Category: Uncategorized
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Israeli Attack Hit Iranian Nuclear Site
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Axios reports that the Israeli attack on Iran in late October hit a secret site that was doing research on plastic explosives needed to set off a nuclear weapon. Axios says that because this was a secret facility, Iran did not acknowledge it was hit, but the strike was also…
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North Korea Tests Big Missile
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According to NBC news on October 31 North Korea launched an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States. This test went higher than previous tests but it does not appear that it was a significant advance beyond previous tests, although it may have used a new solid…
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Antony Blinken’s Tour as Secretary of State
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Wired magazine has published an evaluation of Antony Blinen’s tenure as Secretary of State. It says: Blinken, 62, once thought he might become a musician—or maybe, even less lucratively, a journalist. Instead he has spent virtually his entire career in the Washington foreign policy establishment, which is something of a family…
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State Department Tech Training
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Wired magazine reported on the State Department’s training for diplomats who will specialize in cyber issues in Washington and at embassies abroad. The training will be done at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, where the State Department has trained Foreign Service officers in foreign languages, culture and other…
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Information Tech at the State Department
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The Federal News Network reports on how the State Department is filling it information technology positions. It says: The Foreign Affairs IT fellowship, it’s been around since 2017. And it’s a merit and needs based program, and it’s designed to attract outstanding students and professionals to prepare them for a…
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It’s Hard to Make Hydrogen Power Green
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The Washington Post reported on a new company dedicated to making hydroget for the green economy. It doesn’t work yet, and I think it will be very expensive, therefore limiting hydrogen to those uses that must have thermal energy, as opposed to electrical energy. The plant separates water (H2O) into…
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Judges Run America
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Here are three New York Times headlines on one random day in America, Auguar 26, 2024. What happened to the legislative and executive branches: How a Federal Court in New Orleans Is Driving the Conservative Agenda Today, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is an outlier. But a Trump…
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Palantir Defending the US
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This Washington Post article by Maureen Dowd tells the fascinating story of Alex Karp, the founder and leader of Palantir Technologies. It is applying high tech methods of intelligence gathering and analysis to US national security. Karp tells Dowd, ““I’m a Jewish, racially ambiguous dyslexic, so I can say anything.”…
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Sao Paulo Copes with Rainfall
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According to Bloomberg: Well before it became Brazil’s financial capital, São Paulo was known as terra da garoa, or the land of drizzle. An explosion of concrete and people in the second half of the 20th century—residents now total about 12 million—raised urban temperatures, and as the atmosphere has warmed, a…
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100 Trying Years for the Foreign Service
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The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune reviewed Harry Kopp’s book,The Voice of the Foreign Service: A History of the American Foreign Service Association at 100, on the history of the Foreign Service, The review said: The origins of the State Department were inauspicious. Headed by Thomas Jefferson, it comprised a small diplomatic…