August 14 - Scientists Breed Rabbits With an 'Eary' Glow
 Article: Cloning/Genetic Engineering

What do you get when you cross a jellyfish with a bunny rabbit? Glow in the dark bunnies.

No, seriously. That's not a joke. It's not even science fiction. Scientists at the University of Hawaii have collaborated with a team of Turkish researchers to breed a litter of neon rabbits. By injecting luminescent proteins from a jellyfish into rabbit embryos, they produced two bunnies that hop, twitch their noses and radiate a bright green under florescent light.

These are not the first glowing bunnies in existence. Alba, the original "light hare" was conceived back in 2000 by a French artist and scientist as an art installation. Rabbits aren't even the only species that have been genetically engineered glow in the dark. Scientists have created pigs, sheep, monkeys, puppies and kittens that light up like mammalian lightening bugs under black lights. And you can readily purchase transgenic fish in six brilliant colors under the brand name GloFish.

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 August 17 - Interfaith charity promotes respect for cultural diversity among school pupils
 Article: Ecumenical Movement - Miscellaneous

An interfaith charity is helping primary school pupils in Peterborough learn the value of cultural diversity and respect for others.

Some 22 languages are represented at the growing Discovery Primary School and many of the 620 pupils are from a Muslim or Jewish background. The growing diversity at the school reflects an influx of new migrant communities drawn to the city in recent years. With that in mind, one of the school's key objectives is helping pupils to respect and value religious and cultural diversity.

"We are a changed school," says headteacher Anne Hampson. "While we've always had an international focus and felt that we wanted to teach our children about all different faiths, the new make-up of the school made that even more important."

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 August 19 - Google knows what you're doing tomorrow
 Article: Miscellaneous

Google has taken the next step in its transformation from a web-search engine to the Star Trek computer. The company announced last week that it is rolling out new features that will allow you to use Google.com as, essentially, a search engine for your own information. 

Until now, if you typed the words "what am I doing tomorrow" into the Google search bar, you'd get a series of web results for pages whose titles include that phrase or similar keywords. With the new features, provided you're logged into Google and maintain a Google Calendar, you'll see something more particular to you. 

The wording doesn't have to be exact. You'll get the same results if you ask, "what are my plans Thursday," while "what's on my agenda for the week" will bring up a longer list of calendar entries. For now, the feature will work for five different categories of queries: Flights, reservations, purchases, plans and photos. 

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 August 19 - Flooding forces 20,000 Russians from their homes
 Article: Signs Of The Last Times

The worst flooding in 120 years in Russia's Far East has already forced about 20,000 people from their homes and also made it necessary to airlift two captive brown bears to safety, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday.

Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius said the evacuations were underway in three regions along the Chinese border in the Far East, 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) east of Moscow, and some of those evacuated have moved into 166 emergency shelters. The flooding, set off by torrential rains, has already affected 140 towns and villages across the broad area, the ministry said.

The Amur River, which has reached a record high, is still rising and could flood Komsomolsk-on Amur, a major city in the Khabarovsk region, Frolov said.

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 August 20 - Despite rise of 'nones,' religious belief still strong in the US
 Article: Miscellaneous

An increase in the number of religiously unaffiliated in the U.S. does not necessarily mean that the country is growing significantly more secular, said experts at a recent panel. Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup, explained during a panel discussion held by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., that the data indicates the rise in self-described "nones" is simply the "already unreligious who are just changing the way they label themselves."

Panelists discussed a 2002 article based on data from the General Social Survey and a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center showing rises in the number of U.S. adults who do not affiliate with any religious tradition, also known as "nones."

Recent changes in identification are "changes in politics, rather than changes in faith," Fischer said, suggesting that shift may be attributed not to deep theological changes but to "liberals and moderates declaring no religious preference as a way of rejecting the growing connection between churches and conservative politics."

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 August 22 - Gentleness key to dialogue, Pope tells Japanese students
 Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics

Pope Francis told a group of young Japanese students and their teachers that gentleness is essential in order to foster peace and fruitful dialogue with other cultures.  "What is the deepest attitude we must have to dialogue, and not fight?" he asked them. "Gentleness, the capacity to meet people and cultures with peace."

The students and professors present traveled from Tokyo for their Aug. 21 meeting with the Pope. They belong to Bunri Seibu Gakuen Junior High School Saitama, which is a non-religious school, and consisted of both Christians and Buddhists.

"I hope this trip to be very fruitful for you, because knowing other people and cultures always does so much good for us and makes us grow," Pope Francis remarked. He told them that this is because "if we are isolated in ourselves, we only have what we have" and "we cannot grow culturally."

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 August 21 - Facial Scanning Is Making Gains in Surveillance
 Article: One World Government

The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project.

The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System - or BOSS - last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will someday be used.

There have been stabs for over a decade at building a system that would help match faces in a crowd with names on a watch list - whether in searching for terrorism suspects at high-profile events like a presidential inaugural parade, looking for criminal fugitives in places like Times Square or identifying card cheats in crowded casinos.

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