Friday Delights #11
Counting Votes
Nevada is taking ages to report the official vote counts, which led to two things. The creation of a million memes on the subject and many people asking the same question: How are votes in the US counted anyway? What is the (ancient) technology used in the counting process and what are some of the biggest problems that arise from relying on machines to do the work for us?
America’s Reset
Trump is on the verge of losing the 2020 election. What does that mean? As Jonathan Pie points out, the Democrats stand only against Trump, but not really for anything. There seems to be a deeper problem in American politics. The left is weak and the right has shown that they are willing to look the other way while Trump wreaks havoc. Has anyone really learned anything from the past 4 years?
US-China Relations
The net result of Trump’s trade war with China is still up for debate. Whether or not that policy will change in the next presidential term is also unclear. One thing, however, seems to be obvious — communication between the two superpowers is more important than ever. China is catching up in most fields and this creates tensions that need to be resolved, preferably without a nuclear war devastating the planet. How is that done and what are the key questions? Lyu Jinghua, a visiting scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. tries to give some clarity on the issue.
Belfast In the 1970s
I’ve been learning more and more lately about The Troubles and what was essentially a civil war that happened less than 50 years ago. It is crazy how little is known about it outside of the UK. What is even crazier is how violent that period was, with some areas seeing almost daily battles. West Belfast, known as the Wild West was a particularly dangerous area, one where police officer’s duty resembled more that of soldiers than protectors of the law.
Blackholes and Information
Physics is fascinating to me. I see it as a relentless search to uncover the workings of our world and I try to follow the progress as much as possible, although a lot of times I don’t get anything from what I read. One of the biggest puzzles in current physics seems to be “how do black holes operate”? They were predicted by Einstein’s theory a long time ago but it took people a while to actually find one in the real world. Then Stephen Hawking came along and shed some light on how those objects radiate energy. But a key question remained — if matter can never escape a black hole, is information about it lost forever? The answer seems to be no, and now physicists are closer than ever to actually proving it.
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Today’s bonus video is about Kirkegaard and how his doubt led him on his journey to becoming a philosopher
