Blog Heap of Links for the day 5 February 2018

…Think about this for a moment...and then drop to your knees and thank God that she didn't quite manage to pull it off; the first Presidential election in which virtually every voter would have been disenfranchised. Interference with an election doesn't get any bigger or more direct than that.

Hillary, dripping venom, was indeed at the center of this web...and it's a web which stretches far and wide, and is littered with the desiccated remains of those who stood between this angry arachnid and her obsessive ambition.…

…The correct way to write the phrase is beck and call. This phrase is a part of the idiom “to be at someone’s beck and call.” Beckon call is an example of an eggcorn — a slightly misheard (yet still kind of sensical) version of a common phrase.…

…a "secret alliance" between Egypt and Israel to combat ISIS along the Sinai border between the two countries. …Israel has flown more than 100 missions in the last two years, striking targets in the terrorists' stronghold in Egypt with the full knowledge and cooperation of Cairo's government.…

Today, marks the aniversary of the Berlin Wall being down as long as it was up.

…On this day in 1909 Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic. Back in my salad days circuit boards, radio cabinets, and all sorts of stuff were made from this material. I don't think you see it anymore on new stuff.