Anti-Semitism Indoctrination; Judea Down Below; Mighty Israel; The Gorbachev Interview; Syria's Act II; Philippine's Made in China Weapons; EU's Cuban Cuddle; Town Gives up the Cross; and Predicting Burden Kids

Anti-Semitism

Activists Manipulate Third-Graders into Hating Israel truthrevolt.org v

"Far under the radar, the attempt to demonize Israel is moving down the educational chain even into elementary schools, pushed by activists who accept no boundaries even for young children," begins Professor William A. Jacobson, who runs LI. "Yet because such activities take place in schools to which access is limited, and the young students are not developmentally able to report on what happens, it’s rare to obtain hard visual proof. We have such proof."

Aleppo Crush; Castro Canadian Friend; Holocaust on Ice; Cashless Modi; Uncomfortable Abortion Reality; Computer Programmer; ALVINN; BosTonomy; Photon Converter; and Trash Man...IN SPAAAAAACE

Syria

Syrian forces make sweeping gains in eastern Aleppo cnn v

Government forces and armed paramilitary groups loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began a renewed push toward eastern Aleppo on November 15, backed by airstrikes following a three-week lull.

Taking the city would mark a turning point in a civil war that has raged in Syria for more than five years.

Also see Syrian rebel forces in Aleppo suffer 'biggest defeat since 2012' theguardian

Vetoing Syria; Russian Bases; Accelerated Missile Deployment; Hacking Politics; Burma Sanction-Lift; Putin's Peace Prize; No Peace but Noble Peace; Tracking Faces in NY; Watching the Streets of Baltimore; InterVarsity's Stand for Biblical Authority; California vs Creationist; Chick-fil-A Plus; Yahoo Again: Against Hiring Men?; and Bank's AI-Number

Syria

Russia Vetoes UN Resolution Demanding End to Aleppo Bombing abcnews.go

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had warned before the vote that the continued bombing of Aleppo was killing civilians and destroying hospitals and schools — "and has nothing to do with combatting terrorism."

"It is the annihilation of Aleppo," he said.

Scottish Church Votes Anti-God; Cuban Flights Cleared(ish); LA Parks' Bathroom of Choice; Scores of Attacks, UN Condemns One; 10,000 Leagues Below the Sea; Elon's Dream; MS Stem Cell Treatment; Brain Bifocals; 3D Printed Brain Funded; and Vyo

Apostasy

Scottish Episcopal church leaps towards allowing gay marriage theguardian

The Scottish Episcopal church voted on Friday by 97 to 51, with three abstentions, to remove a clause in its canon law that states that marriage is a union of a man and a woman. Before the change can be enacted, it must win a two-thirds majority in a second vote next year.

Synod members voted to delete the first clause of canon 31, which states: “The doctrine of this church is that marriage is a physical, spiritual and mystical union of one man and one woman.”

CRIPRier; The 8 Robot Showboat; Reprinting Planes; Nano Electric Synapses; Not Passing Over Rice; Russia Says Peace When There is No Peace; Fidel Blows Kisses and Bows; Saudi King Snubs Obama; and Morality Police Rising

There's a particularly interesting story today on more progress made towards the ability to edit human DNA. Also changing Passover dietary laws, artificial synapses, and a guy touting his wealth with 8 robot helpers in his wake.

Genetics

Breakthrough method means CRISPR just got a lot more relevant to human health theverge

The new method, described today in Nature, is called the "base-editing technique." It relies on the same basic mechanism as the standard CRISPR method, but unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t need to cut both strands of the DNA double-helix to alter the genetic code. Instead, the technique can directly convert a single letter of DNA to another, without deleting and inserting a bunch of random letters in the process. Because of this, the researchers were able to genetically alter human cells and mouse cells to reverse single-letter mutations that are associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s and breast cancer.

Another, somewhat related article: New Genetically Modified CRISPR-Mushroom Bypasses USDA Regulations

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.