| 1492 | Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas. | |
| 1576 | Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximillian II, as Holy Roman Emperor. | |
| 1609 | The song "Three Blind Mice" is published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song. | |
| 1702 | Admiral Sir George Rooke defeats the French fleet off Vigo. | |
| 1722 | Shah Sultan Husayn surrenders the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afgan rebels after a seven month siege. | |
| 1809 | Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies under mysterious circumstances in Tennessee. | |
| 1899 | The Anglo-Boer War begins. | |
| 1872 | Apache leader Cochise signs a peace treaty with General Howard in Arizona Territory. | |
| 1933 | Alcatraz Island is made a federal maximum security prison. | |
| 1943 | The U.S. Fifth Army begins an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy. | |
| 1949 | Eugenie Anderson becomes the first woman U.S. ambassador. | |
| 1970 | President Richard Nixon announces the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas. | |
| 1971 | The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23. |
Friday, October 12, 2012
Today in History
Koran-burning U.S. relig-o-nut barred from entering Canada
Good going Canada!
The U.S. reli-o-nut known for burning Korans and inciting unrest in the Middle East was barred on Thursday from entering Canada, where he was set to attend a potentially divisive debate with a imam, Canadian media reports said.
Terry Jones was blocked at the U.S.-Canada border in Windsor, Ontario, because of a previous legal infraction in the United States and because the German government has issued a complaint against him, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp said.
Jones told the CBC
that he would seek legal counsel on whether to appeal what he said was a
"grievous act" against free speech.
"We are going to head back to Florida now and we are going to check whether we are going to appeal that," he said.
The Canadian
government said it does not comment on individual cases and that border
officials determine the entry of any individual on a case by case basis.
"Every person
seeking entry to Canada must demonstrate that they meet the requirements
to enter the country," said Julie Carmichael
, spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
Jones was scheduled
to debate a Toronto imam, a Sikh leader and a Muslim author on Thursday
evening on the grounds of the Ontario provincial legislature in
Toronto, according to local organizers.
The once
little-known pastor sparked riots in Afghanistan two years ago when he
burnt copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of Sept 11, 2001
attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
He also promoted
the film "Innocence of Muslims" this year, which Muslims said insults
the Prophet Mohammed. The film sparked unrest across Middle East.
The U.S. ambassador
to Libya and three embassy staff were killed in September when Islamist
gunmen, blaming the U.S. government for the film, stormed the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi.
Much of odd weapons cache on plane was permissible
And you wonder why we don't trust the TSA?
In an age when air travelers grudgingly surrender
bottled water at security checkpoints, the most striking aspect of the
arrest of a passenger wearing a bulletproof vest and flying with luggage
stocked with knives, clubs and body bags is that virtually all of it
was permissible to have onboard.
Yongda Huang Harris
, 28, was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport last week during a stopover on a trip from Japan, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers noticed he was wearing the bulletproof vest under his trench coat, along with flame-retardant pants and knee pads.
By then, he had reached the U.S. after a stop in South Korea
with a suspicious array of knives and other weaponry in his checked luggage, including a smoke grenade, a hatchet, a biohazard suit, a collapsible baton, masks, duct tape, leg irons and plastic restraints, authorities say.
Most
of the items — including the hatchet and knives — wouldn't violate
Transportation Security Administration guidelines for what is
permissible in checked luggage, and the protective vest and pants are
not listed among items prohibited on flights.
The smoke grenade was X-rayed by police bomb squad officers in Los Angeles
, who said the device fell into a category that is prohibited on board passenger aircraft.
But in Incheon, South Korea
,
where Harris deplaned and went through security before boarding a Los
Angeles-bound flight, items such as axes, knives or smoke-generating
cartridges are allowed in checked bags, according to a senior airport security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media.
The
official said Harris' checked luggage went through X-ray scans at
Incheon but no hazardous materials were found and that no red flags were
raised about its contents because the items did not violate that
nation's guidelines for checked luggage.
Rules,
or the lack of them, that govern what passengers can do, carry or wear
on flights can seem alternately reasonable or unfathomable, sometimes
even bizarre.
Increased airline security after 9/11 sought to
armor flights against terrorist threats, but they can also test
credulity for those getting on board.An intrusive pat-down by security or the discovery of a too-big bottle of tanning lotion can leave a passenger feeling violated, while Harris appears to have triggered no alarm before arriving in Los Angeles.
"The one thing that concerns me is he was able to board a plane internationally with all these weapons and whatnot, and nobody in Japan, nobody in Korea, bothered to find these things until he got to America," said Gadisa Goso, 29, a school administrator and neighbor of Harris' mother in Boston. "That's a big concern for, like, for the U.S."
Michael Cintron of the International Airline Passengers Association said rules for passengers "can get very confusing, and it can get complex, and it can get disconcerting.
"For
the average passenger, you see someone getting stopped for liquid, an
innocuous object, then you hear about stories like this," Cintron said.
A
U.S. Homeland Security official briefed on the investigation said
Wednesday that South Korean security officials screened Harris and his
carry-on luggage before he got on the Los Angeles
flight, but the smoke grenade somehow made it onto the plane in his
checked luggage. The official was not authorized to discuss the case
publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Harris is not
cooperating with federal officials who are trying to determine why he
was headed to Boston with the cache of weapons, authorities said.Tom Blank, a former deputy administrator at the TSA, said the U.S. will likely look at whether the failure to detect the grenade on a U.S.-bound jet was a one-time lapse or part of a wider security vulnerability.
If the U.S. determines a country's airport doesn't meet U.S. standards, it can ask for stronger security measures and even prohibit flights from flying directly to the U.S. from that country.
"This clearly looks like an error. Something slipped through that should not have slipped through," Blank said of the grenade.
There is no indication that Harris, who does not have a criminal record, is linked to a terrorist organization or planned to damage the plane, and it's not likely a smoke grenade could bring down the aircraft, the federal official said.
But the smoke grenade is banned from planes under the United Nations' explosives shipping rules. Depending on the conditions when it is ignited, the grenade could fill the cabin with smoke or cause a fire, officials said.
Asked about the grenade, the Korean airport security official pointed out that South Korean guidelines list as legal non-flammable, inert cartridges or tins that produce smoke, but said he would have to see the specific item before he could say more.
Customs officers also believed that the lead-filled, leather-coated billy clubs and collapsible baton might be prohibited by California law, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.
Harris has been charged with one count of transporting hazardous materials, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He made a brief court appearance Tuesday but his arraignment was delayed until Friday and he was ordered held until then.
Harris is a
U.S. citizen whose permanent residence is in Boston, though he recently
started living and working in Japan, officials said.
Attempts to
reach Harris' family in Boston were unsuccessful. His attorney, Steven
Seiden, was unavailable, said spokesman Chris Williams, who described
Harris as very intelligent, earning A's in high school and college
calculus.Williams objected to characterizations that Harris was not cooperating with authorities, saying he followed his attorney's advice to exercise his constitutional right to remain silent.
"He has that right. He is an American citizen," Williams said Wednesday.
Harris
graduated from Boston University's Metropolitan College in January 2011
with a bachelor of science in biomedical laboratory and clinical
sciences, said Constance Phillips, the program director. She called
Harris a shy, good student who completed several internships performing
research at well-known labs in the Boston area.
Harris
traveled from Kansai, in western Japan, to Incheon before landing in
Los Angeles. South Korean officials said he traveled on all Asiana
Airlines flights, though the airline declined to confirm that, citing
South Korean law banning disclosure of passengers' information without
their consent.
Security at
Japanese airports is similar to security in the U.S. Metal detectors and
X-rays screen every person and every bag, both checked and carry-on.
Airport and immigration officials at Kansai International Airport said
Wednesday that airlines are primarily responsible for luggage
inspection, but no problematic cases have been reported recently.
An
immigration officer at Kansai, Masahiro Nakamoto, said authorities did
not report anything suspicious at the time Harris boarded, but arriving
passengers are checked more closely than those leaving the country.
Spokesman Keisuke Hamatani said Kansai security officials had not
reported any suitcases containing the hazardous materials U.S.
authorities say they found in Harris' luggage.
Yasunori
Oshima, an official at Japan's Land and Transport Ministry's aviation
safety department, said there had been no official inquiry or request
from U.S. authorities to look into the case, which he said would have
been more of a concern if the hazardous materials were brought into the
cabin rather than checked.
"The case does not seem to pose any immediate concerns about aviation security measures in Japan," he said.
Airport
police said they do not believe the case constitutes illegal conduct
under the Japanese domestic criminal code, but Japan may cooperate at
the request of U.S. investigators.
Man arrested for public intoxication has his mugshot taken
35-year-old Sean Payne of Humble, Texas, arrested outside Shamrock's bar
early on Thursday morning was allegedly so drunk he couldn't hold his
head up for a mugshot.
So an officer grabbed his hair and held his head up for his booking photo. Payne was charged with public intoxication.
So an officer grabbed his hair and held his head up for his booking photo. Payne was charged with public intoxication.
Teachers make money selling materials online
Kristine Nannini spent her summer creating wall charts and student data sheets for her fifth grade class — and making $24,000 online by selling those same materials to other teachers. Teachers like Nannini are making extra money providing materials to their cash-strapped and time-limited colleagues on curriculum sharing sites like teacherspayteachers.com, providing an alternative to more traditional — and generally more expensive — school supply stores. Many districts, teachers and parents say these sites are saving teachers time and money, and giving educators a quick way to make extra income.
There is a lot of money to potentially be made. Deanna Jump, a first-grade teacher at Central Fellowship Christian Academy
in Macon, Ga., is teacherspayteachers.com's top seller, earning about
$1 million in sales over the past two years. She believes the site has
been successful because educators are looking for new ways to engage
their students, and the materials are relatively inexpensive and move
beyond textbooks
"I want kids to be so excited about what they're learning that they can't wait to tell mom and dad," she says.
Dozens
of Internet forums have been created to help teachers distribute their
material and pick up ideas from other educators. Teacherspayteachers.com
is one of the biggest. It was started by a former teacher in New York
in 2006 and quickly grew. Others followed, like the sharemylesson.com
run by the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second largest teachers union, where free curriculum ideas and materials are offered.
While
most characterize these sites as an inexpensive way for teachers to
supplement textbook materials, some teachers may get pushback from
administrators for their entrepreneurial efforts.
Seattle Public Schools'
recently revised its ethics policy, with the new policy prohibiting
teachers from selling anything they developed on district time, said
district spokeswoman Teresa Wippel.
"Anything created on their own
time could also cross a gray line, depending on the item and how
closely tied it is to classroom work," she said.Teacherspayteachers.com currently has about 300,000 items for sale plus more than 50,000 free items.
All
told, more than 1 million teachers have bought or sold items on
teacherspayteachers.com since it began. Teachers had $5 million in sales
during August and September, Edelman said. After paying the site fees,
teachers have collectively earned more than $14 million on the site
since it was founded.
At all
of the websites, the quality varies. Jump said she learned over the
years that her colleagues — and their students — are only interested in
professional-looking materials that offer the kind of information and
instruction they need. Teachers are able to rate items offered for
purchase or distribution.
Teachers
often spend their own money on classroom supplies, despite receiving a
few hundred dollars a year for that purpose from their districts.
Increasingly, teachers say, they are going to these curriculum sharing
sites to look for materials like the ones Nannini and Jump made
available because their funds go further than at traditional school
supply stores.
"I guess I've
created something that everyone really needs," said Nannini, a Grand
Blanc, Mich., teacher who just started her fourth year in the classroom.
Jump
has made a lot of her money selling science curriculum for the early
grades, helping her colleagues teach 7-year-olds about scientific
discovery. She has split her earnings between her family, charity and
her school, including buying one classroom a smart board.
Stephen
Wakefield, spokesman for ASCD, a prominent teacher training
organization that has a blog promoting ways for teachers to get help
online, said no national organizations approve or rate the multitude of
online curricula available to teachers. However many offer lists of
places for teachers to explore, he said.
Kathy
Smith, a Seattle parent with two daughters in public school, says she
knows teachers get materials from a variety of sources and she trusts
them to make good decisions about what they choose to share with their
students.
"I've got a lot of faith in teachers," she said. "I don't see any problem using computer sites for supplementation at all."
Becky
Smith, a special education teacher from rural Alabama, says everything
she has gotten off teacherspayteachers.com has been free. Smith says the
website saves her driving time and cash, because she can buy only what
she needs — not a $20 workbook filled with a variety of things.
She also likes the idea of supporting other teachers, not corporations.
"I was on there for hours just looking for things before school started," she said.
When Does The Age Of Aquarius Begin?
The World's Littlest Skyscraper
So, why is it called a skyscraper? The whole thing began with a scam.
In 1919, oil man and engineer J.D. McMahon claimed that he would build a highrise and courted people to invest. With just a simple blueprint, McMahon raised $200,000 (over $2,500,000 in today's dollar).
After the structure was built as a 40 feet building instead of a 480 feet one that people were expecting, McMahon calmly explained that it was his plan all along. The 480 figure in the blueprint was in inches - not feet! When he was sued, the judge threw out the lawsuit because the blueprint was technically correct. McMahon promptly fled Wichita.
The Newby-McMahon Building was an instant embarrassment to the city - it didn't even have stairs, so people had to use ladders to reach the upper floors! It was featured in a Ripley's Believe It or Not! column as "The World's Littlest Skyscraper" and the name stuck ever since. Today, the building is a Texas Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
How Dangerous Is Liquid Nitrogen?
It has also become increasingly common at top restaurants as a method for instantly freezing food and drinks, or creating an impressive cloud of vapor or fog when exposed to air.
How dangerous is liquid nitrogen?
The Biggest Hot Spring In The World
Frying Pan Lake
Incredible Rock Pillar Landscapes
Strange Star Spiral Offers Clues to Sun's Fate
The spiral structure around the red giant R Sculptoris allowed astronomers to study the history of pulses of mass from the star.
New study suggests "arsenic life" is actually a phosphate glutton
Fast forward to this month, when scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel published a study in which they were trying to figure out how bacteria can tell the difference between phosphate and arsenate and "know" to prefer the phosphate. They used phosphate-collecting proteins from four different species of bacteria in their research, including the one that had been at the center of the arsenic life controversy. And along the way, they discovered a fun twist to that story.
This new study suggests that "arsenic life" bacteria is, indeed, able to survive in arsenate-heavy solutions where other bacteria fail. But, the Weizmann researchers say their data shows that success isn't due to a preference for arsenic, or even an ability to use it. Instead, "arsenic life" is probably just much, much, much, much better at collecting and using every tiny trace of phosphate it can get its metaphorical paws on.
The researchers looked at five types of phosphate-binding protein — which bind phosphate in a molecular pathway that brings it into the cells — from four species of bacteria. Two of the bacterial species were sensitive to arsenate and two were resistant to it. To test how effective these proteins were at discriminating between phosphate and arsenate, the researchers put them in solution with a set amount of phosphate and different concentrations of arsenate for 24 hours, and then checked which of the molecules the proteins would bind to.
Their threshold for when ‘discrimination’ broke down was when 50% of the proteins ended up bound to arsenate — indicating that the ability to discriminate had been overwhelmed. Even in solutions containing 500-fold more arsenate than phosphate, all five proteins were still able to preferentially bind phosphate. And one protein, from the Mono Lake bacterium, could do so at arsenate excesses of up to 4,500-fold over phosphate.
... The latest paper shows that the “arsenic monster” GFAJ-1 goes to a huge amount of effort, “even more than other life”, to avoid arsenate, says Wolfgang Nitschke from the Mediterranean Institute of Microbiology in Marseilles, France, who co-authored a commentary questioning the conclusion that GFAJ-1 could replace phosphate with arsenate.
Softball-sized eyeball washes up on Florida beach
It's not that body parts never wash ashore on Florida beaches.But usually it's not an eye the size of a softball.
Oldest Arthropod Brain is Surprisingly Complex
Photo: Xiaoya Ma
This complex, insectlike brain suggests that rather than insects arising from simple branchiopods, today's arthropods descend from a complex-brained ancestor. Branchiopods would later have shed some of this complexity, Strausfeld said, while other crustaceans and insects kept it. In fact, he said, the brain may have evolved to segment into three parts very early on; mammals, including humans, have a forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain, suggesting a common organization.Stephanie Pappas of LiveScience has the post: Here
"Lots of people don't like that idea, sharing a brain with a beetle, but there's good evidence suggesting that you do," Strausfeld said.
Turtle Pees Through Its Mouth
When the turtle breaks down proteins in its liver, it ends up with an abundance of nitrogen, which it expels from its body in the form of urea. Humans are the same—we get rid of urea in the form of urine, via our kidneys. But the soft-shelled turtle has an altogether different route.Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science explains: Here
It’s well-adapted to life in the water, and lives in salty swamps and marshes. But Yuen Ip from the National University of Singapore noticed that when the turtle emerges from water, or is stranded on land during dry spells, it will plunge its head into puddles. While submerged, it rhythmically expands and contracts its mouth. Ip found that the turtle gets rid of most of its urea through its mouth rather than its kidneys, via gill-like studs in its mouth. It can breathe and urinate through the same structures.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The Daily Drift
Same old same old ...
Some of our readers today have been in:
Edinburgh, Scotland
Diepholz, Germany
Ampang, Malaysia
Asuncion, Paraguay
Kiev, Ukraine
Salatiga, Malaysia
Cape Town, South Africa
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Klang, Malaysia
Moscow, Russia
Panama City, Panama
Segamat, Malaysia
Surabaya, Indonesia
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Bangkok, Thailand
Jakarta, Indonesia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Beirut, Lebanon
Leeds, England
Shah Alam, Malaysia
Pt. Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Montevideo, Uruguay
Tawau, Malaysia
Barquisimeto, Venezuela
Johannesburg, South Africa
Warsaw, Poland
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Baguio, Philippines
Tbilisi, Georgia
Today in History
| 1531 | The Catholics defeat the Protestants at Kappel during Switzerland's second civil war. | |
| 1540 | Charles V of Milan puts his son Philip in control. | |
| 1727 | George II of England crowned. | |
| 1795 | In graditude for putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France's National Convention appoints Napoleon Bonaparte second in command of the Army of the Interior. | |
| 1862 | The Confederate Congress in Richmond passes a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service. This law confirms many southerners opinion that they are in a 'rich man's war and a poor man's fight.' | |
| 1877 | Outlaw Wild Bill Longley, who killed at least a dozen men, is hanged, but it took two tries; on the first try, the rope slipped and his knees drug the ground. | |
| 1899 | South African Boers, settler from the Netherlands, declare war on Great Britain. | |
| 1906 | San Francisco school board orders the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage. | |
| 1915 | Despite international protests, Edith Cavell, an English nurse in Belgium, is executed by Germans for aiding the escape of Allied prisoners. | |
| 1942 | In the Battle of Cape Esperance, near the Solomon Islands, U.S. cruisers and destroyers decisively defeat a Japanese task force in a night surface encounter. | |
| 1945 | Negotiations between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung break down. Nationalist and Communist troops are soon engaged in a civil war. | |
| 1950 | The Federal Communications Commission authorizes the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) to begin commercial color TV broadcasts. | |
| 1962 | Pope John XXIII opens the 21st Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) with a call for Christian unity. This is the largest gathering of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in history; among delegate-observers are representatives of major Protestant denominations, in itself a sign of sweeping change. | |
| 1968 | Apollo 7, with three men aboard, is successfully launched from Cape Kennedy. | |
| 1972 | A French mission in Vietnam is destroyed by a U.S. bombing raid. | |
| 1976 | The so-called "Gang of Four," Chairman Mao Tse-tung's widow and three associates, are arrested in Peking, setting in motion an extended period of turmoil in the Chinese Communist Party. | |
| 1991 | Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas begin. |
Big Bird flies high in 2012 presidential campaign
Big Bird is flying high in the 2012 presidential campaign.
The foundation backing "Sesame Street" quickly disavowed the spot, and Romney dismissed it as un-serious even though the Republican hopeful brought Big Bird into the national political conversation at last week's presidential debate.
Big Bird has been a big deal since Romney, in outlining ways he would cut federal spending, said, "I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS," adding, "I like PBS, I love Big Bird."
Romney's vow to de-fund public broadcasting has been a staple of his campaign appearances for months, but the nationally televised declaration last week in Denver — more than 67 million were watching — gave it a much broader audience than ever before.
Romney's comment drew immediate reaction on social media, with users posting online photos of Big Bird appearing down on his luck or searching for work. Mock Big Birds have followed Romney to campaign events, and the real Big Bird even made an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" last weekend.
"I feel like I'm famous now. I was walking down the street the other day and felt like everyone recognized me," Big Bird said.
The "Sesame Street" dis offered an opening to Obama, who has faced strong backlash for his widely panned debate performance. At rallies and campaign appearances every day since the debate, he has used Romney's remark and referenced other "Sesame Street" characters to mock his opponent in a way audiences find funny and relatable.
"He said he'd bring down our deficit by going after what has been the biggest driver of our debt and deficits over the last decade — public television, PBS," Obama told people at a fundraiser Monday in San Francisco. "Elmo has been seen in a white Suburban. He's driving for the border. Oscar is hiding out in his trashcan. We're cracking down on them."
The satiric Obama campaign ad, set to air on national broadcast and cable stations, echoes that theme. The ad shows images of convicted financiers including Bernie Madoff and Enron's Ken Lay, and suggests Romney believes Big Bird is responsible for their crimes.
"Big, yellow, a menace to our economy," the ad says. "Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about, it's Sesame Street."
While Romney's comment drew criticism from PBS the day after the debate, the Sesame Workshop, which supports "Sesame Street" and other public broadcasting shows, demanded that Obama's campaign remove the ad.
"Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns," the organization said in a terse, two-sentence statement. "We have approved no campaign ads and, as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down."
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the campaign was reviewing the organization's concerns.
Romney, campaigning in Iowa, dismissed the Big Bird ad as inconsequential and suggested Obama was focusing on trivial matters rather than the economy and high unemployment.
"These are tough times with real serious issues, so you have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird." Romney told a cheering crowd. "I actually think we need to have a president who talks about saving the American people and saving good jobs and saving our future."
With his newfound political celebrity, Big Bird has emerged as the latest star in a campaign proxy war over a larger policy issue.
In 2008, Joe Wurzelbacher, or "Joe the Plumber," set off a proxy battle over tax policy when he asked Obama about his tax plan for small business. Obama's videotaped reply, in which he told Wurzelbacher that "when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody," prompted Republican John McCain to seize the statement as evidence that Obama supported socialist tax policies. Obama doubled down on his argument that higher income earners should be taxed more than the middle class.
This year, Big Bird is serving as a central actor in the debate over federal spending in tough economic times.
Public broadcasting has long drawn the scorn of many conservatives who see it as wasteful and having a liberal bias. Romney has framed it as a fiscal issue, suggesting shows like "Sesame Street" should charge for advertising like other television stations and shouldn't depend on the federal government for support.
Obama, for his part, has tried to frame the controversy as a matter of conservative overreach, suggesting that Romney and others would cut funding for much-beloved children's programming while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
PBS receives a portion of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives an annual appropriation from Congress. In 2012, CPB received $445 million in federal funding. PBS said in a news release after last week's presidential debate that public broadcasting receives about one-100th of 1 percent of the federal budget.
Navy SEAL’s mom blasts Romney for politicizing death of her son
President
Obama and Secretary of State Clinton honor the Benghazi victims at the
Transfer of Remains Ceremony held at Andrews Air Force
As we have written before, Mitt Romney and his staff have admitted that when Americans lives are at risk, Team Romney smells “opportunity.”So it’s no surprise that Romney saw the death of American Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, during the recent attack on America’s consulate in Libya, as an opportunity to take partisan advantage. He admitted in the 47% video that he’s keeping his eyes open for such opportunities.
Unfortunately for Romney, the Navy SEAL’s mother saw her son’s death as less of a godsend.
“I don’t trust Romney. He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda. It’s wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” said Barbara Doherty, Glen’s mother.Showing yet again how clueless Mitt Romney really is about the world outside of the US, he is actually suggesting that the heroics of the Navy SEAL Glen Doherty show how important it is for the US to police the world.
While the actions of Doherty were impressive, and show why Navy SEALs are so highly regarded, in no way is that or should that be the model for US foreign strategy.
Here’s Romney exploiting the death of Doherty to attempt to make a point on the election trail.
Citing a CNN report that Doherty had been killed while trying to help others at the consulate, Romney expressed his admiration—and likened it to the leadership he says the country needs now in Washington.It’s questionable whether Romney (who sat out Vietnam in a Parisian mansion) really appreciates the impact constant war has on military families. Many families have been without a parent for years due to the heavy needs of wars in the region. If you have a family fortune like the Romney’s, you probably can’t understand the difficulties this presents.
“When he and his colleagues there heard that the consulate was under attack … they went there. They didn’t hunker down where they were in safety. They rushed there to go help,” Romney said. “This is the American way: We go where there’s trouble. We go where we’re needed. And right now we’re needed. Right now the American people need us.”
When you are a pro-war protester like Romney, who isn’t interested in fighting or sending his own kids off to fight (much like other repugican chicken-hawks), you can’t be expected to understand that there is a significant difference between saving your own team who is under fire versus diving head first into an entire region that is in turmoil. One is a small (very important) mission, while the other is a fight that will go on for years.
After eleven years of war and multiple return missions for military families, plus a financial drain on the US, how can a serious candidate even think of endless war? Since we now know that the Romney Class is absent from the front lines in terms of fighting the war or paying for it financially, they remain clueless about the impact on American families as well as on locals abroad.
Everyone wishes that it was as simple as waving a magic wand and solving problems in the Middle East and beyond, but it doesn’t work that way.
Romney recently criticized Obama by saying “hope is not a strategy,” and he’s not wrong, but that’s hardly what I’ve seen from Obama in the Middle East. Hope may not be a strategy, but pretending as though we can afford more war and more foreign entanglements is the most ridiculous, idealistic heaping of wishful hoping that we’ve seen since the cowboy shrub was in office.
How’d the shrub’s foreign policy work out for the US?
Romney flip-flopped twice on abortion Tuesday
First the flip-flop.
Mitt Romney said Tuesday he has no plans to push for legislation limiting abortion, a softer stance from a candidate who has said he would “get rid of” funding for Planned Parenthood and appoint Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v. Wade.Funny, because Romney sure was familiar with the legislation when he commented on this before.
“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” the Republican presidential nominee told The Des Moines Register in an interview.
But naturally, a few hours later, Romney backed off.
When I asked Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul to clarify what Romney had meant there (since the Huffington Post at least is taking it as a position that “could put [Romney] at odds with congressional Republicans who have made limiting abortion central to their messages”), she e-mailed, “Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life.”Well, “protecting life” is pretty much the argument behind every piece of anti-abortion, anti-contraception, legislation out there. So that would mean that Romney is open to any anti-abortion legislation. Which is a 180 degree flip-flop from where he was a few hours before.
And what do you know, then the Romney campaign issued a statement to the Associated Press saying he would be a “pro-life president,” but refused to give any details as to what exactly that means.
Saul said Romney’s position is clear: “Mitt Romney is proudly pro-life, and he will be a pro-life president,” she said.“Clear” isn’t quite the word I’d use.
Of course, it’s worse than that. Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski documents that Romney has actually held 9 different views on abortion throughout his political career. Nine.
There are a few possibilities as to what’s going on here:
1. Romney doesn’t really believe in anything. That means he lies a lot when he talks about policy, because he honestly doesn’t care, so it’s difficult to be consistent when there’s no underlying principle involved in the policy choices he makes.
2. To the degree Romney believes in anything, it’s liberalism. Yes, he’s a jerk about corporate stuff, but on most other non-financial issues, he’s a Democrat. And of late when Romney’s asked a question, his inner liberal slips, out until his staff can “fix” things and jam it back in. So again, it’s difficult for him to be consistent about conservatism because it’s a foreign concept to him, and he doesn’t mean what he says when he embraces it publicly.
3. Romney is so desperate to be president that he’ll pander to anyone, and so dumb that he doesn’t think he’ll get caught. And to his credit, he didn’t get caught lying throughout the last debate. Jim Lehrer (and then President Obama) let Romney get away with murder. And he lied his way through the repugican primaries, and won anyway. So if you’re Romney, this lying thing has served you well, so why not continue to embrace it?
Romney is a dangerous man. Not simply because of what he espouses, but because he’s not serious about any of it. Nothing he says is real. Nothing. It’s one thing to paint yourself as more conservative for the primaries and more moderate for the general election, but not by simply changing your mind on every important issue – and then, when you’re called out on it by your base, changing back again.
I walk through Romney’s various flip-flops in detail, including his flip-flop on catfish, and his flip-flop on flip-flops, here, so I won’t go through them again. (Though my favorite was Romney flip-flopping four times in a 24 hour period on the topic of pre-existing conditions.)
There is no way to predict what Romney will do if he becomes president. He might move to the far left, he might move (more likely) to the far right (since so many of his advisers are on the far right). But no one should be voting for this man based on his views. His views aren’t real. And to the extent they are, he doesn’t stand by them, ever. So it’s pretty much a guarantee that his word means nothing. And that doesn’t simply speak to policy, it speaks to his character.
The godfather of the 'tea party' loses it on CNBC over improving jobs numbers
There are a few reasonable people over there, but CNBC does their darnedest to keep the crazies in the spotlight.
CNBC wingnut Joe Kernan was tired of hearing “reason” on the show the
other day, so he cut off non-conspiracy theorist Steve Liesman, who
wasn’t feeding the job-numbers-conspiracy promoted by former GE CEO Jack
Welch. Kernan then called on the Godfather of the Tea Party, Rick Santelli, who delivered the goods like no other channel besides Fox can deliver.
Santelli ranted about the poor state of the economy, despite the decrease in unemployment, and then added that he had predicted months ago that the September jobs report would be below 8%, implying the administration would fudge the numbers for positive press just before the election. “Take it any way you want!” Santelli said.That’s one way of putting it.
“Rick, what you’re implying with your comment…” Liesman interrupted.
“I’m not implying anything,” Santelli shouted back. “I’m telling you and it turned out that way. I’m a market whisperer.”
Did you know ...
Ed Kilgore makes the case that Romney's post-debate bounce is subsiding
The "I am a job creator": a manifesto for the entitled
The 9 reasons business people are terrible at governing
The great coral reef coral facing major decline
That Iceland didn't bail out their bankers, they arrested them; now Iceland's economy is growing faster than anyone else's
The eleven shades of Romney
About how to prepare for the apocalypse with vegetables
A study finds looking at pictures of cute animals at work may produce productivity
The "I am a job creator": a manifesto for the entitled
The 9 reasons business people are terrible at governing
The great coral reef coral facing major decline
That Iceland didn't bail out their bankers, they arrested them; now Iceland's economy is growing faster than anyone else's
The eleven shades of Romney
About how to prepare for the apocalypse with vegetables
A study finds looking at pictures of cute animals at work may produce productivity
Man behind anti-Muslim film to appear in court
A California man with many aliases who was behind an anti-Muslim film that sparked violence in the Middle East is expected to be asked by a judge Wednesday whether he violated his probation for a 2010 bank fraud conviction. Federal prosecutors said Mark Basseley Youssef, 55, had eight probation violations, including lying to his probation officer and using aliases. If Youssef denies those allegations, a judge will then likely schedule an evidentiary hearing.
Youssef has been in a federal detention center since Sept. 28 after he was arrested for the probation violations and deemed a flight risk by a magistrate judge.
He went into hiding after a 14-minute trailer for the movie "Innocence of Muslims" was posted on YouTube. Angry protests stoked by the film broke out in Egypt and Libya and violence related to the film has spread, killing dozens. Enraged Muslims demanded punishment for Youssef, and a Pakistani cabinet minister has offered a $100,000 bounty to anyone who kills him.
Federal authorities have said Youssef isn't behind bars because of the film or its content, which portrays Muhammad as a religious fraud, womanizer and pedophile. They said Youssef hasn't been truthful about his identity, using different names after he was convicted in 2010 of bank fraud.
Youssef was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was barred from using computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer, though prosecutors said none of the violations involved the Internet.
An email left for Youssef's attorney, Steven Seiden, was not immediately returned Tuesday.
At least three names have been revealed to be associated with Youssef in the past several weeks. Court documents show Youssef legally changed his name from Nakoula Basseley Nakoula in 2002, but never told federal authorities, who used that as part of the probation violation case against him.
Youssef, an Egyptian-born Christian who's now a U.S. citizen, sought to obtain a passport in his new name but still had a California driver's license as Nakoula, authorities said. Youssef used a third name, Sam Bacile, in association with the film.
Authorities said Youssef used more than a dozen aliases and opened about 60 bank accounts and had more than 600 credit and debit cards to conduct a check fraud scheme.
When he was identified as Nakoula after the movie trailer went viral, federal probation officials questioned him. He denied using the name Sam Bacile, which was listed on the YouTube account that posted the trailer, and said his role in the film was limited to writing the script.
Tess Lopez, a former federal probation officer who now is a sentencing consultant in Northern California, said if federal prosecutors can prove Youssef violated his probation, it's likely he would receive more prison time because the new allegations are similar to the original crime.
"Given the nature of the conviction, it would normally warrant a prison sentence," Lopez said.
Whoops!
Florida governor gives phone sex number for meningitis hotline
In an typical mistake, Florida Governor Rick Scott gave out
a phone sex hotline number to Floridians seeking information on a
deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.
Scott was providing
an update on the outbreak at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday when he
announced what he said was the hotline's toll-free phone line, but gave
out the wrong number.
The governor's office
was alerted by a public radio station in Tampa, WUSF, which was
monitoring the cabinet meeting and posted the number on its website.
The station said it
was "quickly notified by a reader that the number instead connected to
an adult telephone line."
Callers are greeted
with the recording of a woman's voice saying: "Hello boys, thank you
for calling me on my anniversary."
Contacted
Wednesday, Scott's spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said the governor, as he
is wont to do, misread the number. He was informed of
the error and was able to correct himself about 20 minutes later in the
same meeting.
The correct number for the Florida Fungal Meningitis Hotline is 866-523-7339, but Scott got one of the digits mixed up.
Since the outbreak
began, 138 people have contracted meningitis and 12 have died,
including one in Florida, according to the latest tally from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.
Woman with late-stage terminal cancer humiliated by TSA bandage-lifting
What has the TSA done to protect America from rogue cancer terrorists this week? This: A woman with leukemia who was making an end-of-life journey to Hawaii was humiliated en route by a revealing TSA pat-down.
[Michelle] Dunaj says nothing went right at the security checkpoint. A machine couldn't get a reading on her saline bags, so a TSA agent forced one open, contaminating the fluid she needs to survive. She says agents also made her lift up her shirt and pull back the bandages holding feeding tubes in place. Dunaj needs those tubes because of organ failure.Video at KOMO NEWS. More at AP.
With other passengers staring, Dunaj says she asked for privacy and was turned down. "They just said that it was fine; the location we were at was fine," she said.
Occubaby is born!
Egyptian-born terrorist pleads not guilty
An Egyptian-born preacher pleaded not guilty Tuesday to conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon, three days after he and four others were brought to the United States from England to face terrorism charges.
Mustafa Kamel Mustafa,
54, entered the plea shortly before U.S. District Judge Katherine B.
Forrest set an Aug. 26 trial date. Mustafa, widely known by the name Abu Hamza al-Masri, is also accused of helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
"He's presumed innocent," his court-appointed lawyer, Jeremy Schneider,
said outside court afterward. When someone asked Schneider whether he
thought his client was a terrorist, he snapped: "That's a silly
question."
Schneider said his client prefers to be known as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, the name listed first on his indictment. Abu Hamza and Abu Hamza al-Masri are listed as aliases.
There
was no mention in court Tuesday about access to the prosthetics —
including a hook — that Mustafa uses in place of the hands he says he
lost fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, but Schneider said outside court that it was a problem for him.
"I
believe he has use of them for a certain part of the day but not long
enough to allow him to function the way he should function," he said.
"As you can well imagine, he's not happy he's in a situation like this
without use of his prosthetics.""He's having a hard time. He doesn't have hands," he said.
He also is missing an eye. His lawyers in England said he suffers from depression, chronic sleep deprivation, diabetes and other ailments.
Earlier
Tuesday, two men brought from England to face terrorism charges on
Saturday along with Mustafa made their first appearance before U.S.
District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who set an October 2013 trial date.
Khaled al-Fawwaz, 50, and Adel Abdul Bary, 52, are charged with participating in the bombings of embassies in Tanzania and Kenya
in August 1998. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
They were indicted in a case that also charged Osama bin Laden.
Both pleaded not guilty on Saturday.Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean S. Buckley said the men made statements to officers in the United Kingdom that may be part of the evidence at a trial he estimated would last up to three months.
Two other men brought from Britain were arraigned in Connecticut on Saturday on terrorism charges.
Mustafa
became well-known in the 1990s as his Finsbury Park Mosque in London
became a training ground for extremist Islamists including Sept. 11
conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and attempted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
He had been jailed since 2004 in Britain on separate charges.
Traci Billingsley, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, said she cannot provide specific information about individual inmates.
"In
general, if an inmate arrives at any of our facilities with a
prosthetic that we believe could pose a danger, it would not be
permitted inside," she said, adding that the inmate would be medically
evaluated to determine whether other accommodations or devices would be
appropriate.
John N. Billock,
head of the Orthotics & Prosthetics Rehabilitation Engineering
Centre in Warren, Ohio, and a pioneer in the field, said a hook for a
hand would "definitely be considered a weapon."
"You could brutalize somebody with it," he said. "You can put somebody's eyes out or knock out their teeth."
He
said hooks are typically made of stainless steel or aluminum. The price
of prosthetics in place of hands can range from $15,000 to $100,000, he
said.
Mustafa is being held
prior to trial in the same federal lockup where a prison guard lost an
eye and was left brain-damaged when he was stabbed with a sharpened comb
in 2000 by a terrorism defendant awaiting trial in the embassy bombings
plot.
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty.
Minnesota witness describes early al-Shabab recruiting
A Minnesota man who spent two months with a terrorist group in his native Somalia told a jury Tuesday that another man on trial for allegedly helping funnel recruits to the group gave money to buy weapons for fighters.
Salah Osman Ahmed testified that while he was staying at an al-Shabab safe house in Merca, Somalia, the defendant, Mahamud Said Omar,
was also staying there. He said Omar gave the woman who ran the house
about $300 for expenses as well as money to buy AK-47s for two fighters,
which he said cost about $500 each.
Omar has pleaded not guilty
to five terrorism-related counts and if convicted, could be sentenced to
life in prison. He is one of 18 people who have been charged in an
ongoing investigation into the travels and recruitment of more than 20
young Somali men who have left Minnesota since 2007 to join al-Shabab's
fight against the U.N.-backed government in Somalia.Several defendants, including Ahmed, have pleaded guilty in the case, and Omar's is the first case to go to trial.
On cross examination, Omar's attorney, Jon Hopeman, noted that Ahmed never saw Omar exchange money with others.
"You never saw him give anybody any money, right?" Hopeman asked. Ahmed replied that he hadn't.
Prosecutor
William Narus asked how Ahmed knew about the money for the weapons.
Ahmed replied that when he was at the safe house, the woman in charge
told the men from the West they had to buy their own weapons. Omar was
in a meeting and said he would buy two guns, and later, the woman told
the men she had enough money for the guns, Ahmed testified.
Ahmed
also testified that Omar left the house after about five days to go get
married, and Ahmed thought Omar would join the group after his wedding.
When the group went to another house, Omar didn't join them there, but
an AK-47 arrived with Omar's name on it. The gun went to another
fighter, Ahmed said.
Hopeman
asked Ahmed whether Omar ever attended an al-Shabab training camp, ever
tried to convince Ahmed to join the group, or ever took orders from
al-Shabab. Ahmed testified he did not.
Ahmed
has pleaded guilty to one terror-related count and has remained free
while awaiting sentencing. He is cooperating with prosecutors in hopes
of getting a reduced sentence.
After his testimony, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis
dismissed jurors for an afternoon break, then said he would be changing
the conditions of Ahmed's release and putting him back on location
monitoring. Davis also said Ahmed must turn in his passport and refrain
from trying to get a new one, and he forbade Ahmed from leaving
Minnesota with the judge's permission.
Ahmed's
attorney, Jim Ostgard, asked Davis why he changed the conditions. Davis
responded that he "listened to his testimony" and said another judge
had the case initially and he wanted to make changes.
"I'm putting electronic monitoring on him so I know where he's at, unless you would like him taken into custody," Davis said.
Antifascist Greek protesters say they were tortured by police
Antifascist protesters in Greece who were arrested during a clash with
members of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party/gang say they were tortured
by the police, who put out cigarettes on them, tased them, beat them,
and threatened to provide their names and addresses to Golden Dawn
revenge squads. The Guardian's Maria Margaronis reports:
Greek anti-fascist protesters 'tortured by police' after Golden Dawn clashSeveral of the protesters arrested after the first demonstration on Sunday 30 September told the Guardian they were slapped and hit by a police officer while five or six others watched, were spat on and "used as ashtrays" because they "stank", and were kept awake all night with torches and lasers being shone in their eyes.
Some said they were burned on the arms with a cigarette lighter, and they said police officers videoed them on their mobile phones and threatened to post the pictures on the internet and give their home addresses to Golden Dawn, which has a track record of political violence.
One of the two women among them said the officers used crude sexual insults and pulled her head back by the hair when she tried to avoid being filmed. The protesters said they were denied drinking water and access to lawyers for 19 hours. "We were so thirsty we drank water from the toilets," she said.
One man with a bleeding head wound and a broken arm that he said had been sustained during his arrest alleged the police continued to beat him in GADA and refused him medical treatment until the next morning. Another said the police forced his legs apart and kicked him in the testicles during the arrest.
Brazilian council candidate 'handed out cocaine with election leaflets'
A Brazilian city council candidate has been arrested after she was
caught allegedly handing out cocaine with her election leaflets,
according to reports.
Carme Cristina Da Silva Lima, 32, was running for councilor of Itacoatiara, in Brazil's northern state of Amazonas. Police became suspicious when they saw a crowd allegedly gathering around Ms Lima's car on the morning of election day on Sunday.
Officers searched her car and allegedly found hundreds of packets of cocaine attached to the candidate's leaflets with instructions on how to vote for her. Police chief Daniel Ottoni said: "There was a large gathering of people around Ms Lima, but when they saw the police they all ran away.
"The candidate and another man also fled by car but officers caught up with them. According to locals, she had been distributing the drugs since early in the morning, on condition that people vote for her." Ms Lima was arrested for electoral corruption and drug dealing.
Carme Cristina Da Silva Lima, 32, was running for councilor of Itacoatiara, in Brazil's northern state of Amazonas. Police became suspicious when they saw a crowd allegedly gathering around Ms Lima's car on the morning of election day on Sunday.
Photo from here.
Officers searched her car and allegedly found hundreds of packets of cocaine attached to the candidate's leaflets with instructions on how to vote for her. Police chief Daniel Ottoni said: "There was a large gathering of people around Ms Lima, but when they saw the police they all ran away.
"The candidate and another man also fled by car but officers caught up with them. According to locals, she had been distributing the drugs since early in the morning, on condition that people vote for her." Ms Lima was arrested for electoral corruption and drug dealing.
A 14-year-old girl 'tried to kill boys by poisoning their brownies'
It was an apology for acting out that morphed into an attempted murder
charge. A batch of brownies, meant as a peace-offering for teasing two
boys who lived across the road, landed a Brisbane girl in serious
trouble on Sunday night, after she allegedly laced them with toilet and
window cleaners. It's alleged the teenager made the brownies in an
attempt to apologize for behaving badly towards the two boys, aged 12
and 13, earlier that day at Richlands, west of Brisbane, Australia.
But it all went awry when she allegedly doused the brownies in toxic household chemicals before walking across the street and offering them to the boys on the last day of the school holidays. The boys' mother, who would not be named, said one of her sons took a bite of one of the teenager's brownies, before realizing something was very wrong. "They only had one bite, thank goodness," she said. "I'm just glad my younger one, who is seven, didn't get given one. You could smell it . . . it was very strong. I'm just horrified by what has happened."
The boys did not require medical treatment after eating the allegedly poisonous brownies. Police late on Sunday night charged the 14-year-old with attempted murder, administering a poison with intent to harm, and two counts of acts intended to maim. She was held at Richlands Magistrates Court overnight on Sunday, before making a successful bid for bail yesterday afternoon before Magistrate Deborah Vasta.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The Daily Drift
Ain't that the truth!
Some of our readers today have been in:
Vienna, Austria
Salatiga, Malaysia
Cape Town, South Africa
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Moscow, Russia
Leeds, England
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Montevideo, Uruguay
Wroclaw, Poland
Johannesburg, South Africa
Klang, Malaysia
Brussels, Belgium
Bangkok, Thailand
Tbilisi, Georgia
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
Segamat, Malaysia
Mercin, Turkey
Baguio, Philippines
Surabaya, Indonesia
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Novosibirsk, Russia
Asuncion, Paraguay
Tawau, Malaysia
Belgrade, Serbia
London, England
Muscat, Oman
Shah Alam, Malaysia
Hanoi, Vietnam
Angeles City, Philippines
Today in History
| 19 | Germanicus, the best loved of Roman princes, dies of poisoning. On his deathbed he accuses Piso, the governor of Syria, of poisoning him. | |
| 732 | At Tours, France, Charles Martel kills Abd el-Rahman and halts the Muslim invasion of Europe. | |
| 1733 | France declares war on Austria over the question of Polish succession. | |
| 1789 | In Versailles France, Joseph Guillotin says the most humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single blow of a blade. | |
| 1794 | Russian General Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov crushes the rebel Polish army at Maciejowice, Poland. | |
| 1845 | The U.S. Naval Academy is founded at Annapolis, Md. | |
| 1863 | The first telegraph line to Denver is completed. | |
| 1877 | Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer is buried at West Point in New York. | |
| 1911 | Revolution in China begins with a bomb explosion and the discovery of revolutionary headquarters in Hankow. The revolutionary movement spread rapidly through west and southern China, forcing the abdication of the last Ch'ing emperor, six-year-old Henry Pu-Yi. By October 26, the Chinese Republic will be proclaimed, and on December 4, Premier Yuan Shih-K'ai will sign a truce with rebel general Li Yuan-hung. | |
| 1911 | The Panama Canal opens. | |
| 1933 | At Rio de Janeiro, nations of the Western Hemisphere sign a non-aggression and conciliation treaty. President Roosevelt adopts a "good neighbor" policy toward Latin America and announces a policy of nonintervention in Latin American affairs at the December 7th International American Conference at Montevideo, Uruguay. | |
| 1941 | Soviet troops halt the German advance on Moscow. | |
| 1966 | U.S. Forces launch Operation Robin, in Hoa Province south of Saigon in South Vietnam, to provide road security between villages. | |
| 1970 | The Quebec Provincial Minister of Labour, Pierre Laporte, is kidnapped by terrorists. | |
| 1973 | Spiro Agnew resigns the vice presidency amid accusations of income tax evasion. President Richard Nixon names Gerald Ford as the new vice president. Agnew is later convicted and sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000. |
The Unsolved Mystery of the Tunnels at Baiae
Among the legends of ancient Rome is that of a sibyl who lived in a cave that was the portal to the underworld. In 1958, a cave was discovered on the north shore of the Bay of Naples among the ruins of Baiæ that may have given rise to this legend. It opens to a passageway that is heated by an active volcano. Robert Paget and Keith Jones spent years removing rubble, exploring the cave's layout, mapping, and speculating on its purpose.
But only when the men went deeper into the hillside did the greatest mystery of the tunnels revealed itself. There, hidden at the bottom of a much steeper passage, and behind a second S-bend that prevented anyone approaching from seeing it until the final moment, ran an underground stream. A small “landing stage” projected out into the sulfurous waters, which ran from left to right across the tunnel and disappeared into the darkness. And the river itself was hot to the touch–in places it approached boiling point.Could anyone be blamed for believing this underground complex to be the gates of hell? Read more about it at Past Imperfect.
Conditions at this low point in the tunnel complex certainly were stygian. The temperature had risen to 120 degrees Fahrenheit; the air stank of sulfur. It was a relief to force a way across the stream and up a steep ascending passage on the other side, which eventually opened into an antechamber, oriented this time to the helical sunset, that Paget dubbed the “hidden sanctuary.” From there, more hidden staircases ascended to the surface to emerge behind the ruins of water tanks that had fed the spas at the ancient temple complex.
The Least Deserving Nobel Laureate
You
can argue all night about who deserved and didn't deserve the Nobel
Peace Prize for just about any year. But if you restrict the debate to
science prizes, you'll find research that turned out to do more harm
than good, experiments and conclusions that were just plain wrong, and
scientists who turned out to be bad news all around. Take the case of
Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, who won the 1926 Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine.In 1907, this Danish scientist found that he could induce abnormal cell growth in rats by feeding them cockroaches that were infected with a species of worm he called Spiroptera neoplastica. Fibiger concluded that the worms caused cancer. To appreciate how significant the discovery seemed at the time, it’s important to understand that many doctors were furiously hunting a single cause of cancer. Some thought the disease was programmed into the body in embryonic cells. Others believed inanimate external factors triggered uncontrolled cell division. (English physician Percivall Pott observed in the 18th century that chimney sweeps were shockingly likely to suffer scrotal cancer.) The infectious theory was also quite popular, and its adherents pushed hard for recognition of Fibiger’s breakthrough. He received 16 Nobel Prize nominations beginning in 1922.Did he deserve the Nobel? Well, hey, did you ever hear that worms cause cancer? Read his story and those of several other prize winners at Slate.
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