Society
Constitution Check: Does the First Amendment protect a wedding cake as an art form? blog.constitutioncenter.org
Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Center’s constitutional literacy adviser, looks at a potential Supreme Court test case about religious beliefs, same-sex marriage and a Colorado bakeshop.
Also see Masterpiece Cakeshop petition to the Supreme Court adflegal pdf
Environment
Forget Tornadoes. Rain Bombs Are Coming for Your Town bloomberg w!
The phenomenon is known in meteorology circles as the more sober “wet microburst.” They are supposed to happen rarely; conditions must be just right. A thunderstorm runs into a dry patch of air that sucks some moisture away. The air underneath the storm cloud cools, making it more dense than the air around it. The cooler air begins to drop into even warmer air and then accelerates. When the faucet really flips on, air can blast out of the sky at more than 115 miles per hour. It deflects off the ground and pushes winds outward, at or near tornado strength. The Phoenix event ... was actually a “macroburst,” with a radar footprint wider than about 2.5 miles, said Amber Sullins, chief meteorologist at ABC-15 News.
Ignoring the unfounded climate change assertions, quite interesting...
Last month, at least 23 people died in West Virginia flooding. At its peak on June 23, more than 8 inches to 10 inches fell within half a day—a once-every-1,000 years rain storm. Maelstroms in May and early June dropped five times as much rain as normal near Houston, seriously challenging the definition of normal. More than a dozen people died. It was the city's fifth major flood in just over a year. (Rainfall is trending higher nationally, though paving over much of Texas probably doesn't help.)
It’s so hot that horse manure spontaneously caught fire in upstate New York washingtonpost
Broadly speaking, fire needs only three ingredients: heat, oxygen and fuel. If the conditions are right, a spark is optional. The process of spontaneous combustion hinges on what some scientists call auto- or runaway ignition. Once temperatures within a heap of organic matter — energy-rich fuel — hit about 300 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, they can catch flame.
Earth
Australia's latitude and longitude coordinates out by more than 1.5 metres, scientists say abc.net.au
The continent is moving north by about 7 centimetres each year, colliding with the Pacific Plate, which is moving west about 11 centimetres each year.
See also Is plate tectonics occurring today? creations
Creatures
Dragon Ants Are Coming: New 'Game of Thrones' Species Identified biosciencetechnology
New ant species that appear dragon-like due to their large and distinctive spines were recently found in the tropical rainforests of Papua New Guinea. Although they lack fire-breathing capabilities, the unique, spiny characteristics of the ants reminded the scientists who discovered them of the mythical dragons from the fantasy series and inspired them to name the ants after the 'Game of Thrones' dragons.
North Korea
5 points from AP interview with N. Korean diplomat washingtonpost
Han Song Ryol, director-general of the U.S. affairs department at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, emphasized the authoritarian country’s anger over Washington’s July 6 announcement putting leader Kim Jong Un on a list of sanctioned individuals in connection with alleged human rights abuses documented by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Pyongyang denies the allegations.
Russia-China
China, Russia Plan Joint Military Drills in South China Sea military
The air and sea drills will be held sometime in September and were aimed at deepening relations between the two militaries and boosting their capacity to respond to maritime threats, ministry spokesman Col. Yang Yujun said at a monthly news briefing.
Turkey
Widening Turkey Purges Sweep Up U.S. Contacts, Officials Say bloomberg
“Many of our interlocutors dictionary have been purged or arrested,” said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, also speaking at the annual forum. “There’s no question this is going to set back and make more difficult cooperation with the Turks" when it comes to intelligence, especially in counterterrorism, he added.
Turkey coup: Lib Dems urge Nato suspension after press crackdown bbc
"If the UK and our Nato allies want to protect these core principles, it is time to make it clear to Erdogan that his actions will have lasting international consequences, and I am calling on Nato to urgently consider suspension of Turkey's membership."
Israel
[OPINION, Caroline Glick] Time to walk away from US aid jpost
On Monday, acting head of the National Security Council jewishvirtuallibrary.org Yaakov Nagel will sit down with his US counterpart, Susan Rice, and try to conclude negotiations about a new, multi-year defense assistance package. We must all hope that he fails.
Also see US, Israel close to deal on biggest military aid package ever stripes
Military
U.S. Military to Return 17% of Okinawan Land Holdings to Japan bloomberg
The move could help weaken opposition to the U.S. presence on the island, especially after recent incidents such as the arrest of a U.S. citizen working at a military base in connection with the death of a Japanese woman. That event led Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to lodge a direct protest with President Barack Obama.
Navy to Name Ship After Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk news.usni.org
The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.
Space
Happy 58th Birthday, NASA! blog.constitutioncenter.org
It’s ... hard to imagine in today’s world of partisan gridlock that the executive and legislative branches created by the Founders could create a major government agency in little less than one year’s time.
Censorship
Yahoo's anti-abuse AI can hunt out even the most devious online trolls wired.co.uk
Yahoo has created an abuse-detecting algorithm that can accurately identify whether online comments contain hate speech or not. In 90 per cent of test cases Yahoo's algorithm was able to correctly identify that a comment was abusive – a level of accuracy that the study claims outperforms other "state-of-the-art" deep learning approaches.
Crime Tech
Police cloned a Michigan murder victim’s fingerprint that unlocked his phone quartz
Officers from the digital forensics and cyber-crime unit at MSU’s police department approached the college’s biometrics research lab last month, having become aware of the team’s research (pdf) on how printed fingerprints can spoof mobile-phone sensors.
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