August 2012 archive

Spoiler Alert!

Acutally it’s been on live for a while now and streaming on the web, but I prefer to ‘enjoy’ it in the same manner as my readers, tape delayed.

Which I wouldn’t have minded so much if they’d just published an accurate schedule.

I got to see most of my weird and wacky favorites at least once and caught some of the pivotal moments though I didn’t let it dominate my life.  Title IX really showed its impact at these Olympics making up for some disappointments in areas of traditional strength.

In addition to being more entertaining, the men are grim relentless joyless competitors.

We are once again reminded that most subjective judging is thoroughly corrupt and that amateur umpires and referees make mistakes too often for all of them to be deliberate.  Again we see the demonstrated jingoistic bias and shallow understanding of traditional USA television, but…

Sometimes you get to see something surprising or inspirational or amusing that you’d be disappointed to have missed.  79 Nations got some medal, 50 got at least 1 Gold.

London 2012: A Gold Medal, or An Also-Ran?

The International Herald Tribune

August 12, 2012

There was anonymity. A U.S. shooter, Kimberly Rhode, 33, won her fifth medal at her fifth straight Olympics. No American has ever done that in an individual event, but almost nobody noticed. Her gun was stolen from her car after the 2008 Olympics, then she had a breast cancer scare. Is she on for 2016? You bet.

…

There were breakthroughs. Oscar Pistorius ran on prosthetic legs and Caster Semenya won the silver medal in the women’s 800 meters. And the Earth continued to spin on its axis. Women boxed for the first time. Three holdout nations – Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia – finally gave up their gender apartheid in sports and allowed women to compete.

…

“The I.O.C. is making a huge fuss about her being here – their spin is that Olympic sports are opening the door for women, especially Arabic women. Which is kind of a joke,” the observer said. “I think these girls are being propped up by the I.O.C. as their token Islamic female participants.”

I’d really rather skip the Superbowl Spectaculars in favor of rewatching my dvred Bissel Kitty Halftime shows, but they’re not going to be talking about that at the coffee machine tomorrow.

Rule Britannia: Olympic closing ceremony explained

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

22 minutes ago

Organizers say the ceremony will be a celebration of British music “from Elgar to Adele.” Many viewers will have heard of Adele, the big-voiced singer who won six Grammys with her album “21.” Edward Elgar was the composer of the “Pomp and Circumstance” marches and the “Enigma Variations.” His composition “Nimrod,” regarded as quintessentially English, was played at the opening ceremony of the London Games – one of several elements linking the first night of the Olympics with the last.

From there, the ceremony explodes in a kaleidoscope of musicians and eras – from 1960s Mods with The Who, to the 1990s “girl power” of the Spice Girls.

…

British humor has a big role in the closing ceremony, with an appearance by Eric Idle of iconoclastic comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Expect surreal visual juxtapositions as he sings “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the jaunty but sardonic ditty from the film “Monty Python’s Life of Brian.”

London Olympics: Preview of closing ceremony

By Lisa Dillman, Los Angeles Times

August 12, 2012

Like the opening ceremony, much of what will happen is being kept under wraps. But a few details have trickled out, and some interesting people have been spotted around town, so we can make a few educated guesses.

How else can you explain the rumored appearance of Muse and One Direction?

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Annie Lennox, Kate Bush and Kaiser Chiefs, if they appear, could help the gala nudge into bronze-medal territory, up from the DNF zone.

…

Exact details are kept secret, but expected to perform are Adele, George Michael, the Who, Muse, Spice Girls, Pet Shop Boys, Annie Lennox and Fatboy Slim. No word yet if Sir Elton will be there.

There was one act I heard they were unable to book-

More Spoilers.

Ignoring its own ruling that prohibits the execution of mentally retarded individuals, the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of a Texas man with an IQ of 61 convicted of murdering a police drug informant.

Following the high court’s denial, 54-year-old Marvin Wilson was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas. [..]

Wilson’s attorneys based their appeal on the fact that his IQ was determined to be 61, well below 70, the threshold for mental retardation. Wilson’s IQ places him in the very bottom 1% of individuals for intellectual capacity. His reading and writing level was determined to be that of a 7-year-old child’s, and he could not hold down a job or even properly dress himself.

In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the US Supreme Court ruled that executing such individuals was a violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

But Texas simply redefined retardation, based in part on the fictional character Lennie Small from John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men.”

In establishing what are known as the Briseno factors, which Texas uses to determine whether an individual is retarded or not, the state implicitly asserts that anyone less mentally impaired than Steinbeck’s Lennie is fit for execution.

Steinbeck’s son Thomas slammed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for using Lennie as a benchmark to determine who should be executed.

The Supreme Court justices have jurisdiction over various regions of the country when it comes to injunctions, particularly when it comes to stays of execution. In the case of Marvin Wilson, the mentally retarded man with an IQ of 61 and an intelligence level of a 6 year-old, set to die today in Texas in conjunction with a murder conviction, that appeal had to go through none other than Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Scalia wrote a dissent (pdf) in the case of Atkins v. Virginia, which established the ban on executing the mentally retarded (Texas, like other states, got to set their own standards for what constitutes “retarded,” and as such plowed ahead with the execution of Wilson today). Scalia wrote that, because “Only the severely or profoundly mentally retarded, commonly known as idiots, enjoyed any special status under the law” in 1791, around the time of the establishment of the Eighth Amendment, he disagreed with the ruling. And so it should come as no surprise that he submitted this short response to the stay of Marvin Wilson today.

The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Scalia and by him referred to the Court is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

This condemns a man with a 61 IQ to death. Scalia wrote in his Atkins dissent, “Seldom has an opinion of this Court rested so obviously upon nothing but the personal views of its members.” That’s my sentiment exactly. Scalia has a ruling which clearly states that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment. But Scalia doesn’t agree, so he decided to allow Texas to violate the ruling.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

David Cay Johnston: The victims of low-interest locusts

Another financial crisis looms for U.S. taxpayers, a disaster likely to create even worse human misery than the mortgage fiasco that some of us warned about years before the Wall Street meltdown in 2008.

The crisis next time: collapsing investment incomes for older Americans as artificially reduced interest rates force them to use up their savings and drive more pension plans into failure.

Eviscerating the interest income of savers is the undeniable result of a long-running Federal Reserve policy to reduce interest rates, especially since December 2008. The Fed reiterated on Aug. 1 that it plans to keep interest rates low through late 2014. It says this helps to promote stronger economic growth and bring down the jobless rate.

As in the mortgage crisis, you can see this disaster building by examining the official data.

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Attorney General to U.S.: Nothing to See On Wall Street, Folks, Just Move Along

Yesterday the Justice Department announced that once again it’s not going to pursue evidence of Wall Street crimes which has been sent its way. It has already failed to act on information sent to it by sources whose investigators are apparently more dogged than its own, including several other government agencies and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Now the bipartisan committee which was led by Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn can be added to the list of sources whose leads weren’t pursued by Attorney General Eric Holder and his staff.

Holder was on the defensive yesterday, a sign that the mounting criticism of his inaction is getting his attention. He was also scornful of that criticism, saying that it’s belied by “a troublesome little thing called facts.”

There’s something troublesome here, all right, but it isn’t the facts.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on image to enlarge

August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 141 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. It is also known as the “Glorious Twelfth” in the UK, as it marks the traditional start of the grouse shooting season.

On this day in 1990, fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovers three huge bones jutting out of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. They turn out to be part of the largest-ever Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, a 65 million-year-old specimen dubbed Sue, after its discoverer.

Amazingly, Sue’s skeleton was over 90 percent complete, and the bones were extremely well-preserved. Hendrickson’s employer, the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, paid $5,000 to the land owner, Maurice Williams, for the right to excavate the dinosaur skeleton, which was cleaned and transported to the company headquarters in Hill City. The institute’s president, Peter Larson, announced plans to build a non-profit museum to display Sue along with other fossils of the Cretaceous period.

Preparation and display

The Field Museum hired a specialized moving company, with experience in transporting delicate items, to move the bones to Chicago. The truck arrived at the museum in October 1997. Two new research laboratories funded by McDonalds were created and staffed by Field Museum preparators whose job was to slowly and carefully remove all the rock, or “matrix” from the bones. One preparation lab was at Field Museum itself, the other was at the newly opened Animal Kingdom in Disney World in Orlando. Millions of visitors observed the preparation of Sue’s bones through glass windows in both labs. Footage of the work was also put on the museum’s website. Several of the fossil’s bones had never been discovered, so preparators produced models of the missing bones from plastic to complete the exhibit. The modeled bones were colored in a reddish hue so that visitors could observe which bones were real and which bones were plastic. The preparators also poured molds of each bone. All the molds were sent to a company outside Toronto to be cast in hollow plastic. Field Museum kept one set of disarticulated casts in its research collection. The other sets were incorporated into mounted cast skeletons. One set of the casts was sent to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida to be presented for public display. Two other mounted casts were placed into a traveling tour that was sponsored by the McDonald’s Corporation.

Once the preparators finished removing the matrix from each bone, it was sent to the museum’s photographer who made high-quality photographs. From there, the museum’s paleontologists began the study of the skeleton. In addition to photographing and studying each bone, the research staff also arranged for CT scanning of select bones. The skull was too large to fit into a medical CT scanner, so Boeing’s Rocketdyne laboratory in California agreed to let the museum use their CT scanner that was normally used to inspect space shuttle parts.

Bone damage

Close examination of the bones revealed that Sue was 28 years old when she died, making her the oldest T. rex known. During her life this carnivore received several injuries and suffered from numerous pathologies. An injury to the right shoulder region of Sue resulted in a damaged shoulder blade, a torn tendon in the right arm, and three broken ribs. This damage subsequently healed (though one rib healed into two separate pieces), indicating Sue survived the incident. The left fibula is twice the diameter of the right one, likely a result of infection. Original reports of this bone being broken were contradicted by the CT scans which showed no fracture. Multiple holes in the front of the skull were originally thought to be bite marks by some, but subsequent study found these to be areas of infection instead, possibly from an infestation of an ancestral form of Trichomonas gallinae, a protozoan parasite that infests birds. Damage to the back end of the skull was interpreted early on as a fatal bite wound. Subsequent study by Field Museum paleontologists found no bite marks. The distortion and breakage seen in some of the bones in the back of the skull was likely caused by post-mortem trampling. Some of the tail vertebra are fused in a pattern typical of arthritis due to injury. The animal is also believed to have suffered from gout. In addition, there is extra bone in some of the tail vertebrae likely caused by the stresses brought on by Sue’s great size. Sue did not die as a result of any of these injuries; her cause of death is not known.

Display

After the bones were prepared, photographed and studied, they were sent to New Jersey where work began on making the mount. This work consists of bending steel to support each bone safely and to display the entire skeleton articulated as it was in life. The real skull was not incorporated into the mount as subsequent study would be difficult with the head 13 feet off the ground. Parts of the skull had been crushed and broken, and thus appeared distorted. The museum made a cast of the skull, and altered this cast to remove the distortions, thus approximating what the original undistorted skull may have looked like. The cast skull was also lighter, allowing it to be displayed on the mount without the use of a steel upright under the head. The original skull is exhibited in a case that can be opened to allow researchers access for study. When the whole skeleton was assembled, it was forty feet (twelve meters) long from nose to tail, and twelve feet (four meters) tall at the hips.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes: Up with Chris Hayes is preempted for NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Chris will return next week.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: This Week’s gusts are  Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

The roundtable debates Romney’s vice presidential pick and all the week’s politics, with ABC News’ Cokie Roberts, former Vermont Governor and founder of Democracy for America Howard Dean, Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, host of Current TV’s “The Gavin Newsom Show,” and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests are Senior Advisor to the Romney Campaign Eric Fehrnstrom and Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter; and Newt Gingrich.

Roundtable analysis from The Washington Post‘s Ruth Marcus, The Week‘s Bob Shrum, The Daily Beast‘s David Frum, The Washington Post‘s Michael Gerson and POLITICO‘s Roger Simon.

The Chris Matthews Show: The Chris Matthews Show is preempted for NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: A special edition of  MTP’s with guests: RNC Chairman and fellow Wisconsinite, Reince Priebus and Governor of Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. The discussion continues on the roundtable with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow; NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd; Editor of the National Review, Rich Lowry; the Washington Post‘s Dan Balz, and author and radio talk show host Bill Bennett, for whom Ryan was a speechwriter while Bennett was Secretary of Education.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Senator John Thune (R-SD);  Senior Advisers to both campaigns – David Axelrod and Ed Gillespie.

Iran quakes death toll rises to 250, as search goes on

　Rescuers in Iran are searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors from two strong earthquakes which left at least 250 people dead.

The BBC   12 August 2012

The 6.4 and 6.3 quakes struck near Tabriz and Ahar on Saturday afternoon, and more than 2,000 are believed injured, many in outlying villages.

Thousands spent the night in emergency shelters or in the open and there have been more than 55 aftershocks.

Relief agencies are providing survivors with tents, bread and drinking water.

The numbers of victims is expected to rise.

Reports say phone lines to many villages have been cut off, confining rescuers to radio contact.

“The quake has created huge panic among the people,” one resident of Tabriz told the BBC. “Everyone has rushed to the streets and the sirens of ambulances are everywhere.”

We close our final day of competition with the Men’s Volleyball Final.  We’ll be having a separate piece on the Closing Ceremony tonight.

Broadcast Schedule

All this is sourced through the NBC Olympics broadcast schedule.

Competitions designated by (Medal) will award winners that day.  ‘all’ means not specified.  Sometimes NBC especially does mashups and doesn’t include event or competitor information.  Elimination means no round robin, one and done.

These schedules are a place for you to make sure you don’t miss a sport you like and share your observations.  Have fun today!

Up with Chris Hayes returned after a two week hiatus for NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Olympics and just in time for a major political announcement by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. It was leaked late last night and all over Twitter in seconds that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has selected Rep. Paul Ryan, (R-WI) for his running mate. So it isn’t at all surprising that this was the topic that dominated the discussion. Two segments that I felt were most important examined Rep. Ryan’s stance on Medicare and it impacts on the Romney campaign. In the second segment Chris and his guests reviewed Ryan’s voting record and the impact on tackling the deficit. Joining Chris on the panel were Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show; Avid Roy, health care policy adviser to Gov. Romney; Melissa Harris Perry, host of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry Show and Ezra Klein, political analyst for the Washington Post; and John Nichols, contributing editor at The Nation.

The Perseids are the remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle and stretch all the way around its 130 year orbit because it’s falling apart.  First historically recorded about 2,000 years ago the main current debris source is a chunk that fell off more or less 1,000 years later and a stream from 1862.  This year’s display is expected to be exceptionally active because of the numeric density of the material the Earth will pass through.

Perseid meteor shower: NASA explains why it’ll be the year’s best

By Rene Lynch, Los Angeles Times

August 10, 2012

But the Perseid meteor shower is only part of the treat in store for stargazers, NASA says.

“The brightest planets in the solar system are lining up right in the middle of the [Perseid] display,” NASA says. Specifically, “Jupiter, Venus and the crescent moon are gathering together just as the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak.”

The red giant star Aldebaran will also be visible, “adding a splash of color to the gathering,” NASA says.

The three celestial orbs will make for a brilliant, three-point line in the sky, all surrounded by shooting stars. The display is expected to be best seen in the eastern skies and in the early morning hours before sunrise.

The show will get better as the weekend winds down. Early Monday, the increasingly narrowing moon will pass even closer to Venus, as Jupiter “hovers” overhead, according to NASA.

…

“Star-watchers say there’s nothing prettier than a close encounter between the slender crescent moon and Venus. Nothing that is, except for the crescent moon, Venus and a flurry of Perseids.”

Viewing conditions might not be the best, especially in the Northeast, but should get better by sunrise.

Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, best places to view it

David Epstein, Boston.com

August 11, 2012

Much of Texas, the Ohio Valley, Tennessee, the northern parts of Alabama, Mississippi and the Rockies look to have favorable sky conditions. parts of Florida and a good deal of the West Coast will also be mainly clear.

…

If you live where it is expected to be cloudy, like here in the northeast, it is still worth looking up later tonight. Last evening we had big thunderstorms in the area but early this morning it cleared enough to see some of the meteors in the Massachusetts area. The same thing could very easily happen across the northeast later tonight.

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On Saturday the 11th, leading into the 12th, expect about 25-60 meteors per hour. You won’t see the meteors evenly spread out over time. You may see nothing for five minutes and then four or more in a row a minute later. Lie on a blanket and look up rather than stand. If you stand with your neck tilted up, you will have neck issues in the morning. On Sunday night, heading into the morning of the 13th there will be fewer meteors per hour, but still a nice show. The best time to see this will be around 2AM-3AM, but if you don’t want to wait till then it’s still worthwhile once it gets dark.

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Last month I had a reunion in Provence with friends who discovered this magical region of France with me more than 30 years ago. It was a true southern French vacation – we relaxed, we went to the market, we cooked. Market stalls were piled high with summer squash, tomatoes and eggplant, green beans – both regular ones and the flat ones that we call romano beans and that my Provençal market labeled cocos – onions of all kinds, braids of plump pink garlic, and leeks. [..]

When you’re summering in Provence, it’s easy to put vegetables seasoned with the thyme, rosemary and savory that grows everywhere at the center of your plate every day. But it’s also easy to do that here.

~Martha Rose Shulman~