Esoterica

First Woman To Accuse Nassar Says Church Can Be One Of 'Worst Places' To Go For Help

Rachael Denhollander was the first woman to publicly accuse former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. As she worked to find justice for herself and the doctor’s other victims, Denhollander began to turn a critical eye on a community that she depended on dearly for support ― her church.

Denhollander, an evangelical Christian, saw that Biblical teachings about grace and repentance were being weaponized against victims, pressuring them into offering an easy forgiveness to their abusers. At the same time, churches lacked accountability structures that treated victims with compassion and respect.

. . .

Denhollander opened up about her disappointment with the American evangelical church in an interview Wednesday with Christianity Today’s Morgan Lee.

“Church is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse because the way it is counseled is, more often than not, damaging to the victim,” said Denhollander, who now works as a lawyer in Kentucky. “There is an abhorrent lack of knowledge for the damage and devastation that sexual assault brings. It is with deep regret that I say the church is one of the worst places to go for help.”

This electronic skin can heal itself — and then make more skin

In a quest to make electronic devices more environmentally friendly, researchers have created an electronic skin that can be completely recycled. The e-skin can also heal itself if it’s torn apart.

The device, described today in the journal Science Advances, is basically a thin film equipped with sensors that can measure pressure, temperature, humidity, and air flow. The film is made of three commercially available compounds mixed together in a matrix and laced with silver nanoparticles: when the e-skin is cut in two, adding the three compounds to the “wound” allows the e-skin to heal itself by recreating chemical bonds between the two sides. That way, the matrix is restored and the e-skin is as good as new. If the e-skin is broken beyond repair, it can just be soaked in a solution that “liquefies” it so that the materials can be reused to make new e-skin. One day, this electronic skin could be used in prosthetics, robots, or smart textiles.

Many labs around the world are developing e-skins. One created in Europe allows users to manipulate virtual objects without touching them, by using magnets. Another one developed in Japan can turn a smart shirt into a video game motion controller. This latest e-skin is special because it’s recyclable — and that’s an important added bonus if you consider that in the US alone, 16 billion pounds of electronic waste was created in 2014. All these circuit boards, transistors, and hard drives can contain toxic chemicals that need to be disposed of properly.

Earth's Inner Core Shouldn't Technically Exist

One day, about a billion years ago, Earth's inner core had a growth spurt. The molten ball of liquid metal at the center of our planet rapidly crystallized due to lowering temperatures, growing steadily outward until it reached the roughly 760-mile (1,220 kilometers) diameter to which it's thought to extend today.

That's the conventional story of the inner core's creation, anyway. But according to a new paper published online this week in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, that story is impossible.

In the paper, the researchers argued that the standard model of how the Earth's core formed is missing a crucial detail about how metals crystallize: a mandatory, massive drop in temperature that would be extremely difficult to achieve at core pressures. [6 Visions of Earth's Core]

Weirder still, the researchers said, once you account for this missing detail, the science seems to suggest that Earth's inner core shouldn't exist at all.

Intense laser experiments provide first evidence that light can stop electrons

By hitting electrons with an ultra-intense laser, researchers have revealed dynamics that go beyond 'classical' physics and hint at quantum effects.

Whenever light hits an object, some of the light scatters back from the surface of the object. However, if the object is moving extremely fast, and if the light is incredibly intense, strange things can happen.

Electrons, for example, can be shaken so violently that they actually slow down because they radiate so much energy. Physicists call this process 'radiation reaction'.

. . .

Now, a team of researchers led by Imperial College London have demonstrated radiation reaction in the lab for the first time. Their results are published today in the journal Physical Review X.

Lululemon CEO Exits Due to Poor Conduct

After a period of relative calm, drama has returned to Lululemon Athletica.

The Canada-based athletic wear company said on Monday in a regulatory filing that its CEO of four years, Laurent Potdevin, had resigned immediately, saying he “fell short” of Lululemon’s standards of conduct, without specifying what he had done, something likely to fuel the rumor mill and potentially harm the company.

“Lululemon expects all employees to exemplify the highest levels of integrity and respect for one another, and Mr. Potdevin fell short of these standards,” the company said in a statement.

. . .

Early in his tenure, Potdevin had to contend with a founder-shareholder clamoring for a big shakeup in Chip Wilson. But on his watch, the company ultimately improved its supply chain, expanded its offering, made inroads with men and continued to thrive.

U.S. Episcopal diocese votes to stop using masculine pronouns for God

The Episcopal church in the Diocese of Washington, D.C., passed a resolution last week to stop using masculine pronouns for God in future updates to its Book of Common Prayer.

The resolution to stop using "gendered language for God" was passed quickly by delegates to the Diocese's 123rd Convention.

“If revision of the Book of Common Prayer is authorized, to utilize expansive language for God from the rich sources of feminine, masculine, and non-binary imagery for God found in Scripture and tradition and, when possible, to avoid the use of gendered pronouns for God,” the resolution stated.

“Over the centuries our language and our understanding of God has continued to change and adapt,” the drafters of the resolution stated. The drafters said that referring to God using masculine pronouns is to "limit our understanding of God." 

Rare wall paintings discovered in Egyptian tomb

Egyptian archaeologists have unveiled the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess adorned with well-preserved and rare wall paintings.

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany told reporters that the tomb on the Giza plateau near Cairo was built for Hetpet, a priestess to Hathor, the goddess of fertility, who assisted women in childbirth.

The tomb was found during excavation work in Giza's western cemetery by a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The antiquities ministry said the cemetery houses tombs of top officials from the Old Kingdom's Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC), and that several have already been dug up since 1842.

12,800 years ago, earth was struck by a disintegrating comet, setting off global firestorms

According to modern theories of geological evolution, the last major ice age (known as the Pliocene-Quaternary glaciation) began about 2.58 million years ago during the late Pliocene Epoch. Since then, the world has experienced several glacial and interglacial periods, and has been in an inter-glacial period (where the ice sheets have been retreating) ever since the last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago.

According to new research, this trend experienced a bit of a hiccup during the late Paleolithic era. It was at this time – roughly 12,800 years ago, according to a new study from the University of Kansas – that a comet struck our planet and triggered massive wildfires. This impact also triggered a short glacial period that temporarily reversed the previous period of warming, which had a drastic affect on wildlife and human development.

The study in question, “Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ~12,800 Years Ago”, was so large that it was divided into two parts. Part I. Ice Cores and Glaciers; and Part II. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments, were both recently published by The Journal of Geography, part of the the University of Chicago Press’ series of scientific publications.

Satanic Temple Sues Missouri Over Abortion Rights – and Could Win

On its face, it sounds like the epitome of a frivolous, if not blasphemous, lawsuit: A group of Satanists in Missouri sued the state over its strict anti-abortion laws on religious-discrimination grounds. A state trial court agreed, sort of, dismissing the case not long after it was filed in 2015.

But skepticism about The Satanic Temple's suit against Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, and Show-Me State administrators ended when the Satanists appealed, the state Supreme Court agreed to take the case – and, based on the arguments presented in court, experts say the Satanists could actually win.

If they prevail in the case, an organization named for the Dark Lord of the Underworld could upend a 2016 law requiring women to wait 72 hours before an abortion, forcing doctors to give women ultrasounds of the fetus and offering them literature declaring that "life begins at conception."

Although the state's highest court won't rule for several weeks, the group has already claimed a big victory: It says the state did a 180 on the ultrasounds during oral arguments, acknowledging that they're voluntary and not mandatory.