by the US watoday.au

The 40-metre-long unarmed prototype, dubbed Sea Hunter, is the naval equivalent of Google's self-driving car, designed to cruise on the ocean's surface for two or three months at a time - without a crew or anyone controlling it remotely.

Industrial Tech

Scientists invent robotic 'artist' that spray paints giant murals phys.org

The researchers wanted to create a way to help non-artists create accurate reproductions of photographs as large-scale murals using spray painting. So, they developed a computer-aided system that uses an ordinary paint spray can, tracks the can's position relative to the wall or canvas and recognizes what image it "wants" to paint. As the person waves the pre-programmed spray can around the canvas, the system automatically operates the spray on/off button to reproduce the specific image as a spray painting.

Apostasy

Pope speaks to Methodists, calls for unity christiantoday

Dialogue between Methodists and the Catholics isn't the only ecumenical discussion happening at the moment. The Pope has held discussions with Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican and Pentecostal leaders. However, there is no immediate prospect of formal unity between them as theologians grapple with the doctrinal differences between the Churches.

Government

Spies in the Skies buzzfeed

Each weekday, dozens of U.S. government aircraft take to the skies and slowly circle over American cities. Piloted by agents of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the planes are fitted with high-resolution video cameras, often working with “augmented reality” software that can superimpose onto the video images everything from street and business names to the owners of individual homes....Most of the aircraft are small, flying a mile or so above ground, and many use exhaust mufflers to mute their engines — making them hard to detect by the people they’re spying on.

Other...

See what a tattoo will look like on your skin before you get inked techspot

InkHunter uses augmented reality to overlay a tattoo onto a body’s surface area. You can select from a series of designs by different artists that are included in the app, or you can upload your own sketches to see how they’ll look on your skin.

61 Free; NK Decisions; Israel + China = Free Trade?; Israel Dims the Lights; Persecution?; The Lesser Light; War Tools; The WiFi Knows; Breaking Babel's Barrier; DNA Photography; Autonomous Race; AI Talent in Demand; Rogue Bots to be Common; Seeing Eye AI; Bank Down; Replacing Words of Christ with Man's; M I S S I S S I P P I, and Global Education

Crime

Obama Commutes Sentences of 61 Prisoners   nbcnews

President Obama backed up his calls for reforming the way society punishes non-violent criminals on Wednesday by commuting the sentences of 61 prisoners — a third of them lifers.

Nuclear

Obama meets with Asian leaders about North Korea nuke threat   usatoday

On the eve of a global meeting devoted to nuclear security, President Obama huddled Thursday with the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea to discuss ways to meet one particularly worrisome nuclear threat: North Korea.

Also see Four dangers the nuclear talks will overlook

Israel

Israel, China announce bilateral free trade talks   jpost

A free-trade agreement with the world’s second-largest economy could have major implications for Israeli industry with the government estimating it could double trade between the two nations from today’s roughly $9 billion, boost technological cooperation and open the path for more investments.

Palestinians charge Israel with decrease in electricity flow, say sets 'dangerous precedent'   jpost

The Israel Electric Corporation decreased the flow of electricity to Jericho and the Jordan Valley to one-third of its normal flow on Thursday, according to Hisham al-Omari, director-general of the Arab Electricity Company in east Jerusalem.

Sources in the energy sector told The Jerusalem Post that the supply of electricity to Jericho had only been halved, from 15 megawatts to 7.5 MW, as of Thursday morning due to an unpaid debt of around NIS 1.72 billion to the IEC.

Christanity

Growing number of Americans believe Christians complain too much about 'persecution'   christiantoday

LifeWay Research on Wednesday released its findings that six in 10 Americans say religious liberty is on the decline – up from just over half (54 per cent) in 2013.

However, a growing number also believe that American Christians complain too much about how they are treated; rising from 34 per cent in 2013 to 43 per cent in 2015.

There's much to suspect about this one (who is classified a "Christian"?, perceived complaining or real complaining?, etc). However, a couple thoughts - 1) if true born again believers are complaining, then that is, indeed, a problem because of damage done to our witness of Christ; 2) we need to be careful about how we talk about the loss of our freedoms, remembering our hope is not America (1 Peter 1:3), and people are looking for an excuse to disparage Christ; and 3) we should be willing to hand over our freedoms for the sake of Christ's name. In short, while we have been given avenues in our society (such as courts) to challenge religion freedom issues (and in many instances even right and OK to do so), in the end this is a good warning to make sure we're about making Christ known, and not about keeping our freedoms!

Space

The Moon: An Unexplained Phenomenon   redice

...collection of interesting quotes from scientists, authors, researchers, NASA insiders and star-gazers relating to the enigmatic and often inexplicable nature of the moon

I include this because it's a list of secular, Creator denying men who look at His creation and can only exclaim, "It's impossible!" :)

Military

9 New Tools That Will Change the Future of War   popularmechanics

These weapons, drones, and battlefield devices—some recently deployed, others in early R&D—will help the Pentagon fight more effectively with fewer troops.

Tech

New MIT research opens door for password-free Wi-Fi   mashable

The team led by Professor Dina Katabi devised a system called Chronos, which enables a Wi-Fi access point to precisely pinpoint all the adapters connected to it. This tech could be used to grant access to a Wi-Fi router based on the user's exact location, making it much harder to an intruder to access the network from a remote place.

I like how they casually say at the end:

The system is not without challenges, one of them being privacy: The system could be used as yet another way to track one's location. But any technology that has the potential to increase Wi-Fi security should be given a chance in our book.

Microsoft brings real-time translation to custom apps with Speech Translation API   winbeta

This speech translation service can also be used in a numerous amount of situations, both person to person, or human to machine. Examples include personal translation, subtitling, or remote or in person multilingual communications. It even can be used in groups, such as in online gaming chatrooms or real-time presentations such as keynotes.

First-of-their-kind images could aid in use of DNA to build nanoscale devices   phys.org

This unique imaging capability, pioneered by Berkeley Lab scientists, could aid in the use of DNA segments as building blocks for molecular devices that function as nanoscale drug-delivery systems, markers for biological research, and components for computer memory and electronic devices. It could also lead to images of important disease-relevant proteins that have proven elusive for other imaging techniques, and of the assembly process that forms DNA from separate, individual strands.

AI Tech

THIS IS ROBORACE’S INSANE AUTONOMOUS RACE CAR   digitaltrends

Roborace aims to be the first racing series for autonomous cars, but seeing as there aren’t many of those around that are built for racing, series organizers are creating their own. But what exactly does a driverless race car look like?

AI

Million-dollar babies   economist

Another high-stakes game, however, is taking place behind the scenes, as firms compete to hire the smartest AI experts. Technology giants, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Baidu, are racing to expand their AI activities. Last year they spent some $8.5 billion on research, deals and hiring, says Quid, a data firm. That was four times more than in 2010.

There will soon be so many more examples of bots going rogue like Microsoft's Tay that we will 'become immune to it'   businessinsider

"Obviously nobody at Google set out to do that, it was just an effect. We will see many more of these. So many more we will become immune to it. It'll be like when your PC goes dead. It's not the end of the world, you just restart your PC — you don't tweet about it," Mortensen said.

Microsoft has an app that lets blind people 'see' again   digitaljournal

The system is called Seeing AI and was built by Saqib Shaikh, a blind Microsoft engineer who wanted to become more involved in the world.

Includes video demonstration

Banking

Your Neighborhood Bank Is About to Have Its 'Uber Moment'   fortune

The new Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS) report from Citigroup...says that U.S. bank staffing will dive 30% between 2015 and 2025, from 2.6 million to 1.8 million. (It’s already down from a pre-crisis peak of 2.9 million.) And things are even tougher in Europe, where bank branch employment is expected to drop from 2.9 million to 1.8 million.

False Religion

Reformation is nothing to celebrate, says Cardinal Müller   catholicherald.co.uk

Cardinal Müller says in the new book: “If we are convinced that divine revelation is preserved whole and unchanged through Scripture and Tradition, in the doctrine of the Faith, in the sacraments, in the hierarchical constitution of the Church by divine right, founded on the sacrament of holy orders, we cannot accept that there exist sufficient reasons to separate from the Church.”

A reminder why Catholism and Christanity are incompatible. In that one quote, he adds tradition, sacraments, reliance on an organization (their definition of 'church'), etc to the clear words of Scripture that all of those are false. The very reason he can't celebrate the Reformation is why those who hold to what God has said in Scripture as faith in Christ alone (Gal 3:26, et al) take great joy that God used men like Luther to break from men who valued their own way over the Way (John 14:6)!

Society

Mississippi passes bill allowing armed security in churches   christiantoday

The bill, which has been sent to the House for further work, has received heavy criticism both within the Senate and from state police officers. It has also elicited debate over interpretations of Christian scripture.

Whatever you think about this, it even being a 'thing' is an indication of the days we are in...

Mississippi's religious freedom bill: Not discriminatory or 'one of the worst'?   cnn

"This bill doesn't stop anyone from getting what they want from the state. I have a problem with the discrimination of Christian belief," said Republican state Rep. Randy Boyd, one of the bill's sponsors. "I don't uphold discrimination but I believe the Christian belief is more discriminated against than other things. ... I'm trying to get a happy medium here where people get their rights and other people aren't pressured into doing anything they don't believe in against their religious beliefs."

Global Governance

Tony Blair warns of 'flabby liberalism'   bbc

"The centre has become flabby and unwilling to take people on. We concede far too much. There's this idea that you're part of an elite if you think in terms of respectful tolerance towards other people. It's ridiculous," Mr Blair told the BBC.

See also EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE ON CITIZENSHIP VALUES IS FUNDAMENTAL TO BUILDING A TOLERANT WORLD

NK Warheads; Saint Mother Teresa?; DIY Shopping; Ant-Bot; Better Prison and Gardens; and "Allah Says"

War

N Korea will soon test nuclear warheads bbc

Kim Jong-un's latest comments came as he was overseeing a simulation for the kind of re-entry technology needed to bring a nuclear-armed ballistic missile back into the atmosphere, the KCNA news agency reported.

False Religions

Mother Teresa Will Become a Saint time

Mother Teresa will become a saint on Sept. 4, on the eve of the 19th anniversary of her death...The Catholic church requires that a deceased person perform two miracles before achieving sainthood.

Cashless

DIY Shopping reuters

(Video - 2:18)

Machines

Tiny robot ants pull car with teamwork bbc

Six of the bots - weighing less than 100g (0.22lb) in total - exerted a force of 200 Newtons, which was enough to pull the 1,800kg (220lb) vehicle.

(Video)

Crime

Mass murderer is suing Norway over prison conditions that would be luxurious by US standards business insider

According to Agence France Presse, Breivik's cell has three rooms, "one for living, one for studying, and a third for physical exercise — as well as a television, a computer without internet access and a game console. He is able to prepare his own food and do his own laundry."

Man accused of stabbing Canadian soldiers cited Allah reuters

"While at the scene the accused stated that 'Allah told me to do this, Allah told me to come here and kill people'," Saunders said.

(in a peaceful sort of way)