Apple has come out and admitted that there is an issue affecting the Apple Watch when worn on tattooed wrists.
Earlier in the week, numerous reports emerged claiming that the Apple Watch was giving off strange readings and even ceasing to function properly when worn by users with tattoo ‘sleeves.’
An internet investigation into the issue revealed that there was indeed an issue with the Apple Watch’s rear sensors not working properly with heavier ink pigments.
Now Apple itself has come out and accepted that there is a problem.
Over on a new Apple support page, the company offers guidance on the Apple Watch’s heart-reading capabilities. It explains how it achieves this, and how to enable its accurate operation. (Read more from “You’ll Never Guess What Strange Defect the Apple Watch Has Admitted to Having” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-02 02:36:072015-05-02 02:36:07You’ll Never Guess What Strange Defect the Apple Watch Has Admitted to Having
The two Anchorage mayoral candidates squared off in a debate this week in which they disagreed over religious freedom protections and whether the city should legally enshrine sexual-identity legislation.
In a debate before the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, candidates Ethan Berkowitz and Amy Demboski were sharply divided on the question of whether Anchorage should adapt legislation to establish sexual orientation and transgender identity as protected classes under the city’s nondiscrimination laws.
An attempt to enshrine special legal rights for sexual orientation and transgender identity was rejected by Anchorage voters in 2012. The failed measure would have required government agencies, private employers, schools and nonprofit groups to legally recognize and accommodate the preferred sexual orientation and transgender identity of employees, customers, teachers, students and others regardless of their actual physical biology.
The law was reflective of gender theories claiming that the realities of male and female are social constructs and not part of any natural law or given reality. Thus, according to gender theorists, varied types of sexual behaviors are perfectly acceptable.
According to a report from the Alaska Dispatch News, Ethan Berkowitz expressed his support for the failed 2012 law, which affirmed that there should be legal recognition and accommodation based on a person’s sexual practices and desires, including “heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality.”
According to the Alaska Dispatch News, Demboski strongly disagreed with Berkowitz and said such legislation would “effectively discriminate against people of faith.”
Demboski noted that similar legislation in other cities has threatened religious freedoms for business owners and non-profits.
Several high profile cases have emerged in recent years including a recent situation in which a Christian family in Oregon was fined $135,000 for refusing to bake a cake explicitly for the homosexual “wedding,” which they said ran contrary to their religious beliefs.
In the 2012 Anchorage case, religious liberty advocates expressed concern that the Anchorage ballot measure would have force local churches, faith-based groups and business owners to violate deeply held beliefs and force them to promote and facilitate homosexual activities and causes. There were particular concerns that service-oriented businesses such as caterers, florists, bakers, print shop owners and others would no longer have been able to decline their services for homosexual and transgender functions and events which advocated for sexual activities that ran contrary to their deeply held beliefs.
According to the Alaska Dispatch News report Berkowitz was active in promoting the 2012 law and worked on the campaign through his job as a senior vice president of the marketing and consulting group Strategies 360.
During the recent debate Berkowitz said he supported the law for “moral reasons” and “because it makes business sense.”
Demboski, however, called it a “war on Christianity.”
In 2012, opponents of the initiative said the government oversteps its rightful limits when it requires people to violate their conscience and religious beliefs over a highly controversial moral issue in order to operate in the public square.
Both supporters and opponents of the initiative noted that the 2012 law would likely have impacted church-owned facilities in Anchorage which are often rented to various groups for public concerts, community gatherings, retreats and other events not specifically related to the religious mission of the church.
According to city code, refusal to abide by the proposed law would have resulted in a $500 fine, 30 days in jail, or both.
At the April 27 mayoral debate, the Alaska Dispatch News noted that Berkowitz spoke to the question of how a homosexual rights law would impact religious groups. While claiming to support religious freedoms Berkowitz said, “once people enter the public arena, we have to treat everybody equally.”
But opponents of such laws maintain that there is a considerable difference between denying someone basic human rights and refusing to condone or facilitate homosexual and transgender activities and causes. (See “Anchorage Mayoral Candidates Debate Religious Freedom, Sexual-Identity Legislation”, originally posted HERE)
With seven words—“It is going to be an issue”—the U.S. government signaled to orthodox Christian colleges and universities that if they don’t drop their opposition to same-sex marriage they will lose their tax exempt status.
Those words came earlier this week when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case concerning whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s must guarantee the right for same-sex couples to marry. While the primary issue is whether gay marriage will be required in every state in the union, one exchange highlighted how the upcoming ruling could affect religious liberty. Justice Samuel Alito asked Solicitor General Donald Verrilli how it would affect educational institution that opposed same-sex marriage:
JUSTICE ALITO: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating. So would the same apply to a university or a college if it opposed same-sex marriage?
GENERAL VERRILLI: You know, I – I don’t think I can answer that question without knowing more specifics, but it’s certainly going to be an issue. I – I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is – it is going to be an issue.
In the case of Bob Jones University (Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)), the Supreme Court ruled that the religion clauses of the First Amendment did not prohibit the IRS from revoking the tax exempt status of a religious university whose practices are contrary to a compelling government public policy.
The policy at Bob Jones was indeed loathsome and contrary to Scripture, which the school later admitted when it apologized for it’s racist past. But opposition to same-sex marriage is not the same as racial animus. Yet the government, through it’s representative, has now signaled that Christians schools may soon be treated like racists and pariahs for refusing to give up the view of marriage shared by almost all people throughout history prior to the 1990s.
This threat is more radical than many people realize. It’s not merely that Christian schools will have to choose between accepting federal funds and keeping their religious views about sexuality. If the choice were to follow the example of schools like Hillsdale College or New Saint Andrews College and forego taking any federal money, the decisions about what to do would be painful, but obvious.
But what it being proposed is to revoke non-profit status, a move that would destroy many schools. According to the IRS, if an organization’s tax-exempt status is revoked it is no longer exempt from federal income tax and is not eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions. As Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Seminary, notes, “The loss of tax-exempt status would put countless churches and religious institutions out of business, simply because the burden of property taxes and loss of charitable support would cripple their ability to sustain their mission.”
The debate over same-sex marriage represents a coalescing of rights of free exercise, free speech, and expressive association. With the exception of abortion, same-sex marriage is almost unique in blurring neat divisions between these rights. Many organizations attract members with their commitment to certain fundamental matters of faith or morals, including a rejection of same-sex marriage or homosexuality. It is rather artificial to tell such groups that they can condemn homosexuality as long as they are willing to hire homosexuals as a part of that mission. It is equally disingenuous to suggest that denial of such things as tax exemption does not constitute a content-based punishment for religious views. . . . The denial of tax-exempt status presents a particularly serious threat to these organizations and puts them at a comparative advantage to groups with contrary views.
When Turley originally made this claim ten years ago, many people assumed he was overstating the case and that same-sex marriage would not require people and organizations to give up their deeply held religious beliefs. But now, as we’ve seen time and time again over the past few years, the threat to religious freedom is all too real.
Are supporters of same-sex marriage—including the many misguided Christians—willing to let Christian high schools, colleges, and seminaries be put out of business simply for holding a Biblical view of marriage? Sadly, I suspect they will follow what Rod Dreher calls the “law of merited impossibility”: “It’s a complete absurdity to believe that Christians will suffer a single thing from the expansion of gay rights, and boy, do they deserve what they’re going to get.” (“Radical Threat”: Federal Government to Force Christian Schools Across Nation to Close Doors, first appeared HERE, reposted with permission)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:55:102015-05-01 03:55:10“Radical Threat”: Federal Government to Force Christian Schools Across Nation to Close Doors
Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz ripped President Obama on Wednesday with scathing remarks about Obama’s role in the epidemic of racial episodes that has gripped the country.
And he urged his Hispanic audience to not allow Democrats to do to Latinos what they’ve done to black Americans – fool them into lockstep support for the party no matter what damage it does to the community.
“He’s made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions, that have divided us, rather than bringing us together,” Cruz said as he addressed a crowd at a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event in Washington.
Obama spoke on Tuesday about the growing – and often violent – rallies that ignited in Baltimore and around the country after the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died April 19 in police custody. Obama said America has a “slow-rolling” crisis in minority communities, the Hill reported.
Cruz criticized Obama for being a catalyst in growing racial tension that’s pitting Americans against each other. (Read more from “Scathing Cruz Urges Hispanics: Don’t Let Democrats Do to Latinos What They’ve Done to Blacks” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:53:402015-05-01 03:53:40Scathing Cruz Urges Hispanics: Don’t Let Democrats Do to Latinos What They’ve Done to Blacks [+video]
Controversial Christian blogger Matt Walsh has written a column urging fellow Christians in the United States to stop being “lazy cowards” in the face of persecution. He had several solutions to combat that apathetic attitude.
His column, which has been posted on The Blaze, first turned to the atrocities ISIS has committed against Christians in the name of Islam. Walsh contended that Christian “persecution” in the U.S. was nowhere near the levels others have faced around the world.
“It might be hard to believe this kind of persecution happens in the world, especially when the American version of ‘persecution’ includes not having access to gender neutral bathrooms,” Walsh wrote. “Out there, people face the very real threat of death and dismemberment if they practice the wrong religion. Here, we whine if a toilet stall feels too exclusionary. Talk about privilege.”
Even with that perspective in mind, Walsh contended that 100 million Christians faced “the daily prospect of violence, intimidation, coercion, oppression, imprisonment and martyrdom.” Those numbers would make Christians, in his view, “the world’s most persecuted people” today.
“Believers are being blown up, incinerated, shot, and beheaded in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, and many other nations,” Walsh wrote. “And this isn’t relegated solely to Islamic State-controlled countries, or even to Muslim ones.” (Read more from “Matt Walsh: U.S. Christians Should Stop Being ‘Lazy Cowards’ in Midst of Persecution” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:53:192015-05-01 03:53:19Matt Walsh: U.S. Christians Should Stop Being ‘Lazy Cowards’ in Midst of Persecution
A Maryland sheriff who traveled to Baltimore to help law enforcement stop Monday’s riots told 105.7 The Fan that he was stunned when officers alerted him of the orders to stand down.
Michael Lewis is the Sheriff in Wicomico County, and was also a Sergeant with the Maryland State Police. He joined Ed Norris and Steve Davis on Thursday to talk about the alleged controversial orders the police were given during the riots.
Lewis said it wasn’t his intention to come to Baltimore, a drive of about two hours, but he felt it was his duty to help.
“I hadn’t planned to go to Baltimore at all. I watched the events unfold Saturday night like we all did, and was very concerned about what I saw, and the the lack of response Saturday night,” he said. “I immediately rallied up the troops. We made sure our MRAP was prepared and ready. We were assigned to assigned to protect Baltimore City Police headquarters, all of E. Fayette Street up to City Hall, to include City Hall. There wasn’t a whole lot of activity taking place at all. We could smell that putrid smell of burning tires and a city on fire when as we came into the city. Had lots of concerns like everyone else. We maintained our post all night long until we were relieved” . . .
“I was sick to my stomach like everybody else. This was urban warfare, no question about it. They were coming in absolutely beaten down. The [city officers] got out of their vehicles, thanked us profusely for being there, apologized to us for having to be there. They said we could have handled this, we were very capable of handling this, but we were told to stand down, repeatedly told to stand down,” he said. “I had never heard that order come from anyone — we went right out to our posts as soon as we got there, so I never heard the mayor say that. But repeatedly these guys, and there were many high-ranking officials from the Baltimore City Police Department and these guys told me they were essentially neutered from the start. They were spayed from the start. They were told to stand down, you will not take any action, let them destroy property. I couldn’t believe it, I’m a 31-year veteran of law enforcement. I had never heard anything like this before in my life and these guys obviously aren’t gonna speak out and the more I thought about this, I had to say a few things. I apologize if I’ve upset people, but I believe in saying it like it is.” (Read more from “Maryland Sheriff: ‘I Was Sick to My Stomach’ After Being Told to Stand Down in Helping With the Baltimore Riots” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:52:392015-05-01 03:52:39Maryland Sheriff: ‘I Was Sick to My Stomach’ After Being Told to Stand Down in Helping With the Baltimore Riots
This Week on the New Black Panther Party’s “Black Power Radio,” national chairman Hashim Nzinga said since America has “declared war on us,” evidenced by “military police in the black neighborhood” protecting the rich, the New Black Panthers should be looked upon as Founding Fathers who declare war and are “willing to die or kill to save our babies and to save a black nation that is dying before our eyes” . . .
“So if we say we are at war, we should be applauded like George Washington,” Nzinga continued. “We should be applauded like Thomas Jefferson. We should be applauded like the Founding Fathers of the country.”
“This is not the hate hour, this is the love hour,”he added. “We have to love ourselves enough to be willing to die or kill to save our babies and to save a black nation that is dying before our eyes.”
(Read more from “New Head of Black Panther: Like Founding Fathers, We Will Kill for a Black Nation” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:52:082015-05-01 03:52:08New Head of Black Panthers: Like Founding Fathers, We Will Kill for a Black Nation [+video]
Fox News reporter Leland Vittert got into a heated — and eventually physical — confrontation with activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton, when the latter tried to keep him from questioning Democratic Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
“We can’t ask questions?” Vittert challenged her. “You are a public official and we can’t ask questions?” . . .
At the press conference, we will answer all questions,” Sharpton said. But as Vittert kept tailing them, a second man stepped between the reporter and the mayor and began pushing him away . . .
Ironically, Vittert said later that one question he didn’t get to ask Rawlings-Blake was whether or not she ordered Baltimore police not to respond to Monday’s riots with force. (Read more from “Watch: Al Sharpton Gets In Physical Confrontation With Fox News Reporter” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:51:512015-05-01 03:51:51Watch: Al Sharpton Gets In Physical Confrontation With Fox News Reporter
Republican state Del. Patrick McDonough of Maryland recently suggested that the parents of Baltimore youth involved in riots and looting should lose their food stamps.
McDonough was the guest-host of a radio program on Wednesday when he took a call from a listener who brought up the idea of taking away “benefits” such as “welfare” from the parents, noted The Intercept.
McDonough told the caller in part, “That’s an idea and that could be legislation. I think if you could make the case that there is a failure to do proper parenting and allowing this stuff to happen, is there an opportunity for a month to take away your food stamps?”
McDonough added that such a proposal would not likely pass the legislature “because it seems a little bit harsh,” but added that there should be a way to “connect to the lack of parenting.”
Later on the show, McDonough expressed his desire for a study of the “thug nation” of “young people” who are “violent, they’re brutal, their mindset is dysfunctional to the point of being dangerous.” (Read more from “Maryland Lawmaker Suggests Suspending Food Stamps for Parents of Baltimore Youth” HERE)
In a breakthrough discovery, scientists report that they have found the key to keeping cells young. In a study published Thursday in Science, an international team, led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute, studied the gene responsible for an accelerated aging disease known as Werner syndrome, or adult progeria, in which patients show signs of osteoporosis, grey hair and heart disease in very early adulthood.
These patients are deficient in a gene responsible for copying DNA, repairing any mistakes in that replication process, and for keeping track of telomeres, the fragments of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that are like a genetic clock dictating the cell’s life span. Belmonte—together with scientists at the University Catolica San Antonio Murcia and the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences—wanted to understand how the mutated gene triggered aging in cells. So they took embryonic stem cells, which can develop into all of the cells of the human body, and removed this gene. They then watched as the cells aged prematurely, and found that the reason they became older so quickly had to do with how their DNA was packaged.
In order to function properly, DNA is tightly twisted and wound into chromosomes that resemble a rope in the nucleus of cells. Only when the cell is ready to divide does the DNA unwrap itself, and even then, only in small segments at a time. In patients with Werner syndrome, the chromosomes are slightly messier, more loosely stuffed into the nuclei, and that leads to instability that pushes the cell to age more quickly. Belmonte discovered that the Werner gene regulates this chromosome stability. When he allowed the embryonic stem cells that were missing this gene to grow into cells that go on to become bone, muscle and more, he saw that these cells aged more quickly.
“It’s clear that when you have alterations in [chromosome stability], the process of aging goes so quickly and so fast that it’s tempting to say, yes, this is the key process for driving aging,” says Belmonte.
Even more exciting, when he analyzed a population of stem cells taken from the dental pulp of both younger and older people, he found that the older individuals, aged 58 to 72 years, had fewer genetic markers for the chromosome instability while the younger people aged seven to 26 years showed higher levels of these indicators. (Read more from “Scientists Discover the Secret to Keeping Cells Young” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-01 03:51:112015-05-01 03:51:11Breakthrough: Scientists Discover the Secret to Keeping Cells Young [+video]
With seven words—“It is going to be an issue”—the U.S. government signaled to orthodox Christian colleges and universities that if they don’t drop their opposition to same-sex marriage they will lose their tax exempt status.
