Great moments in presidenting

I am sure that readers would be expecting this post to be about Donald Trump, who has given us many great moments in presidenting by virtue of his grifting, incompetence, and sheer brazen lying. But this is actually about Sri Lanka where the president there seems to be trying to give Trump a run for his money when it comes to making impulsive and stupid decisions without thinking things through, feeling that the sheer office of his office was sufficient to make any decision he makes become reality.
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The Israel lobby is seeking loyalty oaths in America

I have written before about how the Israel lobby, alarmed by the rapid rise in support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and the declining support for Israel especially among young people and Democrats, has moved to pressure state legislatures to pass laws that punish people for any involvement in such speech and activities. Glenn Greenwald describes the case of Bahia Amawi, a children’s speech pathologist, who was denied employment in a public school district in Texas because a law in that state now contains a loyalty oath – not to the US but to Israel – that prevents the employment of anyone who takes any action that inflicts economic harm on Israel, such as supporting a boycott or even merely making a decision, as a private consumer, to not buy products made by companies in the Occupied Territories. She refused to sign the loyalty oath.
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The short life and welcome death of the Weekly Standard

The magazine folded last week after 23 years of existence. I have been surprised by the level of mourning that has been expressed in media circles at its death, when the right reaction should be rejoicing. All that one really needs to know to form a judgment as to the quality of this publication was that it was financed by Rupert Murdoch and its founding editor was Bill Kristol and the magazine accurately represented their interests. The fact that Kristol has now been welcomed into some liberal enclaves in the media because of his dislike of Trump is mystifying. Thankfully Jon Schwarz delivers the appropriate epitaph for this nasty and pretentious little rag.
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The ‘secret’ origins of the search for extra-terrestrial life

John Wenz has a fascinating account of a ‘secret’ meeting of scientists held in 1961 at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, which at that time was the biggest telescope available to radio astronomers. The reason it was kept hush-hush was not because they were doing anything nefarious but because these were people who were interested in seeking signs of extra-terrestrial life and that was considered somewhat fringey and they did not want to tarnish their reputations as serious scientists.
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Great moments in Venn diagrams

The Republican war on logic and math continues with this Venn diagram produced by losing governor Scott Walker to try and persuade people that the legislation passed by the lame-duck legislature and signed by him stripping the incoming Democratic governor of some powers was not a blatant anti-democratic act.

This graphic from The Progressive magazine compared Walker’s idea of a Venn diagram with how it should actually be used.

Don’t these people have aides who have at least some basic knowledge and can stop them from embarrassing themselves?

Cracks appear in Israel’s wall of support in the US Congress

The US congress has a good claim to being the most loyal supporters in the US, if not the world, of whatever the Israeli government does. For the longest time the Israel lobby in the US, led by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was able to command the support of Congress for even the most right-wing Israeli government policies, however cruel and unjust towards the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories and Gaza. It managed this by contributing to congressional campaigns and working hard to defeat any congressperson who voiced even the mildest criticisms of Israeli policies.
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You can’t trust your lying eyes

Via David Pescovitz, I came across something called the ‘morph cut’, a video editing technique that can be used to eliminate pauses, stutters, and filler words and provide for smoother-sounding interviews, unlike with a ‘jump cut’ where you can see the abrupt transition. But the catch is that if not done carefully, it can produce unexpected results, like in this clip where a child suddenly materializes behind the speaker.
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High temperature superconductivity record

When current flows in materials, it generates heat because of the resistance it encounters. This causes the materials to get hot and this has to be accounted for when designing electrical systems in order to avoid fires or meltdowns. This heat is also a major source of energy dissipation and loss. Superconductors are materials that do not have any resistance to the flow of current and thus can cut down energy consumption tremendously.
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