In the information age we are inundated by news and trivia, Don’t Blink is a regular featured designed to hilight a whole bunch of stories you may have missed in a relatively small amount of space.
In Canada, Stephen Harper continued to isolate us from the rest of the world by endorsing Israeli settlements, refusing to hold Israel’s nuclear program to the same standard as Iran’s and threatening to cut off humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Given Harper’s evangelical faith though, this is likely motivated more by a delusional cultish obsession with Biblical prophecy than out and out racism. Canadians, meanwhile, are feeling less content with the way democracy is working for them.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Time magazine has finally noticed that the Republican Party is full of shit, Romney’s advisors have admitted that he is full of shit, Republicans are starting to think that maybe Grover Norquist is full of shit, but they are all afraid to tell him so and Republican voters think Acorn stole the election, despite the fact that Acorn folded in 2010. Regardless of who is full of shit, Wall Street no longer cares now that they have all the money. Also in the U.S., the Senate decided that disabled people (other than those in the US) should not be protected and the big Hollywood studios got mad at Google for infringing on their copyright by linking to their official sites.
In the rest of the world, the UN Secretary General says that extreme weather is the new normal, Europe wanted to reduce airline emissions but the United States said no. Qatar wants to build the world’s largest solar plant, Iran has captured another US drone, Palestinians are still happy, Egyptians are not, and Libyans who helped liberate their country, are being forced to flee. In Turkey mustache implants are all the rage, in Russia political prisoners who are not pussy riot need help too. In Indonesia, people want a 40 year old public official who divorced his 17 year old bride via text message to leave office. UK officials think maybe (very) profitable companies should pay taxes and Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch would like the phone hacking charges dismissed on a technicality.
In science news, science is still sexist. NASA has broken the big news that the Mars Rover found … ammonia. Meanwhile, the 35 year old Voyager 1 probe found a magnetic highway at the edge of the solar system. In other space news, Mercury has ice and NASA is officially planning the next Mars rover. Popular Science has posted instructions for an unmanned, deep water sub that you can build for $500, ‘near death experiences’ have been explained away by science, and someone has finally come right out and asked “Is Earth Fucked ?”
In more fun news, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is working on a western, the BBC is creating a drama based on JK Rowling’s first book for grown ups, Orson Welles’ ‘the Stranger’ is free online and io9 tells you how to sound like Darth Vader.