Jews today face hostility “unparalleled since the dark ages of the Second World War,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) at a hearing yesterday on rising European anti-Semitism. According to the Religion News Service, Smith called the hearing to investigate and discuss recent anti-Semitic crimes in Europe.We’re glad the US government is finally taking serious notice of European anti-Semitism, which, following a […]

If Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is disappointed that Obama’s didn’t give his full-throated support to Japan’s claim on disputed islands in the East China Sea, he’s not showing it. In a rousing speech in Parliament that drew cheers from other lawmakers today, Abe cast himself in the role of Margaret Thatcher—the Iron Lady—and vowed that a […]

I saw Argo a few weeks before the Oscars, and I liked about 99 and 44/100 of it. Once the plot action starts, the tone, images, language and emotional pitch of the main characters all seem high-quality replicas of historical reality. Not that I have any expertise in making or evaluating film as an art […]

A comprehensive new study indicates that the shale gas boom will continue for decades and plateau in 2040. The study, conducted by the University of Texas, looked at 15,000 wells drilled in the Barnett Shale formation. The Wall Street Journal reports: Looking at data from actual wells rather than relying on estimates and extrapolations, the study […]

While teaching cursive is making a comeback in some school curricula, another group is pushing for making something very different a basic part of elementary education. Code.org, a non-profit organization, argues that public educators should teach all children the basics of programming, and they’re offering to help them acquire the tools to do it. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, […]

Regular readers of Via Meadia know the stress we place on the technology that is going to upend the health care industry in productive ways. It looks like other media outlets are starting to realize it too. Megan Graber at the Atlantic published a piece today on a new iPhone analysis app that allows ordinary Americans to […]

It has come to light in recent days that alongside French and other African troops fighting in Mali are both Chadians and, more important, cadres of the MNLA—the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. The few media expressions of this latter datum generally dump this key piece of information far down in their articles. […]

Good news from Burma: the ethnic Mon minority rallied on Tuesday without any of the violent pushback from the central authorities that characterized similar expressions of democracy in the old days. The Irawaddy magazine reports: Thousands of ethnic Mon from southeastern Burma celebrated the 66th Mon National Day on Tuesday with traditional Mon ceremonies, entertainment and […]

Emilio Lozoya, the CEO of Pemex, isn’t hiding his enthusiasm for the future of the Mexican state-owned oil company. Lozoya gloated recently over a report that named Mexico the “new Middle East”. The Financial Times reports: “You will have industrialisation in Mexico that didn’t exist before,” Mr Lozoya, chief executive of Pemex, the state-owned oil company, […]

Meet the Urbee 2, a car that was printed from the ground up: [Jim Kor’s] creation is called the Urbee 2 and it could revolutionize parts manufacturing while creating a cottage industry of small-batch automakers intent on challenging the status quo.Urbee’s approach to maximum miles per gallon starts with lightweight construction—something that 3-D printing is […]