Marriage-less State; Minimum Bandwagon; Rupee Lost; Money Thumb; Lingering Israeli Support; and Underwater Archaeology

Society

A lawmaker's solution for marriage debate: Remove the state host.madison

His bill, filed ahead of the 2017 legislative session, would make Missouri the first state to recognize only domestic unions for both heterosexual and gay couples, treating legal partnerships equally and leaving marriages to be done by pastors and other religious leaders.

Other states including Alabama, Indiana and Michigan failed to pass similar bills to limit the government's role in marriage, and Oklahoma representatives passed a bill that didn't make it out of the Senate.

Things Change Periodically; Building a Memory Catcher; Parental Group; Fat Bankers; UK Tries to Tango with Three; LGBT Goes to the UN; Working the Gender; Colombia's Peace; Globalist Fear: Italy's Nationalist Turn; More Power for Erdogan; And No Hollande in France

Science

It's official: Your Periodic Table is now obsolete sciencealert

Get ready to ring in 2017 with a brand new Periodic Table iupac.org, because four more elements have officially been added to the seventh row: nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts), and oganesson (Og).

Also see Periodic table expands with elements named after Japan, Moscow, Tennessee phys.org

Isle of Civil Rebellion; Waves of Disruption; Breathtaking Theft; The British are Going; Separation Backpedal; South Africa Breaks Out; Colorado's Higher than Most; Brain Boost; Tiny, Slow Computer; Cute Robot Slaves; Juno Fail; Cubes in the Sky; Accident Fare; Connected Cars; and Weed Killing AI

Society

London couple go to Isle of Man for UK's first civil partnership bbc

The couple, who have two children, added: "We want a less encumbered, light-touch civil union that recognises our relationship on our terms, free from the trappings and social pre-conditions of marriage, while protecting our family financially and in law.

The Tale of Jesus' Wife; Canada's Death Sentence; Calling Religious Liberty Hate; Sin, a Minor Doctrine; Wedding Pagans; Fingerprinting Babies; Meet Olli; Common Sense, AI; Amelia; Human Edit Request; Final Warning to Hamas; Palestinians' Water Border; Calls to Strike Assad Now; and Shark Traffic

Fraud

The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus’s Wife theatlantic v

The American Association of Museums’ Guide to Provenance Research warns that an investigation of an object’s origins “is not unlike detective work”: “One may spend hours, days, or weeks following a trail that leads nowhere.” When I started to dig, however, I uncovered more than I’d ever expected—a warren of secrets and lies that spanned from the industrial districts of Berlin to the swingers scene of southwest Florida, and from the halls of Harvard and the Vatican to the headquarters of the East German Stasi.

This is a fascinating long-form article by a reporter who set out to find the origins of a (supposed) 1,300 yr-old papyrus about Jesus' wife, and the ensuing series of lies, historical invention, and deceit of the man behind it. It's a long read, but worth it - particularly for those who've heard the Biblically unsupported "Jesus had a wife" argument. Warning: some aspects of the primary figure's personal life uncovered during the investigation are sexually graphic in nature (the article doesn't dwell TOO MUCH on them).

Israel's Rise; Misunderstanding Shavuot; Unchaining Jewish Women; Blackmailing UN; UN's Ire(land); CA Chooses Death; Hidden in Sight in Petra; Flying Cars in Secret; Mobile Modular Phones; Internet on ISS; and Musk's Pentagon Visit

Israel

[OPINION, Caroline Glick] Israel rises in the East jpost

There was something poetic about the events that bookended the past week of diplomacy. This week began with French President François Hollande’s “peace” conference and ended with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s state visit to Moscow.

Very well written reality check.