With Love from Hitler; Still Some Religious Protection; 3D Printing Funds; Zircon 2017; Metal Prediction; A Human Touch; and Two-Legged Delivery

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.

Custom Chaos; Mein Kampf Sellout; Tube of PETA; Planned Parenthood Goes Prime Time; Free Money in Finland; Archaeological Plot; Temple Mount Boot; Pencil Castle; and Kuri

Airlines

Customs outage causes chaos, backups at airports usatoday

People returning home from the New Year's holiday weekend were being processed at international terminals by hand at some airports, resulting in long lines and short tempers. Travelers reported issues in Chicago, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Miami and Atlanta, among others.The outage lasted for four hours, the Customs agency cbp.gov said in a statement late Monday, before the system was up and running again.

"I've never seen anything like it," [Michelle Sencibaugh, a K-12 teacher in St. Louis] told USA TODAY. "No one was giving us direction. They didn't tell us what was going on. It was just a herd of people."

Carrots for Peace; Jerusalem Dividing Deal; Israel-Turkey Coming to Terms; Iran's Unsurprising Finds; Brexit's Global Economy Effect; Paul Allen's Giant Plane; Starting Human Zika Trials; Hitler the Author; FBI's Redacted History; Okinawa Protests; and Historian's Pragmatism

Israel

Backing French peace push, EU ministers add carrots to sweeten deal timesofisrael

“The EU is determined, alongside other international and regional partners, to bring a concrete and substantial contribution to a global set of incentives for the parties to make peace with a view to an international conference planned to be held before the end of the year,” the foreign ministers said in a statement.

Frozen Girlfriend; Fraternity Persons; Mars Shot; Asteroid Claim; 3D 2Eyes; Aido; The Fishbowl Blues; The Great Kim Jong Un Speaks; UK Left Invokes Hitler

Society

Frozen fans urge Disney to give Elsa a girlfriend in sequel theguardian v

The record-breaking and critically acclaimed 2013 animated film tells of Princess Elsa’s struggle to master her magical powers to reconnect with her sister Anna. It was widely construed as the studio’s first foray into feminism because it eschewed a traditional happy-ever-after with a prince in favour of sisterly devotion. Now Twitter users have called upon Disney to give Elsa a girlfriend in Frozen 2, which is currently in production.

See also Why #GiveElsaAGirlfriend Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone

Some people, including many Christians, were surprised at the news. I, for one, found their surprise a little surprising. In fact, anyone shocked by this news hasn’t been paying attention to what’s going on in the culture.

Tesla Tractor; Hitler Who?; Fly-by Without Bye-Die; NK Prepares Anniversary Launch; US Joins Philippines in South Sea; Religious Police on a Leash; Israel is Real; US Calls Israel a Bully; Obama's Last Israeli Move; The World's Pope; Visual Shock-wave; Stud-d-d-dering Mice; Brainprint; Pestilence Overload Penciled in for 2050; NASA, the Climate Change Defender; and Bible Banned

Amazing Tech

Reconfigured Tesla coil aligns, electrifies materials from a distance phys.org v

The system works by remotely oscillating positive and negative charges in each nanotube, causing them to chain together into long wires. Cherukuri's specially designed Tesla coil even generates a tractor beam-like effect as nanotube wires are pulled toward the coil over long distances.

Nuclear Sized Leak; Earth Conscious Robot; NK Does Rockets a Solid; Chatbot Slurs; Baby X; and AI Co-Writer

Nuclear

Nuclear Plant Leak Threatens Drinking Water Wells in Florida nytimes

Samples of the water at various depths and sites around the power plant showed elevated levels of salt, ammonia, phosphorous and tritium, a radioactive isotope that is found in nature but also frequently associated with nuclear power plants.

Tech

Apple’s Recycling Robot Needs Your Help to Save the World wired

Apple calls the machine Liam. A custom-designed R&D experiment, Liam dismantles iPhones and sorts the components for recycling. The project was kept secret for three years, says Mashable deputy tech editor Samantha Murphy Kelly, who was allowed a sneak preview of Liam in action.

Saving the world, one iPhone at a time. Also: Liam Robot Recycles iPhones Piece by Piece (Video).

North Korea

North Korea Tests New Rocket Engine, State Media Says nytimes

North Korea said on Thursday that it had successfully tested a new rocket engine that would significantly bolster its missile capabilities, and South Korea called on its people to heighten vigilance against possible terrorist attacks by the North.

AI

Microsoft AI chatbot designed to learn from Twitter ends up endorsing Trump and praising Hitler independent.co.uk

Microsoft created a chatbot that tweeted about its admiration for Hitler and used wildly racist slurs against black people before it was shut down.

I wonder what offended Microsoft more - the Hitler reference or the Trump one? I kid! Seriously, though, I’m “eh” about chat bots in general (kind of like digital parrots, really). However, this ties into an article on a list I posted a couple days ago from business insider about machines being “Like sociopaths and psychopaths” when it comes to having a sense of morality.

Meet Baby X bloomberg

Mark Sagar started his career by building medical simulations of body parts. He took those skills and went into CGI, most famously for "Avatar," "King Kong" and others. Now he's combining his skills and building an entire brain and responsive face on a computer in order to map human consciousness.

(Video - 3:51)

Japanese AI software co-writes short story ibtimes.co.uk

The novel, ironically titled The Day a Computer Writes a Novel, was written by an AI software programme created by a team from Japan's Future University Hakodate. While it didn't take first prize at the third Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary Awards, it did make it through the first round of screening.

Other...

Scientists say Shakespeare's skull may be missing from grave businessinsider