Do All Roads Really Lead To Rome?

The dark side of virtual reality

Joshua Kopstein December 23 2016,

Why do I look like Justin Timberlake?”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was on stage wearing a virtual reality headset, feigning surprise at an expressive cartoon simulacrum that seemed to perfectly follow his every gesture.

The audience laughed. Zuckerberg was in the middle of what he described as the first live demo inside VR, manipulating his digital avatar to show off the new social features of the Rift headset from Facebook subsidiary Oculus. The venue was an Oculus developer conference convened earlier this fall in San Jose. Moments later, Zuckerberg and two Oculus employees were transported to his glass-enclosed office at Facebook, and then to his infamously sequestered home in Palo Alto. Using the Rift and its newly revealed Touch hand controllers, their avatars gestured and emoted in real time, waving to Zuckerberg’s Puli sheepdog, dynamically changing facial expressions to match their owner’s voice, and taking photos with a virtual selfie stick — to post on Facebook, of course.

The demo encapsulated Facebook’s utopian vision for social VR, first hinted at two years ago when the company acquired Oculus and its crowd-funded Rift headset for $2 billion. And just as in 2014, Zuckerberg confidently declared that VR would be “the next major computing platform,” changing the way we connect, work, and socialize.

“Avatars are going to form the foundation of your identity in VR,” said Oculus platform product manager Lauren Vegter after the demo. “This is the very first time that technology has made this level of presence possible.”

But as the tech industry continues to build VR’s social future, the very systems that enable immersive experiences are already establishing new forms of shockingly intimate surveillance. Once they are in place, researchers warn, the psychological aspects of digital embodiment — combined with the troves of data that consumer VR products can freely mine from our bodies, like head movements and facial expressions — will give corporations and governments unprecedented insight and power over our emotions and physical behavior.

Virtual reality as a medium is still in its infancy, but the kinds of behaviors it captures have long been a holy grail for marketers and data-monetizing companies like Facebook. Using cookies, beacons, and other ubiquitous tracking code, online advertisers already record the habits of web surfers using a wide range of metrics, from what sites they visit to how long they spend scrolling, highlighting, or hovering over certain parts of a page. Data behemoths like Google also scan emails and private chats for any information that might help “personalize” a user’s web experience — most importantly, by targeting the user with ads.

But those metrics are primitive compared to the rich portraits of physical user behavior that can be constructed using data harvested from immersive environments, using surveillance sensors and techniques that have already been controversially deployed in the real world.

“The information that current marketers can use in order to generate targeted advertising is limited to the input devices that we use: keyboard, mouse, touch screen,” says Michael Madary, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University who co-authored the first VR code of ethics with Thomas Metzinger earlier this year. “VR analytics offers a way to capture much more information about the interests and habits of users, information that may reveal a great deal more about what is going on in [their] minds.”

The value of collecting physiological and behavioral data is all too obvious for Silicon Valley firms like Facebook, whose data scientists in 2012 conducted an infamous study titled “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks,” in which they secretly modified users’ news feeds to include positive or negative content and thus affected the emotional state of their posts. As one chief data scientist at an unnamed Silicon Valley company told Harvard business professor Shoshanna Zuboff: “The goal of everything we do is to change people’s actual behavior at scale. … We can capture their behaviors, identify good and bad behaviors, and develop ways to reward the good and punish the bad.”      The Intercept

New Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments Found in Judean Desert

Philippe Bohstrom Dec 21, 2016 1:36 PM
 

New fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found in the Cave of the Skulls by the Dead Sea in Israel, in a salvage excavation by Israeli authorities. The pieces are small and the writing on them is too faded to make out without advanced analysis. At this stage the archaeologists aren't even sure if they're written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic or another language.

“The most important thing that can come out of these fragments is if we can connect them with other documents that were looted from the Judean Desert, and that have no known provenance," says Dr. Uri Davidovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, among the scientists investigating the caves.

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd tossing a stone into a cave in the vicinity of Qumran heard the sound of an earthenware jar cracking, which led to what some have called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. Upon crawling inside, he found the first of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Cave of the Skulls, named for seven human skulls and other skeletal remains, discovered by Prof. Yohanan Aharoni in 1960, is part of the Large Cave Complex, a series of naturally occurring spaces atop a steep cliff on the northern bank of Tze'elim Stream, in the southern part of the desert. The site is in one of the starkest areas of the Judean Desert.      More

About 6,000 fish were found to have died in eastern Baltimore County waterways

by Bryna Zumer Monday, December 26th 2016

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) - About 6,000 fish were found to have died in eastern Baltimore County waterways, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment investigation.

Preliminary results point to algae-created toxins as the likely cause of the fish kill, which was discovered last week after dead fish were first seen in rivers that include the Gunpowder and Bird, said MDE spokesperson Jay Apperson Monday evening.

The kill has affected at least nine species: yellow perch, largemouth bass, bluegill sunfish, pumpkinseed sunfish, carp, black crappie, gizzard shad, spottail shiner and channel catfish.

Residents are urged to avoid the dead fish or wash their hands if they need to handle or dispose of the fish.

A department investigator who is on site today in response to the received reports "saw fish that continue to show signs of stress," Apperson said.

The investigation has not shown any signs of pollution as a potential cause, suggesting instead that the kill is due to toxins produced by algae, he said.

"Monitoring has shown elevated cell counts of Karlodinium venifecum algae in the Gunpowder River," Apperson said. "We are awaiting results of laboratory tests for algae toxins and of fish tissue. The investigation is ongoing."

Apperson noted fish kills are relatively common and vary widely in size. MDE reports 86 fish kills in 2015, and it counts 55 fish kills of 100,000 or more fish since Maryland began investigating the issue in 1984.

Anyone with information on fish kills or with other concerns on environmental matters involving the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries should call the Bay environmental hotline at 877-224-7229.     Fox News

Older people who help and support others live longer

December 22, 2016

Older people who help and support others live longer. These are the findings of a study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, conducted by researchers from the University of Basel, Edith Cowan University, the University of Western Australia, the Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.    

Older people who help and support others are also doing themselves a favor. An international research team has found that grandparents who care for their grandchildren on average live longer than grandparents who do not. The researchers conducted survival analyses of over 500 people aged between 70 and 103 years, drawing on data from the Berlin Aging Study collected between 1990 and 2009.

In contrast to most previous studies on the topic, the researchers deliberately did not include grandparents who were primary or custodial caregivers. Instead, they compared grandparents who provided occasional childcare with grandparents who did not, as well as with older adults who did not have children or grandchildren but who provided care for others in their social network.

   Science Daily

Social-media may put you at increased risk of depression and anxiety.

By Lauren Steussy December 22, 2016

Jason Zook started every morning by scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, Vine, his blog and Facebook. It started to have an effect on the 33-year-old entrepreneur’s mental health. The San Diego resident was stressed, distracted and feeling like he could never fulfill the expectations he created in his digital world, where he amassed more than 33,000 followers.

“You start your day looking at yourself compared to other people,” he says. “You feel behind, and you have other people’s opinions pressed upon you before you have a chance to have your own.”

So he went cold turkey, going on a 30-day social-media detox. It was a smart move: A recent study from the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health found that using multiple social-media platforms may put you at increased risk of depression and anxiety.

‘People compare themselves to the posts they see, and then feel inadequate.’

The study found that people who use anywhere from seven to 10 social-media platforms are three times more likely to be depressed or anxious, compared to those using no more than two. Those who reported such symptoms were overwhelmed by the multitasking needed to manage their profiles — and the more profiles they had, the more the pressure added up.

Though it’s on the high end, maintaining seven social-media profiles is possible with the bevy of options available to users today.

“People compare themselves to the posts they see, and then feel inadequate,” says Nicole Amesbury, head of clinical development at online-therapy company Talkspace. “Another reason is biology-based. Each time they open [a social media app] and see a positive response, they get a small amount of dopamine released in the brain . . . When someone doesn’t get enough ‘likes’ or dopamine hits, they feel the loss.”

Social-media consultant and Queens resident Josh Springer, 35, recommends limiting usage to three platforms.

Still, for Zook, the break was much needed.

“[After 30 days], my head felt like it just cleared, like the fog lifted,” he says. “I had all this mental space back.”          NY Post

Jesus is not in a manger anymore. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in heaven

Christmas and Its Pagan Roots

Today Christians debate over nearly EVERYTHING rather than going directly to the word of God. What is the pre-Christian celebration called the 'Natalie Invitus Solis', that was kept in the occult world, which Christians have stolen and have called Christmas about? Can we really distinguish between what is Christianity and what is paganism? This in-depth study will settle this issue once and for all. It will upset and agitate but the truth is meant to set us free.

Origin of Christmas

The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son. One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices.

A second view suggests that December 25 became the date of Jesus’ birth by a priori reasoning that identified the spring equinox as the date of the creation of the world and the fourth day of creation, when the light was created, as the day of Jesus’ conception (i.e., March 25). December 25, nine months later, then became the date of Jesus’ birth. For a long time the celebration of Jesus’ birth was observed in conjunction with his baptism, celebrated January 6.

Christmas began to be widely celebrated with a specific liturgy in the 9th century but did not attain the liturgical importance of either Good Friday or Easter, the other two major Christian holidays. Roman Catholic churches celebrate the first Christmas mass at midnight, and Protestant churches have increasingly held Christmas candlelight services late on the evening of December 24. A special service of “lessons and carols” intertwines Christmas carols with Scripture readings narrating salvation history from the Fall in the Garden of Eden to the coming of Christ. The service, inaugurated by E.W. Benson and adopted at the University of Cambridge, has become widely popular.       Brittanica

Are Any Plastics Safe? Industry Tries to Hide New Evidence on BPA-Free Containers

The Scary New Evidence on BPA-Free Plastics

Each night at dinnertime, a familiar ritual played out in Michael Green's home: He'd slide a stainless steel sippy cup across the table to his two-year-old daughter, Juliette, and she'd howl for the pink plastic one. Often, Green gave in. But he had a nagging feeling. As an environmental-health advocate, he had fought to rid sippy cups and baby bottles of the common plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA), which mimics the hormone estrogen and has been linked to a long list of serious health problems. Juliette's sippy cup was made from a new generation of BPA-free plastics, but Green, who runs the Oakland, California-based Center for Environmental Health, had come across research suggesting some of these contained synthetic estrogens, too.

He pondered these findings as the center prepared for its anniversary celebration in October 2011. That evening, Green, a slight man with scruffy blond hair and pale-blue eyes, took the stage and set Juliette's sippy cups on the podium. He recounted their nightly standoffs. "When she wins…every time I worry about what are the health impacts of the chemicals leaching out of that sippy cup," he said, before listing some of the problems linked to those chemicals—cancer, diabetes, obesity. To help solve the riddle, he said, his organization planned to test BPA-free sippy cups for estrogenlike chemicals.

The center shipped Juliette's plastic cup, along with 17 others purchased from Target, Walmart, and Babies R Us, to CertiChem, a lab in Austin, Texas. More than a quarter—including Juliette's—came back positive for estrogenic activity. These results mirrored the lab's findings in its broader National Institutes of Health-funded research on BPA-free plastics. CertiChem and its founder, George Bittner, who is also a professor of neurobiology at the University of Texas-Austin, had recently coauthored a paper in the NIH journal Environmental Health Perspectives. It reported that "almost all" commercially available plastics that were tested leached synthetic estrogens—even when they weren't exposed to conditions known to unlock potentially harmful chemicals, such as the heat of a microwave, the steam of a dishwasher, or the sun's ultraviolet rays. According to Bittner's research, some BPA-free products actually released synthetic estrogens that were more potent than BPA.

Estrogen plays a key role in everything from bone growth to ovulation to heart function. Too much or too little, particularly in utero or during early childhood, can alter brain and organ development, leading to disease later in life. Elevated estrogen levels generally increase a woman's risk of breast cancer.

Estrogenic chemicals found in many common products have been linked to a litany of problems in humans and animals. According to one study, the pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs female. DES, which was once prescribed to prevent miscarriages, caused obesity, rare vaginal tumors, infertility, and testicular growths among those exposed in utero. Scientists have tied BPA to ailments including asthma, cancer, infertility, low sperm count, genital deformity, heart disease, liver problems, and ADHD. "Pick a disease, literally pick a disease," says Frederick vom Saal, a biology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia who studies BPA.

BPA exploded into the headlines in 2008, when stories about "toxic baby bottles" and "poison" packaging became ubiquitous. Good Morning America issued a "consumer alert." The New York Times urged Congress to ban BPA in baby products. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) warned in the Huffington Post that "millions of infants are exposed to dangerous chemicals hiding in plain view." Concerned parents purged their pantries of plastic containers, and retailers such as Walmart and Babies R Us started pulling bottles and sippy cups from shelves. Bills banning BPA in infant care items began to crop up in states around the country.

Today many plastic products, from sippy cups and blenders to Tupperware containers, are marketed as BPA-free. But Bittner's findings—some of which have been confirmed by other scientists—suggest that many of these alternatives share the qualities that make BPA so potentially harmful.

Those startling results set off a bitter fight with the $375-billion-a-year plastics industry. The American Chemistry Council, which lobbies for plastics makers and has sought to refute the science linking BPA to health problems, has teamed up with Tennessee-based Eastman Chemical—the maker of Tritan, a widely used plastic marketed as being free of estrogenic activity—in a campaign to discredit Bittner and his research. The company has gone so far as to tell corporate customers that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected Bittner's testing methods. (It hasn't.) Eastman also sued CertiChem and its sister company, PlastiPure, to prevent them from publicizing their findings that Tritan is estrogenic, convincing a jury that its product displayed no estrogenic activity. And it launched a PR blitz touting Tritan's safety, targeting the group most vulnerable to synthetic estrogens: families with young children. "It can be difficult for consumers to tell what is really safe," the vice president of Eastman's specialty plastics division, Lucian Boldea, said in one web video, before an image of a pregnant woman flickered across the screen. With Tritan, he added, "consumers can feel confident that the material used in their products is free of estrogenic activity."      Read more

Amazon Go And The Cashless Society

Pope Francis says spreading fake news is a sin

By Reuters December 7, 201

Media that focus on scandals and spread fake news to smear politicians risk becoming like people who have a morbid fascination with excrement, Pope Francis said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Francis told the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio that spreading disinformation was “probably the greatest damage that the media can do” and using communications for this rather than to educate the public amounted to a sin.

Using precise psychological terms, he said scandal-mongering media risked falling prey to coprophilia, or arousal from excrement, and consumers of these media risked coprophagia, or eating excrement.

The Argentine-born pontiff excused himself for using such terms in order to get his point across while answering a question about the correct use of the media.

“I think the media have to be very clear, very transparent, and not fall into — no offense intended — the sickness of coprophilia, that is, always wanting to cover scandals, covering nasty things, even if they are true,” he said.

“And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, a lot of damage can be done.”

That section of the interview, all of which was distributed to reporters in an Italian translation of the interview in the pope’s native Spanish, contained some of the most blunt language the pontiff has ever used about the media.

He also spoke of the danger of using the media to slander political rivals.

“The means of communication have their own temptations, they can be tempted by slander, and therefore used to slander people, to smear them, this above all in the world of politics,” he said. “They can be used as means of defamation…”

“No one has a right to do this. It is a sin and it is hurtful,” he said.

He described disinformation as the greatest harm the media can do because “it directs opinion in only one direction and omits the other part of the truth,” he said.

The pope’s comments on disinformation followed widespread debate in the United States over whether fake news on the internet might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump.     NY Post

Donald Trump thinks that the way to stop extremists is to shut down parts of the internet

BySophie Curtis  8 DEC 2015

United States Presidential candidate Donald Trump has called on Bill Gates to shut down parts of the internet, to prevent radical extremists from spreading their ideas online.
During a campaign rally on Monday, Mr Trump suggested that closing the internet in some unspecified places will prevent people from connecting with and joining ISIS.
"We are losing a lot of people to the internet. We have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening," he said.
"We have to talk to them [about], maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some way."
He added: "Some people will say, 'freedom of speech, freedom of speech'. These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people."
Bill Gates , the American business magnate and founder of Microsoft, is yet to reply to Mr Trump's call to action. However, since his interests lie more in philanthropy these days, he is unlikely to have an immediate solution.
As part of the same speech, Mr Trump called for a " total and complete shutdown " of all Muslims entering the United States.
The billionaire, already accused of a slew of racist comments during his campaign to be Republican candidate for President, claimed 51% of Muslims want to govern the US with Sharia law.
He also later picked a fight with Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos on twitter, accusing the company of not paying "fair taxes". Trump suggested that if Amazon did so, its "stock would crumble like a paper bag".     Mirror

The Loma Linda LGBT agenda

The Seventh day Adventist church must grant the same rights to LGBT individuals as the United States supreme court did June 2015.  (Minute 2:25)   James Walters, PhD, professor of religion - Ethical Studies. 

I've always felt gay, born gay, grew up gay. I read my bible, prayed, preached sermons in churches but the desire of homosexuality did not go away. (Minute 22:45, 26:00, 1:44:22)  Admitted practicing homosexuality (Minute 1:50:40) Han Von Walter, MD Psychiatrist

The SDA  church must accept LGBT individuals as members, because they are Seventh-day Adventists, believe in Jesus, committed to the bible and core teachings of the church. Pope Francis is our model; his words must be our guide.  (Minute 33:00) 

The bible cannot be taken literally, especially Leviticus 18:22  (Minute 1:19:30)  Grace Oie  MD, Pediatric Critical Care.

 

Jesus had two fathers; we affirm the LGBT lifestyle  (Minute 1:32:06) 

We must see in everyone the image of God, even LGBT individuals  (Minute 2:04:00)  Daneen Akers, MA, Film Director: Seventh-gay Adventist.

 

The Bible does not address the LGBT lifestyle. Paul knew nothing about our sexual orientation today, because he lived in a different era. Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26-28 must be studied more because they are not as conclusive as they appear to be on the surface. The Bible cannot settle every question. (Minute 58:00 - 1:03:55)  Jonathan Paulien, PhD, Professor of Religion - Theological Studies.

What should I do if I am a gay Seventh day Adventist? Answer: here are seven options. 1) Commit suicide, 2) Stay in the closet, 3) Marry a person of the opposite sex, 4) Seek change therapy by praying, reading the bible, getting counseling, 5) Engage in promiscuity, 6) Celibacy, 7) Form a loving, lasting union akin to marriage.  Mr Larson stated that he only agrees with the last 2 options.   (Minute 40:30, 47:00)

There is a change happening in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination to affirm the LGBT lifestyle at the grassroots, due to the work of people like Daneen Akers.  (Minute 49:30) 

The six texts that are usually to clobber (to condemn) people who practice the LGBT lifestyle should be removed from the bible. Then let us just love everyone.  (Minute 1:22:00, 1:27:00)  Davis R. Larson, DMin, PhD, Professor of Ethical Studies. 

World’s Giraffes Now Threatened with Extinction

Anna Hunt December 11, 2016

A recent announcement by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reveals that the global population of one of the most majestic mammals, the giraffe, has plummeted by up to 40% over the last 30 years. The population of the iconic giraffe, one of the world’s most recognizable mammals, now falls below 98,000 worldwide.

According to the IUCN, the giraffe population is being pushed towards extinction by one very infectious species – homo sapiens. Activities such as “illegal hunting, expanding agriculture and mining, increasing human-wildlife conflict, and civil unrest,” are all negatively impacting giraffe (Giraffa Camelopardalis) subpopulations, as well as okapi (Okapia johnstoni), which are part of the Giraffidae family.    Walking Times

Facebook began testing new tools to carry out its "censorship plan" with the convenient name of "tackling fake news"

Guilherme Schneider
One of the tools being tested will enable users to inform Facebook if certain news stories are using “misleading language”. Some users posted images of a Facebook survey asking them the following question: “To what extent do you think that this link’s title withholds key details of the story?”.

It is still unclear what kind of actions will be carried out after this additional user data is collected, but it is likely that some sort of a database, containing the list of “misleading” news websites, will be generated.

In a not so distant past, content curators from Facebook confirmed that they received direct orders from the company to decrease the relevance or even hide from the newsfeed stories and content with conservative language. While this happened in the US, similar stories have been reported in Brazil, the United Kingdom around the time of the Brexit, and in other countries.

Recently, there were other reports that Facebook developed a special software for the Chinese market, that would enable “third parties” to authorize the contents before posting it to the users’ timelines. The initiative would aim to lift the current ban of the social network in the country.

The main difference between this new software and the current content restrictions in some countries is that instead of reacting to a government request to hide some specific content, Facebook would be giving the option to some parties to censor and take down content before it is even posted on the network.

It is true that when you create a profile on Facebook or any other social network, you have to accept their terms and conditions in exchange of the “non-paid” use of their platforms. Most of these terms and conditions allow the social networks to analyze the information you are publishing and reading for several proposes, including targeted advertisements and many others, but is it ethical to take advantage of this information in order to define what content you should or should not see?

Since Snowden’s NSA information leak we know that we can be monitored at any given time by government agencies. The realization of this fact, however, didn’t stop us from using the same networks, nor did it prompt the closure of the NSA or other agencies involved in the perpetual recording and storage of our data.

But now we are entering a whole new level in which companies and governments will attempt to define what is right and wrong for us to see, read and talk about. What’s even more bizarre is that the CEO of Facebook could potentially run for office, while retaining control over one of the most popular social networks in the world, with the capability of retrieving and accessing anyone’s data without any sort of legal process or request.

This Orwellian trend is truly scary and we should really start questioning ourselves about the extent to which we are willing to continue handing out personal data and information to these networks.    The Duran

Will Artificial Intelligence Be the Next Einstein?

By Tia Ghose | December 8, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO – Forget the Terminator. The next robot on the horizon may be wearing a lab coat.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already helping scientists form testable hypotheses that enable experts to run real experiments, and the technology may soon be poised to help businesses make decisions, one scientist says.

However, that doesn't mean the machines will be taking over from humans entirely. Instead, humans and machines have complementary skillsets, so AI could help researchers with the work they already do, Laura Haas, a computer scientist and director of the IBM Research Accelerated Discovery Lab in San Jose, California, said here Wednesday (Dec. 7) at the Future Technologies Conference.

"The machine will come to be a strong partner to humans," akin to the android Data on the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Haas said.

Big Data

Though many people fear a future where our robot overlords surpass humans in almost every capacity, in reality, machines have long outpaced mere mortals at many tasks, such as doing incredibly fast mathematical computations. But this dominance is nowhere clearer than in the realm of Big Data.

"Global scientific output doubles every nine years; 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone; 2.5 exabytes of data are created every day," Haas said. (An exabyte is equivalent to 1 billion gigabytes.)

In the competition between man and machine, computers are the undisputed winners at processing and assimilating all this information, Haas said.

Angel of death

After IBM's Watson trounced Ken Jennings in "Jeopardy!", Dr. Olivier Lichtarge, a molecular biologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, contacted Haas' group to see if similar technology could help him in his research.

Lichtarge was looking at a specific gene, called p53, which is dubbed the cell's "angel of death," Haas said. The gene helps direct the cell through its life cycle and kills aging or damaged cells. In about 50 percent of cancer cases, there is some problem with how p53 is functioning, Haas added. What's more, research had revealed that certain molecules, called kinases, played a key role in the functioning of p53.

But, there were more than 70,000 scientific papers written about this gene, and 5,000 new studies are cropping up each year. A lab assistant could never read all the literature to identify good kinase candidates, so Lichtarge asked the group to build a program that could read through the existing literature and then identify molecules that might act as kinases to p53.

The AI assistant scanned through hordes of medical abstracts from studies published before 2004, and identified nine different kinase molecules that were potentially affecting the activity of p53.

In the ensuing decade, other researchers had identified seven of those molecules as kinases. Two, however, were never mentioned in all of the literature.

"They went off and tried to do some experimentation in the lab," Haas said. "About a year later, we had proof both in vivo and in vitro experimentation that these two were kinases."

Of course, Watson isn't yet up to the level of a brilliant and trained research scientist. In this instance, AI was used to tackle a narrow, straightforward problem that was very well posed, and it also benefited from a wealth of scientific data, Haas said.

But the results were exciting nonetheless, she said.      Live Science

Enormous Earthquakes Hit Both Sides Of The Pacific

By Michael Snyder  December 9, 2016

Why is our planet shaking so violently all of a sudden? There have literally been dozens of significant earthquakes right along the Ring of Fire within the past 30 days, and two giant ones made headlines all over the globe on Thursday. First, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County, California, and that was followed later in the day by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the Solomon Islands. But of course these latest earthquakes are just the latest examples of increased shaking along the outer perimeter of the Pacific Ocean. Experts are not quite sure what to make of all of this shaking, but they are warning that “the Big One” could strike the west coast at literally any time.

Let’s start by discussing the historic earthquake that just hit the Solomon Islands. According to the Washington Post, it was originally determined to be a magnitude 8.0 earthquake before being downgraded to a 7.8…

A massive earthquake erupted along a fault line near the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean on Thursday. The quake was originally detected as a magnitude-8 by the U.S. Geological Service, but has since been reduced to a 7.8 on the Moment-Magnitude scale.
It was followed by a 5.5-magnitude quake, and aftershocks continue to roll through.

Subsequently, that earthquake was followed by 20 extremely large aftershocks that all fell into a range between magnitude 4.8 and magnitude 6.5. All of this violent seismic activity seems to have shook the entire planet to at least some degree, because monitoring stations all over the world were experiencing strange “vibrations” as aftershock after aftershock shook the Solomon Islands.

Prior to all of this shaking in the Solomon Islands, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the coast of California rattled residents of Humboldt County.

Fortunately the quake was far enough offshore that not a lot of damage was done, but it is being reported that those living in the region could feel the ground rolling…       Activist Post

Scientist Exposes Corruption in Cancer and Vaccine Industries

By Brian Shilhavy Health Impact News December 12, 2016

Dr. Mahin Khatami has written a scathing commentary on the HPV vaccine that was published this month (December 2016) in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine. The title is: “Safety concerns and hidden agenda behind HPV vaccines: another generation of drug-dependent society?”

Dr. Khatami’s bio is quite extensive, and as a retired professor and former program director at both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), her criticisms of both the cancer and vaccine industries cannot easily be written off as the work of a “quack,” which is the standard response from the medical industry who seeks to discredit anyone who does not tow the party line.

Dr. Mahin Khatami was born in Tehran-Iran. She immigrated to USA in 1969 after training in Chemistry (BS) and Science Education (MS). She received her MA in Biochemistry from SUNY at Buffalo (1977) and PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (UPA, 1980). Her postdoctoral trainings were in physiology at the University of Virginia, protein chemistry (proteomics) at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute and UPA.
She was a Faculty of Medicine at the Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, UPA, until 1992. In collaboration with a team of scientists, under the direction of John H. Rockey, MD, PhD, at UPA, she quickly earned her supervisory responsibilities on two major projects; cell and molecular biology of diabetic retinopathy/maculopathy and experimental models of acute and chronic ocular inflammatory diseases.
In her junior academic career, Dr. Khatami is considered the most productive scientist in USA as she published 39 scientific articles and over 60 abstracts in conference proceedings in the first decade of her research.
In 1998, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), she was a Program Director and health scientist administrator, involved in developing molecular concepts for utilization of patient biospecimen for large clinical trials such as Prostate-Lung-Colorectal Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trials.
Extension of her earlier ‘accidental’ discoveries on models of inflammatory diseases became closely relevant to her duties for developing proposals for molecular diagnosis, prevention and therapy of cancer for PLCO and designs of cohort clinical trials.
The results of her pioneering studies in 1980’s on experimental models of inflammatory diseases are suggestive of the first evidence for a direct link between inflammation and tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. She also published the first report on inflammation-induced developmental phases of immune dysfunction that would lead to tumor development.
In 2005, she also published an NCI-Invention, in Federal Register for standardizing cancer biomarkers criteria (data elements) as a foundation of developing a cancer biomarkers database; M-CSF, an inflammatory mediator was identified as prototype to test/tailor data elements.
Her challenging efforts to promote the role of inflammation in cancer research, which initially met with tremendous resistance by decision makers, have recently paid off as the number of federally funded projects, technologies and drug development and related networks that focus on the role of inflammation and cancer has significantly increased in the last decade within and outside NCI/NIH.
Dr. Khatami has lectured internationally; served as president and VP for Graduate Women In Science (GWIS) Omicron Chapter; scientific judge; founder and president of Medical Education Technologies (HUS); consultant to pharmaceutical companies; member of professional societies and editorial activities; symposia organizer.
She is Associate Editor for Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, lecturer, author and editor. Before retiring at professor level from NCI/NIH in 2009, her position was Program Director (IMAT) and Assistant Director for Technology Program Development, Office of Technology and Industrial Relations, Office of the Director, NCI/NIH. (Source.)     Health News

A Lesson in Ecumenism

Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development

By Jessica Taylor December 5, 2016 6:25 AM ET

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in his incoming administration.

"Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities," Trump said in a statement released Monday. "We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities."

The famed retired neurosurgeon is an unorthodox pick to lead the agency which oversees affordable housing programs and enforces fair housing legislation.

In fact, a top Carson aide, Armstrong Williams, told The Hill last month that the former GOP presidential hopeful wasn't interested in a Cabinet position because, "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

At the time, Carson's name was being floated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. And Trump himself confirmed he was considering Carson to lead HUD.

Carson teased later that he was going to accept the appointment, writing on Facebook that he could "make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone" and that an announcement was "forthcoming."

Carson said he was honored to accept the opportunity to serve in Trump's administration. "I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly by strengthening communities that are most in need," he said.

Carson was one of Trump's many rivals for the Republican nomination for president, which was the retired African-American doctor's first foray into politics. Carson surged briefly in the polls last fall, which prodded Trump to question Carson's religion (he's a Seventh-day Adventist).

Trump also brought up Carson's childhood temperament and anger, issues Carson had written about in his autobiography. Trump said Carson's temperament was an incurable sickness that he compared to "child molesting."

Nonetheless, Carson endorsed Trump less than a week after he ended his own White House bid just after Super Tuesday and said the two had "buried the hatchet."

Carson grew up in Detroit, Mich., in a home headed by a single mother. Carson told Fox News's Neil Cavuto last month his upbringing made him well-suited for this particular role.

"I grew up in the inner city and have spent a lot of time there, and have dealt with a lot of patients from that area and recognize that we cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities," Carson said.          NPR

Family Guy strikes again at Jesus

By Justin Ashford | December 4, 2016 | 11:44 PM EST

Seth MacFarlane strikes again at Jesus on Family Guy, and just in time for Christmas…how thoughtful.

On FOX’s Sunday night episode “Carter and Tricia,” Peter is speaking with Tricia Takanawa, who his father-in-law is now seeing, and exclaims he wants her to think he's a good son, "not like how Jesus feels about his kid." Clearly MacFarlane is harping on the idea that Jesus was married and had children. Along with that garbage, they also poke fun at His sacrifice and make God seem like a “d-ck” for sending Jesus to die for our sins.

Boy: Dad, I got bullied at school. They flipped up my lunch tray!
Jesus: Oh, that sucks. I wonder if that's the worst thing that ever happened to a guy? Whoa. Whoa! Billy, this guy in this book here-- he's really getting the business-- yikes! Okay, I'm sorry. What happened at school today?
Boy: You're kind of a d-ck, Dad.
Jesus: Huh. I wonder if there's anyone in here whose dad was a bigger d-ck. Wow! Crazy!

Truly disgraceful. I can’t imagine finding the humor in this. But hey, that’s liberal Hollywood. In their eyes, Christianity is nothing but a punchline.           Newsbusters

Venezuela’s Economic Crisis Is So Bad That Women Are Selling Their Hair

By Reuters, December 6, 2016 

“I’m here because I have nothing to eat,” said one woman. 

Women from crisis-hit Venezuela are crossing the border in droves and selling their hair in a Colombian border town in order to afford scarce basic necessities such as food, diapers or medicines.

The trend, which has taken off in recent weeks, is another sign of the oil-rich country’s deepening crisis amid shortages and spiraling inflation that have millions skipping meals and forgoing costly medical treatment.

Dozens of middlemen, known as “draggers,” stand on a bridge linking San Antonio, Venezuela, to Colombia’s La Parada, calling out: “We buy hair!”

Some 200 women a day are taking up their offer at one of seven makeshift stands dotting La Parada, according to estimates from five middlemen. The locks are then sold as extensions in the western Colombian city of Cali.

Celina Gonzales, a 45-year-old street vendor, stood in line for an hour to sell her mid-length brown hair for 60,000 Colombian pesos, or about $20 – the equivalent of a monthly minimum wage and food tickets back home.

“I suffer arthritis and I need to buy medicine. This won’t be much, but at least I can buy painkillers,” said Gonzales, who had not told her family what she was doing.

Venezuela‘s leftist government blames the crisis on businessmen waging an “economic war” to sabotage it. The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

‘THEY GO BUY FOOD’

As the economy teeters under a third year of recession, Venezuelans are increasingly ending up empty-handed despite long lines for heavily-subsidized food. Non-subsidized food is far too expensive, with a bag of rice sometimes costing around a tenth of monthly earnings.

Many are forced to survive on starches or forage through garbage for scraps. In recent months, hundreds have drifted across to Colombia to buy groceries.

In the border towns, the hair business is booming.

“I can take off volume, cut strands here and there or make a ponytail and cut all the hair,” explained Jenifer Nino, 31, a so-called dragger, as she stood next to informal hair salons housed on street corners, sidewalks and even a tire store.

“Most of the women come here with little kids and after cutting their hair they go buy food,” Nino added.

Some women complain the haircuts are sloppy and end up regretting the decision, while others are turned away.

Maribel, a poor woman from Venezuela‘s Tachira state traveled to Colombia after her brother told her about the hair business.

“I’m here because I have nothing to eat,” she said, but was later rebuffed because her hair was too short and thin.                      Fortune

Trump the showman

By F. William Engdahl Global Research, November 30, 2016

The project called the Trump Presidency has just two months before its formal beginning. Yet already the hopes and fantasies of much of the world are making him into something and someone Donald Trump most definitely is not.

Donald Trump is yet another project of the same bo2ring old patriarchs who try again and again to create a one world order that they control absolutely, a New World Order that one close Trump backer once referred to as universal fascism.

Ignore the sometimes fine rhetoric in some of his speeches. Talk is cheap. If we consider rather the agenda that’s taking form even in these very early days of cabinet naming, we can see that Donald Trump is the same agenda of war and global empire as Obama, as Bush before him, as Bill Clinton and Clinton’s “tutor”, George H.W. Bush before him. There is no good side to what the world is about to experience with President Trump.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, It’s Showtime!’ Today we give you Donald Trump.

He will tell you just what many of you want to hear. Trump the showman will tell you he will make America great again; Trump will say he will ship at least 3 million illegals back across the Rio Grande; Trump will introduce a bill to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization; Trump will bring jobs back to America from China and other low wage countries; Trump will sit down with Putin and work out some kind of a deal to calm things down; Trump will scrap the Iran nuclear deal of Obama…

Often during this election campaign, which was more a Hollywood “D1” grade movie than any honest debate of policies and ideas candidate Trump made statements that resonated with the “silent majority” of not only so-called blue collar workers, but also the disenfranchised middle class whose earnings have been declining in real terms since the 1970’s. Trump, like an earlier actor-President named Ronald Reagan, has a talent to make himself sound sincere.                   Read more

Pope Francis and climate politics

By E. Calvin Beisner - - Sunday, December 4, 2016

Reuters reports, “Pope Francis urged national leaders on Monday to implement global environmental agreements without delay, a message that looked to be squarely aimed at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

“Addressing a group of scientists that included theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the pope gave his strongest speech on the environment since the election of Trump, who has threatened to pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

‘The ‘distraction’ or delay in implementing global agreements on the environment shows that politics has become submissive to a technology and economy which seek profit above all else,’ Francis said.”

So the pope thinks opposition to the Paris Treaty stems from profit seeking?

How about all the billions in profits sought by renewable energy corporations like wind turbine makers General Electric and Siemens or solar panel makers First Solar and Solar City, whose products can’t compete economically with fossil fuels or nuclear without massive government subsidies and mandates?

How about the billions of taxpayer dollars showered on Solyndra and similar now-bankrupt renewable energy companies?

How about all the billions of taxpayers’ dollars showered on the climate-change research complex to fund its continued modeling that has achieved the magnificent advance in scientific knowledge since 1978 of narrowing the estimate of the warming effect of doubled atmospheric CO2 from 1.5-4.5 C to 1.5-4.5 C? (Yes, you read that right — no narrowing achieved. Scores of billions spent over 38 years and no advance in what we really need to know.)

How about all the profits sought by carbon traders who expect to amass billions trading permits whose economic value rests on nothing but empirically falsified climate models that project 2 to 3 times the warming actually observed?

All this isn’t even to mention the anti-capitalistic mentality apparent in the pope’s implicit condemnation of profit seeking. “But he only condemns seeking profit “above all else,” you say? Sorry, that doesn’t ring true to Francis’ past. Despite the fact capitalism has lifted whole societies out of poverty while socialism has only trapped them in or returned them to poverty, Francis has been committed to Liberation Theology — a Latin American variant of Marxism learned by Latin American priests while studying mostly in Marxist-dominated French seminaries—since early in his priesthood.

One can’t help wondering if his embrace of climate alarmism rests on politics rather than science. That wouldn’t be unique to him, as former U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretary General Christiana Figueres said as much last year.

Certainly the absence of any hard science in the four paragraphs on climate change in Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ suggests science didn’t much factor into his opinion. That’s why hundreds of scientists — including climate scientists — signed the Cornwall Alliance’s Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change, and were joined by economists, theologians and ethicists.

If politics has become submissive to a technology and economy that seeks profit above all else, the technology is that of renewable energy, which is subsidized 60 (wind) to 400 (solar) times as much per megawatt-hour of electricity generated as fossil fuels. How else do you explain governments’ willingness to sign onto a climate treaty implementation of which will cost $70-$140 trillion by century’s end while, on the IPCC’s own assumptions, reducing global average temperature by no more than 0.17 C.

Perhaps Pope Francis, who purports to care so much about the world’s poor, should consider how much more that money could achieve to lift people out of poverty if spent on things like water purification, sewage sanitation, nutrition supplements, infectious disease control, and health care.

Meanwhile, President-elect Trump, at whom the pontiff was preaching, should stick to his guns. He should announce that because President Obama never submitted the Paris treaty to the Senate for ratification, which the Constitution requires for the United States to be bound by any treaty, the U.S. is not a party to the treaty. Then, on the day he’s inaugurated, he should submit the treaty to the Senate, where it will die the ignominious death it deserves.                 Washington Times

Stephen Hawking: The end of the world is imminent; however, it is us humans who pose the biggest danger to humanity.



By Jenny Dabon Posted on December 6, 2016

 
Stephen Hawking, a British physicist, scientist, and cosmologist who made many scientific breakthroughs in our history, has voiced his views regarding the biggest and latest issues the world is facing today. The end of the world is imminent; however, it is us humans who pose the biggest danger to humanity.
The division of the world is more prominent than ever before. Stephen Hawking has said so through a piece he penned. After Britain’s separation from the European Union and with Donald Trump being elected as the President of the United States, commentators can easily look at it as “a cry of anger by the people” who felt that their leaders have abandoned them.

Stephen Hawking on End of the World

Stephen Hawking says Brexit and the election gave people the option to choose for something new as they felt it will bring the change they are looking for. With the “financial crash” that many people are facing and the visibility of how “the richest people” live their lives through social media, more and more take part in being “economic migrants in search for a better life.”
Meanwhile, it is up to the elites and the world’s leaders to “acknowledge that they have failed and are failing many.” Since we are the “most dangerous moment” in humanity, now is the time to “break down” and not “build up” barriers “within and between nations.”
The end of the world is imminent. And while technological advancements have created technology that can destroy planet Earth, we have not yet “developed the ability to escape it.”
Someday, we might. But for the meantime, we only have this one and only planet to live in and everyone has to “work together to protect it.” Stephen Hawking calls for the world leaders and elites to learn “lessons of the past year” and, above everything, “a measure of humility.”

Hawking Hospitalized in Rome

Meanwhile, the 74-year-old physicist was hospitalized in Rome for checks on the night of Dec. 1. Stephen Hawking was in Rome to be part of a conference held in Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a talk about the origin about the universe. He also met Pope Francis on Monday, Nov. 28.
Thankfully, Stephen Hawking, who is suffering from a motor neuron disease, is not in serious condition. He was brought to Gemelli Hospital, which is one of the best hospitals in Rome. It is also where popes are treated.
As for the end of the world, Stephen Hawking remains an “enormous optimist” for our species.            Citizen Oracle

CIA admits using news to manipulate the thoughts and ideas of American citizens in the USA 1975

Fulfilled prophecies of Jesus as the Messiah

Note: Probability of One man fulfilling all these prophecies is 1 in 10157 from “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell, page 167

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

The Witness of John

(Malachi 3:1-5)

6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

 John 1:6-13 

The Suffering Servant

(Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65; John 18:19-24; 1 Peter 2:21-25)

1Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Isaiah 53:1-8 

Note:  To think that the person the Jews had waited so long for, they ended up rejecting. This is an important prophecy in terms of explaining why the Jews are still waiting for a Messiah and why Jesus was crucified.

 

Who is Jesus for the Jews in Israel

The witness of God is greater

 

Overcoming the World

1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

Jesus is the Son of God

9If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. 10He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Conclusion

13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

16If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. 17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.

18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 20And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

21Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.           1 John 5 KJV