King of the Hill

Today's power pyramid in Israel is a little strange. There is the prime minister, who has all the power, and there is the President, who has no power. What is he good for then? A lot!

For some dark and deep reasons, the most ranked (but not the most powerful!) men in (any) country automatically become target for cult of personality. People like to have someone to look up to. Especially if the position was obtained through some obscure rules, rather then elections. Mystery. Almost divine intervention.

When the most ranked man is also the most powerful, problems emerge. Power + Cult of Personality = Dictatorship. USA for example is always sitting right on the edge of that cliff. If not for centuries strong democratic traditions, and "no third term" rule, money with face of Bill Clinton would be the least of our concern right now. Still shadows of president clans hunt American politics. Kennedy's clan. Bush's clan. Clinton's... wife. And so on.

Other countries fall right down the cliff on the very first step. Russia is a great example of how the most ranked/powerful man amplifies his cult of personality to stay in power. That would be difficult if Putin was a mere prime-minister with a powerless president looking over his shoulder.

In Israel President dodges the bullet of cult of personality for the prime minister, and the fact that he is powerless is the best invention of Israeli system, and the best obstacle against people that want to stay in power longer then they should.

Speed Bumps

So, according to some British scientists, light does go slower then light. Sort of. They say they detected that light slows down a bit, after a while. Of course, this will not remove any paradoxes, only add some. After all, the slowing, as I understand, must be relative to the light speed, not me and you. Hum.

I wonder if it is possible that other constants steer of their course. For example Pi or e. Say, at some point, integral of e^n will no longer be equal to itself + C. Or equation who's only imprecision is Pi would be less exact with respect to what it tries to describe, then the precision of Pi itself.

And maybe light doesn't slows down after all.

"Will Aim For Money"

I have an idea. Someone should pass a law banning people from working as full time journalists, writers and poets.

Take science for example. Scientist does some experiments or computations, and writes a paper. That paper will be published (if it is good) because it is written by a professional in what the paper is about, not by a professional in writing a "paper". If that same person was spending most of his day writing something, he wouldn't be called a scientist, but a charlatan, a daydreamer, a profane... Unless he gets paid. Then he becomes a writer.

I say something smells here. Writers that know how to write but have no idea about things they are writing are like mercenaries - they shoot for fun, but aim for money.

All we need is people who actually know something from their professional experience (be it politics, travels, whatever). Not everybody, just the tiny percentage that has the talent. Then we will have much fewer books and newspapers. Much fewer useless books and newspapers.

And they will be worth reading.