A human rights group active in China is reporting that religious believers in a populous Chinese province are now required to register on a government app in order to attend worship services.

ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian charity, reported March 6 that the religious department of the provincial government of Henan is rolling out a system whereby all believers must make online reservations before they can attend services in churches, mosques, or Buddhist temples.

The reservations are to be made through an app called “Smart Religion” developed by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Henan Province. According to ChinaAid, applicants must fill in personal information, including their name, phone number, government ID number, permanent residence, occupation, and date of birth before they can make a reservation. Those who are allowed into a place of worship must also have their temperature taken — suggesting the app may be related in some way to COVID-19 restrictions — and show a reservation code.

Henan, located in the east-central part of the country, has one of the largest Christian populations in China — as much as 6% — according to a 2012 government survey. The communist government of China is officially secular, and the same survey suggested that just 13% of the 98 million population of Henan belongs to an organized religion.

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“These management measures did not stem from the intention to protect the religious rights of religious people but rather are mediums to accomplish political purposes…"https://t.co/NVlykUpYik

— National Catholic Register (@NCRegister) March 8, 2023

In the 19th century inhumanity meant cruelty; in the 20th century it means schizoid self-alienation. The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. True enough, robots do not rebel. But given man’s nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become “Golems”; they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life.

–Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (1955), chapter 9

"[T]he average man feels insecure, lonely, depressed, and suffers from a lack of joy in the midst of plenty. Life does not make sense to him; he is dimly aware that the meaning of life cannot lie in being nothing but a 'consumer.'"

-Erich Fromm

(Happy Monday!) pic.twitter.com/kJzGE4epPY

— Will Pass (@WillPassBooks) March 6, 2023

The Argonne National Laboratory in the US has essentially cracked the battery technology for electric vehicles, discovering a way to raise the future driving range of standard EVs to a thousand miles or more. It promises to do so cheaply without exhausting the global supply of critical minerals in the process.

The joint project with the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) has achieved a radical jump in the energy density of battery cells. The typical lithium-ion battery used in the car industry today stores about 200 watt-hours per kilo (Wh/kg). Their lab experiment has already reached 675 Wh/kg with a lithium-air variant.

This is a high enough density to power trucks, trains, and arguably mid-haul aircraft, long thought to be beyond the reach of electrification. The team believes it can reach 1,200 Wh/kg. If so, almost all global transport can be decarbonised more easily than we thought, and probably at a negative net cost compared to continuation of the hydrocarbon status quo.

The Argonne Laboratory in Chicago is not alone in pushing the boundaries of energy storage and EV technology. The specialist press reports eye-watering breakthroughs almost every month. America, Europe, China and Japan are all in a feverish global race for battery dominance – or survival – and hedge funds are swarming over the field.

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The @argonne National Laboratory and @illinoistech have achieved a breakthrough in the energy density of battery cells that could push EVs beyond 1,000 miles on a charge, and potentially, eventually, power trucks, trains and mid-haul aircraft.https://t.co/qZOFi28aOW

— Andrew Westrope (@andrew_westrope) March 8, 2023

The Revd Canon Smitha Prasadam, currently Chaplain of St Albans, Copenhagen, will take up the role of Bishop of Huddersfield, Downing Street announced this morning.

Her appointment as an Area Bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Leeds marks a return to Yorkshire for Smitha, who once studied English Literature and Linguistics at the College of Ripon and York St John, (University of Leeds).

“I can’t wait to start meeting people in God’s own country again,” said Smitha, who has served the Anglican Church in Denmark since 2018. “This is where I came as a student and began my journey so it holds a special place in my heart. I’m looking forward to working together with parishes, clergy and community throughout Kirklees and Calderdale to encourage people in confident discipleship and relish the thought of embracing cultural, educational, commercial and inter-faith partners so we can support this wonderful place and its people in common cause.”

Read it all.

The Revd Canon Smitha Prasadam, currently Chaplain of St Albans, Copenhagen, will take up the role of Bishop of Huddersfield, Downing Street announced this morning.

Read more here ➡️ https://t.co/wk9BvbPyux pic.twitter.com/CdSijLgb8v

— Diocese of Leeds (@LeedsCofE) March 8, 2023

Glorious God, we give thanks for high and holy things as well as the common things of earth: Awaken us to recognize thy presence in each other and in all creation, so that we, like Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, may love and magnify thee as the holy, undivided Trinity; who liveth and reigneth one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Church also remembers Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, more often known as ‘Woodbine Willie’. The great First World War Padre who brought comfort to many, along with many Woodbines! pic.twitter.com/NyBl0hTz9I

— OurCofELike (@OurCofELike) March 8, 2022

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, thatwe may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Who likes waking up to a beautiful sunrise over Swaledale on a frosty morning? ✋

Each morning we open a window to the #YorkshireDales and share some of our favourite views 🧡

📸 Alex Helin Photography#PhotoOfTheDay #Swaledale #Dales pic.twitter.com/D5Fhd6O15M

— Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (@yorkshire_dales) March 8, 2023

The Lord said to me in the days of King Josi′ah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me’; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot. Because harlotry was so light to her, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the Lord.”

And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

‘Return, faithless Israel,
says the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
says the Lord;
I will not be angry for ever.
Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree,
and that you have not obeyed my voice,
says the Lord.
Return, O faithless children,
says the Lord;
for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.

–Jeremiah 3:6-16

It's a rather damp and cloudy start in this 'ere pocket of Cornish wonder this morning, but we're #snow free! 🤩🌊☁️💙❄️ #SorryNotSorry #goodmorning #Cornwall #Kernow #StormHour #InternationalWomensDay #lovewhereyoulive #Wednesdayvibe #Weathercloud pic.twitter.com/jUfCe5378e

— Kathryn 🏄‍♀️🌊😎☀️🤙 (@CornwallKateR) March 8, 2023