Fusion Advance Demonstrates Value of Long-Haul Energy Research →

A paper published in Nature this week resoundingly demonstrates the value of keeping it up, describing an important, if still incremental, advance. The paper, “Fuel gain exceeding unity in an inertially confined fusion implosion,” is deconstructed by Ken Chang and Bill Broad in a nice, if quirkily titled, article in The Times: “Giant Laser Complex Makes Fusion Advance, Finally.”

Nuclear has its issues (e.g., catastrophes), but the dread-to-risk ratio is wildly high, thanks in no small part to an incredible amount of misinformation. The future of energy consumption is unknown, because the issues are so complex. I'd love to see safe, clean renewables eat everything's lunch, but that's not likely to happen (though, again, let's try), so we should be exploring every alternative to finite, relatively highly pollutive, relatively highly dangerous fossil fuels.

Maduro's biggest threat comes from within the Chavistas →

While many media are focused on the government vs opposition battle, realize that one of the biggest issues continues to be the battle for control inside the government. Maduro's biggest threat does not come from the opposition but remains internal to the PSUV. The protests, along with deteriorating economic and security conditions, expose his poor leadership and make Chavistas wonder whether he is the correct person to be leading the country.

Who could replace him? Maduro isn't sure...

Political Scientists Are Targets in Egypt’s Crackdown on Islamists →

...Among the specific charges against the professor are espionage, leading an illegal organization, providing a banned organization with information and financial support, calling for the suspension of the constitution, preventing state institutions and authorities from performing their functions, harming national unity and social harmony, and trying to change the government by force.

"It was a shock. I never thought they would go this far, to this level of fabrication," Mr. Shahin told The Chronicle from the United States, where he was attending a conference when news of the charges became public, in late January...

Swiss Voters Narrowly Approve Curbs on Immigration →

I've been considering the Swiss situation a useful barometer on "foreign sentiment" in Europe. Now we get this. Could be worse.

A narrow majority of voters in Switzerland approved proposals on Sunday that would reintroduce restrictions on the number of foreigners who are allowed to live and work in the country...

Why Does America Send So Many Stupid, Unqualified Hacks Overseas? →

I'm laughing on the outside, but I'm crying on the inside...

... For the purposes of comparison, Norway’s ambassador to the Washington is a 31-year Foreign Ministry veteran. Hungary’s ambassador is an economist who worked at the International Monetary Fund for 27 years.

The resumé imbalance, of course, owes to a simple fact: The United States is the only industrialized country to award diplomatic posts as political spoils, often to wealthy campaign contributors in an outmoded system that rivals the patronage practices of banana republics, dictatorships and two-bit monarchies...

Ukraine and the United States →

No easy outs. Not that there ever are.

Most of the press and punditry comment on the protests that have erupted in Kyiv since President Yanukovych refused to sign the EU association agreement in Vilnius have pictured the struggle as one that will determine the future of Ukraine. If Ukraine begins to meet the EU terms it will become a prosperous, democratic “Western” country. If, on the other hand, it accepts a loan and cheap gas from Russia, it will be a Russian vassal with no real independence. All sides to this turmoil seem to assume that this is the choice being made. I think they are all wrong.

Whose Turkey Is It? →

Fascinating look at the political situation in Turkey, covering a bit of recent history.

Over the last decade, Erdogan has made himself the most powerful prime minister in Turkey’s history, the most successful elected leader in the Middle East and the West’s great hope for the Muslim world. In the last year, however, a thoroughly different Erdogan has emerged: a symbol of authoritarianism, corruption and police brutality whose once-populist rhetoric has turned into thundering rage. The Gezi Park protests last spring challenged the enduring dysfunctions of the Turkish state — mainly disregard for the rule of law — as well as the dubious economic policies of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P. What followed was worse for Erdogan. In December, extensive accusations of corruption were leveled at him by followers of an Islamic movement that propelled him and the A.K.P. to power. The threat to Erdogan posed by the Gezi Park protests has been largely photogenic, but the challenge raised by the corruption charges is existential.

Yemen's dream of a civil society suffocated by religion and tribalism →

The conference was a big part of a deal brokered by the UN and the gulf cooperation council that ushered in a transitional period after Saleh give up power to his then unknown deputy, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who later was voted in as interim president, being the sole candidate in the election.

Under the terms of the transition, ministerial posts were apportioned between the opposition and ruling party, and the army, which, dominated by Saleh's relatives, was given a facelift with a purge of some commanders.

Chaperoned by the UN envoy Jamal Benomar, the national dialogue conference was supposed to address all the problems of Yemen and prepare for a new constitution and free elections.

But instead the dialogue, dominated from the start by the old traditional powers, finally concluded four months late on Saturday, its final act the publication of a report with about 1,400 recommendations which have extended the transitional period and allowed an extra year to draft a charter and vote on it.