Blog Heap of Links for the day 15 June 2012

The Obama records which have not been released include; Passport records, Obama kindergarten records, Punahou School records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, University of Chicago scholarly articles, Illinois State Bar Association records, Illinois State Senate records/schedules (said to be lost), Medical records, Obama/Dunham marriage license, Obama/Dunham divorce documents, Soetoro/Dunham marriage license, Adoption records and of course the long-form Certificate of Live Birth. [Video]

Your house is doing just fine. [Illustration at link]

According to The Daily Mail, Google hopes to use the planes to “create 3D maps with much more detail than its satellite-derived Google Earth images.” That may sound like a worthwhile endeavor, but there are very real privacy risks involved. For example, the planes and the photographic equipment they employ are so sophisticated they “could potentially see into homes through skylights and windows.” The story illustrates a major problem: Technology is moving far faster than policy, laws and regulations have accommodated.

Despite considerable research showing that children of same-sex parents fare just as well as children with heterosexual parents, two papers - a review of existing studies and a new study - published today in Elsevier's Social Science Research, find insufficient data to draw any definitive conclusions. …finds that much of the science that forms the basis for the highly regarded 2005 official brief on same-sex parenting by the American Psychological Association does not stand up to scrutiny.

Humans and aliens may share the same DNA which could be part of a 'universal structure', according to researchers. The building blocks of life exist in low temperatures and low pressure meaning they are far more likely to flourish than if they were more complex. [I had a physics teacher in college forty-some years ago who alluded to much the same principle.] Compare Urantia Paper 49 There are great differences between the mortals of the different worlds, even among those belonging to the same intellectual and physical types, but all mortals of will dignity are erect animals, bipeds. [Brought to Mindful's attention through Google news feed for "Urantia," which brought up this article thanks to a mention by commenter FizViz, Brighton UK. Fiz is a bit vague in this comment. But, thanks!]

Websites will be legally obliged to provide victims with the identity of people who post abusive and defamatory online messages about them under plans by the Government. Major reforms of the libel laws will also see internet service providers (ISPs) given greater protection from being sued if they help to identify so-called trolls. … after a mother who was targeted by online trolls won backing from the High Court to have her tormentors' identities disclosed.

The research appears to cast aside the widely-held 'inflationary' theory of the origins of the universe, that it began with the Big Bang, and will continue to expand until a point in the future, when it will end. … They say that this means that this means that the universe cycles through aeons dominated by big bangs and supermassive black hole collisions.

Compare Urantia Paper 12:
The entire seven superuniverses participate in the two-billion-year cycles of space respiration along with the outer regions of the master universe.

[Brought to Mindful's attention through Google news feed for "Urantia," which brought up this article thanks to a mention by commenter FizViz, Brighton UK.]

In celebration of George H. W. Bush’s birthday, his granddaughter Jenna Bush-Hager interviewed him on NBC’s The Today Show. In the emotional tribute, the former president choked up when reading a letter he wrote to his children. [Video]

'Car Talk' will continue in reruns and as print column. But after 25 years of puzzles, puns, and other antics, 'Car Talk' will end in September.

“Barack Obama was definitely the first ‘Internet President,’” she said, describing her experiences during the last cycle as “quite a roller coaster ride.” This time, however, Ettinger won’t say if she still supports Obama.