Skip to main content

Iron Dome: the Public Relations Weapon

John Mecklin Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
We can tell, for sure, from video images and even photographs that the Iron Dome system is not working very well at all. It hits a targeted missile maybe 5 percent of the time—could be even lower. ... Meanwhile, the Israeli government presents Iron Dome's performance as part of a sophisticated public relations effort.

Supercharging Brown Fat to Battle Obesity

Melinda Wenner Moyer Scientific American
There is no doubt that an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle are the two chief drivers of the obesity epidemic, but many researchers are confident that they will eventually hit on specific brown fat–based treatments, although most admit that such interventions most likely are 10 years away at least.

A New Gameplan for Taking Down Privatizers

Sam Pizzigati Inequality
The outsourcing of public services to private go-getters has concentrated wealth the whole world over. The best answer to that concentration? That just may be new forms of public ownership.

Uruguay's David and Goliath Fight With the Tobacco Industry

Simeon Tegel Global Post
Smoking is on course to kill up to 1 billion worldwide this century, most in poor nations. Uruguay, which has highest proportion of smokers in Latin America, is locked in what Uruguayan President Jose Mujica calls a "fight for life" with the Philip Morris conglomerate to reduce the toll smoking is having on his people. Lung cancer is the leading killer of men in Uruguay, and if trends continue, it will soon be the leading killer of women as well.

Saudi Arabia's Role in the Conflict Between Shia and Sunni

Patrick Cockburn CounterPunch
The U.S. and its Western allies have turned a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's longstanding and substantial support for the most extreme elements of the Sunni opposition in both Syria and Iraq. Support from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States has fueled the rise of the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), fostered anti-Shia extremism, and encouraged the suppression of the moderate Sunni opposition to the al-Maliki and al-Assad regimes .

Fifty Years of Get-Tough

Alex Elkins Urban History Association
Remembering Harlem and the Urban Street Justice of the 1960s Riots

Our Wretched Jewish State

Gideon Levy Haaretz
Now we know: In the Jewish state, there is pity and humane feelings only for Jews, rights only for the Chosen People. The Jewish state is only for Jews.