I am told that various Christians went on record gloating over the passing of the great astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and contemplating his arrival in the magma pit of Hell. Hawking's damning sin? Well, of course, he was an atheist, and what other destination would be fitting? Any mature person will deplore what John Beversluis called a "chop-licking attitude" at the prospect of one's ideological opponents frying in the Inferno. These "schadenfreudians" are like cruel children, and it would be equally silly to take them as typical Christians. But their frank sadism does raise an important question about Christianity per se. Are these gloating believers hypocrites, acting in contradiction to the faith they claim to represent? Or are they consistent with that faith?

The problem is not a contradiction between such spiteful hate on the one hand and Christian belief on the other, much as we might want it to be. No, the problem is a contradiction between aspects of the Christian faith itself. It bids us go in two different directions. Some Christians proceed in one direction, the rest in the other. Even if we are non-Christians, we wish we could say that Christian faith includes a noble moral stance, fostering forgiveness and compassion. And indeed it does. But there is a fatal Tse-tse fly in the ointment. And of course that is the doctrine of an eternal Hell for those who do not accept the Christian belief.

Of course Christians deny that it is a simple matter of one's choice of religion. They realize how unfair and arbitrary that sounds. How cruel and arbitrary that would be. So they try to ameliorate that offense by telling us (and themselves) that there is much more to it! And what is that? Wouldn't be good works, would it? Roman Catholics seem to add works to faith, as if we must make ourselves worthy of the grace of God, whatever that might mean. Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in synergism: we must work together with God's grace for it to save us. But traditional Protestants want to stick with Martin Luther's dicta of Sola fidei, Sold gratia (Faith alone/grace alone. Two "alones"? Well, yes, they're both sides of the same coin: nothing but God's grace can save us, but we must wittingly receive it or it will never really be ours. God throws out a lifeline, but the drowning man must take hold of it. I don't know if that gets them out of the jam. If it were all simply a matter of grace, we would have Christian Universalism: everybody is saved whether they know it or not! Jesus did not merely try to save humanity, and with partial results. No, he did save the human race. He didn't just provide the cure, like a chemist; he actually administered it, like a doctor.

U.S. forces depend on satellites to guide bombs, drones, and troops. Russia is developing a missile to take the spacecraft out.

You may have heard that Russian President Vladimir Putin takes an interest in exotic and impressive missile technologies. At his address to the Russian Federal Assembly last month, Putin raised eyebrows around the world by introducing a range of wacky nuclear-capable missiles, including a nuclear-powered-that's right, nuclear-powered-cruise missile.

For Putin, these weapons are a source of national pride and speak to Russia's continued great power status despite the country's increased alienation from the West and long-running economic doldrums.

Just over 3 months ago, AG Jeff Sessions dropped a bongshell on the marijuana market when he rescinded policies allowing states to legalize pot.But now, following Sen. Cory Gardner's, the Colorado Republican, threat to block all DOJ nominations, The Washington Post reports that President Trump has defused the standoff and promised the top Senate Republican that he will support congressional efforts to protect states that have legalized marijuana.

With just two months to go until the 2018 World Cup, Peter Schmeichel is touring Russia's host cities. This time, he visited Saransk to open the World Cup Park and challenge a goalkeeping robot.

Saransk - a one-hour flight east from Moscow - is the fourth city visited by Danish goalkeeping great Peter Schmeichel on his tour. The city "is the one I was looking forward [to visiting], because this is where Denmark plays," Schmeichel said while opening a football park in Saransk on Saturday.

"I am from Denmark, if you don't know, and my son plays for [the] Denmark team, so this is where the World Cup starts for me emotionally," the football legend said.

Schmeichel told reporters about his experiences in touring the 2018 World Cup host cities. "I am really looking forward to the party that... football will bring to these stadiums, and it adds to the library of all experiences I've ever had."

Apple Inc. warned employees to stop leaking internal information on future plans and raised the specter of potential legal action and criminal charges, one of the most-aggressive moves by the world's largest technology company to control information about its activities.

The Cupertino, California-based company said in a lengthy memo posted to its internal blog that it "caught 29 leakers," last year and noted that 12 of those were arrested. "These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere," Apple added. The company declined to comment on Friday.

Apple outlined situations in which information was leaked to the media, including a meeting earlier this year where Apple's software engineering head Craig Federighi told employees that some planned iPhone software features would be delayed. Apple also cited a yet-to-be-released software package that revealed details about the unreleased iPhone X and new Apple Watch.

The University of Virginia discovered a Thomas Jefferson statue smeared with the phrase "racist + rapist" on Friday.

The vandalism likely occurred Friday, on the morning of the former president and UVA founder's birthday, reported NBC29.

UVA students, alumni, and community members previously plastered a sign reading "Black Lives Matter - F*** White Supremacy" to the statue and covered it with a black shroud in September.

The Arizona State Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that so-called "Dreamers" will have to pay out-of-state tuition rates. Given that those out-of-state students are paying out-of-state tuition, it's only common sense that out-of-country students do the same.

The case was specific to whether or not dreamers at Maricopa Community Colleges would have to be offered in-state tuition. The Justices ruled 7-0 on the case. Needless to say, it'll serve as precedent for any future cases where "Dreamers" claim a right to in-state tuition at other colleges and university's in the State.

According to the Washington Times:

The court upheld a previous 3-0 appeals-court decision that federal and state law do not give that power to the colleges, but to the state's political branches.
"While people can disagree what the law should be, I hope we all can agree that the attorney general must enforce the law as it is, not as we want it to be," Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.
Mr. Brnovich noted that in 2006, Arizona voters passed Proposition 300, declaring illegal immigrants ineligible for in-state tuition and other state benefits.

One pro-Dreamer group complained that this will triple the cost of tuition for illegal immigrants.

Jeffrey D Sachs, professor of sustainable development and of health policy and management at Columbia University in New York, is director of Columbia's Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is internationally renowned for advising governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa on economic reforms and for his work with international agencies to promote poverty reduction, disease control, and debt reduction of poor countries

Professor Sachs explains the American tragedy of the Syrian civil war and why the only answer now is to get out and negotiate an end to the war.

It looks like Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk are in good company.

According to a recent poll conducted by Techpinions, a technology research group, 9% of a sample of 1,000 people surveyed said they had deleted their Facebook page in the wake of revelations that Cambridge Analytica used the personal data of 87 million people in its work for the Trump campaign.

This revelation, brought to the attention of the media by whistleblower Christopher Wylie (who promptly saw his own Facebook account deleted by the company shortly after the New York Times and the Observer published the initial exposes), ignited an international scandal about how Facebook collects, stores and utilizes the personal data of its users to target advertisements - a business that has transformed Facebook into perhaps the most profitable company of its size in the history of capitalism.

While Facebook insists it doesn't "sell" data to advertisers, for years, the company allowed third party app developers nearly unfettered access to this data to build apps that could be integrated with the platform (Farmville, anyone?).

When Newton Minnow became the head of the FCC in 1961, he decried television's "vast wasteland." The only weekly series he applauded was The Twilight Zone, then in the midst of its five season run on CBS (1959-1964). But nothing lasts forever, and the show's plug would ultimately be pulled for its low ratings and idiosyncrasy in a network line-up that included The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and The Munsters.

Rod Serling, executive producer, host, and writer of 92 of the 156 episodes, sold back his large stake in the show in 1966, "suspecting, apparently, that the show would just gather dust in the network's vault," according to scholar Brian Murray. The Twilight Zone proceeded to have a spectacular life in syndication, the afterlife of television. As Murray argues, the show's legacy reveals its enduring hold on the cultural imagination.