Brain
Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI theverge
The company, which is still in the earliest stages of existence and has no public presence whatsoever, is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow for more direct interfacing with computing devices.
Antisemitism
Seattle synagogue vandalized with Holocaust denial graffiti cnn
Temple De Hirsch Sinai was spray-painted with graffiti calling the Holocaust "fake history," Rabbi Daniel Weiner said.
North Korea
Analysts also say they are highly doubtful that Pyongyang, which has insisted on being recognised as a nuclear state, would be willing to moderate its position on its weapons programme. But if the talks do take place, they could offer a glimmer of hope for an already hostile relationship that has only deteriorated as the Kim government works aggressively to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the continental US.
Society
Meet the Trump admin official paid to promote LGBT ‘rights’ around the world lifesitenews
The decision to preserve open homosexual Randy Berry as Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons was reported Monday by the homosexual newspaper Washington Blade. It is another blow to pro-family advocates who oppose the LGBT agenda and are counting on Trump to root out homosexual and abortion activists from the foreign affairs bureaucracy after eight years of Obama’s leftist policies.
“The Obama administration has systematically filled the ranks of State with LGBTQ and abortion activists,” Perkins wrote in December. “Unless the next Secretary of State is willing to resist and remove this embedded agenda, the promotion and protection of true human rights, like religious liberty, will continue to languish.”
Holocaust
Trump fails to mention Jews in Holocaust remembrance statement usatoday
In a departure from predecessors on both sides of the political aisle, President Trump’s statement Friday marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day ushmm.org did not mention the deaths of six million Jews — a lapse the head of the Anti-Defamation League adl.org called “puzzling and troubling.”
Also see Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day whitehouse.gov
Society
Boys who think they are girls allowed to join [UK] Guides for first time telegraph.co.uk
Adult men who also identify their gender as female could become leaders too under radical new proposals to the traditional single-sex policy of girlguiding girlguiding.org.uk.
U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear ‘Sister Wives’ polygamy case fox13now
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes' office had no comment Monday. Polygamists that FOX 13 spoke with were disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision, but vowed to push the Utah State Legislature for decriminalization.
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
Peace
Jimmy Carter to Obama: Before you leave office, recognize Palestinian state cnn
"I am convinced that the United States can still shape the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before a change in presidents, but time is very short, " Carter wrote. "The simple but vital step this administration must take before its term expires on Jan. 20 is to grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine."
Also see Carter's Op-Ed piece: Jimmy Carter: America Must Recognize Palestine nytimes
Society
Meet CoverGirl’s first-ever CoverBoy, James Charles usatoday v
CoverGirl ambassador Katy Perry took to Instagram to break the news that the beauty behemoth had signed the 17-year-old New York-based makeup artist. "Just wrapped another great CoverGirl shoot. Honored to have the pleasure to announce the very first CoverBoy, James Charles!" the pop artist captioned a photo of herself posing alongside Charles in all his contoured glory.
Privacy
Yahoo 'secretly monitored emails on behalf of the US government' theguardian
The company complied with a classified US government directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency (NSA nsa.gov) or FBI fbi.gov, two former employees and a third person who knew about the program told Reuters.
Some surveillance experts said this represents the first known case of a US internet company agreeing to a spy agency’s demand by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time.
Society
North Carolina Governor Drops 'Bathroom Bill' Lawsuit Against U.S. npr.org
In court documents Friday, Gov. Pat McCrory cited "substantial costs to the State" as one reason for dropping his lawsuit against the federal government, writing that it did not serve the "interests of judicial economy and efficiency."
Religious Liberty
We Have Been Warned theamericanconservative
Last year, the Baptist ethicist David Gushee david-gushee.squarespace was quoted by gay New York Times columnist Frank Bruni as saying that “Conservative Christian religion is the last bulwark against full acceptance of L.G.B.T. people.” Gushee has fully embraced gay rights, and doesn’t simply tolerate gay relationships, but affirms their goodness. Now he has written an extraordinarily important column laying out the future for Christians who reject the Sexual Revolution in its latest form.
Society
Princeton begins to remove 'man' from official school material foxnews
As first reported Thursday by the conservative campus news outfit The College Fix, Princeton’s Human Resources and Office of Communications issued a four-page memo princeton.edu filled with examples of gender-neutral terminology that must now be used in official school documents...
Isreal
Famous Holocaust escape tunnel located in Lithuania using hi-tech jpost
For the first time since the end of World War II, the famous tunnel dug by Jewish prisoners of Ponar, near Vilnius in Lithuania, to escape from the Nazis, has been located using new state-of-the-art technology for underground predictive scanning.
Society
Prince William appears on cover of gay magazine Attitude theguardian
The second-in-line to the throne appears in the July issue of Attitude magazine, discussing the mental health implications of homophobic, bi-phobic and transphobic bullyings.
Society
Oregon court allows person to change sex from 'female' to 'non-binary' oregonlive
...in what legal experts believe is a first in the United States....Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Amy Holmes Hehn legally changed 52-year-old Jamie Shupe's sex from "female" to non-binary.
Future
Huawei prepares for robot overlords and communication with the dead washingtonpost
...Kevin Ho, president of its handset product line, told the CES Asia conference in Shanghai that the company used science-fiction movies such as “The Matrix” to envision future trends and new business ideas.
He described a future where children use apps such as WeChat to interact with dead grandparents, thanks to the ability to download human consciousness into computers. Such technologies would require huge amounts of data storage, which could generate business for Huawei, he added.
US Goverment
State Department keeps saying that erased video of tough question from Fox News reporter was a ‘glitch’ washingtonpost
Undercovered media story of the week: Fox News correspondent James Rosen revealed that video of him asking a tough question of a State Department spokesperson disappeared from the agency’s video archive. Poof! Where the exchange once existed, a flash of white light replaced it.
At issue was Iran. Let’s turn back the clock. In February 2013, Rosen pressed then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on whether the United States was carrying on “secret, bilateral” discussions with Iranian leaders. No, Nuland said.
What I find interesting, and why I'm relaying this, is there was another video 'glitch' a little over a month ago: OBAMA CENSORS HOLLANDE'S 'ISLAMIST TERRORISM' REMARK (if you can handle David Wood's particularly sarcastic brand of apologetics, he has a good layered verion of that glitched, then magically found, videos on YouTube that really calls into question the 'glitch')
Archaeology
Star pupil finds lost Mayan city by studying ancient charts of the night sky from his bedroom telegraph.co.uk
William Gadoury, 15, was fascinated by the ancient Central American civilization and spent hours poring over diagrams of constellations and maps of known Mayan cities.
And then he made a startling realisation: the two appeared to be linked.
Well it's all fun and games until the anthropologists weigh in :) Check out the second half of this later article in Gizmodo where it seems like this might not be so true, after all.
