Obama's November Surprise; Victory or a Syrian Bust; The Selfie Statue; Fish Know Faces; and Robobee

Israel

[OPINION] Obama’s November surprise for Israel? jpost

Word is going around in diplomatic circles that the Obama administration is planning a November surprise for Israel. Here’s what is said to be going on.

Israeli officials and Jewish communal leaders have told me that they expect that the Obama administration will not veto the [(possible United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Israel)] at the UNSC. Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, will not exercise the American veto.

Syria

Assad vows to fight on, says Aleppo to be Erdogan's graveyard in.reuters

"Our war against terrorism is continuing," Assad said in a speech to parliament broadcast by state TV. "As we liberated Tadmur (Palmyra) and before it many areas, we will liberate every inch of Syria from their hands. Our only option is victory, otherwise Syria will not continue."

Society

Sugar Land Immortalized The Act Of Taking A Selfie With Public Art Installation keranews.org

Despite the statue reflecting an “activity common in the plaza,” locals have not held back on criticism via social media. Some think it's embarrassing and unrepresentative of the town. Others believe it would capture a popular pastime. And, according to Texas Monthly: “‘Ehh,’ one person commented. ‘At least it’s not a Confederate statue.’”

Creatures

[Archer] Fish can recognize human faces, new study shows phys.org v

In the study, archerfish...were presented with two images of human faces and trained to choose one of them using their jets. The fish were then presented with the learned face and a series of new faces and were able to correctly choose the face they had initially learned to recognize. They were able to do this task even when more obvious features, such as head shape and colour, were removed from the images.

Robotics

Harvard's Robotic Bee Is Scary Lifelike (With a Few Important Exceptions) gizmodo v

Researchers at Harvard and MIT have spent the last seven years perfecting this robotic bee. The result is Robobee, a mechanical bee so lifelike it kind of makes you want to duck indoors.