Alex Bellos gives us exciting news from the world of mathematics of the discovery of a new pentagonal shape that has the ability to “tile the plane”. i.e., to cover a flat surface using only that shape, leaving no gaps. Here it is.
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I mentioned before that US government officials have the practice when visiting countries that it does not consider allies to give them public lectures on what they must do to improve. While this sounds condescending, it is only so if done selectively. I think it is a practice that should be expanded and every time there is a state visit, the visiting dignitary should take the opportunity to point out all the faults of the host country. Unfortunately, many countries do not seem to want to risk angering the world’s only superpower and thus the US has got used to being the only one giving such lectures.
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I wrote earlier that even the mighty propaganda juggernaut that is Fox News led by Roger Ailes had to abruptly reverse course and take Donald Trump back into its bosom after the furious reaction they got from their own viewers at their obvious attempt to sandbag him at the first debate.
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There is a Canadian radio show called That is That that seems to be a kind of audio version of the Onion, specializing in parody. Peter Simek, who lives in Texas, says that in a recent episode the show pretty much nails the entitled attitude that rich Texans have.
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One of the inexplicable things is the relative popularity of Ben Carson among the Republican presidential candidates. He says the most outrageous things in a calm voice and then when he is questioned about it, he takes on a hurt tone and implies that it is so unfair to focus on his words when you should be admiring him for his surgical skills.
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The always-entertaining journalist for Rolling Stone has a long and hilarious piece where he visits many of the Republican candidates’ campaign events in Iowa and provides thumbnail sketches on their attempts to survive the Donald Trump tornado that has hit the Republican party by trying to outdo him in making outrageous comments in order to get any kind of attention.
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He ponders the question of why there are no female late night talk show hosts but thinks that he can bring a female perspective that will enable women to relate to him.
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Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year prison term for essentially being a whistleblower and revealing US atrocities in its war in Iraq. She can be excused for feeling that it is grossly unfair that she has received such a stiff punishment while those who authorized this shameful war that has caused such immense death and misery, using lies and other deceptions to persuade the public to support them, are walking around free.
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The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against a baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, arguing that baking a cake was an artistic act and that by forcing him to do so, he was being subjected to forced speech, thus violating his First Amendment rights. The court disagreed.
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As I have noted before, Republican voters are a remarkably loyal bunch. Once they have picked someone to support for whatever reason, pretty much everything else is shrugged off. This loyalty manifested itself with Sarah Palin and now we see it again with Donald Trump. It seems like his derogatory comments about Mexicans, John McCain, and women have done nothing to shake the loyalty of his fans. It is, I suppose, possible that each of those comments alienated a considerable segment of his people but at the same time attracted new supporters so that the net number of supporters remained stable while the people changed. But that series of coincidences seems unlikely. It seems more plausible to assume that the same supporters are sticking with Trump whatever the party and media establishment say about him.
That raises the question: Who the hell are these people?
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