Magazine Wrap-Up

The New Yorker

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt published an article entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." The basis of the article is that US really has no strategic interest in supporting Israel. Obviously it is more in depth than that but the purpose of the paper was to stimulate discussion about the lobbying power of Israel and the foreign policy that the US follows in the Middle East (and whether there is a link). The authors, both respected political scientist, have been labeled anti-Semite in some corners which then usually leads to an end of the discussion which is too bad. It is always easy to fall into the trap that there is this big Israeli conspiracy and that the world is secretly being manipulated. Unfortunately too many people assume that this is partially true which is plain ignorant. My opinion is too much of our foreign policy (and for that matter, most of the current policy, is driven too much by lobbying and money. Is it too much to ask for our elected officials to be honorable and do what's right? Am I just naive to think that this is how it as always been and that the dollars changing hands today is just bigger? The sad part of it all is that foreign policy decisions, if they are being swayed by lobbying, are causing deaths to American soldiers and disgrace to our country. I would appreciate a healthy dialogue regardless of labels and I applaud Mearsheimer and Walt for at least trying. Our Middle East policy is in tatters as it is, it would be nice to know that policy is being laid out to benefit our country and ultimately the world.

David Owen puts together a nice article on light pollution. Being a fan of the night sky and seeing the sky from atop Mt Kilimanjaro, I can attest that there is a lot that we don't see! There is a group, International Dark-Sky Association, whose goal is to reduce the night, light signature. I have always thought that the incessant need to put up street lights and light everything up is silly and expensive. Image how much towns could save by making it dark again? The article moved beyond the night sky and launched into a discussion on circadian rhythms. Pervasive artificial illumination has begun to possibly interfere with our biological machinery. One such link is cancer, specifically breast cancer in women in the industrialized world. A researcher on a whim studied the link of nighttime employment and found a strong association between working at night and an increased risk of cancer. In addition migrating birds can be fooled by artificial lights. Finally the need for lighting is supposedly to deter thieves but because of the common place night time light criminals really don't stand out and basically fade into the background. Know imagine if it was dark a flashlight was needed? Interesting article.

Wired

On to a later topic: Standards as in what makes a kilogram, a meter, or a second? Well Wired is telling us:

Kilogram: 215 x 10^23 silicon atoms
Meter: Distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 seconds
Second: The time it takes for cesium-133 atom to cycle 9,192,631,770 times between to specific quantum states