The Impact of Prayer

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1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

  • Dr. Charles F. Stanley
    (Photo: In Touch Ministries)
    Dr. Charles F. Stanley (File).

Christian Post Report – When something’s on our mind, we are wise to consult Scripture or trusted spiritual mentors. God has also given His children the privilege of prayer, and He wants us to bring our concerns directly to Him. But believers often have questions about the power and effectiveness of prayer.

Will god’s plans fail if I don’t pray? God is not subservient to us or dependent upon our prayers. The time we invest in speaking with Him involves us in the work He is doing in our lives and in the world, but He will carry on with or without us. Laboring alongside the Lord is a blessing.

Does my prayer (or lack thereof) impact god’s work? I believe Scripture indicates the answer to this question is both yes and no, depending upon the situation. There are times when God’s purpose is set. He is in control and has determined the best course. In the Old Testament, He often revealed what He would do and then brought those events to pass.

In other cases, we “do not have because [we] do not ask” (James 4:2). There are some good things that God holds back until we extend prayerful hands to receive them. But He is a loving Father, who also pours out blessings that we wouldn’t even think to request.

Believer’s prayers have tremendous impact, particularly on their own faith and life. Do you understand what an awesome privilege it is to kneel before the all-powerful Father and know that He listens and will respond? God loves being good to His children and answering their prayers.

Used with permission from In Touch Ministries, Inc. © 2015
All Rights Reserved.

Source : Christian Post

Armenian Church Files Lawsuit for Return of Headquarters From Turkey; ‘Not an Iota” Will be Given, Responds Turkish Mayor

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Armenian Church Files Lawsuit for Return of Headquarters From Turkey; ‘Not an Iota” Will be Given, Responds Turkish Mayor
Armenian Church Armenian Church Catholicosate

Leaders and supporters of Armenian Church at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

Christian Post Report – Armenian Christians won’t get “an iota of land,” the mayor of a Turkish city says in response to a lawsuit filed by an Armenian Church in Turkey’s Constitutional Court to reclaim its headquarters that existed before the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire.

“Not even an iota of land is to be handed over to anyone,” as Armenians have no proof of ownership of a monastery that was allegedly the church’s headquarters, Musa Ozturk, the mayor of Turkey’s Kozan district, said Friday, according to Daily Sabah.

The mayor’s statement comes three days after the Lebanon-based Armenian Church Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia filed the lawsuit, which carries telegrams from Talat Pasha and Cemal Pasha, two senior figures of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, as evidence of ownership of the monastery.

April 21 marked the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, which refers to the Ottoman Empire’s alleged systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects in their historic homeland within Ottoman Turkey and of those who lived in other parts of the territory constituting the present-day Turkey. About 1.5 million people were killed in the genocide, according to estimates.

As they observe the centenary of the genocide, Armenians want the world to recognize the mass killings and forced relocations as “genocide.”

“Armenian churches belong to the Armenian Church,” Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said at a press conference at the National Press club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. “In 2011 the U.S. House passed a resolution HR306 calling on the Secretary of State to press Turkey to return the churches. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has also constructively addressed the issue.”

“This is a remarkable story of hope and a remarkable story of resilience of human spirit,” Payam Akhavan, the church’s lead international counsel in the case, added, of the church’s efforts to reclaim the monastery. “We hope the Turkish government sees this as an opportunity for reconciliation and returns these properties. However, His Holiness Aram the 1st has made it very clear that we are determined to go all the way to the European court of human rights.”

In the genocide, Akhavan sent on to say, “Turkey adopted a series of laws on abandoned properties—and of course, abandoned properties is a euphemism used to confiscate the properties of millions of Armenians that once were inhabitants of Ottoman Turkey.” He referred to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which Turkey signed to respect the rights of non-Muslim minorities.

“This ancient and sacred site must be returned to its rightful owners nearly a century after it was pillaged. Armenians are right to pursue all legal avenues to obtain justice and to seek the return of what is rightfully theirs,” Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said in a statement.

“The restoration of the Catholicosate of Sis would represent an act of justice, a first step toward the legal return of the Armenian Church and its faithful to their lawful place in their rightful homeland,” Hamparian added. “It would, as well, mark a meaningful milestone in the Armenian nation’s journey toward a just resolution of the Armenian Genocide.”

Haykaram Nahapetyan contributed reporting to this article.

Source : Christian Post

Nigeria Army Rescues 234 More Female Captives From Boko Haram

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Nigeria Army Rescues 234 More Female Captives From Boko Haram
Boko Haram (Photo: Reuters/Jon Nazca)

A Nigerian woman is comforted by a man as they take part in a protest, called by Malaga’s Nigerian women Association, for the release of the abducted secondary school girls from the remote village of Chibok in Nigeria, at La Merced square in Malaga, southern Spain, May 13, 2014. The leader of the Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram has offered to release more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by his fighters last month in exchange for its members being held in detention, according to a video posted on YouTube on Monday.

Christian Post Report – Nigerian troops have rescued 234 more girls and women from the Boko Haram stronghold Sambia Forest in the country’s northeast, days after freeing 200 girls and 93 women from the same region.

The Nigerian Defense Headquarters posted a message on Twitter early Saturday, saying, “Another set of 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the #Sambisa Forest…”

This brings the total number of women and children rescued this week to 527.

However, a local senator claimed the women and children previously released may have been residents of the area, according to BBC. No details were given about the claim.

The military said the rescued girls and women are being screened to ascertain their identities.

Some women resisted, and even shot at the rescuers, The Associated Press quoted a military spokesman as saying. It is, therefore, suspected that some of them might now identify with Boko Haram after captivity and forced marriages.

The Nigerian military didn’t say whether any of the 234 girls and women is among the more than 200 schoolgirls the Boko Haram had mass kidnapped from Chibok in Abuja on April 14, 2015.

Nigerian Army spokesman Sani Usman said earlier in the week that the army has raided a number of Boko Haram camps in the forest, which has served as a stronghold for the Islamic militants. The region is not far from Chibok.

However, Usman confirmed that the 293 captives previously rescued were not the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram in that particular raid.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had earlier threatened to sell the girls from Chibok “in the market.”

“I abducted your girls,” Shekau said in a 57-minute video earlier. “I abducted a girl at a western education school and you are disturbed. I said western education should end. Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married. I will repeat this: western education should fold up. I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of nine.”

Boko Haram recently announced it was changing its official name to “Islamic State’s West Africa Province,” or ISWAP. The terror group has aligned itself with Islamic State, also known as ISIS or IS, which has gained control over large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Boko Haram has also posted videos showing beheading of people.

Boko Haram has also killed numerous Christians and attacked several churches. It is apparently seeking to create an Islamic state in the Muslim-majority northern Nigeria. It is believed that it earlier gained technical sophistication and weaponry with help from groups like al-Shabaab in southern Somalia and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Mali.

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Militants Curbstomp 2 Criminals to Death With Concrete Blocks, Execute 2 for Sorcery

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ISIS Militants Curbstomp 2 Criminals to Death With Concrete Blocks, Execute 2 for Sorcery
ISIS (Photo: Reuters/Azad Lashkari)

Members of the Iraqi security forces take part in training, as they prepare to fight against militants of the Islamic State, at a training camp on the outskirts of Mosul, January 10, 2015.

Christian Post Report – The Islamic State has come up with another heinous and barbaric mode of execution, as the group released photos this week showing two criminals in Iraq being executed by having their heads bashed between a forcefully thrown concrete block and a street curb.

Earlier this week, ISIS militants released a series of photos on social media that were shared among the group’s sympathizers that purported to show the group carrying out the execution of two men accused of robbing and killing three women in the Nineveh province of northern Iraq, the Daily Mail reported.

Although the most common types of executions carried out by the Islamic State are beheadings, stonings or gunfire, the two accused murderers were instead publicly executed by having their heads forced over a street curb while a militant lifted a heavy concrete block above his head and slamed it down, essentially curb stomping the criminals to death as a crowd looks on in amusement.

Additionally, the Daily Mail report explains that the murder is consistent with the Sharia principle Qisas, which means an “eye for an eye” or revenge killing.

In the background of the photos is the well-known white-bearded ISIS elder known as Abu Ansar al-Ansari, who has been seen in numerous ISIS execution pictures in the Mosul region in the last year. He is thought to be the Mosul executioner-in-chief, who is in charge of overseeing executions.

The terrorist organization also posted pictures to social media this week showing two elderly men in the Syrian village of Jarnyah, which is west of Raqqa, being publicly beheaded on accusations of sorcery.

Those men were also publicly executed in the middle of a street before a crowd. The men were forced to rest their heads over a wood chopping block, while a militant decapitated them with a machete.

Another picture shows a militant dressed in black reading the list of crimes that the two men were accused of over a loudspeaker for the crowd to hear, so that they know to fear the authority of the caliphate.

ISIS militants in Syria also released photos last weekend of militants stoning two gay men in countryside of the town of Homs, but what stuck out from that series of photos was that the militants were seen hugging and “forgiving” the gay men before their crimes.

The killing of the gay men was consistent with ISIS’ penal code, as the militant group has publicly executed a number of gay men in Iraq and Syria in the last few months. Some of the men were thrown off of roofs, while others were simply stoned to death.

Additionally, it was reported by the Daily Beast that ISIS militants have begun disguising themselves as homosexuals in order to trick gay men into admitting their sexuality so that they can be arrested and executed.

On Thursday, a new branch associated with the Islamic State in Yemen released a video showing the execution of what they claimed were 15 Yemeni soldiers. Four of soldiers were beheaded.

Although the ISIS affiliate in Yemen, a civil war-struck country, has previously released photos showing fighters in training, Thursday’s video was the first video released showing killings inside Yemen, as the Islamic State’s support structure continues to grow internationally.

Source : Christian Post

Passion for Truth Ministries Pastor Jim Staley Confesses to Cheating Investors Out of $3.3M and Pocketing $570K for Himself

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Passion for Truth Ministries Pastor Jim Staley Confesses to Cheating Investors Out of $3.3M and Pocketing $570K for Himself
Jim Staley, Passion For Truth Ministries (Photo: Screen Grab via YouTube/PassionForTruthVideo)

Jim Staley, 39, pastor of Passion For Truth Ministries in Missouri was indicted for fraud by a federal grand jury on June 18, 2014.

Christian Post Report – Passion for Truth Ministries Pastor Jim Stanley, 40, who told his St. Charles, Missouri, congregation last summer that he didn’t realize he had been arrested after a federal grand jury indicted him last June for defrauding investors, admitted in federal court Thursday that he cheated his elderly victims out of $3.3 million while making $570,000 for himself.

In a courtroom packed with supporters, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Staley, who owned a financial consulting form, pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud rather than taking his case to trial. He admitted that he cheated 16 investors, and his defense attorney, Scott Rosenblum, says his client was ashamed and “completely accepted responsibility.” The attorney stressed that the crime “had nothing to do with his role as a pastor.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Collins said some of the investors trusted Staley because he was a “nice religious man” who referred to several of them as “Grandma.”

“Seniors tend to be more trusting and give people the benefit of the doubt, particularly people who hold themselves out as religious leaders,” said Collins.

At his sentencing on July 29, Staley will face six to eight years in prison. His attorneys will reportedly ask for less.

A June 25, 2014, release from the FBI highlighted the grave details of the indictment.

“James Staley was indicted for his alleged scheme to defraud investors by making false promises of high rates of return and minimal risk. The indictment states that Staley defrauded 11 investors/lenders by causing them to invest over $3.4 million, giving him commissions totaling over $570,000,” it said.

In 2007, according to the indictment, Staley operated Wealth Financial International, the same year he started his church and the same year he became a sales agent for a premium financing company in California called B & B Equity. Staley, in his capacity as sales agent, found people to provide loans for life insurance policies.

“In many instances, several of these investor/lenders’ funds were bundled together to provide financing to purchase one life insurance policy. Staley received a commission for each investor/lender that he found to contribute financing for the purchasing of the life insurance policies.

“B & B required the lender/investor to invest in the insurance policy for a fixed period of time varying from 18 months to two years. During this period of time Staley represented to clients of Wealth Financial that B & B Premium Financing Company would sell the bundled insurance policies on the open market with guaranteed returns,” said the release.

“However, Staley was well aware that if B & B was unable to secure a buyer for the bundled insurance policies that his clients would lose all their monies invested in the premium financing product sold by B & B,” it added.

Contact: [email protected]; follow me on Twitter @leoblair

Source : Christian Post

Woman Denied Abortion for 10-Y-O Daughter to Cover Up Stepfather’s Rape; Amnesty International Says Banning Abortion on Young Girl Is ‘Tantamount to Torture’

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Woman Denied Abortion for 10-Y-O Daughter to Cover Up Stepfather’s Rape; Amnesty International Says Banning Abortion on Young Girl Is ‘Tantamount to Torture’
Pro-Life (Photo: Reuters/Cathal McNaughto)

A pro-life campaigner holds up a model of a 12-week-old embryo during a protest outside the Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast October 18, 2012.

Christian Post Report –  

Amnesty International claims Paraguay’s abortion laws are too restrictive and “tantamount to torture” after a woman was denied an abortion for her 10-year-old daughter who was reportedly raped by her stepfather.

The mother, whose daughter showed up at a hospital six months pregnant complaining of stomach pains, is being charged as an accomplice in her daughter’s rape.

The Independent reported on Thursday that the girl’s mother, who is “in custody facing charges of breaching duty of care and being an accomplice to sexual abuse,” had asked the hospital to allow her daughter to have the abortion. Paraguay’s Public Health Ministry denied the request, however, and moved the girl to the Red Cross Hospital.

Amnesty International has slammed the decision, saying the hospital’s refusal to perform an abortion on the girl and “forcing” her to carry the child three more months to full-term is tantamount to torture.

“The physical and psychological impact of forcing this young girl to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to torture,” said Guadalupe Marengo, deputy director of Americas Program at Amnesty International.

According to U.N. statistics, anyone who performs an abortion in Paraguay, including if a woman causes her own abortion, is subject to 15-30 months imprisonment. The penalty increases if the abortion was performed without the woman’s consent, or if the husband performs the abortion. The Penal Code allows exceptions to the ban only in cases of medical emergencies where a woman’s life is at risk.

While some human rights groups have accused Paraguay, a predominantly Roman Catholic country, of having abortion laws that are too restrictive, church leaders have pushed back against pressure on the government to relax laws against the practice.

Back in February, Archbishop Edmundo Valenzeula of Asuncion said in a message to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon that Paraguay will not be forced to change its stance on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, or gay marriage.

“We cannot deny our concern regarding the pressures constantly exerted on the Paraguayan state, which is free and sovereign, by so-called ‘U.N. experts,’ many of whom adhere to obscure ideologies that openly contradict our human and Christian values,” Valenzeula said.

These pressures are related specifically to “very sensitive issues such as the natural makeup of the family, contraception, abortion and the integral and total protection of human life from conception to natural death,” he added.

Source : Christian Post

Breakaway South Carolina Episcopal Diocese Mulling Affiliation With Conservative Anglican Group

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Breakaway South Carolina Episcopal Diocese Mulling Affiliation With Conservative Anglican Group
St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center (Photo: Lee Marion)

St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center, located in Johns Island, South Carolina.

Christian Post Report – A diocese that broke away from The Episcopal Church in 2012 over theological and personal differences might join a prominent conservative Anglican group.

Representatives for the Diocese of South Carolina and the Anglican Church in North America met Tuesday and Wednesday about the possible affiliation.

Held at the St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center in South Carolina, the meeting was overseen by South Carolina Diocese Bishop Mark Lawrence and ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach.

  • Diocese
    (Photo: SC Diocese)
    A banner bearing the seal of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

“The Diocese of South Carolina has been in the process for some time of discerning what its permanent affiliation should be among the Provinces of the Anglican Communion,” the Rev. Jim Lewis, canon to the ordinary and an attendee of the meeting, told The Christian Post.

“We have reached a place where it seemed the next and most appropriate step was to meet with leaders of the ACNA to share our common interests and questions as this diocese continues the work of discernment.”

Lewis also told CP that while no date has been set for a convention vote on affiliation, the diocese stands on good terms with ACNA and other conservative Anglican groups.

“Our mutual respect and appreciation for each other is considerable, with many in the room having relationships that go back for years,” said Lewis.

“Our conversations were wide ranging and provided much needed clarity for all of us. Those are conversations that will certainly continue in the future.”

In November 2012, the Diocese of South Carolina voted overwhelmingly to leave The Episcopal Church over theological differences and the purported mistreatment of Bishop Mark Lawrence.

By January 2013, legal action ensued over who owned the name and property, the breakaway diocese leadership or those within the regional body who retained allegiance to The Episcopal Church.

An injunction was granted allowing for the breakaway leadership to retain the name of the diocese during the lawsuit. Those loyal to the national denomination gave themselves the name The Episcopal Church in South Carolina.

In February, Judge Diane Goodstein ruled in favor of the breakaway diocese, concluding that they and not the national denomination owned the approximately $500 million worth of property.

The Episcopal Church appealed the decision to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which in April agreed to hear the case. Arguments are scheduled for September.

The Rev. Canon Andrew K. Gross, spokesman for ACNA, told CP that the diocese was “in the early stages of exploring whether or not it would like to affiliate as a diocese with the Anglican Church in North America.”

“It was a very positive meeting. It is the first time that the key leaders have been able to sit in the same room together and ask questions face to face,” said Rev. Gross.

“It’s early days, and no one can predict where this process will lead, but there is clearly a lot that we have in common.”

Source : Christian Post

PRAY AND DONATE FOR NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

CM Editor
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PRAY AND DONATE FOR NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
Fundraise for Nepal | Fundraise | Unicef |
Fundraise for Nepal | Fundraise | Unicef | Christian Mail

PRAY AND COLLECT FOR NEPAL

More than 5,000 people are reported to have died and 10,000 people are injured after the deadliest earthquake for 80 years struck Nepal on Saturday. Children are terrified and in danger. We urgently need your help at this devastating time. We need you to join churches across the UK and pray for Nepal and hold a collection at your church this Sunday to help protect millions of children in danger.

A collection of £55 could provide five families in Nepal with clean water kits

Resources

Please send in the money you collect by cheque, payable to Unicef UK, to:

Unicef House
30a Great Sutton Street
London
EC1V 0DU

We’d like to send you a thank you letter, so please include a note with your church’s name and address.

Find out more about the situation in Nepal and how Unicef is helping children in danger

EMERGENCY FUNDRAISING FOR NEPAL

We urgently need you to do whatever you can to raise vital funds: hold a bake sale, a coffee morning, a sponsored swim or invite your friends for dinner and ask for a donation in return. If you want to get involved with your school, take part in Bring-A-Pound to fundraise for Nepal. Everything you raise will help Unicef keep children in Nepal safe.

HOW TO FUNDRAISE FOR NEPAL

  • Decide how you would like to fundraise. Email us if you’re stuck for ideas.
  • Let us know what you’re planning by emailing [email protected]
  • Use the resources below to make your fundraiser a success
  • Send in your money using the donations form below – remembering to mention that you have fundraised for the Nepal Earthquake Appeal

Resources

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Steve Harvey Says He ‘Can’t Wrap Mind Around’ Bruce Jenner Identifying as a Woman

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Steve Harvey Says He ‘Can’t Wrap Mind Around’ Bruce Jenner Identifying as a Woman
Steve Harvey (Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

Comedian Steve Harvey speaks during the global launch of the UNICEF Imagine campaign at United Nations Headquarters in New York, November 20, 2014.

Christian Post Report – New York Times best-selling author, comedian and self-professed Christian Steve Harvey says he can’t “wrap his mind around” Bruce Jenner’s recent interview with Diane Sawyer where he told the world that he identifies as a woman.

During a Sunday interview with “Hip Hollywood,” Harvey shared his thoughts on the Jenner’s announcement.

“Everybody says it’s the bravest thing they’ve ever seen, so that’s the politically correct thing to say,” Harvey asserted. “I can’t wrap my mind around it all. Zero. I have no concept of what that means. Nothing negative. He has every right to live his life the way he want to, but I can’t come in the house and make that announcement to my wife, to my children. Nothing.”

Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner confirmed rumors that he had taken steps toward a sex change when, in a candid interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, he admitted that he doesn’t view himself as a man.

“For all intents and purposes, I’m a woman,” Jenner told Sawyer in an interview that aired last Friday. “People look at me differently. They see you as this macho male, but my heart and my soul and everything that I do in life — it is part of me. That female side is part of me. That’s who I am.”

And even though Harvey admitted to not understanding Jenner’s statements during the interview, some of which included him referring to his male self in the third person, he appreciated Sawyer’s work and said she “covered it all.”

In true comedic fashion Harvey told “Hip Hollywood” that he probably couldn’t do the sit down interview with Jenner.

“My wife told me I couldn’t do the interview. She said, ‘Your faces are too expressive.'”

Jenner, who identifies as a Christian and as a Republican, also sparked responses in the Christian community, including Russell D. Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

In an op-ed titled What Should the Church Say to Bruce Jenner Moore urges the church not to laugh at or make fun of people struggling with gender identity.

“First of all, we should avoid the temptation to laugh at these suffering souls,” Moore said. “We do not see our transgendered neighbors as freaks to be despised.”

He also warned against the “cultural narrative behind the transgender turn” which he says is rooted in the ancient heresy of Gnosticism and dictates that the “real” self is separate from the material being.

Moore emphasized that the root of the desire to change sexes is a feeling of alienation which can only be solved by knowing God.

“The hope for Bruce Jenner, and for others like him, is not to alter the body with surgery or to flood their systems with hormones,” Moore added. “The answer is to realize that all of us are born alienated from what we were created to be. We don’t need to fix what happened at our first birth; we need a new birth altogether.”

Source : Christian Post

How old do you really look? This website will tell you in seconds

CM Editor
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How old do you really look? This website will tell you in seconds

Microsoft unveils site that tries to guess how old you are – try it !

(CNN) – You’re only as old as you think you are.

Or in this case, as old as a computer algorithm thinks you are.

In a machine learning experiment that’s taken social vanity to new heights, Microsoft has created a website that tells you how old you look just by analyzing your photo.

Sometimes it’s dead on. Other times it’s hilariously, outrageously wrong.

It’s simple: Upload a selfie, wait a few seconds — then the machine gives you a number.

And since it can analyze anyone’s photo, you can compare yourself to your friends, family, and foes.

But guessing someone’s age is a dangerous game, even for a robot. That’s probably why the site comes with a sheepish apology. “Sorry if we didn’t quite get the age and gender right,” it says after each result.

The company unveiled the website at a conference Thursday as a way to show off its new software.

Part of a new initiative called Project Oxford, Microsoft says you could use this face detection technology for tasks like sorting through a large photo collection.

But we’re human — so we’ll probably just use it to judge our own looks.

And everyone else’s.

CNN Money’s Heather Kelly and journalist Wayne Chang contributed reporting.

Source  :  CNN

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