Apple CEO Tim Cook believes augmented reality is 'a big idea like the smartphone

(BusinessInsider.com) -  Nobody outside of Apple knows what its next big product is.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook continues to drop hints that the company is investing and sees huge potential in augmented reality.

That's what techies call the technology that integrates computer graphics and the internet with the real world to let you see virtual objects in real environments. The end game of this technology is a pair of smart glasses, although current applications like Pokémon Go mostly use smartphones.

Cook compared AR to the smartphone in an interview with The Independent's David Phelan published on Friday:

"I regard it as a big idea like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everyone. We don't have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market; it's for everyone. I think AR is that big. It's huge. I get excited because of the things that could be done that could improve a lot of lives and be entertaining."

But Cook also threw cold water on the idea that Apple is preparing a specific AR product like the smart glasses that have been recently rumored.

"I view AR like I view the silicon here in my iPhone," he said. "It's not a product per se — it's a core technology."

This could mean that Apple would include AR technology in some of its apps, such as the camera app, and its underlying technology. Apple has purchased several AR startups in the past few years.

"This is something you know it's coming," Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster previously told Business Insider. "The only other times they've talked like this is before the iPhone came out, they started to indicate they could do something in the phone market. Before the Apple Watch came out they talked about wearables and the wrist being a better option."

It's not the first time Cook has spoken at length about the potential he sees in AR. At an appearance in October, he laid out why he thinks is a superior bet to other immersive technologies like virtual reality, and said a "significant portion" of people around the world would "have AR experiences every day."

"AR is going to take a while because there are some really hard technology challenges there," Cook said in October. "But it will happen, it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today." (ontinueReading..

Facebook, Google, others launch drive against fake news in France

Reuters - Social media companies Facebook, Google and a group of news organizations launched an initiative on Monday to tackle fake news stories in France, with the media in the spotlight as the country's presidential election approaches.

Facebook said it would work with several leading French news organizations, including Agence France-Presse, BFM TV, and newspapers L'Express and Le Monde to ensure that false news items were not published on its platform.

Google also said it was part of the initiative, dubbed "Cross Check" by the partners.

Facebook has faced criticism that it did not do enough to prevent false information being republished on its platform during last year's U.S presidential campaign, and in response has set up measures to try to tackle the problem.

There have been similar concerns that people could disseminate false information on Facebook in the build-up to the French election, which takes place in April and May.

In the United States, Facebook has said users would in future find it easier to flag fake articles as a hoax, and added that it will work with organizations such as fact-checking website Snopes, ABC News and the Associated Press to check the authenticity of stories.

Last month, Facebook also set up an initiative against fake news in Germany, where government officials had expressed concerns that false stories and hate speech online could influence a parliamentary election in September in which chancellor Angela Merkel will seek a fourth term in office. (ontinueReading

Reports of Twitter Shifting To An Algorithm Timeline Next Week Might Be Premature

- The internet has been buzzing angrily after Buzzfeed published a post that indicated that Twitter was moving away from its timeline and towards an algorithm generated feed next week. That might have been premature.

For months now, it’s been rumored that Twitter would be shifting their model away from the strict, chronological timeline model that has been its hallmark since its inception, and to an algorithm-based model that would filter out what users would see, much like how Facebook has approached their Timeline feature. The company has recently been derided for several new features, including Moments and changing ‘Favorites’ to ‘Likes’.

The internet hasn’t been happy, and have taken to the hashtag #RIPTwitter to voice their disapproval.

In response, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey took to Twitter earlier this afternoon to note that the company isn’t planning on reordering timelines next week as has been reported. Full Story

Scattered violence as Mexico holds midterm elections

(Yahoonews.com) MEXICO CITY (AP) — Protesters burned ballot boxes in several restive states of southern Mexico on Sunday in an attempt to disrupt elections seen as a litmus test for President Enrique Pena Nieto's government, while officials said the vote was proceeding satisfactorily despite "isolated incidents."

Thousands of soldiers and federal police were guarding polling stations where violence and calls for boycotts threatened to mar elections for 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, nine of 31 governorships and hundreds of mayors and local officials.

Midterm elections usually draw light turnout, but attention was unusually high this time as a loose coalition of radical teachers' unions and activists vowed to block the vote.

They attacked the offices of political parties in Chiapas and Guerrero states and burned ballots in Oaxaca ahead of the vote.

The teachers' demands include huge wage hikes, an end to teacher testing and the safe return of 42 missing students from a radical teachers' college. Those students disappeared in September, and prosecutors say they were killed and incinerated by a drug gang. One student's remains were identified by DNA testing.

Protesters burned at least seven ballot boxes and election materials in Tixtla, the Guerrero state town where the teachers' college is located.

"We want the children to be found first, and then there can be elections," said Martina de la Cruz, the mother of one of the missing students.

Soon after, there was an exchange of rock-throwing between protesters and hundreds of people who said they intended to defend their right to vote. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Full Story

Why doesn't society care about male rape?

*Contains language that some may not find suitable

(Telegraph.com) May 25, 1015 - Male rape survivor John Lennon is adamant that group therapy at a dedicated, male-only support network helped save his life.

Lennon’s attacker was sentenced to four years and three months after he brutally raped him for three and a half hours at his flat in Manchester in August 2010. At he end of his horrific ordeal, Lennon needed plastic surgery to rebuild his battered face – but it was his shattered mind that would bear the bigger scars.

Yet, like many survivors of male rape, he had no idea where to turn for help.

“After my attack I was suicidal, and in desperation called a Rape Crisis helpline, but the woman said, ‘This service is for women only,’ and hung up on me,” says Lennon, 45, from Manchester. “I don’t blame her, but I felt so angry and rejected that they turned men away. Luckily, I used my anger to get help.”

Then Lennon found out about Survivors Manchester – one of only 20 services nationwide that offer help to male rape victims and one of four that offer male-dedicated help – and his slow path to recovery began.

“I started two years of group therapy, which is crucial,” he says. “It makes you feel like you’re not alone, not such damaged goods; like a whole human again.”

Yet in spite of John’s experience that single-sex therapy is essential,Survivors UK (based in London and the UK’s biggest male-only victim support group) has recently had its funding slashed to zero, meaning the only male-dedicated service in London now has to turn desperate men like Lennon away – despite a staggering 120 per cent increase in male rape in the capital in two years.

Police crime figures for 2014 in England & Wales show there were 38,134 incidents of rape or sexual assault of a woman and 3,580 against men.

Yet due to the shame and stigma surrounding perhaps the darkest male taboo of all, Survivors UK believe only 2-3 per cent of men report their rapes (official figures for women are 10-12 per cent reporting) meaning many thousands of men are suffering in silence.

Furthermore, there are an estimated 1.5 million adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the UK – abuse against boys accounts for around 70 per cent of cases. Read the rest

Indiana: Muslim Bakery Refuses To Make American Flag Cake For Returning War Veteran

- Baahir’s Bakery, a Muslim bakery located in South Bend Indiana is the midst of a media firestorm after they refused to make an American flag sheet cake for a returning Iraq war veteran’s welcome home party.

The family of Joshua Lancaster, a 34 year old war veteran that served 4 tours in Iraq, was thrilled for their beloved soldiers return to his South Bend home on May 7th. Their excitement unfortunately had to take a backseat to the disappointment and frustration they felt upon finding out the local bakery that they had already paid to make an American flag sheet cake had made a last minute decision to refuse to fulfill the Lancaster family’s cake order.

According to the family, the soldier’s mother had arrived at Baahir’s Bakery around 9:00 AM on the day of the welcome home party (May 8th), and was devastated when the employee behind the counter informed her that they do not have the cake because the Bakery’s owner Baahir Ameen had refused to fulfill the order.

Though the bakery promptly produced a full refund for the family, the original order had been placed 5 days prior leaving the family to scramble in order to find a last minute solution. Due to the minimal time available, the only bakery that the family was able to find to fulfill the last minute request was located inside a local grocery chain. The family appreciates the grocery store for accommodating the last minute request; however claim the cake just wasn’t what they had originally hoped and planned for.

Upon receiving abundant criticism from sympathizers of the family, a representative from the bakery made the following statement to Indiana’s local FOX affiliate.

“In Indiana we are protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Islam is openly against American’s descendant ways; additionally for religious reasons, I firmly disagree with the war in Iraq, therefore, Baahir’s Bakery refuses to contribute to the celebration of these clear abominations. Thankfully we live in a state that allows us this freedom.”

According to Joshua’s sister Beth Lancaster, the reason the family decided to place the order at Baahir’s Bakery, was that in the past she had purchased several breads from the bakery and the family wanted to support a small business. Beth told reporters however, “Never again will that bakery see a penny from our pockets”.

- See more at: nationalreport.net

Costa Rica: Scientis discover new glass frog species with translucent skin

(wired.co.uk) - A new species of frog discovered in Costa Rica has such translucent skin on its underside that it's possible to see its internal organs.

The species, named Hyalinobatrachium dianae, is a type of glass frog, which are only found in regions of South and Central America. In this case, six specimens of the species have been found in the tropical wet forests of Costa Rica's Caribbean foothills. The nocturnal creature is distinct from other species thanks to skin texture, colouring and the sound of its call.

The glass frog was discovered by zoologists working at the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Centre and has been detailed in a study published in the online journalZootaxa. While bright green on top, the delicate frog's transparent underside allowed the researchers to study the arrangement of the frog's internal organs in detail. "The bulbous liver and digestive organs are covered in white peritonea. The heart and ventral vein are blood red. Lungs transparent, but with a network of red blood vessels. The gallbladder is transparent Sulphur Yellow," they write.

The frog has been named in honour of the senior author Brian Kubicki's mother Janet Diane Kubicki, and also Diana the Roman goddess of the hunt, wild animals and woodland. "This being in relation to our own 'hunt' among Costa Rica’s mountainous forests to better understand the amphibians dwelling within," the authors explain. Full Story with pics

Retail sales rebound signals thaw in economic activity

(Reuters) - Retail sales rose in March for the first time since November as consumers stepped up purchases of automobiles and other goods, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter was temporary.

The Commerce Department's fairly sturdy report on Tuesday together with other data showing that producer inflation crept up last month should keep the Federal Reserve on track to start raising interest rates later this year.

An unusually snowy winter undercut activity early in 2015. Labor disruptions at normally busy West Coast ports, a stronger dollar and softer global demand also have hurt growth.

"A rebound in retail sales in March provides evidence that the U.S. economy is pulling out of a soft patch seen at the start of the year. The improvement in retail sales ... adds to the likelihood of policymakers voting to hike rates this year," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit in London.

Retail sales increased 0.9 percent in March, broadly in line with expectations. That was the largest gain since the same month last year and snapped three straight months of declines that had been blamed on harsh winter weather.

Florida: Mom Sues: "Circumcision is Unconstitutional Assault"

JEWS!!!!!!!!

*Contains sensitive text that most may find unsuitable

Via WorldNetDaily: A Florida mother who’s in hiding to prevent her son from being forcibly circumcised by the child’s father has now filed a federal lawsuit, claiming the boy’s constitutional rights are being violated.

The action by Heather Hironimus was filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, as she claims there is no medical justification to remove the foreskin from her boy, identified as C.R.N.H.

“(The) application of Florida law to impose unnecessary, elective, cosmetic circumcision upon C.R.N.H. at the age of 4 1/2 years old for no religious reason violates (the boy’s) fundamental right to privacy and bodily integrity secured by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States,” her attorney Thomas Hunker wrote.

The suit also says “forcing circumcision on C.R.N.H. constitutes assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, and/or child abuse under Florida law.”

According to South Florida’s New Times, a long list of alleged reasons for the procedure not to be performed are included in the suit:

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Bioethics Committee has declared that a minor’s input into surgical decisions must be heard and considered.

In contrast to the rare disease of penile cancer that occurs mostly in the elderly, breast cancer is far more common, but the law does not permit forcible removal of a female child’s healthy breasts in order to prevent the possibility that the child may one day develop breast cancer.

Penile cancer occurs in circumcised and uncircumcised males alike.

Circumcision does not significantly reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

Penile cancer and sexually transmitted diseases can be adequately prevented by less invasive methods such as personal hygiene and safe sex.

As WND reported in March, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen issued an arrest warrant for the mother for failing to appear before the court, and she has reportedly been living at a domestic-violence shelter.

Neither of the boy’s parents is Jewish, but the father testified last year he thinks circumcision is “just the normal thing to do.”

Read more at HERE

Update: Mom in circumcision battle found, jailed in Florida

* * * *

Integration Failing in America

(thetrumpet.com) 4/10/15 - Increasing numbers of immigrants are clinging to their own culture rather than assimilating into American society.

More than 25 percent of Boston’s residents were born outside the United States.

“You can’t find a place in Boston that doesn’t have a growing immigrant population,” said Alejandra St. Guillen, director of Boston’s Office of New Bostonians.

But it isn’t just Boston. Whole communities that cannot speak English are popping up across America. Washington, D.C., and six Maryland and Virginia school districts spend $2.4 billion on sources and programs related to Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Alexandria, Virginia, devotes 45.8 percent of the school systems’ budget to LEPstudents.

A January 2015 study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), indicates that in some metro area counties in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Colombia, 20 to 30 percent of the population is foreign born. That means approximately a quarter of the population of the nation’s capital was not born in the U.S.

And the refusal or inability of immigrants to integrate is widespread.

In March, St. Cloud Technical High School in Minnesota showed a prime example of the effects of non-integration when more than 100 Somali students walked out of classes. The walk-out was supposedly in response to a picture posted on the Internet implying a Somali student could be a terrorist. Tensions became so high that another school in the district had to be locked down for safety.

”Situations regarding race and culture are in the forefront at this moment. It’s a hot topic,” Willie Jett, superintendent of the St. Cloud school district said. “At times, can there be conflict? Definitely.”

Somali leaders say the school is racist and needs to hire more minority teachers to be able to relate to immigrant students. Former prospective St. Cloud City Council Candidate Abdul Kulane said that the Somali community needed to be involved in deciding how the school is run. He said that reports of the school district’s inability to find minority teachers is just an excuse.

It’s a truism that a house divided against itself will fall.

Clorox apologizes, deletes tweet after racial uproar involving emoticons

(cnnmoney) - Clorox has apologized for a seemingly harmless tweet about emojis that sparked outrage on Twitter.

The tweet, which Clorox (CLX) since deleted, showed a Clorox bottle made up of the new emojisreleased by Apple (AAPL, Tech30) as part of this week's iOS 8.3 update. Clorox tweeted, "New emojis are alright but where's the bleach."

Apple's new iOS 8.3 release consists of 300 new emojis, including kissing lips, googly eyes and a smiling poop (we wish we were making that up). But they also include racially diverse emojis, including cartoon faces with brown and black skin.

In its tweet, Clorox seemed to be commenting on why bleach wasn't included among the hundreds of other household items that Apple had added to its list of emojis. But on social media, offense was taken.

"You need to clean up your PR person. Put some bleach on your distasteful marketing ideas," tweeted @DriNicole. "Black emojis were added today. Saying this implies you'd rather the emojis be only white, by adding bleach."

After taking down the tweet, Clorox followed up with an apology: "Wish we could bleach away our last tweet. Didn't mean to offend - it was meant to be about all the [toilet, bathtub and red wine] emojis that could use a clean up." read the rest

Obama to Call for End to ‘Conversion’ Therapies for Gay and Transgender Youth

(nytimes.com) 4/8/15 WASHINGTON — A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy.

In response, President Obama is calling for an end to such therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender youth. His decision on the issue is the latest example of his continuing embrace of gay rights.

In a statement that was posted on Wednesday evening alongside aWhiteHouse.gov petition begun in honor of Ms. Alcorn, Mr. Obama condemned the practice, sometimes called “conversion” or “reparative” therapy, which is supported by some socially conservative organizations and religious doctors.

The petition has received more than 120,000 signatures in three months.

“We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youth,” the statement, written by Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, says. “As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Jarrett said Mr. Obama had been moved by the story of Ms. Alcorn’s suicide. But she said the problem went far beyond Ms. Alcorn. Full Story

Expert: Crude oil could hit $15 by year end

- CNBC “Fast Money” panelist and financial expert Dennis Gartman has bad news for oil: It’s going to go “stunningly” lower. In an interview with CNBC.com’s “Futures Now,” the “Commodities King” said that a combination of a rapidly rising inventories and a strong dollar could lead to $15 oil by the end of the year.

“For months I’ve said that crude oil is heading from the upper left to the lower right of the chart,” said the CNBC contributor and editor and publisher of The Gartman Letter. “I wouldn’t be surprised if oil went down to about $15 a barrel.”

Crude oil prices have been in a steep and steady decline over the past six months, down more than 50 percent trading just above $40 a barrel. Traders had hoped an improving economic picture in both the U.S. and Europe could give crude a lift.

At the start of February, crude staged a sharp and violent rally off its lows. But according to Gartman, there simply is too much supply to contend with. As such, he expects future crude rallies to be met with a similar fate.

“That is not how a bull market is supposed to act,” he said. “That is how a bear market acts.”

See the whole interview here.

Read more at wnd.com/

Kansas Bans Poor People From Spending Welfare On Cruise Ships

(HuffingtonPost.com) 04/04/15 - Kansas welfare recipients will be unable to get more than $25 per day in benefits under a new law sent this week to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's desk by the state legislature.

The bill also prohibits welfare recipients from spending their benefits at certain types of businesses, including liquor stores, fortune tellers, swimming pools and cruise ships.

"We're trying to make sure those benefits are used the way they were intended," state Rep. Michael O'Donnell (R) said, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. "This is about prosperity. This is about having a great life."

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, often known as "welfare," is one of several federal programs administered by states at the ground level. The Kansas TANF program, known locally as the Successful Families Program, offers a family of three as much as $429 per month in cash benefits. Kansas is one of at least 37 states that distributes benefits on government-issued debit cards, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Under the new rule, a three-person family receiving the maximum benefit would have to go to the ATM more than a dozen times to get the full benefit, which would be whittled away by an 85 cent fee for each withdrawal after the first one. And the local cruise liner ATM will no longer be an option.

Anorexia Crackdown: France Bans Fashion Models Who Are Too Thin

(nbcnews.com) PARIS — France will ban excessively thin models and expose modeling agents and the fashion houses that hire them to possible fines and even jail, under a new law passed on Friday.

France joins Italy, Spain and Israel which all adopted laws against too-thin models on catwalks or in advertising campaigns in early 2013.

The measure is part of a wider crackdown on anorexia backed by President Francois Hollande's government. Lawmakers also approved a separate measure making it illegal to condone anorexia, a move targeting Internet sites that encourage dangerous weight loss.

"The activity of model is banned for any person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is lower than levels proposed by health authorities and decreed by the ministers of health and labor," the bill said.

The lawmaker behind the bill previously said models would have to present a medical certificate showing a BMI of at least 18, about 121 pounds for a height of 5.7 feet, before being hired for a job and for a few weeks afterwards.

The law, voted through the lower house of parliament early on Friday by Hollande's Socialist majority despite opposition by conservative parliamentarians, envisages imprisonment of up to six months and a fine of 75,000 euros ($82,000) for any agency contravening it.

The second measure means that any website inciting a reader to "seek excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time, resulting in risk of mortality or damage to health" will face up to a year in prison and fines up to 100,000 euros.

Some 30,000-40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia, most of them teenagers, health experts estimate. Full Story

‘Jesus Christ never existed at all,’ US historian claims

IT'S A ZIONIST CONSPIRACY!!

(Metro.co.uk) April 03/2015 = An atheist writer has tried to spoil the taste of everyone’s Easter eggs by claiming Jesus didn’t exist at all.

San Francisco-based David Fitzgerald claims that there are no mentions of Jesus – at all – in 125 different historical accounts of the period.

He says it makes no sense, as Jesus is supposed to have been a famous figure who wrought incredible miracles – but no contemporary writers had heard of him.

Fitzgerald, an atheist activist, says, ‘’There is a paradox that Jesus did all these amazing things and taught all these amazing things yet no one heard of him outside his immediate cult for nearly 100 years.

‘Or it means he didn’t do all these things at all.

‘Two billion people believe all these miracles happened yet there is no evidence they did.’

Fitzgerald believes that the writers of the gospels worked decades after Jesus’s death, and made up the idea of Jesus by combining information about several Jewish sect leaders from the period.

His upcoming book claims that Jesus Christ as we know him is a literary invention – and that there was no single ‘Jesus’ at all.

Fitzgerald writes, ‘I must conclude that Christ is a mythical character. “Jesus of Nazareth” was nothing more than urban (or desert) legend, likely an agglomeration of several evangelic and deluded rabbis who might have existed.’

* * * *
I feel like the professor is referring to Catholicism & not Christianity which are 2 different things. Catholics make it too easy for anyone to challenge the religion. 

Equality: Madison Wisconsin first in Union to pass ordinance protecting atheists

= As the current common council met for the last time Tuesday, members unanimously voted to make discriminating against atheism, and others who do not believe in g-d, illegal.

"This is important because I believe it is only fair that if we protect religion, in all its varieties, we should also protect non-religion from discrimination. It's only fair," ordinance sponsor District 18 Alderwoman Anita Weier said.

The vote amends the city's equal opportunity ordinance, adding atheism as a protected class in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.

"There are many categories that are protected," Weier said. "And it did occur to me that if religion was then perhaps the opposite should be"

UW graduate student, and former Atheists Humanists and Agnostics president Chris Calvey was among the five atheists speaking in favor of the proposals.

They told the council stories of housing, employment, volunteer, community, and parental custody discrimination because of their non-belief in God, saying that fact has no bearing on their character, values or what type of job they do.

"It's actually something we're commonly very concerned about, just because atheism is viewed as such a taboo in this country. And there's such a stigma with it. That people in my student group for example are very hesitant to be honest about their lack of belief in God out of fear that they are going to be discriminated against in employment opportunities. If that came up in a job interview that's held against them," Calvey said.

"Having it on the books, where we're legally a protected class, that'll make things much easier for atheists," Calvey said. "And we'll be able to be confident that at least if we're honest about what we actually believe, then we have the law backing us up so we can't legally be discriminated against."

"It's really making a big statement that we're not going to put up with discrimination in the name of God. That being a believer doesn't mean you can discriminate," Freedom From Religion Foundation co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor said.

No one spoke out against the proposal.

* * * *

Not sure what "god" they are using here. I assume it's the J*w/Christian god. But I am only guessing based on the article. They would only single out Xians & Xians only because they make it so easy.

Kenya: At least 147 Dead in University Shooting

(BostonHearld) April 2, 2015 - Kenya's national disaster operations center and the interior minister say the attack by al-Shabab gunmen on a college campus has claimed 147 lives, besides four attackers who also died. The interior minister said most of those killed Thursday were students but included two police officers, one soldier and two watchmen.

The disaster center said plans are underway to evacuate students and other affected persons.

It was by far the highest death toll in an attack by al-Shabab, an Islamic extremist group from neighboring Somalia, on Kenyan soil.

Kenyan security officials at the scene of an attack by Islamic extremists on a college in northeast Kenya say the security operation to free hostages is over and that the death toll may be as high as around 150. Dozens of hostages were freed, they said, with four of the gunmen killed. The gunfire has ended, according to Associated Press reporters near the scene.

Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said gave the death at 70 but conceded that it could go higher. Police officials who could insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the press said the toll could be as high as about 150

One Kenyan police source said there were 147 dead and another police source said 160. A third source put the death toll at around 80 but said there were so many bodies that he could not do a proper count as night fell with no electrical power to light the scene.

Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery says that more than 70 people have been killed in an attack by Somali-based Islamic extremists on a college in northeast Kenya.

Nkaissery said that 79 people were wounded in the attack Thursday and four suspected attackers have been killed. He told reporters the total number of the attackers is still unknown and that security agents are fighting them at Garissa University College.

The minister ordered a dusk to dawn curfew in Garissa and in the nearby counties of Wajir, Tana River and Mandera.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.

The death toll now surpasses the 67 who were killed in al-Shabab's attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in September 2013. Read the rest

World's oldest person dies at 117 in Japan

(FoxNews) 4/01/15 TOKYO – The world's oldest person, a Japanese woman, died Wednesday, a few weeks after celebrating her 117th birthday.

Misao Okawa died of heart failure and stopped breathing as her grandson and nursing home workers stood by her side, praising her for achieving a long, healthy life, said Tomohiro Okada, an official at her Osaka nursing home.

"She went so peacefully, as if she had just fallen asleep," Okada said. "We miss her a lot."

Okawa, born in Osaka on March 5, 1898, was recognized as the world's oldest person by Guinness World Records in 2013.

It was not immediately clear who would replace her as the world's oldest person. Guinness World Records said it had begun the process of updating the ranking.

A 115-year-old woman succeeded Okawa as Japan's oldest person, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The name of the woman, who was born March 15, 1900, was not released at the request of her family, the ministry said.

Okawa lost her appetite about 10 days ago. Until then, she had been eating well, enjoying her daily cup of coffee and her favorite dishes, including ramen, Okada said.

Okawa, the daughter of a kimono maker, said at her recent birthday celebration that her life seemed rather short.

She married her husband, Yukio, in 1919, and they had two daughters and a son. She was survived by four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1931. Full Story

Boycott Indiana? What Next?

(TheTrumpet) Indiana is in the news—and not just for hosting the Final Four in the NCAA national basketball tournament. The state passed a law on March 26 reaffirming First Amendment religious freedoms, saying that the government cannot coerce or force business owners from acting contrary to their conscience or religious convictions.

The law does not specifically reference sexuality or green-light discrimination on the basis of sexuality. But it does grant protection for private companies to do business in accordance with their religious beliefs, giving them access to a court in order to prove that their religious liberty is “substantially burdened” in a dispute.

This has set the maddened mobs on fire.

The crusaders for “tolerance” are incensed. They contend that the law could mean people denying service to homosexual would-be customers. They say anyone unwilling to contribute to a homosexual wedding should be fined or jailed into submission. And this movement is organized. Immediately, #BoycottIndiana became a trending topic on Twitter and other social media. Homosexual supporters are attempting to freeze the whole state out of the national economy. And they are having some success.

Seattle and San Francisco both imposed bans on all state-funded travel to Indiana. Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy signed an executive order imposing the same ban for his entire state, and the state of Washington quickly followed suit. Some of Indiana’s biggest employers, such as SalesForce and Angie’s List, made public stands against engaging in further business in Indiana. Media and politicians have bombarded Indiana with vitriol.

Rewind to 1993. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) passed 97-3 in the Senate and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. The ACLU supported it.

This Indiana law is a version of that same law. It doesn’t force anyone to do anything. It doesn’t segregate. It protects against force, against government coercion.

How times have changed. Twenty-two years later, the liberals who supported RFRAnow denounce it. They treat even the remote possibility of someone having legal means to defend a Bible-based business decision as hateful. They insist that the government should be able and is in fact obligated to force an individual to act contrary to his religious convictions. This coercion is necessary in order to protect the rights of homosexuals to live in a world where every last person they interact with behaves as though their actions are wonderful. Any business that won’t cater to them should be shut down.

Outspoken devotees of homosexuality want to penalize anyone who isn’t openly supportive. They would love a society where everyone wholeheartedly embraced homosexuality—but barring that, they want a Disneyland where everyone at least is forced to pretend to embrace it.

In the world they are creating, if you don’t love homosexuality, you had better pretend you do, or the government will come after you.