Politics
Gorsuch has busy first day at Supreme Court thehill
Gorsuch, who was confirmed earlier this month after President Trump nominated him to the court, entered the courtroom grinning as he stepped up to his chair — the last on the far right, next to President Obama appointee Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Anti-Semitism
A Hitler Valentine’s Day card was handed out on campus. University officials want to know why. washingtonpost
The card was in a bag that was handed to the students Wednesday night by a member of the College Republicans at Central Michigan, which immediately apologized while distancing itself from the incident. The card, which the group called “very inappropriate,” shows Adolf Hitler alongside the words “my love 4 u burns like 6,000 jews,” according to Central Michigan Life, a student newspaper.
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.
North Korea
South Korea speeds up creation of Kim Jong Un 'decapitation unit' cnn v
The country is speeding up plans to set up what some call a "decapitation unit," a brigade specifically tasked with targeting North Korea's "wartime command," including leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korea Defense Ministry official.
The brigade was initially supposed to be ready in 2019, but the Defense Ministry now says it'll be established "by this year."
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.
Brain
Fast fMRI tracks brain activity during human thought for first time medicalxpress t
By significantly increasing the speed of functional MRI (fMRI), researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) nibib.nih.gov have been able to image rapidly fluctuating brain activity during human thought. fMRI measures changes in blood oxygenation, which were previously thought to be too slow to detect the subtle neuronal activity associated with higher order brain functions. The new discovery that fast fMRI can detect rapid brain oscillations is a significant step towards realizing a central goal of neuroscience research: mapping the brain networks responsible for human cognitive functions such as perception, attention, and awareness.
...standard fMRI can only detect the blood flow coming to replenish an area of the brain several seconds after it has performed a function. It was generally accepted that this was the limit of what could be detected by fMRI—identification of a region in the brain that had responded to a large stimulus, such as a continuous 30 second "blast" of bright light.
Economy
Dow eclipses 19,000 for first time in its 120-year history usatoday
After Monday’s record-breaking day, when the Dow Jones industrial average, large-company Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, tech-dominated Nasdaq composite and the small-cap Russell 2000 all closed at record levels at the same time for the first time since Dec. 31, 1999, the Dow is making fresh headlines and will likely get a big shout out on the evening news.
Society
Transgender 'woman' arrested for voyeurism in Target changing room washingtontimes
Police responded to a call on Monday from a woman who said she noticed someone reaching over her stall and taking pictures while she was trying on clothes, the Post Register reported. The victim confronted the perpetrator, who ran out of the store.
Also see Transgender 'woman' accused of videotaping 18-year-old in Target fitting room pix11, where at least the police are shown with some remaining sanity:
Smith is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Bonneville County and was booked as a male into the Bonneville County Jail bonnevillesheriff on a $30,000 bond.
Medical
NIH awards $55M to build million-person precision medicine study centerwatch
The PMI Cohort Program is one of the most ambitious research projects in history and will set the foundation for new ways of engaging people in research. PMI volunteers will be asked to contribute a wide range of health, environment and lifestyle information. They will also be invited to answer questions about their health history and status, share their genomic and other biological information through simple blood and urine tests and grant access to their clinical data from electronic health records. In addition, mobile health devices and apps will provide lifestyle data and environmental exposures in real time. All of this will be accomplished with essential privacy and security safeguards. As partners in the research, participants will have ongoing input into study design and implementation, as well as access to a wide range of their individual and aggregated study results.
Peace
If occupation ends, so will terror worldwide, Abbas tells EU timesofisrael
“We are against terrorism, in whatever form it may take, and whoever carries it out,” Abbas told members of the European Parliament to a resounding applause. “Once the occupation ends, terrorism will disappear, there will be no more terrorism in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world,” he said.
See also EU to Back Mideast Peace With 'Unprecedented' Support
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.
