April 15, 2017

except in the case of Iran

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 "calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."

So no, Iran is not free to do as it pleases.

http://www.un.org/en/sc/2231/restrictions-ballistic.shtml

April 15, 2017

The juju king

April 14, 2017

12 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms

English has changed a lot in the last several hundred years, and there are many words once used that we would no longer recognize today. For whatever reason, we started pronouncing them differently, or stopped using them entirely, and they became obsolete. There are some old words, however, that are nearly obsolete, but we still recognize because they were lucky enough to get stuck in set phrases that have lasted across the centuries. Here are 12 lucky words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms.

1. wend

You rarely see a "wend" without a "way." You can wend your way through a crowd or down a hill, but no one wends to bed or to school. However, there was a time when English speakers would wend to all kinds of places. "Wend" was just another word for "go" in Old English. The past tense of "wend" was "went" and the past tense of "go" was "gaed." People used both until the 15th century, when "go" became the preferred verb, except in the past tense where "went" hung on, leaving us with an outrageously irregular verb.

2. deserts

The "desert" from the phrase "just deserts" is not the dry and sandy kind, nor the sweet post-dinner kind. It comes from an Old French word for "deserve," and it was used in English from the 13th century to mean "that which is deserved." When you get your just deserts, you get your due. In some cases, that may mean you also get dessert, a word that comes from a later French borrowing.

3. eke

If we see "eke" at all these days, it's when we "eke out" a living, but it comes from an old verb meaning to add, supplement, or grow. It's the same word that gave us "eke-name" for "additional name," which later, through misanalysis of "an eke-name" became "nickname."

4. sleight

"Sleight of hand" is one tricky phrase. "Sleight" is often miswritten as "slight" and for good reason. Not only does the expression convey an image of light, nimble fingers, which fits well with the smallness implied by "slight," but an alternate expression for the concept is "legerdemain," from the French léger de main," literally, "light of hand." "Sleight" comes from a different source, a Middle English word meaning "cunning" or "trickery." It's a wily little word that lives up to its name.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/51150/12-old-words-survived-getting-fossilized-idioms

April 14, 2017

Lost Weather Balloon GoPro Found Two Years Later with Astounding Shots of Earth from Space

This is from a couple years ago:

Back in June 2013, five friends in Arizona decided to capture some footage of space by sending a GoPro, camcorder, and phone up in a weather balloon. The team–consisting of college students Bryan Chan, Ved Chirayath, Ashish Goel, Paul Tarantino, and Tyler Reid–built their device, calculated its trajectory, registered with the FAA to avoid interfering with passing aircrafts, and finally launched the balloon in the desert a few miles outside of Tuba City. The friends planned to track the balloon's progress using GPS on the attached smartphone, but they soon lost contact with the locator after the device floated out of cell phone tower range.

For months, the group wondered if they would ever get their balloon and cameras back. In reality, it would take two whole years for them to see the results of their project again. This summer, they received a call from an unknown number–a hiker in Arizona had found a strange box with their names on it 50 miles away from their original launch point. Reunited with their equipment, the team could finally see the extraordinary video and photos that the cameras had taken–including a gorgeous “money shot” of the Grand Canyon captured from the stratosphere (above). The group of friends also had a chance to parse the data from their device, and they learned that the balloon had reached an altitude of 98,664 feet, with a total flight time of 1 hour and 38 minutes.




http://mymodernmet.com/lost-weather-balloon-captures-grand-canyon-shot/

April 6, 2017

Hamas hangs 3 accused of collaborating with Israel in killing of commander

Hamas hanged three men in Gaza accused of “collaborating” with Israel.

The death sentence was carried out Thursday by the terror organization that controls the coastal strip.

The men were accused of being involved in giving information to Israeli military intelligence to aid in the assassination of a top Hamas commander, Mazen Fuqaha, late last month in Gaza, which Hamas blames on Israel. Israel has neither affirmed nor denied involvement in the killing.

The men, aged 32, 42 and 55, were charged with providing information on the location of Hamas operatives and military sites over the past three decades. Hamas said they were allowed to defend themselves as provided under Sharia law.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the executions and said they were illegal because Hamas did not get the permission to execute from P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas.

http://www.jta.org/2017/04/06/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/hamas-hangs-3-accused-of-collaborating-with-israel-in-killing-of-commander