Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Tuesday: 7/16/13


Filibuster Fights


The executive nominees that caused the Senate fight.  Ed O'Keefe at the Fix.

10 filibuster facts that help explain how we got to this point.  Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas at Wonkblog.

The Senate didn't go nuclear today.  But the effect is practically the same.  "The Senate didn’t actually go nuclear today. But the majority took out a nuke, put it on the table, and made clear they can detonate it whenever they feel like ... Reid will change the rules if he believes it necessary. But so too will McConnell ... The result is that the minority’s ability to filibuster executive-branch nominees was weakened ... If the minority uses it too often, or chooses a nominee the majority really wants to confirm, the privilege of filibustering nominees — and that’s what it is now, a privilege granted by the majority — will be taken away. No majority is going to take that nuke off the table."  Ezra Klein at Wonkblog.

And it's an almost complete victory for the Democrats. "We seem to have a tentative deal ... (1) Cordray gets cloture, ending that nullification battle (2) The other 'regular' nominees (EPA, Labor) get cloture (3) The NLRB nominees are withdrawn, and replaced; the new nominees get cloture in time to be in place by the time they're needed for NLRB to function (4) No specific promises or commitments for the future; Reid retains the possibility of going nuclear later in the Congress if nomination obstruction continues. If that's what's happening, it's very close to a total victory for Reid and the Democrats."  Jonathan Bernstein at A Plain Blog About Politics.

Richard Cordray was confirmed as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  "After two years of being caught in the middle of Washington’s partisan warfare, Richard Cordray has been confirmed to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ... Cordray was first picked for the job in July 2011, but his nomination has been caught up in the broader battle over the 2010 Dodd-Frank law ... On Tuesday, the Senate voted 66 to 34 to confirm Cordray ... The CFPB was created to police products such as credit cards and mortgages in response to complaints that consumers were being fleeced by lenders in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis."  Kate Davidson and MJ Lee at Politico.

And President Obama has already selected the two replacement nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. "President Barack Obama will nominate Nancy Schiffer and Kent Hirozawa to the National Labor Relations Board ... As part of the deal to avoid the so-called nuclear option, Republicans agreed not to block the replacement nominees for Richard Griffin and Sharon Block ... In return for removing Obama’s recess appointees to the board, Democrats won agreement to have a functioning NLRB through 2014, including a nominee for a slot opening on the board next year."  Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan at Politico.

Despite these victories for Obama and the Democrats, GOP obstruction still reigns in the Senate. "At the end of the day, the 60-vote Senate is still the norm. The minority retains the ability to obstruct with no credible nuclear threat when it comes to most matters ... Democrats proved this week they have the leverage to make sure a president’s nominees to executive positions can be confirmed with a 51-vote majority. But ... pro-reform Democrats and progressives privately conceded that they lack the votes to scale back the minority’s veto power over judicial nominations or bills."  Sahil Kapur at Talking Points Memo.

Filibuster myths, debunked.  "With the Senate showdown on executive branch appointments—and eventually filibuster rules—moving towards the moment of truth, it’s a good time to revisit some of the myths surrounding one of the hallowed chamber’s most perplexing procedures. Here are three: 1. Filibusters ≠ Cloture Votes ... 2. Deals on Filibusters Are Not Pointless ... 3. No, the End of Filibusters Is Not a Given."  Jonathan Bernstein at the American Prospect.










Politics


Abortion


The impact of Texas's new abortion restrictions, in two maps.  Tara Culp-Ressler at Think Progress. 

Pro choice victory in North Dakota court.  "A 2011 North Dakota law that outlaws one of two drugs used in nonsurgical abortions violates the state and U.S. constitutions, a state judge ruled Monday ... East Central Judge Wickham Corwin said he'd rule in favor of the state's sole abortion clinic, calling the 2011 state law 'simply wrongheaded.' ... 'No compelling state interest justifies this infringement ...' Corwin wrote in his 58-page ruling. He already had granted an injunction preventing the law from taking effect."  James MacPherson at the Associated Press.


DOD


The Congressional fights over sexual assault and the chain of command are just getting started. "Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have joined an upstart effort to remove the chain of command from military sexual assault cases ... The tea party favorites give the bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, critical conservative cover as she battles the Pentagon and hawks in both parties on her proposal to create a new prosecution system for major military crimes."  Darren Samuelsohn at Politico.


Drones


Standing with Rand, once again.  "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday afternoon he will put a hold on James Comey’s nomination as FBI director until the agency answers questions about the use of drones for domestic surveillance ... Paul also alluded to holding another marathon filibuster, a potential replay of his 13-hour talking filibuster in March, though he didn’t confirm if he planned to do so."  Hadas Gold at Politico.


The Economy


You may have heard about the ridiculous McDonalds budget chart - problem is, it's not that ridiculous.  "So the figures for heating and health insurance in the original Visa/McDonald’s sample budget are hard to defend. But overall, it offers a reasonable picture of how a typical person in the lower half of the income spectrum spends his money. And the reality is that these low-income Americans have to make the kind of hard choices that critics are deriding as ridiculous. They have to make do with a used car, live in a modest apartment with a roommate, get by with basic cable and a low-end cellular plan, and travel and go out to eat infrequently."  Timothy Lee at Wonkblog.


Elections


Democrats probably can't win the House, but the Republicans might just throw their majority away.  "Democrats can do everything right during this 2014 election cycle, but they still don’t have much of a chance of capturing a majority due to the congressional district boundaries and recent voting patterns in ... rural and small-town-dominated districts. However, if Republicans engage in enough self-destructive behavior ... voters might just reach a breaking point. Some in the Republican Party seem intent on seeing how far they can go in alienating as many female, young, minority, and self-described moderate voting blocs as possible, despite frequent warnings ... to avoid that."  Charlie Cook at the National Journal.

Things are looking up for McAuliffe in Virginia.  "For now, McAuliffe is merely unlikable, while Cuccinelli’s cultural views, Jackson’s extremism, and McDonnell’s ethical problems raise the real possibility of widespread revulsion toward the Republican ticket. McAuliffe will have the resources to exploit the GOP’s weakness. The former Clinton fundraiser has a big financial edge, with 6 million on-hand compared to Cuccinelli’s 2.7 million. In a polarized state like Virginia, the race will probably stay close. But as the campaign gets under way and the ads turn negative, it's easy to envision McAuliffe solidifying a modest lead. At this point, you’d rather be McAuliffe."  Nate Cohn at the New Republic.

Meet Greg Abbott, the man who is almost guaranteed to be Texas's next governor.  "A week after Perry withdrew his name from the race, it’s already more or less obvious who his successor will be: Greg Abbott, Texas’s longest-serving Attorney General—he first won the post in 2002—who is so clearly his party and Perry’s handpicked favorite that even his Republican opponent has taken to calling him 'the anointed one.'"  Nora Caplan-Bricker at the New Republic.

The battle of Wyoming.  "Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, will run against Wyoming’s senior U.S. senator in next year’s Republican primary ... Her announcement is a political challenge unlike anything Wyoming has seen for years, maybe decades. Republicans in the state rarely challenge incumbents of their own party in national office ... Enzi immediately won the endorsement of colleagues in the Senate, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The race promises to be hard-fought. Enzi has had few serious ... challengers ... since he was first elected to the Senate in 1996 ... He handily won re-election in 2008 with more than 75 percent of the vote."  The Associated Press.

Fundraising in 2013: Winners and losers.  Aaron Blake at the Fix.




FBI





Financial Reform


I really don't get what the banks are complaining about.  "Today Goldman Sachs reported net earnings of $1.93 billion in the second quarter. Back on Friday, J.P. Morgan said its earnings soared 31 percent to $6.5 billion and Wells Fargo reported a 19 percent increase in earnings. And good for them. The only thing worse than giant banks posting giant profits is giant banks posting giant losses and provoking a system-wide panic. But this tells you a lot about how seriously you should take the past year and a half's worth of nonstop whining about overweening Dodd-Frank regulations—i.e., not seriously at all."  Matthew Yglesias at Slate.


Fiscal Fights


Get ready for another debt ceiling showdown. "Debt ceiling drama is back ... At this point, some Senate Republicans appear to be in a deal-making mood ... But House Republican leaders have been telling their members for months that the debt ceiling is where they should pick their fight with the White House ... Leadership positions in both chambers are clear. Senate Democrats say the borrowing cap needs to be lifted without any corresponding spending cuts ... House Speaker John Boehner is already saying he needs 'significant cuts in spending' to lift the debt ceiling ... From there on out, the positions quickly unravel."  Jake Sherman and Burgess Everett at Politico.

Conservatives hate spending, country suffers.  Same old, same old.  "Thanks to the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rates and quantitative easing policies, borrowing costs are near generational lows. The costs of funding the repair and renovation of America’s decaying infrastructure are as cheap as they have been since World War II. But the era of cheap credit may be nearing its end. And thanks to a dysfunctional Washington, D.C., we are on the verge of missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Barry Ritholtz at the Washington Post.


Foreign Policy


Five strategic dilemmas that govern US policy in the Middle East.  Colin Kahl at Defense One.


GOP


Can the GOP ever break its new normal?  "The best way to understand the contemporary conservative movement is as a coalition with an unusually large number of people who either don’t agree with the CV on how to win elections, don’t care about short-term political implications, or don’t care about anything other than expressing their opinion ... Mix in another significant number of people with ... interest in reactionary politics, and you have a movement that’s not going to turn from its current trajectory with any great speed."  Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly.

The elites and the politicians: An Arkansas case study.  "A lot of smart money is already assuming Cotton will take out Sen. Mark Pryor next year ... Cotton is spending the bulk of his time ... voicing his opposition to the Senate’s immigration bill ... So this raises a question: if Republican 'elites' indeed consider passing immigration reform ... a matter of survival for their party, why is Tom Cotton almost universally the apple of their eyes? I mean, he’s not just opposing the Senate bill ... he’s ... trying to block any conceivable course of action that could lead to ... a 'path to citizenship.' Much of what the CW holds about 'Republican elites' needs to be ... taken with a shaker of salt."  Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly.

The crazy party - climate science edition.  "Given the prevailing winds, anytime a Republican is willing to break with climate deniers and acknowledge global warming, it's a refreshing change of pace. But there's something unique about this piece in particular ... 'Eric Bradenson' isn't the writer's real name; it's a pseudonym. In fact, the author needed to use a nom de plume, he said, 'to protect his boss and himself.' Got that? In 2013, with the threats posed by the climate crisis intensifying, a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill is only willing to acknowledge reality if he can do so pseudonymously."  Steve Benen at Maddowblog.


Guns


Nearly half of all of the privately owned guns in the world are owned by Americans.  "In 1994, the United States was home to about 200 million privately owned guns. Today, that number has ballooned to between 270 million and 300 million. That's almost half of all privately owned guns worldwide, according to a new essay from the Brookings Institution."  Matt Berman at the National Journal.

Court victories for gun safety advocates.  "While the Travyon Martin verdict may have created a media feeding frenzy around Florida’s years-old “Stand Your Ground” law, federal courts across the country have handed down three significant decisions this month that have buoyed gun control proponents ... None of these decisions individually represent huge setbacks for opponents of gun control. But, with George Zimmerman’s acquittal and the failure of Congress to pass the Manchin-Toomey background check legislation, they do serve to rebut the prevailing narrative that gun control advocates in the United States are doomed to fail."  Ben Jacobs at the Daily Beast.


Health


Good news.  "The one-year delay in ObamaCare's employer mandate won't have much effect on the law's costs or the number of people it covers, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. The study found that the one-year delay will not result in significantly more people seeking subsidized private coverage through newly created insurance exchanges — a possibility that received immediate attention once the administration announced that it was delaying the employer mandate. In fact, according to the Urban Institute, slightly fewer people would use the exchanges if the Affordable Care Act were implemented without the employer mandate."  Sam Baker at the Hill.

The View vaccine scandal should be a bigger deal.  "Vaccines don’t cause autism. Vaccines ... prevent disease. Vaccines have wiped out a score of formerly deadly childhood diseases. Vaccine skepticism has helped to bring some of those diseases back from near extinction. Children have actually died as a result. Vaccine skepticism isn’t just some 'alternative viewpoint' ... The result has been the recurrence and spread of preventable diseases. It’s incredibly irresponsible for a broadcast television network to think Jenny McCarthy should be on television ... McCarthy is not expressing a disagreeable political position, she is spreading misinformation that has actual, tangible health risks."  Alex Pareene at Salon.


Immigration


Between a rock and a hard place. "Majorities of Americans support the two main pillars of immigration reform — increasing border security and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But partisan, racial and ethnic divisions damp overall public support for a comprehensive reform package, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll ... The findings also underscore how the legislative battle ahead presents House Republicans with the prospect of satisfying the party’s base at a cost of diminishing the party’s prospects of winning future national elections."  Jon Cohen and  Dan Balz at the Washington Post.

Hispanic media knows who to blame if reform goes down in flames.  "'Like it or not, the Hispanic media perceives that approving or rejecting immigration reform is in the hands of John Boehner...' That’s from Jorge Ramos, the ... anchor for Univision who has been described as the 'Walter Cronkite of Hispanic media,' ... Ramos left little doubt that Boehner and fellow House Republicans will get absolutely crucified by the Hispanic media if Republicans fail to support comprehensive reform ... By the way, there’s no dismissing Ramos’s criticism of Boehner as partisanship. He was a relentless critic of Obama during his first term for breaking ... the vow to pursue immigration reform." Greg Sargent at the Plum Line.




IRS


The author of the IRS audit is back to testify in Congress again - this is just one of the questions that he needs to answer. "Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general who wrote the audit on IRS targeting of conservatives ... is returning to testify on Capitol Hill ... at the request of Democrats ... George will face a raft of difficult questions about a number of new revelations ... George asked his top investigator to conduct a review ... the investigator concluded the emails revealed 'no indication that pulling these selected applications was politically motivated,' a fact the investigator termed 'very important.' This was not included in George’s initial audit, Dems noted."  Greg Sargent at the Plum Line.


NSA


Snowden: Naive or liar?  "When Snowden leaked a trove of documents to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, the reporters noted something worrying: 'SPIEGEL has decided not to publish details it has seen about secret operations that could endanger the lives of NSA workers. Nor is it publishing the related internal code words' ... Snowden claims he’s not provided damaging information, while Der Spiegel says he most certainly had but they’re trying to release only what they think probably won’t be damaging. So either Snowden is either lying about the nature of the data he stole or he is dangerously naïve, since a newspaper clearly aghast at those documents nevertheless chose not to publish some."  Joshua Foust.


SCOTUSwatch


California is sending its prison problem back to the Supreme Court.  "Kennedy is in a position to decide ... whether California's overcrowded prisons must release more than 9,000 inmates by the end of this year ... Two years ago Kennedy spoke for a 5-4 majority in upholding one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history, affirming ... the conditions amounted to cruel and unusual punishment ... But Kennedy also said that 'if significant progress is made toward remedying the ... constitutional violations,' that could 'demonstrate that further population reductions are not necessary.' ... Gov. Jerry Brown is now asking ... the high court to block a pending order ... releasing 9,600 more inmates."  David Savage at the LA Times.


Trayvon Martin


Say what you will - 'beyond a reasonable doubt' is a difficult threshold to overcome.  Full stop.  "The verdict in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case can be understood in many ways, but it reflects, at least in part, the immense power of the reasonable-doubt standard. That standard ensures that juries will have to return a verdict of not guilty even if they really believe that the defendant is guilty ... Reasonable doubt is far more difficult to meet than other legal standards, including 'preponderance of the evidence' ... 'clear and convincing evidence' ... and 'substantial evidence' ... A good defense lawyer is often able to obtain an acquittal even if most jurors ... agree with the prosecution’s account."  Cass Sunstein at Bloomberg.

Stand your ground laws are dangerous.  Really, really dangerous.  "Two recent studies find the opposite. Far from deterring homicide, SYG laws increase its incidence. Moreover, the laws have no appreciable deterrent effect on violent crime. Analyzing data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting system, Cheng and Hoekstra find that SYG laws lead to roughly an 8% increase in reported murders and non-negligent manslaughters. McClellan and Terkin find a similar effect on firearm homicides and firearm accidents using monthly data from the CDC ... Rather than increase the costs of violence, SYG laws decrease them by expanding the range of legal defenses available to an attacker."  Anton Strezhnev at the Causal Loop.

Guns matter.  "It is simply far less likely that a Zimmerman equivalent in a state with stricter standards on concealed-carry ... would have been armed ... The differences in state gun laws really do matter at the margins, especially in the realm of concealed carry ... This has implications for those who don’t like the thought of thousands of armed George Zimmermans roaming the land ... We’ve ended up with concealed carry now permitted in all 50 states. By all means, fulminate against racist gunmen or jurors or pundits. But then tune in with your state legislature, too."  Alec Macgillis at the New Republic.

On race and riots.  "Some folks ... have argued that the expectation of riots after the Martin/Zimmerman verdict is racist. No, it is just basic social science ... The basic idea is that when groups are sent signals that the justice system does not work, that the state is a combatant rather than an adjudicator of disputes, then domestic society starts to look a lot like international relations with arms races ... and strange alliances ... It is not racist to think that members of an ethnic group that has repeatedly faced unequal justice ... might engage in some violence in response to a disappointing verdict."  Stephen Saideman at Saideman's Semi-Spew.

Race and the police intersect in some damaging ways - but things are improving, gradually. "One in four black males between the ages of 18 and 34 say they have been treated unfairly by police within the last month. This underscores the complaints of some who are protesting the Zimmerman verdict by arguing that the case and its outcome reflect a pervasive set of discriminatory practices in U.S. law enforcement. The self-reported incidence of such complaints by blacks of all ages is, on the other hand, lower now than it has been in recent years, suggesting some positive change in this ongoing component of U.S. race relations."  Frank Newport at Gallup.





International


Global


The demographic future of the Earth, in nine charts.  Max Fisher at the Washington Post.

Ramadan and the Arctic.  "With the start of Ramadan, Muslims ... began fasting from sunrise to sunset in observance of one of the religions' primary holidays. But what happens in places where the sun never sets because the country is too far north? ... Faced with the impossibility of adhering to the sunrise/sunset rule ... Muslims must find alternative ways of determining when to fast. 'We have a fatwa,' or clerical decree ... 'We can correspond the fast to the closest Islamic country, or we can fast with Mecca.'"  Marya Hannun at the Atlantic.


Africa


Fighting in the Congo, even though the UN is staying out of it.  "Fierce fighting raged for a second day ... between Democratic Republic of Congo's army and M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma, underlining the challenge facing a U.N. Intervention Brigade tasked with bringing peace ... The rebels alarmed the international community in November by seizing Goma, a city of 1 million people on the shore of Lake Kivu, prompting the speedy deployment of the U.N. brigade. The 3,000-strong force drawn from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi has a tough mandate to crush armed groups and end decades of unrest in eastern Congo, but it has yet to enter combat."  Kenny Katombe at Reuters.

The dark cloud in the Arab Spring's point of democratic light.  "While Egypt's revolution devolves into chaos, Tunisia's democratic transition, which until now has been the most promising of any in the Arab world, is also in jeopardy. A bill being pushed by Islamists and their allies in National Constituent Assembly called the 'law for the protection of the revolution' seems in reality designed to protect the ruling Islamist party, Nahda, from having to face real competition in the next elections."  Joshua Muravchik at the LA Times.


Asia


UN arbitration begins on the China-Phillippines South China Sea dispute.  "A United Nations tribunal has been convened in the Netherlands to look into a complaint filed by the Philippines questioning the legality of China’s massive territorial claim in the resource-rich South China Sea ... The progress in the Philippines’s legal challenge against China comes amid increasing animosity between the two Asian neighbors due to their long-standing territorial conflict ... Recently, the conflict was reignited with tense confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in two disputed shoals – Scarborough and Ayungin – off Manila’s western coasts."  Michaella del Callar at GMA News.


Central America


Panama seized a North Korean vessel carrying missile equipment.  "Panama's president says his country has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying 'undeclared military cargo'. President Ricardo Martinelli said the ship, stopped in the Panama Canal as it sailed from Cuba, contained suspected 'sophisticated missile equipment' ... Under United Nations sanctions, North Korea is banned from weapons exports and the import of all but small arms."  BBC.

Caught with their hands in the missile cookie jar.  "Defence consultancy IHS Jane’s has identified the equipment shown in the images so far released as an RSN-75 ‘Fan Song’ fire control radar for the SA-2 family of surface-to-air missiles."  Tom Phillips and Harriet Alexander at the Telegraph.


Europe


Spain's latest corruption scandal.  "Confronted by an intensifying corruption scandal, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain insisted on Monday that he would not yield to 'blackmail' and resign, even as his former party treasurer reportedly acknowledged before a judge that he had made payments for years to Mr. Rajoy and other center-right politicians from a secret party slush fund."  Raphael Minder at the New York Times.


Middle East


Egypt's interim government takes shape and the Islamists are not pleased. "Interim head of state Adli Mansour, the burly judge leading the army-backed administration, swore in 33 mainly liberal and technocratic ministers ... on Tuesday. He did not include a single minister representing either of Egypt's main Islamist groups that have won five straight elections since 2011 ... Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood movement insists he be returned to power before it joins the political process. The Brotherhood rejected the interim government led by Mansour and Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, a veteran liberal economist."  Ulf Laessing and Maggie Fick at Reuters.

There are a ton of terrible Egypt analogies floating around.  You should ignore them all.  "After the January 25 uprising, uninformed observers asked 'Is Turkey the ‘model’ for Egypt?' or 'Will Egypt follow Indonesia’s path?' ... The military’s July 3rd intervention has provided another opportunity to play the Egypt analogy game ... There is no way of knowing for sure what will happen in Egypt. And while comparing and contrasting cases are critical to understanding political phenomena, it is equally important to guard against facile analogy building because someone, somewhere wondered aloud if Egypt is Algeria. It’s not; it is Egypt."  Steven Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Britain to send Syrian rebels protective gear to deal with chemical weapons.  "Britain is to give Syrian rebels equipment to protect themselves against chemical and biological weapons as "a matter of special urgency", saying it would allow them to potentially survive a sarin gas attack. In a written statement to parliament on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would deliver 5,000 escape hoods, nerve-agent pre-treatment tablets and chemical weapons detector paper to the Syrian National Coalition on or after August 3 ... Britain has repeatedly said it believes forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made limited use of chemical weapons, something the Syrian government denies."  Reuters.

US intelligence confirms the third Israeli strike inside Syria.  "The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Israeli jets bombed a Hezbollah weapons depot containing advanced Russian weaponry inside Syria earlier this month ... The DIA used U.S. satellite imagery and other kinds of technical intelligence to determine that Israeli jets firing precision-guided munitions destroyed a Russian shipment of Yakhont anti-ship missiles, according to a U.S. official who had seen the intelligence."  Josh Rogin and Eli Lake at the Daily Beast.



Polisci


Land wars in Asia.  "The poorest, least developed, and least governed ... regions in the world are the most prone to violent conflict right? Perhaps not. 'Asia has by far the highest number of conflicts, and the longest running conflicts,' according to according to a new study of subnational conflict on the continent from the Asia Foundation. The authors ... identified 26 subnational conflicts, ranging from Kashmir to Aceh to southern Thailand, affecting 50 percent of the countries in South and Southeast Asia between 1992 and 2012 ... So what does distinguish conflict-prone areas? The main factors seem to be geographic ... 'Subnational conflicts are primarily found in remote, border regions of the country that are home to ethnic minority populations with a history of autonomous self-governance.'"  Joshua Keating at War of Ideas



Science


AI's are now as smart as four-year-olds.  Get ready.  "Artificial and natural knowledge researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have IQ-tested one of the best available artificial intelligence systems to see how intelligent it really is. Turns out it's about as smart as the average 4-year-old."  Science Daily.

Neptune has a new moon.  "The Hubble Space Telescope‘s keen eye has revealed a previously undetected moon orbiting Neptune. The July 1, 2013 discovery , 24 years after Voyager 2 swung by the icy-blue giant, expands the known retinue of circling moons to 14. Known only by its temporary designation —S/20044 N1—the tiny celestial piece of real estate measures no more than 12 miles (19 kilometers) across and appears to have escaped detection until now because of its extreme faintness and far flung orbit beyond the planet’s ring fragment system known as arcs."  Andrew Fakezas at National Geographic.

The science of pepper spray.  Patrick Di Justo at the New Yorker.



Miscellaneous


The stories that seem too wacky to be true.  "A 61-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Florida woke up in a California hospital in February speaking only Swedish, with no recollection of his past life ... He'd arrived in California from Hong Kong just four days earlier, with ... four forms of identification, all of which listed him as Michael Boatwright from Dade County, Florida. Yet, when the man woke up, he insisted, in Swedish, that his name was Johan Ek ... Doctors eventually diagnosed Boatwright with Transient Global Amnesia ... a disorder characterized by 'sudden and unplanned travel,' memory loss, and the possible adoption of a new identity ... The disorder can last for several months."  Taylor Berman at Gawker.


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