BBC4 A Point of View: The Real Meaning of Trump

John Gray assesses what lies behind the Trump phenomenon and the remarkable political upheaval that could - possibly - see Donald Trump propelled into the White House.

From the start, he says, Trump's campaign has been an audacious experiment in mass persuasion. "His uncouth language, megalomaniac self-admiration and strangely coloured hair....all deliberately cultivated" to help him profit from the popular resentment against the elites of the main parties.

"Whatever happens", writes Gray, "there will be no return to pre-Trump normalcy".

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The Telegraph: Four Mexican priests ‘outed’ by gay marriage activists

A day before a large anti-gay marriage march, they released the names of four priests they claim are in gay relationships, outing them to the whole country.

“Everyone deserves the right to be in the closet,” says Cristian Galarza, an organiser for the National Pride Front, an LGBT rights group. “But when you come out and condemn homosexuality, condemn gay marriage, and try to influence a secular state, you’ve lost the right to the closet.”

Mr Galarza says the Catholic church has improper influence in public policy and is subtly leading a backlash against the LGBT community. But at a time when LGBT rights are facing more opposition from “pro-family” groups, the controversial decision to out priests is dividing activists.

“They can spin it anyway they want, but they're ultimately using someone's sexual orientation as a tool against that person, which is exactly what the LGBT movement is not about,” says Enrique Torre Molina, the campaigns manager for LGBT rights group All Out. “If anyone knows how tough it can be to have your sexual orientation used against you, it is a gay or lesbian person.” [...]

“They say people like us can’t form a family,” says Alison Crash, who lives on the outskirts of Mexico City. “A family is based on love and it can be made up of any combination of genders.”

The legislation would directly impact her. She is a lesbian and her partner Nicole Solis is a transgender woman. They are exploring in vitro fertilisation to start a family, but if that doesn’t work, they would hope to adopt a child, which isn’t legal outside of Mexico City. 

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Deutsche Welle: Linguists seek to preserve endangered regional German dialects

One recurring assertion in the debates about refugees in Germany has been the demand that migrants have to be fluent in German in order to integrate into, and function within, the society. Standard or High German is what's meant. But amidst the drive to get everyone who lives in Germany speaking "Hochdeutsch," others are concerned with preserving the many diverse regional dialects inside and outside the country.

On Wednesday, September 28, the University of Erlangen is to host a four-day conference devoted to German dialects. Organizers say fewer and fewer Germans speak dialects, and many of those have lost some of their local color. [...]

The original Low German dialects of the Ruhr Valley, for instance, died out when the region was industrialized, with a large number of non-speakers moving there. And school authorities in Hamburg once estimated that the speakers of traditional northern variant of Low German declined from 29 to 10 between 1984 and 2007.

Currently, UNESCO considers seven dialects, including Bavarian, to be "vulnerable." Four, including Yiddish, are deemed "definitely endangered," and two (Saterlandic and North Frisian) "critically endangered."[...]

Dialects are a major part of this linguistic diversity. Distinctions between dialects and languages often have more to do with political expediency than with any objective differences. Northern German Frisian, for instance, differs more from Bavarian in southern Germany than Spanish does from Portugese - even thought the former pair are considered dialects and the latter as two separate languages.

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Fortune: Someone is Testing Methods for Taking Down the Entire Internet

Earlier this month, security expert Bruce Shneier revealed that companies responsible for the basic infrastructure of the Internet are experiencing an escalating series of coordinated attacks that appear designed to test the defenses of its most critical elements. He says that, based on the scale of the attacks, the most likely culprit is a large state cyberwarfare unit, with China at the top of the list of suspects.

The ultimate goal of the efforts could include a “global blackout of all websites and e-mail addresses in the most common top-level domains.” [...]

Also notable, as pointed out by Graham Templeton at ExtremeTech, is that both China and Russia have made significant strides in building systems that would resist any such mass takedown. Templeton also suggests that these tests were “meant to be seen,” for much the same reason that nations in the past have made their nuclear weapons and missile tests highly visible—as a means of flexing global power by demonstrating the ability to blow it all up.

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Salon: High Times: Vertical farming is on the rise — but can it save the planet?

The basic idea is not new. For centuries, indigenous people in South America pioneered layered farming techniques, and the term “vertical farming” was coined by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey in 1915. But the need for its large-scale implementation has never been greater. Under our current system, U.S. retail food prices are rising faster than inflation rates, and the number of “food insecure” people in the country — those without reliable access to affordable, nutritious options — is greater than it was before the era of agricultural industrialization began in the 1960s. And we’re only looking at more mouths to feed; according to the UN, the world’s population will skyrocket to 9.7 billion by 2050, an increase of more than 2.5 billion people.

Additionally, climate change is threatening the sustainability of our current food production system. Rising temperatures will reduce crop yields, while creating ideal conditions for weeds, pests and fungi to thrive. More frequent floods and droughts are expected, and decreases in the water supply will result in estimated losses of $1,700 an acre in California alone. Because the agricultural industry is responsible for one-third of climate-changing carbon emissions, at least until Tesla reimagines the tractor, we’re trapped in a vicious cycle. [...]

In vertical farming, that food source starts with a building – any building – usually comprising more than one floor. On every level are flat racks of plants taking root not in soil, which is unnecessary for growth, but instead in a solid, sustainable, and pesticide-free substrate, like mashed-up coconut husk. In these hydroponic systems, plants are fed a nutrient solution from one of a variety of devices, including a misting nozzle, a slow-feed drip, and a wicking tool (like the volcanic glass called perlite) that carries nutrients from an in-house reservoir directly to the roots. [...]

But not everyone is convinced the idea won’t go to seed. Early this year, in an article for Alternet, environmental writer Stan Cox argued against growing food in high-rises because of the method’s large energy requirement — specifically, the need for LED lighting in lieu of sunshine. Louis Albright, PhD, emeritus professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University, called vertical farming “pie in the sky” for the same reason.

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