Previous studies have shown how London taxi drivers who have done 'the knowledge' show an increase in the size of their hippocampus as a consequence of rote-learning the city's streetscape. Dr Spiers, a member of the Memory Disorders Research Society, says his results may explain why London taxi drivers' brains grow: 'They indicate that it is the daily demand on processing paths in their posterior hippocampus that leads to the impressive expansion in their grey matter.'

Dr Spiers told Good Health how this part of the brain, so vital to memory, may also shrink with disuse - such as relying on satnavs. 'My research with taxi drivers found indications which suggest there is some shrinkage of their hippocampus after they retire,' he explained. You might describe this new threat to our mental health as 'e-mentia' - memory-related problems, and even depression, linked to our overuse of new technology.

But for now it seems only wise not to rely on technology to do all our thinking for us, says Professor Battacharya. 'If you get a machine to do all your mathematical and map-reading processes, then clearly your brain is not doing the work.' Dr Veronique Bohbot recommends using GPS only to help us find new destinations, then disabling the gadget on return journeys or when going somewhere that is not new. Another answer may be simply to switch off more. It might make us have to stretch our grey matter. But in the long term, our brains may thank us for it.

The declaration means that Isis can now add swaths of northern Nigeria to a self-declared caliphate that already stretches across Syria and Iraq. Earlier this year analysts noted the growing sophistication of videos released by the Nigerian group, suggesting the two jihadist networks were growing closer together.

In an audio message posted on the group's Twitter account on Saturday, it said: "We swear our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims [Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi], and all hear and obey him in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and in ease, and to endure being discriminated against…"

The declaration of allegiance is the latest by a series of violent jihadist groups, including a number in Libya. But Boko Haram's 20,000 square miles of territory, from where it is able to launch attacks with ease, makes it one of the most important factions now flying the black Isil flag.

The message, apparently delivered by Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau, goes on to call for the world's Muslims to unite. "We call on all Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the Caliph and support him…" said the message in Arabic.

This was on the minds of federal workers attending the National Treasury Employees Union legislative conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Meeting a day after President Obama released his fiscal 2016 budget proposal, they complained about its slight 1.3 percent federal pay-raise proposal. But they also worry about other budget issues that could hit federal workplaces.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen warned his employees in an e-mail last month that budget cuts could lead to the “shutdown of IRS operations for two days later this fiscal year, which will involve furloughing employees on those days.” “There is no way around the severity of these budget cuts without taking some difficult steps,” he said. Federal employees would feel the difficulty the most.

It seems crazy that Congress would allow the shutdown of the agency that brings in almost all the money needed for government operations. But if you think government has too many operations, then perhaps hurting the IRS makes sense. Certainly, crazy has passed for normal in this town before. The 2016 budget proposal would add 3,000 positions, but the “proposal doesn’t affect our budget situation for the current year, which runs through September,” Koskinen said in a message to employees Tuesday.

The assault against Nimrud came just a week after the release of a video showing Islamic State forces smashing museum statues and carvings in Mosul, the city they seized along with much of northern Iraq last June. "Daesh terrorist gangs continue to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity," Iraq's tourism and antiquities ministry said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.

"In a new crime in their series of reckless offences they assaulted the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy machinery, appropriating the archaeological attractions dating back 13 centuries BC," it said. Nimrud, about 20 miles (30 km) south of Mosul, was built around 1250 BC. Four centuries later it became capital of the neo-Assyrian empire - at the time the most powerful state on earth, extending to modern-day Egypt, Turkey and Iran.

The resolution states that "the American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism." It also says "flags not only serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism, but also construct cultural mythologies and narratives that in turn charge nationalistic sentiments."

Tucker Carlson said on "Fox and Friends Weekend" that the US education system - from grade school through college - teaches history as "a litany of American sins." "If you teach kids throughout their entire career in school that America is terrible, why should you be surprised when they hate the flag?" he said.

The ruling is a decisive victory in favor of Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a recent victim of Islamic terror. In 2011, Glick was banned for two years by Israeli police from ascending the mount after a Channel 10 broadcast showed him uttering a prayer at the holy site. This week’s ruling, issued by court judge Malka Aviv, stated that the police ban was implemented “without appropriate consideration, was arbitrary, and only out of concern for the consequences of the broadcast.” She wrote in her brief that “police must make sure that Jews are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.”

Aviv also awarded Glick compensation of NIS 500,000 for losses to his livelihood, as he leads tours on the Mount, as well as NIS 150,000 for damages. His legal costs must be paid by the police. According to the new ruling, the police are legally bound “to ensure that Jews are able to pray on the Temple Mount, and not to act sweepingly to prevent Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.”

Attorney Aviad Visoly, who represented Glick, said that the verdict “has made prayer on the Temple Mount ‘kosher’. In essence, the court took the Supreme Court’s rulings about the Jews’ right to pray on the Temple Mount, and implemented them.”

Real interest rates have rocketed. The trade-weighted rise in the yuan over the past two years has been spectacular. Fiscal policy is about to tighten drastically as the authorities clamp down on big-spending local governments. Put together, China is pursuing the most contractionary mix of economic policies in the G20, relative to the status quo ante. Collateral damage is already visible in the sliding global prices of iron ore, copper, nickel, lead and zinc over recent months, as well as thermal coal, oil, corn and even sugar.

Zhiwei Zhang, from Deutsche Bank, says China faces a "fiscal cliff" this year as Beijing attempts to rein in spending. "This year, China will likely face the worst fiscal challenge since 1981. This is not well recognised in the market," he said. The International Monetary Fund says China's budget deficit topped 10 percent of GDP in 2014 if measured properly, including borrowing by the regions through "financing vehicles" as well as land sales - a patently unsustainable form of funding that makes up 35 percent of local government revenue. This is the highest deficit of any major country in the world, and far above safe levels.

China is not the only country in Asia facing a hangover. Nomura's Rob Subbaraman says housing booms in India, Hong Kong and Taiwan all match or exceed the US bubble in 2008, with Malaysia not far behind. "Asia is setting itself up for a major credit crunch," he said.

The strenuous efforts to whip up Cold War-like hysteria in the face of an otherwise preoccupied and essentially passive Russia seems out of all proportion to the actual military threat Russia poses. (Yes, volunteers and ammo do filter into Ukraine across the Russian border, but that's about it.) Further south, the efforts to topple the government of Syria by aiding and arming Islamist radicals seem to be backfiring nicely. But that's the pattern, isn't it? What US military involvement in recent memory hasn't resulted in a fiasco? Maybe failure is not just an option, but more of a requirement?

Let's review. Afghanistan, after the longest military campaign in US history, is being handed back to the Taliban. Iraq no longer exists as a sovereign nation, but has fractured into three pieces, one of them controlled by radical Islamists. Egypt has been democratically reformed into a military dictatorship. Libya is a defunct state in the middle of a civil war. The Ukraine will soon be in a similar state; it has been reduced to pauper status in record time —less than a year. A recent government overthrow has caused Yemen to stop being US-friendly. Closer to home, things are going so well in the US-dominated Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that they have produced a flood of refugees, all trying to get into the US in the hopes of finding any sort of sanctuary.

But I would venture to guess that at some point failure will translate into meta-failure: America will fail even at failing. I hope that there is something we can do to help this meta-failure of failure happen sooner rather than later.

He said this was the result of "chaos and extremism in the Middle East, Russian aggression and expansion, and a weakened Europe threatened by horrendous unemployment, in no small measure caused by a failure to tackle structural reforms in many of the countries which form part of the European Union". This was a much gloomier assessment of the world than the picture painted in his statement a year ago.

Text for the bill, S.633, can be found below:

"The Stand with Israel Act of 2015 sends a clear message: Unless the Palestinian Authority recognizes the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, ceases to work with terrorist organizations such as Hamas, and agrees to a lasting peace, this legislation will halt all US taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority," said Senator Paul.

The ECB, which left interest rates on hold at record lows just above zero at its meeting in Cyprus on Thursday, lifted its growth forecast to 1.5 percent for this year, from the 1 percent it predicted in December. For 2016, growth of 1.9 percent is now expected, up from a previous 1.5 percent. "The latest economic data, and particularly survey evidence available up to February, point to some further improvements in economic activity at the beginning of this year," Mr Draghi told a news conference. "Looking ahead, we expect the economic recovery to broaden and strengthen gradually."

It is unclear whether the probe, the first targeting the Bank in the SFO's 28-year history, will focus on traders outside the BoE or officials inside the central bank. The move came after the SFO was handed the results of an inquiry conducted last year by Lord Grabiner into whether any senior staff at the Bank were aware its auctions may have been rigged in 2007 and 2008.

During that time the Bank lent money against low and negative interest rates in return for asset-backed securities, in a bid to keep lending markets open as the credit crunch struck.

Here is the report from WND.com. “Secretary of State John Kerry quietly presented a US plan for eastern Jerusalem that calls for an international administrative mandate to control holy sites in the area, according to informed Palestinian and Israeli diplomatic sources. The exact composition of the international mandate is up for discussion, the sources said, but Kerry’s plan recommended a coalition that includes the Vatican, together with a group of Muslim countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.” (WND)

There is also this shocking piece that I found from Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, that claims that the Vatican is hoarding Vessels from the Second Temple. “The Vatican is evading questions on whether or not it is holding religious artifacts from the Second Temple, Rabbi Yonatan Shtenzel told Arutz Sheva correspondents Wednesday, in what he calls ‘diplomatic evasion’.

“Talmudic sources, including passages from Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yossi, note that several of the holy vessels from the Second Temple ended up in the Vatican’s hands, Rabbi Shtenzel said. Artifacts said to be transferred to the religious city-state via the Roman Emperor include the shulchan (Shewbread table), the menorah (candelabra), several priestly garments, and others.

“Pope Francis knows full well where the vessels are, the Rabbi claimed, lamenting that ‘diplomatic evasion’ is the status quo. The Vatican is concerned, according to Shtenzel, that they will be brought to the Hague over the issue and be forced to give the artifacts back to the Jewish people” (Israel National News).

If they are truly hoarding vessels from the second temple then could that mean that they have their own plans to build a Third Temple? One last piece of the puzzle I found was a video by Steven Ben-DeNoon, author of IsraeliNewsLive. In it he exposes his belief that Pope Francis does have a secret plan to build the “Third Jewish Temple.” However his plans are not just for the “Jewish” people, no, he is planning on using it as a universal place of worship for all faiths. Steven Ben-DeNoon grabs his information from a book called, The Royal Secret — a book which he claims contains all the secrets of the elite.

"German medical engineering companies are very much in demand in the world right now," Fiagon Chairman Timo Krüger told USA TODAY. "The entire branch is also benefiting from strong growth in markets like Asia, without a shadow of a doubt." Just about all German exports are very much in demand around the world right now, thanks to a weak euro that is proving to be a boon to Germany by making its goods less expensive to foreign customers.

The currency is now trading at an 11-year low against the dollar: $1.11. That's an 18% drop from $1.35 in the first half of 2014. The euro's decline has boosted sales to China and the United States, which accounted for more than half of Fiagon's revenues last year, said Krüger, whose company recently opened an American headquarters in Austin.

"If the exchange rate in the US and China against the euro remains where it is, we could see our revenue increase somewhere in the double digits," said Krüger.