The organizers of the white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville last month knew just what they were doing when they decided to carry torches on their nocturnal march to protest the dethroning of a statue of Robert E. Lee. That brandishing of fire in the night was meant to evoke memories of terror, of past parades…
Analysts of world affairs tend to fall into certain traps concerning the motivations and behavior of political actors. We consistently look at politicians’ electoral support, states’ access to resources, lines of offense or defense, traditional alliances and enmities, the profits of empowered interests, geography, demography, and many other objective factors. But the subjective ideological, spiritual,…
Scientists studying the exoplanet WASP-12b have made a startling discovery: the planet is so hot it reflects almost no light, making it appear pitch-black. An international team of astronomers from McGill University, Canada and the University of Exeter, UK measured how much light is reflected by the exoplanet, otherwise known as its ‘albedo,’ in order…
