
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution is to create an artificial intelligence that can manage his household, help him run his company, and even keep an eye on his child.
by John Hayward4 Jan 2016, 1:13 PM PST0

Protests over Saudi Arabia’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr have spread through Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, and now India, especially in districts with a heavy Shiite population.
by John Hayward4 Jan 2016, 12:25 PM PST0

Even the New York Times is conceding that the huge number of Americans willing to pay a special tax to escape from ObamaCare is newsworthy, although the paper tries to sugar-coat the bad news as much as possible:
by John Hayward4 Jan 2016, 10:14 AM PST0

Bahrain and Sudan have joined their ally Saudi Arabia in formally severing diplomatic ties with Iran, while the United Arab Emirates has “downgraded” its diplomatic team, recalling its ambassador from Tehran and announcing that it would reduce the number of diplomats assigned to Iran.
by John Hayward4 Jan 2016, 9:14 AM PST0

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalated another notch on Monday morning, as the Saudis announced the suspension of air travel to and from Iran.
by John Hayward4 Jan 2016, 9:05 AM PST0

A Chinese company called Boyalife Genomics is planning to open a factory the size of three football fields in Tianjin this year, and what they’ll be manufacturing is… cows. Clone cows. 100,000 of them per year to start, but company founder Xiao-Chun Xu dreams of cranking that production level up to a million per year.
by John Hayward4 Jan 2016, 7:27 AM PST0

One particular execution carried out by Saudi Arabia this weekend, that of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr, led to violent protests and the sacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
by John Hayward3 Jan 2016, 3:37 PM PST0

An updated assessment of Russian national security, signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year’s Eve, names the United States as a threat, along with NATO. The report does not, however, list Syria as a threat, even though Russia is currently bombing rebel forces in that country.
by John Hayward3 Jan 2016, 1:47 PM PST0

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Naryn-Kala fortress in Dagestan, in which shots were fired at a tour group, killing one and wounding 11 others.
by John Hayward1 Jan 2016, 4:42 PM PST0

Islamic sharia law was enforced with canes once again in Indonesia this week, including the cane beatings of a man and woman whose “crime” was being alone together in a guest room.
by John Hayward1 Jan 2016, 2:27 PM PST0

The Kurds are a major factor in the uneasy politics of Turkey and Iraq, and they have been holding the front lines against ISIS in Syria. There are Kurds in Iran, too, and they are nervous about the end of sanctions against Tehran, fearing the mullahs will use their increased wealth and power to further oppress the Kurdish minority.
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 10:56 AM PST0

It’s a good thing laws only apply to the little people in Obama’s America, or Hillary Clinton and her State Department colleagues would be in a lot of trouble.
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 10:49 AM PST0

Some 20 floors of the 63-story The Address hotel, a five-star establishment in Dubai not far from the landmark Burj Khalifa tower, have been engulfed in flames.
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 10:38 AM PST0

Although terror threat levels have been heightened around the world, and extraordinary precautions taken in major American cities, the U.S. State Department is aware of no “specific, credible threats here in the homeland.”
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 9:40 AM PST0

One of mathematician Alan Turing’s most famous achievements — the one most people associate with his name, although a recent movie did much to change that — was his formulation of a test for artificial intelligence.
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 8:44 AM PST0

A few hours after Hillary Clinton’s campaign team was boasting that snow wouldn’t slow them down, four Secret Service agents were seriously injured in a head-on collision that proved fatal for the driver of the other vehicle.
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 5:10 AM PST0

The Associated Press struggles mightily to avoid admitting that the Paris “climate conference” was a very expensive dystopian fantasy, in which world leaders soaked their taxpayers and also spewed vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere with their luxury jets, just to hold the world’s largest “Mad Max” live-action role-playing game
by John Hayward31 Dec 2015, 4:32 AM PST0

Terrorist threats hang especially heavy over major cities as 2015 draws to a close.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 10:47 PM PST0

The latest news from that most trustworthy of nuclear partners, Iran, has secret police thugs beating a Christian convert and dragging him off into the snow, while his family unsuccessfully pleaded to at least give him some warm clothing.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 8:11 PM PST0

On Tuesday, Russia’s Economy Minister, Alexei Ulyukayev, sought to downplay the impact of much-publicized sanctions against Turkey over the downing of a Russian fighter jet on November 24.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 4:09 PM PST0

Samra Kesinovic was used as a sex slave by the Islamic State before being killed while trying to flee, it has been revealed.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 3:42 PM PST0

Two men suspected of being Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants have been arrested in Turkey, allegedly for plotting a suicide bomb attack during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the capital of Ankara.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 3:22 PM PST0

Two gunmen opened fire on a group of twenty tourists at Russia’s Naryn-Kala fortress in Dagestan on Tuesday night, killing one and wounding 11 more.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 12:02 PM PST0

There are many problems with funding our gigantic, intrusive federal government by passing gigantic omnibus bills in a blind year-end panic, as has become customary in decadent Washington, D.C. One problem is that voters don’t know what their “representatives” have slipped into those gruesome trillion-dollar pork sausages. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) is trying to repeal a controversial cybersecurity law that slipped under America’s nose in the omnibus package, despite public unease about similar measures in the past.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 10:25 AM PST0

Government officials have come up with some unusual stories to downplay terrorism threats. The Kremlin just took the cake by closing off Red Square on New Year’s Eve and blaming it on a film crew.
by John Hayward30 Dec 2015, 5:44 AM PST0